Chapter 69: Hunting Season (4)
Shakhan glanced at Crockta’s and Tiyo’s sleeping faces before going outside.
It was nighttime. Shakhan gazed at the sky, where countless stars shone. Even in this cursed land, the stars in the night sky continued to shine brightly. As he observed the sky, he noticed the Sagittarius constellation pulling its bowstring toward the dragon.
Shakhan then gathered branches and began carving his arrows. With each stroke that sharpened the blade, he also shaved off the wandering thoughts in his mind. He couldn’t keep track of his days because of all the time he had spent in the forest. Memories of those who had left him and anticipation for the next hunt were jumbled in his head. The mana had eaten away at his body from the insides and ruined him, and now his brain and spine belonged to the monster. He only had one last chance left.
Shakhan estimated the proportions of the arrow with his eyes and aimed it toward the darkness of the forest. Skilled hunters aimed to hit their target with only one shot. He had to pierce the core of the darkness in an instant.
“A Shakhan doesn’t let their enemies live,” he muttered.
His mind suddenly became clear. It didn’t matter that his head was full of dark energy and that his memories had been obscured by the darkness of the forest. Shakhan sharpened the single task that penetrated his thoughts and clasped it in his hand like it was an arrow. He was going to kill that beast.
Shakhan had thought this day would never come, but the time for his final hunt had arrived. When the sun came up, he would leave for the hunt with the two outsiders. They would become his hunting dogs and kill or be killed. There was no other alternative.
He had always chosen the former and aimed at the enemy. The beast knew that with the returned hunting season, Shakhan would lurk in the darkness and aim at its throat. Its eyes were open, waiting for him.
Shakhan looked up at the sky again. The stars had begun to dim, but the moon was still a bright red. The moon had turned blood red after the darkness overtook the forest. It was a strange moon that resembled a demon. Shakhan raised his arrow and made the motion of cutting through the center of the moon.
***
At the break of dawn, the party of three embarked on their hunt. Before they left the fort, Shakhan stared at the cows for a long time. However, the Shakhan who had treated his cows like his sons was no longer there. He was now the cold, sharp hunter that they had met initially.
“Do you believe in destiny?” asked Shakhan.
Crockta tilted his head at the sudden question. He could feel the tension in Shakhan’s body. A Shakhan who set out for a hunt never made a mistake.
“I veer toward the side of not believing,” replied Crockta.
“Orcs are always like that,” said Shakhan
“Do you know any orcs?” asked Crockta.
“A Shakhan hunts everything,” said Shakhan with a chuckle.
Crockta’s expression suddenly turned sour.
Shakhan shook his head with a smile on his face. “I was joking. I know an orc hunter.”
“An orc hunter?”
“Yes, he’s an orc I respect as a hunter.”
Crockta was surprised to hear this as he had not seen many orc hunters. Most orcs at Orcrox were warriors or sorcerers, but he had met one powerful hunter before leaving Orcrox. It was the legendary hunter Zankus, known to be capable of shooting down even the sun. Zankus had looked at Crockta with a glint in his eyes—eyes of a hunter looking at prey.
Shakhan continued, “It was Zankus.”
“...!”
“He was a rookie at the time, but he’s probably a decent hunter by now.”
Zankus was a hunter who was praised by the orcs. All of Orcrox had buzzed with excitement when Zankus appeared at Lenox’s funeral. Yet, Shakhan treated Zankus like a rookie. Crockta began to see Shakhan in a new light. Shakhan was indeed a formidable hunter who could subdue wyverns and manticores in an instant.
Crockta began to analyze Shakhan’s movements. Although Shakhan’s mental state was concerning, there was always something to learn from powerful individuals who had attained mastery of their skills and gained strength from training relentlessly in their craft.
Shakhan, who felt Crockta’s gaze boring into him, said, “If you have something to say, say it.”
Then he pulled his bowstring. The arrow pierced through the dawn’s early light. They heard a thump as something fell to the ground in the distance. Shakhan had noticed the presence of a monster at a distance undetectable to Crockta and Tiyo and proceeded to eliminate it.
“The members of a group out on a hunt need to rely on each other to survive. If they don’t communicate with one another, everyone’s lives are jeopardized,” Shakhan stated.
Shakhan had started talking to them for that sole reason.
The party pushed their way through the darkness and moved forward, eventually coming across the monster that Shakhan had killed. It was a troll, but its body was in a state of decay. Its bones were exposed as if it had been dead for a long time.
“It’s an undead troll,” said Shakhan.
