Waking up, Hunter sat up as he stretched, looking around at everyone that was still asleep. Getting up quietly, Hunter walked out to the main chamber, finding Spartacus sitting next to the burnt out fire.
"Good, your up. It's about six am and since it takes about two hours to get to Adenville I think we should be leaving between eight and nine. I'll be waking up the others soon, could you go out and get some fresh meat for breakfast?" Spartacus glanced over at Hunter as he poked a stick into the ashes.
Hunter nodded as he began re-equipping his weapons and quiver. Holding his bow in his left hand, he took off out of the cave, leaping up into the trees once he reached the woods. Listening intently, Hunter could hear deer snuffling, rabbits dashing through the grass, and a couple boars that were having a fight over a mate.
Dashing over, Hunter came to where the small herd of boars were gathered. The smallest of boars was two thirds his height, while the biggest was almost as tall as a grown man. The two boars that were fighting where about ten inches taller than Hunter, and were fattened enough to feed the group for at least three meals.
Sensing his presence, all the boars looked up to where Hunter was sitting in the trees. Realizing that they couldn't get to him, and that he wasn't something they could easily deal with, the boars continued about their business, ignoring him completely. The two males began viscously attacking each other, trying to use their tusks to gouge the other one to death.
Hunter sat there and watched, waiting till the weaker of the boars lost so he could kill it and bring it back as food. The boars circled each other, grunting angrily as they stamped their front hooves into the dirt. Finally the younger of the two charged forward, trying to ram its tusk into the side of the older boar. The older boar followed the attack, angling its self so that it could knock the younger boar over. The fight was over as quickly as it started. The young boar was knocked over, exposing it's underbelly to the older boar; which allowed for the older boar to tear open the younger one's stomach, leaving it to die.
Hunter dropped down from the tree and walked over to the young dying boar. The other boars watched nervously, fearful that this powerful creature might attack them. Hunter kneeled down next to the boar, gently stroking it's head as he quietly shushed the creature. "It's okay little one, were you're going you'll no longer have to feel any pain." He comforted the boar as he gently pulled out an arrow and lined it with the boars heart, before jabbing in quickly, ending it's misery.
Hunter picked the boar up, laying it across his shoulders as he began heading back to the waterfall. Getting back to the waterfall, Hunter found many of the children outside playing in the creek as they washed themselves while keeping their clothes on. Seeing him carrying a boar, many of the younger children ran back to the cave to dry off and change into dry clothes before sitting down in the main hall.
Hunter set the boar down as Sylvia and Asani came up and began skinning and gutting the boar. Tarenia was helping Spartacus get the fire ready to cook the boar while Orion was playing with Quixi and some of the other children. Hunter walked out of the cave and stood in the clearing looking at the river.
Ian dropped down from his position at the top of the cliff and walked over to stand beside Hunter. "Nervous?"
"Not really, I know I can beat him, but in all honesty I don't think I can beat him in a minute yet. There was a weird power in his scent, one that wasn't natural in the sense of being with him since birth, but it smelt natural in the sense of the element was similar to his magic." Hunter sat in contemplation as he also began to think about what was happening to his Divinity.
"I see. Well there isn't anything much you can do except give it your all. You are strong, probably the strongest one out of us since your Divinity keeps getting brighter while ours hasn't changed. So you can easily over come this challenge, maybe you can get another break through or learn some of his tricks as you two fight." Ian put his hand on Hunter's shoulder, reassuringly.
Sylvia came running up to the two, catching part of the conversation. She smiled at Hunter, giving him a pumped fist, before glancing at Ian and then looking away quickly with a blush. "Breakfast is ready. Spartacus said we should probably leave as soon as everyone's eaten and he wants all the older kids equipped with weapons incase something happens." With a swish of her fluffy orangish/brown tail she ran back to the cave, her hands pressed up against her rosy cheeks.
"I think she likes you." Hunter said with a smirk as he tapped Ian's helmet.
"What gives you that idea?" He responded sarcastically before turning and heading back to the cave with Hunter. As they neared the cave, the rich aroma of cooked boar could be smelt, though dampened by the water droplets thrown up by the waterfall. After entering the cave, the aroma became ten times stronger and their mouths began to water as they looked at the boar that's juices was dripping onto the hot logs.
As they walked up, Quixi brought them both a plate with sliced boar meat, an apple, and some carrots. "Not gonna lie, fast food may have been great back then, but there ain't anyway that it will beat out against a lot of the food in this world." Orion said as he walked over and plucked a carrot off of Quixi's plate. She in turned blushed before smacking his hand away and running over to a group of younger children to eat.
