They sped through the trees, the rest of the forest looking like a green blur. The faster they moved, the less demons they'd run into. They've been running for a day now without rest. Luz's expression never changed the entire time. Neither did his. Not only were they trained for this job, the two have been doing this ever since they've reached the Bishop level. They were used to this by now.
They ran all the way from Notron, The capital of Rebble. Priest dressed in all black. These ones were covered in a mantle. Luz with her blonde hair in a ponytail, Kris, a male brunette. Tag hunters were never stationed anywhere and so they always had to start from the capital.
An utter annoyance, but when some priests were running late, it was always their job to go investigate. This time, the priest in question's name was Geneo, Peko, and Arvent. On their way, they've faced several demons. If they weren't dangerous, then they were beyond encumbering in slowing them down.
"I swear to their god if this turns out to be a false alarm," Kris said.
"Wow, it kinda sounds like you're saying you hope they're dead," Luz said.
"If that isn't the case, they sure as fuck will be," Kris was already irritated. Sprinting for days on end although possible, still wasn't something he liked doing. "And if it isn't done by me, then the higher ups who want their tithes is going to be pissed,"
"Whatever… Guy was a lewd creep to me anyway. Still though, it's not prudent for us to be losing priest no matter how bad their personality is," Luz said.
Kris looked around. This looked like the area between Lue and Hestia. It was the area they were last seen in and heading to Hestia was their goal after reporting in Lue. There was no priest stationed in Hestia, so whether they made it there or not was a mystery.
"Kris, over there," Luz said. She pointed in the direction she was referring to.
Kris looked over. There were signs of battle. "Let's go and inspect it,"
The two rushed over. There were few blood stains on the ground, but no body to go with it. Kris looked around, scanning everything with his eyes. The area was covered in wreckage. There were multiple footsteps in the surrounding area. Too many to count.
Only one of them human.
"We're just a bit south-east of Lue. There looks to be signs of a battle with spectral monkeys. Only nobody has yet, reported such a thing," Kris said.
"You're kidding me. You telling me that Geneo and the group he was with lost to spectral monkeys?" Luz asked.
"Not enough evidence to go on from that. For all we know, whoever did this might have reported after we left. This could've been recent. Or maybe… this was done by someone other than the order," Kris said.
He looked around, inspecting the area even more. There was a large set of footprints belonging to a demon.
"It looks like one of the monkeys was evolved. Somewhere in the fight it turned into a Spectral Great Ape," Kris said.
"I'm sensing foul play here somehow. Geneo's group would not have a problem with a level two demon. By themselves maybe, but all their blades are awakened. They shouldn't have a problem with spectral monkeys"
Kris put his finger on his chin. He went into deep thought. "We should continue towards Hestia to see if they made it. Perhaps then we'd get our answers to what might have happened.
They ran for a few days more towards Hestia. Their travels were leading them up a mountain, where the dirt trail started turning into hard granite.
Luz looked ahead as if something caught her eye. "Kris, I think I see something," She pointed in the direction.
Kris looked where she was pointing. It looked like… a body. From the distance he was at, he could see something glowing on it. As they neared, he could see how the thing glowing, was slightly showing signs of movement. It became apparent to Kris what he was looking at. They were minor level one demons, feasting on the spirit of carcasses.
{Kritter-Kratters:}
Small crab, like beings with leech like mouths. These things were extremely weak and were scavenger demons at best. Kris brought out his blade, and with one swing of his sword, dispatched all of them on it. He made careful not to damage the body in the process.
As some got destroyed, the remaining ones who survived began to flee from the danger of the two. Kris ignored them, but Luz went to work. The girl had a personal vendetta against demons and didn't want a single one to live.
Kris looked into the eyes of the victim. It had a life-less stare and was greying. He could tell, all the spirit energy got sucked out of it by demons other than the Kritter-Kratters. Though demons could suck a lot, only these specific ones could get the remaining bit that's left. This corpse was rather skinny. Not only that, but it also looked to be a middle-aged man, with a mustache, and a short beard. He was indeed wearing the black garb of the White Dragons.
"Think that could by our boys?" Luz asked soon as she was done slaying.
Kris didn't answer back. He silently reached into the man's garb and pulled out a tag. They were all issued one at graduation, themselves included. That tag was to stay with you at all times down here on the surface levels. He read the name on the plate.
GENEO TAKU
There was an awkward pause. "Yeah… this is our guy," He looked back at the body. He knew exactly what Geneo looked like. He was big and jolly, but the way he looked now in comparison. "Looks like we finally found a woman that can suck you dry,"
"Tchh…" Luz looked away in disgust.
Kris could tell it was more about the man in question, than the corpse itself. Him and Luz has been in the hunters' field for quite a while, and they had been used to seeing the most grotesque corpses by now. Some unrecognizable without the tags.
It was rare to see them in such pristine condition. So why was it?
He was by no means an expert on the cause of death, but it looked like the man choked on his own blood. There was a stab wound through his abdomen.
{Demons aren't this meticulous in their killings.}
Killing wasn't the goal itself when it came to the demons, feasting was. Killing was just the means to an end. This suggested that it wasn't a demon that had fell Geneo. This was that of another blade.
Kris looked at Luz and in vice versa.
There was a trail of blood leading from another area. "Think they had a falling out?" Luz asked. She came to the same conclusion he did in that Geneo got stabbed by a katana, bled as he crawled away, and was stabbed through the neck. Also, his hand was missing.
This implied that a human did it.
Such expats were normal to team members in The Order. Rarely were they lethal, due to fact that a priest was dead traveling without their team member.
Luz looked at the trail of blood. "He was crawling from this direction… That way is Hestia. It's likely that in his desperation, he was trying to get back to Lue. I think it likely that they've been there,"
"Scan the area for Peko and Arvent. Given the circumstance, we may have to issue a bounty on them," Kris said.
While Kris scanned the body for more evidence of what might have happened, Luz followed the trail of blood from where it originated from. "Kris… you're not going to believe this!" Luz called.
Kris dropped what he was doing and ran all the way to where Luz was standing. Right around the corner, it looked like a massacre happened. There was blood everywhere. How much of it belonged to the order and how much belonged to their assailant remained unclear. Accompanying all that blood, was the body of two individuals dressed similarly like them.
"About that bounty on Peko and Arvent. We might as well not even start that," Kris said.
It was evident that what he was looking at, was the two in question. They looked similar enough alike that there was little mistake it being them.
He went to take their dog tags to be sure. Surely enough, it had their names on the plate. One had been sliced in his abdomen. The other stabbed through the heart.
"You know what this means, right Kris," Luz said.
"Yeah… we're dealing with a fourth party here," Kris said. {It's not as if they killed themselves.}
Whoever killed Geneo, killed him as he was crawling away. They were dealing with somebody powerful. "You don't think it was the priest hunter, do you?" Luz asked.
"I doubt it. This doesn't follow the priest hunter's MO," Kris looked closer. Clearly there were signs of a struggle. "This was the work of another priest,"