Shadow parasite

Gorn started to moonwalk on the air with great gusto. His mood was getting a little better. “Fucking awesome indeed!”

“What was that weird move?” asked Sara with some curiosity, thinking it might be something serious.

“I wonder what would you think if you actually knew the real answer to that.”

“You won’t tell me, will you?”

“Of course not.”

Gorn extended his arms to the side, and fell to his back, diving towards the ground. It was time to collect his spoils of war. It wasn’t war precisely speaking, it was more like a one-sided slaughter.

A dozen meters above the ground, Sara wrapped her legs around Gorn’s waist and activated her flying ability, stopping their descent. Hovering in the air, she had a perplexed expression. “Was that on purpose, or did you just lose control over your skills?”

Being stopped in such an abrupt manner wasn’t a great feeling. “It was on purpose. I mean, isn’t it more pleasant to do it this way?” She was just trying to help, so Gorn wasn’t upset on her or anything of the sort.

“Ok…” Sara was clearly more mature than Gorn.

“Sorry if I frightened you, it wasn’t my intention,” said Gorn with an apologetic look.

“It’s alright. I have nothing against people that use their abilities to have some fun. It’s just that after what happened to you, I must be a little careful in case it happens again. Falling on your head from such a height could be fatal even for us…”

Gorn froze for a moment: “You are right. Let’s not talk about that again, I don’t want my good mood to be ruined.” With no immediate effective measures for that problem, he decided to focus on things at hand.

“Fair enough. So, what do you plan to do with the snake's remains?” Sara had her fair share of bad moments that she didn’t even want to think about, so she perfectly understood Gorn’s point of view.

“Thank you. I want to take the monster’s core. Other than that, I don’t think we can use much else.” Both of them looked at the messy scene before them. A big part of the monster’s body was crushed beyond recognition, and could not be used for anything.

“There seems to still be a few useful parts. If you don’t want them, can you help me bring them back towards our base? Some meat would be great to boost the morale of the people,” said Sara with an expectant look.

“Sure thing. But first, please lend me a hand to look for that core.” Looking at the still moving body parts of the snake killed any desire to eat it. He was more like a boar meat person.

“Of course!”

They quickly got to work. Everything was a mess on the ground. Guts, and blood was everywhere. A crater formed from the impact of the boulder with the ground, and a huge amount of debris was splattered all around.

After a few minutes of looking around, Sara finally said: “The monster core is usually situated in the head or close to that area. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the snake’s head was hit head on. The core is most likely in pieces as well…”

If it was used by humans to absorb energy, the core had to be in one piece for maximum efficiency. That was some general knowledge that circulated among the survivors of humanity.

“Indeed… Forget about it then. I’ll store the pieces with more meat in my space, then we can go back.” This outcome was to be expected, so he wasn’t too disappointed. At least he tried. Sara felt a little awkward being the only person to benefit from this whole ordeal, but did not say anything.

In just a matter of minutes, everything edible was stored. “This should be everything, right?”

“Yes, that’s enough. Thank you!” said Sara with appreciation plastered across her face.

“Don’t mention it, after all, it’s only natural to repay kindness with kindness,” replied Gorn with a faint smile. “Let’s go back now. We have another problem to fix.”

Sara smiled gently: “Let’s go.”

Like that, they departed from what looked to be a messy place. Sara flew, while Gorn ran on air. After a few moments, they were far away into the distance. It appeared like nothing of great importance happened.

The forest was overflowing with life no matter where you looked. From small birds, and insects to large creatures as wild board, reapers, wolves, snakes and many more. A gust of wind blew into Gorn’s face as he landed on a thick tree branch.

In the next moment, Sara landed next to him: “You can put everything right there. I’ll have someone deal with it later.” There were no people there at the moment, after all, the tree was simply gigantic. A few hundred people were not enough to fully occupy such a massive place.

“Ok.” Gorn took out all the pieces, and put them where Sara pointed out. He didn’t really care what happened next with those things.

“The people that need to be rescued are below. Follow me.”

Without any other delay, Gorn followed Sara. On his way down, quite a few people looked at them with great curiosity. Among those people was present Elena as well. Gorn winked at her mischievously before continuing on his way. She smiled weirdly, not knowing how to react. After all, she was a stranger to these kinds of situations.

Shortly, Gorn and Sara arrived at another branch. This time, the place was only a few hundred meters away from the ground. It was the first thick branch of the tree. At this place were a few guards, and a handful of people with collar like devices stuck to their necks. It appeared that this place was as far as newcomers could get.

“So, these are the poor bastards that need to be rescued?” His voice was heard by everyone present, bringing quite a few angry glances towards him.

Sara made a bizarre expression, not knowing how to react to that. “This is the person that will help you get rid of your collars,” said Sara in the end.

Gorn walked in front of one of those people. The man in front of him had a fierce gaze, but didn’t dare to protest in front of Sara, since he knew very well her position at that place.

Touching the collar with his hand, Gorn stored it in his inventory. Unlike what he was told, the collar did not explode. ‘I guess my inventory is different from that guy’s special ability to store things.’

“How is it?” asked Sara with some emotion. She was a little afraid that things might go bad.

“It’s fine,” said Gorn, not that impressed by those collars. Seeing his carefree face, Sara finally breathed out in relief.

Suddenly, a crisp sound came to her ears. The man whose collar was removed was slapped by Gorn squarely in the face. The force was just enough to send him flying away a few dozen meters like a sack of potatoes. No lethal damage was done.

“If you look at me like that again, I will beat the crap out of you.”

Gorn continued to remove the rest of the collars under the dumbfounded expressions of everyone present. After finishing with everyone, he turned towards Sara. “This marks the end of my visit. I’ll probably come again a few days later. Farewell!”

With those words, he teleported away into the distance without waiting for any reply; leaving everyone at a loss for words yet again.