The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

  She looked up to see a small figure at the roof near a dilapidated wall. He was holding bow and arrow. Once again he aimed and shot at her!

  "How come... It's him!"

  Linda saw the face if the enemy. Her heart was horrified even forgetting the pain coming off from her face.

  She would not think the rookie they were planning to get rid of would appear in front of her at this moment. Moreover even in her wildest dreams she wouldn't think that the same rookie would come out to track, ambush or even almost kill her.

  Whoosh!

  Sound of arrow awakened her as Linda used her sword to block it.

  At this moment, her intermediate hunter's physique and superb swordsmanship were manifested. Although Linda's reaction was half a beat late but still enough to hit and cut off the arrow. Broken arrow hit by the sword fell to the ground.

  At this time, Dudian's hand went backwards to take out the third arrow and shot it as if not aiming at target at all.

  However, the speed of continuous shots caused her heart to shudder and face turn ugly. Standing there was doing nothing but being a target for him to shoot at. Quickly she turned around and hid inside the building.

  Unexpectedly, as Linda entered the building her feet suddenly got caught by something.

  Ta! She reacted as if she was goddess of lightening as her heel moved away from the area. However, when the soles of her feet were about to retract a rope was ejected from the collapsed area. It covered and trapped her feet. Moreover, it was a slipknot so as she pulled hard the tighter it got.

  At the same time, a sudden force was ejected from the other end of the rope.

  The next moment, Linda felt weightlessness as her body was pulled up. Her legs were pulled straight up while the head was looking down to ground.

  She quickly used her sword to cut the rope and release her feet without panicking.

  Only, when she cut off the rope the floor above also collapsed down.

  She rolled away in hurry to escape the upcoming concrete. Bang! She heard the stones hit her previous position. Dust was raised. She couldn't help but turn pale also get scared a bit. However, after a moment Linda's anger was pushed to limits. As a dignified intermediate silver level hunter she almost died at the hands of a newcomer. If she hadn't cut off the rope in time, the stone rubble in front of her would have seriously injured her.

  Additionally there was an arrow on her face. If a stone had hit the arrow, the pain coming from the wound would have hit the sky.

  Dudian frowned slightly when he saw the trap fail. There was a trace of fear and helplessness as he observer the physical powers and combat experience of an intermediate level hunters.

  Linda had covered her face as her chest slightly went up and down because of adrenaline. She stared at the high-rise where Dudian was located however she didn't dare to go out. Neither she planned to go inside the current building as she was seriously injured at the moment and was scared of unexpected trap attacks. Shadows of fear had covered her heart so she decided to stand on spot for the moment.

  She believed that Gale and the dark skinned girl should have been aware of the situation. The other side was only one person while she had Gale and the other hunter with her so they would capture Dudian at the end!

  However, Linda clearly saw that Dudian put away the bow, turned... and ran.

  Run?

  You want to run, just like that?

  Your traps are useless and have run out of tricks. Now you want to run?

  Her body trembled because of anger. Face muscles twitched and affected the arrow wound. Pain that made her crazy was hitting her mind. But she resisted the impulse to catch up with Dudian. First reason was that there was a trace of a worry at the bottom of her heart that it is another trap. The second reason was the her injuries were too heavy at the moment. If she didn't pull out the arrow then she had to use one of her hands to keep the arrow straight. Or else when running or moving the arrow would keep shaking and the pain that would result would be unbearable.

  Moreover, she knew that the arrow was smeared and dyed with the poisoned blood. The familiar rancid smell belonged to undead's blood.

  She clenched her teeth as she pulled out the arrow bit by bit. The barb at the tip of the arrow took out flesh from her mouth as she pulled it out. Tears flowed down immediately. Although during her hunting career it was not the most fatal injury that she had received but definitely the most painful injury!

  After the final pull she took out the arrow and quickly grabbed the first aid kit from her backpack. She bandaged her face to avoid hidden dangers and other infections.

  Gale and the dark skinned girl were surprised as they saw the serious face injury of Linda.

  "Chase him! Quick! We must not let him run!" Linda said vaguely using the other side of her mouth.

  Gale and the dark skinned girl took a quick glance as they rapidly went over to the building where Dudian was at.

  "Damn it! He had applied the blood of rat to cover his smell!" Gale said as they were going into the building. But he stopped her from entering the high-rise and went around.

  'Bone rats' were very common small monsters and could be seen everywhere. But he would never think that the other side would use its blood to hide!

  They had tracked the false target from the beginning! Most probably the purpose of the other side from the beginning was to make them feel traced!

  Gale's heart got colder as he thought of details.

  As they were around the corner, Gale's quickly said: "He is fast. He had ran away!"

  Dark skinned girl wasn't thinking about the meaning of his speech because she was vigilantly looking around so that they wouldn't be ambushed by another trap.

  "Damn it!"

  Gale couldn't help but curse after chasing half-way the street. He said to the dark skinned girl: "He must have confined three 'bone rats' in advance somewhere in here. Now he has released all of them. His smell is mixed together with them and these rats are scattered and running in different directions. We have to chase separately!"

  Dark skinned girl was startled.

