Volume 2 - Chapter 11 - Avenger

[T/N: A quick reminder. Like with the last chapter featuring Gui, the text is heavily in hiragana. Hiragana used this way implies his language skill is that of the elementary school student. Since we don't have an equivalent of expressing this in English, I opted to simplified the language used (the description of objects are kept as is though).]

I lunge forward and quickly snap my jaws at the clawed rabbit, making it jump back. Expecting that it will jump away, I didn’t stop going forward, ramming my head into it before it can land. The prey brings its claws down at me as I thought it would, I stopped advancing the moment I touched it, so I’m out of its reach. With its claws down and about to land, I bite it in the head and start shaking my head wildly until I hear a *pakin*. I have fought with these prey before, I know how to kill them quickly.

With the prey killed, I put it down. I’d normally start eating, but this isn’t the time. There are too many of these prey and they are hunting something.

Brother taught me that even though I’m weak, there are ways for me to hunt things when I shouldn’t be able to. I’m not fast like the sky thieves, I’m not strong like the bears, I’m not tough like the horned deers. And because I am weak, I need to look and listen, to know when to attack and when to run away. I’ve got stamina, I can climb, I can swim, I have a strong neck, I can think and plan ahead. If something works, use it, I still can’t believe I was able to catch a sky prey by hiding in the floating water grass.

Right. Something that works, I just ne-

*eeeeeeee*

The sharp scream pierces the air again, I can smell fresh blood. Running by instinct, I dash across the field of golden grass and spot a group of prey surrounding the brown-haired man, a bleeding blonde-haired man and the little girl against a cave made out of wood and straws.

*garuru*

I growl at the group of prey to draw their attention, slowly start walking up to them to divert their focus on me, it’s the same trick we use to hunt bears and the horned prey. With their attention on me, I scream “GO!”. The brown-haired man is the first to react, grabbing the little girl in one of his arms while dragging the other man’s arm toward the homes.

The rabbits all turn around at the sudden movement by the man, I take this chance to grab the nearest rabbit by its back and slam it into the ground. A soft *gokin* sound comes out of the prey, I throw it to the side as I take a quick leap back, regaining their attention. Seeing that they are safe, I start running away. The rabbits chase me for a while, they are not fast, but they have quick, powerful jumps. Taking advantage of that, I lure them into the field of golden grass. I turn sharply as soon as they leap, increasing my distance away from them. I finally got far enough away that I start running in a straight line.

*uuuu*

I hear the sound of groaning as I run by one of the many boxes made of golden grass. I sniff the air, it’s the scent of blood, the blood of man. I follow the smell and jump onto one of the boxes. “You okay?”

“Who… wait… Mr. Gui?” A man is hiding in the middle of the many boxes, one of the men that surrounded me after I saved the little girl. He had since said sorry and offered me some bread, there’s no point staying mad, so I had myself some yummy bread.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m hurt, please, save me. Wait.” The man clasps his hands in front of his heart, “I request that you save me somehow.”

A see through box appears before my eyes. “Go away you stupid box.” The box disappears shortly after. I look down at the man, he doesn’t seem to be bleeding bad, but his leg looks odd.

Where did that box come from? Wait, this isn’t the time to start worrying about that, hmm… what did Hank say… right…

I leap off the box and start looking around.

“Wait! Where are you going?!”

I spend a few moments scanning the area, I finally see what I wanted after a while. I drag over a pitchfork toward the boxes, sliding it through the gap before leaping on the box again. “Get up you maggots! You think the enemy will wait while you rest on your lily ass?!”

The man looks up at me with a stupid face. “You heard me maggots! The enemy will skewer you and cut your head off to show it off at their gate, now move unless you want to be some decoration!” The man looks at me with an even more stupid looking face, but he grasps onto the pitchfork and drags himself up. Whatever those words means, Hank really knows how to get someone up and moving. “Go!” I urge the man on as he limps his way forward as I keep a look out.

*sha sha sha*

The golden grass shakes in the field not too far from me. Soon after, some of the prey are leaping up over the grass before landing.

“Not good. You, find someplace safe. I will bring them away.”

“Daryl! Hurry! I will go unlock the door!”

A voice from higher up screams down at us. I don’t have the time to find out who.

