Chapter 245: The Hunters Standoff
The poacher furrowed his brow, a faint memory scratching at his mind. He stared at Stryg’s lilac eyes and gasped in horror. “...Y-you! Y-you’re t-the…”
“The goblin of Vulture Woods,” Stryg said coldly. He dug Nameless’ blade deeper into the poacher’s shin.
The man cried out in terrible pain. “I-I’m s-sorry! Spare me, p-please!” he whimpered.
“I made a promise to myself the day I met you…” Stryg spawned an orange flame above his palm.
“Don’t move, you bastard!” Astrid yelled angrily. She rushed into the clearing with a dozen of her hunters behind her.
Stryg watched calmly as they surrounded him and aimed their bows at his chest.
“C-commander Astrid!” the poacher cried out in relief.
“Edwin, it’ll be alright!” Astrid smiled worriedly.
Stryg glanced at each of his newfound enemies, his mind running through half a dozen methods of attack. Without the hunters’ notice, he quietly channeled yellow mana into his veins and created durability scales underneath his clothes.
Astrid notched an arrow and pointed her bow at Stryg, “Step away from Edwin or my guild members and I will fill you with arrowheads.”
“I refuse,” Stryg said coolly.
A blurred figure vaulted over the hunters from behind and landed next to Stryg.
“Master?” he asked, mildly surprised.
“Be quiet,” Loh whispered and quickly stepped in front of him.
“Miss Noir, please step aside. This man is a threat,” Astrid warned.
Loh shook her head and raised her hands, “Wait, please, this has to be some kind of misunderstanding.”
“No misunderstanding, I am going to kill this poacher,” Stryg said with ease.
“Stryg, shut up!” Loh whispered harshly.
“Loh!” Tauri yelled from the campsite in the distance.
“Miss Katag, don’t go!” Cornelius shouted.
Tauri ignored the dwarf’s worries, she rushed past the hunters, and made her stand next to Loh. “If you want to hurt my best friend, you’ll have to kill me first!”
“Tauri…” Loh smiled softly.
“Ah, fuck it!” Cornelius cursed under his breath. He slammed his hands down and channeled green mana into the earth. A pair of giant stone hands rose from the ground and hovered menacingly over the group of stunned hunters.
“If any of you dare strike those beautiful damsels, I, the Magnificent Cornelius of the Great House of Rotrusk himself, shall crush your flimsy bodies until there is nothing left of you but a memory of blood and bone!”
Tauri stared at the dwarf with mild disbelief, “...Where did we find this weirdo?”
“Ask my grandfather,” Loh sighed.
“Hold the line!” Astrid yelled to her shaken hunters. “An arrow to the chest kills a mage just as easily as any man.”
The hunters nodded and raised their bows once more.
“Where are the other students?” Loh whispered.
“Vayu took them back to the carriage, he’ll keep them safe,” Tauri whispered. She glanced back at Stryg and the wounded poacher. “Mind telling me what the fuck is this about?”
“Fuck if I know,” Loh sighed.
“Miss Noir, Miss Katag, please step aside,” Astrid said. “I’d really prefer not to fight either of you.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that,” Loh said. “But if you lower your weapons I’m sure we can find a peaceful solution to all of this.”
“After I kill this human,” Stryg added.
“Dammit, Stryg, shut the fuck up already!” Loh yelled.
Astrid pulled her bowstring back taut, “It is my duty to protect our Guild… even in the face of Hollow Shade’s Ruling Families.”
“I think you will find that difficult,” Gale said from the edge of the clearing. She drew her longsword and crouched low, ready to sprint.
Astrid stared at the sigil on the longsword’s pommel. “A scion of House Gale…”
“C-commander?” a hunter glanced at Astrid nervously.
“I’ll make it easy for you all,” a voice hissed in the shadows. Lysaila emerged from the tall grass and rose to her full towering height. “Lower your bows or I kill every single one of you ugly mongrels.”
The hunters gasped.
“A lamia,” Astrid whispered in awe. She glanced at Lysaila’s bare neck and frowned in confusion, “No collar…? Then why?”
