She did not have to tell him twice. He started bolting towards the castle before the men could even hesitate in their decisions, and quickly, they all followed suit, sprinting away from the sounds of desperate combat. Or well, what he assumed was desperate combat. It sounded more like a slaughterhouse.
It wasn't every day where a singular girl could roar more ferally than a group of wild beasts. Even more strange that she was so willing to take on all that pressure. He actually heard a few of the flesh hounds start to whimper as her blade roared through the air, as if aiming to cut the world itself.
'How scary.'
That didn't matter much, though. The thing is, he ended up getting a starbound weapon. Naturally, he didn't have a Star, but Aster's body did have a weak Star. A protostar that was only granted during the trial of the first Orb.
'Probably Dormant in rank. Faking death is pretty neat situationally.'
As he ran through the dense, golden forestry with the other men, they maintained a furious pace for an amount of time he didn't even know he could run. As a streetrat living it out on the backstreets, it was certainly an experience not unfamiliar to him, but it surprised him every time, regardless. He was actively considered one of the weaker street rats, which is why he proactively used his brain.
He looked back. There should be, at least... forty-one men. He had killed six total, and...
No. Wait. They always had forty-one men. Right?
Looking at his surroundings, he barked an order to the closest man, a portly gentleman with a ginger beard. He donned chainmail armor with a sturdy blade in hand, coated in blood, he seemed like how a rich man would insist on being painted like. A figurehead of war. He also had green eyes.
How he survived or kept up with Aster's enhanced body thanks to the minor boon was beyond Paper's understanding, but thankfully, due to the strain of running for so long, he had no issues replicating Aster's prickly behaviour
"You!"
The word had come out far more intensely than he wanted, but it worked in playing like Aster's character. The portly gentleman jumped, glancing at him.
"Yes?"
His voice was just as rich and honeyed as he looked. How... annoying. Does he need these grating reminders of how poor he was?
'Do I kill this guy?'
No matter. Paper's instincts were burning up, and now that he was away from the Noble he had to kill? He had to prepare. He heard a far-away clash of blades that ended promptly with a man's grunt, a corpse hitting the floor, which he didn't regard as strange at all.
Forty men marched onwards.
"How many of us came here at the start? Was it fifty of us, or less!?"
"Thirty-seven of us!"
Thirty-seven... hm. That number sounded right, but he also vividly recalled it being forty. But Paper had killed six men. And he recalled having forty-one members, forty-seven members, as well as fifty, yet the portly man insisted on the number thirty-seven.
Being unable to count while running for his life, he decided to take the words into consideration.
'So the thing took ten more soldiers? Hah! Curses. Of course!' He laughed mirthlessly, shaking his head. In the heat of battle, who would notice the apparent spirit?
Well. He may as well get rid of one more man. Just to test his luck. Maybe fetch another boon. He looked back, noticing that there were really only two stragglers, both with blades, who seemed to be maintaining their consistent pace without much difficulty, while the rest was far behind and heaving. The two stragglers had strange features - one with blonde hair and yellow eyes, while the other had hooded green eyes and black hair, seemingly frowning at the blonde.
'Interesting.'
He motioned at the portly man and then pointed him to the front.
"You lead for a bit. I'll be checking something."
The portly man nodded solemnly, increasing his speed explosively as he led the cohort like a reckless trailblazer. Paper raised his eyebrows, shocked, before shaking his head.
Something more important came first. And it was the item he had received. The Starbound weapon. The crux of any Hunter's arsenal.
He outstretched his palm, expecting it to summon, but he became painfully aware of what felt like a broken, orb-like shape stored within his sternum. The protostar. Around him, suddenly, a bead of light started to circle him in an angled ring. The method of summoning a typical starbound tool would require, unlike that noble.
It was amazing to witness first-hand, however. He instantly thought of how jealous he could've made his sister.
'Hehe, Ink would've gone green with envy... if her skin color even allowed that.'
He grabbed it, and a sudden weight formed in his hands, sparks of whites, blues, yellows, and greens fizzing into the air as an uncomfortably fleshy dagger formed in his hand.
Its blade was a bone-yellow color, curved almost like a fang, with a thin hole in the tip of its blade. In his hands, however, strips of dried muscle were wrapped expertly around the handle, yet it was far cruder than that of the spear he had.
As he held it, its traits and names fed into his mind instantly, a surplus of information that could drive anybody into a migraine, and he couldn't help but bark out a laugh, an unrestrained grin on his face.
'Oh, I'm so killing that noble now.'
[Flesh Hound's Sabre Tooth.]
[Tale: ]
「Traits: [Degrading], [Fragile], [Accursed Bloodfiend].」
「Split at conception, the mutts lived through differing times, one as the hunter and the other as the hunted. In the hunted ones desperation, it learned to steal the vitality of others, yet its cost was too heavy.」
While the story was interesting to Paper, he wasn't here to figure out the... something-ology of the beasts at all. What he wanted was a solution to his number one biggest problem - death. And this weapon practically provided one... albeit at a bit of a cost.
[Degrading] - [Once summoned, if it is sent back to satellite the star, the Starbound weapon will slowly intrude on the soul, harming it as it destroys itself against the raging storm that is the human condition.]
Now that already meant he should keep it summoned to avoid it encroaching onto his soul and harming him. Even as a weapon that was without a known tale or rank, it would still be fatal to him, who had an incomplete star in Aster's body, and none at all in the other. But this was where the difficulty kicked in for him.
[Fragile] - [This weapon breaks after a single strike.]
