We moved at a pace and after an hour of navigating north the forest finally opened up to a plain, there was the village, the first distinct thing I noticed was that there was an old creaking windmill house and it was surrounded by beautiful farms and adjacent to it lies the pathway that lead us to the village, between the windmill and the centre of the village was divided by a passing river stream that curve down south and joined a lake to the east far away from the village. As we emerged out of the forest, we were met with a fresh breeze on our faces, I saw Nyaka loose hairs flying backwards and so was Grandmaster Arilyne's long hair which was tied into a ponytail. Grandmaster Arilyne brought up her left hand to cover her face and Werem exclaimed, " Astonishing ! This is a beautiful place, " I agreed, it's an ideal village near Mt Jehhu slope, we could clearly enjoy the view of Mt Jehhu which was behind the village, there were small farms, a river passing and it was located in a perfect spot.
" Lets go, " said Grandmaster Arilyne.
We crossed a small bridge and entered the main courtyard of the village, there was a raised stone pavilion at the centre, as we advanced in the village one of the stationed guards approached us and greeted, " We have been expecting your arrival, Slayers. " The straglling villagers gave us curious glances as they were expecting some kind of solution to their problems. Childrens were playing, dashing in between us and in the grasses rolling in their utmost innocence. Nyaka smiled at them and patted a few of them as they crossed her. Children also smiled at her however, none approached me. I didn't know why, was it my face? was it not friendly?
" We need information, " said Najaki.
As we settled on the pavilion the guard described the incidents, " It started out a week back, randomly these hounds started attacking us. Villagers who have gone out to gather woods and foods were attacked and unfortunately few of them have died. Since then, they haven't gone out and a few days later, at night many of them attacked us at the village, luckily we were able to fend them with fire but thats about it, if it attacks again, we won't get out unscathed like the last time. What's strange is that these hounds don't attack human settlement, I don't know what's provoking them but its only natural since they are monsters, I guess and yeah ! from what we found there is a den at east, if you go straight from here, " He pointed eastwards, " You'll come across a cliff wall and that's where the den is, one of the villagers who went to hunt found it, "
" Guess, that's where we will start, " said Najaki.
" Mister, we can exterminate these hounds. However, if others hounds are to appear in future I think it's best you post a quest at Slayers guild, that way slayers can exterminate them only a regular basis, however it shouldn't occur, hounds will naturally move away if their kin keeps on dying, " said Grandmaster Arilyne.
" Thank you so much, we will post a quest at the guild soon, " The guard bowed and shook Grandmaster Arilyne's hands.
" Najaki you stay behind and protect the village, we will move out and look for this den he spoke of, " Arilyne ordered.
" Alright, Grandmaster " replied Najaki and sat on the pavilion and requested the guard, " Mister, can I get something to drink? " well, that was unexpected. Najaki was the type of person who is always carefree, casual but his presence emitted a strange air of seriousness at times and intimidation.
" These two will also come along, " Arilyne said to us.
" Huh- we too?. " I said.
" Yes, " she said.
" Leave the bags behind, " said Najaki. " Just do as Grandmaster Arilyne says, "
We nodded and joined them and as we were about to enter the forest again Grandmaster Arilyne said, " Activate wolf steps and Magic senser, we will increase our pace "
" Activate wolf steps, " casted Werem, Jeral, Nyaka and Gira Bren.
" Activate Magic senser, " They casted it again similarly, white light glowed for a moment from their body and left.
" Grandmaster- " Nyaka interrupted.
" What's the problem?, " she turned around and looked at us.
Nyaka glanced at me and said, " Lan, my brother, he cannot use magic. "
" What? What do you mean he can't use magic? Wolf steps is the lowest form of magic spells, even Qen rankers can use it, " Arilyne sounded like she was getting pranked.
" I'm sorry to hinder everyone but as she said, I don't have any magic affinity so I'm unable to use any magic spells, " I bowed and said, " But don't worry about me, I'll try my best to keep up with you guys. " I assured them.
" Hmmm... I would never expect anyone to be accepted by the academy if one has no magic... Anyway, I'll look into that later, for now we must focus on our target. We won't be slowing down our pace, so try not to lose us, " after she said that she darted off and we all followed her from behind and I must say she made no sound while running, her steps were refined and it flowed like water unlike the students who were making a lot of audible footsteps, however that was the gape of skills between a grandmaster and a student.
