1709-1710 eng

1709 Hunter's Prey

The Huntsman was so dangerous because he ruled the forest like a stealthy predator. He moved unseen and attacked from the mist and darkness, picking off his victims one by one. He also seemed to know the value of intimidation and mental pressure, displaying the mutilated corpses of his victims on the branches of the ancient trees for everyone to see.

Or maybe skinning corpses simply spoke to the abomination's aesthetic sensibility. In any case, his human enemies often faced him already shaken and rattled, which was a deadly poison for anyone going into battle.

Rain knew that he was approaching the creature's lair because she saw a human skeleton hanging in the trees, its bones cluttering against each other in the wind. Her expression darkened.

However, she wasn't shaken. She wasn't rattled, either. Her mind was much too strong to be poisoned by fear — instead, fear only sharpened it.

'...I'll need to bury them properly after everything is over.'

She shivered — not because of the morbid scene, but simply because she was cold. The battle would warm her up, though, so it was alright.

Every time an Awakened cohort ventured into the forest, the Huntsman was in no hurry to attack. Sensing the threat presented by a group of experienced Awakened warriors, he stalked them silently or retreated into his lair, waiting for the night to come. Then, when impenetrable darkness shrouded the world, his own hunt would begin.

Rain was not a cohort of Awakened warriors, so she was pretty sure that the demon would not wait to attack her. It was for the best — she knew that if she failed to slay the enemy before nightfall, her chances of survival would drop to zero.

And yet, the Huntsman had not shown himself yet.

What was he waiting for?

She frowned, then glanced at her shadow.

"Could it be that the demon is afraid of you, teacher?"

A calm voice resounded from the darkness:

"It is highly unlikely. I am very hard to notice when I'm hiding in the shadows. There is a much simpler explanation, don't you think?"

Rain nodded.

Indeed, there was. The Huntsman was not omniscient, after all. He simply had not noticed her yet.

Which was what she had been hoping for. Rain knew that she wasn't strong enough to face an Awakened Demon in a direct confrontation, which meant that she had to rely on traps to even the odds. The problem was that even luring such a creature into a trap was problematic, because he was much faster than her.

'Well, if he doesn't want to welcome me...'

She was going to have to announce her arrival.

Soon, the smell of blood and smoke permeated the forest.

***

There was no sound. Not even a single branch trembled. And yet, there was a presence — a dangerous presence moving through the forest, somehow remaining unseen.

Rain could feel it. Her intuition, which she had honed through dozens of hunts, was telling her that a deadly foe was approaching.

Sitting on a branch downwind of where the smell of smoke was coming from, her skin smeared in ash to mask her scent, she was watching the forest intently. Even then, she was only using her peripheral vision to observe it — many Nightmare Creatures could sense when a gaze was directed at them, so she knew better than to stare.

It was for that reason that she managed to notice a small anomaly in the surrounding area.

'The frost...'

The patterns of frost on the ground were broken. It was as though someone heavy had walked past, leaving footprints on the frozen soil, and yet avoided her sight completely.

'He's... like a chameleon.'

Once she knew what to look for, Rain quickly managed to notice a subtle anomaly. There was a patch of air that seemed to be a little hazy, but still transparent, as if distorted by heat. But how could there be heat in this frigid cold? No, the almost unnoticeable distortion was the masked figure of the Huntsman, moving noiselessly in the direction of the smoke.

The demon was cautious and prudent, but not as prudent and cautious as she was.

That was because Rain was weak, and had no other choice but to remain humble.

'No wonder so many Awakened were defeated by this demon.'

This Chalice Knight was a bit special, indeed.

Luckily, Rain had known about that strange ability of his in advance. She had talked to the members of the cohorts who had ventured into the forest to slay the Huntsman in the past, and learned quite a bit about this abomination.

That was why she had come prepared.

She held her breath, feeling the world grow stark and clear.

Her battle-ready mind entered the state of clarity.

That state...

She had been quite angry at her teacher for how vague and confounding his explanations about the meaning of clarity were. But after finally mastering it, Rain finally understood every word.

