“Finally, I hear something coming our way.” The lead hunter whispered, moving into position to intercept the spot they expected the beast to attack the Elk from.
With Luna’s lower-level summons on the outer edge of their group, they looked like a very easy target to the juvenile Purple Leopard, and it began charging its lightning attack when it was fifty meters away.
Their standard attack was to strike at the weakest with their lightning then retreat, letting the target panic and separate from the wounded member, then the Leopard would strike and finish the target off. Once it was incapacitated, the big cats would drag it away and up into a tree, where most things couldn’t chase them, so they could eat in comfort.
The hunters knew this very well, so they knew that the best moment to attack was the first moment that the Leopard was in sight.
The juvenile hadn’t been in this world long and hadn’t experienced human interaction before, so it didn’t understand the danger that it was in until a moment too late.
With a flash of purple fur and white electricity, it struck the closest Elk but instead met a solid water barrier. The larger Elk that Cain had summoned called for a Water Barrier to protect their companions, causing the Leopard to fall short of the target, where it was quickly surrounded by Hunters, preventing its escape.
With the quick flash of a sword, the beat was dead and the Hunters celebrated their first kill of the day. It wasn’t a big animal, but the small ones were usually more tender, and the sort of meal that they would save for themselves, selling only the pelt and bones to the shops that wanted them.
Both were high-quality Lightning Element materials for crafting, so they would always sell, no matter the state of the animal that they came from, but the meat was in much lower demand.
“Watch how much you feed Luna. She will gorge herself until she falls unconscious, and we still need her awake to direct her summons.” Cain told the hunters, while Luna gave him an entirely unjustified look of great offense.
“That might be true, but you don’t have to put it like that. I do have some self-control.” The Lamia complained.
Cain thought about that for a moment and found that there was no evidence at all that it was true, but if she was trying, that was all that could be expected of her.
“You’re getting better every day. Look at you now, you’ve been awake for almost four straight hours now.” He told her instead.
“See? I’m doing great. But I could really use a nap. And a snack. What do we have?” Luna asked.
“Try these jerky cubes. They are bite-sized and should be slow to digest, so you won’t get hungry as fast.” Cain suggested, giving her four small squares of meat.
Luna looked disappointed at the amount of food Cain produced, but after some mental calculation, she determined that when she woke up it should be meal time again, so this would be enough to help her sleep.
These dried cubes of meat were absolutely delicious, and Luna sighed in contentment, moving up Cain’s arm to drape herself around his neck while she slept.
In this position, she was looking the same way that he was, and while loosely looped like a necklace, she was in no danger of falling off. It also didn’t swing and bounce as much as his arm did, which made it a more comfortable perch. She only wished she had thought of this spot earlier.
“Shouldn’t you have her dismiss the summons before she sleeps?” The hunters asked hesitantly.
“Nah, it’s fine. They have their instructions to follow the group, and that won’t change until we get to town, so they can function as bait even without her intervention. It’s only when they need to take specific actions that you need to pay really close attention to the summons. Unless they’re really dumb or something.” Kone shrugged.
The Elk were fairly smart, as animals went, so they understood their role, and they understood that the Hunters would kill anything that attacked them, so they were happy to just follow along and sample random plants as they walked.
They were almost to the town when a ring of metal on stone caught everyone’s attention. Going by the sound, either two groups were fighting ahead of them, or a stone-type beast was being attacked. Neither was a great option since they didn’t want to get in the middle of someone else’s problems unless it was an attack on the city itself.
“Luna, wake up and dismiss the Elk. There is something strange going on up ahead.” Cain whispered, tickling the sleeping Lamia.
The Elk vanished in an instant, and Luna was wide awake, ready for whatever challenges lay ahead, not quite grasping the concept of Mythic Awakened. She was born that way, so she didn’t really take damage from anything that wasn’t, but most Mythic beasts and Transfers were much higher level than she was, and Luna didn’t have a Mythic Skill that she could grant to her summons, only her own venom.
The group crept closer, sneaking up on the noise until finally coherent voices could be heard.
“Give up the goods, you worthless hunters. Lord Morgeth will be here soon, and your weakling Farm won’t be able to save you. Play nice and we will let you keep your lives.” The voice demanded.
“Oh, I do love it when they push their luck. Who knew that the group from the Center of the continent had pushed this far north already? I do believe that they need a little wake-up call.” Cain whispered, then walked straight out onto the road where the fight was happening.
“Pardon me, but I do believe you are harassing my Hunters. You might not be aware, but that is a serious social Faux Pas in these parts.” Cain informed them, making the soldiers in black dragon scale armor sneer at him.
“And just who do you think you are? The King of the world?” The Captain of the squad laughed, idly swinging his axe in circles as he taunted Cain.
“That’s not a bad idea. Maybe I should turn that overgrown toddler Morgeth into one of my Puppets and declare myself King of the Continent.” Cain agreed with a nod.
Cain saw the moment that the mind control spell that had been put on the soldiers activated. They were forced to take action if anyone insulted the Demon Morgeth. Not that they wouldn’t have done it anyhow, as these were true zealots, but the option not to was never available to them.
“Oath Breakers, I do believe that these demons need an attitude adjustment.” Cain sighed, calling for a full dozen of them at Mythic Quality while drawing his spear and scimitar.
The pale violet demons were on the soldiers in an instant, using their movement ability to chop into the Soldiers with glee. Cain hadn’t called on them in a while, but they still remembered how much fun they used to have together. The Oath Breakers were eager to please, and that meant turning these upstart soldiers into spare parts for the Blacksmiths.
“Hold on tight, Luna. I will let you watch how fellow multi-armed demons fight, while I deal with that mouthy Captain.” Cain’s directions were loud enough that the entire force of soldiers could hear him, but they were fighting one on one with the Demons, and they were hard pressed just to stay alive, so there was nothing that they could do to stop Cain.
The Captain charged at Cain with his axe low, swinging upward in an attempt to split Cain in half, but Cain only parried with his scimitar and used the force to throw himself in the air, where he could strike downward with his spear.
As Cain flew up, he shifted into his smaller Ancient form, gaining wings that would grant him sufficient mobility to fight in the air, as well as an extra bit of durability and better eyesight.
The spear glanced off the soldier’s pauldron as he rolled away from the vicious strike, then sparks flew as the ax and scimitar met, again and again, giving him time to fight back to his feet.
With Cain engaging the Captain, that left one extra Oath Breaker, and none of the soldiers could deal with a two-on-one fight for more than a few seconds. They were quickly falling, but the Captain was too busy to have noticed, fully engaged in not getting split in half by Cain’s blades.
“Did you get to see how they fought?” Cain asked Luna, knocking the Captain’s legs out from under him and pinning him to the ground with his spear.
“I think so. They are really fast and prefer their claws, but I think I got a general idea.” Luna agreed.
“Excellent. Oath Breakers, dismember the others, I think we need to ask this one a few important questions about their boss’s intentions for the cities under our protection.” Cain ordered.
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!
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