Chapter 21 : Funeral
Years ago, our hero was still a young trainee, he would swing his greatsword in a small courtyard of the VHC, day and night.
Eisenwald was known to be a heavy sword for anyone wielding it. So adequate strength needed to be built from the get-go. Aaron would train to fail until he could lift that sword like a Lecourt knight...
Clearly, this would not go ideally...
Aaron: For Lord’s sake, this thing is too heavy to lift!!!
With Luca and Shroud observing from afar, Aaron could only heed whatever advice they threw his way and hope it worked...But neither Shroud’s shouting nor Luca’s tactics could help Aaron carry Eisenwald for more than a second...
The boy, 13 years old then, would fuss and try to kick it away in his frustration, but to have his leg crushed by its thick blade...
This went on for several days. Once, an older boy, around 19 years old, approached him in the courtyard...
Aaron wasn’t looking, instead too consumed by his emotions to halt his own tantrum. His fist would miss, and land on the older boy’s gut.
Aaron: Oh shit!! I’m sorry!!
Boy: Hehe, not to worry, buddy! I’ve had worse than this...Do you need help with that?
He pointed at the blasted sword. Aaron grunted and approached its silver, spiral hilt...
Aaron: You can try, but it won’t budge. I have to learn how to swing it in three months...
The stranger looked over the boy and his sword...Silver eyes, messy chestnut hair, and some light scars on his face and forearms...
The sword, was almost twice as big as him. A silver blade thick as a pillar, with engravings of the Lord’s own strange writing...
Boy: You Shroud’s new kid?
Aaron: Huh? How did you know?
Boy: I’m surprised he never told you about me! I’m Beryl! I used to be in your place until last year!
Young Beryl extended his rugged, trained arm for Aaron. The young boy shook his hand, shocked by the strength it could call out...
Aaron: Maybe you can carry it. Hey, do you need an Armament? I’m glad to give you mine!!
Beryl : Hmm? Why would you want to give that away?
Aaron: What do you mean, why?! Can’t you see I can’t even carry it?! It’s unusable!
Beryl : (He’s like me when I took the cuffs for the first time...) I see...Show me how you lift it.
Aaron could do no better to hide his confusion. He wanted to reply, sarcastically to vent out.
But something in Beryl’s unwavering, serious gaze in his eyes told him that he might just be right...
He grabbed the hilt with his own two arms. Summoning all of his strength, he almost tore off his arms trying to pull the blade away from the ground...
He let go of his grip and fell to the ground...
Aaron : See!! I fucking told you!! I can’t lift it!!!
Beryl:...
Aaron: I didn’t even want this thing!! I just woke up one day and there it was. Ever since then, all my life has been pulling it around, and it pulling me down!! It can go to hell for all I care!!!
Beryl:...That’s a problem...
Aaron:...yeah thank-
Beryl: The poor blade wants to be wielded, and you reject it like evening meal trash.
Aaron: ...Huh?
Beryl asked the boy to step aside. He grasped the hilt with his own two arms and lifted the blade up with a good amount of effort and grunting...
Aaron looked in awe, with a slight hint of jealousy. After Beryl put the blade down, Aaron rushed and held onto the camo-coloured cloth on his forearm...
Aaron: How the hell did you do that!? Are you a Titan too?
Beryl: I might be, but it’s not strength that’s holding you back here...
Aaron: Are you kidding me? This lump of silver weighs like two adults, or in this case, a Shroud!
Beryl: That’s not the weight you are trying to carry though, is it?
The boy looked into his eyes, again. Beryl’s words had the power to draw him in with every try...
Beryl: Want to know why I carried this thing so easily? We are both Titans, and yet you should be able to swing this thing like a wooden club. Why is it not the case?
Aaron:...
Beryl: Because you are rejecting it. You are rejecting the blade, nay, you are rejecting the fact that you, hunter as you are, have to wield this blade as your weapon.
Aaron: What does that have to do with anything?
Beryl: How can you pull off a task if you aren’t putting your 100% into it? No one walks through life by himself if all he does is half-ass things!
Aaron :...What if I don’t want to pull it up?
Beryl: ????
Aaron: What if I don’t want to do this? Wave the sword around? Fight the vampires? Hunt them?! What if I just want to live my life? Or whatever the hell remains of it?!
Beryl: What else remains of it, kid?
Aaron: My folks got killed by bats. I never met my dad, and my mom crooked years ago because of them. Why should I follow them to the dirt and start fighting too!?
The older hunter couldn’t bear to see Aaron slowly hide his tears , trying to cover his misery. He sensed his junior’s distress, and he knew well enough that those feelings were what were holding the kid back...
He knocked him a slight little punch to halt his tantrum, then grabbed his shoulder before Aaron could retaliate...
Beryl: My parents died of vampires too. Not an uncommon origin, but it is what it is. I still remember the freak breaking through our door in the southern district. No hunters were stationed in that village that day. Tall, skinny, messy brown hair, a tattered old suit...And those eyes...blood. Blood was all I could think of when he was staring at me, eating my struggling parents alive...
He clenched his fist...
Beryl : I was hiding in the closet, but he was facing my way...My mother was a nun, so she had cast “Silence” around me before the bat broke in and bit her throat...I stayed there until morning, when he left in his blood-drunk stupor...The rest of the villagers were dead as well...Only me and a few other kids survived...Once they took me to the orphanage, all I wanted to do was stay in my bed and starve myself to death...
Aaron remained silent. No combination of words could ever be enough to act as a valid reaction to what Beryl was spouting…
Beryl: What did it matter...My parents were dead, my village was massacred...and what if I lived...So one day some bat will break into my home and slaughter my wife and me, while my kid watches in the closet?
Both hunters kept their silence for a minute. Aaron couldn’t utter a word between Beryl’s heart-out description...
Beryl: But then I met the hunters. Shroud, Luca, Lady Sarah...I think I even met your folks? I don’t know...I heard their stories...So it came to me, If I want to live a long and peaceful life, with a wife and kids in a nice calm village, then that’s a dream I’ll have to chase and protect. And to do that, I must make sure no bats are lying around by then!!
Aaron: Oh...
Beryl: So I get it, buddy. You ain’t wrong. No one should be forcing you to do all this. But if you don’t do it, how are you going to move forward?! Sometimes, there are responsibilities we just have to carry if we ever wanna see the daylight again...
The young boy breathed in, then out. He shook Beryl’s arm, then grabbed the blade with his own two arms...
Beryl : I‘m not telling you to love it, even if it would help. But if you want to carry that blade, you’ll have to accept it all. The ownership of Eisenwald, and all the trouble it will take with it, from its silver weight, to the weight of responsibility on your two little shoulders. Do that, and the sword won’t feel so heavy, because you’ll accept to give it your all...
Through his mind, Beryl’s words echoed constantly. With a few breaths in, he lifted Eisenwald as high as his hands could let him.
Aaron: Hah!! Beryl I did it!!!
Beryl: Nice going kiddo! Oh, I forgot I have to give this to the new head of research. Hey man, I have to go. But I’ll see ya around?
Aaron: I sure damn hope so!! Hey, thanks for the sword!
Beryl smiled and turned around as he was walking away...
Beryl: Don’t worry, Aaron. I used to hate my weapon too...
A week passes...With the seniors patrolling the streets nights in a row, the city restlessly recovered from the damage dealt during the boulevard horror.
It took hundreds to clean up the blood, restore the buildings, provide aid to the inflicted...Which would seem normal under other circumstances...