Master the body, master the mind... the essence of combat was murder, and every action she took in combat only served one of two purposes — to kill the enemy or to prevent the enemy from killing her.

Something like that could not be explained with words, only learned in battle. However, once Rain truly understood that unfathomably deep, but simple truth, every battle she had fought after that was easier.

Time seemed to slow down as her perception expanded. Her thoughts accelerated, and at the same time, the scope of the world grew narrower, eliminating all unnecessary distractions. She could feel every minute detail of her environment with striking sharpness, from the direction of the wind to the slowly dancing snowflakes.

Down below, the almost invisible menace slowly approached the bonfire she had made with wet branches, and the butchered corpse of a Dormant beast she had laid as bait.

It was time to strike.

There was no way back anymore.

Drawing her bow, she finally allowed her gaze to fall directly on the empty space where the Huntsman was supposed to be, and let the arrow fly.

Rain had thought that her shot was immaculate, and almost impossibly swift. From the moment she nocked the arrow to the moment she let go of the string, less than a heartbeat passed.

And yet, frighteningly, that single heartbeat was enough for the demon to react. She couldn't see his movements, but the vague patch of subtly hazy air shifted at an impossible speed.

The arrow flashed past.

...But that was alright.

Rain had not been aiming at the invisible abomination, anyway.

Instead, she aimed at a burlap sack hanging above the bonfire. The arrow split it open, and fine powder poured into the air.

It was not gunpowder, nor was it some expensive alchemical concoction. It was simple flour.

However, when the cloud of flour ignited, it still produced a fiery flash. That flash couldn't be called a proper explosion, really, since there was no closed vessel to contain it, but it still served its purpose...

That was, to cover the Huntsman in soot.

Suddenly, his invisible form was not that invisible anymore.

In fact, whatever camouflage the creature had been using was broken by the rain of burning flour, and Rain finally saw the Huntsman in all his vile glory.

1710 Daring Escape

The Chalice Knight resembled a human wearing a tattered suit of ancient armor that had turned green from rust. He towered at around two and a half meters of height, but seemed even taller because of the deer antlers attached to his closed helmet. The rusty helmet itself was fashioned to resemble the snout of a snarling beast, with deep darkness nestling in the crack of its visor.

There was moss growing here and there on the battered armor, and a ragged cloak, too weathered to retain any color, hanging from his shoulders like a torn banner.

The creature was holding a frightening battleaxe in his hand, its blade large and heavy enough to easily split a human in two.

The Huntsman... was like a dead knight that had crawled from under the roots of the forest that had claimed an ancient battlefield, ghastly and imposing enough to make Rain shudder.

Worse than that, the dark crack of his visor was already staring directly at her.

Her souls seemed to squirm under that gaze.

'Crap.'

Rain nocked another arrow on the string and prepared to draw her bow...

But before she could, the Huntsman had already reached the base of the tree that served as her sniper nest.

His dreadful battleaxe rose and fell. That dreadful strike was enough to make the mighty trunk of the ancient tree explode into a hurricane of splinters, obliterating a whole swath of it.

But, a moment later...

A sharp arrow fell from above and lodged itself into his knee. It struck precisely at the narrow gap between the bottom of the abominations's cuisse and the top of his poleyn — which were the armor elements responsible for protecting one's thigh and knee, respectively.

A pretty decent shot, considering the situation.

But Rain did not have any time to celebrate, because the tree was already toppling... and she was falling with it.

After a moment of weightlessness, the rope tied around her chest drew taut, and she found herself flying through the air.

If there was one thing her teacher had told her, it was that one should always leave themselves a path of retreat. Rain had never considered that climbing a tree would protect her from an Awakened Demon, so she naturally prepared a way to escape.

In this case, that way was swinging on a rope and flying between the trunks of terribly tall trees at breakneck speed. She had not carried a sizable length of silk rope all the way here in vain, at least.

As the wind whistled in her ears, Rain thought:

'This is going to hurt...'