  Chapter 116: Counterattack

  “How can a mere rookie ambush us? Is he deliberately exposing his smell to you?”

  Gale’s face was gloomy as he avoided the question asked by the dark skinned girl.

  “Chasing separately is too dangerous.” The dark skinned girl saw that he didn’t answer so she continued in hesitation: “The other party had injured the captain. So even if we catch up, we may not be able to cope with him. Maybe he wants to break us up!?! ”

  Gale thought for a bit, then said: “Perhaps there is a way to identify him. Even if he mixed his smell with the rats so that we can’t track him. However, the movement trajectory of rats is totally different from humans. Of course! The rats would be too lazy to run away. The one which is leaving should be him.”

  He took a breath so that he could perceive the smells floating around to his greatest extent. Everything was clear to him now. The smell of rain, moss, stinking undead, a faint smell of decay and everything else was formed into a sensory map in his mind.

  It took less than five seconds for him to open his eyes: “Follow me!” He rushed rapidly towards one direction.

  The dark skinned girl was surprised: “Did you find him?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  Both of them soon came to an open square. There was a lot of water in front of it. There were scattered monster bones, decaying undead limbs, moss and tree branches.

  Gale raised his hand pointing to a direction of a collapsed pile of rocks. But if you looked carefully, you would find that the place he was pointing to contained less moss and lacked rocks.

  “He is hiding over there!” The dark skinned girl’s eyes lit up. It was something man-made. It was likely that he had prepared it in advance to set aside a place to escape to! However, she didn’t dare to jump in. If that person was really hiding there, then there had to be a trap or two.

 
She carefully got closer while surveying the surrounding terrain, as well as stone furnishings, to prevent an unexpected attack.

  Gale followed behind her. He couldn’t do much at this point as his hands were tied. He could only count on the dark skinned girl to find the trap!

  “There should be a cave! A smell is coming out from deep inside it! ” Gale whispered in a low tone. He was frowning and he was tense.

  The dark skinned girl had a serious look as she heard Gale’s words. She carefully observed the surroundings. Since the injury on Linda’s face, they had identified the enemy as an archer. In that case, she was confident in close combat. Scouts were definitely better than archers and only worse than warriors and knights in close combat. Of course, she was thinking about an open and honest fight.

  So, as long as she was careful not to give the enemy a chance to attack from the stone heap nothing would happen to them.

  Both of them, one after another went over to the pile of rocks.

  Dark clouds were rotating over their heads, it seemed rain was approaching!

  “It’s about forty meters inside.” Gale used very low voice to whisper.

  “There are no traps.” The dark skinned girl frowned as she was nervous. The more she couldn’t find a trace of a trap the more she felt terrible.

  When both of them were about ten meters close to the pile of rocks.

  The sound of splashing water echoed out. However, it didn’t come from ahead but from behind!

  Both of their body muscles tightened. They turned around at almost the same time.

  Whoosh!

  A silver arrow flew past and hit Gale’s throat!

  It instantly piercing through!

  Gale’s eyes went wide open as he clutched his throat. He issued a painful ‘argh’ sound and fell down.

  The dark skinned girl’s pupils tightened. She saw that at the square there was a dirty pool which they had dismissed. It was full of all kinds of rot, including undead limbs, rat bodies and so on. A figure had jumped out from inside. It was Dudian.

  Hiding in the pool?

  The dark skinned girl’s heartbeat rapidly increased as her body trembled. She saw Dudian jump to the edge of the pool. He didn’t escape, but took out arrows and went towards the girl.

  She knew that the opposite party was an archer. Because of the distance, there were more than a hundred ways for him to kill her!

  Her only chance was close combat!

  She believed that the other party should not be an intermediate hunter. Otherwise, he wouldn’t use plans to ambush them but would go for a direct frontal battle as he could easily kill her and Gale. So as the opposite party was a primary hunter like her then she was not without the hope for victory!

  Whoosh!

  The second arrow shot onto Gale’s face and his life ended that moment.

  Dudian saw the girl was trying to approach him. His face slightly changed as he quickly turned around and run. Moreover, while running he rapidly shot a few arrows so that the girl couldn’t catch up to him.

  His heart was beating fast. Fortunately, for the last two months, he had practiced the basics of archery to the limit. His accuracy was good enough to kill the enemy from the first shot.

  Whoosh!

  Doudian ran to the rear of a tall building.

  The dark skinned girl saw that the other party had dismissed everything and ran. She was about to release Gale’s body to chase when she saw that the enemy was shooting arrows. She got scared and raised Gale’s body to resist in a hurry. One of the arrows shot into Gale’s chest.

  She raised her head to see Dudian head back into a high-rise, but she hesitated to follow after him.

  Whether the previous time Linda was injured or Gale’s tragic death, had made her not to be able to see the enemy. She was not sure that there won’t be another ambush waiting for her at the back of the high-rise. Detecting traps took time so she couldn’t get close to the building when there was an archer hiding inside.

  What should I do?

  She hesitated and was confused. Eventually, she dragged Gale’s body and turned away from the square. She came to the edge and squatted. Later on, she took out a smoke signal from her backpack and found a red light flare. She lighted it to notify the others.

