106 Hunt Complete

Ever since Jackson and his men started preparing their gear to head out, he could feel a few eyes following his every move. Considering the fact that he was a bandit, being on the receiving end of such a thing bothered him quite a bit, especially since he hadn't even left the borders of the hidden village just yet. Sensing that this wasn't gonna be just a simple routine check, he secretly informed his men to walk with their best gear hidden from view.

As for Jackson himself, he could tell that he was the main target of observation. With how unique his best weapon was, it wasn't possible for him to take it with him without anyone noticing so he decided to walk with his second best. That said, he wasn't about to leave his best weapon behind with the current vibe he's feeling from the village so he did something to his weapon before leaving his house. Unless he undid it himself, whoever tries to take his weapon without his knowledge will be in for quite the surprise.

A few minutes later, Jackson and his men were now leaving the confines of the hidden village and making their way towards the clearing. They did so just like they normally do when heading out on a mission, their back straights and their gazes focused on the task. Being used to such a sight, the ones watching never noticed the slight oddity that was present with their gear as their eyes were mainly focused on Jackson.

After Jackson and his team finally disappeared from view, the group of watchers finally separated into various groups and quickly got to work. For now, they had to move quickly in collecting the gear that belonged to Jackson and his squad before packing up their own gear. Whether or not Jackson and his squad returned, this village was going to be abandoned in less than a few hours.

*******

Jackson and his squad had been traveling for roughly ten minutes before the group came to an abrupt stop. From the start, Jackson had been suspicious of Cain and the other squad leaders, and the fact that the eyes that were watching his every move in the village now being absent, Jackson was sure that something was about to go down within the village in his absence. Looking around his squad, Jackson gave a few of them a certain look, prompting these individuals to give Jackson a nod before turning around and backtracking to the village. These men would be Jackson's eyes on the village while he was away.

Seeing his men leave, a foreboding feeling took over Jackson's mind for a moment before disappearing. He wasn't sure why he had such a feeling or where it was specifically coming from but Jackson knew something bad was going to happen today.

Jackson had already taken precautions for both himself and his men so he wasn't too worried about anything happening to them. With those thoughts in mind, Jackson led his men to the clearing in order to wait on Kirou and the young archer. He had to make sure that nothing happened to the young recruit.

*******

On the other side of the forest, the archer had finally managed to track down Kirou. Stopping within the trees, the archer was now greeted to the sight of Kirou taking on a few wolf-like creatures wreathed in fire. Taking a closer look at the monsters that Kirou was fighting, the archer was surprised to see Kirou soloing five of those creatures at the same time.

Monster: Oakwood Forest Fire Hound

Monster Level: 26

Health: 35,000/43,000

Attack: 210

Defense: 90

Skills: Intimidating Roar, Fire Breath, Rabid Bite, Claw Strike, Fire Fang

The archer watched as Kirou narrowly dodged the attacks of the five hounds while retaliating with a few punches to their snouts. It may have been a misconception on the archer's part, but he could swear that the fire hounds seemed to be reacting strangely after being punched. That, coupled with a few damage figures floating above the fire hounds' heads, allowed the archer to deduce that Kirou's gloves probably inflicted a status effect that results in health loss on their targets. As for whether it is poison damage, bleed, or laceration, the archer had no idea.

While the archer was busy watching Kirou in combat, he failed to notice that less than ten meters away in another tree, there was a pair of eyes with an impassive look locked on his figure. Not just that, he also failed to notice that roughly another twenty meters away, hiding amongst the low lying foliage, were four pairs of eyes staring at him in curiosity. Naturally, these eyes belonged to a clone of Kirou and Shadow Arachne respectively.

Kirou already set it up so that the archer would seek him out so he had to prepare a few things in case the archer's intentions weren't anything good. So while he was focused on the fire hounds before him in practice, he would leave his back to the clone and pet spider who'll react in the case that the archer does something strange.

Maybe it was due to the fact that the archer had somehow sensed he was being watched or maybe it was due to him not having any hostile intentions, the archer just silently watched as Kirou spent the next five minutes taking down the fire hounds before him in a somewhat relaxed manner. After he was done with them, Kirou sat down immediately and got into a meditative state. While he was recovering his spent mp, he went over the previous five on one fight he had just finished within his mind. Just as it was intended when he took on the quest originally, Kirou is focusing on how to make better use of his weapon, leading him closer to mastering his wires.

About ten minutes later, Kirou finally got up and did some stretches. While this was going on, he received the memories from the shadow clone that had its eyes on the archer, now knowing that his guest had arrived. Instead of acknowledging his guest's presence, Kirou decided to continue his game of messing with the archer.

