I
“It’s heading left,” Kadava whispered. He was dressed in a simple sackcloth shirt with a patched leather vest tossed on. It was his typical outfit, and nothing I said could change what he wore.
“The marks are getting deeper and deeper; is it slowing down?” I inquired. The parquet bear-like paw prints that scattered evenly across the glistening freshly fallen snow led deeper into the foreboding forest.
“Well, at least it’d be easier for us to track it down, especially in this damned wasteland of trees.”
“Ulterium,” Foku spoke on my left. Through most of the trek, he had been the quietest, focused only on the game. He wore his purple silk top hat and a matching violet cloak, a sense of mystery shrouding Foku, armed with his unique signature lance strapped to his back. “Look over there,” he pointed rightwards.
A flash of gray was followed by a heavy bustle through a distant withered bush as it attempted to escape. Though it was only visible for a split second, I caught a clear glimpse of its features.
“That’s...a lykos,” I breathed in amazement. “All along the lykos was trying to fool us, creating nonsense twists and turns to divert our attention, trying to tire us out! That’s what they would do to any hunter. No wonder it took us so long to keep up with it!”
“You said ‘lykos’...” Kadava trailed off disbelievingly.
“It’s the only four-legged beast cunning enough to deter a tracker. This would make us a fortune if we hunt it down!”
“Aren’t lykos supposedly extinct? They all disappeared after Zxyx’s reign, didn’t they?” Foku hesitantly asked.
“We seldom hunt on Lord Cryann’s island; you’d never guess what still resides in this wretched forest. In fact, I’d admit this forest creates somewhat of a palisade to the beasts within. If we catch this lykos, and it’s a big one too, our names would be known across Grozorg!”
“Our names are already known across Grozorg,” Kadava scoffed. “We’re bounty hunters, not hunters.”
“Hey,” Foku interrupted. “What if we cut straight across the forest? If the lykos keeps up with this pattern, we might be able to outpace it!”
Frankly, I was too busy talking to have noticed a trackable pattern of the lykos.
“That’s a pretty big risk though,” I spoke, raising an eyebrow, “but it’s worth a shot,” I resolved with a smile. “After you.”
Picking up our pace, we traced the hypotenuse of our game’s detour, leading deeper into the heart of the forest.
“Um, Ulterium,” Kadava said, breaking the silence. “You thought we were hunting a boar.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Even a boar would take three grown men to hunt and handle. Now you’re talking about an adult lykos!”
“What, you don’t think we can handle an adult lykos?”
“Have you not heard of the legends of lykos back in the days?”
“I have, yet you haven’t answered my question yet.”
“King Fulcan required the best squadron from his elite legion to pin down a single lykos!” Kadava’s voice rose. “Even then, it took an hour and a half until his broadsword could penetrate through the muscular derma and pierce the heart of the beast! You know that lykos aren’t only cunning; they’re strong and vicious as well!”
“I’m sure that’s all exaggerated. Besides, the High Lord Tyrannust V trained his own pack of hounds to hunt and take down lykos after Fulcan’s experience. Surely lykos aren’t that strong. Now if you don’t mind toning down a bit.”
“Exaggerated?!” Kadava shouted. His voice rang through the desolate branches as a few birds quickly fluttered overhead.
“Quiet!” Foku hissed, interceding Kadava and I. He pointed to the right. “We shifted too much to the left, now we’re getting farther away from the lykos!”
He lowered his fingers, revealing a parallel path a good twenty meters away. In between the two snow-blanketed paths, shriveled plants litter the ground with sharpened twigs and furnished thorns.
“It’s further down that other track over there,” Kadava indicated. “Right there!”
A gray blur shifted evenly farther and farther in the distance, under the dim rays that penetrated the dense canopy.
“Look, Kadava. I get your concerns,” I spoke with understanding as we shuffled onwards. “The reason I specifically chose you and Foku to hunt with me, the same reason why you both are my first mate and second in command, is because of your uncanny skills. Both you and Foku were well disciplined in mastering your strengths, and only with your crazy vision and his deadly accuracy will the guild continue to thrive. But your skills don’t determine your success, your will determines your success.”
“Was that prepped?” Foku teased with a slim smile. I rolled my eyes.
“So... you’re saying that we have the capability of actually handling the lykos,” Kadava said dryly, eyes narrowed.
“You wanna go back? Your call, but I’m not leaving. Worse comes to worse, we...”
“Improvise,” the two finished in unison.
“You already know,” I smiled. “Besides, we’ve almost caught up to it.”
“About that...” Foku responded slowly. “We didn’t catch up to it, it caught up to us.” Abruptly ceasing to a halt, Foku softly continued, “turn around slowly, and evade any eye contact.”
A trembling growl ripped through the underbrush behind us. A low grumble shook the dead dense woods from the rumble of the lykos’ powerful muscular chest.
“Blades up but don’t take your sheathes off. If a glint of light reflects off the metal and frightens the wolf, we would be in deep trouble.”
We occasionally stole glances at the lykos. It was astounding -- the body built bigger than a full-grown lion, teeth bared revealing slender fangs ready to seize any victim, and muscular forelegs paired with powerful forearms. It wasn’t any regular wolf; it had an elegant lucent silk coat that radiated under the weak sun, and sharp ears perched backwards on its pointed skull.