But this week, the whole city grieved. From the old slums of the north to the south gates, with the most tears falling in the western district...
From the moment Shroud walked outside the bank halls, with Beryl’s mutilated corpse in his arms, it took no more than a day to spread the news of the hunter’s horrific death.
A hunter’s death is common. It’s a risky job, and neither the hunters nor the citizens ignore the mortal threat standing aside the silver heads at every step of the path. Most would be used to reading the obituary, and seeing it full of hunter names that they would pray for one minute, then send to the back of their heads to deal with for another time...
But this one name...Most hunters live and die, with a small mention from their successors every now and then...Little is known enough till the end and makes a whole city attend their funeral...
Hunter funerals were a nasty business. The streets would be dyed black with all the outfits, no other color was allowed. Sigils of houses, clans, and organizations were out of the question, with the only exception being the sigil of the VHA. The only event to match Landen’s mostly cloudy weather.
The casket holding the hunter’s lifeless body, a wooden construction with silver ornaments and locks, was carried from the VHC until the cemetery adjoined to the hunter’s district. In Beryl’s case, even though he was originally from the southern villages, an exception was made for him to be buried next to the west plaza victims, in the western cemetery.
The casket is traditionally carried by seniors and juniors if the hunter had any…Shroud carried it by himself, all in silence, on one hand…
The ceremony took a while. A lot of people had stuff to say…
Finn: I remember meeting Beryl while I was studying incantations under Lady Philomena. It was my first time in Landen, and being a Pirouettan, I felt like a lake fish in the ocean…One day, I was stressing out because my Lady had sent me to find some old scrolls from the VHC’s library. They were in the elder section, a door stuck in a small corridor to the far left of the grand corridor…I took an early left…I ended up crying under some stairs, balling my eyes out…
He took a blue handkerchief out of his pocket, and slowly wiped away his tears…
Finn: There came Beryl, also as lost as I was, but eyes dry as a desert, and with this big old dumb grin…He gave me this and I’ve been drying away my tears and those of others ever since, just as he did…
Shaka: I met Beryl on a mission. Our two seniors had some business to attend to so they sent us to go scare away some bats in one of the southern villages…I was way too excited, and started killing imps and dependents the moment I stepped foot in that mess…And anyone would say I was right to do it…
But Beryl was steps ahead of me. While I was busy laying waste, the Titan they made me bring was saving surviving victims from every bat that could swipe right beneath me…Worst of all, he didn’t even call for help. “Keep going, Shaka, I got ‘em!”’.
Shaka lifted his silver mask up in the air…
Shaka : I’m supposed to see everything, and yet I forgot to look out for what truly mattered…
Shroud : Back when the Human Dracula was still with us, I had to take a solo mission in the southern district, when it was still under construction. Some families hadn’t been out of their houses for 2 weeks. Neighboring villages thought the worst, and God were they right. I still remember the support teams carrying away the corpses from the living room, flies roaming out of the gore and around the room. Rats still feeding on the maggot-filled bodies…I had killed the bat before I opened the door, dumbass was lying drunk on the doorsteps with his wings all sprung out…Anyways, after they cleaned up, I went to check for any surprises inside the closets…And there I found Beryl…The poor lad was too tired to even shake in fear…I’ll be honest with ya’, when I left him at the orphanage, I didn’t think he would have any chance. Not eating, not drinking, not sleeping, the kid was a dead case…Years of training, missions and cutting heads, he proved me wrong…Even now, I think you beat them’ bat-tards, boy. Rest yer head, let us keep going on…
He poured the whole of his flask onto his grave, a marble cross with golden ornaments and a silver gem in the middle…Beryl was buried with his army hat and a drawing from the kids he saved…
As Shroud backed away, Eliakim took three steps forward, raised his gun arm upwards, and fired three quick shots, while the rest of the crowd remained in silence…
And our heroes were there, with Url and Lau caressing the tearful Cassandra…
Although, with everything looking grim, Url was still hung up on one important issue…
Url : Where are those two…
A few days ago, right outside the southern gates…
Luca : You can try and leave , but we’ll still find you !
Shroud : Aaron, I swear ta’ fucking God, if ya’ don’t move yer ass back here I’ll sent you to Hell !!!
Aaron : You’d be doing me a favor…
Whispered the boy as he was angrily walking towards the dense dark forest…
Shroud : Screw him…He’ll cool his head and come back crying, then I’ll give him a nice pounding…
Luca : And what will the chief say when we tell him we let our junior into the southern forest 3 days after the vampire terrorists escaped there ?!
Shroud : You think I give a crap !?
Luca : You better !
Just as the two seniors were ready to throw arms, Suiga popped up from behind with a suggestion…
Suiga : Sirs ! Please !! I’ll go bring him back !
Luca : Akira, did you even hear what we were saying ?! No juniors inside the for-
Suiga : And neither of you two can go and bring him back because of patrol duty. Lady Philomena and Sir Samuel don’t have the backbone to struggle with his stubbornness either. I can. Please…stop fighting…
Shroud pulled back and grunted for a while…
Shroud :…You be back in two days.
Luca : Huh ?!
Suiga :…Sir Shroud, it’ll take me like a few hours maxi-
Shroud : Trust me, I’ve done this a million times, both fer him and his father. But if you two aren’t here in two days, I’m coming to pick you up.
Suddenly he grabbed the samurai one-handed and lifted him up…
Shroud : And you better trust me, I’m not bringing you back safe and sound, ya hear me !!?
He threw him over the gates and outside the city, much to his partner’s shock…
Luca : ARE YOU NUT-
Shroud : Shut it. We got work to do…And you know that the prince brat is the only one we’ve got who can bring him back…
Luca : Tch…Url’s been trying to talk to him, but he gets shut out, Cassandra too…
Shroud : And the little Lecourt would only make matters worse…let ‘im go…
Three days later...After the funeral, the seniors met in a grand conference hall in the VHC. A round table of old sturdy oak, inside a grim, spacious dark grey room filled with bookshelves and displays of silver weapons...
Patricia walked around handing beverages to the people attending from an iron rack on wheels, making small screechy sounds as she pushed it delicately around the table…
Eliakim Sherridan, current head of the Vampire Hunter Association and head of the Landen hotspot. In front of him stacks and stacks of paperwork, resembling paper skyscrapers of a makeshift city under attack by the large elder monstrosity behind...
Beside him was an iron ashtray, its top hidden by smushed, burned cigar buts...
As for the rest : Shroud and Luca stood next to Samuel each, despite complaints from the chief that the two would be making his life miserable . Philomena lay opposite of Samuel, earning his daydreaming gazes. Sarah sat next to Shroud, despite complaints from the butcher himself.
The dark hooded individual that none could place the other day had joined them, but from a distance, deciding to sit further from the rest...
Luca :...That’s all of us?
Shroud: Oy, chief, wouldn’t the other big shots be here?
Eliakim : Huff...Sir Lecourt sent us his condolences, along with an extra addition of his monthly supply...Pirout just finished training the new support army platoons, so his presence was needed for the ceremonies...Same for Prince Allad, a thousand desert gins for the best temporary hunter he’s seen. But with everything going on, he needs to put more attention on the Jakar Strip, maybe some of the vampires cross on their way out of Landen grounds...Emperor Akira will send some of his men next week, along with supplies...
Shroud : Then why ‘re we wastin’ time sitting around instead of chasin’ the scumbag that killed Grut?!
The chief saw through his rusty monocle, Shroud’s fist clenching on the edges of his steel-enforced chair...Luca worked up his words, while Samuel started shivering in fear...
