“They were after our Hunter,” Rebecca said. She was the cook at the inn, the one Ethan had seen crying the night before. Unlike the innkeeper, she turned out to be more than happy to share their problems.

Glenn and Maggie were loading the repaired wagon, so Ethan decided to take the extra few minutes to try to better understand what had happened with the bandits. He also felt that he needed the time to recover from whatever Valanor had done. The taciturn knight paralyzing an entire crowd with fear was a lot to take in.

“Your Hunter?” Ethan asked. “I thought Hunters just worked with the guild. Is there a local one or something?”

Rebecca let out a long breath, dusting flour off her hands then leaning on the bar. The inn was mostly empty, but she still glanced around to make sure they weren’t overheard. “Cara Fletcher,” she said finally. “There’s a village to the South East, near the mountains, and they have a single Bond they pass down each generation.”

“Like the farmers?”

“Sort of,” she said. “It’s a bit more rare, but not entirely uncommon, especially for border towns. It’s something for the youths to aspire to, and they have competitions and the like to see who will be the next village Hunter. They got more than they expected with our Cara though.”

“Oh yeah, how so?” Ethan asked.

“Driven, that one is. She won the competition a few years back, but that wasn’t enough for her. No single Bond for that one. She Hunted down two more herself, became a Full Bonded, like them in the cities. Like your scary friend.”

“Don’t worry about him he’s–” Ethan cut off, realizing he doubted whether he truly knew the man at all. “He’ll be gone soon. Tell me more about the girl.”

Rebecca laughed. “I’ll tell you she’d put an arrow in your arse if she heard you call her ‘girl’. But in truth she’s probably a little younger than you. Still, she won her Bonds, then went to work. Travels between the local villages, takes out the monsters that get too close. We’ve all come to rely on her.”

“What about Hunter notices? Why would you need a local?”

“We have a notice board in the square, but no one uses it. Takes at least a week for someone to accept it–if we’re lucky. Then they mosey down when they find the time. If a monster is prowling around near the village that’s too long to wait, and Cara is only ever a day away. It’s much worse for the smaller villages.”

“I see, I suppose that makes sense. So why are the bandits after her?”

“Gunther’s fools? Well they crossed Cara a few months back. Tried to muscle their way into her home village, even stole from her daddy’s shop. She did what Cara does: hunted them down.”

“Ah, yeah that’ll do it. So what’s the problem, she doesn’t seem like she’d be scared of a few bandits.”

“She’s not scared of anything, which is a problem all on its own. Gunther isn’t some food bandit, he’s Bonded. The two of them got into it a couple of weeks back, and we haven’t heard from Cara since.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but if they’re looking for her she must have gotten away.”

“We’re praying to the Goddess that’s so,” Rebecca said, tearing up again. She noticed the innkeeper coming back inside and quickly wiped her eyes again. “You be careful out there, alright? I know you’re with…that man, but you should be careful around him too, I’d wager.”

“Thanks, Rebecca. I hope you see your Hunter again soon.” With that, Ethan went to join the others, sure that Valanor was already growing impatient.

***

Ethan and the Knights made it out of the village after a reasonable amount of time, though Valanor was still grumpy. Glenn and Maggie seemed to be in the same general moods as the day before, not seeming appropriately disturbed by their leader’s display of weaponized terror.

As they traveled down the dirt road, the farmlands quickly gave way to dense forest as the mountains rose to meet them. Ethan eventually turned to the knight, needing to know what he’d seen. “Valanor, that thing you did in the square…what the hell was it? Do you have some kind of horrifying Familiar I couldn’t see? Please tell me it wasn’t Toby.”

Valanor grunted–something Ethan had discovered was the man’s equivalent of a laugh. “It wasn’t Toby. It wasn’t a Familiar, or even an ability, I just unleashed my spirit in the Astral…a little bit.”

“Astral…I feel like you mentioned that before.”