*taataataa*

The man quickly drags himself over to one of the homes, soon after, a *gacha* followed by a *kara* comes from the home.

*garuru*

I growl toward the swaying grass, I can smell them getting closer. The swaying in the grass suddenly stops after my growling.

“Daryl, quick! Get in! I thought you died!”.

“Wait, Mr. Gui is out there! He saved me!”

“Go inside, NOW! I can take care of myself!”

“But-”

“GO!”

As if my voice is their signal to attack, a wall of prey leaps from the grass, all heading toward me.

I quickly run toward the nearest home and start climbing up one of its corners. I can hear the *kara* followed by a *gacha* as I make my way up the home. The rabbits finally catch up to me as I climb, but they can’t jump high enough to reach me. Seeing that the man is safe, I make my way across the homes from up high as I jump from home to home.

* * * * *

Why am I even doing this? What am I doing here?

I’m now half-circled by two dozen prey with my back against a home. I had been previously helping strays from the roof, coming down to harass the rabbits before running around and climbing back up, letting the strays escape into the homes. After doing this for about a dozen times, I spotted something strange. 3 men were protecting a woman and a little boy in a home for horses circled by rabbits. Most of the the horses are dead or dying, there are a few dead prey on the floor. I don’t know why, but the next thing I knew, I leapt off the roof and charged right through the horde of rabbits, scattering them for a short time. I caught them off-guard and by surprise, the two-legged ones took the chance to run off into the home from the path I opened. I took a nearby prey and shook it until the familiar *gakin* is heard before I threw it at the first rabbit that recovered before running off, baiting the rabbits toward me. A second group appeared around the corner when I tried to get to a home to climb up, ending up like this.

*garuru*

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why did I take the risk?

“There he is!”
“Form a wall! Push them back!”
“““ORA!”””

Several tens of men several row deep roars as they advance from my left, the prey start to leap away as soon as they shouted. I quickly make my way to the men before letting out a *kee* as a breath of relief escapes.

“Glad we made it in time, let’s hurry inside the townhall, hopefully they will leave by sunset.” The brown-haired man makes his way to the front, it seems he is the one that led the men here.

“…” I look up at the Sun, it is still high in the sky, it will be a long time before the sun sets. I will have to get back for dinner with brother. “It feels like they are here with a reason. Do they normally attack the town?”

The man scrunches his brows while the men murmur among themselves. It seems this is the first time this has ever happened, there isn’t a story from anyone’s family that got passed down.

“Get water, lots of water.” I make the decision to end this, I don’t want to die.

“Water? Why?”

“They are weak in water. We will kill them all or until they retreat.”

“Where can we get water in such short notice…?” The brown-haired man squints his eyes, while absently looking in the direction of the rabbits.

I turn around as well to give them a glance. “We don’t have a choice, do you have a pond? A water hole? Anything?” This is odd, they aren’t just running away. I put my nose up in the air to take a good sniff.

“We can’t contaminate our wells.”
“The river is too far away.”
“Hey, what about the brewery?”
“Damn it, my livelihood!”
“None of us will have a livelihood if these Huntsmen stay around, assuming our families will still be alive!”
“… Fine.”

“Do it, whatever you have to do, do it now. Move!”

All the men turn around and look at me in surprise.

“Mr. Gui is right, move! They are coming back with more!”

*TATATA*

A short, skinny man is leading the way, running up a dirt road heading away from the many homes before cutting across a field of golden grass to reach a bunch of separate stone homes. The rest of us follow right behind, leaving a cloud of dust behind the men’s heavy footsteps.

“Someone come with me to lift the roof and ceiling!”

A tall bulky man joins the short man as they disappear into the largest of the stone homes, with a yellow grass roof. The rest of the men enter, a few stand near the the door, partially closing the door while moving boxes of golden grass behind the door, making the door hole small. Some are rushing to close the doors on those holes in the walls. A group of men nervously look around, standing in the middle of the large room. I start looking around, there are large round wooden buckets filled with golden grass and water; there are also wooden round boxes around as well.

“Someone, fill those boxes with water!”

“Boxes?”

“The round ones! Quick!”

*garuru*

I run up to one of the doors while growling, the air is thick with the scent of the prey, so thick that I can’t count how many there are.

