Chapter 28. Hunting Human Hunters (2)
The valley got spooky after dark. Gebel and Isaac weren’t up for a vamp face-off, so they dipped out quickly. Isolde, not the type to take needless risks, tagged along just as fast. Isaac stayed vigilant – any moment could bring an attack.
He decided to see the Paladin Order as a backup plan. The enemy wouldn’t see them coming, so holding out would equal victory.
“Think they’ll be back?”
“You scared?” Gebel asked, a sly grin on his face. Rather than snapping back, Isaac coolly weighed their odds.
“After encountering the Abyssal Beast, they’ll struggle to attack us even at night. But the Inquisitor can’t keep summoning it forever…”
“They’ll probably try to make us summon it first.”
And once the Abyssal Beast is sent back exhausted, Duke Heinkel Gullmar will show up.
It’s simple really.
We have the Abyssal Beast, they have Duke Gullmar.
First one to make a move loses.
In other words, Isaac’s party had to face the Wallachia hunters in the dead of night without their secret weapon.
‘Is it a fifty-fifty chance?’
The Wallachia hunters may have seemed weak during the day, but at night, they were a different story. They were known as knights of the Red Chalice for a reason. And Isaac had to factor in the possibility of more reinforcements.
Estimating a fifty-fifty chance meant one or two of his companions might get hurt or worse. Of course, Isaac didn’t count himself out.
‘This prediction doesn’t even include my tentacles.’
If his tentacles emerged from a critical injury, the same disaster that happened with Calzen could repeat. Isolde and Gebel would be in danger.
Even if he survived, revealing his tentacles would likely mean Isolde’s death.
‘If I want to make it out of this, I have to part ways with these two.’
Isaac’s gaze sharpened as he looked up.
Silhouettes were descending the valley slope. They moved silently, almost like fast-moving mist. Gebel and Isolde caught on, quickening their pace.
Fortunately, no red mist was present, and their numbers seemed limited. But their whereabouts were uncertain.
“Inquisitor, use the Moth Doctrine.”
“Got it!”
Following Gebel’s advice, Isolde swiftly activated the miracle. Ash-like particles dispersed from her clothes and blended into the darkness. They had been spotted before by the hunters, but Isaac had diverted their attention with a decoy.
With Isolde gone, the Wallachia hunters seemed thrown off balance. Losing their primary threat left them disoriented.
But they weren’t naive.
—
A sharp whistle sounded in the valley, followed by arrows raining down.
“Whoosh!”
Gebel expertly blocked an arrow with his sword. Isaac, less skilled, took cover behind a rock. The arrows were tipped with a dark substance, a trademark of those hunting humans.
Then, the Wallachia hunters emerged. Their aggression was heightened after their previous defeat.
Isaac calmly surveyed the scene.
‘Two above, two below.’
The same faces from earlier, now more determined.
‘Did the red mist take out two of them during the day? Is this all that’s left?’
Isaac was like, totally focused as he swung his sword. The Wallachia hunter, flashing a creepy grin, taunted his attack in broad daylight. The hunter’s movements were eerily smooth, totally opposite from his usual clumsiness during the day.
‘This ain’t gonna be a walk in the park.’
Isaac’s sword clashed with the hunter’s, but then, bam! Unexpectedly, the hunter’s sword cracked from the impact. Things got weird as the hunter’s wrist twisted in a funky way. Both Isaac and the hunter were kinda slow on the uptake, but the sword kept moving.
Isaac straight-up thrust his sword into the hunter’s mouth. Dang, the hunter somehow ended up slashing his own face with his own sword.
“Ahihiha!”
“What in the world? Your face is a hot mess.”
Isaac was shook by the turn of events and promptly pulled back his sword. The hunter’s broken sword, still stuck in his face, shattered into pieces. The hunter stumbled back.
‘Why are they still so weak, though?’
But then, Isaac realized he had seriously underestimated them. The Wallachia hunters had definitely leveled up. Their moves were quicker, more precise, and smoother than before, even Gebel was finding the going tough.
It turns out, Isaac’s sword skills were just on another level.
‘Wait… am I… actually strong?’
Gebel might’ve been the most skilled of the bunch, but he could be facing an even stronger adversary. There were a lot of factors at play, but Isaac was feeling pretty confident that his skills were top-notch, maybe even Paladin-level.
Isaac made his move toward his opponent once more.
“Ahia!”
The messed-up face of the Wallachia hunter tried to say something but struggled due to the sword blade still stuck in his face. Meanwhile, another hunter tangled up with Gebel was trying to lend a hand but was getting outmatched by Gebel’s fierce swordplay.