Luca : Keep your cool , Shroud!
Shroud: Suck my cock, Cearrach!
In the span of two seconds, Samuel found himself inside a meaty tussle between the two seniors...
Eliakim : Alright, Alright, that’s enough!!! I forgot to fix Huckleberry’s insurance, he’s not to be killed yet.
Samuel: Too...late...
Eliakim : Shroud, you buffoon, we just survived an attack inside the whole city. The bats are nowhere to be found, the most possible option they go southeast where the forest thickens, which lessens our chances to follow suit. Our full troops just arrived and none of them are in any shape to fight after that whole festival massacre, and don’t let me get started on the artillery malfunctioning...what “chase” do you want us to do?
Shroud: Great! Let’s sit then! Maybe next time they fuck us over with some cheap festival trick you couldn’t see through, we won’t lose a kid!
With people in shock, Eliakim pulled away his cigar and kept his gaze counter to Shroud’s, as he slowly set himself up...
Eliakim :...what did you say to me, boy!?
Shroud: Isn’t it yer job to look out for traps like these!? “No hunters wanted” and you let those bastards hold their little feast, you even went there! And now look! Beryl’s fucking -
Eliakim : DEAD!! I know! He’s dead!!
His chief’s sudden burst gave him a shock, strong enough to startle the hulk’s tense muscles…
Eliakim : …We all loved him…we’ll always will…But keep those nerves out of this room…If you wanna go help , try pulling something out of those two bats we caught…
Shroud:…Tchk…Sorry…
Luca: As for that, chief, the bats seem a bit more resistant to the interrogation techniques…I don’t think we are getting anything soon…
Eliakim: Tchk…aristocrats come out, and everything goes to shit in one week…I’ll talk to ‘em, see that they cooperate if they value their heads…
Samuel: Uh, chief, didn’t we tell you to take it easy? Your injuries couldn’t withstand Horrorwind’s rate of fire, stressing yourself in this state would be-
Eliakim : You mean to say I’m weak, Huckleberry?! Says the stick who can’t lift a damn grandma’s box!
Luca and Shroud snicker…
Eliakim: And maybe instead of laughing, you two should better be praying the rookies find their way back before we have three funerals in one week…
Philomena: The two lads aren’t back yet? Should we send search parties?
Luca: They aren’t lost. But Suiga must be having a hard time getting through Aaron’s head right now…Another great idea from my partner here…
Shroud: Said sometin’, lady?
Luca: Didn’t hear me through all that ear wax?
Samuel: Please, guys, can’t you just talk it out…
Shroud/Luca : SHUT UP SAMMY!!!
Sarah: If I could excuse meself all kindly like…
Lady Sarah, with her legs up on the table, thumb on brown, gold embroidered cowboy hat shadowing her face from the rest of the group…
Sarah: Me and my junior, the little Mergrove girl could bring them boys back before supper, should you not care about any few scratches or little lesions…
Samuel : Little lesions?
Eliakim: No way I’m letting you three out of Landen right now…Keep on patrolling and searching every nook and cranny of the old hideouts for clues on this “Ripper” and whatever other bats he’s got with him. The city is already looking down on hunters after Beryl’s death, but right now I couldn’t give two shits about what those asstards in the paper are trying to write ‘bout us. And I don’t want another massacre streak, keep your eyes open for anything, imp, dependent, noble…
Too much talking. Eliakim saw his cigar’s cinder fainting away, so he grabbed his zippo lighter to ignite its burned end and take a nice, deep puff…
Philomena: A good idea…Me and Samuel could go search for them, along with Doku and Balecq…
Affright and delighted was the scientist after the priestess sent a generous, bright smile his way…
Samuel: Uh….Uh, yeah, yeah…that would be…uuhhh, great...
Four sets of eyes other than Philomena’s showered him with derision…
Eliakim : Not even. You and glasses hafta manage the new students, and Samuel is still searching for clues in the old section of the library…Plus, Doku and Balecq are hot in the interrogation…What about the other rookies?
Samuel: Sent ‘em out today but we don’t think they’re gonna manage anything… I think they’re at the south gates by now?
The dark-hooded man came forward and slammed his palm on the oak table. The sound of tough, metal armor under the oversized black hood crashing on the old oak set off the seniors…
Dark hood:…Willheart and Akira, that’s it? I can bring them back by nightfall…
Luca: Uh…who’s he?
Shroud: Wanted ta’ say sometin’ ‘bout ‘im bein’ here butta’…too creepy…
Philomena : Dear sir, I don’t seem to have properly greeted you yet…Who are you?
Samuel : I’m sorry, 6 seasoned hunters and 5 couldn’t notice a dark hooded creep was staring at us from the corner?
Shroud/Luca: Shut up Sammy!
Eliakim : Get off that cloud, Huckleberry, he’s a guest.
Sarah: Your guest could be so kind to take off his hood between his comrades, right?
Dark Hood:…That shan’t happen.
Sarah: Then why should we trust you to go and fetch our kids, stranger?
Shroud: Cow girl’s right! And whos’ to tell if this guy’s even good enough to go find ‘em?
Luca : That’s a good point. Aaron is a Titan and Suiga’s carrying one of the two only known Blight armaments that he can’t even control…
Eliakim stood silent as he waited for his guest’s reaction, cigar in the tip of his mouth…
A short lapse of seconds after Eliakim’s puff, the individual slowly lifted off the top of his hood…Shock conquered the hunters once again…
Shroud/Luca : Huh?! What are you doin’-
Eliakim: Silence!! No one can know he’s here!!
Sarah: I’d be damned. Guess we ought to give him a chance…
Eliakim : Ya sure ya’ can bring those two home? Unharmed?
Dark Hood:…I’ll do my best…
He puts the hood back and leaves immediately…
Eliakim: Yeah, those two are doomed…
Later in the evening, while the sun prepares to set…
Somewhere close to the city outskirts, was a small opening inside the dense forest where the moon would leave its light for the few rocks and ponds it held host to…
Aaron and Suiga had set… some sort of camp in there after days of walking, imp killing and cruising around slaughtered houses…
Clothes ripped, bruises and scars everywhere, they sat on opposite sides on the ground around a simmered down fireplace, both staring in silence…
Aaron:…
Suiga:…Chief…it’s been three days…please…let’s go back…
Aaron:…
Suiga:…I bet Cassie must have eaten all of the chicken in the pantry again…can’t let her have all the fun…
Said the calm samurai, in the most generous, mellowing tone he could at the moment, always avoidant of Aaron’s gaze…
Aaron…
Suiga: Url…my god, he must be worrying…and I can’t help but wonder why the shrimp hasn’t followed us yet…screaming and kicking…
Aaron did not respond. His gaze was lost in the ashen aftermath of yesterday’s fire…
Through the gray ashes, charred wood, and burned rocks, he found himself in the nightmare at the bank. Cain and Klaus…Beryl’s corpse, all of it then swept away by the hellflame of Suiga’s sword…
Suiga: Man, I can’t imagine Shroud and Luca will let us get away with it…maybe we should think of an apology present. I think some Assian alcohol for the butcher and…ooh I heard there’s an Afreekan settlement east of here selling national tea, Luca could-
Aaron: I wanted none of it.
Suiga: Huh?...
