The Huntress had her whole life set in stone. After all, she was the only child of the chief, she was trained every day to become the next leader, and she was one of the best archers in the whole tribe. The only obstacle that stopped her from getting the mantle and proving her mantle was the succession trial. A simple task where she had to go and hunt a creature out in the forest to serve as the main meal for the banquet that day.
She never got the chance to prove herself.
One moment, she was asleep and the next, she was staring at a sorcerer in a tower high above the sky. Then she heard some words and she was thrust into this hell all without much explanation. She was dealt with the awful world and having to run everywhere and feeling exhausted left and right. No hope in sight and being constantly chased led her to despair about her situation.
Then she got saved by this mysterious warrior woman who could kill monsters with her bare hands. Someone called a Wushi, who offered kindness and a chance to survive. With her, she felt safe and secure. She felt like she could take on the world. That was why she found the courage to take on those monsters on her own, why she was able to explore her magic and use it for good.
And she repaid all of that by watching her get killed.
The man’s weapon ripped out of the woman’s back. She cried as the blade came out, before whimpering as the man lifted the ax once more to strike again.
No. Absolutely not. Not on her watch, never again.
With a scream, the Huntress pulled. She focused her sight past the grass and beyond the dirt on the top and towards the dormant seeds that laid underneath. All her magical energy pushed and forced their way into these husks. All of that began to tremble and quiver, before consigning themselves to her command.
The Huntress gave one simple order. Grow.
The ground started to shake and shudder below, before erupting as giant stalks of the strange black wood came rushing towards the man. They moved fast, enough so that even she found trouble keeping track of their movement.
What she anticipated was for those stalks to impale the man through and through and lift him far away. To watch him cry in fear and beg for his life as all the blood poured out of his body until he was nothing more than a thin husk.
But that wasn’t what happened. The man seemed to notice the incoming stalks and gave a giant grin that showed every single one of his teeth. Then he lifted his ax and started to slice at all the incoming stalks without much concern.
Each of those strikes destroyed her projectiles. No matter how much magical energy she surged into these plants, none of them did anything to him. He kept on going without much concern and eventually, she gave out first.
She gagged and fell onto her knees, her stomach churning and twisting in loops. Her body felt like giving out and going down and she felt that desire too. At least, until she remembered the dying woman.
The Huntress forced herself to get back up. She got on her feet once more, before looking over where the man was. Her blood went cold as she realized no damage had been done to the man. No, he seemed perfectly fine as he stood there with a large pile of black wood pieces around him with that smile still on his face.
“Was that all you got?” He asked, “Tell me, what did you think you’d be able to do, little girlie?”
She decided not to give him the benefit of hearing her response. Rather, she focused on the one thing that could potentially change the tide of this entire situation: her bow.
She’d dropped it earlier when she got rushed by those wolf monsters earlier. It was a bit of a distance away from her, but she could definitely reach it and shoot off a shot if she was fast enough. She swallowed and looked back at the man, who seemed to stand there menacingly. At least, for a second, before he started to walk towards her.
At that, she rushed towards the fallen bow with everything she had. Her legs burned and her stomach hurt, but she had to go. She needed to put in everything she had into this one chance.
She got to her bow. She cocked an arrow and turned to aim at where the man was. She found herself staring at a metal fist coming right for her face.
She barely managed to dodge the incoming strike by rolling backwards away, but not before letting off a shot at the man. However, she wasn’t able to put any of her magic into the arrow, which resulted in the man merely swatting away the projectile before coming after her once more. She scowled as she knocked back three arrows this time, before putting in a minute amount of magical energy and shooting them away.
The man was only able to defend against one of them. The other two slammed right into his armor, creating dents but none penetrating and meeting flesh. The man merely grunted and stepped back once, before rushing in towards her once more. The Huntress scowled as she started to backstep multiple times, nocking back another arrow and launching one after the other. This time, she chose not to put any magic into these shots. Rather, she pooled all of them into a single arrow in her quiver, preparing for the one moment to launch the end all projectile.
The man kept on blocking each of the arrows and kept on moving towards her at a rapid pace. However, she could see that he was getting slowly worn down by constantly having to defend against the projectiles she was throwing at him. Eventually, one of the arrows that she cocked was the charged one. She swallowed as she cocked it back, aiming right at the man’s head.
The Huntress felt weak in the knees. Her throat went dry as she started to warp the arrow in her hand, the energy pulsing and spinning around, ready to activate.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
She let the projectile loose. The man got ready to strike the arrow down and rush her. She got the satisfaction of looking at him go pale at the sight of the arrow transforming into a giant spiral of black death.
He lifted his ax. He moved to strike. The blade and the arrow made contact and with that, a large explosion of smoke came through.
The Huntress gasped and looked further, but all the smoke was overwhelming. At this point, she didn’t know whether or not she was able to actually kill him with that blow or not. Though, none of this was important.
She had to save her mentor.
