Chapter 232: Hunt

Rufus felt that the surrounding cold air turned even colder after they saw the humanoid gazelle in front of them. 

They also found a dead body of a white furry beast that could no longer be recognized on its side… It seems that it just finished having a meal and is now about to return to its lair and rest…

Gulp…

Ruthren, who can feel the power emanating from the beast, gulped in nervousness.   

The Ancient Gazelle was looking scary than what was describe in the mission.

Thud!

The beast noticed their group and it immediately stopped moving…

It growled at them briefly before stomping his feet and continuing his walk away…

The Sword Slaves look at Rufus to know whether they should chase or not. They can already feel that their swords and weak Arcane Magic would not be able to penetrate its thick hide…

"Master, those Ancient Gazelle looks stronger than a Werewolf we fought before."

Slave Three informed the group. Reiji was quite interested in this bit of information so he decided to let the beast go and asked the lady…

'Tell us more about it…'

"Yes, Master… The Werewolves we encountered before have a strength of low-grade Evil Beasts during the day… They get stronger every night and would almost double their physical abilities. However, during the full moon, they can activate their Berserk and would perhaps get three more times powerful during the night… However, the beast that we just saw, I can feel that it has the strength similar to a berserk mode Werewolf…"

"Ho~ You can tell that much just by looking at it?"

As Reiji said this, the four ladies shook their heads…

"No, Master Reiji… We used this…"

The ladies then showed the markings on their palms… 

"Hey… You didn't tell us about the power of that mark before. I thought it's just a decoration or mark to confirm your identity as a cultist."

Reiji said after understanding what they meant.

"That's also correct master… However, these markings are called Arcane Circle which you are familiar with… It doesn't have much use aside from letting us know how dangerous our opponent can be… This would allow us to choose our targets."

"Mhmm… That's convenient."

Anyway, Reiji didn't really ask them about the markings on their palms so it was his fault for not inquiring…

"So you're saying that the beast just now is as strong as a berserk Werewolf?" Rufus muttered to himself before being lost in his thoughts. It seems that he's planning on how to approach that kind of beast…"

They learned that the parts of the Ancient Gazelle can be sold for a high price… Its horns and core can probably earn them more than 5,000 gold coins. 

Since they are all planning to enter the Isengard Fortress, they wanted to at least kill the most threatening Evil Beast in this region before moving on.

"We can probably attempt to kill them… Everyone has an amulet that could save our lives… Master will also help in case we needed to run away… I think that we really have a good chance here."

Rufus said referring to the Timeless Guardian Amulet he bought before.

These items were meant to be used so he decided to go for the offensive approach… 

"I'm fine with that… We just have to make sure that we'll hunt them alone… Fighting two or three of them might be too dangerous for us."

Reiji agreed to his student's plan.

Fortunately, these creatures weren't moving in a group and would normally travel alone through the forest. After all, they are already very strong by themselves and don't really require help from others.

As soon as they made a plan, they decided to find the Ancient Gazelle or perhaps look for another one in the area.

These creatures like to eat wild beasts like Orc Bears and Void Owls so they just have to learn the places that these creatures would normally visit to find these Ancient Gazelles…

However, there are still case that they would remain in the vicinity of their lair especially after hunting for food in the day.

Finally, after looking around for several minutes, they found another Ancient Gazelle that seemed to be smaller than the one before. 

This time, it is just the same size as Rufus, unlike the other one that is probably larger than the members of the Night Brigade they saw a while ago. 

Rufus looked at Ruthren and the others to confirm that they are ready… One of the ladies also confirmed that the creature wasn't as strong as the one before. This already gave them a lot of assurance and there was no way for them to fail at this.

***

The three men from the Night Brigade observed Rufus' group for a while after they separated… 

''Hey, are you still suspecting them?"

"Mhmm… I'm not sure…"

"Then, why are we following them?"

"Ugh… I just feel that they're kind of suspicious…"

They were already wearing a gray cloak that seems to have power similar to stealth. They were not being noticed by the wild beasts that they are passing and they are barely making any noise while they are jumping from tree after tree…

It is surely a Magic Item meant for scouts or spies.

"If they are from the Cult, then they'll bring us to their base…"

"Ha! If they are not, then we wasted our time."

The three of them doesn't seem to be in the same opinion but were still following the leader of their group.

"Just trust me… Aren't you guys suspicious about the hideout we cleared… Only three cultists are there and there were barely any sacrificial items… No statues of their imp gods as well…"

"Mhmm… Now that you said it… Something was probably off… As expected from the son of Great Sven…"

The leader's name is Eoghan and his father is indeed Sven from the Arcanist Tower. In truth, with Eoghan's current strength, he can just stay in a fortress or castle instead of running in the field. 

However, he liked that the Night Brigade is free to act around the kingdom to hunt the cultists… This made him accept the job of being part of the Brigade that General Julian formed… 

Aside from that, he wasn't even the strongest in the group! It is a person that is not even an Arcanist at all…

This just excited him more to join the brigade and meet these people… Unfortunately, due to the cultists' wide range of operations, they have to split the group to hunt them… So he didn't have a chance to meet fight the strongest non-Arcanists…

Of course, the fact that there is also a war in the western region made them unable to mobilize some of their soldiers to help…

The Erliente Dukedom and the Greiner Family had already created barricades and camps and it's difficult to reclaim these lands unless the southern and northern soldiers will join and help the Knights and remaining armies…

They also heard that the mercenaries hired by the Dukedom have an angel that would help them whenever they were about to lose in skirmishes…

It is not looking good for their Kingdom.

The Greiner Family knows fully well that they can't leave the Northern post easily due to Losea Kingdom and the Southern post due to the Orcs.

"Leader… They're in trouble!"

One of them realized that Rufus' group met a strong foe.

They noticed that the Evil Beast or Ancient Gazelle they encountered is not the normal one… It is already an adult one and perhaps mutated a few times.

They would most like die if they didn't run away…

Eoghan squinted his eyes and looked at Rufus' group to see what they will do… However, he noticed that the Ancient Gazelle glance at their group before turning back at the group of six and left just like that.

"Leader… Did you scare it off?"

"Not sure… Maybe the beast realized that we're in the same group and planning to ambush it. They are very intelligent…"

Eoghan made a guess…

Nevertheless, this made them even more interested in this group of people… 

"We'll continue our observation… Make sure that they will not notice us…"

Based on the information they gathered before, this Blue Canopy Forest should have a stronghold of Cultists and not just a simple hideout they cleared before…

They are thinking that it's just a way for them to hide the real location of their base…

"Mhmm… I wonder why that kid is carrying his training sword here…" 

"What do you mean?" Eoghan asks his colleague.

"Look at that wooden sword. It's just a decoration at this point… It would snap after being hit by a single move from an Evil Beast…"

"Well, might be a thing for young ones these days… It could be a charm or something."

As soon as Eoghan said this, he felt a chill on his body… 

He immediately looked beside him and noticed that the other two also felt the same thing. They even held their weapons as they get ready for a fight.