Aaron: When Shroud came into my room and told me my ma was dead, I couldn’t get up on my own two feet. Poisoned, I think he said…What a joke…I didn’t want to get up…Said I had to. Hunting is the only thing that’ll keep me going. I told him no. I wanted to lay down there, let the maggots take me to my ma…
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Suiga:…Chief…
Aaron: And that…”Chief”…Said to him a million times…I ain’t cut out for it! Send that prince anywhere else but to me! Pirou, Jakar, even the north, but no! Aaron, who didn’t ask for shit! Has to play hero of Landen along with 4 other nobodies, chasing down pricks who’ll get what they want no matter what I do…
Suiga:…Is this about the sword…
Aaron:…no…no, topknot…it ain’t about that…it ain’t about how you lost it in that fight and almost killed us!! It ain’t about how I had to risk my ass to get you back into your senses because you just happened to have blight stuck into that useless right arm. It ain’t about how it just happened I’m stuck chasing bats around Landen while my friend gets killed, and how it just happened that I’ll have to do that for the rest of my fucking life until I die like my ma, from some bat while all the fighting I did goes to the trashcan!!! No it ain’t about fucking anything!!!
Suiga:…
What could the samurai do…Other than just staying still and hear his comrade’s build-up anger burst out like a sewer pipe…
Aaron: Beryl died!! He died, Suiga!!! Not because we screwed up! Because life just happened!! Wanted to know what hunting here is like?! That’s hunting!!! Hunting and hunting, and hunting until some freak sticks his claws and rips your guts out, while you leave your pals to pick up your corpse and bury you in the city graves, all because you’re some orphan from the south whose folks couldn’t stick around to have him grow up like everyone else!!!
Inside the crude re-telling of Beryl Grut’s death, Suiga connected the dots and figured out how Aaron was jointly calling out his own pain…A kid forced to be a hunter…and no other option than to like it…
Aaron was trembling…Deep in his own hatred, his rage and grief, he was late to realize he was holding Suiga from the shirt and hovering over the ground…
The samurai did not struggle…As if the Titan could have easily choked him to death…he took on the guilt and accepted his fate, slowly drawing back his own tears…
Aaron dropped him and backed away a few steps, then falling on his behind…
Aaron:…No…
Suiga: Are you finished…?
Aaron:…
Slightly coughing, he then prepped up the neck part of his tattered robe…Even if he stared right at his chief’s eyes, Aaron couldn’t find his partner’s eyes for the life of him…
Even with his eyes open, Suiga felt and sounded like a ghost weeping for love…
Suiga:…I’m not oblivious to your hatred for me…
Aaron:…?
Suiga: I understand…I’m not a stranger to life’s cruel gifts…My right hand is proof of that…
Aaron:…
Suiga: The whole palace was in distress…”The cursed princeling”, the malevolent arm…spawn of Kunishiro, from that Klaus, hurt the most, I’ll agree…All I ever wanted was to be like my father…wield a sword of silver and send vampires to the grave, keep my people and my kin safe…This arm makes sure I never reach that dream every single time I call it out…
Aaron:…
Suiga: So I understand your pain…what it is to be forced an impossible fate…if me being here is that loathsome for you…I’ll leave…
Aaron:…?
Suiga: I’ll take the train next morning…I’d rather be your comrade from afar than not your comrade at all…And I’ll leave you here to be…just promise me you’ll go home safe…
Aaron:…
Suiga took one last glance, at his fallen comrade staring into the empty abyss...His figure fainted away as he walked forth between the trees…
2 hours into the night, Suiga slowly came out of the woods, tired and beaten, wiping away the tears of his swollen eyes...
Once he took off his forearm, he noticed some oddly shaped rocks to his left...A ruin...He goes to explore. Leaving Landen tomorrow, why not soak in one last taste of its ancestry…and the more he approaches, the more voices he hears...
Whispers...and...some grunting... monstrous in nature...
Hiding behind one of the rocks, he sees a group of vampires fiddling with trinkets and jewelry, along with a few imps licking leftover blood off of scattered bones...
Suiga: What are they doing?...
One good look over their necks and he saw the distinctive twin marks of a dependent...
Suiga : If that’s that...where’s the vampire?...Hm?
Another distinct sound of footsteps creeps its way from behind and into Suiga’s ears. He spun around in high alert, ready to plunge his kunai down whatever throat he could find...
His arm stopped in time once he froze from Url’s horrid plague mask...
Suiga: A...ghost....
Url: More like your doctor. What are you doing here?!
Suiga: What are you doing here?! And the girls are with you too?!
Cassie: The nightingale would never leave the headless inside her old hunting grounds without wise guidance and trusty protection.
Url: Or in normal words, Cassie knows this place better than all of us, and she was worried about me being here...
Lau: He’s been crying for two days now. “And when are they coming back?!” “And what if they get hurt?!” ”But Suiga hasn’t taken his medicine with him!?” All day, all night long!!
Suiga: Excuse me if my friend’s empathy got in the way of your useless time-exhausting 2 hour beauty sleep.
Lau: As opposed to the hour sleep you’ll be needing!
Cassie: Excuse me, but while we are debating about hygiene standards, a group of dependents is plotting 2 feet away and bossman is still missing.
Lau: Yeah, what’s with the brute? He chose to quit and go farming?!
Suiga:...Aaron won’t listen to me...
Through the old mask Url watched over Suiga’s swollen eyes...He placed his palm upon his comrade’s battered shoulder...
Url: He never listens...Look, let’s deal with situation quick since we’re the 4 of us and decide later what to do about the crybaby-
To the distance, a figure of an old man appeared, slowly walking towards the vampires, with his little wooden cane plunging itself on the grass, his weak leg limping, and the few strands of gray hair dangling in the wind on his bald head…
What was he doing there, out in the open field? Along with him, pulling with his other hand a small chariot filled with freshly cut wheat…
Suiga: Another vampire?
Lau: Yes, he is clearly falling behind in his hair care – No you idiot!!
Suiga: What sort of person would be straddling outside the city at this sort of hour?!
Cassie: Unfortunately, quite a lot. Not a lot of people heed the hunting regulations, so the south usually ends up with a handful of dependent vampire cases because of wanderers needing to finish their farm work.
Lau: Well, we aren’t going to let another case just happen?!
Url: ...I want to help…but Suiga has a point. This seems a little too convenient…I mean these guys aren’t even smelling the prey.
Lau: Are you kidding me?! It’s an old man! How can that be a trap?! And why are you referring to him like that?!
Suiga: If you want to waltz in and die, you are welcome to. Ladies first anyway.
Lau: I agree, you are first then.
Cassie: This argument sounds quite interesting, but the hour is nigh. The vampires have well understood that prey nears their small group, doctor.
Url: Fuck!! Oh, ugh…Go get them, eyes out for their owner, we don’t want nobles ganging up on us!
A surprisingly quick disposal. Cassie shot down the flying vampires as fast as Lau rushed through the runners with her rapier, piercing through their limbs before she came up front, stopping her dash with the soles of her boots rubbing against the soil... Suiga and Url slayed whatever body fell…
The old man’s squinty eyes opened in shock, as he couldn’t realize when he was in danger and when the hunters even arrived…Url approached him gently…
Url: Are you alright sir? These bats were out to get you…
Old man : Oh…my lord…I hadn’t even realized it was nightfall already!! I was too busy trying to think where to put this week’s wheat!! Thank you, thank you so dearly!!!
Suiga: It was nothing, sir. But you shouldn’t be out at this hour…
Old man: You are right, my lad. But I’m but an elder farmer, with a limp foot and a limp wife in my couch waiting to see food on the table…
Suiga: I can only imagine the pain it brings you…but I don’t think it will be any larger than hers if she ever sees us on the doorstep waiting to tell her the worst news…
Url: Do you need any help going back home? How come the farm is so far away?
