The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

  "Previously, we took the initiative to go after him so he used the traps and ambushes. But now we are not going after him, so he shouldn't look for us, right?" Dark skinned girl quietly spoke out what was going in her mind.

  "He has to come." Linda turned around and looked at her.: "He is smarter than we thought. Although I am not aware how he came out but the point is he didn't escape after he met us. Instead he went for a kill. It shows, he had expected that we will be trying to kill him and we were only waiting for his training period to end. This is his only opportunity to kill us. If he can't kill us, he knows that, it will be his death!"

  Dark skinned girl was startled. : "But he is just a rookie. Although he was a scavenger but he had never been to a hunt. How come he such a big courage? Even without you, we are a team and number with outdone him. How he dares to go for a kill?"

  "He proved that he is capable of doing so." Linda looked at her: "Although he is few years younger than you, but his heart is decisive. He may have never been to a monster hunt, but... Perhaps this is where his talents lay..."

  Her words caused dark skinned girl to shudder: "Fortunately, we are not going to give him opportunity to grow up or else he would be a big threat to us in the future."

  Linda looked out the window and observed the heavy rain: "He should be very anxious right now. The plans that he had laid out weren't successful till the end. Now, the initiative is in our hands. He should be afraid of us going back alive. If he misses this opportunity then we will kill him after the training. So if you were him, what would you do now to kill us?"

  Dark skinned girl was confused as she couldn't come up with answers.

  Heavy rain as if a screen shrouded the sky.

  Chapter 118: New plan

  "They left... They didn't chase after me..." Dudian could tale from Linda and the other girl's smell that they went away. Linda had seen his appearance so she shouldn't stop at this point. So why?... Suddenly he thought of a possibility,: "The only archer in their ranks is dead. So if they continue to blindly go after me then they will fall into my traps and die...Are they going to sit back and wait?"

  He pondered a little and immediately understood Linda's idea.

  "She knows that I'm desperate to kill her. That's why she is not in hurry." Dudian's face sank, "If I allow them to get back to the wall, I'll end up in dangerous situation. She will rely on her identity of silver level hunter and I'll end up deployed into their team. Once we come out of the giant wall, I won't have the slightest chance to escape!"

  "They should have set up few traps and waiting for me... What can I do?"

  Dudian frowned. The only chance is to wait until the other side believes that he has left and relax. Then he could ambush and attack them! However the other side is a silver level hunter and not so easy to ambush second time. Moreover, if the other two join them too, it will be a team of four. Even if he can kill one of them the other three would immediately seize him... He had to disperse them.

  Moreover, his range was only 100 meters and the accuracy was not 100%. There was a possibility to make mistakes and errors while shooting.

  Rumble ~!

  Thunder roared illuminating the gray sky.

  Dudian looked at the pouring rain and gradually restores his calm. Thunder echoed in his mind. "If I could use lighting... How good that would be!", Dudian thought.

  However to use lightning he had lacked the proper instruments. He wouldn't be able to manufacture them too.

  "Using lightning?

  An idea flashed past Dudian's mind. He was startled at first but his eyes lightened up in excitement: "Of course! Why I have been so stupid until now? If I can't kill them directly, why don't I use external forces? I've been relying on my power to fight them... So stupid! What's the difference between me and normal brainless soldier? Ah, I've been stupid. Really stupid!" He patted his head but he was extremely excited.

  ...

  ...

  In the rainy season it rains quick.

  As the rain began to stop the air was full of wet smell.

  The rain was scrubbing down the smell of rotten things and corpses all over the ruins.

  In the blind of an eye, the sun had already set in the west and night came.

  Door and windows of the small flat had shrunk and dilapidated. The original window glass was smashed. Dark skinned girl had found enough wood and stone to block the gaps and tightly wrapped vines around them. There was a small fire in the middle of room.

  In addition to the two women, Linda also had used smoke signals to call back Nick and Reid who were near the Red Lake.

  There were few reasons for convening them back, naturally facing Dudian alone by herself was not one of them. First she took into account that both of them couldn't face clawed dino lizard alone. It would be very difficult for them to kill it and most probably would end up as a snack for it. Second reason, she was worried that Dudian wouldn't attack Linda but instead turn around to attack Nick and Reid. He would catch them unprepared and could kill them both. So she had called everyone that to solve out Dudian once and for all. Afterwards, they could go and complete the task.

  She was not worried.

  If Dudian was any other child, she would probably think that the other side would quit as they saw the attack fail. But because of the previous experience she didn't intend to treat this newcomer as a normal child. In the bottom of her heart she didn't dare to have the slightest contempt.

  "Gale ... ... was killed by the little devil?" Nick asked as he looked at the mound in the corner of the room.

  Reid couldn't believe it either as he asked the dark skinned girl: "Is it really true? He is just a child. Not even 14 years old. How could he...?"

  Linda glanced at him and spoke in a cold tone: "Don't look down upon him or you will be the next..."

  Reid looked at the gauze bandage on her cheek. Linda's lips were trembling. The fact was placed in front of him so he didn't say anything.

  "Are we going to wait?" Nick couldn't help but ask.

