Edited by: Deimos, tommyjl7
The group of four criminals was waiting around the crossroad. The human and troll were sitting with crossbows on the eastern and western sides of the path. From the south, the place to which the travelers were heading, a gnoll took his guard. As the only heavy armored member of the party his duty was to focus the attention of the adventurers on himself. At least for a moment, for a split second. That would be enough for rest of the party to unleash their attacks. And the dark elf, no one knew where she was, not even her own party members. She hid somewhere further and cast multiple detecting-negating spells. For that, she needed to be in bit more distance, so the priestess and that so-called prodigy couldn’t sense the mana manipulation.
The troll was looking into the horizon awaiting for their targets to come. That was the worst part of ambush. Waiting. You had your crossbow in hand, the bolt was loaded, your finger on the trigger. Trembling. One unnecessary move and fragile mechanism would send arrow into nothingness. He didn’t have his lever to that crossbow with himself. That meant that he had only one shot. He started sweating.
WHY WAS HIS HEART SO LOUD! He could swear that it was pounding so fast and loudly that Derek, sitting thirty meters away from him could hear him.
But rouge didn’t react to his worries. It must have been his imagination.
They were covered in mud and pieces of plants, to hide their bodies, heat and scent. He was the one who suggested that. Oh, elf-witch didn’t like that idea, Ha! She hated it! They weren’t monsters, she said.
No. But Giselle was half dragon. Some reptiles have heat sensing receptors, this is how snakes can hunt at night. Also, most reptiles have magnificent sense of smell. That's the knowledge he harvested together with body parts of monsters he killed. Also, what would they lose? A sense of comfort? Ha! After battle they could just wash in the nearest river. It’s better to be too prepared for some event, than the other way around. In the end they agreed to his plan.
Why is he this nervous!? Oh, he is always nervous. No matter if he was hunting a rabbit or Gairaran, he was always trembling. But this time, it is something else. Like spirits of ancestors were trying to warn him personally.
No. A hunt is a hunt. This will bring him glory. Yes, let that sink in. He is the hunter. One of the best. There is only he, ambush spot and prey, that is about to come, he could almost hear them approaching… No, wait, he really hears them!
The cart was approaching. The white haired man was driving it, they were talking to themselves, joking, laughing. He would turn around every few seconds just to answer back. Come on. Just 100 more meters to the ambush spot!
- “Zari! You bastard!” dragoness yelled
- “What? I said the truth!”
- “No, you didn’t!”
- “Miss Giselle! I-I have no idea what to say! To think that someone like you…” another voice, probably priestess
- “No! You get it all wrong! He is twisting the reality with his words! Showing you only the piece of fact that would make me look bad!”
50 meters. He could already see them completely, yet there was no way that
- “I-I have no idea what else could happen to justify you sitting on Zari with a w-w-w-whip and…”
- “NO! It was his whip! I took it from him, then we started struggling! I landed on him and THEN Marika entered the room!”
- “You hear her, Lana? I hope you can hear how ridiculously that sounds? That many coincidences in one place?”
The man was clearly enjoying himself. 25 meters. He could already see his eyes. What weird eyes. Green and blue. Like forest and sky. Or river with purest water. Yes, he remembered the eyes of the creatures he hunted. That was his only trophy, carved on the back of his mind. The way expression changes. From the one suspecting nothing, to panic, to desire to fight, to begging for mercy, and then into this cold, blank gaze to nothingness. Closer. Just a little!
- “I will fucking murder you!”
- “Please, if you already have to, then just kill me. I am afraid that fucking may involve that whip of yours!”
- “YOU LITTLE!”
10 meters. The troll took a breath in and held it. For a moment everything became quiet, as he was pointing his crossbow at the perfect location for his shot. That moment of serenity, just before strike, was what made him into the hunter. His heart slowed down instantly. His hands were no longer trembling.
8 meters. Almost there. Yet somehow expression of white haired man changed.
7 meters. His eyes. For the love of avatar of hunts! His eyes! Pupils narrowed almost into vertical slits.
6 meters. His eyes started looking in all direction, he could swear that his ears twitched a little. Human’s ears can’t do that!
5 meters. He stopped the cart.
NO! No there! Part of bush was still covering him, from here shooting was impossible!
- “Zari, what happened?!”
Exactly?! What happened! Why did you stop! There is no way that we noticed them! They were invisible! Smell-less, soundless! Mud was still supposed to hide their body temperature!
- “Do you hear it?” the man asked.
- “No.” the elf and dragon answered in unison.
- “Exactly. No birds, no insects. Nothing. A few dozen meters ago I thought that my mind would split because of that noise… Off the cart. Into formation. We are not alone.”