With the last bit of her strength, she rushed on over to her fallen friend and looked over her. She couldn’t stop the wince from growing on her face as she looked at all the wounds on the Wushi. However, this wasn’t the time to gawk and stare. Now was the time for action and to help her.
She pulled out a few leaves from her pocket and placed them all over the wounds. She used all the magical energy left in her reserves to transform those plants to grow larger and wrap around those injuries, stopping the blood flow from pouring out anymore.
She let herself sigh in relief. At least, until she found herself getting kicked in the side. She could feel her ribs crack and her whole body flying through the air before rolling to a stop a distance away. Hot tears poured down her eyes as she felt the searing pain burn throughout her right body. She struggled to get back up, but to no avail. No, she was far too injured to move at all.
She fell down once more. She barely managed to get a little bit off the ground before her stomach recoiled from the pain. She couldn’t hold back anymore and with that, everything in her stomach was ejected onto the ground. She felt awful.
It was even worse when she was kicked again.
“You little worm!” The Huntress could hear the man’s angry roar. She blinked as she found herself staring at the sky, before reorienting herself to look at the man. What she saw made her have mixed feelings of joy and despair.
He had been injured, no doubt about that. The pristine metal armor he had on was damaged, with the entire right arm armor completely shredded off. He had large dents all over the remaining parts of his equipment and his ax blade seemed beaten up from her projectile strike.
But she couldn’t spot any serious damage. No, everything he had endured was nothing more than a few scratches and bruises. The fact that he was completely unharmed mystified her, was this possibly something related to his special mystical abilities? If so, what the hell did he have?
The Huntress didn’t get long to think over it as he slammed a foot into her stomach. Thankfully, she didn’t have anything else to throw up, but the pain was still there. She reached out with one arm to get him off, but she lacked any energy to lift the leg off of her. In the meantime, the man simply hefted up the ax once more, ready to swing down on her.
“I don’t even care about your last words. Just die like the worm you are.”
This was it. The Huntress closed her eyes and sobbed. She laid there, waiting for the strike that would end her life would come. She laid there for a while, before peeking open her eyes. They widened after realizing what had happened.
The man had been knocked back a distance away and was busy standing off with another person, one that wouldn’t seem out of place with the demons of this hell.
The being stood there with black armor with red overtones, all while their face being a completely black mask that contained the emotion of anger, though it resembled that of a skull. There were two horns sprouting out of its black helmet, with red lines scattered throughout all of its armor.
The man was struggling against this demon, sweat clear as day on his brow as he was being pushed back by sheer strength. He looked anguished as he ground his teeth trying to prevent himself from being cut down by the curved blade in the demon’s hand.
Then, with a roar, a blast erupted between the two and he jumped back. He repositioned himself to get ready for battle once more, while the demon got ready to fight him once more. The two looked each in the eyes for that split moment. The Huntress held her breath, not knowing which outcome was better.
The man dying would be optimal. However, who knows what the demon was capable of? At this point, no matter what happened, it was highly possible for her and the Wushi to die right here and now.
The man took a deep breath. He seemed to be gauging the demon up and down for a good while, before finally taking the time to lift one of his hands.
“Wait. Let’s not fight, okay?” he asked as he kept an eye on the demon, his expression one of deep thought and worry, “There’s no need for further bloodshed. I’ll go on my way and you can do whatever you desire, okay?”
The Huntress couldn’t help but look incredulously at the man that had been tormenting her and the Wushi this whole time. This bastard was seriously begging for his life?! How low could someone get to try to live?
“I’ll say this right now. There is nothing to gain from fighting here. Do you understand? We both benefit if we go our separate ways. Right?”
The demon stood there with its blade still aimed at the man. It looked him up and down, before… sheathing its blade.
The Huntress’ eyes widened. No. No. No no no no, not this! This was the worst case scenario, this had to be a joke!
“Thank you. You won’t regret this decision.” With that, the man sheathed his ax and started to dash away back into the forest, away from the village and everyone present in the field.
No! No! Get back here! You–you can’t just leave, not after what you did!
She reached out to the bastard running, but she couldn’t muster anything to get up. She collapsed once more, before looking at the demon walking up to her menacingly. She swallowed and tried to crawl away, only to falter and collapse.
The demon got closer. She whimpered, before shutting her eyes. However, the blow she was expecting never came. She stayed there for a while, before peeking to see what was going on.
The Wushi was being carried over the demon’s shoulder and it was looking right at the Huntress, its expression hidden underneath the mask.
“Come. It is time to go. Do not waste time being a fool.”
With that, the demon started to march towards the village, leaving the Huntress there, gaping like a fish.
“Eh? Ah– wait! Wait up!” The Huntress managed to shout out as she began to pick herself up, only to hiss out in pain and collapse from the weight of all her injuries. She took a deep breath, before staggering and dragging herself right behind the demon. She didn’t trust this thing with her life nor the Wushi’s, and thus she had to do something. She took a few more steps further, before falling right onto her face and blanking out.