Chapter 264 - To Hunt a Hunter

*Eldovian Era 1713, 15th day of the 11th month*

Aegin would have been impressed by the Priests' resourcefulness if he wasn't so inconvenienced by it. The first night had been easy enough. He'd just run to one of the nearby villages. Following that he didn't actually need to hunt again for another 5 days or so. This proved to be a good thing as the following day the Priests set out to cover pretty much any possibility they could think of. This included riding to the nearby villages where Aegin's meal was inevitably uncovered. Had he buried his meal? Of course, he wasn't an idiot. But the Priests weren't stupid either. New graves where re there had been no apparent deaths the day before and an individual was missing were suspicious enough to be investigated.

They also thought to ask around about animals as well. Aegin had tried to take animal blood in the past, if only to practice leaving something alive. The Hunger hadn't much liked it, and Aegin found that killing criminals was a compromise he could live with for now. The second night, with no need to hunt, Aegin had simply rested. But even as he'd hung out on one of the taller buildings, doing nothing to disturb anyone else, he'd felt the Priests draw close to his location.

It had irked him. How, by the gods, were they finding him? Was it their gods perhaps? As ridiculous as it sounded to someone like Aegin who'd never been particularly religious, he could think of no other rational explanation. He could not deny that having them hunt him, the hunter, was as disturbing as it was wrong. What if, even if he made a clean get away to the West, they still managed to track him all the way there?

The thought was not a pleasant one, and Aegin felt the need to ensure it didn't come to pass. Which meant he needed to kill them all, or discover how they were tracking him so he could stop it. The hunger was more inclined to the first of course, but Aegin, with all his training, knew that just killing one group of Priests would perhaps solve his problem in the short term, but just create a greater problem in the long term.

So, on the night before the ship to the West was due go arrive in the Estode Port, Aegin chose the Northern-most sector of the city as a faux hunting ground and waited in a rather large barn for an opponent to arrive. For the first hour, nothing seemed to happen, and Aegin began to grow impatient. Waiting like this was getting him no where, either that or he'd underestimated the Priests and their capabilities.

As one hour began to tick over towards a second, Aegin began to think that perhaps it was something that he was doing. What had he been doing the two times before that he had not been doing for the past two hours?

The answer came to him rather swiftly. He'd been hunting. Or, more specifically, observing his prey. With that thought, Aegin hesitantly began to expand his senses beyond the barn, slipping just enough into his hunting instincts to appear a predator if this was indeed what the priests had been tracking.

It took only ten minutes before Aegin heard somebody stepping quietly and carefully towards the barn he resided in. Aegin couldn't help but smirk. Was the Priest trying ti assassinate an assassin? How comical.

Aegin pulled his senses back slowly as the Priest approached, drawing him closer to the doors of the barn. Perhaps the Priest had a death wish, for he kept approaching. Of course, Aegin had come inside through one of the upper Windows, so the barn doors were locked. The Priest hesitated outside of them before felt a flare from the mist, and the chains locking the barn doors clanged down to the cobblestones. The Barn doors swung open.

Aegin observed from the hay loft above, sitting casually enough to swing his leg over the ledge as the Priest stepped in, an orb of light in his hand that was being fed by the mist, and a long silvery-clear staff similar to what the priestess had attacked him with a few nights before.

Aegin pulled the scarf around his neck up to cover the lower half of his face before he stood.

"And here I thought there was something to be worried about," Aegin proclaimed into the silence of the barn. The Priest swiftly turned, the ball of light launching towards Aegin. Aegin leaned to the side, "That was rude...but I've never been on to say no to a fight".

Aegin dropped from the hay loft, and the Priest swung his staff forward with a flick of his wrist, "You will die tonight, Chaos Monster!"

Aegin stepped back to avoid the blow before turning into the Priest's guard and hitting his c.h.e.s.t hard enough to push the priests back into a pile of hay.

"Chaos Monster?" Aegin questioned, "You really need to be taught some manners, kid".

As the young Priests scrambled up, struggling from being winded, Aegin moved forward. He was not using his speed, where would be the fun if the fight was over too quickly? He pushed the Priest to spar with him, dodging away from the staff whenever it swung at him. There was something about it. Something familiar that made his instincts scream danger. Was the staff blessed or something? He'd heard that the High Priestess could do things like that.

"Come on, swing with more confidence, strike like you mean it!" Aegin urged the Priest. The Priest did not seem happy with the guidance however, as he huffed in rage. He swung harder and faster. Aegin grinned, "There you go! Perhaps you're not entirely useless".

The Priest swung wide to force Aegin back, then brought his staff up.

"Still, perhaps I should show you the proper way to use a weapon like yours!" Aegin stepped forward, putting his hands up to catch the staff and side stepping to dissipate the strength of the blow Ashe brought it down beside him. The Priest appeared panicked, then Aegin felt the burning pain as the staff seemed to immediately slam a wall down within him. A wall between Aegin and his connection to the mist, his connection to his life lines.

His hands burned where they touched the staff, but the feeling of losing those instincts and capabilities he'd become so used to over the last few months was so many times worse. A chill set through him, and Aegin immediately released the staff and retreated.

The priest stumbled forward a step in surprise as Aegin looked down at his hands, breathing heavily as he felt the wall disappear as quickly as it had appeared. The palms of his hands itched as the skin healed, then Aegin looked up at the Priest who was watching the skin heal.

"The Great Gods that watch over the Holy Order have lent me their power and deemed you u worthy to walk upon this earth. As a Denizen of the darkness, of the Chaos, you must die!" The Priest moved forward.

Aegin's eyes narrowed, it was wholly unnecessary to correct the kid. His Gods had had nothing to do with it. His staff however...anthrite really was a bitch. He side stepped the Priest then his hand whipped out and he grabbed the priest's neck before lifting him and slamming him to the ground on his back.

"Your Great Gods hold no sway over me," Aegin, then he vanished into the night.