The knight let out the long sigh that signified he was about to begrudgingly teach something. “The Astral–or spirit–Realm, is a layer of existence that people don’t normally have access to. Magic and Familiars change that. All our spirits exist partially in that realm. It’s how I can tell when you’re lying; your soul isn’t quite so capable of hiding it.”

“Right, the creepy glare you and the royal family keep giving me. You can see into this realm?”

“All Bonded can interact with the Astral, once they reach Dawn rank. You won’t have much control over it until Dusk, but it’ll become an important part of your training, and interactions with other Hunters.”

Ethan swatted away a mosquito the size of his fist, then let Revan out to walk next to his steed. The Familiar’s burning tails tended to keep the insects at bay. He turned back to Valanor. “Okay, and it’s possible to attack people using this place?”

“Not quite an attack. It’s a complex system you won’t be able to understand at this stage. The short answer is yes, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective against other Bonded. It’s one of the many reasons why Unbound are little threat to a Hunter.”

“Fair enough,” Ethan said. “It seems a little hard to believe that there’s so many regular people surrounded by a few Bonded with such terrifying power. How does the world even work like this?”

It was Glenn who answered. “This isn’t the world, friend, this is Viridus. I love my land, but we’re a tiny Kingdom surrounded by a wall of mountains. If you ever venture out, you’ll see that things are very different.”

“What do you mean?” Ethan asked curiously.

Surprisingly, it was Maggie who answered. She was not only quiet, but didn’t seem to care much for Ethan, and he’d mostly let her be. “The reason there are so few Bonded here is two-fold. We have very small breeding programs for the tame beasts that allow True Bonds, and our access to Terranova technology is severely limited.”

“Terranova again, what does that have to do with anything?” Ethan asked, once more getting conflicted feelings at hearing there was a whole nation filled with people from his home.

Valanor answered. “There are two ways to Bond,” he said. “You form a True Bond with a willing monster, or you capture them with a Bond Stone. Only Terranova has the ability to create them in any significant quantity. The nations who trade for them try to create their own monopolies on the devices. We’re too far from the source to trade directly, and have to accept what we can get.”

Ethan thought back to the stone he’d used to Bond his Dimension Devourer, and things started to make a bit more sense. “So in other nations…”

“There are Bonded everywhere,” Valanor confirmed. “Never so many as to create a true standing army, but enough that the rules for interacting with the Unbound have been codified for generations. Bonded deal with Bonded-level threats, and Unbound look after themselves.”

Glenn spoke up again, excited. “That’s not all! We’re a bit spoiled in Viridus, because we’re considered a Dawn rank Kingdom–the magic here just isn’t that dense. It means you mostly only see Dawn rank monsters, with the occasional Dusk as the exception. Go visit Arinae to the West and Dusk is the weakest you’ll find.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Maggie scoffed. “That’s as much a curse to Bonded as it is a boon to the regular folk. There’s no chance of reaching Twilight as long as we stay in this realm.”

Glenn laughed. “I’ll happily stay in the kiddie pond where it’s safe, thank you Maggie. Dusk rank is ambitious enough.”

Ethan considered that, glancing at the only confirmed Dusk rank he knew. “So you can’t reach the next rank, Valanor?” The group immediately went silent, and Glenn made a ‘shut up you complete idiot’ gesture at Ethan.

Valanor seemed resigned, however. “I told you when we first met, I’m a broken Dusk. This is as far as I go, never mind the magic around me or the monsters I face.”

Ethan opened his mouth to ask for more info, but this time Glenn actually threw a cup at him from the wagon. He then made a ‘he will absolutely kill you, you complete and utter tool’ motion. Ethan actually took a moment to just be impressed with Glenn’s ability to mime complex thoughts.

Valanor missed the entire exchange, riding at the front as usual, but when his steed halted they all prepared for some kind of outburst. It didn’t come. “There’s something…” the shield knight said, eyes scanning the thick forest. A shrill sound echoed through the woods.

