Chereads / The Hungry Hunter / Chapter 15 - The Truman Incident Part 5

Chapter 15 - The Truman Incident Part 5

The second explosion occurred at 6:50 in the morning. The swirling wind that formed due to Harry's spell, caught up to him once he made contact with Allen. The wind twirled its way around Harry's body and to his fist. There the wind concentrated at the point of impact and tore through Allen's defenses. As Allen spun from the twirling tornado, the flames that exploded from his palms erupted outward.

Within the flames were small hints of mana that Allen applied. The amount of mana pumped into the flames caused the heat of it to increase. Once the flames collided with the wind produced by the twirling tornado, an explosion louder than the first occurred. It sounded like a lightning strike in a heavy thunderstorm. The force of the twirling tornado also launched Allen toward the manor at an upward angle.

His flight over was only enhanced through the byproduct of the explosion, a shockwave. The shockwave also knocked Harry to the ground. Harry took the brunt of the explosion, the intense heat burned off half of his beard and face. It also made all his previous wounds worse; even the blood draining from his body evaporated.

However through either decades of experience or survival instincts, Harry applied mana to his body, lowering the damage he took overall. He sat upright in the middle of his burning wheat and carrot field. He laid his eyes upon the beautiful orange flames that danced through the field. He let himself fall to the ground, imagining himself as a child dancing with the flames.

As he stared up at the early morning sky, he noticed how clear it was, not a single cloud in sight. The crackling of fire eased his pain and calmed his ears. Only one of his ears, the other was badly burnt. He frustratingly tried to smell the world around him, but he was unable to. Despite it all, his brow relaxed and a half smile formed on his face.

"This is death," he said closing his eyes.

Meanwhile, Allen was launched far enough to crash through a second story window on the four story manor. Allen felt as though his breath had completely escaped from him once he successfully crashed. His back hit a bookshelf and knocked some books down. As he coughed he let out bursts of fire from his mouth. He screamed a horrid animalistic screech that echoed through the burning halls of the manor.

Yet no one could hear him, as everyone inside the manor during the start of the fight had already evacuated. However one person heard him after several minutes passed. As Allen heard the sound of a door being forced open over the crackling of fire, "Ally! Did you just crash in here? Are you okay?" Sylver rushed over to him, clearing the books that fell on him out of the way.

Allen continued to cough, his whole body was trembling. "Oh, you're alive. That's great." Sylver walked away from Allen, she looked around the bedroom they were in. She went through all the drawers first before opening the closest full of trousers and fine tan leather boots. She threw out all the boots and searched every inch of the closet before taking a step back and kicked the bottom of it.

"What are you doing," Allen asked finally recovering his breath.

"Getting our freedom," she kicked a few more times before the bottom broke and revealed a hollow bottom. She moved the broken wood piece and found an old suitcase covered in dust. She blew the dust off of it, and carried it over to Allen. "Can you burn this open for me?"

Allen raised his brow, "I don't know? I can't even move. I used too much mana on that last attack."

"Come on Ally, you got this. Just a bit of fire from your finger or something."

"I've never done it from just my finger."

"What? You can ignite your whole hand, but not your finger?"

"I never said I can't, I just said I never done it."

"Poppycock."

"I'm tired on top of that. I don't feel like it!"

"Fine I just need to find Father's key," Sylver left the suitcase by Allen. As she searched under her father's bed.

"What's inside the case?"

"Our papers verifying our enslavement. He showed me them a couple months ago. On them is a place where a noble can sign to emancipate us. Our manor is currently on fire, I presume you caused that. I was going to jump out the window to escape, but it seems like you made that easier for me. How long is it going to take you to get back on your feet?"

"I don't know, give me a minute."

"Alright. Also did you kill Father?"

"I'm not sure. Everything happened so fast."

"Perfect, he's got to be weak or something. We can land the final blow and make the Princess emancipate us."

*THUD*

The sound of something landing on the roof vibrated the entire manor. "Oh shit," Allen said.

"Damn it all. Did he really recover that fast," Sylver exclaimed as he rushed from under the bed to the case.

A few minutes before the thud atop the manor, Lily had applied mana to her legs. She sped up to a point where she was reaching Allen's travel speed. 'This uses up a lot of mana, but this is a necessity. I must make it to him as fast as possible. I can't let him die. I need to understand the situation more. I need to see who or what is responsible for that explosion.'