*guu*

Some of the men at the door swallow hard and groans at the sight. There are rabbits tens of rows thick, leading all the way to the field that we had cut across.

“You, you, you and you. Just keep swinging your sticks, just don’t let them rush in! You, you, you and you, stab the rabbit if they get past hit them toward me.” After ordering the men guarding the door, I turn toward the group that’s looking lost. “You people switch with them when they get tired! Everyone else, move the boxes of water near here and help me once you are done. Switch out with the front if you think you need to! Don’t fight the rabbits, just throw them into the boxes!”

The men look at me with their stupid expressions again.

“Just follow his order! How many of you has he saved already? Fill those barrels!”

“““ORA!”””

“They are here, move it!”

*shi* *shi* *shi* *kan* *shi*

I stand to the side of the door while the men in front swing their various sticks vigorously into the small opening, occasionally colliding with the prey’s claws. The men with the pitchforks stabs with a *busu* at the rabbits that got too close to the men at front. The others look on nervously while working quickly to fill those boxes, but I know we can do this. This is no different than when we stumbled onto that group of dogs and had to fight them off at a cave with that group of weaklings.

[T/N: This isn’t the Cerebus fight, remember, he refers the trainees as weaklings before.]

*busu* *shi*

“Shit!” One of the men with a pitchfork misses a stab as the rabbit jumps up and aims for the head of one of the men in front.

“Watch out!” The man next to him swings his pitchfork upward.

*kan*

The rabbit blocks with its claws, sending it flying high into the air behind the group.

*zudon*

The prey lands heavily on its feet. The men with me stare at it with stupid expressions, I dash and grab the rabbit by the neck before it can recovery and slam it into the ground with a *batan*. It doesn’t put up much of a resistance as I climb up the side of a just-filled round box of water and drop it inside without a sound.

“You! Close the box and make sure it doesn’t come out!”
“Umm… what?”
“CLOSE THE LID!”
“Yes sir!”

The man finally reacts and puts the wooden lid on while holding it down.

*da* *da* *da*

There are soft thuds coming from inside of the box as the men in front slow down in their swings, letting more rabbits through. It’s lucky that the men behind them managed to keep them safe so far.

“Ahhhh!” One of the men standing around gets slashed in the face by one of the rabbits that got through.

“Save him!” The short man comes running down with the bulky man from earlier, the bulky man runs to grab a pitchfork on the way and stabs at the bloodstained rabbit while the short man guides the bleeding man up the stairs.

Damn it, they are even weaker than the weaklings!

The brown-haired man kicks the distracted rabbit in its head, surprising both the bulky man and the rabbit, sending it flying at one of the boxes. “Some of you switch with the front!”

I run toward the stunned prey and drops it into the nearest box before moving aside. One of the men finally learned what I wanted them to do and immediately put a lid on that box. I turn around to observe the situation, the brown-haired man is helping out with the men in front with a pitchfork, all the men are different now. On the side, I see several men taking deep breaths. The rest are dealing with the few prey that got through, stabbing and slashing at them.

“Stop wasting your energy fighting them! Just lure it near the barrel and somehow get it inside!” The man that was holding the first round box closed shouts at the rest of the men.

The situation right now is the opposite compared to when we were outside, the men were having a hard time fighting off the rabbits as they were too few facing too many, it’s many fighting few now, but they are wasting their strength.

The short man runs down from the stairs with a shovel in hand, swinging it down on a rabbit some men are fighting. The rabbit manages to react, but is hit on the side of the head. With a quick step, he scoops up the rabbit with the shovel and drops it into one of the boxes filled with water with a *bashan*. “Listen to him! The entire area is full of Huntsmen waiting to get in! Don’t waste your energy, just chuck them into the barrels!” The other man jumps onto the box with a lid.

“We can do this!”

“““ORA!”””

* * * * *

*chara chara*

Name	Gui (Error)	Race	Error
Alignment	Error
Level	Error	Class	Error
Guild	Error
Class Description	Error
Strength	Error	Agility	Error
Vitality	Error	Dexterity	Error
Intelligence	Error	Wisdom	Error
Charisma	Error	Luck	Error
Points Remaining			Error

Warning: þ■ $| 0■”+ ?■■õr ■\e&<, p$yche ■ut■ide 0* ac@#^tab■þ paraþ-#er. AþÜi>(:ic ■■ot|**ion eng■ged.