The knights burst into action, leaping to the ground as armor enveloped them and Familiars emerged to form a perimeter. The well-trained oxsteeds were moved to the center of the road, as Ethan hastily joined the others on the ground. His borrowed armor appeared a second later, as well as the spear he’d retrieved from the swamp.

Revan let out a low, panther’s growl from his side, and Ethan rested a hand on the Familiar’s back, not sure if he was giving comfort or receiving it. “Simiavus,” Valanor said, as the sounds grew louder, seeming to come from one side. A moment later, Ethan spotted movement in the trees.

The creatures looked like deep red chimpanzees, though larger, and with long, pointed beaks. They swung through the trees easily, letting out their shrill bird calls, at least two dozen of them. Ethan took an involuntary step back, moving his spear out in front of him.

“Form up around the Chosen!” Valanor commanded, and the knights shifted so that the armored forms of Maggie and Glenn were on either side of him, while Valanor stepped out in front. Glenn was using a two handed sword, while Maggie revealed twin handaxes.

Surprisingly, Toby was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a massive steel crab appeared in front of them, easily twice as wide as the oxsteeds. It only had four legs, each gleaming like chrome, but two massive claws snapped in the direction of the woods. As the ape-birds swung toward them, steel shards began firing out of those claws, skewering the attacking monsters.

Valanor joined the assault, hurling steel spears forward. It was a remarkable sight, but Ethan immediately saw how ineffective the ponderous creature would have been in the tight tunnels of the mountain. Turning back to the battle, he began drawing throwing daggers, ready to do his part.

Planting his own spear in the dirt in front of him, he began hurling the daggers. Ethan had been practicing during the long hours of the trip, throwing them at every tree they passed, letting his magic bandolier return them after a couple of minutes. Thanks to those many hours of practice, one of his first six throws connected.

“Okay, they’re moving way too much,” Ethan insisted, then glared at the stupid crab after it bullseye’d three of the apes in a row. Still, he got to see [Internal Combustion] at work, as the simiavus he’d struck began swatting uselessly at his arms, volcanic veins of fire stretching outward from the wound.

There was no time to celebrate as the beasts were finally upon them. Maggie went to work, her axes slashing out, arcs of water following in their wake, with deadly cutting force. Glenn’s sword took slow, even swings, but each one seemed to be right where it was needed, slashing through grasping ape-hands and snapping beaks.

Behind them, Kit and Revan kept their mounts safe, while Valanor and his showoff crab held the front line. As more of the beasts screeched and dropped from the trees, Valanor summoned the slightly faster Toby, the conjured warhammer making its presence known as well.

It was interesting to see the knight back with his shield, as he seemed truly untouchable now–at least by the ape-birds. He was always moving, always keeping his shield toward the enemy, and he’d occasionally slam the shield with his own warhammer, the sound drawing even more of the beasts to him.

Ethan had to turn his focus to his own problems, however, as the wave of enemies crashed into them. The knights did their jobs well, and Ethan rarely engaged a target on his own, but he nevertheless resolved to do his part. His spear, a poor weapon for the tight conditions and fast targets, turned out to be a great way of spreading his new affliction.

He would quickly dart it, stabbing a screeching ape that was distracted by a knight, then dart back. Once [Internal Combustion] went to work, the creatures were inevitably distracted and easily dispatched. Ethan was tempted to use [Volatile Infusion], knowing the debuff would make his fire damage far more effective. Sadly, though many things were different in this world, hurling fiery explosives into dense wood was still idiotic, and so he focused on his second Flare ability, glad to have it.

As the minutes ticked by, Ethan felt weariness settling over him, and his mana depleting. He had to start spacing his special attacks out, reminding himself again that a sharp spear was still a dangerous weapon as he harassed any enemy within range.

From the front, Valanor called out. “This many shouldn’t be possible! There has to be a rift nearby!”

