(Why? We never harm anyone. Why did they come?)
Cerberos, still being paralyzed in the Hideway, was in state of shock and fear. Never in his life he was separated from his father nor has to make decision for himself. Now he is all alone in this forest, surrounded by enemies.
By the time the paralysation wear off, it’s already the dawn of the day. Cerberos walk out of the cave only to find the last rays of sun hang on his face before completely vanish. The whole forest soon consumed by darkness, with noise coming from here and there, indicate the search party doing their job properly.
(They haven’t left yet? They must be looking for me.)
Cerberos can sense lots of presence in the surrounding area, divided by groups. All of his sense is superiors, except his eyes. This forest is like his backyard, he is confident he can get out of this forest if he is careful, but a voice in his mind stopped him, a voice calling for vengeance.
Kill them!
They destroyed our peaceful day.
Kill them all!
With that kind of thought, Cerberos start following the nearest trace of people and find himself before a campfire. He can sense 2 presences sitting around the fire, one is a dwarf, the other is an orc. There is another presence hiding on the tree, that presence conceal himself well, but he can not hide the sound of his breathing.
Personally, Cerberos want to take out the one on the tree first, but he doesn’t have confident he can jump to the three without making a sound. If he got found out by 2 people on the ground, there is a high chance one of them would escape to inform other party, making things harder for him.
That’s why Cerberos just sit down in the bush, patiently waiting for the opportunity to present itself while listening to the chit chat between the dwarf and orc.
“Man, making money was never at easy at this. 1 gold coin just for participating, 100 gold coins for capture the small one, dead or alive, and 1000 gold coins for the big one” The dwarf laughing while drinking a yellow liquid, leaking from his bag.
“That maybe so. But how can we find a dog in this forest? We don’t even know what it’s look like” The orc gave out a half-hearted answer while tending to the dinner they just caught. From the look of it, it seem to be a rabbit.
“How else? By killing every living things in this forest. If it was up to me, I will just burn the whole area. It’s simple that way.”
“You can’t do it, Orthos. This forest is the Wood Elves’s sacred ground. If it wasn’t for the temple’s demand, they ‘d not even let us set foot in here”
“I know, I know Kurd. Damn those pointy ears, they think these trees are more important than our life. How sickness are they. Well, I gotta go release now. Got too much stuff in my belly”
“Go over there,Orthos. Don’t make me lose my appetite”
(Now is the chance).
Cerberos move slowly toward the dwarf’s direction . He stand before a tree that can still be illuminated from the campfire’s light and start singing
“Whiskey, whiskey on the shelf
You were so quiet there all by yourself
Things were fine till they took you down
Whiskey, whiskey on …. Eh? What is this white …”
Before the dwarf notice, I leap to his body, pinning him down and bite his neck. He look at me in horror, unable to scream. I can see the fear and unbelievable in his eyes before it gradually become hollow.
I must act fast, it won’t be long till they find out his death.
Cerberos jumped to the tree the presence is hiding, dip his claw inside and slowly crawl up. However, his target, was too cautious. Just a slight vibration from the tree and he quickly jump down, run toward the fire.
Cerberos doesn’t let him have the chance to reunite with his friend. When he sense the small figure jump down, all of his senses follow him, waiting till he reach the right range to jump down and bite off his head. It was a green head with no hair and pointy ears.
(A goblin. No wonder he is so small.)
“Oh no, Krell. Orthos, the beast is coming. Orthos” The orc frantically calling for his teammate while taking out his weapon, a big battle axe. Answer him is a deadly silent.
(The orc’s POV)
Kurd know he’s all alone now.
They have been hunting together for one year now. Krell always keep thing to himself and doesn’t talk much, but he is reliable. Orthos is, well, he is nice once you know him. A little bit of a drunkard and a little stubborn, but his out-going nature is what attract me and Krell to him.
We accepted this mission, thinking it will be an easy cake, with all other people around. We even have plans to spend the reward money once we get it.
We were too naïve.
This is not an ordinary beast.
He took out Orthos before we knew it and killed Krell in just a blink of eye. No normal beast could do that.
In this forest, we are the one being hunted, and he is the hunter.
Part of me want to run away, but I know I can’t . As a follower of Ares, the God of War, running away will shame my honor. More importantly, with his speed, the moment I turn away will be my downfall.
The beast stand before me, look at me like a hunter look at his prey. I can see a thirst of blood in his eye. There is no way out of this, except a fight. My battle axe is not suitable for defense, to get the momentum, I have to act first.
I swing my battle axe down at the beast, no feeling in the edge, which mean it missed. I quickly change my trajectory and swing the battle axe around me in a wide circle. Still didn’t get the feeling of something’s been cut down.
This’s it huh!
I know full well, if my only 2 moves didn’t hit him, then what awaiting me is a cruel death.