Old man: Better soil, my lads. I might be old, but I haven’t lost my touch in this craft, and nor will I let some flying crap bastards let me. But no need for any help now! My house is only 5 minutes from here…
Lau: Five minutes? But I can’t see anything in this wasteland!
Suiga: Wasteland? Seriously?
The group conversed, but Cassie kept taking looks over the old man holding onto Url’s forearm…
Cassie:…You know sir, I myself originate from these here lands…
Old man: A southerner? I could notice that hardened, steel look in one of our own! What brings you back to the green desert, heh?
Cassie: The Lord’s work, sir…Forgive me if I intrude, but I do remember these lands being preferred for their fertile soil…The city did cut down a lot of the trees from these tiles to allow farming…
Old man: Must have been ages ago, dear. Nothing has been growing other than grass as you can see.
Cassie: Well, that I agree with. But if it’s wheat you need, then farming here would be a much safer option.
Lau: Lady, you noticed the group of bats we gutted 3 minutes ago, didn’t you?
Cassie: Group of bats that wouldn’t just walk around these parts if they knew humans reside…Even the dumbest dependents and imps know better than to just walk around a human settlement and not fear the hunters…And those bats we just killed didn’t seem to have a care for the world…
Url: Cassie, come on, you yourself know how it is to live in these parts…
Cassie: I sure damn do. That’s why I know no southerner from this side of the forest would waltz over to the city walls where they dumb the old railways!!
Silence. Before Url tried to respond, he felt the old man’s grip tightening more and more, almost squashing his hand…
Old man: I knew you’d be the witty one, girl…
He turned to see the old man smiling…
Hours later…Aaron’s daydreaming walks through the forest brought him to the same spot…
Little splashes of blood, disintegrating and charred pieces of vampire around the field…
Aaron: (Suiga found bats…?)
Weirdly, the Titan felt a hint of concern with the corpses… He kneeled around the grass and searched for clues…
Aaron: Silver arrows…Cassie was with him. And the stab wounds in the legs are Lau, she always goes for the limbs first…And those are serrations, a saw could have done that…Url must have brought everyone to find me and topknot…
He threw away the corpse and got up to dust off his clothes and be on his way…
Aaron: Well, good luck getting to me…I’ll be back when I want to, at least I can control that in my life…
Dark Hood : You’d be a fool if you think they are still looking for you.
He turned around. Standing on the rock pillars the group found on another a few hours ago, the dark hooded man talked to the boy like some eldritch spirit from a dark fairytale…
Aaron: And you are?
Dark Hood: My name’s…Louis. I’m a hunter of these here grounds…
Aaron: Wait a minute…yeah, I saw you in the VHC a few days back! You were talking with the chief!
Louis: I saw you too. I also saw ya’ with yer friend a while ago…Tough scene…
Aaron:…Tch…Nothing I could do about it…and none of your business…
Louis: I’ll hafta disagree on that, boy. Both you and him are my business right now…
Aaron: What? (Why is he talking like Shroud…)
Louis: Yer friends came lookin’ fer ya. Found the samurai boy right here.
Aaron: Yeah, I figured. But if you’re looking for the samurai, he already left…and I don’t think I’m bringing him back this time, if that’s what you are thinking…
Louis: The boy cares for you…Looked after you all while you were walking in the forest, brooding over your loss…
Aaron: I didn’t ask him to do that! Now he’s my responsibility too?!
Louis: No…but one would think after three days, you would return the favor…As you have other times…
Aaron: And I sure did! I told him! I told him what the fuck hunting’s been for me the past few years-
Louis: A pain. You fight, you lose, you carry on, all while dreaming of better days. I heard your plight. A sad affair, the boy’s death. And not at all different from what your comrades have lived…
Aaron: The hell do you know about me? Or them?
Louis: Quite a lot. I haft’ admit, I wasn’t expecting ya’ ta’ sound that much like yer ma.
Fear in the shape of a cold, quick wind up his skin conquered Aaron’s primal senses…
Aaron:…How do you know my surname?
Louis: I’ve had my eye on you, Willheart…
Aaron:…? The hell are you talking about? Where are the guys, anyway?
Louis: So you do care about yer teammates?
Aaron: Tchk, I just want to make sure you didn’t talk them to death yet! I ain’t got no plans to chat them up soon.
Louis: You faint ignorance, boy. But you ain’t gonna be acting for long now…
Aaron: I. Don’t. Give. A. Shit.
Louis threw a trinket Aaron’s way. Dropping on the ground, he runs to see what his senior tossed him.
A lock of Cassie’s braid…given her red hair, he had to turn it around a few times to notice the blood sticking on his glove, and drooping on the soil…
5 seconds of cold, void terror, 2 seconds for Aaron to throw the lock and rush toward Louis with Eisenwald in hand, fueling his rage with every step…
Louis: Got you…
Aaron: FUCKER!!!
Louis jumped to another pillar while Aaron smashed the other one with his greatsword…
Louis: Shroud taught you well, but he was too careful with you…
Aaron: LOUIS!!
He smashed another pillar, but Louis just jumped down, just like a little girl playing jump rope in the schoolyard…
Louis: You’re lacking this…This rush of hatred. Pilled down by your sloth and fake nonchalance, boy.
Aaron: SHUT UP! WHAT DID YOU DO?!
Aaron cleaved and cleaved, but Louis would simply step sideways through his attacks, unfazed, unbothered…
Only the wind from the greatsword moved his cloak backwards, revealing a rugged, gray-haired, middle-aged man. A face full of scars covered by the amount of thick facial hair and messy long haircut would only add to his tall, menacing dark physique…
The man was similar to an older version of Shroud, with just enough hints of the Human Dracula’s face. Along with a combat stance mirroring the Sword Dancer, to remind the boy of the three most menacing hunters he’s ever heard or met...
His cloak also opened from the front, letting Aaron’s eyes notice the black armor he was donning…In particular, the black chest plate embroidered with the sigil of a muscular warhorse…
Aaron: Wait a minute…That chestplate…You are the Black Steed…
The Black Steed, the Dark Hood, and a lot of names were associated with one specific hunter. An unknown man who started the hunt in his teens, he’s lived and fought long enough to be considered a living legend amongst his peers.
The Steed would come and go as he pleased, traveling around the world, slaying bats and saving villages, but he’d rarely ever converse with other hunters, or even cooperate. Either a fabled dream or a horrid omen to witness the somber spectre during one’s path…
Aaron: I’ve heard the stories…Where are my friends, fucker?
Louis: You’d be wise not pointing that sword my way, boy…
Aaron: I’ll take my chances.
Louis: Seems I was right. Fake ignorance, to escape the hardship.
Aaron: Enough with the poetic nun talk. Tell me what you did with them before I chop your head off…
Louis:…No…
Aaron: Death by pounding it is.
Louis: One hit. If you can land one hit on me, I’ll let you leave and show you where your friends-
Aaron: Great, that’s all I needed to hear!!
He rushed towards him, much to Louis’s surprise. He hacked with his sword, but for an elder man, the steed was an acrobatic hunter. Jumping and spinning in the air, much like the bats, he dodged every single strike by point blank range.
Aaron tried to trick him, grabbed his coat while he was in mid-air and knocked him over. Chanting for the Wolf’s Bane, he tried to bring his sword while Louis was downed. Even if dodged, Aaron could simply plunge his sword to the ground and force the light to break through the ground.
