Chapter 70

An arrow whistled through the air and hit the side of the monster first, before the monster landed on Sir Wallis's shield, the weight and force nearly throwing him back.

Adrian and Lord Jayson were on it immediately, flanking Sir Wallis on either side, and swiped their spears. The monster moved in time, ducked, and jumped toward Lord Jayson. The monster's quickness took the lord by surprise, but he used the length of his spear to block the creature. 

Before it could counter, a kick to its side appeared, Sir Wallis kicked it, but it was only enough to make it fall to its side before quickly recovering.

Another arrow flew through the air, and to Adrian's shock, the monster actually managed to dodge. 

Adrian stepped forward and stabbed with his spear, anticipating where the monster was going, until the tip buried itself in the monster's leg.

It screeched, slapped away the spear, and ran into the forest. They chased after it, injured and weakened, it wasn’t able to escape far. It tried to jump from one tree to another but was clearly too injured to do so smoothly.

It hid in a tree hollow, and when they approached, it hissed. Sensing it was cornered, the monster went manic and dived toward Adrian, who swiped it mid-air, his strength slamming the monster hard onto the ground.

They surrounded the monster, which was trembling and barely conscious, it seemed, but otherwise still alive.

“Let's make sure it's passed out, yes?” Lord Jayson said. Sir Wallis quickly moved and kicked the creature hard in the head, Adrian almost felt bad for it.

Soon they tied it up tightly, making sure it was securely restrained before Lord Jayson gestured to Garold. Garold nodded, grabbed the horn on his back, and blew it.

A smooth horn blast sounded. Almost on cue, another horn blasted in the distance.

Lord Jayson looked in that direction, smiled, and turned toward them. “It seems we're the first to capture a monster… but the others are quickly catching up as well…”

“Milord, we need to work even harder then. These monsters aren’t as bad as they seem.” Sir Wallis said. Adrian heavily side-eyed him, his words seemed ominous, but Adrian couldn't fully understand why.

Lord Jayson noticed this and spoke, “What's wrong, Lord Harrow?”

“I hope Sir Wallis is right. I hope to the God of Light we won't be unlucky today.” he said.

Lord Jayson chuckled. “Let's all hope that, then.”

It was soon after that the men in charge of retrieving the monsters appeared. After seeing them and exchanging no words, they immediately headed deeper into the forest.

It didn’t take long to encounter another.

This one, however, was easier to deal with, a strange, boar-like monster that ran straight into a spear tip.

“What kind of thing makes a boar become something like that?” Sir Wallis said after Garold blew the horn.

“What's truly hidden underneath Creviceton has always been a mystery to this day…” Lord Jayson said with a raised eyebrow, looking down at the dead monster on the ground.

Adrian then furrowed his brows and thought about the offer made to him. Were they going down to find the truth? 

That shouldn’t be, he had a feeling the exploration wouldn't be too far underground. Then again, he wasn’t too clear on the details yet as he hadn’t accepted the offer, but after this, he already had an answer.

Provided he didn’t changed his mind and faked an injury during this event. And by fake, he meant truly injuring himself so that he would have a good reason to refuse.

It was midday when they took a break, eating the food they had stored. It was a short break, and they quickly moved on. All around them in the distance, horns continued to sound, signaling that others had captured monsters as well.

They needed to push on if they wanted to win.

--

Sir Hayford pulled his sword free from the dead monster's body and clicked his tongue. “Tsk, it's dead. I would have preferred it alive.”

“Hey, you killed it.” Sir Longinus chuckled, approaching him. The other two knights were watching the surroundings, alert.

“These monsters aren’t as tough as people say.” one of the knights remarked.

“Commoners would mostly say that. Of course they cower, but to trained knights like us…” Sir Hayford shook his head. “Though, I did expect more, hearing stories about them. But in the end…”

They were knights from the West who had come here to participate in the tourney. Too bad they hadn’t done well in any of the competitions they had entered.

“This is our third monster. Although dead, it's still worth some points, right?” one of the knights asked.

“Of course.” Sir Hayford said, before clicking his tongue again. “But we have some tough competition.” He thought of the other teams.