As they traveled deeper into the forest, the dark mana grew thicker. Crockta realized that the Forest of Monsters was truly a cursed place where the alive and dead were ensnared in endless conflict.
“Its strength is becoming stronger,” said Shakhan.
He seemed to know the beast well.
“Why are you trying to hunt this beast?” asked Crockta.
He had wanted to ask this question for a while now. Crockta had suspicions as to why, but he still wanted a clear answer.
Shakhan didn’t let any of their enemies live. Based on how he talked about his sons like a madman and expressed enmity toward the darkness of the forest when his mind returned, there seemed more to Shakhan’s story than Crockta could imagine.
“It’s as you suspect,” replied Shakhan while pulling out his arrow from the undead troll.
The arrowhead was stained black from the blood of the undead.
“My son tried to hunt the beast and died in the attempt. My two other sons then headed to the Forest of Monsters to avenge their brother, but they died as well. I ended up losing my wife because of everything that had happened,” Shakhan explained with a calm voice. “I tried to stop them, but they were Shakhan, even more so than me.”
“I’m sorry for asking,” said Crockta.
“It’s nothing,” replied Shakhan as he stared into the darkness.
The sun was out, but it was still dark out because the thick foliage blocked the sun.
“I believe in destiny. All Shakhans believe in destiny to some extent,” said Shakhan.
Suddenly, they felt a presence in the darkness.
Tiyo, who had been following after them quietly, raised the General. Crockta also pulled out his Ogre Slayer and prepared for battle.
“Meeting you two was destiny,” added Shakhan.
A group of ogres suddenly appeared in front of the party. The three ogres glared at them menacingly and roared, shaking the quiet morning of the forest. Nevertheless, Crockta didn’t falter and let out a battle cry of his own that was even more ferocious than the ogres’. His presence overpowered them.
Then Crockta raised his greatsword and charged toward the ogres. Radiant, narrow beams of iridescent colors flew alongside him in support. The Ogre Slayer flashed as it cut through the forest.
Shakhan observed the scene with admiration. He had traveled all over the continent and had hunted everything. He had even been embroiled in fights against orcs, but he had never seen an orc warrior like Crockta.
“Bul’taaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!” roared Crockta.
Shakhan watched in admiration of Crockta’s battle sense as Crockta narrowly dodged his opponent’s attack and swung his greatsword at the opponent’s neck. He was different from orcs who merely crushed their opponents with their strength. Crockta’s swordsmanship actually resembled that of humans in the way it overpowered his opponent with refined skills. However, in critical moments, he would explode with power and ruthlessly tear his enemy apart.
“Is that all you’ve got?!” shouted Crockta.
Instead of dodging, he deliberately received blows from the ogre that he was fighting while moving forward. This was so that he could then shove his greatsword into the ogre’s stomach. As blood gushed out, Crockta ripped the ogre apart with his greatsword, causing the ogre’s intestines to spill out. The ogre collapsed while foaming at the mouth with bubbles of blood.
Covered in blood, Crockta glared at the remaining enemies. The ogres recoiled at the force of Crockta’s fighting spirit—his indomitable will.
“Destiny,” said Shakhan.
How could it be a coincidence that a warrior like Crockta appeared for Shakhan’s last hunt? If it wasn’t destiny, what could it be? Shakhan smiled and pulled his bowstring. Crockta was still young, but Shakhan believed Crockta would become one of the greats someday, as watching Crockta reminded Shakhan of Zankus.
Shakhan pulled his bowstring. It was the duty of a veteran to show the youngsters how a hunt should be.
Crockta was being cornered by the remaining two ogres. One ogre took the brunt of the General’s bullets while the other ogre swung its huge fist at Crockta.
Shakhan let go of the bowstring. The Shakhan tribe was a bloodline of hunters who hunted dragons and drank their blood. Ogres were no match for him.
Suddenly, the ogres froze. Shakhan’s arrow had passed through an invisible opening and pierced both ogres at once.
“...!”
Without a sound, the two ogres slumped to the ground as if they had fallen asleep. Crockta looked at Shakhan in surprise.
“A-Amazing.” Tiyo was also impressed.
Shakhan just shrugged. He had merely used the minimum amount of strength necessary to pierce an essential point. That was enough to finish off the opponents.
Hunting was a quiet task.
***
“Do you know how the Forest of Monsters came to be?” asked Shakhan.
Crockta raised his head in response after catching his breath.