“Then we move into the woods, let the familiars guard the steeds!” Glenn called back.

“Stay close!” the shield knight called back, as he began pushing forward. Glenn swapped his large sword for two small ones, then pulled Ethan behind him. Maggie took up the rear, her axes ironically ill-suited to the woods. Dealing with the same problem, Ethan took a throwing knife in each hand, and moved with the column.

Valanor’s warhammer had to be worst suited to the environment, but you’d never know, as his swings continued at the same pace. The heavy obsidian weapon simply crashed through tree trunks as easily as monsters. For the part of the simiavus, they may have possessed the same reckless drive to attack as any other demon, but they proved far from suicidal.

As they watched their brethren being slaughtered, they began to shift tactics. Clearly realizing that each of their opponents was focused on close-combat, they began to hurl tree limbs, rocks, and anything else they could find. Hopefully they don’t throw the same thing as monkeys on Earth, Ethan thought with distaste.

The knights shifted to using what ranged attacks they had, but they were relatively limited. Stone shards fired from Valanor’s armor, while Maggie unleashed more arcs of water. Neither were precision attacks though, leaving the majority of the damage to come from Glenn, who sent concentrated blasts of wind back at their enemies, knocking the creatures from high in the trees.

Ethan got plenty more practice with his daggers, and was actually making contact half the time when they finally reached a small clearing. As promised, a rift hovered in the air in front of them, ape-birds popping out every thirty seconds or so. Valnor pushed the group toward it, showing no sign of tiring.

The clearing was fairly large, and it looked almost like the demons had eaten the trees near the portal. The group had to fight over fallen logs, and wade through branches and mud to finally make it to their destination. The rift was easily eight feet wide, and as soon as they reached it, Glenn charged forward, pulling objects out of his inventory.

“Try to cover Glenn,” Valanor commanded Ethan, who switched back to his spear. The shield knight and Maggie took up guard positions, the crab making another appearance as the ape-birds redoubled their attack, clearly recognizing their way home was under threat.

The close range fight resumed as a flood of the simiavus ran at the group from every direction. Thankfully the rift only worked on one side, so they were able to use it as cover. It didn’t stop the beasts from popping around from either side, though, and Ethan found himself stabbing wildly to keep Glenn protected.

Every half minute the fight would become far more chaotic, as another demon would burst through the portal, attacking without hesitation. Glenn would wisely pause in his work then, holding the creature for Ethan to dispatch it. Unfortunately that made the work exceptionally slow, as the knight had to keep stopping and starting. The runes that would seal the portal appeared with agonizing slowness.

To his left, Maggie was finally slowing, and was forced to summon her owl-like Familiar to help hold her flank. Valanor was in better shape, but had to pick up more and more slack as his slow steel familiar failed to catch the rapidly moving monsters.

Still, their progress was steady and inevitable, as Glenn proved his ability to multitask over and over, the ritual appearing rune by rune. Ethan did his best to cover the man while also assisting the Dawn rank Maggie whenever he could, his spear lancing forward to disable and wound at every opportunity.

Ethan’s own limbs felt like wood, and a glance at the indomitable Valanor made him envy the strength and stamina of a Dusk rank Bonded. Counting in his head, he turned his exhausted body back to the rift, spear braced to impale the monster he knew would be exploding through at any moment.

The portal flashed, and the maneuver worked. Ethan felt his spear-point dig into flesh, but stop suddenly. He looked up, confused by the dark shape blocking most of the shining doorway. Rather than soft belly, his spear was lodged in the thick thigh of a simiavus at least three times larger than the rest.

It looked down at him, its beak over a foot long, and razor sharp. It raised its arms, grasping clawed hands reaching forward. Ethan retreated, mouth open in shock as a second set of arms snatched for him as well, and something between a screech and a roar echoed through the clearing.

“Dusk rank!” Glenn called, diving into Ethan from the side, his armor slashed for his trouble. Then the real fight began.