"Ah good, you're here Vanessa" A large man with the stature you'd see from an old Greek god statue walked up to Vanessa and patter her on the shoulder, this was Angus Knight, the current captain of the guard squad; One of the few in the village that have taken a second name, its mostly down to preference but its usually families with dedicated jobs that are inherited or a lineage that is distinguished in one way or another that takes up a family name.
"Morning Gus', as energetic as ever i see" Vanessa replied while brushing his hand off her shoulder and turning to face him, she is definitely one of the taller women in the village, but she was still dwarfed by Angus' near 7-foot stature.
"Of course! You have to stay positive in times like these, it's the only way to move forward!" He laughed heartily; he was of course talking about the event with the old eccentric, yet she felt there was something more in his speech.
"Did something else happen?" She had to ask if only to satisfy her curiosity.
Angus' face seemed to droop slightly before he spoke after giving a small nod "Indeed something happened, it has to do with the previous patrol group." He stared out towards the massive sea of trees concealed with thick mist.
"I'll tell you with the others, go gather with them" He patted her back and walked off to find other arriving guardsmen, he was known as somewhat of a friendly giant with his blonde hair, bright blue eyes and well-groomed beard so seeing his glum face in that moment gave Vanessa a sense of foreboding.
She watched him walk away for a second before stroking the head of Guts who was waiting beside her patiently and said: "Let's go" before walking towards a large tent where a lot of the other guardsmen were gathering, there were nearly 30 people inside the tent standing patiently while chatting to each-other in light voices, as they saw Vanessa enter the tent they all nodded towards her and watched as she stood in front of them to wait.
"Vice-captain, have you heard anything?" One of the guards waiting asked her the moment she took position.
"Not more than you lot most likely, only thing I know about is the incident with Redric" She shook her head and replied.
"Man, that scene was a mess, still can't believe something managed to cause that and it's still somewhere out there" Another one chimed in and had to speak while chills passed through his body, he was one of the men that discovered the scene of disaster, and he can't get it out of his head.
"Was it really that bad?" Another said with some doubt "It's not the first time we've had someone become food whilst they're out the village…"
While it was uncommon for people to die when patrolling outside, it's not like it never happened before though it only happens a few times a year at most.
"You don't understand since you didn't know Redrick, that man could have easily taken the captains position with his strength! Not just that he had a whole pack of ghost wolves with him yet whatever it had gobbled them all up leaving behind a red hellscape without leaving any clues… This is much more than just another death" An older guard spoke with a grim undertone; he knew how much trouble had appeared this time.
"By the way, have you guys seen John yet today?" A younger man asked while peering outside to the camp looking for someone.
"John? Wasn't he on the night shift?" Another said with doubt.
"Now that you mention it… I don't think I've seen anyone that was on the night shift around, did they turn in early or something?" A naïve young guard spoke without hesitation but when he said this the eyes of the rest turned sharp.
"Wait you don't think…?!" Someone spoke and instantly panic spread slightly among the crowd as a tacit understanding seemed to spread.
"Quieten down, we'll know the truth when the captain talks to us!" Vanessa spoke loudly, drowning out the slight panic and silencing the rest of them.
After another five minutes and a couple more men entering the tent, they had reached about 40 people packing the large tent like a can of sardines, soon the captain entered and took centre position and looked gloomily at the crowd before taking a breath and regaining some energy in his eyes.
"First things first, I need to say something; About an hour ago a wolf from the night patrol team returned to camp, injured and alone carrying a short message" He spoke clearly so everyone could hear him.
Some gulps were heard echoing as this piece of information was divulged, a lot of people immediately put two and two together.
"The message was very simple, 'Large-class black beast, unknown abilities, 4 dead before we knew it', it was clearly written in a hurry and well, at that time as said 4 already fell, there were only 10 in the group; we don't know the status of the rest of them but…" Angus' hands gripped tightly into a fist in anger.
"No, they'll be fine, today's expedition has been put on high priority thus we will be having another 10 guards join each group totalling thirty, the entire village has been placed on high alert with increased vigilance, we cannot take this thing lightly now." A gaze that was filled with fire crossed everyone in the room, a single creature causing this much damage was a clear danger to the village and it needed to be put down immediately.
The size classification was quite literally based on the overall size of the creature, ghost wolves were considered small-class, Alpha, the current leader of the pack, was considered medium-class if one was being generous, the fact that this danger was large-class which isn't ever usually seen within Mist-sea Forest was an indicator of disaster.
"As before, Vanessa will take lead of group B and I'll take lead of group A, The two groups will go different directions both starting at the north gate, A will go clockwise outwards whereas group B will go counter-clockwise, we will meet up at specific times where our paths will overlap and report our findings, if one of us is late, we will wait 5 minutes then move on; There are two objectives in this hunt" He spoke clearly and concisely letting the information sink in for a minute before continuing to speak.
"One, the main target is the large-class beast, do not approach recklessly and try to gather information! It doesn't matter if we don't kill it immediately, the more information we have the more successful we will be, but if you have a chance to lop its head off don't hesitate, kill the bastard!" Everyone in the tent could almost feel venom dripping from Angus' last words, he was someone who cared a lot for the people in the guard so losing so many clearly angered him.
"Two, try to find clues about the last six of the night patrol, if you find them alive then keep them safe and escort them back if they're injured, if they're still fit for combat let them join the hunt; Otherwise try find proof of their passing… But don't get ahead of yourselves, I'd rather have you alive than dying while chasing the dead."
Everyone in the tent felt their blood boil, such a large hunting party hadn't been formed for a long time and it wasn't going to be a cakewalk, they could easily lose their lives, but not a single one of them complained or attempted to run, everyone in this village was close-knit and while they may not all treat everyone as their own family, they were close neighbours that shared a livelihood.
"When encountering the beast, no matter who the signal flare must be given and also the mages should set up the echo spell" He glanced towards a couple figures towards the back.
The village didn't have too many mages, but they still trained some people in the most basic spells because they were useful, Signal Flare was a tier 1 spell, it launched a bright light in the direction the user specified and pierces even the thick fog with its brightness, Echo was a tier 0 spell that created a sound of set frequency and loudness that went for as long as the mana supplied to it last, they were both emergency spells that were highly useful for navigating Mist-sea forest in an emergency.
After a few more minutes of going through the finer details and assigning more specific roles within the groups, the two left the tent and started to prepare to set out, after another half our the rest of the men had joined up and they went over the plan once more, there was a total of 40 men/women and 40 wolves per group, counting 160 heads overall, this was the largest hunting party yet and it also consisted of a large chunk of the villages population.
The two groups stood next to each-other resembling small armies, Vanessa and Angus stood away from each-other positioned at the lead of their respective groups, they both looked at each-other and nodded.
""SET OUT!"" They yelled, causing a echo which caused goosebumps to pass up the armies bodies.
Soon, the sound of marching and clanging armour filled the outskirts of the village, the hunt had begun.