And to his shock, the elder man spun, kicked the ground behind him, and lunged himself towards Aaron’s exposed gut, punching it so hard with his black gauntlet it managed to send even the Titan flying towards a rock…
Aaron’s back crushed against the stone. The punch passed through the augmented muscle and bones of a Titan, had the kid spitting out blood like a faucet…
Aaron: (Is he a Titan?)
Louis: My strength comes not from that foul ritual…It’s the culmination of decades of journeys full of hardships and trials.
Aaron: You a mind reader too?! Try to figure out what I’m thinking...
Louis: I don’t need sorcery to read the open pages you bring me.
Left slash. Downward attack. Block to the right. Uppercut, then three slashes, backstep and slice to open the distance. Louis foresaw everything, and lunged again, stepped on Eisenwald while it was faced downwards, and then kicked Aaron to the face. He followed suit by bringing his metal fists to his face multiple times before grabbing the head and smashing his jaw with his knee plate…
Aaron: (He’s so light…and yet he punches worse than that thunder fucker…)
He kept on relentlessly attacking him. Aaron changed to defense, but even his sword’s thick blade couldn’t hold back the brute force of the steed’s blows. His strength is an equal match, escaping the boy’s grapples with ease by spinning him in the air and down to the ground.
Aaron's hope was lost when Louis knocked him over and stomped on his chest with the sole of his metal boot...
Aaron: Are you made of fucking armor?! And why are you so strong!?
Louis: I’m strong…but are you weak, boy?
Aaron: Cough!! What!!!?
Aaron’s efforts to lift the hunter’s foot off his pecs proved as hard as pulling a sword from a thousand-year-old mountain…The old man was oozing with the strength of a god...
Louis: I tell you to land one good hit on me…and even now, when your friends are in danger, you won’t lift your fingers to get serious…
Aaron: Quit bragging!! It’s not my fault you’re-
Louis: Excuses!!!
The silver-eye hunter weakened his grip. In response, Louis slowly pulled his foot off the boy, sure of his obedience now that he established superiority in strength…
Louis: You’ve got your mother’s flare, and the butcher’s brutality, I’ll give ya’ that…but you fight like it’s a chore…
Aaron: Gah…ugh…
Louis: You are like a worker who can work, who has the reason to work, but just doesn’t want…because he thinks it’s too much for him…but it really isn’t…
Aaron: What are you…talking about-
Louis: I’m strong, Aaron Willheart. I’ve encountered vampires capable of atrocities beyond what those virgin eyes have met…And yet I’m still here…Why do you think that is…
Aaron: Cause you’re…some machine-brought God?!
Louis: Just like you now…I fell…thousands of times, I had to scrap my way out of death’s cold hand…but I never stopped diving in trouble right after…
Aaron: Tck!! Gah!!...Then you’re an idiot...!!
Louis looked up at the full moon shining the ruins with its lucent light…
Louis: Life dealt me shit cards…but I picked them up, and played the game…Had I not…I wouldn’t be here, telling a crybaby hunter to pick up his balls and try again.
Aaron: You think it’s easy, getting back up?! Try getting stomped by a metal boot, assface!
Louis: You cry before obstacles, and thus half-ass your way through life, complaining and grunting, even when you are have the tools to power through…Even now, your slashes were mere swings of a bat by a ten-year-old child…
Aaron:…
Louis: No drive. No fire…No actual bloodlust. You want to kill me, pound me to the ground to save your friends, but you won’t put in the effort, because in that little head, you don’t believe there’s a chance you could win with the cards you’ve got. So you half-ass, without even trying…
Aaron…Fucking liar…
Louis: Am I? I didn’t even dodge. I just hopped around like a girl…
Aaron :….
Louis: You fight with all your strength, but none of your drive. You try to hunt, but won’t take the responsibility that comes with it. You push away your comrades because you’re afraid of living through the grief you’re passing right now…
Aaron:…
Louis: You aren’t lazy, ignorant, or hateful, Aaron Willheart. You are discouraged, unsure…afraid…
Aaron:…I couldn’t even keep Beryl and Suiga safe…I can’t try…it won’t do a damn thing…
Louis: (…A pity…And after what I heard of the Alzack vampire, I thought you had your father in you…)
Louis kept on pushing his foot on Aaron’s chest…
Throughout the empty ruins, the short grass blowing with the wind, the dark forest, only Aaron’s gagging was heard, as Louis barely made a sound while slowly smashing his thorax…
A light breeze passed through the stones and lightly touched Louis’s scarred, rugged white skin…His amber eyes turned to the left, to search a disturbance coming from the cluster of trees right next of the ruin’s outer stones…
Raising the gauntlet of his left arm, he succeeded in blocking a slash of black fire coming right at him…
Suiga came out rushing from the woods, blade at the ready…
Aaron: Topknot…
Louis: Perfect. Both of you are now here…
Suiga: If you would be so kind as to take your foot of my friend, I promise the next one won’t knock you out so badly…
Louis: Are all the rookies that arrogant…
Aaron: Topknot, run…
Louis took off his sole from Aaron’s chest and left him to bleed, as he approached the samurai…
Suiga:…
Louis: Prince Akira. I haven’t welcomed you in the capital properly. My name is-
Suiga: You are the Black Steed. It would be an honor to meet you, under other circumstances…You do know battles between hunters are strictly forbidden if it’s not for training purposes?
Louis: This is training. This lad is a broken piece of machinery, and I’m training it back to health.
Suiga: Torture isn’t training. Now let Aaron go, and I’ll let this pass.
Louis:…
Aaron : (Shit…)Suiga…get out…you don’t stand a chance…let him have me…
The young hunter tried to get every word out, but the blood from his lungs would catch up to him…
Suiga: As daring as that sounds, I told you before…I’d much rather see you safe and sound…
Aaron:…
Louis: Lord Akira…Can I ask you a question?
Suiga:…
Louis: This lad here was pushing you away from the moment he arrived. He clearly wanted you to leave him alone. He denied your help, despite his clear need of it. You wasted precious time trying to befriend him, and he blew it off in a mere 5 minute cry…
Suiga:…
Louis: Why are you still here? Risking your life for this…buffoon?
Aaron:…
Suiga:…Cause that buffoon is my chief…
Aaron:…?
Louis; ?
Suiga dared not take his stare away from Louis. With a still, calm expression, he gripped his sword and observed the hunter all while engaging in his conversation…
Suiga: He doesn’t want to admit it…it would be more and more for him to handle, I understand…but he is my chief…through thick and thin…No person would risk his life getting shredded by steel showers to save two scions he just met. No person would fight a noble one-on-one right after seeing his teammates half-dead on the floor…just to save them…No person would have rushed in to save a blighted brat out of control while it meant he would lose his life…No person fit to be my leader would do anything that this man has done…He might not want that role, but I’ll shove it down his throat until he wants it!!! So here I am!!
Aaron:…Dumbass…
Louis: Stubborn little fool…
Suiga: You’ll want to make it plural…
A rushed gush of violent wind travels from behind…Louis evades it effortlessly, leaving Lau to halt her assault by drifting through the grass dirt…
Louis: I knew the breeze meant François’s brat was here…
Louis: I knew the breeze meant François’s brat was here…
Aaron:…just…leave already…
Louis: The two scions are here then…yet after you saw how I turned your chief to mush, you hope you can get out of this alive…
Lau: It’s your life that’s in danger if you think I’ll fall as easily as my brute captain!!
Louis: Your funeral…
Suiga: Shrimp, this man whisked his arm and threw away my blight flames. Don’t you think for our next approach we should work together, at least this once?