“I was about to ask the same question,” Ismene called out. She hobbled down the grassy hill and into the clearing with slow but certain steps. “Why? That’s the great question, isn’t it? Like, why are we threatening each other? Were we not just having a nice conversation mere moments ago?”
“Tempest Arch-Mage,” Astrid bowed her head hesitantly. “We don’t want trouble, really… but I cannot in good conscience abandon one of my own.”
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“An honorable sentiment,” Ismene nodded thoughtfully and looked around the clearing. She calmly noted the dead centaur, his blood soaking the dirt beneath Stryg’s feet. She then spotted the wounded poacher whimpering quietly behind him.
“Is that the man you speak of? One of your own?” Ismene asked.
“Y-yes, his name is Edwin,” Astrid nodded. “He’s been with the Guild for over three decades.”
“...I see,” Ismene sighed. “Stryg, pull your sword out of that poor man’s leg and give him back to them.”
“No,” he said bluntly.
“Stryg! This isn’t the time to be stubborn!” Loh snapped.
“There has never been a more perfect time,” Stryg said softly, but there was a deep anger underneath his voice.
Ismene stared at him for a long moment, her expression indeterminable. “...Stryg, you are a smart child, if a bit impulsive at times. You know that killing this… Edwin, will cause problems between Hollow Shade and the Hunters Guild. And yet you still have your sword in his leg. Why?”
Stryg met Ismene’s gaze without shame, “He tried to sell me to slavery.”
“He’s lying!” Edwin shook his head desperately.
Stryg hissed, the small flame in his hand flared brightly.
“No, wait! Edwin’s right,” Astrid said. “The Hunters Guild may capture wild and runaway beast-kin, we even sell them in the markets, but we would never sell anyone from the chromatic races. It is against our guild’s code.”
“Exactly! I’ve never seen this goblin in my life!” Edwin cried.
“Goblin?” Ismene tilted her head to the side. “Miss Astrid, does that boy look like a goblin to you?”
Astrid glanced at Stryg and frowned, “W-well, no. Not really.”
“What does he look like?” Ismene asked.
“His ears are pointed downwards, a very curious trait,” Astrid muttered. “His irises are a light shade of purple, almost pink, even rarer… Still, his blue skin, pale grey hair, and pointy ears are clear indications of a drow.”
“Curious then that this Edwin called him a goblin, no?” Ismene raised an eyebrow.
Astrid looked at her hunter questioningly.
Edwin licked his lips and pointed at Stryg’s face, “H-he called himself a goblin! And look at his eyes! He has slit pupils! Only goblins have slit pupils among our realm’s chromatic races! What else could he be?!”
“A hybrid,” Ismene said. “But you didn’t call him a hybrid. You simply called him a goblin...” She glanced at Stryg, “Explain.”
Stryg slumped his shoulders and sighed, “...It was almost three years ago, near the beginning of autumn. I was running through Vulture Woods, running for my life… When this poacher blindsided me and struck me from behind. The next thing I knew I was tied up and on my way to Hollow Shade to be sold off.”
“Lies!” Edwin yelled hysterically. “He’s lying!”
“Three years ago…?” Astrid muttered quietly. She suddenly glared at Edwin, anger burning in her eyes, “You bloody traitor!”
Edwin’s face paled, “N-no, I’d never betray you, betray our people.”
“Shut the fuck up, you greedy, dishonorable piece of shit!” Astrid screamed.
“So it is true?” Ismene asked quietly.
Astrid lowered her bow, “I don’t know… But I think so…”
“I’ll need a little more context, if you please,” Ismene tapped her cane impatiently.
“The time frame matches,” Astrid sighed. “I’ll never forget that night… Three years ago, a very wealthy client approached my guild for a very peculiar job. The client requested dozens of our best hunters to be sent to Vulture Woods. At first, I was going to decline, but then I noticed the exact job description. We were not being sent to hunt some rare quarry or slay a monster, no, it was an extraction mission. All the client wanted was for us to be on the lookout for anyone we might come across. If we found anyone, anyone at all, we were supposed to bring them back to the client unharmed. That was it.”
“What…?” Stryg mumbled. “What are you talking about?”
