In the middle of nowhere, between the island of Ator Rala and the city of Kvatch there’s a traveler with a strange horse riding along the road. The horse emits a magical aura and its color was black as a void. On (his) its head, there’s a silver colored mark that lines up from its forehead toward its nose and it has a red cat like eyes. No matter how strange or beautiful this horse is, it is full of scars in its body.
This traveler is going to an unknown village to look for someone. The village is in the middle of a dense forest that travelers and merchants have a hard time traveling to. They come there to trade or to visit and sometimes they get lost.
“We better get hurry, I already see the sunset.”
The horse nod and tap its hooves to the ground like it understands what (his) its rider said. The traveler holds the reigns of his horse so tight to ready himself for the ride.
“Ok, let’s go Ranger!”
He galloped his horse so fast that one could suddenly feel as if a strong wind passed by.
The sun is setting and there’s a mist coming through the forest. While he is riding through the forest to get to his destination, the trunk of the trees were forming strange faces and looked at him when he passed by.
These kinds of trees are considered normal in this place and they don’t do anything to hurt anyone, it just form a strange smiling face if there’s a mist around. This traveler knows the route to that village so there is no problem for him to easily get lost. The horse galloped so fast that they already arrived in the village just after the sun sets.
This unknown village has a population of 27 people. It has livestocks, a bee hive farm, stables, a cemetery, an inn and 8 houses. The traveler entered the village slowly and he knows that the villagers are looking at him.
There’s a drunkard laying in the stairs outside the inn and looks at him. He gets up and walks drunkenly towards him then he looks up to the rider.
He saw a guy wearing brown robes that almost covered his entire body with a hood that covered the face and wears brown gloves. His outfit is like a medieval monk and he wears brown trousers paired with dark brown boots. He also saw a long cloth that covers something that straps on the back of the rider and he thinks that it must be important or something. Because it’s already night, he didn’t get a good look on his face.
“Hey! You freak! *hic* what the hell are you doing here!?”
“I’m looking for someone.”
“You can’t find *hic* anyone or anything around here *hic* so get lost!”
“Look. I’m not looking for trouble and I’m in a hurry so if you get in my way, you will regret it.”
“What *hic* if I want some trouble?? Huh!? ”
The drunkard pulls out his knife and points it towards the traveler.
“Let me see *hic* your face, you freak!”
“We are getting out of time, get back to your house. Now! ”
The traveler put back his hood and they got shocked on what they saw. He wears a half ivory mask that covered the left side of his face and he has a black hair and brown eyes that is familiar to them.
“Hey! I think we know you. You’re the rumored bounty hunter that has a black hair and wears a half ivory mask. You are specialized in killing monsters that have a good bounty on their heads and the only survivor in the small town of Valen. Patrick of Valen, the bounty hunter. Am I right? ”
The innkeeper asked. He stands in the door of his inn looking at the drunkard and the bounty hunter.
The innkeeper is an elf and has two beautiful half-elf daughters that serve as barmaids on their inn. He looks young even though he is over a hundred years old. His wife is a human who died recently because of an unsuspected goblin attack that killed her while picking apples for her family.
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The elves live longer than humans and they look younger than them but they are fewer now than before. The reason is the jealousy of humans, they despise seeing elves having longer lives and looking younger than them so they massacred the elves. Humans still continue to kill their race for their own selfish reasons. He live in this village with his family even though he is an elf because his neighbors accepted them.
“Yes, you’re right, that’s me. Patrick of Valen, the bounty hunter.”
“Well, what can we do for you? And please forgive him for acting like that. He just drinks a lot but he’s a good man.”
The drunkard is trembling while still holding his knife that is pointing towards the bounty hunter. When he found out that he is the rumored bounty hunter, he sheathes his knife then ran back as he returned to his house. He suddenly awoke from his drunken stupor.
“I’m looking for a girl named Rea. Does that name sounds familiar to you?”
The villagers outside watching them, goes inside their houses then shut their doors and windows tight. They also hid their children under the bed or in the basement while their parents protect the house.
They are not scared of him, they are scared because he’s the bounty hunter that kills monsters. So if he’s here then it means that there’s a monster that has a high bounty around the village, lurking.
“I think I know her, she just moved here a few days ago. Rea said that she moved here because she got a fight with her husband. She lives on that shack on top of that hill over there and we only see her during the day to buy something from our inn. Wait, do you think she’s a monster!?”
“Thank you for the information and I must go now or else it will be too late. There’s a full moon tonight so you have to shut your door and don’t let anyone inside, even me.”
Patrick didn’t tell him if she’s a monster or not because he is not sure if the bounty information is true or fake. Not all monsters are bad, there are good ones too like the werewolf that he saved from the curse in the past full moon.
Patrick saved Ralf to undo his curse from transforming fully into a werewolf because he didn’t want to lose his humanity and become merely a man-slaying beast.
Ralf was in pain for years when he became a werewolf. He just kill and eat livestocks to relieve his hunger during the full moon. He had never killed any human or elf in his entire life. The bounty on him before had false information.
The content states that this werewolf killed women in the brothel during the full moon but the one who provided this bounty was the real killer. The killer just wanted to cover his crime and pass it to the werewolf.
Humans can be a monster too. So every time Patrick accepts a bounty, he always have a moral dilemma when he meet those monsters. He tries to understand their situation and motives before he accomplish his task according to his mission.
Patrick rides toward the shack on the top of the hill. When he is in the front of the shack, he slowly gets down on his horse then he removed the cloth that covers the thing from his back. Inside the cloth is this very strange weapon.
The design of his weapon looks like a jagged sword but this weapon has human skins. On the pommel of the sword, there’s a crystal-heart that keeps on beating like it’s alive. It looks like the weapon had its own life. This weapon is very effective on monsters but for humans or elves, it’s just like a normal sword. He called this weapon “Heart, Slayer of Monsters”.
He prepared himself for the upcoming fight so he chants a spell to protect his body and to enhance his weapon.
”Mahal kong Apolaki, bigyan mo ng kapangyarihang apoy ang aking sandata at protektahan mo ako gamit ang iyong kapangyarihan laban sa kasamaan.”
(Oh dear Apolaki, Please bestow upon my body and weapon the power of fire. Protect me using your blessings to fight against evil.)
After he chanted those spells, his weapon “Heart, Slayer of Monsters”, covered in an aura of fire. He also felt the heat permeating around his body as it made him feel more protected. The heat around his body will protect him for the upcoming fight but there is a consequence, there’s a time limit on it so he have to act quickly. If he need to fight, then he should end it quickly or else his body will weaken in fatigue until he blacks out.
In the past, only elves know and speak this ancient language and they called it Tagalog. This language is so powerful that it can create another dimension if someone declared the proper chant, but so far no one in the current era know how to do it.
They mainly use this language to chant spells for helping or killing someone. As time goes on, some experts like the magic casters or in other words, wizards and sorcerers, learned this language and used it to advance their technology like building portals that teleports people from one place to another.
There was a time in the past when a wizard gone rogue aimed for immortality, so he used the Tagalog language to achieve it but it didn’t go well. His whole body slowly disappeared, then out of nowhere, a black portal popped out and sucked the wizard into it.
The experts called it the void and after that, no one had ever seen him again.
Patrick entered the shack and the door slowly creaks open. It feels that no one is at home but he is still alert.
“Rea! Come out! We need to talk about something. I know you’re here.”