The Voracious Stalker

[Jhril The Excitable]

Danger Level: Low Threat

I kept my body as low as possible and watched my newest target.

Usually I'd just attack him, but I had been burned by that sort of assumption before.

Just you wait Andrew, it won't be much longer.

I watched my prey wander around, being spooked by even the slightest noise over and over.

Clearly a reactive moron, but it doesn't pay to be sloppy.

I activated one of my newer [Skills].

My footfalls became completely silent.

I crept up slowly in the direction my prey was moving, waiting for him to wander into pouncing range.

With an explosion of energy, I lunged at him.

As soon as I did, he turned around instantly. "[Acidic Thorn]!"

For a moment I was worried, but then it hit me.

It definitely hurt, but I had been hurt so much worse... if I didn't know better, I would have thought it was a joke.

My weight knocked my prey's pathetic frame to the ground and watched as fear filled his eyes.

I smiled, showing all of the teeth I could. "I have a proposition for you."

A modicum of fear was replaced with confusion. "W-what do y-you mean?"

"I'd like you to fight for me... who knows, if all goes well, you may even be able to win this game with my guidance." I lowered my face within a tooth-length of his. "And before you say no, I'd advise you to consider how painful of a death I can produce by taking my time to bite through your neck."

He didn't need any additional convincing. "I'll do it! I'll do it!"

"Good man." I leaned away and called out, making sure not to look away from my prey and give him hope of escape. "Pactmaster! It's your turn!"

[Malisen The Pactmaster]

Danger Level: Mostly Harmless

My first general came forward and looked down at my newest prey. "This whelp? Are you certain?"

I laughed heartily. "He may be weak, but we must fill the ranks somehow."

"Fair enough." He strode closer. "[Oathswear]."

"Yes! Yes of course!" The Excitable cried.

Suddenly an image of a set of chains appeared around my newest soldier's neck.

I got off of him.

I've heard from Pactmaster that it displays a message to the target which they can choose to accept or decline. If they accept, they give The Pactmaster the ability to kill them at a moment's notice, in exchange they gain benefits depending on the type and strictness of the oath.

Our only restriction is that if The Pactmaster dies, they will die immediately... and yet they always offer their service without question.

I was enjoying myself, considering my next move when my second general stepped out of a nearby set of bushes.

"You've been following this champion for twelve minutes and twenty-two seconds... if we spend any more time doing this, we're bound to be attacked by Nemeses."

[Oligog The Punctual]

Danger Level: Moderate Threat

I looked over to The Punctual and watched his incessant twitching for a moment.

"Are you saying that I can't repel an attack from another Nemesis?" I asked, humoring him.

He stared at me with his unblinking eyes. "No, but fighting a Nemesis will put us behind schedule." He summoned his pocketwatch and stared at it. "Four days, fifteen hours, thirty minutes, and eleven seconds... we need to move faster or else we won't make our quota of forty champions within a week."

I chuckled. "The only reason we have a quota is because you asked me to give you one."

He turned his attention back to me. "I fail to see your point."

Suddenly, a raspberry was blown beside me, startling both The Punctual and I.

"Damn it Empty! Must you do that?"

[Hilrk The Empty]

Danger Level: Probable Death

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

My third and final general, The Empty, frowned at me uncomprehendingly as a line of drool dribbled down his chin. "What'd I do boss?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "You know what, nevermind, I don't have the energy to explain it to you Empty."

The Empty did whatever he thought passed for a salute. "Whatever you say boss."

With my mood thoroughly ruined and my conversation derailed, I decided to change the topic. "Pactmaster, any reports from the wall watchers?"

"Nothing unordinary so far."

I nodded. "Then let's continue, as The Punctual says, it's in our best interest to continue moving."

The Punctual looked around for a moment. "Our next target is this way, the birds have made thirty-eight warning calls in the last fifteen minutes, versus the thirteen times that were likely caused exclusively by us in every other direction."

"Lead on."

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Andrew

I started to feel a spark with my sabatons.

It took about as much time and effort as I expected. It didn't really start working until I started to consider what sorts of personalities they'd have.

I had a specific effect in mind, but I'm not sure I have any influence over that sort of thing, we'll have to see.

Even though Sydui didn't have to sleep nearly as often as the other Fifskae due to her Nemesis physiology, she was already asleep by the time I was finished.

She probably wanted to use the quiet moment to rest while she had the chance.

I watched her for a moment as she slept peacefully, looking like the world's fluffiest badass heroine.

It was a shame to wake her, but we had to go soon, or else I'd miss my next appointment, which was with Hund... to say I was excited to hear what he had to say was a bit of an understatement.

I tapped her face gently with my hand and she slowly came to. "Is it time already?"

I nodded. "Yep, it's time to go."

She blinked her four eyes groggily as she stood. "Let's get going then."

Hund was busy tending to a patient at the moment we walked in. "Oh hello Andrew, Sydui, how are things?"

"Busy, how are things here?" I replied.

"About the same, a lot of injured around here... that said, quite a few are going to be ready to be discharged in the coming days."

I was about to yell, but I stopped myself before I did so. "That's great news." I said calmly instead.

Hund scratched his head in embarrassment. "Yeah, I'm just glad that my limited knowledge of field medicine was enough."

I nodded. "I'm happy to hear everything went well." I grinned evilly. "Speaking of which, how are things going with Ayula?"

He jumped suddenly, struggling for words. "I-I... uh..."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Dude, I'm just asking, there's no rush to answer. I understand sometimes that relationships can be complicated, trust me, take some time to sort out the answer in your head if you need to."

