Touya the Ice Master looked up as he felt an intense spirit energy skyrocket in the distance. Having been with him for so long, Touya instantly recognized it as Jin's. The sky was suddenly dark, although it wasn't even noon yet, and the clouds were blowing away from a certain area. Abandoning Nightwing, Touya jumped up the prickly branches of a pine tree and at the very top, he scanned the far area around them. Down below, Nightwing swore softly under his breath at the delay his partner was making. Touya spotted Jin's tiny figure amidst a great tornado of wind. He noticed that Nightfire's spirit energy was drastically lower. They must have found their item, he thought grimly and jumped down the tree.

He landed in front of a scowling demon slayer and narrowed his glassy-blue eyes. "Stop making that face baka ningen," he snarled.

Kamuro glared daggers. "I wish I could say the same to you, but your face is more permanent," he retorted. Here we go again, he thought in aggravation. Ever since first setting off away from camp, he and the Ice Master have done almost nothing close to trying to find the kunai that Nightfire had told them to find. They have only fought every chance they got. Kamuro had no real qualms about it because he hated Touya. It was as simple as Touya hating him for being a human in demon territory. Mind, Kamuro didn't really have a choice for being here, but any more of this bickering, and Kamuro will most likely kill Touya and find another way to get revenge on Tatsuki.

In a second, Kamuro was locking his katana with Touya's ice sword in a vicious struggle of who would be the first to submit. Beads of sweat gathered on Kamuro's forehead and fell as he put his strength on his katana, pushing Touya back and pinning him to the pine tree behind. Touya's eyes widened in surprise, but then narrowed in determination. He moved his ice sword, so close to the base of his sweat-drenched neck, so that what was left of the rays of sun was reflected off of it. Kamuro cried out in pain as his naked eyes were hit with the ray of light and recoiled away. Touya cleared his throat and rubbed the line of skin where his own sword almost touched it. By now, his sword was useless, a melting icicle. Touya broke the thin ice and turned towards Kamuro just in time to receive a heavy blow across his face.

Kamuro rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, breathing heavily. He turned his head to the Ice Master, laying on one side on the ground and cursed Nightfire for giving him a weakling for a partner. Regarding himself as the more honorable one between the two, he sheathed his katana and walked slowly up towards the rising demon.

Touya refused to look at the slayer, knowing his pride had been damaged and took defeat for now. He would get his chance at redemption later. Without having looked at him, Touya swept past Nightwing and walked the direction opposite from the place he had seen Jin's small figure minutes before.

"Where are you going?" asked the hated voice. It was a claw on a chalkboard in Touya's opinion. Without looking back, he growled, "To look for the weapon before the others do."

Hours later, with no progress at all and both thinking that the creature that held the kunai was really under its creators influence, they both came upon an animal carcass. Neither of them could make out the animal killed for the remains were so utterly unrecognizable. The mess was disturbing, blood everywhere: around the carcass in mass quantities and on the surrounding trees. Kamuro and Touya recoiled back in disgust. Kamuro held his forearm over his mouth and nose and gingerly walked closer to the center of the carnage. Whatever had done this must have been indeed hungry and in a hurry. From the looks of the remains, most of the bones of this animal had been consumed and then spit out. The inner organs were cast aside, obviously hadn't been wanted. Kamuro sensed a presence next to him and turned to Touya.

"Jin and I have stumbled on places like this with these things," Touya said. His face still held a look of disgust, nose crinkling at the rotting smell of the decaying remains.

"There must have been a horde of these creatures," Kamuro said pointedly, indicating the predators that had killed the prey. It was the first time since their last fight that they have spoken.

Touya's eyes were fixed upon the remains, but he nodded in acknowledgement. This seemed the first moment since meeting each other, besides the mutual hate, in which they both related to the other: Whatever had done this, it was definitely not alone. And the fate of this animal could be theirs if they're not careful. "Can you tell how long since this animal was consumed?" Touya inquired, knowing that Nightwing did have the skills to know, being a demon hunter.

