Hiding behind a tree, Ewan calmed his breathing to try to better listen to the sounds around him. He had already noticed it when he arrived on the scene, but the forest had become far too quiet; leaving him to suspect that some evil magic was at work. He had already experienced this strangely as he approached the outskirts of Bohr's village, and felt that something unnatural must have been happening in the area.
When he had finally reached the clearing above which the orb of green light continued to shine in the sky, his worst fears had been realized: he didn't know why or how, but the man he had fought in the underground auction house in Ylesse was there, ready to attack a hunter whose appearance was all too familiar.
Without missing a beat, he aimed at the swordsman with the opaque mask, and emptied the four still loaded projectiles into the compartment of his halter. In the urgency of the situation, he could only afford a ranged attack, and the weapon he had not planned to reload immediately had turned out to be the only viable option. Then, as the Circle man staggered, Ewan had taken the opportunity to fully reload the small miniature crossbow on his left arm with six shots, before firing again.
He was practicing what he had been constantly told during his training at the Military Academy.
'A man without a weapon or mana is a dead man.'
While all of his previous hunts may have been of varying and diverse difficulty, the enemy that stood before him was certainly more threatening and terrible than some of the creatures he had been able to slay.
A monster always had specificities, physical, mental, or magical, that almost never varied between individuals of the same species. These creatures were born that way, and not even the experience gained during the time they were alive could alter their fundamental nature.
However, as with any rule, there was a prevalent exception: all beings with speech and complex thinking had incalculable potential in all areas. Their intelligence allowed them to evolve, to become stronger, and even to learn things that went against their species and their nature.
Among these beings with speech and complex thinking were all humanoid races, as well as some now rare species of monsters. And of all these races and species, Ewan had never feared humans more. Not only had they possessed almost the entire continent - giving themselves the knowledge of all the races and lands they had conquered - but they also had a major advantage over the other humanoid species: along with the monsters most closely related to mana, humans were among the creatures with the greatest magical potential.
Facing an enemy who was presumably human, possessed an artifact, and versed in the arts of magic was therefore a very bad omen for Ewan. This explosive combination of skills and equipment posed a threat that made the outcome of the fight more than uncertain. It was impossible to predict what this person's next move would be, but also what were the limitations of the artifact in his possession.
Faced with this uncertainty, Ewan could only apply one combat tactic: to trap the entire area to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible.
Putting his sword away in its sheath, he began to use all the material he had brought with him in such a short time.
Discreetly, the young hunter pulled another wire wrapped around himself from his belt pouches; and reaching into a piece of apron hanging from his left leg and on which several compartments had been sewn, he pulled out scrap metal grenades to pinch the tips at regular intervals on the wire.
A branch cracked nearby, and Ewan immediately froze. On the lookout, he concentrated on listening carefully to what was happening around him.
Géandre probably hadn't had time to come back yet, judging by the distant sounds of fighting that were coming from the area. The animals had deserted the area, so it could only be one of two things: a monster, or the man in the mask.
Slowly, Ewan carefully tied the end of the new wire to a root sticking out of the ground in an arc. He was careful to make as little noise as possible, and quickly observing the surroundings, chose to go around the right side of the long line of traps he had already laid behind him.
In one or two minutes, he managed to drag the wire behind him to also secure his back, and avoid any sneak attack coming behind his back. With the other end of the wire tied to a low branch of a shrub, the young hunter observed the surroundings and armed himself with his dagger to slice a strip of cloth impregnated with a viscous substance into several pieces.
One of the essential points of any trapped area was to control the whole space, and for that, Ewan put against several tree trunks a piece of cloth that remained firmly stuck there. If the enemy didn't pass by, he would have a good surprise.
An explosion sounded, and Ewan was startled.
An iron grenade had been fired, and without him being able to see who or what was the cause, another explosion occurred. Then a third, and so on.
There was no doubt about it: the man in the mask was setting off grenade after grenade, without stopping to advance in his direction, given the increasingly close sounds of detonation.
He was surely trying a frontal attack, making sure not to leave a single trap that could hinder his movements, and Ewan understood that he would have to move quickly and change location if he didn't want to be caught immediately.
The young hunter decided to keep moving forward in a circle to make his progress less obvious to the person stalking him. However, a slight, almost inaudible ringing of a bell put him on alert.
Just ahead of him, someone had just touched a fishing line to which the young man had attached bells. The noise, although totally opposite to the sounds of detonation, was much too close to the explosions to be a mere coincidence.
Is this guy trying to surround me from two sides at once?
It was far too calculated a move to be simply random, and as he heard the last of the scrap metal grenades explode about twenty yards away, Ewan was filled with doubt.
Immediately, he drew his sword to replace his dagger, and with apprehension, considered which directions might offer him the best escape route.
A bell tinkled briefly to his left, and Ewan flinched. There was no doubt about it now.
He couldn't imagine what was happening. This man, whoever he was, had detected all his traps and was disarming them one after the other without any difficulty. This meant that both he and Ewan had the same expertise in traps; and that what the young hunter thought was an advantage at the time was not. The time he had before Géandre returned was drastically reduced.
He heard footsteps behind him, and as he turned around, Ewan had just enough time to see a figure running towards him.