Lau: One time exception, I’ll listen to what you have to say...
Suiga: Open his guard, I’ll try to finish him off with something much bigger...
Lau travelled like the wind to open Louis’s guard, while Suiga prepared to land the devastating “Berserker Uproar” by grinding his sword on the grass as he approached the hunter…
Louis, unfazed, waited until the Lecourt reached him just enough to stop moving at high speed, and blocked her wind-enhanced stab with a single grasp of the sword’s blade…
Louis: Your speed is great, Lady Lecourt, but you lack the brute strength and power to back it up…
Lau: (I can’t pull it out!! What is this strength!?)
Lifting her mid air, he tossed Lau towards the samurai who was just ready to slash with the demonic amass of flames…
He staggered, tried to disperse the flames away, but that left him unguarded and open to the Lecourt flying head first onto his chest…
Louis: Your power is dangerous, but useless if you yourself are afraid of it, Lord Akira…
As he walked towards them he lifted his arm. Lau rebounded and rushed towards his lower body. The myriad stabs with which she could poke through vampire flesh and paralyze even nobles had no effect on his black metal plates...
Louis: Lacking strength, lacking patience...lacking humility!!
She kept on hounding like a small tornado, up until she felt her enchantement running through her mental stock and chose to change her strategy...
In one blink of the eyelid, she backed up , put one leg behind as a spring, and one leg to the front to orientate her strike. Like an arrow, she drew her body and her sword backward, all while the winds of Pirout gathered and spun violently around the rapier...
Lau : (I haven’t perfected this one yet!) Lecourt Art : Pirouettan Touch!!!
Standing right in front of the black clad monster, she stepped forward, bringing the spinning tornado sword to his torso in a speed that not even Aaron or Suiga could catch up to...
Lau: (That was my last strike with the Winds...He couldn’t have possibly-)
Louis: Lacking strength, lacking patience...
The wind strike raised quite the dust and grass. But Louis remained still and proud, holding back the sword from his chest with his one arm...
Lau: No!!!
Frustrated, she tried to call out her winds and float away before the hunter’s grasp on her sword got firmer...
Three quick, desperate blasts later, she was staggered by mental shock...
Louis almost seemed disappointed. He pulled by the sword, slammed her twice to the ground, then threw her away...
Louis: Lacking humility...Your sister ‘s shadow is clouding your vision, young princess.
Lau: Tchk!! Don’t you talk about my sister!
Louis : Why shouldn’t I? Unless you rid yourself of the fake idol you’ve made of her, you’ll never go anymore forward than this...
Lau: Fake?! My sister was the best hunter I’ve-
Louis: Best huntress, best daughter, best scion...the pride of François Lecourt, dead and under the ground because she chose to-
Lau: Don’t you say it, you damn fuck!!!
Dirty and beaten on the ground, courtesy and manners flew out the window. Lau’s eyes widened and she pounded the soil with her fist as she tried to get up, all while shouting at the black clad hunter to stop...
Louis: And now, what’s left...Not even a quarter of what that star could achieve, stuck inside an over-achieving snobby brat –
Louis’s speech was again cut short. He pushed his forearm back to block Suiga’s charge. The blight flames struggled to put a dent on his gauntlet, and barely struck any dread under Louis’s skin...
Louis: The blight accursed prince. Shamefully swinging the abomination as his weapon...
Suiga: Not by choice, but that’s what I’m going with.
Seeing his failure to push through, he spun around to catch the hunter’s rib with his sword. Louis sidestepped, which let him then charge and engage Suiga in a makeshift sword fight, the blight blade and the black metal gauntlet.
With his brutish, reckless swinging of Kunishiro’s flames, Louis found himself merely walking throughout the skirmish, while waving his arm around to block the samurai’s desperate strikes.
Louis: From your father and your uncle, I know elegance is what the Akira are most proud of when they swing their blades. When are you going to show me that swordplay...
Seemingly tired by his opponent, he grabbed the blight blade, without a single care about the cinders burning him, not that they would pass through that armor, anyway...
He pulled, and kicked Suiga to the gut, then punched him to the ground with one strike...
Suiga: (What is this strength!!? And how could he touch my blade?)
Louis: Your vampire won’t help you against me.
Suiga: He’s not mine!
Louis: He is, princeling! And unless you accept the fact and fight like your forefathers taught you to , you won’t escape what is coming!
Suiga: (What is he talking about?...Lau...Aaron...get out!)
Louis: How I’d love to see you wiled that blade like your own...but alas, my job must be done...
Pulling Suiga from his leg, he threw him towards Lau. Approaching slowly, he pointed his fist to the two downed juniors...
From the inside of the black clad gauntlet, two canisters sprouted out, crossing gazes with the struggling hunters...
Louis: Perhaps a crossing near death door’s will show you what’s to be done...Should you survive, or should you not...Remember this...you didn’t lose because we were stronger...you lost because of you’re weak...
Click. The sound of a gun being loaded with ammunition came out of the hunter’s gauntlet as the canisters sprung out and in...
Louis : And yet what was to be expected... weak teammates come from a weak captain... Watch me, Aaron Willheart. This is the result of your own indifference...
Guns fired, Suiga instinctively brushed his body in front of Lau’s, a last ditch attempt to save his teammate and pay her for having his back...
Opening his eyes in confusion, he felt no pain, neither anguish from hot bullets piercing his flesh...
There were none. The steed’s handgun was pulled away at the last minute, messing his shot...
The beaten, bruised, bleeding Willheart stood in his own, half-rippled feet, and grabbed Louis’s arm before he sent his friends to the infirmary and who knows what else...
Louis: (He’s up.)
Louis turned to meet the young boy’s eyes…But when he waited to lose himself in the void soul worn down by grief and self-pity…
His silver eyes emitted a wave of hatred. Of bloodlust and anger that fueled his body to stand up and pull away the arm, despite his ribcage shattered like broken glass…
Aaron summoned all of his strength and punched Louis hard enough to knock out a few of his teeth and slam him to the ground. Suiga and Lau quickly got up and jammed their swords close to Louis’s throat…
Aaron: I figured it out. You are strong as fuck, but not as tough. Explains the jumping around even though you can fight like a Titan…Deal’s up…Leave us alone…
Louis:…A deal’s a deal…
Aaron: Leave ‘im…he won’t hurt us anymore…
Suiga: Are you sure?
Lau: That’s the Steed, brute. Who knows how he’ll-
Aaron: That’s an-
A spark lit through his brain. Synapses and synapses sparked in a chain reaction from the back to the front of his mind, as Aaron realised the from Louis’s smug, wrinkly smile that he was already finished with what he was trying to do…
Aaron:…That’s an order…
Suiga/Lau:…Alright.
As Louis got up, he dusted off his cloak, but Aaron’s hands had other plans.
He grabbed the hunter’s chest plate and rocked him back and forth...
Aaron: Where the fuck are the others!!?
Louis: Calm your horses, Willheart. You’re finally showing your true colors-
Aaron: Quit it with the lecture!! Where’s Url? And what the fuck did you do with Cassie?! I’ll do it to you a thousand times-
Louis: Calm yourself.
The sudden death stare in Louis’s eyes was a clear indication for the young hunter, that Steed was not even done through yet...
Lau: He’s right brute…Follow us…
To the railway dumping site, Url and Cassie sit in wait for the rest of the hunters to arrive…
Cassie:…Url, look!!!
Cassie ran after them, throwing herself with punches onto Aaron, further smashing his broken ribcage…
Cassie: Bossman!! Don’t ever leave again!!!
