Chapter 32: Hunters Or Guardians?
Last night was a wet dream.
Yet, it wasn't a dream because Michael knew for a fact that he walked around this church and chased this endangered nun in it.
There wasn't much time to reflect on it, though. The village was attacked again.
Cherrywood was, unfortunately, constantly the prime target of nearby criminals, who thought they could make a quick buck out of attacking a defenceless town. Too bad for them that Cherrywood was not defenceless as the bandits, who just came to town, all thought it was.
Cherrywood possessed one wicked line of defence, which consisted of only two hunters…
Their names were…
Michael and Maleva.
Separated, they were decent hunters, who could both pack a serious punch. Together, they were unstoppable as was recently demonstrated during the previous battle with the shadow werewolf, who used to terrorize this province, which was known as the: 'Equinox Province'.
As was to be expected, Michael and Maleva were both in the middle of a fight, which took place near the entrance of the small town where they lived.
"Ready to finish these guys off, Michael?" Maleva asked him from the other side of the road where they were. There were a total of four bandits that had already gone into town and stolen some including, but not only, rations and water. Something crucially important for all inhabitants of the town of Cherrywood, since we were soon going into a period of transition during which not as many crops could be harvested because of the season changing.
These four bandits all had to be stopped. Thankfully, these two hunters weren't going to back down anytime soon.
"You know it!" Michael smiled at the one girl he was hoping to have as a girlfriend. Then, she smiled back at him.
Maleva wore the same red hood she was given by her mother before she and Michael went to visit Aurora last time.
She looks helluva cute with that red hood on… Michael thought to himself, as the both of them were supposed to be battling with the dangerous and low-blow bandits, who had desperately been trying to stab the both of them for the past couple of minutes now. Fortunately for them, Michael and Maleva were able to avoid their disgusting blades every time they tried stabbing them.
Michael had two bandits attempting to stab him, and Maleva also had two. Both of them were in human form, which meant that they currently didn't have access to their typical werewolf skills and powerful attributes.
However, this wasn't going to matter too much now.
The first one to make their first and official move against the enemy was no other than Maleva. The huntress struck first. She pulled a pair of sharp, tiny blades out from under her skirt and slashed away at the two bandits, who were actively attempting to murder her in cold blood. Maleva's red hood beautifully flew in the wind in slow motion as she leaped into the air and successfully managed to deliver sudden blows at them in their back.
Slash!
Slash!
She stabbed both of them in their back, resulting in both of them coming down to her knees. Raging and screaming in sheer pain.
The two of them were already defeated, it seemed.
Yet, the huntress never finished any of them off
She never delivered the fatal blow to any of them, but instead decided to keep them under her watch, so they wouldn't get up.
"Don't look so proud, now!" Maleva declared to both of them as she stood right behind them. Still holding her now bloodied-up blade. Still ready to attack them if they ever tried anything.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, it was also time for Michael to strike back. So, what did he pull out of his coat? That wasn't a pair of daggers like it was the case for Maleva, who was simply so amazingly talented at using blades. Michael instead went for something rather different. He pulled out the original revolver he used a long time ago before being turned into a werewolf. Reunited with his beloved weapon after not using it for so long…
With the gun out in the open, the two violent bandits suddenly froze as they were coming at him.
This weapon Michael held in his right hand inspired fear and commanded respect.
The brave gunslinger stood before the two bandits with his gun pointed at them.
"I'm not messing around. I don't want to have to shoot you," Michael declared to the two of them he handled and battled.
The two bandits still slowly moved a bit closer to him… Continued surrounding him, and they did so up until…
Bang!
Michael took his shot!
Not at the two of them, but Michael took a shot at the sky.
This sound they heard resonated much deeper with them, now that they knew and understood that this was for real.
"This is not a joke. My weapon is loaded. Leave now and never come back," Michael casually declared to them, right before pointing the cannon of his gun at the two of them again.
…
They froze.
They didn't move for a long time until they finally understood that this wasn't worth it at all, and the two crooks Michael found took off. They left. They were gone.
Then…
"What the heck? You let them go?" Maleva quickly came to Michael on the other side of the road and confronted him on what he had just done.
"Sure, I did," he replied to her, confident in what he did.
"But why?"
"There's no need to take them both back to town as prisoners, and we're not going to kill them, right?" Michael Redheart explained to her.
"Right… I guess…" the huntress bit her lower lip only because what Michael recently uttered hurt her this much. She didn't want to let them go.
"We're also doing the same thing for them," then, Michael freed the two other bandits that Maleva fought before. Michael untied them both after Maleva had recently done this to them.
The young man freed them all.
The four bandits escaped.
"What have you done? They're bad guys…" the beautiful huntress argued with him.
"What I'm wondering about is what they were after."
"What do you mean? Food? Provisions? Why is it so important?"
"Why would they take the risk to come for only those goods? There's got to be something else…"
Thud!
Michael opened one of the crates the bandits left behind that they hoped they would take with them.
Once opened, the two hunters who had recently turned into guardians of this small town saw what was hiding in that large crate…
A book.
Not just any book…
It was some kind of ancient grimoire…
No. It was something else.
It was a bible.
A black bible with the image of a wolf's head on the front cover of it.