He was smiling and troll could swear, that for a moment his teeth were non-human like. Sharp like wolf’s, except his fangs, which were sharp, thin needles, like viper of some sort.
Fuck. FUCK! Who the hell pays attention to such details while traveling!?
The answer for that question was more than obvious. A hunter. Someone that grown up in wildness, someone that was listening to surroundings on daily basis, for his survival depended on it. A hunter, like himself!
He left his cover, it was pointless, took an aim on white haired man a fired. He shouldn’t aim at him. Not him. His reaction time and surrounding-awareness was best of the whole team, when ambushing enemy team, they should focus the weakest chain – the support, the priestess.
But… that man. He HAD to hunt him down! His eyes! He needs to remember those eyes! They were his!
Derek did same thing after split of second, he actually pointed him weapon toward elf. Good. That man was his.
They both fired. He saw the bolt flying right between his eyes. And then again, that bloody change in his face. For a moment he could swear that part of him were non-human. He moved his head to the side letting arrow dig in the earth behind him. All this time he was looking him in the eyes. These eyes were not surprised. Not willing to fight nor begging. They were amused. Like a lion looking at baby deer charging at him with his underdeveloped horns.
That hurt his pride. With roar he grabbed a javelin off the ground and charged at him.
In same time dragoness covered the elf with her own body, making arrow bounce off the strengthened armor. Stupid Derek! He told him to take the heavy crossbow! But noooo! Adventurers rarely use heavy armors! The light one would give him better mobility! Stupid fuck! He was literally traveling with a gnoll using similar armor as hers!
Speaking about the devil, Lokiv jumped away, growling like half-dessert-dog he was as he charged on warrioress.
- “May the blessing of mother, fall upon thee, sharpen thy claws, ease your mind…”
The priestess started doing what priestess do – buffing her party.
- “Like hell I will allow you!” that was her, their boss, witch send a ball of dark energy that hit her target in backs, stopping her chant.
Good. Now it will start. Just as they agreed. Separating them. Mak’harg would attack the priestess, force her further away from group, Lokiv was supposed to engage dragoness in combat, in that time, troll and Derek were meant to buy as much time as possible by harassing magician.
They had double the advantage, two against one when it came to fight with so called genius and battle between priestess and witch. The high elf was pretty much defenseless against the witch, she specialized in supporting, while her race-cousin specialized in curses and pure damage dealing. Also, Lokiv and Giselle were supposed to be on similar level. Beasts in the league of their own.
When their boss would finish with her target, she would aid them, and then, as whole team they would gank on Giselle.
And that's what happened. The gnoll pretty much rammed his whole body on the great sword wielder pushing her away, deeper to the north. Good, the distance between them in increasing. Now. The dance of the hunter begins now.
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Giselle’s battle
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The hyena man was actually quite strong, enough to push the dragoness further and further. Oh, he got caught her by surprise a little, still, her opponent possessed greater strength than a single minotaur. And if you would consider that a gnoll’s tribe are made mostly of hunters, then you would finally reach the conclusion that he obtained his power only by training and fighting. No racial bonuses in muscle mass.
Yes, he was able to push Giselle away, despite her draconic blood and guidance of Jericho. She could respect that.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Eventually the beastman would stop his assault and break their fighting embrace.
- “GISELLE REDWING!” he roared angered.
- “Do I owe you money?” Gis asked smiling with corner of her lips.
- “What? No!”
- “In that case, yes, I am Giselle Redwing.”
She joked right in his face. He came with his war scream, ready to fight to death, and she jokes?
- “My name is Lokiv of the Sandwalkers clan! I came to claim your life!”
She could disrespect him, but he will remain faithful to his codex. To his credo.
- “Wait… I think I know your name…” of course she would, he used to be quite popular “… You are that adventurer that failed his contract. No, not just failed, you pretty much let the man that hired you die!”
That was true. He was hired to escort a merchant across the dangerous dunes of a great dessert. They were attacked by monsters. Oh, he was killing monsters, just… not really protecting the people that paid him. Instead of creating a defensive formation he charged at the greatest beast, breaking lines. That cost lives of many adventurers and travelers. Those which remained reported his actions to both the authorities and the guild.
The guild wanted to protect their friend, they tried explaining that during missions many things may go wrong, that they are bound to make decisions in heat of moment. HA! They almost managed to convince authorities. But when the gnoll himself was asked why he decided to break formation that was completely safe, he just answered the he really wanted to kill that dune king.
“But what about the people?” The judge asked.
He responded, that he couldn’t care less about them. He joined the quest only to kill things.