  Dudian’s heart was relieved. He saw that the other side didn’t chase after him into the high-rise. However, he had regretted it, because he had set up traps inside in advance. Nevertheless, the traps that he made wouldn’t be able to kill a normal primary hunter. After all, he had not systematically studied making traps but devised them purely on his own imagination.

  “Fortunately, I’m alright.” He leaned against the wall and began to breathe out. He saw the red smoke released from the square and knew that it was a signal. He was aware that he had killed the team member who had the ability to track people. Now they were blind and he could rely on his smell to track them and hide in the dark to attack at the first opportunity.

  “She saw my appearance. Although she was angry, however, her character seems like a selfish and cautious person. They shouldn’t be able to track me anymore as there is no way for them to trace me. Unfortunately, Linda’s magic marks are somehow related to blood. Most probably she can control her body’s blood. In that case, the undead blood smeared on the arrows shouldn’t infect her. ” Dudian’s eyes flashed as he made fast calculations.

  ….

  …

  Chapter 117: A kind of talent

  Linda rapidly rushed over as she saw the red smoke signal fired onto sky.

  She felt bad as the red smoke meant for to be used as a signal only in an emergency situation. She saw the dark skinned girl squatted down staring across a broken tall building while rapidly preparing traps. Gale's body was lying in front of her.

  Linda's heart sank as she saw the arrows stuck on Gale's face, throat and chest. Dark skinned girl heard the movement and turned to see Linda coming. She was relieved but she spoke in hurry: "The enemy is in the small building. I don't know if he had run away from the back of the small building. Gale, Gale..."

  Linda bent over to see Gale's eyes open wide without any movement. She was silent for a moment before speaking in low tone: "Weren't you both together? How did he do it?"

  Dark skinned girl told previous incident minute by minute.

  A strong killing intent flash by Linda's eyes as she listened dark skinned girl talk about the details. Because of anger she clenched her fists while her cheek muscles tightened. Anger in her heart had overcome the pain coming from her check but she relaxed the muscles on her face to avoid the delay in healing the wound.

  "Captain, do you know him?" Dark skinned girl couldn't help but ask as she saw Linda's actions.

  "He is the new kid," Linda answered.

  "Him?" Dark skinned girl was shocked. Although she had heard Dudian's name but have never seen him before. It was difficult to believe that this cunning and insidious boy was the lucky scavenger who got his hands on magic marks by chance.

  "How come he is outside the giant wall? Moreover, Gale clearly sensed his smell floating out from under the rock. Is someone else helping him out?" Dark skinned girl couldn't help but ask.

  Linda coldly looked at her: "You don't understand. He pretended that he used the pre-captured 'bone rats' to escape but his actual purpose was to lure you into the ambush. Fortunately you weren't stupid and didn't separate to pursue him. Or else he would have long caught you guys one by one..."

  Dark skinned girl as if shocked by Linda's words said again: "But, Gale's sense of smell couldn't be wrong!"

  "He had used Gale! "Coldness flashed past Linda's eyes: "Gale's reason to trace him to here was most probably devised by the enemy in advance. He had injured most of the 'bone rats' in advance. Most of them wouldn't run too fast or too far. Glee had locked on to the fastest running 'bone rat'...It was all a trap!"

  "Moreover the smell that Gale had felt floating form the hole should belong to the real 'bone rate'. He didn't c
over his smell but covered the 'bone rats' and waited until he got here. Later on he should have wounded it and let it go inside the hole between the rocks. He had lurked into the pond to cover his own smell and that way had attacked you from behind!"

  Although Linda haven't personally seen anything but dark skinned girl could justify her analysis. Even so, the little devil's mind was working extremely well!

  She remembered the way Dudian leaped out of the pond, pulled the string of the bow and made the shot. Although they were calling him a 'kid' and referring him as an immature but that moment gave her different feelings.

  "Captain, what do we do now? Continue to go after him?" Dark skinned girl said in hesitation.

  Linda stared at the high-rise and whispered: "No, he will come back. We just need to sit back and wait." Then she looked at Gale's body and said: "We have to burn his body. The arrows were infected. At most in an half hour later he would turn into an undead..."

  Dark skinned girl bit her lips as she whispered: "I know."

  Linda made a gesture and turned away to leave.

  Dark skinned girl began to drag Gale's body and followed after her.

  They found a small building and settled inside. The reason for electing such a small building was that they were worried a high-rise could collapse after excessive rainfall. But also they were beware that Dudian may use high-rise terrain to attack them.

  Dark clouds had gathered in the sky for a long time. Thunders echoed while the rainfall brewed.

  Linda and dark skinned girl swept out an open space, found some combustible materials and incinerated Gale's body.

  The rain was pouring heavily outside. The weather was cold. Dark skinned girl looked at Gale's burnt dark eyes and felt a bit of chill. There was a trace of sadness in her eyes.

  After dispersing Gale's ashes dark skinned girl looked back at Linda. She was surprised to see her standing front of the window gazing at the rain. She didn't know what to think.

  "Captain ... ..." dark skinned whispered: "Will he really come back?"

  "He will." Linda answered without looking back.