Kadava equipped his pair of battle kunai, blades wrapped with torn linen. I pulled out my dual sheathed krises as Foku prepared his electrical lance.
We were fully armed and prepared, when my mind started to race. I had no idea, nor personal experience, with a lykos. It slowly clawed closer to us, jaw gaping wider, baring more razor fangs. Kadava’s doubts soon became mine - a lykos? Was I crazy? Sure, boars were easy and bears achievable, but...a lykos?
“Prokun! What do we do?” Foku hissed. “It’s getting closer!”
Racking my brain, I recalled different methods on taking down beasts.
“What did King Fulcan do to kill that lykos in the legends?”
“First of all, he had a squadron of a dozen elite soldiers,” Kadava innocently reminded.
“He also had his acclaimed broadsword,” Foku added, glaring at the two short blades poking out of my hands.
The beast was now less than two meters away, crimson eyes locked somewhere on me. I knew it could pounce from there, and if any of our eyes met with its eyes, it would be over.
“It’s gonna maul us anytime now,” Kadava hissed with a rising panic. “Normally, I would stick with you till the end, but I’m ditching if you don’t do anything.”
Kadava was probably the only one in our entire guild to have dared spoke a thing like that to me, head of the Blood Guild. I had known him since we were young classmates. The reason I recruited him was for his exceptional ability, as well as his steadfast loyalty - well, except now.
All there was to do now was what I excelled at, what I was known for.
Improvise.
“Triperikleio formation,” I started. “Kadava flank right, Foku, left.”
In an instant, we positioned ourselves in a triangular formation around the lykos; Kadava on my right side and Foku on my left. The wolf spun around aggressively, realizing it had been outnumbered.
“Be quick because if it jumps, a man’s sure to go down!”
“Foku, shock second, I distract. Kadava, search!”
I had to risk it now. Standing firmly on the muddy ground, I looked up to meet its eyes. Immediately, the crimson eyes filled with rage and the muscular beast tore through the damp air towards me.
“Sheathes off!” I spat. “Foku, now!”
A beam of electricity blasted from Foku’s mystical pole arm, stunning the magnificent beast midair.
“Search!”
Lee quickly pranced around the lykos, examining the wolf in search for a weak point that would grant us an advantage over it. Sometimes the weak spot resulted from a previous accident. Other times, a weaker point on the beast was due to a birth defect.
“Right forearm back, left ear back!” Kadava quickly shouted.
As the lykos crashed into the ground, a sudden arrow whizzed past my right ear.
“Heads down! Ambush!” I cried.
“Who is it?”
A low voice broke through the bushes in reply.
“Sorry, I was aiming for the lykos,” the voice sneered.
I recognized that damned voice instantly. Turning around, I faced the bowman with a second arrow nocked on his bow. Somebody stepped out beside him, confirming my recognition - none other than the one and only Octavius Tarsus.
“What are you doing here?” I scowled at him, all thoughts of the lykos dispelled. “You nearly shot my ear off!”
“If I had a less professional ranger recruited, your ear would have already been off,” the voice cackled.
“And if you were well aware of the law, that would be eligible for two months in prison!” I snapped back.
“This is our lykos! Get outta here!” Kadava shouted angrily.
“Not anymore!” Tarsus laughed.
Instinctively, I turned back to where the beast once lay stunned at Kadava’s mention of the lykos. It had awoken from the shock, now prancing a couple meters away, leaping deeper into the forest.
“The law also states, ‘The first party to kill the beast has full ownership of the prize,’” Tarsus finished. “After it, men!”
A group of five leapt out of the bushes at Tarsus’ command, following their leader and his ranger towards the large wolf.
“They used us as pawns! We can’t lose! Let’s go!” I barked, enraged. Tailing Tarsus’ group, we sprinted towards the escaping lykos.
Octavius Tarsus was the head of a second guild, the Night Guild. There were only two guilds on Grozorg, and without a doubt, ours had always been in constant feud with his guild since the beginning of time. Moreover, there was a personal conflict between Tarsus and I -- problems overlapping problems every time he interfered with my doings. It seemed nearly impossible for him not to go where I went, and I should have known better today.
The Blood Guild, my guild, was founded by my father, passed down to me after his disappearance. Tarsus, alternatively, opened his guild after I inherited my father’s head position during the corruption of Lord Zxyx. Both guilds contained a variety of different classes, but stealth was the main attribute a guild searched for. It was no surprise Tarsus would hire an Arretan ranger, perfecting the bow and the blade; a master in the shadows. The specially trained longbowmen could only be found in the Terramancy domain, the domain of nature.
As we darted through the forest, the ranger nocked another arrow whilst keeping up with his guild, raising and aiming towards the hind leg of the lykos.
“Foku!” I quickly called. “Shoot his bow! Try not to hit him - but if you do, it’s all the same!”
We were a good ten meters from Tarsus’ last man, and another twenty behind the lykos. At even twenty meters, it was a guaranteed, if not fatal, shot performed by any skilled ranger. With a spark and a crackle, Foku’s lance blasted a neon beam.