“Orthos … Krell… I ….”
.........
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The body of the brave orc slowly crumble down, with a big hollow in his neck. And the hunter walk away in darkness, finding his new preys in a journey of vengeance , leaving behind an empty campfire that once used to be lively.
___________________________________________________________________________________
(Change POV)
Next morning, in the old Cerberus’s cave has now been renovated to become the main camp, an assembly consist of leaders from adveturer’s party is underway. In the center of the crowd, 3 humans with red hair and similar face stand out, they are The Crimson Brother.
Chico is both the leader and the brain of The Crimson Brother, an A-class party team consist of him and his 2 other brothers. They came here by a special request from the Emperor, as the only A-class party current available around.
At first, Chico didn’t think much about this request. However, when he saw the monstrous size of the three-heads dog and when that thing started to talk, he had a bad premonition about this quest. And now, the bad feeling come true.
“3 party got destroyed in one night. This is insane. Even dragon subjugation don’t have casualty like this” (Adventurer A)
(Yeah, like hell you know about dragon subjugation. The last dragon subjugation end in 100 years ago)
(Author’s note: Text in () is Chico’s retort thought)
“Even a big party with 12 members got done. Oh god, I’m getting out of here. The lives of 10 members in my party is riding in my shoulder”
(The *beep* you are talking about. The only member you got is that dog waiting for you outside. Don’t pretend to be popular, you loner)
But he has a point, morale is falling down quickly. Some party may quit if I don’t do something soon. These no-names adventurer may go as they like, but our party got special request from the Emperor himself. If we fail,well, that’s a future I want to avoid at all cost.
I careful read through the reports while working my head to the limit, trying to analyse the situation. A party of 12 members, found dead inside their camp, except for 1 man stand guard die near the camp fire. All corpses have the same similar things, a big bite mark on their neck.
I knew it. I knew something was wrong when the 3-headed dog talk. We are not dealing with monsters or beasts, we are dealing with intelligent being that have the strength of monsters. Not only this pulp can enter a tent, he know how to kill people without making a sound. I even believe he is smarter than some certain “individuals” in this meeting.
But pointing out our target is smart, won’t help anything. It will only make these fools more willingly to abandon the mission.
“This is going nowhere. I’m going home. 1 gold coin is not enough for risking our life”
(Here come the cowards.I will give you 1 gold coin just for shutting up and quietly go away, hiding in the corner)
“Say what? A group of more than 100 adventurers run away from a baby dog? We will be the laughing stock in century if we return empty-handed”
(Finally, someone with a sense of honor.If only everyone were like this, I don’t have to crack my head out, finding a way to keep these idiots from running away)
“He is right. Go home and cry, chicken head. Bet your mother forgot to give you a dick when you were born”
(Oi oi. Don’t start a fight right now. Do it after the meeting, the f*beep*ing meeting. I’m thinking my ass out and don’t have energy to deal with that shit.)
“Oh the lonely soul
Keep drifting away in storm
Not knowing what lies ahead
In the darkest night”
(This voice…. Oh brother).
I secretly sigh inside my head.
My younger brother, Chika, he is …. A mage. He was normal when he was a kid, but since he is discovered to have talent in magic and start study spells, he start talking… like that.
I always know those mage’s heads were a little off, something to do with training their imagination. But my brother seem to be an extreme case. At this rate, forget about finding a wife, he can’t even walking straight in street if he keep going like this.
Oh well, at least that poem have a positive effect, everyone ‘s looking at him like they just discover a new species while he doesn’t seem to notice at all (or pretend to not notice). I can continue with my thinking now, the lonely soul, damnit, why am I repeat his stupid poem in my head.
Wait a minute.
Lonely soul.
Lonely.
Alone.
That’s it. I forgot one thing important, the opponent is just 1 man. There is a certain strategy when you deal with 1 man.
“Everyone, hear me out. Our target is just one puppy. If we run away from that, forget about return alive. We can’t even face our children, our loved ones like this” (Chico)
“But what can we do? The dog will keep killing us one by one if we separate. And if we join together, we don’t have enough man power to search for him.” (???)
“First, look at these reports, the bite mark on the victim’s body show that he only has a size of a wolf, nowhere is as large as his father. Second, the location of 3 party that was wiped out were here, here and here” Then I draw a big circle cover the 3 points “ His hideout should be around here”
“It still too big to search for, if we spread like yesterday” (???)
“No, we don’t need to search for him anymore. He will come to us. We need to gather and block the exits of this area. Then, we place a bait and ….” (Chico)
“A bait? How about …”
(Oh brother)
I managed to stop him before he finish the sentence, by stepping to his foot. My big brother,Chiki, he is a good person, but not a good adventurer, he is too naive. We still don’t know the limit of this beast’s ability. Better send someone disposable as bait.
And the meeting continue till noon.