Chapter 9
“Have a seat please.” Evan beckoned them to a table at the edge of the building.
The restaurant was fairly busy, only a few tables were open, and the bar was completely crowded. As the group took their seats at the table, a server came to greet them.
“We’ll have a number three, a number five with no cheese, a number seven, two number one’s for the big guy, and a bottle of cider for the table.” Evan ordered for everyone before the waitress could ask, and before anyone could make their decisions.
“What’s the big idea?” Roku was angry that he was unable to choose his own meal.
“I assure you that you will enjoy what I have ordered for you. Consider it a surprise rather than a slight.” Evan smiled.
The group sat silently for a minute. Roku was glaring at Evan. Ivory discreetly looked around the building, counting the number of exits, servers, and those who may be watching. Ise calmly assessed the situation, giving no indication as to what he was thinking. He was the first to speak.
“Why have you brought us here Evan?” Ise asked with no hint of emotion.
Evan stared at Ise for a second before answering.
“We’ll get to that, before you can know why I brought you here, you must learn who I am.”
“Here’s the bottle of cider you ordered sir.” Before Evan could expand on his point, the waitress delivered their drinks.
“And that is?” Ivory asked.
“First we drink.” Evan poured a glass of cider, passed it to Ise, before beginning to pour another. He was very slow and systemic in his process.
“Cheers, to new friends!” Evan raised his glass up, and then began drinking.
Roku raised his to match, glaring at Evan as he took the glass to his lips. He downed the whole glass while keeping that glare trained on Evan. He was prepared for any moves he might make.
“Somebody’s thirsty.” Evan chuckled.
Ise and Ivory remained cautious, despite Roku’s brazen acceptance of the beverage.
“Don’t worry you two, I don’t deal in poison. If death was what I wanted, there are ways to accomplish that goal that are much easier, and less heavy on the wallet.” Evan waited for a minute.
“......To finish my formal introduction from earlier, I am Evan the Noble, leader of the Conqueror's Crows, the top party of this here town.” He finally introduced himself after seeing that Ise and Ivory were not going to drink.
“......The Noble?” Ivory raised an eyebrow at his title.
“Ah yes, Evan the Noble. A title bestowed upon me by others, and not myself. If I had to choose it would be something with much less hubris. ‘Evan the wise’ ‘Evan the guy who treats everyone to dinner’ ‘Evan the punctual’. I would find those names much more fitting.” Evan took a sip of his drink.
“How did I acquire that title you ask? Simple, I never failed a mission, lost a duel, or came up short in a contest. As such, the chief has awarded me the title of ‘Evan the Noble’.” He answered a question that nobody had asked.
“So, now that you know who I am, we can finally get to why I have brought you here.” Evan finished his drink.
“I want you three to join my band. No Lee, no Ace. Just you three.” Evan coldly delivered his reason.
Roku’s glare worsened; his power spiked for a second as he rose from his chair-
“Sit back down the food is almost here.” Evan coldly commanded.
A sound was heard under the table. A sound that meant nothing to Ise and nothing to Ivory, but Roku understood what it meant, and sat back down in his seat.
“Ah, here is the food!” Evan’s excitement returned as the waitress brought all 5 plates.
Ivory and Ise looked at Roku with confusion. His glare was replaced with one of confusion and worry, like a cornered animal.
“To answer your proposition-”
“Eat first.” Evan interrupted Ise as he began to eat his meal.
Evan had a large sandwich, Ise was given a salad without cheese, Ivory had a burger made from wild deer from the nearby forest, and Roku had two steaks. Each person was given the food they would’ve ordered themselves.
“Eat and enjoy. I know you will.” Evan remarked as he started on his food.
He ate strangely. With only one hand. Sure, he was eating a sandwich, but his other hand remained out of sight. Ivory and Ise seemed to not notice, but the meaning was apparent to Roku.
“Seems I’m the first finished! Good.” Evan wiped his mouth after he took the last bite from his sandwich. Everyone else was still eating.
“Now, I will talk, and you will listen. And it will do you good to listen well. I want you three and you three alone, Ace and Lee are to be excluded for reason.... I am a hunter. But not in the same way our friend Ivory is. I hunt only a specific kind of prey. My taste is not met with the kind of meat I can get by hunting in the woods. Why do that when I can order it here?” Evan motioned around the room.