He was supposed to be executed the very next day. But, he broke out of the prison. He killed five armored guards with his bare hands, took their equipment and left, killing his way through a dozen more that tried to stop him.
- “You are a person that leaves his companions to die…” the warrioress’ tone became cold.
- “Don’t you dare to look down on me. I have my pride. I don’t need weak leaches to follow me. They were joining me only to rank up, and I couldn’t take party quests alone. In the end I was the one doing pretty much the whole job. Then I would just hear them at inn, bragging about achievements that weren’t theirs. I thought, that if people would die, the guild authorities would finally do something about the weaklings. But no. All I did, was go into battle. I took on almost every beast in the dunes, maybe a tenth of the swarm attacked the caravan. Without me, they were defenseless. Weak. Good for nothing. Leaving my companions? They weren’t companions. And now, look at yourself. Traveling with spoiled princess and some good-for-nothing alchemist!”
- “I have no idea what the battle competences of Lanele is, true, but if you would look down on Zariel… Let’s just say he only looks like pathetic, good for nothing weakling.” She smiled “… anyway, this conversation is over yet? I need to quickly kill you and go check on Lana.”
- “Your pride will be your undoing.”
The creature snarled again. He raised his shield and corrected his grip on his morningstar. Then he moved. His dominant hand raised to the sky, and fell down, forcing a weapon into movement. A huge, spiked metal ball hit the ground on which Giselle was standing second ago. She evaded the attack by moving to the side, then, as the weapon of the beast-kin was lying useless, she charged in.
Yet her opponent parried the attack with his shield before using it to push her away. Once again, then he pulled his weapon back.
The dragoness in very last moment fell to the ground, as the metal ball flew back to its user. No sane fighter would decide for such move, mostly because if avoided, the ball would damage the user.
But the ball rested in weird round spot in the shield without causing any damage. Damn, these two, shield and morningstar, were a complete set. Designed in such way to allow wearer to use ridiculous moves that normally would end with his death.
Not only that. The shield was apparently magically enchanted. It didn’t just stop the spiked ball, instead after second of delay it was shot off the shield back on Giselle.
One more time she saved herself in very last moment.
- “Nice one, right? It cost small fortune.” He smiled.
Dragoness looked at him for a moment before taking the battle stance.
- “Treating me seriously already? Good, otherwise I couldn’t be proud of killing you. Now, as you won’t take me lightly, I could start being serious myself.”
Then, till the end of the fight they said nothing more. They just rushed at each another letting the song of metal hitting metal ring.
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Lanele’s battle
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- “TAKE THIS, BITCH!” another bolt of dark thunder split the air and devastated the single tree that was growing nearby. It cracked in half, then caught fire.
- “Oh, fierce lover, hear my plea,
respond with might of the…”
A whip of pure magic power send high elf flying before she could cast a spell
- “What are you? A first year student? You can’t even cast spells without chant? To think that her daughter would be THIS pathetic!”
Oh, but she could cast spells without chant. But, her mother taught her much more. For example, she was a chess maniac. Lurking your enemies in reckless action by letting them think they already won was her mother favorite tactic. On purpose she would lose half of her chessmen, and then the remaining half would win the game, almost without taking a single pawn from her opponent.
Now!
The priestess clasped her hands making a magic word resonate between them before putting her palms to the ground.
Dozens of vines erupted trying to catch her.
- “Woe, woe you, my foe,
For sins you made became well-known,
Despair now and tremble, you have made,
Wrath of Eden this world embrace.”
The whole ground shook as the whole area turned into small jungle filled with carnivorous plants.
- “That was a delayed chant, something that is being taught waaay later than on 1st year.”
A rose that inside her petals had an actual maw with teeth swallowed witch whole. It made gulp-like sound. About ten seconds passed before it was tore apart from the inside.
- “UMBRA FINITA!” dark elf shouted as remaining of rose was send in all direction.
Her body was covered in black mist, a sparkle of electricity would appear occasionally.
- “You little tricky whore! You and your mother are alike!”
- “My mother is a great leader and wonderful priest, thus I will consider this as compliment!” Lanele grabbed edges of her dress and curtsied with grace.
- “Your mother is a murderer and an abomination!”
- “I would love to argue about this matter and protect her honor and good name, unfortunately, you are not a partner for such conversation. I think I will just satisfy myself with getting rid of you!”
She once again clasped her hands before raising them to the sky
- “Oh, mighty garden than in Eden dwells,
Come upon this land, where evil lies…”
- “Two can control nature, wench!”
Dark elf mimicked her gestures.
- “Darkwood, Witchwood, come to life!
Swallow fools who have stepped inside…”
The battle was about to get real.