To get up to the manor Lily had to climb a small hill surrounded on both sides with a flower garden. She stopped moving once she slightly passed the flower garden. For at the top of the small hill was a disfigured Sir Harry Truman. "Oh my goodness," Lily said as she rushed over to Harry who laid on his stomach, faced down.

At 6:55 in the morning Lily had made contact with Sir Harry Truman.

She knelt down next to him, placed her spell book next to her, then she stopped applying mana to her legs and rolled Harry over. She nearly puked at the sight of him. Her understanding of the situation grew as she used two of her fingers to feel his pulse. "You're still alive."

"Of course I am," Harry said moving his head in the direction of Lily's voice. "Who are you," he screamed.

"I'm Lily, Princess of the Merlin Kingdom. Who are you?"

'I need to confirm who he is. If this really is Allen's master, then I have to heal him. Wait, I can negotiate with him. I should trade Allen's freedom for his life. It should calm him down, he hates liars right? There's no way he would disrespect an agreement like this.'

"I'm Harry Truman," despite Harry's sight being slightly impaired, he could clearly see a younger version of himself wearing the exact same clothes he was wearing before it was burnt off in the fight. That version of himself stared at him as they danced behind Lily.

"You're Allen's master aren't you?"

"And you're that Princess Allen came with. Are you here to demand for him to be emancipated?"

"No sir. I want to do a trade."

"His freedom for my life. Predictable. Did you even consider the other children?"

"I have, but the production value of your farm is too high to free every child. Our kingdom will suffer if you died here or if the children are all freed."

"Our kingdom. Ha," Harry moved his gaze to the clear sky. Lily grabbed the spell book and flipped through the pages until she got to the regeneration spell. Her eyes glowed white as she put her hand over Harry and casted the spell, "Regeneration!"

She closed the book and put it next to her. "You should be fine soon." Harry inhaled, then exhaled, "beautiful day isn't it?"

"Sir? It's a cloudy day. I can smell the rain coming. Are you okay," Lily put her hand near his forehead, the heat emitting from it stopped her from going further. "Lily is a cute name. Who named you?"

"My mother."

"Was your mother a witch? How are you so adapt at magic?"

"I don't know. I don't remember much about her."

"She passed?"

"No. My father took her away from me."

"That's too bad. I knew your father when he was still a hunter. We hunted an insect together. Sad to see how he turned out."

"You will be allowing Allen to be emancipated, correct?"

"Yes. You've already begun healing me. Actually, I'll even free Sylver if you can recover my mana as well."

"I don't know how to do that."

"Really? You oughta visit Xyoinia when you can, marvelous place."

"Are you mad at Allen?"

Lily got no response. "Are you still mad at Allen? After you free him what do you plan on doing to him?" Still she got no response. "You hate liars right? I've been trying to wrap my head around how you can be so calm. Like you've almost completely forgotten about him. Anyone whose been beat down like this would be angry at their attacker."

Harry laughed, "And here I thought we could have a causal conversation. Have you been talking to Sylver? Maybe Allen? Doesn't matter. I plan on killing Allen after freeing him."

Lily stood up instantly, her eyes widening as she recognized the sheer size of her mistake. "W-w-why?"

A raindrop fell on Harry's slightly healed nose. His burn marks were slowly becoming scars. He smelt the rain in the air as his vision of his younger self dissipated with the clear sky he saw. "To make sure he doesn't live another 60 years. I saw so much potential in him as we fought. I tried to show him the difference in power between us. That failed. I tried to break him down mentally. That failed. I tried to just see how far he could go, but I couldn't see anything but myself. I'm afraid I'm nothing but a liar. I tried to trick him into thinking he wasn't special yet, but I was lying to him. He's so special."

"I don't see the problem here. If he's so special, then why kill him. Why not let him live his life."

"When I retired from being a hunter, I had a HEL of 26. I only hunted insects. Allen has that determination in him to surpass me. Once he does he will experience hell."

'You're unhinged.' Lily thought as she placed her knelt down once more and placed her hand on his chest. 'You don't know what you're doing.'

"Oh father of flames," she began. 'Are you insane? You can't take a life. That is not right. I cannot let you do that.'

"Bless me with your strength," the rain began picking up as Lily's own eyes began raining. 'What's done is done. I already healed him, he's already made up his mind. He hates lying.'

"Bless the heavens with your worries," Harry smiled as he saw a large figure in the distance approaching, from his point of view he saw horns and black wings. "The devil has come to take me! This is death," he screamed making Lily jump.

Yet the jump scare didn't stop her chant. "Let Prometheus' cries fuel me," Lily cried out, "Fireball!"