The full moon in the night sky illuminated the way as the stars glittered, littering the sky. Jacques rode in front. His horse Moonlight was as dark as the night sky. One of his most trustworthy companions, they together had ridden to many hunts. Tonight was no different.
Behind Jacques rode 10 more Brothers, following his lead. To his right walked Olgrolf, the only one without a horse. Mostly because of his giant stature, but he made up for it with his giant steps. Easily keeping up with the pace even matching the horses at their fastest.
His long red beard was braided, a tradition of one of the giant tribes. Olgrolf himself didn't fit in with the rest of the brotherhood. He was the only half-giant to ever be in the Monster Hunter Brotherhood. The Islands of Giants aren't part of the agreement to send the doomed criminals here. But Olgrolf wasn't a criminal, to begin with.
The half-giant was found far from home, on the shore of a river a few years back by a group of brothers while on a hunt. He was dying of thirst and hunger. It was Jacques himself who saved him. Since the giant man didn't have anywhere to go, Jacques offered him to join. Olgrolf, exiled from his home island and left for the dead, found a home in an unlikely place - The Tower Of Hope. Jacques always related to the giant, they both didn't fit in here. Yet they tried to make the best of it. Maybe that's why they became so close.
The Brothers all sung as they rode, Olgrolf joining them with his booming voice. "The Song of Ash and Blood" a popular war song of soldiers. The Uncrowned King always thought of the words of the song. About how young men rode to their death after singing it.
"And I will stand in ash and blood. And I will stand." - Jacques recited the song in his mind.
As he rode his eyes staring into the distance, trying to focus on the task at hand. The hunt - a party of brothers always took off on hunts. As that was their main purpose. Today was the time for Jacques to lead such a party, as he had done many times now.
The monsters the Brotherhood was assigned to slay, were the mysterious creations of the Mist. The Mist was a strange fog, as the name suggested, which surrounded Acoptia. It was responsible for the inability to expand Acoptia and the maps. Anyone who wandered into the unusual fog experienced strange things.
Even those who came back looked changed, confused. They said despite travelling straight they would end up where they started. Exiting the mist at the point they entered. And those were the lucky ones, many never came back. Thousands of groups of travellers, search parties, ships have disappeared without a trace.
The lucky survivors spoke of strange beings in the distance that would attack them. The same beings would emerge from the mist. They were those called monsters, and the mission of the brotherhood was to stop them. These violent beings came in all shapes, sizes, and types, always twisted and wrong. They brought down terror and destruction on anything in their way.
"Sir is that-." - A young Brother rode up to Jacques and spoke pointing to something upfront on the ground.
Alan, a 17-year-old, a rookie who was sent here just a few months ago. Jacques often felt sorry for him, knowing his fate is similar to his. And so he decided to watch over his progress carefully.
"Drop the sir, Alan. Do I look like a pampered lord to you or some Nobel?" - Jacques smiled responding.
"Nice catch though." - He added noticing what Alan had been pointing at.
It was the remains of a Terrorbear. It was laying in a pool of blood. Terrorbears were common around these regions, much bigger than normal bears, easily taller than an average human. They were known as apex predators. At least normally.
Jacques hopped off his horse walking up to the carcass. The giant creature laid there, unmoving. It had a giant gash in the middle of its stomach, opening a gory exhibition of blood and guts. Jac slowly kneeled next to it, dipping two of his fingers into the puddle of blood.
"It's still warm." - He spoke, standing back up and turning his head, scouting his surroundings.
"Which means... Be on your guard! I suspect it is still around here." - Jacques announced to the rest of the Brothers.
"SIR! IT'S THERE!" - He heard Alan's voice behind him, scream out in panic.
A Deathcrawler was one of the many types of creatures. Deathcrawlers were one of the most vicious monsters of the Mist. Resembling a humanoid it stood 3 meters tall when standing on two legs. Its pale grey skin and pure black sunken eyes struck fear into those unfortunate enough to end up in its way.
The Deathcrawlers had long humanoid limbs. They moved around by crawling on all fours as their speeds surpassed those of a horse. Its most formidable and frightening feature was its long claws. Capable of piercing straight through a human. And now one of them was crawling straight toward Jacques.
"Hm. There you are." - Jacques said, his expression didn't change as he spotted the monster.
He slowly turned and started walking towards the Deathcrawler as it rushed towards the Uncrowned King, with pure bloodlust. Releasing a high-pitched, ear-shattering screech as it did.
"Clotheth me in darkness and concede me to passeth through unseen. -「Shadow Step」"
As Jacques spoke 3 dark glowing circles appeared beneath him. Putting his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword, he smiled. Disappearing in a puff of black smoke for a split second, he reappeared behind the monster with another black puff. His shortsword now in his hand, unsheathed, covered in dark red blood.