Kamuro looked for a spot not bloodied, and then slowly knelt down on the ground close to the carcass. He studied it for a long time turning his head this way and that. He touched the blood, bringing it to his eyes for closer inspection and smelled it gingerly. When satisfied, Kamuro wiped the blood on the side of his pants and stood back up. Not turning to Touya, he said, "From what I gather, it was eaten just this morning." He didn't need to see the startled glassy eyes that looked at him from the right. He could feel the panic radiating off the both of them. "The blood is still fresh."

"That means-"

"We better keep moving," Kamuro cut Touya off. Touya concealed his alarm and nodded. Together, side-by-side, they walked away from the site. As soon as they left, the bones of the animal slightly moved, the ground under it rumbling from a distant, hungry predator.

"We are going this way you baka youkai!"

"No fool! That is the wrong way! You will just get us more lost going that way!" Touya countered.

The two were lost indeed. They were stuck in front of a fork in the road, the one on the left going straight, and the one on the right seemed to be snaking uphill.

"-and you think going to the right won't get us lost?" Kamuro asked sarcastically.

Touya opened his mouth to angrily reply back, but a deep rumble suddenly brought them both kneeling on the ground.

A startling loud growl came from their left. Kamuro and Touya snapped their heads towards the source of the noise, and their eyes widened in alarm. Before them was a colossal creature, three times the size of an elephant. In a way, it closely resembled a cross between a human and a gorilla with its characterized human-like limbs: the distinguished arms and legs, but it was hunched over like a gorilla. It had no fur, but sickening grey skin, like decaying flesh that had been left in water for too long. It had no eyes, ears, or a nose, yet it did have a large mouth filled with blood-stained, sharp teeth.

So this must be one of the creatures that ate that animal a while back, Kamuro thought. He turned to Touya and met his eyes. "If both of us want to live - fool!" Kamuro yelled as Touya independently jumped to his feet and ran towards the monster. He watched as the Ice Master attacked the monster's eye- and nose-less head with his ice sword. Touya appeared kneeling behind the monster at the same time a red gash appeared across its face. The monster stretched open its mouth and let out a horrible screech that sent Kamuro and Touya pressing their hands to their ears.

Kamuro watched in half disgust, half fascination as the monster flicked out its tongue a few times. Its own blood ran down the majority half of its face, but whatever pain it felt did not bother it. The movement of the tongue, flicking in and out quickly from the bloody chasm, struck Kamuro quickly as he recognized what the creature was doing. It was trying to find Touya's scent like a snake would!

"Touya! Get the hell out of there! It's trying to find you using your scent!" Kamuro yelled, but the demon was not moving. He was standing stalk-still behind the creature. At the moment, the monster rounded on Kamuro himself and opened its wide mouth, flicking its tongue in his direction. Shit, Kamuro thought as he began taking a few steps back.

Touya saw where the monster was headed and was caught between letting the creature devour the slayer, or doing the right thing and saving his sorry ass. There was no more time to consider the matter as the monster galloped towards Nightwing. Touya raised his ice sword and quickly sped right after the creature.

Kamuro saw Touya coming after the creature. He wouldn't let Touya rescue him. Kamuro unsheathed his katana and jumped towards the monster. He raised his weapon high in the air and let if come down. The creature let out a terrible howl as it was pierced on front and back its neck where his skull and spinal cord met. Touya and Kamuro simultaneously extracted their weapons and jumped away from the falling beast. It lay between them, demon and slayer, moving no longer. Their heads snapped to attention as horrible screeches that had been similar to this monster's suddenly erupted throughout the forest.

Amaya and Jin stopped dead in their tracks at the horrible screeches far away from the way they had come from. Amaya looked towards Jin, who was not knee-deep in swamp water but floating in the air, and gave him a look that plainly said, We must keep moving. She knew from the small furrow on his forehead that he was thinking about his friend, but that couldn't stop them from turning back to imminent danger. Jin wordlessly nodded, burrowing his worried thoughts deep in the back of his mind, and they resumed their hunt for the shadow soldier that kept eluding them.

Kamuro and Touya looked across the gigantic dead creature in between them towards each other and shared the same idea: get out of there now. Touya nodded towards the sloping hill with the twisted path on the right of the fork and Kamuro reluctantly followed. They could not afford to argue at this moment for if their suspicions were correct, the rest of the dead creatures pack would come soon. Besides, a crooked path was better than a more probably vulnerable straight path.