  Linda spoke coldly: "What? You lack patience?

  "No, it's just we are wasting a lot of time" Nick replied.

  Linda looked at him and said: "If you don't want to delay time then go out, find him and kill him."

  Nick was stifled by her words and no longer spoke. His magic mark ability was auxiliary so he wasn't good with tracing and tracking.

  "Don't worry this kid doesn't have 'light physique'. The longer he is outside the giant wall, the more uncomfortable he will get. Especially, after some time his body will be so discomforted that even the magic marks wouldn't be able to help him cope and resist the erosion of radiation!" Dark skinned girl spoke in confident tone:" I have arranged quite a few traps around the place. The longer he delays, the solid our situation will be. Maybe we won't even have to kill him personally, as one of my traps would handle him!"

  Nick and Reid sighed at the same time. They couldn't believe that a newcomer would force a team which had an silver ranked hunter into a retreat.

  Linda got the idea after seeing both of their expressions but didn't say anything. However, if they could trap Dudian, she would crush his body and suck out his blood!

  In the blind of an eye two days passed.

  Last two days were calm. Dudian seemed to disappear.

  Dark skinned girl, Nick and Reid were convinced that Dudian had left but Linda insisted that Dudian was hidden in the vicinity waiting for the right opportunity.

  After all, the other three as hunters knew the hunting process. Patience was extremely important. The one which took the lead would be exposed and will become the prey while the other party would hunt.

  They couldn't do anything but wait.

  Linda finished the dry food and touched the wound on her face. Its been three das but the wound on her face has been healed. There were no scars and no pain left. The main role for this regeneration was played by her magic marks. Her ability was to control the blood flow. She could speed up the healing p
rocess within her body. It was an extremely important ability for hunters which spend time outside the giant wall. At least one third of the hunters died outside because of receive continuous injuries and couldn't healing them on time.

  Moreover, by being able to heal her injuries rapidly also meant that Linda was even more bolder while containing the beasts. Even if she got injured she could restore and heal the wound.

  "Three days ... ..." Linda squinted her eyes. From her point of view Dudian was qualified to be a hunter at least by his patience alone. He was able to endure not showing up in three days.

  Dark skinned girl was eating dry food while leaning against the wall.

  Dong! Dong! Dong!

  Suddenly the ground quivered.

  Chapter 119: Monster wave

  "What? What is happening?"

  Four were looking at each other in surprise.

  Linda, as if thinking of something, threw herself to the ground and put her ear onto it to listen. Her face became pale as she said: "Not good, it's a beast wave."

  "What ?!" the other three were shocked. The most terrible disaster outside the giant wall was when the monsters attacked in mass numbers simultaneously turning into a beast wave!

  Even a small beast wave could easily swallow three to five hunting teams.

  "Run!" Linda stood up and got out of building.: " We have to avoid the route where the monsters will pass from!"

  All of them ran out of the small flat. Because of rich hunting experience just by feeling the quiver under their foot, they could speculate where the source of beast wave was. They followed Linda towards a different street.

  Rumble ~ ~!

  Tremors got more intense as if the wave of monsters were getting closer.

  Boom!

  Because of the vibration of the ground a building nearby cracked and collapsed causing dust fill the air and great sound echoing aftermath.

  Linda didn't refused to turn around to check but kept running hard.

  Whoosh!

  An arrow was shot from a small building which was next to them.

  This arrow was unexpected as they were in panic and in rush to escape. Moreover they wouldn't think that the enemy would ambush them from such a close place. Although Linda reacted but her body was late to keep up with the arrow. Additionally, the target was the arrow was not her but the dark skinned girl who was running behind Linda.

  Dark skinned girl raised her dagger to block the oncoming arrow but as her arm was stretched halfway out the arrow penetrated into her shoulder. Because she was caught in sudden attack, her body couldn't respond on time and as if she was hit by a sledgehammer she felt to the ground.

  Nick and Reid took out their weapons and stood in front of her to protect while watching the direction from where the arrow was shot.

  The girl gritted her teeth in pain but didn't utter a sound.

  "You all right?" asked Linda.

  Dark skinned girl hold her shoulder and reluctantly nodded her head.: "I'm fine."

  "Don't stop! The beast wave is getting closer. Run!" Linda's heart was relieved when she saw that the injury was not fatal.

  Nick helped the girl to stand up but the same moment another arrow was shot. However, he was alert and prepared for a sudden attack. He block the arrow using the dagger.

  "He's hiding there!" Reid pointed the location where the arrows were coming from.

  Linda clenched her sword tightly as she stared at the small building about hundred meters away from them. However, the trembling sound coming from the back was getting intense with each passing second. If she went to the building and fight with Dudian, even if she killed him the beast wave would catch up.

  The other one had taken this into account. : "That's why he is so daring now.", Linda thought about the situation.

  Her body was slightly trembling because of the anger but she eventually held back herself. Linda had seen many hunters die because of emotional actions. "Don't be worried about him. We should get out of here!"