I didn't lose them, I was able to keep up with them just like I did with Dan and Ellena, however I was not sure again whether they deliberately slowed down for me or not cause even after casting their spells, their speed didn't exceed that much of a human speed, I was pretty sure I could outrun them at this speed but it was not necessary and I was grateful once more that they let me tag along, even as a punishment, this was very profitable to me. It's not something that we get often to go on a mission with hunter class students and a grandmaster on top of that. So I had no complaint.
Gira glanced at me and he looked as if he saw a ghost but I just met his glance and was compelled to ask, " What? " but I didn't. He didn't say anything and just continued to follow them.
Jeral and Werem also glanced back from their shoulders and Jeral looked as if my presence has annoyed him. Werem just smiled at me and Nyaka too.
" You are quite fast on your feet, Lan " said Grandmaster Arilyne without even looking back. She seemed to have sensed me.
There is a technique to this, back in B-12 I always went out to hunt for food in the southern forest which was considered very dangerous. Hunting hares and deers were very hard at first and at times, I would get attacked by random varaes and other animals, since I didn't have the strength I had no choice but to run for my life and over the time, I have become fast and acquired a strange way of running by observing animals, I imitated their patterns and was able to run faster. How? you may ask. Rabbits and deers simply don't run, they used their nimble feet to propel their body in the air as one would called leaping, we human simply push our body forward by pushing back the earth backward however these fast animals leaps in the air with minimum height above the ground hence covering alot of distance and saving energy. The secret was to stretch our legs as wide as possible but it didn't come easy at beginning and using compound muscles in my body comes at a cost, I would be out of breath fast. So I had to develop a way of breathing technique thus circulating the right amount of oxygen but also breathing at a pattern.
And right now, my body unlike before is healthy, It has the right amount of mass to utilize my techniques to its full potential. And if I combine my breathing technique with my running technique, I can leave them behind in a blink of an eye. I called it Falcon breathing and beast steps, it was just to entertain myself and just like their spells, I had my arsenal of skills and they were very earthly too.
" I'm just trying my best not to get left behind, " I said.
She just glanced at me and smiled like she was impressed.
After some moments, my nose picked up scents of blood and flesh ahead, it was strong and fresh. Grandmaster Arilyne also sensed it with her magic perception and we took a brake " Stop, " She commanded. And in front of us lay two human bodies, they were all in bad shape, eaten by hounds, there were claw marks, canine wounds and fresh blood all around. From the clothes they resembled native gatherers or maybe new victims from the village. We examined the body and there were multiple footprints and traces, plus there was a strong beastly scent lingering in the air.
" Fresh wounds, multiple claw marks, this a pack hunt. " said Werem.
" I don't sense them anywhere nearby, " added Jeral after scanning with the Magic sensor. I don't know how far magic sensor works
However, multiple scents were pointing me ahead and another blood scent from north and a strong one at that but the smell differed from the scent of fresh blood. I was not sure, whether it was just another human victim or something else. Plus, there was a footprint that headed west.
" We should proceed cautiously from here, there could be multiple packs, " said Nyaka.
Grandmaster Arilyne said nothing and observed the scene.
" This foot mark, although it's stomped upon by others prints, is rather big for a hound and it headed north, I suspect there may be another victim nearby. " I informed.
" Now you have said it, there is another footmark buried here. " said Werem. " Was there a fight between Red Hounds and some other varae? "
" That is unlikely, These bloods are all from these human bodies. " I kneeled down and looked at the scene closely.
They all nodded and agreed without a word because I was right, there was no sign of fight here.
" So what do we do? Split ?, " Jeral asked.
" I think we should explore the den first and deal with the hounds there, " said Werem.
" Okay, " replid Nyaka.
Jeral also agreed, Grandmaster just nodded and didn't interfere with their decision. It seemed like she was letting them learn to handle a situation. Led by Werem, we headed towards the cliff wall where the den was located; however, my instinct was uneasy with the scent from the north. It rather gave me an ominous feeling.
As informed by the guard, soon we came face to face with a cliff wall and below there was a big cave. We stopped few yards away and Werem scanned the cave with vision boost and magic sensor. He didn't even needed to cast, he just activated multiple spells without incantations, maybe that's the advantage of being Kalaz reincarnation. Magic was like breathing to him.
" Hmm.. I sense multiple hounds, they are here... wait... I see another victim, " said Werem after scanning the cave.
