Son of the Spirit Beast 1 The Birth

It was called Multicolor Leaf Forest because every tree in the forest had leaves of different colours that created an amazing sight.

Although it possessed such a scenario, the Forest was little frequented due to the various dangers within. However, from time to time, there were people who dared to approach the forest whether it was to take advantage of its resources or to save time by following the path that skirted it closely instead of having to go around the forest using a longer road.

On a cloudy day in autumn, while a cold wind was carrying away the leaves that had fallen from the trees, creating a rainbow of leaves and dust, a convoy of merchants was following the path just outside the outer boundary of the forest.

The convoy consisted of a dozen people divided into four wagons that contained various types of goods that would be sold as soon as they arrived at Leaf City, the nearest city in the vicinity, that took its name from the forest since it was not too far from there. At the head of one of these wagons, there were two male merchants who were talking happily.

"You have to admit that this time we have really amassed a nice amount of goods, don't you think? As soon as we arrive in the city and sell this stuff, we should no longer worry about money for a while," commented the man who had the reins of the horses pulling the wagon.

The man wore a purple vest with golden patterns. It was a distinctive vest used normally by merchants. He had blond hair and a healthy pink complexion. His clear eyes together with a round face conveyed a feeling of cheerfulness and vivacity.

"Well, actually we can't complain at all. Fortunately, we were able to complete everything in time and we shouldn't be too far from our destination." The companion answered in a relieved voice.

Unlike the first man, the second had black hair with dark brown eyes. Although wearing the same vest, because of the dark circles and the severe expression on his face, he conveyed a feeling of tiredness and worry.

"Right, your wife... At the thought of all that money I forgot for a moment that your wife is pregnant. I understand that you have to work to support the family, but it wasn't better if you all stayed in some city, Old Jian?!" The first merchant who acted as the wagon's driver asked.

The man named Qin Jian looked at his colleague with a dejected expression and answered as he sighed.

"And where, Shang? We are itinerant merchants, we must move constantly to do business. And also, we have no close relatives and I don't trust leaving her alone in a place where I don't know anyone. I prefer to keep her with me, at least I know she is safe."

Shang noticed the mood of his friend and promptly tried to cheer Qin Jian saying, "All right, all right... Well, luckily your wife has internal qi and had no problems so far along the road. I can't imagine what we would have done if she had given birth outdoors. I'm still young, I don't want to have to deal with brats for a while longer." He concluded this last sentence with a loud laugh before returning to focus on the path, hoping to have brighten up his partner.

Meanwhile, a young woman with a brown skin and long brown hair was sitting with the goods to sell in the carriage driven by the two men. Her light eyes that made a contrast with her skin were looking her big belly that contained the life form still not born who was living inside her.

'We almost there now, my little one. Soon we will be in the city where you can be born. Then we're going to live with Dad. Hold on just a little bit.' She said inside her while stroking kindly her belly that produced a little sound as if the child was listening to her and wanted to respond to his mother.

The woman's name was Farah, the wife of the merchant Qin Jian.

In the past, she was a slave who was bought by Qin Jian to help him in his work as a merchant since she could read and knew arithmetic. Later, she was released by Qin Jian but she decided to stay with him and they ended up falling in love and got married.

Despite her delicate state, she decided to follow her husband on a journey not to be separated from him at this important moment and allowing him to complete his business as they needed money for their incoming son.

This was a young couple waiting for their first child and eager to start a quiet life together and settle down somewhere. Unfortunately, fate is not always benevolent and often leads to misfortunes that change a person's life and sometimes the whole world for good or for bad.

*****

As the sun set, while the convoy began to get ready for the night, twenty men dressed in black clothes were watching the merchants in the distance, glancing at the wagons like hungry wolves waiting for their prey.

"Chief, what do you say? It seems feasible. It will soon become dark, it is perfect for a surprise attack. Give us permission." Asked one of the men in black to his team leader who was next to him.

"I also think the same. We've been quite unlucky lately but this looks like a succulent convoy. With this, we will be without economical problems for a while, although i hope the goods inside are of good quality in order to have a better profit. Get in position first and then wait for my signal. Remember, don't fuck this task. Kill them all immediately without wasting time playing fucking stupid games." The chief said in an authoritative voice as he watched the merchants who had finished their operations for the night and were preparing to dine.

An hour later, when the sun had already set completely to make room for the evening, the bandit chief gestured with his hand to his closest man to move.

The latter communicated the gesture to the rest of the group that had scattered around. Shortly afterwards, a rain of arrows rained down on the place where the merchants had gathered.

The sound of twenty or so bows shooting arrows reverberated in the air, interrupting the calm that dwelt in that place.

This sound alerted the merchants who realized too late the danger and they were forced to endure the rain of arrows directly without time to find a place where shelter themselves.

"Arrows!? ENEMY ATTACK!!"

"Shit, Bandits?!"

As they pulled out their weapons, a slight aura arose from the bodies of the merchants while they tried to endure the arrows. However, not everyone were so fast and a couple of men fell to the ground spraying blood on the cold ground.

After the barrage of arrows, the bandits arrived with their swords raised, starting a fight against the merchants.

Although they were commercial people, the merchants had all been trained to defend themselves and began to fight back. However, with the numerical disparity and greater skill of the bandits with the sword, they soon began to fall one by one on the ground where their comrades laid lifeless.

Among them, Qin Jian was fighting with three people at the same time, demonstrating great skill with the sword, while his wife was behind him with her hands outstretched on her belly to protect their child.

"Farah, listen to me carefully. I will open a gap and I want you to ride a horse and get out of here."

"No, how can you ask me this!? How can I abandon you here!?"

