Chapter 243

243 Chapter Two Hundred Forty Three

Evelyn was standing by the balcony when she heard the distinct sound of unfurling parachutes in the air. The hunters were landing in their chosen positions. However, what she got her attention was the one that seemed to be aiming for the same balcony she was standing on. The woman stepped away from it and allowed the woman parachuting to land there, “Would you care to explain why you chose a place as guarded as this one?”

The woman who had landed barely allowed herself the time to get the parachute off herself. In quick haste, she responded, “It’s not as guarded as you might think. The bridge has been breached and the archers that were sent to help have been taken out. It happened so fast that I had the chance to change my destination. I had to bring warning to the palace,” the woman responded, “They are coming and they are powerful.”

“Who was at the bridge?” Evelyn asked.

“Anthony was at the bridge. I couldn’t believe what I saw and I couldn’t follow it quite like I normally do,” the woman replied.

Evelyn closed her eyes and took in their surroundings through her other senses. The woman spoke the truth about the coming enemy. They walked at a pace of their own and made progress towards the castle, snuffing out whoever came before them as though there wasn’t a hunter that could stop them. Upon sensing their presence, the hunter could tell these weren’t normal rogues even though they seemed to be the only rogues that were making progress. The others as powerful as these two weren’t moving any closer to the palace which gave the woman some sort of comfort.

“In that case, we’ll have to play it smarter. Bring me a good bow and four quivers,” the woman ordered before walking off with a new destination in mind. Evelyn exited the palace and took to the streets of the capital in search of a high tower and to keep her senses on the incoming alphas. When she found the tower she was looking for, she climbed up to the top as quickly as she could mimicking the agility of a cat as she scaled the building.

Catching her breath at the top of the flat-topped tower, Evelyn picked her transmitter and tuned it to a different frequency, “Micah, you’re going to...” the woman was stopped when her brother spoke from the other side almost immediately, barely giving her time to explain anything.

“Yeah, I heard you went out on your own to fight those monsters. What are you thinking Evelyn? You might be strong, but you’re not on the same level as Thorrin or Jim. They had trouble with those monsters years ago. Have you already forgotten?” the man argued with her.

“I know what I’m getting myself into, Micah. You don’t have to lecture me about it. But they’ve already cut through our defences on this side of the capital. We’re cornered and they’ll make it to the king in no time if nothing is done about this,” she replied, filling her voice with all the determination she could muster even though her nerves only got worse the more she felt the enemy draw near. “Protect the king, Micah. You’re the last line of defence against the rogues.”

.....

“What does it matter? I can tell Thorrin already got to the king. My senses don’t fool me one bit. No good news has come back from him yet. If he can’t bring that guy down, then this is all for nothing,” Micah said to her.

“Get a grip, Micah. Haven’t you noticed?”

“Noticed what?” the man’s voice came surprised.

“This is the biggest gathering of hunters in history. The outcome of this fight cannot be defeat. Otherwise, the whole world is forfeit. Protect the king and under no circumstances are you to let them into his chambers,” Evelyn ordered, determination pouring into her as she did. She switched off the transmitter and turned her eyes on the attackers going through. The first rogues to come through were average wolves that she downed without a second thought.

She had an arrow ready almost immediately after letting one fly. Her speed made it seem like she was barely moving her hand from the bow. The smell of burning rubber hit her nose as the friction wore away at her gloves. She was done with most of the rogues without breaking a sweat. Her senses told her she had snuffed out most of them, but something was completely wrong. Her eyes darted about the scene in search of the source of the odd feeling in her stomach.

From the same streets that had only previously poured out numerous rogues, a man walked into view with a smirk on his face. He turned his face to her and smirked, his eyes reflecting the malice in his heart that chilled her to the bone. “Why does he always have to steal the spotlight from me?” a childish voice came from behind her. The woman’s body went stiff with fear... there was nothing childish about the voice behind her for the being that bore it only held the worst of intentions towards her and she could sense all his bloodlust.

......

Not far from the main battlefront, another pair of hunters landed. These two hadn’t seen each other in a while and were now getting the chance to fight together once again. They were both sure there was nothing they couldn’t handle for as long as they fought together. After all, they had come to be known as the dynamic duo of hunters.

“Ouch, that was one rough landing,” the man groaned as he got up from the ground. He had brought along with him a backpack that had weighed him down, bringing him to the ground much faster than the chute was supposed to bring him.

“Well, it was you that decided to bring that thing along with you. Now I suggest you get ready before it’s too late. I don’t want to have to be the one to bring you to your senses, Frost,” the woman said to him.