Struggling to control her body, she spun at the last moment and used her legs to dissipate the shock of colliding with another tree at great speed. The other end of the rope was tied around one of its highest branches, which allowed her to swing like a pendulum... well, a badly designed pendulum, maybe.

She did not break her neck or crack her skull, which was a relief, but her feet were in agony. Ignoring it, Rain immediately cut the rope with her dagger and plummeted down, landing softly on the frozen ground.

There, leaning against the trunk of the tree, two things were waiting for her: her javelin, and another arrow.

Sheathing the dagger in one smooth motion, Rain grabbed the arrow and spun around, already drawing the bow.

The Huntsman was barreling toward her, so fast that it was hard to track his movements...

But still, he wasn't faster than her arrow.

With her mind clear, she could sense the movements of her enemy. So, she did not aim at where the abomination was, but at where it would be.

Another arrow pierced the air, striking at his other knee.

Sadly, this time, Rain's aim was a few millimeters off. The precious arrowhead struck the edge of the Huntsman's cuisse and shattered, only managing to slice some moss off the rusty green metal.

The Huntsman was an Awakened Demon, while the arrowheads of Rain's arrows were made from the bones of Awakened abominations.

Theoretically, the demon's armor and the arrowheads were of the same Rank... but she herself was not. Strangely enough, that made her arrows weaker than the rusty green metal.

It had something to do with essence, laws governing the world, and will. Rain wasn't entirely clear on the details, but what it meant in practice was that she had to strike at the cracks of the abomination's armor... which she had failed to do, this time.

She did not waste time lamenting the mistake.

Grabbing the javelin, Rain... spun, and ran away.

She ran as fast as she could.

What bravery? What courage? There was no such thing on the battlefield, only strength and weakness, life and death.

In normal circumstances, outrunning an Awakened Demon would have been impossible, but there was currently an arrowhead lodged in one of his knees. It didn't matter that such a small wound was not at all dangerous for a creature of his Rank and Class — a joint was a joint, and if there was something disrupting the joint's function, even a demon would be slowed down.

Rain had specifically fashioned the arrowheads in a way that would make removing them nearly impossible, unless the victim wanted to take a sizable chunk of flesh out with them. So even if the shaft of the arrow was broken, the damage still remained.

Granted, it would have been much better if both of the Huntsman's knees were hurt.

Because, now...

She really did not know if she would be able to escape his axe long enough to accomplish her goal.

'Run... run!'

Gritting her teeth, Rain did the unthinkable... she tossed away her bow. That was a terrible loss — not because he was afraid to lose it, but because the quiver of arrows she had hidden up ahead would be useless without it. But she had to sacrifice something, and her javelin seemed much more useful in a battle against such a large foe.

As for her sword... well, her teacher had given it to her. She would never discard it.

She felt incredibly lucky about leaving her coat and armor on the outskirts of the forest.

'Run, goddamn you!'

Rain did not have eyes on the back of her head, but she could feel the ground trembling, and hear the branches snapping behind her. In fact, the Huntsman was barreling directly through the trees, snapping the mighty trunks like matches. It was as though an unstoppable, inescapable behemoth was pursuing her, getting closer and closer. He was already no more than a dozen meters away.

A dozen meters... ten meters... six meters...

Rain's heart was beating wildly in her chest.

But then, finally, the trees receded, and she escaped into a vast open space.

That... was where she had wanted to fight the demon.

'Be more prepared. Control the battlefield, know the terrain, learn about the enemy. Take the initiative and don't make any mistakes. Have a clear mind and deadly resolve.'

That was the recipe for winning a battle against a demon... any battle, really.

So, this was the battlefield that Rain had chosen.

The open space in front of her was a swamp that hid in the depths of the forest.

Currently, it was frozen over, the treacherous depths encased in a layer of ice. The ice was covered by a thin carpet of snow.

Rain was light enough to walk on the ice without falling under its surface.

The Huntsman, though...

With his frightening size, heavy armor, and dreadful battleaxe, he was going to have a bit of a problem.

Feeling death approaching her from behind, Rain did not waste a single moment and stepped onto the hidden ice.