Starbound weapons were indeed the core of any Hunters arsenal. It was almost an absolute fact that he'd need them. It was already a curse beyond any that the weapon would break after a singular usage - that already meant it was significantly below that of your average tool, with an incomplete Star. He had to keep the weapon summoned while also trying to avoid the weapon being hit.
Easy enough to say, but was it easy to do?
Well, it was a good thing he only had to find one thing to stab. Preferably big, plump, and strangely healthy.
[Accursed Bloodfiend] - [This blade will absorb the complete energy and vitality of one creature it is impaled into, siphoning it to the user.]
And he had a rich little piggy leading them massively... he just couldn't risk stabbing him yet. Not without understanding the current disappearances from memory. And how he fully remembered there being forty men, while the portly rich pig insisted on thirty-seven.
Speaking off... the pig was suspiciously powerful.
That same rich piggy roared. "MEN! We have arrived!"
His mind went off of the thought immediately, snapping to what was in front of him.
The towering monument of the blackwood castle approached like a hurricane, and before they realised it, they stood in front of the beautiful architecture. The structure, despite being referred to as the blackwood castle, had solid onyx marble foundations that only reached up a couple feet before beams and pillars of marmoreal wood reached out to the sky. On its upper half, spires and steeples and towers of motley greys and blacks seemed to desperately reach for the very pinnacle in which a familiar constellations' stars were engraved.
'Cassiopeia.'
If a building could be a sovereign, then this building would be the sovereign of the hundreds of acres of forestry around it, the thousands of acres of lands around it, and dare he say the hundreds of thousands of castles and towers he heard existed in the overworld.
In pure reverence of the thing, a single word escaped his lips.
"...Beautiful."
He didn't know he had a dream house he desperately wanted until he saw the structure. Though, he was far from achieving that level of wealth. If he did, though, he and Ink would at least be able to live without the threat of other rats trying to kill them. It'd turn to assassins instead, wanting the lands for themselves.
'Curses...'
What a way to deflate his own mood.
Well, he was still thinking of killing the Noble in the meanwhile. The castle, as beautiful as it was, wasn't exactly his goal as an Assailant.
It was killing.
'The cruel nature of a death game... I'm sure they wouldn't mind, right?'
He smiled, looking around him warmly for his next... victim...?
Why were they all staring at the castle like that?
Well, not all of them. Seventeen of the men. The others were all huddled together, catching their breaths, or in the case of the portly rich pig and the two other suspiciously capable men, who he labelled as blondie and greenie, discussing with eachother as if it were an everyday occurrence.
He could hear certain key words being tossed around, like 'Control', 'Castle', and 'Beguilement.''
Interesting words to use. The men were all strangely strong, and their habits were far too calm and collected. Practiced. He felt a foreboding dissonance with their behaviours, but he couldn't just call them out on it or kill them.
Not simultaneously, at least.
Stabbing his spear into the ground and hiding the flesh hounds fang-dagger in his sleeve, he silently thanked Aster's mothers strange behaviour of giving him better clothing and motioned to the men. It was only thanks to her he could hide it so well.
"Oi. Piggy. Over here. Blondie, and greenie. You two. Gather the men and prepare to enter the castle. Snap the men who are in a trance out of it."
The blonde one looked like he wanted to speak back, but the green-eyed one stopped him with a shake of his head, while the rich pig out a hand up as if to stop any words being spoken.
"What is it?"
"The lady from back there. The armored warrior. She left me a task, and I was told to fetch someone capable. You led us here and have surprising strength."
'Too much strength.'
Paper walked away, grumbling and feigning annoyance as he growled at the man, kissing his teeth as he flicked his head to the side, as if telling the man to follow. The rich pig nodded twice, ending up next to him. He led them through the acres of forestry until they were about out of sight from the others.
He sat down, his back leaned up against the bark of a black tree, indicating for the man to sit next to him with a pat. The man crouched down instead but maintained a scarily close distance.
"I can't tell the others this. We can't let the fear be mongered between our soldiers. You agree, right?" His tone was grave, serious.
The portly man found himself impressed, nodding thrice at what he thought was Aster's amazing judgement.
"Absolutely agreed. Despite your poor commands earlier, you seem to have a little bit of a commander in you."
Paper let out a loose scoff and a grin.
"Let's skip the small talk, right? I have a suspicion that some members of the camp have an assassination ability. Or an ability similar to the woman."
Paper maintained perfect eye contact as he said it with as much of a casual tone as possible. One Aster wouldn't do usually. Wouldn't do ever.
The man lifted his hands in a placating gesture, laughing softly.
"Truly, now? Have you any evidence?"
Paper shrugged, lazily lifting his hand and stabbing the throat of the man, leaving the yellow blade in there.
"Well, that's the part I was getting to."
He spoke easily as the man choked on his blood, gripping his neck tightly as he tried to scream, yet he only sounded like a pitiful dog whining. His body started to thin out quickly, draining like a raisin as energy overflowed within Paper.
「You have murdered a Dormant Beast, Fragment Of The Self's possessed vessel, Darren Justitia.」
He let loose a sigh of relief, nodding to himself.
"See? There's my proof."
'Only a Dormant Beast? ...Fragment? Oh god, there's more than one, isn't there...'
「The Weapon bursts into a Supernova, leaving its mark in history.」
「The Orb Watchers cheer for you!」
He grinned, pointing an affectionate middle finger at the sky as he relaxed.
'Ah, whatever. I can deal with it later. Jackpot.'
「You have received a curse!」
Wait, what?