“No. My taste is different. My palate is far too refined for the kind of prey you find around here. There is one hunt I have had my sights set on for years, and that chance is finally before me. The upcoming competition is a qualifier for something. It is a test to narrow down whichever team will be best for a certain task. A certain objective. A certain target. ‘Him’.” Evan’s eyes lit up with wonder as he smiled at the thought of his target.
“That is why I cannot have Lee or Ace involved. Ace is a wildcard. Knowing her true nature as you do, you must know why. She is a gem, don’t get me wrong. But she is rough, unpolished, unrefined. She could prove to be a hindrance, rather than a help.” Evan’s brow furled as he discussed Ace.
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“Lee, on the other hand, is just unpredictable. He is a piece with a defined role, a role I could use, but a role he would refuse to put himself in. He is a puzzle piece which fits perfectly, but the picture is wrong. I can’t risk that either. Plus, I don’t think he's really ‘all there’ if you know what I mean.” He swirled his finger by his head, making the sign for crazy. He was far less serious when discussing Lee. Ivory and Roku both noticed this.
“Enough about them, now to explain why I want you. Starting with Ise. A new leader, and one who knows he isn’t cut out for it. Your morals are too strong, you lead with your heart rather than your mind. A foolish endeavor. But you are useful. Far more useful than you can imagine. A healer better than any I’ve been blessed to witness, but nothing more than that. You are a healer who can only heal. There is no fight in you. You are a piece that is locked into one role but performs that role with the utmost skill and diligence. I would like to have you on my board.” Evan tapped the table to finish his statement.
Ise had a look of contemplation on his face. He rarely looked defeated, but glimpses shone through now.
“Now onto Ivory. A skilled archer, sure. But there are many skilled archers. That’s not what is special about you. No, it’s what you have. You are not flawed as the rest of your team is. But you are secretive, just the same as them. It is those secrets that I find enticing. Of course, they are not secrets to me. I don’t want pieces with secrets that are secret to me. I know what you have, and I can teach you how to use it.” His statements shocked Ivory, who sat wide eyed as she stopped eating. Her two teammates at the table silently wondered what those secrets might be.
“And finally, we have Roku. Strongest man alive. Scratch that, second strongest. Or maybe third? But when it comes to pride and lust for battle, you are unmatched. A king who has been knocked from his throne and forced to walk among his subjects. Surely you want to reclaim that throne? And that is why I want you. Your strength. There are only a handful of people who come close to the brute strength and power that you wield. No tricks, no deceit, just pure undiluted strength. That strength is useful. Extremely useful. Moreso when you learn of the prey we will be hunting. Moreso when you know who ‘He’ is.” Evan smiled.
“I am not the kind of hunter who insists on doing it all on his own. I gladly accept help, I would even go far enough to say I seek help, as I am doing right now. So, believe me when I say that we will not go in over our heads. Prey I have hunted in the past have been more powerful than me, yet I still succeeded in bringing them down. You know why that is?” Evan waited for an answer that wasn’t coming.
“Because I am smart enough to recognize when I’d lose. If my target is too strong or too fast or too sneaky for me alone, I get the tools necessary to bring it down. There was this speedster I hunted once. A mighty fast fellow, so fast in fact I started to believe the magic behind his speed lie in teleportation. It didn’t, but that’s beside the point. The point is he was too fast for me, so I hired my good friend K.W. and together we brought him down. Before I even attempt the hunt, I make sure I will succeed.” He played around with the remaining food on his plate as he spoke.
“So you're shopping for your next set of tools? For you to need three of us for one target, you must be desperate, or they are way more powerful than you’re letting on.” Roku grinded his teeth in frustration.
“......I suppose it's no use concealing it. Yes, they will require you three, two of my closest compatriots, a few fodders to serve as distractions or sacrifices, and myself. With all these pieces on my board, this hunt will be a sure success.” Evan grinned a sinister grin.
“I don’t like this. You drag us here under threat, and want us to help you hunt someone or something dangerous enough to require that many people? Truth be told, I would never agree anyways, I am already committed to my team. Nothing you can say will change my mind.” Ise started to get up to leave, before Roku grabbed his arm and held him down.
Before Ise could protest, Ivory did the same thing.
“Even if we were to agree to this, what would be in it for us? I’d hope it would be more than just this meal.” Ivory scoffed, unamused by Evan’s words.