Hunter took his plate and sat down by himself before he began eating and relishing in how amazing the boar meat tasted after being prepared by an elf. Even though the boar meat was steaming hot, it did not burn the tongue as one of the herbs she had used caused a cooling sense that tasted much like a blast cool mint but didn't leave a strong sense of mint flavoring. The flavoring seemed to calm his nerves and as he looked around at the others, he saw both expressions of bliss and calmness appearing on many of the children's faces.
Hunter finished his breakfast feeling satisfied and brought his plate to the entrance of the cave where he held it out under the waterfall, letting the falling water rinse off his plate. After rinsing his plate he took it over to the fire where he then set it down and left it.
As more of the children finished their breakfast, they began setting their plates on top of Hunter's before sitting back down and waiting for the rest to finish. As the last child finished, Spartacus got up and began handing out weapons to the kids ten and older. Finally everyone was ready and Spartacus grabbed the twenty gold that they had, leaving the rest of the copper and silver behind.
And so began the long trek to the city. Spending 2 hours with the children laughing and playing together, they finally reached Adenville safely. As they neared the gate, Hunter took the lead as the guard captain came forward. He looked at Hunter and he shivered as he felt like he was being dragged into the abyss. He quickly looked away and noticed all the children behind Hunter, noticing that about half of them were non-humans.
"W-Welcome back sir. May I ask if this is your party?"
"Aye, they are my family. They've come to watch my duel today. Is there a problem?"
"N-No problems. It's nice to meet your family, please enjoy your time in Adenville." As the captain looked over the group, he saw another boy who's appearance was also hidden, though under a full set of sentinel armor. His eyes widened in shock, [Oh gods, these children also have a sentinel amongst them!] His eyes continued to look over the group as they passed, he noticed Spartacus who's demeanor insinuated that he was the leader of the group. He then noticed the two elven beauties who were next to Spartacus and he could feel his heart skip a beat as he looked upon them. All of a sudden he felt a foreboding presence and as he looked away from the two elves he saw the boy in black looking back at him, then at his subordinates each in turn. [He knew we were all checking out the elves without even looking back!] Terror grabbed the captain's heart and he turned to his men, ordering them to return to their posts and to focus solely on keeping the town safe.
Hunter smirked as he turned around and began leading the party of Forty people towards the tall church near the center of the town. Arriving at the church, Hunter saw a long line of people already leading a block down the street. Among the people were many children and elderly folk as well, most of the town was planning on coming to spectate the duel, but since it was still an hour till the duel began not that many people had come yet. As Hunter and his party approached many of the people in line turned and looked at them, before whispering to their friends and neighbors as they stared at all the non-humans that came with him.
"If it isn't the boy in black." A loud voice could be heard calling out from the arena as Alexi and his three friends came striding out to greet Hunter. Alexi glanced over the party that was behind Hunter, stopping when he saw the two elven girls. His eyes light up as he smiled a little sinisterly and looked back at Hunter. "Why don't we raise the stakes a little bit ya? If I win, those two elf girls will accompany my friends and I for a day. If you win you can get whatever you want from me."
Hunter smelt Asani and Tarenia's fear as they looked at Alexi and his friends. He heard them take a couple steps and cower behind Spartacus as Spartacus tensed up, getting ready to cast magic at them.
"Don't worry, when I win I won't hurt them. We'll give them a good time and we'll pay them after the service." Alexi said as he went to put a hand on Hunter's shoulder.
"You know, I respected you, but now that respect is gone. I may not kill you in the duel, but if this is your true nature; than I'll kill you as soon as you leave the town." Hunter growled as he took a step forward, forcing Alexi to take a step back.
"Hahaha. Good, good. You're in fighting spirit now. Relax I have no actual intention in your friends. Yes they are quite beautiful, but I have a lovely wife that I'll be returning to after I've hunted the Feniri, plus your friends are only children. I would never do anything willingly, let alone forcefully, with a child. I wanted you to get your blood boiling so that when we fight you'll take it seriously. Now then, we should all get going, ya?" Alexi laughed lightly as he turned around and walked away, completely making it seem like nothing had happened.
Hunter growled before looking back at the others. "Everyone stick close and don't go anywhere without having Spartacus, Ian, or Orion with you." One of the apostles that had been helping at the entrance of the arena, and that had met Hunter the day before, came forward and led him and his friends into the arena. After leading them to a seating area set in the middle of crowd, allowing them to see the entire match instead of from just one side, he then lead Hunter down to the waiting chamber on the North side of the arena.
"The head priest will announce everything. When he calls you, that's when you go out. It should be starting in about twenty minutes. Good luck, good sir." The apostle turned and left after setting a jug of water down on the only table in the medium sized room. As Hunter sat there waiting, he didn't need to use his heightened hearing to hear the crowd of people as they got louder and louder. More and more people arrived, lining the seats, and getting more excited as they waited for the duel to begin. A duel that would be remembered in history for this town. The boy in black versus a great dragon slayer.