As it turned out, Arvus came alone, at least Rey did not notice that someone was following him. An hour later, he was less than a kilometer from the city. Having untied part of the ropes that fastened the deer to his back, the guy left only one so that he could dump the carcass at any time.
Approaching the gate, Rey said nothing to the guards, silently watching their reaction, but they, just by looking at his green armor and prey, immediately stopped paying attention to him.
"So Arvus was really alone?" - the guy was sincerely glad of such short-sightedness of his former teacher. “Though he could afford to be overconfident. Or maybe he wanted revenge too much and did not want to be interfered with?
Leaving the carcass next to the guards, Rei nodded to one of them and walked into the city. Along the way, he also did not notice anything strange, so he mentally confirmed his guesses.
“This place is good. I've only been here for a short time, but I'm starting to get used to it. It would be really unpleasant if you had to leave. There is still a lot to learn.”
After some thought, Ray decided to return home. After the murder of Arvus, he had a rather gloomy mood, and the fact that no one in the city knew about him only dispelled his longing a little.
Entering the house, Rei, without taking off his armor, fell on the bed.
“Why do I feel sorry for this forest man? Why did I save his sister?" - these pitiful thoughts seemed so unusual, but did not want to stop swarming in my head.
“I could have died then…”
Raising his eyes to the wooden ceiling, the boy extended his hand forward, looking at the claws.
"I'm not one of them, they're not even human... But what's left of a human in me?"
“Maybe I really…” – a momentary desire to stay among this people was shattered by the silhouette that appeared before my eyes again. The whole figure was covered with bandages, and a trembling of fear involuntarily passed along the raised arm. Ray continued to stare at his hand for a second, until he tightly clenched it into a fist.
"Not. I won't be able to forget."
"I can get my revenge! I'm not going to stop until the thing that did this to me is dead. With these same hands, I will rip out the eyes of that monster and tear him to pieces!”
"Until then..."
Raising himself, Rey walked towards the door with unprecedented firmness. The memories were so clear and crisp, as if his torment had just ended yesterday.
"We need to get stronger."
Forcefully opening the door, as if taking out his anger on her, he immediately slammed it back, covering his face with his other hand. Which saved him.
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With a loud sound, the arrow pierced the atanit's bracer and pierced the forearm, stopping only leaving a small cut on the guy's cheek. Glancing at the door, from which a dozen arrowheads were sticking out, Rei rushed into one of the far rooms. There were no more doors here, and forest houses simply did not make windows.
“Come out and accept your death!” - Hearing an angry, unfamiliar voice, the guy thought for a moment, but decided to answer anyway:
- What's happened!? Why did you attack me?
"You have to take the time." – the guy's mind was still in anger, but he still thought clearly. “So Arvus wasn’t so stupid after all. And now I’m in the city and it’s going to be harder to escape though…”
A slightly evil smile crossed Ray's face. Breaking the arrow that was sticking out of his hand, he snatched it from his hand in one motion.
- How dare you!? You betrayed your people! I'm giving you one last chance to die fast! – the same man's voice addressed him again.
- Explain what you're talking about!
“So, and now…” – looking at his hand, from which blood was still dripping.
At the same moment, Rei turned into a snake and with a deft movement got out of the clothes hanging on him. The body of the snake began to ripple and sharply increased in size - the guy again took the form of a forest one, sending things to the Inventory one by one.
And so, less than ten seconds later, Rey stood completely naked at the far end of the house, next to the tree, right next to which it was built. At that moment, he heard the front door come off its hinges with a loud bang.
Several warriors entered the doorway, holding a large piece of wood in front of them, wishing in this way to protect themselves from a retaliatory attack. But she didn't follow.
Looking around, they saw that there was no one in the room. Still continuing to hold a makeshift shield in front of them, two of them moved deeper into the house, because the hunters understood that the guy could not escape anywhere.
The house was surrounded and there was only one way out of it, so each of them was already looking forward to the moment of execution of the traitor. But…
- Where is he!? one of the woodsmen barked.
The house was small, so the search took only nothing. There was little furniture inside, and there was no furniture at all where a grown man could hide.
Ray was sitting in one of the cracks formed between the main wall of the house and a large tree, which was a load-bearing one in its structure. He had not used the curing form for a long time, but it was she who now helped him out.
Watching the raging woodlands, he wondered if it was worth killing a few? For some reason, the disposition towards them that arose recently has faded.
“Probably, we must be patient, once again impersonating will be superfluous.” - having calmed himself in this way, having broken one of his souls, he healed the wound on his front paw and continued to observe what was happening, but the performance did not last long. After searching the house for a minute, the hunters ran outside, trying to find him there.
Ray was in no hurry to leave his hiding place, having sat there for almost an hour. He heard the noise that came from the side of the street, so he understood that they were still looking for him.
"What a restless guys."
The city stood on its feet for another two hours, but gradually the panic stopped. Realizing that he no longer hears any voices, Rey got out and turned into a snake. Carefully examining his surroundings, he did not notice any sources of heat near the house.
Transforming back into curinga, he quickly climbed out through the empty doorway. And now, intending to move towards one of the city walls, he stopped for a moment.
"Since I can't stay here, it would be foolish to leave empty-handed." - Thinking so, the guy went towards the arsenal. But, when he got to the right building, he immediately noticed the difference - there were four guards in front of the entrance, who had not been here before, because the forest guards would not steal anything from themselves.
“And they are great, they quickly realized it ... It is unlikely that they will be able to kill these guys silently.”
While Ray was pondering over how best to enter the building, an idea came to his mind.
“If it works, great, but if not… I can still get close enough that they don’t have time to react to the attack.”
Having run away, the guy again turned into a forest one and, stretching out his hand in front of him, took out a set of green armor with a hood from the Inventory.
"His name was Corvus, right?" - the guy drove the melancholy out of his head from nowhere and quickly dressed, pulling the hood over his face so as to hide his eyes. Gaining confidence in his gait, he walked towards the guards.
They became alert as soon as he appeared, but, noticing that the forest one approaching them was one of the senior hunters, they immediately parted.
“Probably you can’t blame them for such carelessness, they have lived all their lives with the idea that every forest is their brother.” With that in mind, Rey entered the armory unhindered.
"We need to act quickly."
In one move, he placed three huge bundles of arrows in the Inventory, depriving the hunters of at least a thousand possible shots. Then he went to the place where the armor was kept. He already had several sets of such armor, but only two of them fit him, and now he took five more. Here he took grindstones, interchangeable scabbards, quivers, ropes with fasteners, hooks and much more, not weakly emptying the general stock. Among other things, he took three of the best longbows and two pairs of daggers similar to those he himself used.
Satisfied with what had been done, Rey picked up the first bow that came across and headed for the exit - it was impossible to leave the arsenal with nothing.