"Listen to me, there is no time. Don't mind me, think of our son. You have to look after him, do you understand? Please do as I told you and don't argue."

As he said this, a tear fell from Qin Jian's eyes. He was sad at the thought of dying and being separated from his family. But he knew that in this situation it was the only way to give a hope of salvation for his wife and son.

While Farah also burst into tears, Qin Jian made a great movement with his sword, momentarily pushing away the three bandits and ran towards the nearest horse and with a sword blow he cut the ropes that bound one of the horses to the nearest wagon.

"RIDE NOW!" He said as he positioned himself in front of the horse to prevent the bandits from obstructing the maneuver.

Farah, in tears, still executed her husband's order, striving to remain clear headed to protect their child. With enormous effort she managed to get on the horse and started riding away from that nightmare.

While urging the horse to accelerate as much it could, she turned around to look at the man she loved, only to witness him being pierced on several sides by the other bandits who had already killed almost all the remaining merchants.

"Jian, NOOO!!! AHH!!!" Farah screamed as she sobbed heavily and began to breathe with difficulty due to the painful and heartbreaking experience. But she had only time to distance herself a bit from that place when a spear flew in the air and stuck in her shoulder making her fall from the horse running.

Because of her agitated state and the sudden blow, she was totally taken aback but she managed to wrap her lap with a light aura to protect her son while she fell from the horse.

Slumped to the ground, almost totally without strength, the woman slowly opened her eyes to see a man with an unpleasant appearance approaching to her.

"Let's see what we have here."

With a kick on her shoulder, the bandit leader turned her around so he could see her face.

"A beautiful woman, no doubt about it. But we don't have time to waste with you. I also doubt you could be sold as slave with that belly of yours. If you hadn't been pregnant, I could have thought of it. Forget it, I will settle for the load."

Meanwhile one of his men reached him to inform him of the situation. "Chief, we killed everybody. Unfortunately little Fei was killed, some of them weren't so bad. But the load inside is nice, you should see what stuff. We'll be rich for a while."

The chief, content with the loot, replied. "Don't care about Fei, he was just garbage. Better this way, one less who share the spoil with. Load the goods all on one wagon if you can and stack the bodies in the remaining empty wagons. Then we will set fire to everything and we will leave."

After saying that, he signaled his man to go while he returned to focus on the woman motionless on the ground.

"Well, fortunately the load is pretty full. Now that my men are loading the goods, all that is left is to set fire to everything to eliminate any traces that can lead to us. To thank you for the precious gift, I will eliminate you immediately without making you feel pain." While he was saying this, he drew his sword and leaned towards the woman.

Farah, who had regained a bit of strength, cried inside herself.

'Why is this happening, why? Jian where are you? Help our son ... please ... no matter who ... at least my baby ... '

These were her thoughts while the cold metallic blade penetrated her throat, ending her life.

Meanwhile, near the wagons where the other bandits were arranging the goods, a black shape suddenly appeared with strange features. Silently it approached one of the men and with a quick movement it cut him in two halves that fell to the ground. Then it headed for the nearest bandit.

Soon, the other bandits realized that something was wrong but they were only able to make a short cry before they were all killed in the same way. The cry alarmed the leader who had just killed the woman and was about to return to his men.

Shortly thereafter, the black shadow emerged from the darkness where the wagons were. The leader of the bandits, thanks to the light of the moon that illuminated the thing that had killed his men, could see its true appearance.

It was a large spider measuring 1 meter in size; his 8 purple eyes were watching the bandit as it gave off a strong murderous aura.

The bandit leader petrified by fear could only murmure: "Spirit Beast..." before the spider with incredible speed appeared before him and with a single stroke of its leg it cut the bandit in two alongside his sword.

Once the man was settled, the spider turned to the woman. Its purple eyes looked at those already lifeless of the woman and then they descended towards her belly.

It seemed to be aware that, although there was a corpse in front of it, there was something alive inside. With quick movements, it approached the woman and two of its legs landed on the woman's belly.

Even though it had cut the various bandits before with those same legs in half, when its legs touched the belly, they did not penetrate the stomach but they remained suspended a few millimeters from the skin while a slight aura that covered the tips of its legs.

Then, those tips cut the belly following a vertical line along the stomach by cutting just a few centimeters of skin without going over. Its actions were totally different from a beast with a terrifying appearance that would have scared anyone.

After a couple of minutes of cutting, the creature stopped. Increasing the aura on the tips of its legs, it began to open the two halves, now divided, of skin, while two other legs slipped inside the woman's body with a layer of aura thicker than before.

With those inside, it began to pull something out of the woman's stomach, and soon a newborn baby could be seen while he was covered in blood and amniotic fluid. His umbilical cord kept him joined to his mother while he was kept between the legs of the beast, appearing totally unharmed though.

With a gentle movement, the spider moved the baby in front of it and began to beat his small back softly. The slight aura shifted to the child's body and, slowly, the liquid inside the little one came out causing him to cry as a consequence while he woke up.

At this noise, the spider did a slight tremor but then it recomposed itself. It then cut the umbilical cord and tore off a part of the mother's clothes with which it wrapped the newborn baby.

At this point, after looking at the child who had stopped crying when he was wrapped in the piece of cloth belonging to his mother, and then at the woman, already lifeless on the ground, the spider turned itself towards the forest and quickly entered it.

On its back, illuminated by the moonlight, two eggs could be seen covered with silvery silks and fastened tightly. One was pitch black with golden patterns while the other had a dark purple color with silver pattern, the same purple color as the spider that was carrying them.

That day, unbeknownst to anyone, it had occurred an event that no one would have thought possible. And that event was the beginning of the changes that would have affected the entire world.

Chapter end