The party continued heading deeper into the forest while killing countless monsters. Their fight with the three ogres earlier had only been the beginning. Once they were midway to their destination, trolls, ogres, wyverns, and other monsters began attacking them incessantly. Crockta slashed their necks relentlessly with his greatsword, but monsters came back to life and held them back. The surprising thing was that the monsters also fought among themselves and killed each other instead of just attacking Crockta, Tiyo, and Shakhan.
It was a hellish battlefield.
“How does such a crazy place exist? Is it really because of that legend?” asked Crockta.
He recalled what that gnome monster ecology professor had said in passing. The legend was that something evil had died, and after it was buried, dark mana flowed out and saturated the forest. Crockta had sought out the gnome theology professor in search of answers, but her whereabouts had been unknown after the Quantes incident.
“It’s true,” replied Shakhan as he collected his arrows.
He had brought numerous arrows in preparation for the big hunt, but they had decreased in number from the repeated battles.
“Is an ancient demon really buried here?” asked Tiyo, who had flopped down on the ground from the exhaustion of firing the General non-stop.
“To be precise, there’s a beast that turned into a monster after devouring the thing that was buried here,” explained Shakhan.
“...!”
“Back in the day, several Shakhans were interested in the Forest of Monsters and treated it as their hunting ground. They wanted to know what was beyond the endless stream of monsters. They ultimately failed in hunting it down, but they found out what kind of creature it was.”
Shakhan pulled Tiyo up from the ground. After getting back on his feet, Tiyo brushed the dirt off his butt. It was time to move forward again.
“We call that thing ‘Behemoth,’” began Shakhan.
“Behemoth.”
Shakhan continued, “It ate the creature from the legend and turned into a monster, but because of that, it can’t leave this place. That’s a good thing though. The Behemoth goes into hibernation regularly. It wakes up once a year, and right now, it’s that time of the year. You can’t go to the north unless you kill that thing.”
The party headed toward the center of the forest. It was still daytime, but everything was dark.
“You guys appeared just when the beast woke up,” said Shakhan.
“What a coincidence,” said Crockta.
“It’s destiny,” said Shakhan with a smile.
He felt the hands of destiny pushing him forward. These two outsiders had remarkable skills. The orc warrior was incontestably good, and the gnome skillfully handled his artifact and exercised good judgment during battle. It was destiny that these two men appeared to open up the north with Shakhan during his final hunting season.
“I won’t miss it this time,” said Shakhan.
He had never run away from destiny.
Before they knew it, the party had reached the core of the forest.
“We have arrived,” announced Shakhan.
He could smell the creature.
Shakhan’s body tensed, but he still wore a smile on his face as he thought, ‘Finally, we meet again.’
Last year, he had pierced its eye, but he had almost lost his life in the process. The creature could have finished him off, but it had decided to let him live. The battles between them had spanned decades. Shakhan was the sole source of amusement for the creature bound to this place. But it was now time to end this ill-fated relationship. One of them would die today.
“It’s here,” said Shakhan.
Crockta and Tiyo could sense something stirring in the distance.
Shakhan continued, “If you want to open up the north, you have to kill that thing first.”
Crockta and Tiyo looked at that thing and saw its glistening eyes. As the huge beast slowly got up, Crockta and Tiyo had to raise their eyes higher and higher. Once it was standing, the Behemoth looked down on them from a towering height.
“Oh, heavens...” muttered Tiyo.
The Behemoth was a huge monster with thick arms and legs. It resembled a hippopotamus and was larger than an ogre. It was the size of several elephants combined. The Behemoth smirked as it looked down at them.
Tiyo was too shaken by its size to move. “How can it be that big...”
Crockta had to force himself to raise his greatsword. His body was frozen. Still, he reminded himself that the enemy’s size didn’t matter.
“Shakhan, do you really think you can hunt down that thing? Hahaha,” said Crockta.
Laughing in the face of an impossible mission was an old habit of his.
“Of course.” Shakhan’s voice was calm.
“Then, let’s go.”
“Yes,” Shakhan said and pulled his bowstring back tightly, bringing it to his lips. “They say orc warriors are just loud and weak. Prove to me that they are wrong.”
Crockta grinned. “I heard the Shakhan tribe are rabbit hunters full of bluff. Is that true?”
Shakhan grinned. “I will show you.”
“Same here,” replied Crockta.
As they were about to start attacking, iridescent magic lights flew from behind them and struck the Behemoth. It was Tiyo’s General.
“You tall dudes talk too much. The bravest are gnomes!” shouted Tiyo.
Crockta burst out into laughter and then charged toward the Behemoth.
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