As soon as he finished his stretches, Kirou mumbled something to himself but made sure it was loud enough for the archer to hear, "That was a good practice session. It's time for me to move on to the next area. Hmm, maybe I should have kept that archer with me on these runs for the company. Come to think of it, why is it that I get the feeling that he was hiding something with his appearance? I wonder what it was?"

After saying this to himself, Kirou acting completely oblivious of the archer's presence as he left the forest clearing that he was stretching in. While he did this, he silently gave a command to Shadow Arachne to stalk the archer from a distance without revealing itself. Kirou also made another two clones while his figure was quickly moving to the next area, completely out of view from the archer that was a step behind in giving chase as he was too busy thinking about Kirou's words from earlier.

*******

As for the archer, while he was busy giving chase to Kirou half a step behind, completely missing the spider on his tail and the two clones that were created far ahead, he was busy going over the words that Kirou had 'unintentionally' spoken out loud, loud enough for him to hear. That resulted in a shock going off in his mind as he never expected that he had revealed such information during the small amount of time that he accompanied Kirou on his rounds of those five areas.

While this was going on, the archer had unintentionally lost track of Kirou for a moment. This caused the archer to clear all the unnecessary thoughts from his mind for the moment and go back to tracking Kirou's movements. He would get to the bottom of this mystery that he had 'unintentionally' stumbled upon by hearing Kirou's words.

As this was going on, from a few hundred meters ahead, one of Kirou's clones was looking at the archer as he stopped for a moment to get a bearing on Kirou's tracks. After spending a minute or two doing so, the archer finally rushed along the path that Kirou had intentionally left a trail for, not realizing the uncanniness of it all considering the trap that Kirou had subjected the archer and the rest of the village to a few hours earlier.

The clone and the spider made eye contact from over a hundred-meter gap before they resumed their duty of stalking the archer. They made sure to keep their distance to avoid alerting the archer of their presence while taking care of their own respective jobs in this stalking scenario. While the clone was there to relay information, the pet spider was there to delay or subdue the archer if the need ever arose.

And like that, the three parties kept up their game of tag. Funnily enough, only one person was truly aware of who was really playing as 'it' in this game.

*******

Kirou had now finished visiting all five areas. He had long since completed his quest since the first or second of the monster habitats that he's visited but he kept going around the various areas as he felt that more practice would aid in him the long run. As he finished collecting his spoils, Kirou sat down once more to review his gains and insights from the various fights he had put himself in during the past two hours. After spending twenty minutes to review, dissect, and digest his gains, Kirou got up and took a look at his quest details.

Bind your targets: 100/100

Hunt your targets and defeat them as follows:

Dismemberment- 100/100

Decapitation- 100/100

Splitting in Two- 100/100

Freestyle- 300 (329)/300

*Defeat Weapon Master Bladesmith's Clone: 0/1

Satisfied with his work, Kirou was about to make his way back to Elderwood Village when he noticed some foliage being shifted in the distance. Kirou saw this and a casual smile formed on his face as he thought to himself, 'Quite the patient one, aren't you. I never thought that you'd stalk me for so long just for some answers. It seems that I must have struck a nerve.'

While Kirou was busy thinking that to himself, he watched as the archer made his way out of the foliage and walked a few feet before stopping roughly ten meters away from Kirou. The archer looked at Kirou with mixed emotions within his eyes. Having stalked Kirou for so long, the archer was very much aware of just how strong Kirou was when he's in combat. That said, since he had stalked Kirou for so long, he was acutely aware of the fact that Kirou was actually just practicing with his weapons instead of aiming to kill monsters like how most players operate. His reason for thinking this stems from the fact that Kirou had put himself in unnecessary danger numerous times during his fights when he could have finished the fight in just one move. No sane person, especially one as strong as Kirou, would be doing something so dangerous unless there was a proper reason for it and the archer assumed that reason to be Kirou practicing how to effectively use his wires in dangerous situations.

With this knowledge in mind, the archer was at a loss as to how to start a conversation with Kirou after stalking him for so long. Luckily for the archer, Kirou decided to break the ice for him, "To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here? Didn't we already part ways at that clearing where we met, in the beginning, hours ago? Is there something I can help you with, Ms. Archer?"

Hearing Kirou's last question caused the archer to swallow down whatever words she wanted to ask Kirou about his mumbling from the previous instances. It seems that his question had managed to answer all but one of her questions that had been plaguing her for the last two hours.

Taking a deep breath and releasing a long sigh, the archer stared at Kirou in the eyes and spoke for the very first time since Kirou has met her in the last few hours, the voice coming out of her mouth sounding like it belongs to a young woman, "When did you notice that I was a female player?"