“Our guild usually never travels to Vulture Woods, it’s too dangerous,” Astrid said. “But the client paid a very hefty sum upfront. The job seemed fairly simple; we were given a relatively small area to search and it was only for one night. The night of the new moon.”
“New moon?” Stryg swallowed.
Astrid shook her head, “I don’t know why the timing mattered, but our client was very insistent. Like I said, the job was very peculiar. The pay was the best we had ever had, so I didn’t question it.” She glanced at her fellow hunters, “My people and I searched that entire night… We never found anyone. Or at least, I thought we hadn’t.”
Astrid glared at Edwin, “One of our men disappeared on us that night. We thought he was dead, but after a few days he came back to the guild. He told us he had gotten lost in the forest. I believed him. I was just glad he was alive. But it looks like he did find someone that night and he decided to break our code. You tried to make a double profit on the slave markets, didn’t you, Edwin?”
Edwin cowered under her glare. “I-I’m sorry. I had a debt with one of the lesser Houses. I wasn’t trying to be greedy, I was just trying to save myself. But I was wrong, I know that now.”
“You could have come to me,” Astrid shook her head. “Instead you turned your back on everything we stood for. You sullied the name of our guild! The name our brothers and sisters have shed their blood and gave their lives for!”
“I’m sorry, I truly am!” Edwin whimpered. “I beg you for forgiveness!”
“You're three years too fucking late!” Astrid yelled.
“Gods, Astrid, please! He’ll kill me!” Edwin cried. “Please don’t let him kill me!”
Astrid spat in Edwin’s direction, “Your name shall be stripped from our records. Pray to Stjerne that he shows you mercy in death. You will find none with the guild.”
“N-no, no, no! NO!” Edwin screamed.
“Quiet, you piece of shit,” Loh flicked her hands and wrote a short curse spell.
The grey sigils flew at Edwin’s mouth and clamped his jaw shut tight. Edwin tried squirming away in panic, but Nameless’ blade kept his leg pinned to the ground. Stryg didn’t notice, his eyes dull with confusion.
Astrid nodded her thanks to Loh. She then turned and bowed to Stryg, “On behalf of the Hunters Guild, please accept our deepest apologies. If you wish to kill this traitor, none of us will stop you. Edwin was meant to rescue you, instead he betrayed all of us. I am truly sorry.”
“N-no,” Stryg stumbled back a step. “Rescue? Extraction mission? I wasn’t your rescue target. I was already home. Vulture Woods is my home. I don’t know who you were looking for but it wasn’t me. I never wanted to be a part of your mission!”
“Then I am sorry you were wrapped up in our guild’s troubles,” Astrid bowed again.
Loh narrowed her eyes, “...Who was your client?”
“We don’t divulge our client’s information,” Astrid said.
“Who was your client?” Loh said coldly. “I won’t ask again.”
Ismene smiled, “She’s quite serious, Commander. If I were you I’d try to stay on her good side.”
Astrid glanced between the two women and sighed in defeat, “...I never learned the client’s name. It was a woman, but she always kept her face hidden under a cloak.”
“You took a job and you didn’t even know your client’s name!?” Loh yelled in disbelief.
Astrid shrugged, “She paid up front. It was a lot of gold, more than I had ever seen. I didn’t ask questions.”
Ismene tapped the ground with her cane, “Loh, the only question you should be asking is why would someone pay so much gold for our young goblin, hm?”
“That’s…” Loh furrowed her brow.
“I already told you, I wasn’t their target,” Stryg frowned.
“No!” Lysaila suddenly gasped, her eyes wide.
Ismene jerked back and turned to the lamia, “What is it, child? What do you hear?”
“...It can’t be,” Lysaila trembled.
“What?” Ismene asked curtly. “Out with it, child!”
Stryg narrowed his eyes. He frowned, “She’s terrified. I can feel it. I’ve never seen Lysaila like this.”
Stryg’s ear twitched. He stiffened. It was faint, but he could hear it. It had been over ten years, but he had never forgotten the sound. The sound of wing beats.
A roar echoed from above.
Stryg looked up at the night sky, “Dragon…!”