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Zariel’s fight
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- “What wrong, are you going to finally move?”
White haired man was standing in the same spot he was before. The troll and human were moving in circle around him waiting for opening. On the one hand, they were supposed to play on time, on the other…
… THAT MAN WAS FULL OF OPENINGS! Come on! He was pretty much begging to get stabbed! It was almost as if he considered that it was unnecessary to protect himself.
- “Nah mate, we are here just to buy some time.”
Derek revealed his plan on the spot. Clever. By doing so he tried provoking so called genius to move. Yet he just chuckled.
- “Oh, you could've told me that earlier! I don’t mind waiting! Bah! I am sure I have booze on the cart, come on, let’s sit together and rejoice. Waiting for our beloved ladies to get back… or was that gnoll a male. If yes, then pardon my rudeness, that was the first gnoll I ever saw so…”
Derek attacked when man was still talking. From the side – blind spot. And again, troll could swear that his face twitched – shifted, in inhuman way, as if it was made of receptors that no known race should have.
He parried attack of the dagger, engaging the rogue in few grapples before countering with an elbow to the solar plexus. Derek left this little encounter defeated.
- “Damn, fucker has eyes all around his head!” Derek shouted
- “yes, his awareness is quite…”
- “NO! I mean literally! He had a fucking third eye on his temple!”
What?
Indeed, all that time when his skin twitched, that wasn’t just troll’s hallucination made my excitement. His skin pulsated again and new eyes started opening around his head.
- “I… seeeee. You…” he moaned like soul of the damned. Then he burst into laugh “… Sorry guys, always wanted to say that.”
The rogue and hunter exchanged gazes.
- “Just what the fuck is this guy?”
- “Hey! It’s rude to just ignore me! So, you join me by the glass of booze or what?”
- “Sorry mate, I am afraid that after attacking you we can’t let you reach any city. You know, if you would tell someone that we attacked you quite few people would come after us….”
- “Yeah, messing with the syndicate is bad for your health…”
That was new information.
- “You have connection with them?” that complicated things. A lot.
- “If you could call bringing them back to former glory and becoming one of Shadows… then kinda? Oh, wait, you didn’t know bout that, did ya? Crap. I thought you were just checking ground, stating obvious in form of questions. This is bad. Now I have to get rid of you… Also, thanks for waiting. That helped a lot!”
Wait, why is he bleeding?
- “You know, there is one spell that I really wanted to test, but I was lacking mana to cast it. Because of our conversation I could perform a blood ritual. Now, I should have enough to…”
His eyes changed. A moment before he had eight eyes all around his head like spider would, half of them were blue, half green. Yet suddenly they become yellow. So wonderfully yellow, you couldn’t just avert your eyes…
One could just sink in looking into this eyes… yesss...
- “Hey! Greenskin! The fuck are you doing! Move! Fuck! Are you crazy? He is going to fucking kill us! RUN!”
Run? But why? He was so, so sleepy. If he could just… take a nap, right now… Actually, why couldn’t he? He doesn’t even have to get on the ground and lie. His body was turning into stone. A solid stone. That meant that he could just rest standing. Yess, in this wonderful, grey shell he won’t have to do anything. Just rest. Into comfy, cold, refreshing sleep.
- “PIGFACE!” Derek yelled last one time.
He turned back to face abomination on the field. All those yellow eyes were now looking at him.
- “Are you waiting for something?” the creature asked in sweet tone “… you may go.”
Rogue was still trembling, yet his eyes almost popped out in surprise.
- “Yes, I am letting you go. Run, run fast as you can, I need to check on my friends, so if you would be far enough, I wouldn’t chase you.”
- “B-but you said… that you can’t… let us go…”
- “True. But I am quickly changing my mind. So run unless you want to join that troll…”
Derek didn’t need to be told twice. He turned around and started running, faster than the wind.
- “Poor fool.” the white mage exhaled air.
He didn’t have to chase him. Basilisk’s Glare Curse of highest level would damage thief every hour. Eventually, he would die. Because of effects of [Fear] and [Paranoia] he wouldn’t talk with anyone.
The man called Derek had a Health Pool of 420, which meant that he had 420 hours of life if he would be under the care of skilled healers that would be treating the damage every hour. 420 hours of life in best-for-him-case-scenario. But there was no healer around, only pools and villages.
The witch-boy took one last look at the monument of a troll. He had twisted in a fearful expression. Apparently, the effect of the calming down spell wore off in a moment when his body completely froze in its stone-shell. Now, his always open eyes will be forced to gaze over this scenery forever, until his mind goes insane. The man shook his head disappointed and left, in order to join his companions.