94 The Hunt [2] - Death to those who saw
“Can you please explain to me what you saw exactly.” A knight clad in armor asked as he held a notebook in his hand and looked at a couple men sitting on a bench, with their heads held down and their bodies quivering in fear.
The knight and these men were in an ordinary room. It was small, making it look like it might have been a motel room. However, there were several knights in there, each and every one of them interrogating a different person.
These were the local knights. They were essentially the police of their town, and they were simply taking statements from the assassins that had seen this eldritch terror everyone is talking about.
“I don’t know… It was just… It was so scary. One minute the boy is dead, under our leader’s feet, the next minute he had turned into some kind of shadowy ice monster.” The man described with a quiver in his voice.
It was obvious to everyone in the room that the assassins were all scared. It was to the point where they didn’t even seem to care about the fact that they were telling the knights that they were assassins who were paid to murder a child. They simply wanted to feel safe again and be as far away from the monster as possible.
“What does this boy look like?” One of the knights asked, causing one of the assassins to finally look up and answer their question after remaining silent the entire time.
He was the strongest assassin among the bunch who were hired to kill Silas. His power rivaled that of an early pristine amethyst core, and he was one of the only reasons why so many of them had come out alive.
7 of them had survived, 3 of them being snipers and the other three being close combat assassins.
“The boy… He looked no older than 9 years of age. He had white hair and green eyes.” The man explained, while the knights looked at him with a weird stare.
“The guys outside said the same thing. Either he’s telling the truth, or they’re all lying to keep some kind of secret, though, I doubt that. They’ve already confessed to being assassins, I doubt they would lie about something like this.” One of the senior knights chimed in.
“They all seem shaken too. That’s not something you can easily fake.” Another pointed out.
“What else can you tell me about this person?” The knight questioning the assassins asked while writing something in his notebook.
“Uhm… He wore a black cloak… I can’t really remember much. It all happened so fast.”
“Can you tell me what happened before this boy became a terror?”
“Uhm. Well, he was beating us. All 40 of us. Honestly, it was amazing. Every time he attacked, I felt like my energy was being siphoned.
Attacks that looked slow and weak to me did way more damage than they were supposed to. His movements were chaotic and beastlike, and his physical strength was… Extraordinary.”
“A 9-year-old almost beat all of you?” The knight raised a brow.
“That wasn’t even the most terrifying part about it. We from one of our sources that his main weapon was magic. He was a mage. Yet, what we didn’t know was that he could use 3 different elements.
Even then, you’d think that a spell dampener would stop him, but he was still too physically strong for us to beat him easily.” The man began shaking even more.
“How many did he kill before he became… That thing?” The knight asked.
“Half of us.”
“Do you think you would have been able to take him on if you were on your own? I know that assassins usually do better on their own instead of having a team.”
“If he used his magic, I would have died as easily as everyone else. Physically, I’m not sure. He’s not as fast as me, but his endurance and strength were on another level.”
“Do you remember any-” However, before one the knight could finish his sentence, one of the assassins suddenly stood up, having seemingly remembered something.
“His name… I know his name.” The assassin muttered, causing all the knights to go closer to him in order to listen to what he had to say.
“His name was… Silas Skylark”
***
Darkless City
In the meeting hall of the 7 generals, one could see 5 of them sitting around a round table, each one of them talking to one another in a meeting that Archie was clearly leading.
However, there was one of them who didn’t look too happy to be their. The sour expression on her face combined with her natural ability to annoy everyone around her made he unlikable, but Archie still asked-
“What’s wrong, Greed.”
However, she didn’t reply.
It seemed like she was looking into some kind of crystal. The look on her face looked like it might turn into an uncontrollable fury at any second, and if the rest of the generals knew anything about Greed, it was the fact that she had a very high temper.
However, something else they all knew too well was the fact that she was the most unpredictable person amongst them.
“I think I just lost one of my pets.” She spoke in a sad voice before her eyes filled with tears.
“Awww. Don’t cry.” Life pulled her closer to her chest and cuddled her.
“It’s okay. I’m sure your pet is fine.” Life smiled, yet Archie couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.
He had a bad feeling about this, and he felt like it could possibly impact his future plans.
However, before he could ask the question on his mind, he got an alert from his communicaton crystal that made him widen his eyes slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Eclipse, who was sitting on his chair with his feet on the table asked.
He wore a simply goatte and had his hair pulled back into a ponytail.
“You know I don’t like that form, right?” Archie narrowed his eyes at eclipse with annoyance.
“I know. I just like annoying you.” Eclipe smiled.
In a town near the north-western border, a group of knights coul be seen leaving a motel late at knight while looking and sharing all the notes they had written down.
It was mid-night, so the sun had set hours ago, making the entire town fall into a dark and silent slumber
“Do you think this might be a shape shifting humanoid?” One of them asked.
“Let’s hope it’s just a skin walker. Otherwise, we’re truly fucked.” Another sighed.
They all knew the possibilities, and currently, skin walker was the best outcome.
And eldritch terror awakening near their town was essentially a death stamp to their economy. Not only that, but for all they knew, they could be wiped out by tomorrow, and they wouldn’t even have enough time to react to the creature’s presence.
Hell, most of them struggle against simply amethyst cores. How were they supposed to fight against a terror?
“Let’s hope the royal scouts get here in time. I really don’t want to die.” One of them sighed.
“I didn’t want it to end this way either, but you guys poked your noses where it didn’t belong.” A young boy’s voice sounded from behind them, sending a shiver down their spines.
And when they finally looked around, what they saw was a young boy with jet-black hair and a pair of blazing emerald green eyes, staring at them blankly as he raised his hand and pointed it at them
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