  Nick and Reid knew how critical the situation is. Moreover they were after of cunning and devious traps that Dudian had used before, so they were hesitant to go after the newbie. Who knows what kind of traps he had set?

  Dudian was observing them from the small building. As expected they didn't chase him but continued to escape. He mouth curled into a smile. He had seen and smelled the dark skinned girl lurking around putting traps all over the place. However, she hadn't set foot in this small building.

  Therefore, he dared to come into the small building. He had a bag of sealed blood in his hand. Dudian quietly disappeared into the small building.

  Run! Run!

  Four of them quickly ran, jumping off the rubbles of broken stones and acting the fastest they could.

  However, after few minutes of rapid running the sound of quivering land was getting closer instead of loosening. Linda jumped over a pile of rock and hastily looked back. Her pupils slightly contracted at sight.

  She saw nearly four meters tall monsters crawling at fast speed catching up to them. They were monsters which had shape of a lion but skin of human. They didn't have any hair on them. Moreover each had seven or eight human-like arms.

  "Damn, it's a herd of brainpeckers!" Linda's face turned ugly.

  Dark skinned girl and the other two looked back to check the monsters. All of the brainpeckers were adult. Moreover a primary hunter would not be able to cope with them. It was extremely difficult to ran away from their hands as brainpeckers were very fast.

  "They've found us! We won't be able to loose them!" Nick's body trembled because of fear.

  Linda bit her lips as she said: "Rona, they are tracking by sensing the smell of your blood. That kid intentionally hurt you so that brainpeckers could lead to us."

  Rona's lips were white as she saw the brainpeckers. She had thought of this possibility but she still had a glimmer of hope in Linda. As a silver level hunter and team-member of old days she thought that Linda would try to save her.

  Rona looked at her, "I know...."

  "Thank you ... ..." There was a complex look on Linda's face as she continued: "I will take care of your loved ones."

  "Thank you ... ..." Rona had a grateful look on her face as her figure stopped and turned around. Her face was bitter as she saw the beasts coming over at her. There was so much desires that she hadn't accomplished yet. Too much things which she hadn't enjoyed yet. She could leave only with regret.

  She raised her short dagger and sadly looked at oncoming beasts.

  puff!

  The first beast to reach her growled and raised three giant arms and swept out. Rona's could not do much to delay them as she had turned into the first beast's food in a matter of seconds.

  Nick, Reid and Linda had long run past the place.

  However they weren't able to outrun the brainpeckers. Nick turned look back in surprise as he saw the herd of brainpeckers didn't stop after killing Rona but continued to chase.: "We can't get away!"

  "Run, we gotta cover our smell!" Linda didn't look back as she more or less could imagine the scene.

  By the time she rushed to the corner of the street she had already pulled out the undead powder. She spilled it onto her body and drilled to a dilapidated building through a hole.

  Reid followed her close by and covered up his smell the same way. He went after her through the hole.

  The Nick was the final to come up to corner. But his leg stumbled and the undead powder on his hand crumbled. Although it was spilled onto his body it was not enough to conceal him on time. Moreover, the brainpeckers were already very close to him.

  "Captain, save -" Nick cried in horror as his face had a desperate look.

  His body had turned to pieces by the huge arms of the brainpeckers. Parrying them with weapon didn't play much of a role.

  Chapter 120: Prayer

  Brainpecker beasts seemed to search for other beings to vent their anger on as killing Nick wasn't enough.

  Linda and reid
were secretly observing them through the gap in the wall of the building where they were hiding. Their hearts were nervous while they kept breathing slowly to decrease their heartbeats in fear that they could catch attention of these bloodthirsty monsters.

  "All right, all right ... ..." Reid clutching the hilt of his dagger kept praying: "They won't find us, brainpeckers don't prey on undeads. O, God of light, the Father, please bless your people... "

  Roar! Roar!

  Herd lost their target so they kept wandering around the street in anger. Their snake-like smooth tails were twisting on the ground while they kept looking right or left for a lead.

  Linda and Reid were relieved as they saw the brainpeckers didn't come into the building they were hiding at. However they couldn't relax yet as the brainpeckers were still roaming around. They were secretly praying in their hearts for the herd to leave as soon as possible.

  In this tense moment when they were almost suffocating of fear, a sharp whistling sound echoed out as the arrow pierced into small building.

  Linda and Reid almost jumped out of fear as they had ignored the newbie who was hiding in the dark.

  "Damn!" Linda clenched her fingers into a fist as she heard the arrow hit the building. But she still retained a trace of reason and fastly came up with a plan. If he wanted to lead brainpeckers into the building using arrows then she was going to lead them back using a rock. She picked a stone, raised her hand and looked at the direction the arrow had come from.

  Whoosh!

  It didn't take a moment for her to stand up and squat down but it was enough for her to throw the stone.

  Bang! Crash! She saw that the stone she had thrown out had accurately hit the remains of glass window. The sound was particularly crisp!

  The herd which had detected the sounds looked around and rushed over.

  However, Linda was stunned because without exception all of the brainpeckers were running towards the building where they were at!

  "This......"

  There was no time to think about details as because of impact by the brainpecker herd's attack this three-story building fell down.