Url: He will leave this plain of existence if you keep killing him, let me patch it up!!
Louis gazed from afar , curious and slightly empathetic…
Louis: You aren’t ignorant, Aaron Willheart…You fake it to escape the pain of tragedy…Life is hard…it won’t get easier…if you don’t steel yourself, you’ll never make it…Trust me…
As Aaron twitched from the doctor’s masterful needle application, he tried to look at his teammates…
Aaron: Why does it hurt so much…
Url: Fighting against hunters is forbidden…consider this your punishment for pushing us away…
Aaron: How did you end up-
Url: Meeting the Steed?...Well...
Hours earlier, in the same area, the group was sitting around a beaten old vampire, who had dressed as a harmless farmer...
Suiga and Url had their weapons against their throats, while the girls finished off his lackeys...
Suiga : For the last time, why is Aaron Willheart in danger?
Vampire: Ugh...I-I don’t know-
Url: Well, you better find out. Because if one hair was touched out of my chief’s head, I’ll take this here bloody saw and grind it in and out of your-
Lau: Good grace, for a slob like Willheart , we do way too much work!!
Cassie: Work that you as well participate in, Lady Lecourt!
Lau: (Pouting...) It would be most ignoble to disobey the rules laid upon my father and let my teammate die in the woods, as much as I’d love to...
She took a small pause, with Aaron’s sacrifice in the factory against Wutsworth’s steel shower running in her mind...
Lau: He’s not this person...He can be someone I can call an equal...He just needs a good pounding to remember that
She pointed her finger high at Cassandra’s dumb-founded smile...
Lau: But you!! He’s treated you worse than all of us combined! He threw you to the sky, for Lord’s sake!!
Fidgeting her fingers, and blushing bright red, she twirls the end of her boot against the gravel ground...
Cassie : It was a moment this heroine shan’t forget. Bossman had managed to recognize my contribution and accepted me as one of his companions. How could I ever be mad at him...
Url: This here screams multitudes of attachment issues but I’ll let it slide.
Lau: Do you not remember the “Throw to the sky” gimmick? Did he force you to not say anything to us?
Cassie : Absolutely not! Aaron Willheart might be lazy, indifferent, a little whiny, and extremely too heavy for a man his size, but I admire his courage and will to stand beside his comrades!! Even if he fails to show that from time to time...
Suiga : I guess we ‘ve all got a few reasons to save our “chief”, huh...
Url: I’m not saying I don’t like the guy, but a room other than sir Samuel’s walk-in closet next to Philomena’s shrine is mandatory at this point.
Lau: Didn’t you just threaten a vampire with penetration should Aaron is harmed?
Url: As to show how much my room means to me. Anyway, look what I found inside our captive’s pockets...
A white note. Scribbled as if a maniac had gone wild with the pen, someone had written about the hunter’s positions and reasons for strolling out in the dense southern woods and given them to the vampire lurking...
Signed at the bottom with a quick drawing of a black little horse...
Url: A trap, I see...but who wrote this...
Cassie: Hmm...a minute...isn’t that the Black Steed’s sigil? The one on his breastplate?
Lau: That’s impossible, why would that high rank hunter give us away? And what is someone like him doing in this backwater city?
Suiga: Backwater – anyways, it could be a fake. Or maybe it means something else in vampiric language?
Url:...I’ll have to check this out, but before that, whoever wrote this is probably searching for Aaron.
Lau: Alright then! The brute might be a crybaby but he can still fight! Let’s clean up and -
Url: Hold it Lau...If there’s even a small chance it’s the Steed that’s after him...he could be trying to get him back to the city...
Suiga: Isn’t that a good thing?
Url just stood there, humming in thought...
Cassie: I partake in Url’s anxiety driven thought process...The Steed is known for acting rather... independently...If anyone has heard the stories, they would be afraid to meet him at his worst...
Url: He’s as big a help to the association as he is a pest...He’s saved countless people, but he’s feared by hunters because of his cruelty...I really don’t know if we should let Aaron face him, even if that’s a slim chance...
Cassie : I know the surroundings like the palm of my hand. I’ll sneak beside the Steed and steal our chief away.
As Cassie prepared to run, Suiga held her back with his hand gripping on her forearm...
Suiga: Lady Mergrove...please let me go...
Url: Nonsense. You just returned from a three day camping trip to hell, you can barely fight someone like the Steed.
Suiga: And Lady Cassandra is still recovering from Ezra’s stunt. A group effort will only alert him...Please, I said I’d bring him back, I intend to finish that question...
Cassie: Bossman’s odor has really rubbed on you, prince Akira...
Url: I’ll join then. We can probably cook up a plan involving the illusion cloud, but I don’t know if he’ll be resistant to my concoctions or not...
Lau: You’ve been making potions and meds ever since this whole plan has started. You fainted three days ago, we are definitely not letting you join!!
Url: Then who goes?!!
Aaron rested dumb-founded, but mostly ashamed, hearing his comrades were ready to risk their lives for a person who had treated them like garbage for the past three days...
Aaron: That old man tricked a vampire…can’t believe it…
Cassie: We wanted to join, but me and Url stayed to give the vampire captive to the authorities. Prince Akira and Lady Lecourt seemed the better options, since they are the next close-quarters fighters after you, bossman. Which is sad cause the Steed is my favorite hunter!!!
Aaron: Figures. Weirdoes go together…Wait, what about the lock of your hair?
Cassie: Excuse me?
Aaron: I'm sure he threw a lock of your hair at me...
Cassie: Ehm... I do have to say bossman, the teed owning my hair would be I really weird dream come -
He stood up, grabbed the huntress like a ragdoll and turned her around every direction, searching for her crimson colored braid...
Aaron: It was red and full with blood, I got worried he cut it off you!
Cassie: Bossman!! St-st-stop spinning me - please stop messing with my hair!!
Lau: Leave those beautiful braids alone brute!! I spend two hours making them!! Don't touch them with your filhty dirt hands!!
Aaron: I got my pecs crushed because I thought he hurt you, dumbass! Why are you fine and I got beaten for no reason!??
The moment his words entered her ears, the red spots on Cassie's cheeks expanded to the entirety of her face, all while Aaron still spun her around...
Cassie: You...You fought for me? For the Nightingale's sake, you put thine life at stake? Aaron Willheart, I knew you never hated me!!! Mine avenger!!!
Apparently, her own reddish rash was contagious for the frustrated hulk, more so when he lost control of Cassie and she managed to hook herself onto his body for a bear hug that even he couldn't get himself out off...
Url: Well, guess someone's mood is finally lifted.
Aaron: Ugh...I'll show how much I hate you now if you don't get off of me, how are you so strong!!???
Cassie stopped caressing her chief when she noticed his eyes had left her and changed their focus to Suiga, who was just calmly shying away from the commotion, eyes toward the ground...
Suiga:…
Still hurting from the stitches. He walked towards Suiga…
Suiga: About the whole chief thing…I know I said that, but I’m still leaving if-
Aaron’s open, rugged palm slammed against Suiga’s cheek so hard, it left a physical imprint aligned to his lifelong eye scar…He grabbed the back of his head and pressed his forehead against his own...
Aaron: You try to leave…I’ll smash the train, and pull you out myself…you hear me?
Suiga: Yes, sir…
Aaron:…Chief…I can get used to that…
Lau:…I knew you two would get together sooner or later…
Url tries to hold Aaron and Suiga with his bandages while Lau mocks them from behind Cassie’s cape…