Evan began laughing loudly. His hearty belly laugh caused a stir in the bar. The waiters and waitresses stopped; the other patrons turned to look. Evan’s laugh went on long enough to be uncomfortable, before he suddenly stopped.
“The reward is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The offer for this particular prey is enough to pay everyone involved more money than you could possibly spend in a lifetime. And did I mention there are 86 different bounties on him, each comparable to that one? The reward for this prey is so ridiculously high that money loses all meaning before you are even a third through counting it all. Is that enough for you?” Evan leaned back in his chair confidently.
Ivory’s face was full of shock, her emotions on her sleeve. Was the offer real? What kind of person or thing would be worth six fortunes, 86 times over? This couldn’t be real.
“Bullshit. If it’s exotic hunting, the payment is for the animal. How do you expect to get payment from 86 different contracts if the hunt is for only one beast?” Ivory’s hunting experience brought her out from the shock of Evan’s offer.
“She’s right. Even in bounty hunting, the rules are simple. No corpse, no payment.” Roku piped in.
“Not necessarily. For this prey, a sort of agreement was reached among the contractors. No single bounty would be enough to get anyone to try and fell this beast. No one bounty would pay nearly enough to be worth it. No one man or group has enough money to pay for the execution of this prey. Instead, all bounties are necessary for this hunt, so all will be paid out. As long as we kill them, we will get paid. Think of the 86 bounties as one ‘super bounty’!” Evan laughed as he said it.
“Ha! For one target to cost that much, they’d have to be the-” Roku stopped mid-sentence as his face turned pale.
“Yes Roku, you are right. For one target to be worth that much......they’d have to be the strongest being alive.” Evan grinned an evil grin.
“RAH!” Roku screamed as he suddenly flipped the table, pinning Evan to the ground, and surprising Ise and Ivory.
“Get the hell out of here! Run!” Roku commanded as he forced the table down on top of Evan.
Before anyone could act, the sound of an explosion shook the building. A hole was blasted through the table, and through Roku’s kneecap.
“Roku!” Ise lunged forward to try and heal him, but was met with a second blast, tearing through his outstretched arm.
Ivory reached back for her bow, but her arm was caught. A man appeared from the shadows and raised a knife against her neck.
“I did not wish for things to play out this way, truthfully.” Evan got up from the ground. In his hand he held a weapon. The weapon was foreign to Ivory, but Roku knew what it was: a double barrel shotgun.
“Oh Roku. Perhaps I overestimated you. That was sloppy, you know no subtlety or moderation. It’s either zero or 100 with you. You put all your energy into your arm to attempt a finishing punch, leaving your knee completely unguarded.” Roku writhed in pain on the ground, a hole where his kneecap should have been.
“Ise, you were too quick to throw yourself into harm's way to try and save someone. You were close enough that if you acted, you may have been able to do something to me. Instead, you acted most predictably.” Evan shook his head in disappointment.
Ise tried to ignore the wound on his arm, instead reaching out towards Roku.
“Ivory...... I can’t even fault you; you did nothing wrong. I was just too prepared, there was nothing you could’ve done.” As Evan boasted, something he did not expect began to happen.
“.... What’s this?”
Despite his missing kneecap, despite the giant hole where it should’ve been, despite the pain and blood loss, Roku was standing on his feet.
“I count two bullets, Shitface.” Roku stood determined.
“I take it back, I underestimated you.” Evan tried to hide his shock but failed.
“I suggest you stand down Roku. Ivory isn’t like you; she will not survive a knife to her throat.” Evan warned.
Roku did not back down, but he did not advance. He stood his ground.
“To tell the truth, I was prepared for this outcome. Either way it was a win in my book. You join me and we hunt the greatest prey I will ever know, or you don’t, and I get some new, albeit lesser, prey to hunt beforehand. I’ll let you live and leave for now. Wouldn’t want to ruin the fun before the big day. But during the event the chief is running, I cannot guarantee the same. I’ve lost the means to hunt my intended prey, but I’ve gained new ones to play with in the meantime.” Evan gave a signal, and the man who held Ivory at knifepoint disappeared into the shadows again.
As Evan walked away, Roku stood his ground. When Evan left the building, Roku stood his ground. It wasn’t until Evan was so far off that his presence could no longer be felt or sensed that Roku finally collapsed to the ground. They were broken and bruised. But not defeated.