" How many?, " asked Jeral.
" Around twenty of them, " replied Werem.
" That's a lot!, " said Jeral.
" So how do we proceed?, " Nyaka asked.
" Jeral and I'll face the packs head on, Nyaka you disable them with trap spells, " Werem declared.
They both nodded and Werem walked towards the cave. With Grandmaster Arilyne, Gira and I we stayed behind the trees to watch them. However, my sense was getting uneasy with the footmark. From what I could observe, it diverged in a different direction from the packs and if it was a bigger predator why didn't the packs get slaughtered ? Was there some kind of co-operation between them?
Werem and Jeral stood at the mouth of the cave a bit further away and Werem instructed Jeral, " Call them here with Blood Roar, " It was a taunting spell that released bloodlust to attract varaes.
" Activate Blood Roar, " Jeral said and air of bloodlust was emitted from his body. I was reading my bow in case and like usual Grandmaster Arilyne stood watching with her arms folded.
Soon multiple hounds emerged slowly from the shadows of the caves, sharp jaws flashing and growling. Werem smiled and said, " Let's do this, " he was confident and Jeral casted, " Activate Endurance boost, "
" Here they come! " shouted Jeral and the hounds swarmed at them but before their jaws reached them, thorny roots appeared from the ground and shackled the hounds. It was Nyaka doing, she casted a trap spell. " Take this !, " Jeral screamed and striked the trapped hounds.
Werem shot fireballs from his left palm casually without even any incantations and in a few seconds, they had already killed a couple of hounds, remaining hounds were breaking free from the roots but they were still at a disadvantage with the roots on the ground.
These fireballs were level four low tier spells, level four is the highest level in low tier. Fireball wasn't a strong offensive spell but however when casted on trapped enemies, it could become lethal. The hounds fur caught fire easily and they were burning and Jeral finished them and the trap spell time ran out and the roots disappeared. A stronger varae could easily break free the roots but for hounds it was disabling since they were not strong enough. Werem took out his sword and they finished the remaining hounds splendidly without any error in such a short time. I was dazzled and surprised how they handled twenty hounds so easily, for us it would have been a challenge. Indeed, the Hunter class. They lived up to their reputations, Jeral didn't even break a sweat nor Werem, despite how easy he looked normally, he was already leading them and commanding his teammates like he was born to do so and Jeral who was known for his arrogant attitude obeyed without any complaints. He resonated the presence of a king and a leader.
" Well done, kids! " Grandmaster Arilyne congratulated them. " Efficient and clean "
" Well, now all that left is to look for the owner of that strange footprint, " said Werem as he was coming back.
Jeral sheathed his sword and he said, " Hounds are nothing to be scared of, "
Immediately, I sensed the beastly scent which lingered back at the earlier victim site and was newly introduced here again and this time from the north direction. Instinctively, I picked up my bow and to Grandmaster Arilyne surprised she asked me, " What are you doing? "
" Don't let your guard down, something ominous is coming from north. " I said and from my tone, they knew I was not joking around.
And soon from north, a figure twice as big as normal Red Hounds was slowly walking towards us letting out a slow growl and its eyes was gleaming blood red and when it finally emerged out from the shadows, it stood twice as tall as a normal Red Hound and a scar was on it's left eye, blood dripping from the mouth. It growled and I saw Nyaka and others shivered in fear. " What is this? " said Nyaka as her face turned white in fear.
Grandmaster's face also changed when she saw the beast, her expression said, " I have made a grave mistake, ". I knew my senses were uneasy before and it was warning me. Growing up in B-12, my senses were sharp and it helped me survive many dangerous situations by being able to sense them. My instinct this time was completely going off saying to avoid the fight.
" Get back, kids. This is not something you can handle, " and she stepped forward.
" What is this creature?, " said Jeral. I saw them transfixed with fear, their bodies were paralysed in fear. Even no matter how amazing they are, they haven't faced fear which I was familiar with and this fear which I was feeling was familiar with the one I felt earlier in the southern forest, the varae that I mentioned which was cloaked in lightning and electricity.
" It's an Alpha Red Hound, " said Grandmaster in a very serious tone. " A varae which belongs to anomaly division " Those were the words that sent everyone of us in shock and fear.
In the next few seconds, one of the most legendary battles was about to unfold that I got to witness.
The battle between Blood Empress and Alpha Red Hound.