Chapter 43: Missing!
Gunnar saw the spear was about to stab him in his neck. So, he moved his body a little so the spear would hit his shoulder instead. Gunnar endure the pain and before the Bald Man could do anything again, he grabbed a handful of dirt and then throw it into the face of his enemy.
The Bald Man saw the trick of Gunnar. Thus, he covered his face with his hand to block the incoming dirt. After that, The Bald Man put down his hand that was blocking his vision to see what his enemy's next move was. However, Gunnar was already gone.
Gunnar was running towards the spear the Bald Man threw earlier, as his weapon was currently on his enemy. The Bald Man didn't let this happen, he aimed the spear he was holding at the young man's back, then throw it.
Gunnar felt a chill on his back, he knew an incoming attack was heading his way. Therefore, he jumped to the side to dodge it, but when he landed. There was already a fist coming to his face, he tried to evade the punch by moving his head a little. Thankfully, Gunnar's reaction was very fast, he dodged the fist by the nick of hair.
After that Gunnar jumped back to gain some distance from his enemy. Even though he evaded the full attack, he still received a cut to his face when the fist of the Bald Man grazed it. The Bald Man didn't follow Gunnar again and tried to convince him one more time.
"Young man, you are really good." The Bald Mad said with a serious face. "I am going to give you one more chance, join me and I will let you be my second in command. Do you not think that dying here will be a waste of your talent? You are still young, if you have a few more years you will definitely become one of the strongest hunters."
"Me? Dying? I am not going to die here." Said Gunnar while holding his injured shoulder. "You think you can kill me? Do you think I did not notice? You were already tired, that was why you are using all your strength to kill me faster. Now, you are buying time to regain some strength, or maybe to wait for your reinforcement. You also know that you cannot kill me, so you are trying to make me give up instead. I am maybe not smart, but I am not stupid. I think I buy enough time for my team to escape, I am not going to wait for your reinforcement, so I am going to go first. However, before I go, I want you to remember something. I, maybe, cannot defeat you today, but I promise that someday, I will find you, and I will kill you."
Gunnar instantly ran towards where the Arrows were, after saying what he wanted to say. The Bald Man wanted to stop Gunnar. However, as his enemy said. He was exhausted, and although he didn't let his hunter see it, having no sleep and being vigilant at all times took a toll on his body.
When he was about to follow the escaping young man, one of his feet gave up because of fatigued. The burst of punches he did earlier almost depleted his stamina, he thought that attack was enough to kill his enemy, but he never thought that the young man's tenacity was beyond imaginable. The Bald Man knew that even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to catch up to the young man. Thus, he just angrily yelled.
"YOU BETTER RUN! I PROMISE THAT I WILL COME TO YOUR TRIBE AND KILL YOU!"
After letting his frustration out, he also went back to meet with his hunters. Meanwhile, the escaping Arrows finally stopped when they reached the place where they decided to ambush whoever tried to chase them.
All the Arrows hiding in the bushes and trees came out when they saw that the attacking group was injured.
"What happens?" Berus asked with worried.
"The enemy knows where we are, and ambush us," One of the Arrows from the attack group said. "We do not know how they find us, but I think they also have someone scouting in the surroundings and we did not notice it. Luckily, our reaction is fast, and escaped instantly after we find out that the enemy discover us, so we only received a minor injury."
"Whoo… That is good, maybe this is why I have a bad feeling about the attack. Thankfully, all of you are okay…" Berus let out a sigh of relief when he heard the story. However, when he observed every member of the attack group, he had a feeling that something was not right. "Wait… Where is Gunnar?"
"That… he stays behind to distract the enemy." The Arrow depressingly said. "We need someone to stop the enemy, if not all of us will be caught by the leader of the Blood Hunter."
"What?!" Berus exclaimed. "then we need to come back to see if Gunnar is okay, we cannot just leave him behind."
"We also want to do that, but we do not know if the Blood Hunters are still chasing us. If we turn back and the enemy catches up to us, then Gunnar's sacrifice will be for nothing."
"I understand, then let me look for Gunnar." Berus volunteered. "We still need to know what happens to him, and if the Blood Hunter is still chasing you. I believed that I can escape with my speed."
"Ok then, we are counting on you."
"Wait, I will be coming too, two eyes are better than one." One of the Arrows also volunteered.
After the discussion, Berus with another Arrow left to look for Gunnar while the remaining Arrows went back to their camp.
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While Gunnar was running, his body was swaying left and right as the injuries on his body were more serious than he thought. Even though he blocked a lot of the attacks of the Bald Man, the few punches that were able to penetrate his defense were enough to seriously injure him. Every hit was so strong that he thought that he was being hit by a hammer.
Gunnar's head started to get dizzy, his vision was becoming blurry, and started spinning. He knew that he was about to lose his consciousness, but before he did, he wanted to find a safe place to hide. Yet, regardless of how much he looked around, he couldn't find any suitable place to hide.
After a while, Gunnar finally couldn't take it anymore and fell while facing the ground. He still tried to fight the heaviness of his eyelid, he didn't want to fall unconscious in the middle of the forest, he knew that the possibility of not waking up again would be very high.
But no matter how much Gunnar tried to stay awake, he felt that the weight of his eyelids was heavier than the boulder. When he was about to lose consciousness, he saw a blurry image of a humanoid creature coming his way. He knew it was not a human because of its long limbs and hairy body. He wanted to stand up to scare the creature coming toward him, but he was too tired to do so. Finally, Gunnar's consciousness succumbed to the darkness.
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Berus along with another Arrow finally saw the place where Gunnar and the Bald Man fight took place. Some part of the ground was destroyed, a few trees were damaged, and blood could be seen here and there.
Berus became even more worried when he saw the fight was already finished. Because if the fight was done and Gunnar still didn't return, then that meant something bad happen to him.
"Do you think the Blood Hunters capture Gunnar?" Berus asked the other Arrows with clear anxiety in his voice.
"I am not sure, but based on the pattern of the blood, someone escapes from the fight in the direction where we came from, and if the leader of the Blood Hunter is the one who escapes, why will he choose this direction?" The Arrow replied while analyzing the blood pattern. "Maybe if we follow the blood trail, we can find Gunnar."
"I see, maybe you are right, let us follow the trail then." Berus agreed with the logic.
The two Arrows instantly followed the trail of blood to see if it was really Gunnar. Soon After, they reached the end of the trail, but there was nobody in there. The two split and try to search the surrounding area. Nevertheless, they didn't find a thing.
"There is no one here, what do you think happened?" Berus asked the Arrow again. "Do you think, the leader of the Blood Hunter chased Gunnar and caught him here?"
"We can never be sure if that is really the case, but that is indeed a possibility." Replied the Arrow. "We need to come back to the others and tell them that there is a high chance that Gunnar was captured by the Blood Tribe."