As the crowd gathered, and the arena began to fill up, people began discussing amongst themselves about who would win, and the rumors they had heard about both contestants. "I heard from the town guard that the boy in black is the one who caused Lord Zigan's manor to go up in flames." "Oh ya, well supposedly the dragon slayer Alexi, actually killed a wyrm, not a dragon." The talk went back and forth as people discussed the feats of the two, before they began trying to figure our how the fight would go and who would win.
Finally the head priest came out from the vip lounge, standing on an elongated balcony, to begin announcing. Casting OUTCRY, a level 1 spell, "Welcome everyone! Today we have the chance of watching the great dragon slayer of the noble Asherton family, Alexi Asherton, fight against the boy in black, who supposedly started the fire in Lord Zigan's manor earlier this week, and has slain entire goblin hunting parties on his own. Both contestants are very strong fighters, though their ages may be very different. So let's meet these great warriors!"
As the head priest announced Alexi's name, he entered the arena from the south entrance, waving at the crowd as he walked to the center. As Hunter heard the head priest begin speaking, he got up and went to wait by the northern entrance until he heard the head priest call out boy in black. Hunter entered the arena, stopping and looking around at everyone. From the crowd's perspective they saw a little boy fully decked out in black assassin gear, with his upper face covered, stop and look around.
Even though they couldn't see his gaze, the crowd could feel it. As he looked in their direction, people began shivering or breaking into cold sweat as they looked at the little boy. The shopkeeper who owned the yarn shop was sitting with her mother and as they felt the familiar fear that they had experienced with a boy earlier that week, they looked closely, noticing the dark red yarn wrapped around his arms.
The crowd quieted down in both fear and anticipation as they looked between the two warriors. As they watched, Hunter turned around and walked up to the arena wall where he began talking off many of his weapons. He first pulled out his two labrys and then unwrapped the yarn from his arms before setting them down in two neat piles. He then pulled his bow, followed by his quiver, before leaning them against the wall.
He finally turned around and as he began walking towards the center of the ring to join Alexi, he withdrew his sword, swinging it from side to side. After arriving 10 paces away from Alexi, Hunter turned and looked at the head priest as he stood in a relaxed and lazy manner. Alexi grinned at him as he stood tense, ready to blast off as soon as the head priest said begin.
"You all know the rules. All legal injuries will be taken care of by the bishop after the match is over." The head priest raised his arm into the sky, then suddenly dropped it, initiating the fight.
Alexi took off in a burst of speed, dashing towards where Hunter stood. To the regular human, it appeared as if Alexi had disappeared, to every non-human they could only see his movement in a blur; but for the Divine Ones, Alexi appeared to be moving as quickly as a baby. Hunter stood there waiting to let Alexi hit him to try and increase his self confidence and ego. As the crowd watched the boy in black, who was unable to dodge Alexi's attack, they saw blood spurt up from his arm as Alexi's sword grazed his forearm and Alexi appeared 20 steps behind him.
Alexi smiled confidently as he raised his sword into the air, but as he turned back and looked at Hunter he saw Hunter's bleeding stop as he rotated his arm making sure nothing was broken. [So this kid can rapidly heal. No wonder he was able to take on goblins by himself. If he could continuously heal while killing them, then he doesn't need to worry about dodging.] Hunter turned to face Alexi again, raising his empty hand and indicating for him to attack again.
Alexi rushed forward again, aiming to impale Hunter in the stomach. Hunter stood there not moving as Alexi drew near. At the last second, right before the blade would pierce him Hunter used his empty hand to reach down and grab the sword, stopping it in it's tracks and causing Alexi to rush into him before falling backwards. Hunter stood there like an immovable object with Alexi's sword grasped in his hand and Alexi sprawled on the ground in front of him.
Hunter snapped Alexi's sword tip off from the rest of the sword, causing the audience to make an audible gasp as he then threw both parts of the sword off to the side. He then pointed his sword at Alexi's neck as Alexi tried to sit up. "Yield, or else I'll be forced to leave a scar."
Alexi laughed as he looked up at Hunter. He disappeared, turning completely invisible to everyone, even Hunter. Hunter jumped back as he looked around the arena, not seeing where Alexi had gone. Hunter felt a blast of wind as a dagger scratched his lower jaw, causing him to leap back yet again as he swung his sword out trying to catch Alexi.
Missing Alexi yet again, Hunter stopped and looked around as he switch from regular sight to thermal vision but was still unable to see him. Also unable to detect him with scent, Hunter switched his vision yet again allowing him to see people's Divinities. As soon as he blinked he could see Alexi's glowing Divinity as it began rushing towards Hunter yet again.
Sheathing his sword, Hunter got into a boxer's stance as he waited for Alexi to draw near. As Alexi sprinted forward, Hunter dodged to the side, then lunged forward as well, grabbing a hold of Alexi's Divinity and yanking him back into the visual plane. The crowd cheered as they witnessed Hunter grabbing thin air, then yanking Alexi out from nowhere.
Shock appeared on Alexi's face as he fell backwards on to the ground again. Hunter smirked as he himself disappeared, reappearing every couple of yards as he used FLASH STEP to gain distance, in dozens of yards, between himself and the shadow mage in a matter of seconds.
"I didn't expect you to be able to see me after using the Shadow Wyrm's CLOAK ability. Not even natural born dark mages can see it after using it's ability." Alexi scowled as he watched Hunter's ability. "How'd you see me, and what ability is it that you are using?"