A sequence popped into my head as I quickly spat it out. “Kadava, right, rendez-vous Tarsus! Foku, center disguise! I left, parallel Kadava!”
This sequence was one of our most practiced three-men formations, and our best as well. As Kadava ran right to flank Tarsus, I sprinted to Tarsus’ left, while Foku set up two illusions of me and Kadava beside him, so if anyone did look back, it would appear as if we were still together. This made Foku a valuable guildsman; his training in the Illusiomancy Domain taught him the arts of mind manipulation and, well, illusions.
Kadava was primarily our scout, and I, more or less, an assassin. The official title was an “experienced hunter”, but I preferred “assassin”. With strict perseverance, we began to outpace most of the Night Guildsmen, although Tarsus surprisingly matched our pace; he remained at a constant distance ahead of us.
The ranger halted to recover his priceless bow, ripped out of his hands but not damaged by the sudden burst of electricity from Foku. At least he was now no longer a threat to the lykos. Tarsus released a frustrated cry towards his ranger upon glancing backwards to check on our positions. Pulling out his unique shuang gou as we neared the tiring beast, he linked one hooked end of the blade to the other, swinging it faster and faster above his head.
We were kept at a five-meter gap behind Tarsus, and Kadava was still nowhere to be seen. The lykos had slowed down from exhaustion; it wasn’t the swiftest of all Canidae, yet it was still persisting a hard ten meters ahead of us.
If the swinging blade of Tarsus caught any part of the lykos, it would most definitely be a lethal blow, penetrating deep into the flesh of the wolf. His blade was probably forged in the Ferromancy Faction, where the strongest of all metals were welded. My blade was developed from the same faction as well, but the momentum of his special weapon gave a greater advantage in taking the lykos down.
Tarsus peered back occasionally, noting to himself that all three of us were still far behind him. Foku was doing an excellent job and I smiled devilishly at the oblivious Tarsus. He gave another frustrated cry as more of his guild members vanished behind the horizon of the dead trees. Foku kept a nice and steady pace to convince Tarsus that we had no chance of catching up, when in reality Kadava and I were about the same distance to the wolf as Tarsus.
A shadow silently shifted some thirty meters away on my right, and a vague silhouette drew closer, resembling a human figure. It had to be Kadava, still sprinting in the trees away from Tarsus’ line of sight. We were only a few meters away from the guild leader, disciplined in enduring long miles of running. I made a movement with my two short blades, crossing them above my head followed by pointing them towards Tarsus. Quickly, I reinforced my code by mimicking a quick spin with my blades above my head, pointing my two silver blades towards Tarsus’ weapon once more. Kadava repeated my actions quickly but clearly, stating his comprehension. This was the basic “render and repeat” protocol everyone in my guild had to learn. We couldn’t give ourselves away until the last moment - the devastating art of surprise.
Tarsus gradually slowed down, assuring himself that we were still far behind. The lykos had begun giving in to exhaustion as well, pace staggered and decreased in speed. It knew it couldn’t fight back when it was outnumbered by this many.
At last, the wolf tumbled down, tripping across a mossy branch that had fallen on the forest floor. Seizing the perfect timing, Kadava hurled his battle kunai towards Tarsus’ swinging blades, knocking the smooth rotation off balance. In smooth succession, Kadava leapt out from the trees and overtook Tarsus, both men dropping down onto the dusty ground. The shuang-gou was ripped out of Tarsus’ grip, sliding far beneath a thorny shrub. I jumped out concurrently, sprinting the last couple of meters towards the fallen lykos. Quickly, my blade sliced neatly into the upper region of its right forearm, recalling Kadava’s quick examination of the wolf’s weaker points. The large beast howled furiously, snapping its jaw towards my arm unsuccessfully. I reached into my back pocket to pull out a weighted hunter’s net, casting it onto the lykos. The wolf drained all of its energy fighting uselessly against the heavy net for liberty. In triumph, I placed a foot on the sturdy beast and raised my blade high.
“How... How did you...What?!” Tarsus spat out in shock, quickly regaining his footing.
Foku ran to join us after a thirty second delay, catching his breath.
“Clearly you know nothing of illusiomancy,” Foku chuckled.
“Who do you think you are?” Tarsus diverted his question towards Kadava, pressing aggressively towards the lean figure.
“Clearly you know nothing of ferromancy,” Kadava mimicked, showing no sign of fear from Tarsus’ intimidation. A small laugh escaped my mouth.
“You’re gonna pay for this! You're all gonna pay for this!” Tarsus stood up, infuriated. “Men, return! And you, Ulterium, I’m gonna get you next time...and you’re gonna lose,” the leader snarled before swiftly parting away angrily after recovering his blades, cursing the wind and everything around him.”
“Sucks to lose again, doesn’t it?” I shouted after him, seizing the air of victory. “Good work, guys,” I grinned, “but we’re not done with this thing yet. Let’s bring ‘er to the king and see what he’d give us in exchange.” Heaving the unconscious beast over our shoulders, we began our walk back to the palace of the king of Light and Purity.