“Then stop dilly-dallying and let's go capture more,” Sir Longinus said.

They waited for the retrieval team to collect the monster to make sure it was credited to them, but even long minutes after they blew the horn, no one arrived.

“What's taking them so long?” Sir Hayford frowned, his expression turning ugly. “Shit, is this on purpose? Is this rigged for a specific team to easily win?” He looked at his companions, who were also frowning.

“Could be, but I haven’t heard anything, not even from the castle servants.”

One of them cursed and then sighed. “Forget it. Our chances of winning this were low in the first place.”

Sir Hayford pursed his lips, indignant. That was when he heard the snap of a branch.

Thinking it was the servants, they looked toward the sound. Instead, they tensed immediately.

Behind the trees, a large silhouette was moving. For a brief moment, Sir Hayford saw a large eye pass by, looking at them with a calmness so unnatural that it gave him chills.

‘What the fuck is that?’

The large figure used the bushes and trees for cover but not fully, as if it wanted them to see it, trying to intimidate them and judging whether they would run away or fight.

“What the…” He heard one of the knights beside him mutter, and then the large figure shot out from the trees and charged toward them.

Time seemed to slow down as Sir Hayford saw what it was. It was a tiger-like creature, only longer, probably longer than a horse, and its upper body was as large as a bear's. That was all he could observe before he hurriedly jumped to the side.

“Argh!”

Hayford saw it easily rip off the head of one of the knights in one large bite, before its heavy tail swiped at Longinus, who was holding a spear, throwing him backward.

Hayford clenched his blade and was about to lunge before he saw the monster swipe another knight hard, slamming him into the ground and heavily denting his plate armor.

He immediately turned around and ran!

‘What the fuck was that?’ he thought frantically. As he continued to run, he didn’t dare look back at all.

“Hayford, wai-Argh!!”

He heard Longinus’s scream, and Hayford shivered.

That was when he heard the sound of rustling behind him. His heart chilled as he pushed harder, desperate.

“Fuck… fuck, fuck, HELP!” Hayford screamed, feeling death closing in by the second. Then he tripped, his boot catching on a stone as he stumbled forward and crashed hard into the dirt.

Despair drained the color from his face as he scrambled to turn around, only for his mouth to gape as he grew even paler.

Hrnn…

The monster's hairless, fierce and unnatural face was only a few inches away from him. Its breath, smelling of blood, decay, and death, washed over his face.

Hayford froze and looked into its eyes. He might have been mistaken, but there seemed to be a hint of amusement in them.

At this point, it wasn't the inevitability of death on Hayford's mind, it was the creature itself in front of him.

This was… a true monster.

A scream resounded through the forest before it abruptly ended.

-

Adrian’s head tilted as he looked into the distance, frowning a bit.

“What's wrong?” Sir Wallis noticed this, wiping his sword free of blood after they had just captured their third monster.

“…Nothing.” Adrian answered. It might have been his imagination.

“It's a couple of hours before the day ends, and we are on our third monster. Do you think that’s a good number or not?” Lord Jayson looked up at the sky and then toward them.

“Good enough, Milord, but other teams might be luckier than us and on their fourth monster now.”

“Or fifth…” Garold muttered.

“Let's hope others aren’t that lucky, then, and we will triple our efforts,” Lord Jayson said. Even through the helm, Adrian could tell his face was serious.

During this time, Adrian saw that the duke's son was at least no slouch in combat. He was trained, like a knight, but Adrian just didn't know how he would fare against an actual knight one-on-one.

They moved on, searching for any tracks. Adrian had tried to learn as best he could about hunting animals beforehand, but obviously, Garold was far better at this than him.

Then, after some time, they heard the sounds of rapid footsteps, leaves rustling, and branches snapping. They turned toward the direction of the noise. It didn’t sound like monsters or animals, but humans.

Soon figures emerged, proving them right. Two figures in armor, but dirtied and scraped, burst through the bush. Leading them was a familiar face.

The Lord of Cameron, Lord Tuckstone, shouted, “Run!”