He took a couple of breaths. "That was nicer than you usual are Andrew."

I took a grandiose pose of mock distress. "You wound me dear Hund!"

He chuckled, settling into a more serious posture. "I think she's still overly guarded around me, but at least she talks to me now."

I nodded at Hund. "That's a great first step, keep up the good work."

He nodded back. "Thank you Andrew... even if your methods make no sense to me half of the time, I'm glad to have asked you for help."

I smiled. "You're welcome."

The next stop was Rahyu, I wanted to see how his smithing was going.

When we walked in, there was a huge pile of random jankiness, each mangled hunk of metal in the vague shape of a crossbow.

Rahyu was furiously working away, stopping every once in a while to look at the smaller crossbow he was issued and trying to scale it up by ear so to speak.

He threw another ruined work onto the pile and moved to start a new creation.

I had half a mind to let him continue out of respect for his craftsman's spirit, but I wanted to talk to him.

"Hey Rahyu! How's it going?!"

He turned around and looked at me with eyes that spoke of many hours of missed sleep, but still burned with the passion that screamed that not a single of those hours were wasted or would be missed.

"Oh hey Andrew! I've almost gotten it!"

He charged up to me and begun to barrage me with questions about how I did this or that and I had to politely explain that I simply hadn't used this method at all.

He was disappointed, but it didn't really stop the questions, they instead turned to the theoretical, as well as asking how easily it would be to recreate my lathe here... that prompted another polite explanation that it would take a large amount of force from something to make it work (such as a good amount of flowing water for instance), and would be impractical for that reason.

"As much as I'm proud of your progress, please make sure to sleep, you look like death."

"But I-" He began.

"You'll do even better after a bit of shuteye, trust me, I understand exactly what you're going through."

He nodded and set his tools down. "I'll be back at it tomorrow then."

"Later today, but yes."

He rubbed his face. "Oh yeah... I keep forgetting how long the days are here."

The next few days were filled with lots of good news.

Rahyu did indeed crack it, and managed to build the chassis for five new crossbows, which I then made the inner-workings for.

Most of the Fifskae were finally back in fighting shape, not just ready to leave medical.

I finally managed to feel the spark for both my boots and my chestplate... even if the chestplate was still only starting.

I even found some time to test out the two new gems that we acquired... and if one of them does what I think it does, things are going to get very interesting.

Though unfortunately, there was also some bad news too...

"Forty champions approaching!"

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Sydui

At first I thought I had heard the warning wrong, surely there wasn't forty champions?

"Please repeat guardsman!" I called back.

"Forty champions from the East miss Sydui!"

That pretty much eliminated any chance of miscommunication being the problem.

Andrew looked over at me. "Sydui, would you please check their relative danger levels?"

"On it!"

I climbed up the tower and looked over in the direction the guardsman pointed out.

Forty separate names and title popped up, each one labeled somewhere between 'mostly harmless' and 'moderate threat'.

I gave my report to Andrew and he thought for a moment.

"Call everyone to arms, we're going to have to defend our homes once again."

We scrambled to task as fast as we could, but it was still extremely sudden, so there was only so much that could be done.

I was given one of the new mounted crossbows to use as a personal weapon, as were each of the other Nemeses.

Everyone else was told to find hiding spots and only fight if it meant that they were guaranteed to not get into harm's way.

Everyone was on edge as we waited for the alarm to signal the beginning of the combat, but it never came.

"Status report!" I called toward the guardsman.

"They stopped just outside of our range for some reason!"

What? Why would they do that?

"Something's wrong! Everyone stay on your guard!" Andrew ordered.

I unlocked my eyes and scanned the area.

One moment there was nothing, and the next moment there was a pale and blubbery figure wearing a long robe-like garment.

Andrew and I both saw him at the same time and tried in vain to issue a warning.

[Hilrk The Empty]

Danger Level: Probable Death

"[Supermassive]!"

Suddenly, everything within a radius started to get pulled toward Hilrk, tearing apart our homes and ripping the villagers out of them.

Andrew took aim and fired a bolt which went wide by a mile.

It then bent toward Hilrk...

"[Void]!"

...And passed straight through him.

"I was supposed to do something if someone tried to shot stuff at me wasn't I? What was it again?" The blubbery moron pondered this for a moment before finding whatever answer he was looking for. "Oh yeah, I was suppose to stop using my [Skill]."

Suddenly, everything crashed to the ground at once.

I rolled to the side to avoid a building collapsing on top of me.

"Everybody! Form up we're about to- wait is that smoke?!" Andrew called.

I sniffed the air, and sure enough, I smelled smoke.

I then saw the four plumes coming from the outside of our walls.

I looked to Andrew and he looked on in horror, but I could definitely tell he was trying to figure out what to do next.

I stood up and decided to give him the time he needed to do just that.

I charged at Hilrk, that was until I was stopped suddenly by a different figure landed directly in my path.

He was tall, covered with dark feathers, and practically vibrated with irritation of some kind.

[Oligog The Punctual]

Danger Level: Moderate Threat

A small clock appeared in his hands. "What an utter waste of a perfectly good three minutes and forty-one seconds."

"Everyone stay put! Stay on the tasks you were already set to, do not try to put out the fires, as they're likely meant to split our forces!" Andrew ordered.

"Allow me to translate for all of you champions out there, it seems like the enemy commander has figured out the plan!" I looked over for only a split-second.

[The Voracious Stalker, Nemesis Second Stage]

Danger Level: Moderate Threat

The horrifying monster bared its rows of teeth in a sick smile. "I suppose we'll just have to move on to the next phase of the plan a little early then!"