The monster stopped in its tracks, confused for a second. Before suddenly shrieking as one of its arms fell off, hitting the ground.
"So loud... Let's get this over with, I don't intend to subject my ears to any more torture." - Jacques spoke, pointing his sword at the beast.
The Deathcrawler whipped around, its dark eyes wide and full of fury. With a half growl, half shriek, it swung its giant claws towards Jacques at inhuman speeds. Jacques stared with a bored expression as the claw closed in on his face.
"Tsk." - He simply said, grabbing its wrist with his left hand, stopping the monster's swing in its path.
The long claws almost reaching Jac's face. The impact of such a strike being stopped so abruptly, causing a small shockwave along with a loud sound. Jacques's messy hair moving with the wind of the collision. The eyes of the beast now changed to that of instinctual fear, as it stared into the eyes of The Uncrowned King.
Suddenly, Jacques let go of the Deathcrawlers wrist and launched a kick hitting the exposed body with a clear thud. The beast recoiled flying backward. Scrambling to recover and reeling in pain, it growled. As Jacques slowly walked up to it.
"Perish." - Jacques spoke coldblooded.
Lifting his sword he swung down as the monster jumped up towards him. Opening its mouth, full of sharp teeth. The sword hit its neckline cutting clean through the monster's hard flesh. Splattering blood as the Deathcrawlers head flew off the body. Before landing beneath the feet of Jac.
"Well, I suppose that's it." - Jacques said, kicking the head away, before walking back to the rest of the group.
Alan and the rest of the Brothers stared in shock, respect, and undeniable fear. Olgrolf burst out laughing, breaking the silence.
"You never cease to amaze me Jac. You have once again gotten stronger. Taking care of one of the strongest monster types with such ease. Ah, the look on its face." - He said roaring with laughter.
"Hey, someone has to do the job. Maybe next time we should see who can kill it faster when we run into another one." - Jacques smiled, getting back on his horse.
"That was amazing sir. Was that magic? What kind?" - Alan spoke with excitement.
"Mhm. I was born with a rare affinity for Shadow magic. Well, I am still very much learning as I've only been able to cast it for a few years." - Jacques responded with a half-smile.
"Okay, let's head back now men!" - He added, signaling to the party to head back towards the Tower of Hope.
He knew they would have a few days of riding ahead of them. As they started making way - Jacques spotted what looked like a humanoid shape in armor walking in the same direction as them. Except its movements were wrong, twitchy, and unbalanced.
"Halt." - Jacques ordered to the group, turning his attention to the shape on his far left side.
"Who goes there? Identify yourself now or we will be forced to take action!" - He shouted out to the humanoid.
It didn't make sense since no one lived around here. The closest settlement of any kind was at least a week and a half of riding away.
"Alan, ready your bow and wait for my mark." - Jac said looking back at the group, he raised his hand.
"Y-Yes, sir." - Alan fumbled, pulling out his longbow and taking aim.
"Now." - Jacques said, dropping his arm.
Alan released, as the arrow flew through the sky with a woosh sound. Before hitting the strange shape straight in the head. The mysterious humanoid took a few unnatural steps before dropping to the ground. Jacques and the rest of the brothers rode up to it with puzzled looks.
"What is this thing?" - One brother said as they got closer to it.
Jacques could indeed see armor on its now unmoving body. Yet he couldn't recognize its origin. It looked old and worn, made out of what appeared to be silver and a strange green metal. Jacques promptly jumped off his horse to closer inspect the being. Taking of its helmet, he squinted his eyes at the sight before him.
The face of the being was unrecognizable, with giants bits of flesh missing. Rotted out and some parts of the skull exposed.
"Necromancy, of some kind. This is an undead. But out here?" - Jacques spoke to himself looking towards the direction the undead had been coming from. His eyes slightly widened.
"Nilfheim." - He whispered as he stared at the distant mountain range, with a dark looming cloud over it.
"I need two scouts. If anyone is willing to make it easier, reveal yourselves." - Jac said looking over the group.
"We will go." - One of the brothers pronounced, as he raised his hand along with another man.
"Very well, Garrat and Guerart. Head towards the shadow mountains of Nilfheim, check the perimeter. I want every detail. And be careful we cannot afford to lose men anymore. Good luck." - He announced as the twin brothers, nodded and rode off towards the damned Nilfheim mountains.
Garrat and Guerart were both 34 years old. Twins and had been here before Jacques. They both had the experience and the veteran status which gave Jac hope that they would be able to handle the task.
"This was unexpected." - Olgrolf said, scratching his beard, as the rest of the party whispered and discussed amongst themselves.
"All right listen up." - The Uncrowned King spoke, after clapping his hands.
"We will be heading back now so get your asses up and let's go. Olgrolf, grab the undead. I'll have people look into it." - Jacques spoke with authority, yet his mind wondered what was happening.