With each swing from Gebel, the hunter’s blade bent but didn’t break. It eventually gave way under Gebel’s relentless strikes, ending up with a sword through the foot.
Both hunters were now in rough shape to keep fighting. The hunters above, searching for Isolde, must’ve come to the same realization.
Whoosh! Thud, thud!
Arrows started raining down from above, and the fog crept down the slope like a charging army. Through it all, Isaac stayed cool as a cucumber.
‘They ain’t after us. They want Isolde. The red mist can’t show up unless she’s out of the picture.’
The whole attack was just to keep Isolde in line. She was stuck, torn between fighting or making a run for it. In this pinch, she had to summon the Abyssal Beast. The hunters weren’t wrong about her lack of combat skills.
‘But man, these hunters… they’re not fully prepared for this.’
They definitely didn’t see themselves facing Isaac’s crew like this smack in the middle of the night.
Whoosh.
The fog started shaping up, forming a knight in armor without legs. The ghostly horse charged silently. Or, was it even considered running without legs? It glided down like a specter, charging forward with eerie speed.
But even facing this spooky sight, Gebel stayed unfazed, just raising his sword. Back-to-back with Gebel, Isaac took a deep breath.
‘I might not have my tentacles, but… I’m ready for ’em.’
Isaac remembered the cool moves he pulled off when he took down Zihilrat. He couldn’t recall the exact techniques, but he knew he could whip them out whenever he felt like it, no sweat.
In his mind, Isaac pictured eight tentacle-like arms bursting out of him, ready to take on anything in their path. These tentacles stopped the ghostly horse in its tracks, chopped off heads, pierced hearts, tore apart Wallachia hunters, and crushed skulls.
Payback time for messing with the sanctuary was now. Isaac swung his sword, and lo and behold.
—
The Wallachia hunter, charging at Isaac, was totally baffled by what he saw. There was this weird vibe coming off of Isaac, who looked pretty fragile before. The hunter’s mind raced irrationally, thinking he was offending the Red Chalice big time.
“Red Chalice, save me!” the hunter tried to scream, but it was already too late.
In a flash, the hunter’s head hit the ground, leaving just a body trying to regroup, only to realize it was headless. Isaac had blurred for an instant, his moves tearing through the hunter like a swarm of blades.
The hunter’s body was barely recognizable anymore.
“Such savage skills, more suited for wild lands… how could this be within the Codex of Light’s realm?” the hunter tried to protest in silence, his neck incapable of producing sound. But there was no one around to hear him.
Isaac paid no mind to the head rolling on the ground, his hunger growing strong.
“If I hadn’t devoured Zihilrat, this would’ve been a hassle,” he mused.
The hunger he felt was all in the mind; he had plenty of meat stocked up. But the toll this advanced technique took was evident – it couldn’t be used lightly.
[Advanced Paladin Sword Technique Proficiency Increased! (Lv 2)]
[Nickname your killer move.]
After unleashing the power only twice, Isaac saw its rank rise. He realized he hadn’t named it before.
“The Avalanche Order calls their move ‘Avalanche Sword Technique’… maybe…” he pondered.
He thought about the name “Tentacle Sword Technique,” but that sounded too cringy. Dubbing it “Isaac Sword Technique” felt off too.
“Isaac Technique. And with those eight sword marks, let’s go with ‘Eight Branches,’” he decided.
Going forward, the move became known as “Isaac swordsmanship: Eight Branches.”
[Isaac swordsmanship: Eight Branches (A) has been formulated.]
Isaac felt the move engraving itself in his mind, a skill he mastered but one that demanded a price.
Feeling the strain, Isaac turned to check on Gebel. If he could handle things, Gebel should have aced it.
But what Isaac witnessed next caught him off guard.
“Gebel!”
An elder Wallachia hunter in a flashy red cape was thrusting a spear into Gebel’s side.
It was none other than the Vampire Duke, Heinkel Gullmar.
Gebel fought back, stabbing Heinkel in the chest, but his strength seemed to be fading fast.
Heinkel, focused on taking out Gebel, braced himself, only to be surprised by someone sneaking up from behind. It was Isolde, using the Doctrine of the Moth.
Silently sneaking up, Isolde suddenly stabbed Heinkel in the back. Her Sword of Judgment pierced deep, giving off intense heat that seared Heinkel’s flesh and blood. As she forcefully yanked out her sword, a spray of blood followed, ripping open Heinkel’s side.