Hunter smirked as he shook his head before closing his eyes and envisioning the Shadow Wyrm's CLOAK ability, realizing that when used by the Wyrm, it's scales would become double reflectory. The outside of the scales would reflect light and the surrounding's heat, making it appear invisible in visible light and equal temperature to it's surroundings, making it invisible in thermal vision. The inside of the scales would then reflect it's body heat back into it's body, keeping its heat signature hidden and causing it's body to naturally burn away it's own scent. Shadow mages could use their own cloak ability, however it would never be as good as the Shadow Wyrm's, and the only way for shadow mages to get theirs as good as it was by drinking it's blood while consuming it's Dragon Core.
A loud crack could be heard coming from Hunter's body. Alexi tensed up, unsure as to what was about to happen, yet seeing Hunter still smirking caused him to shiver unconsciously. Alexi's eyes widened as Hunter fully disappeared before his eyes, using a complete version of the CLOAK ability, and unlike Alexi who had to cast it like a spell, Hunter was able to fully activate it like a true shadow kin.
Alexi began searching his surroundings, staying as alert as possible, as he tried to figure out where the boy in black was going to attack from. Hunter sat still, watching as panic began to well up inside Alexi, relishing in the fact that this adventure now knew his place. Finally, Hunter walked up to Alexi, appearing as he suddenly smashed his fist in Alexi's chest; sending him flying across the arena and crashing into the arena wall. The crowd went silent at the show of brute strength this little child had within him.
The shopkeeper and her mother shivered as they thought about the promise the little boy made them keep. The mother leaned in and whispered into her daughter's ear, "Never let anyone know that we've seen this boy's face. He may come back and kill us if we help people search for him." Her daughter only nodded as shock and fear registered through her brain, and her body became numb with cold sweat on the thought of this little boy coming and killing her.
The head priest shook with fright as he announced the winner, and the town bishop came running out to go and heal Alexi, who was unconscious at the moment. After stabilizing his condition, the priests put him on a stretcher as they rushed him to the church to have him soak in holy water. Hunter returned to the Northern waiting room after grabbing his weapons, where the head priest and his friends were now waiting for him.
"Here is your earnings of thirty percent of the ticket fees and the ten percent of the food stall fees. You earned about 9 gold, 27 silver, and 94 bronze." The head priest handed Hunter a bag full of currency. "You are quite a strong warrior. We will be holding a meeting at the church in a couple of days to prepare for the Feniri hunt with the adventurers, if you would be willing to come and join us. I promise the reward for killing the Feniri will be a good price." Hunter nodded towards the head priest, who then turned and left.
"Amazing job bro." Smiling, Orion walked up while patting Hunter's back.
"So you learned that guy's ability?" Spartacus asked with a toothy grin as he walked up and ruffled Hunter's head. Hunter went to hand his winnings over to Spartacus, but Spartacus pushed them back while shaking his head. "You earned these yourself, keep them. We aren't officially a guild so we don't need to take part of the earnings or set up any wages yet." Hunter nodded as he tucked the pouch into one of his pockets on the inside of his cloak.
"So who wants to go out an enjoy the town for a little bit before we go back home?" Ian walked amongst the children, rubbing their heads as he looked around at them. Many of the children cheered, becoming very excited. The party left and went out onto the streets, and began walking around the city, going into stores and buying snacks, toys, and trinkets for each of the children.
Finally it was supper time and so Hunter lead them to the Hangman's Finger to eat. As they entered Hunter looked around seeing if Alexi had recovered and been released yet, but not seeing him nor his party mates, Hunter figured he was still at the church healing. [If you're gonna brag about how powerful you are then make sure you can actually take a hit.] He shook his head glumly before sitting down at an open table, spreading the group out among two tables.
By now the tavern had gone quite as all the locals and all the adventures looked at Hunter, than at the party that was accompanying him. A couple of seasoned adventures took in short quick gasps of air as they saw one of the children was fully equipped in sentinel armor, causing unease to spread amongst them as they thought about how powerful just two members of this large party was.
The children ordered food and had a ruckus celebration for an hour or so before Spartacus got up, indicating it was time to leave the town and go home. As they left, Hunter nodded towards the guard captain, who was blatantly shivering in his boots as he beheld Hunter. Finally returning to the waterfall, the children split up amongst their peer groups, some going to play with their new toys for a little while, while others went to clean themselves in the river before getting ready for bed. Hunter would be taking last watch so he went into the sleeping chamber, curling up in a corner and falling asleep quickly.
Back at the church the head priest knocked on a thick oaken door, waiting till he was told to come in. Walking in, he found the town bishop sitting at his desk with many books pulled from the book shelves as he scoured across them, looking for something.
"Your eminence, have you found it yet?"
"No. Dammit! The prophecy was made so long ago that I don't even know which era it was recorded in! Send word back to the pope, it has begun. The God King's Huntsman walks the earth." As he continued searching through the books he let out an excited gasp. "I've found it! The hunting horn blows in the nightly wind. The sun has begun it's decent on the end of the world and shall rise on Paradise. The harbinger of the apocalypse comes when the Divine Kings awaken." The bishop looked up to the head priest as fear glossed in his eyes.
"What does this mean father?"
"The world as we know it is coming to an end. An endless war will soon consume all the worlds." The bishop walked to the window, looking out upon the peaceful town.