You’ve leveled up! You are now le■þQ &error

Y■■■ve c■■se the demise of n■merous [Huntsmen Rabbit] wi■■■n a sho■t time ■rame. I■■■■■at■■n i■ now possi■le.

Congratulation, you’ve been hailed as a hero!

Notification: 47 quests completed (unread), 2 unlocked ability bestowed (unread)

“Stupid boxes! Get out of my way! Go away!” I shout at the see through boxes full of lines that suddenly popped up, getting in the way of my view. It’s lucky I wasn’t in the middle of fighting.

“What’s the matter, Mr. Gui?”

“It’s nothing, just bo… eh… panels? Yeah, just panels getting in my way.”

We -the bulky man, the brown-haired man, the short man and me- are now standing on the ledge of the roof, overlooking a pond of golden water. We were able to hold off the prey for a while, but people got injured as time went on. The rounded boxes got full as well, leaving us to fight against the rabbits head on. When we ran out of manpower to hold the door, the short man ordered everyone onto the ledge of the roof. The injured followed the ledge and went around to the other side of the roof as we stand guard on the side without the yellow grass.

“How many did we kill? Douglas?”
“I’ve lost count.”
“I reckon at least hundred or two, look, they look pretty thinned out from up here.”
“So just a little more?”
“Just a little more.”

The rabbits are afraid to approach us now since we had knocked many into the pond and none had gotten out. A small figure appears in the field, I can barely make it out, but the floating redhead thing above it make it visible. All of the sudden, the rabbits all start retreating from the home we are in and start chasing that figure.

“Is it over now…?”
“I think so…”

*eeeee*

I can hear a quiet scream from the direction of the homes.

I climbed off the building and make my way toward the scream. I go the long way to avoid the rabbits, circling around the field before heading to the homes. The scent of fresh blood is thick within the air, even more so than when the prey first attacked. I silently walk on the quiet street, there are some homes with their doors open and corpses laying at the door hole.

“Damn it, that old hag scared me.”
“Yeah, who would’ve thought she’d charge at us, dealing with that limping man was easier.”
“Where did that brat run off to? Don’t tell me she’s going to try to get help.”

*ahahahahahahaha*

There are two voices inside the home; I silently walk up to the door. The scent of the old woman hit me, she’s the one that prepared the roll of cloth for me to lay on and sometimes even cleans my fur. That scent is mixed with blood, I look at her unmoving form on the ground. A knife is in her hand as a thick pool of blood forms under her body.

They killed her? Man don’t eat man, why would they kill her? Would they do the same to my brother? Brother?

I can feel my heart beating behind my eyes, my vision becomes narrow and stretched.

They would do the same to brother? … Kill, must kill, MUST KILL

The world becomes a blur, the colours inside the home become streaks. I think I hear some screams, but I’m not sure. I’m seeing red, everything is red. The heartbeat becomes louder, I can’t hear anything except my heartbeat. But I’m tearing at something, something soft and tender. It’s red. Everything is red. My head hurts. What am I doing again? The world turns black all of the sudden as I was thinking that.

I slowly open my eyes as I feel something shaking me. The world is dark, I blink a few times and it is still dark.

*beso*

“..up. Pwease wake up. Don’t leab Charrotte alone. Mr. Gui, pwease.”

The little girl is crying while talking and shaking me.

“What… happened? Where are we?”

*beso*

“Misper Guia!”

The girl’s crying as she hugs me.

*kara*

The world suddenly fills with light as the blackness suddenly opens up like a door.

“Charlotte!”

“WAAHHHH!”

The girl cries in relief after running toward brown-haired man. I blink a few times before walking out of the hole to start looking around. The girl must have come out of her hiding place to drag me inside the hole, how…? Why…? I see the two men that were talking, laying on the ground, as my vision becomes clear. One has a knife buried in its left eye, with numerous cuts all over the body. The other is completely bruised, with various kitchen-ware laying on the floor next to it. Both of them had their throat ripped out.

*eeeeeeeee*