17 The Hunt Begins (1/2)
As the sharp, short blade pierced through the skull of Jelen, Cher couldn't help but release a shrill scream. Her puffy red eyes filled with tears as she saw her friend die without her being able to lift even a finger.
”You will pay for this! No one will let you get away with this! You demon! Devil!” Cher couldn't help but tearfully curse Arnin. Her screams echoed through the forest before abruptly stopping. Arnin covered her mouth with one hand and rubbed the blood covered blade on her cheek.
”Miss, you shouldn't be too loud. You don't want the beast getting riled up, do you? If you do, then I am willing to let it chew on a leg or two. What do you say?” Arnin, with his devilish voice, whispered quietly into the ears of Cher. She couldn't help but take a deep gulp and fearfully look at Arnin from the ground.
”Now that my part of the contract is done, lead me to where I want to go. Here is the map, although it has a path, it will waste my time. I want to go through the dangerous areas, so you will be my guide. You can't really deny since you signed the contract, so let's get going.” Arnin lifted the numbed Cher and placed her on top of the beast. ”Oh shoot! I can't have you doing anything funny while we travel so let me think of a way to restrain you. Hmmm!” Arnin put on a thinking look while he looked around the battle area. He walked over to Jelen's body and kicked it over to see if there was anything useful.
Cher couldn't help but angrily stare at Arnin for his actions. Arnin continued to search the body, but couldn't find anything useful. He then moved towards Von's body. There was no head, but his items were still on him. After a few minutes of searching, Arnin still couldn't find anything. He got up and let out a sigh.
”Tough luck miss. Since I couldn't find anything, I am going to need to improvise. Don't blame me for what I am going to do... actually, go ahead and blame me.” Arnin slowly walked towards Cher. The blade that was in his hand was lightly placed in his shoulder.
”What are you going to do?” Cher was frightened by the approaching Arnin. The five year old that should have been angelic and innocent continued to look more and more like a demon from the depths of hell. Arnin didn't answer and only smiled. He stopped directly in front of Cher and grabbed her hands.
”I will give you two choices.” Arnin didn't even say the next line before slicing Cher's fingers off. It was a clean slice that took all ten of her fingers at once. Cher sat dumb for a moment before her face scrunched up in pain.
”AHHHH!” The pain caused her to almost faint. She looked at Arnin with intense fear. Her body shook terribly. Tears fell down her pale cheek. Arnin then wrapped her hands with cloth as to prevent too much blood from being lost. He then numbed her hands and legs once again.
”Now that everything is sorted out, you can abide by your part of the contract. If you give me incorrect directions, don't blame me from taking more than just your fingers!” Arnin lost his smile and looked at Cher with a deadly glare. Cher could only nod her head in fear.
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In Talonton village, the village elder stood in front of a large flying beast with his two granddaughters.
”Grandpa, will we really see Arnin at the academy? Then won't aunty Ashia and aunty Avian be able to find him easily?” Lilise looked at her grandpa with hope. She didn't hear what Arnin did exactly, all she knew was that he ran away from home.
”You are right. It is easy to find him even if I don't tell them where he is. However, it is very difficult to gain access to the academy. Although Avian may have a great background, it is not possible for her to just barge into any academy.” The village elder talked about the academies with great respect.
An academy would garner great respect from any person because of their goal to teach martial arts and other subjects to people. However, something that many did not know was how dangerous academies were. On the outside, academies may seem to be independent from one another, but it was actually completely the opposite. Every academy had an unbreakable alliance. If something happened to one academy, then all the others would try to help the academy or directly attack the other party. This knowledge was not secret, but it was still forgotten because of the many competitions that took place between the various academies.
”Lilise, don't worry about anything. Just concentrate on your studies. I need to have a word with Arnin for not completing your training. I will just complete it while we make our way there. We need to rush though or else Arnin will get there before us.” The village elder smiled before walking towards the flying beast. It was a giant hawk like beast with a wingspan as long as twenty feet. The giant hawk's feathers were brown like the dirt; it wasn't a pretty color. However, something eye catching on the hawk was the insignia that hung around its neck. The insignia had a white butterfly and a black moth as the symbol. It was the symbol for the academy. On top of the beast was a man with a long grey beard. His face carried wrinkles and the dark blue eyes made the man seem gloomy.
”Mister, we are ready to head out now. Sorry for the wait.” The village elder respectfully bowed to the man on the beast before proceeding to put his granddaughters onto the beast. After both of them were on, he also jumped up and sat on the very back.
The man on the beast nodded when all three were finally on the beast. He lightly kicked the beast's side before it launched into the air swiftly.
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