“Oh, you know I’m always ready for something like this,” Frost smirked, opening his backpack and retrieving the object of his steep descent. From the backpack, he retrieved a weapon made completely of metal. A long chain trailed out and soon enough, from the bag emerged two large spiked balls attached to the chain from both sides. On all spikes was a protective rubber cone to keep it from cutting through the bag while he carried it which he began to take off at fast as he could.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Jackeline?” the man asked the woman.

“Yes, it has... and it has been even longer since the last time you chose to use that as your weapon in battle,” the woman replied with a smirk. The woman was about to say more to him when a growl came from within the forest on their side of the capital, “Just when you think you finally got some time alone...” she sighed, retrieving her bow and aiming at the rogues that soon enough began to rush out of the woods.

The woman shot as fast as she could, taking out a total of seven before she dropped the bow and reached for the swords at her sides, “Feels just like old times, Frost,” the woman smirked. Frost was by her side in no time, the two of them getting into sync just in time. The two hunters fought in coordination with each other. The woman did the precise slashing that finished their opponents while the man bashed them with his deadly weapon. The two of them were almost always back to back and they spun into the centre of the fighting without a problem.

Two beings walked out from the cover of the trees and watched the two of them fighting. Even when the rogues threatened to overwhelm them with numbers, the spiked balls were working their fastest to keep a sphere of protection around the two warriors, “One would expect those two to fall easily with all these overwhelming numbers we have,” the male spoke up.

The female, Amanda, took a short pause as she recognized the fighting female, ‘That idiot was supposed to stay away from the fighting...’

“General, is there something on your mind?” the male asked her when he noticed her spacing out.

“Huh... um, no. It’s nothing, Balar. Those two might prove to be a problem to the armies we brought to infiltrate the enemy from this side of the capital, don’t you think?” she asked him.

'

“Oh, no, they won’t pose a problem. The only ones that were bound to cause us any trouble decided to go after the king himself. To be perfectly honest, I think they would have had a better chance of bringing us down if they had focused on bringing down the generals first with their strongest. But in the end, there wouldn’t have been much of a difference. Our king is on a different level. They can’t bring him down even if they tried...”

“Yeah...” the woman paused, “I guess you’re right.” The rogues before them stopped attacking and started to back up.

“What’s the matter? Are you all starting to get scared?” Jackeline yelled at them. That was before she spotted the generals by the treeline. Her eyes flashed with recognition of one of them. It was Amanda, however, the expression on her face suggested she was hostile at the moment. Aside from the fact that she had seen her not so long ago and had seen a completely different side of her, this had just switched from a matter of kill or be killed to utter maybe-kill-or-maybe-be-killed drama, “You’ve got to be kidding me right now.”

“What is it, Jackeline?” Frost asked her from her back, keeping his eyes on the rogues on his side.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s in my place to say,” the woman replied.

“What’s that supposed to...” the man was stopped by the voice of Balar.

“Hey, Amanda. That woman is acting like she’s seen you before. Have you fought a weakling like her before?” the man asked.

“Something like that... I was sure she’d kicked the bucket back then. I guess some hunters never stay dead,” the woman replied, hoping the hunter would get the message to keep her cover.

Jackeline looked about her and saw the looks she was getting from all the rogues. They all just wanted to see her dead. The more she thought of it, the stupider it sounded, “Good thing the rogue king didn’t tell us to kill the strong ones. They will be a nice force to add to his army.” Amanda added.

This only offended Jackeline more... “What the hell, Amanda? Is that supposed to make me feel any better?”

“For the goddess’ sake, this is too much of a hassle,” Amanda sighed pinching the bridge of her nose.

“What feels like a...” Balar was stopped when a hand went straight through his throat without much warning...

“Just keep quiet and slowly descend to the depths of hell, Balar,” she cut him off. The rogues shifted their attention to the general, fear spreading through them. Balar choked on the blood that spilt into his windpipe. Unable to speak and losing much blood, he could only succumb to the darkness of death that took him moments later.

“Jackeline... What’s going on?” Frost asked.

“I’ll explain it all later. Right now, I ask that you help me wipe out every single rogue in this group,” the woman said to him leaping back to her bow. She started firing as fast as she could, aiming at the ones furthest from her. Frost, having fought beside the woman for a long time, immediately read her actions and began to wipe them out as fast as he could, his spiked balls flying through them faster than any of them could react. On the other side of the rogues was a general who seemed to have turned against them.

The first ones to try and flee had felt she was still on their side only to get taken out in a few swift attacks. The three beings began to take them out, blocking all their exits and making quick work of them. Those that almost escaped were shot with poisoned arrows to vital spots that they didn’t make it that far.