After three days of hunting calamities, they were sure enough that their population had dropped exponentially. After the fight with the flautist, everything was going well, Nathan was already recovered and had even begun to have a slight understanding of the essence as he used his technique more and more.
At one point, Nathan suddenly felt a slight tingling in his hands every time he shot an arrow. At first, he did not pay attention to it, but after a few repetitions, he noticed that his attacks were a little stronger and more powerful than before.
This made him realize that the essence was something truly fascinating and mysterious, but also something dangerous and difficult to control. He could only sigh at the thought of how long those people at the third rank or above had been training, they were simply monsters.
But even though he was beginning to feel the essence in his body, his control was still worse than a normal first rank. But Nathan did not give up, he knew that he was on the right track, and now he just needed to continue training bit by bit.
Essence aside, the group gathered on a large rock they had found the day before. The spot gave them a good view over the trees, so they could locate themselves a little better.
They had spent a couple of hours planning what they were going to do and were now ready to attack the tribal village.
They had decimated at least 500 of them in just three days... an absurd number, but not so crazy when you consider that each of the cadets was a force to be reckoned with, and that the soldier was also helping and was no longer as passive as he had been in the beginning.
Now there should be no more than 400 Calamities left, which seemed like a lot, but they really had a way of fighting them.
Nathan sat and cleaned the blood off the tips of his arrows while listening to the conversation between Maya and the other cadets.
"Is it going to work?" asked a slightly nervous cadet.
Maya nodded slightly, but Nathan couldn't help but notice a slight trace of tension on her face.
"Yes, the tribal calamities have an irrational fear of fire. You could say they think the gods are angry with them"
Nathan had heard this a few days ago. It was information that Syril didn't know either, but for some reason Maya did.
The tribal calamities were afraid of fire, and if there was any sign of it, they would do anything to put it out quickly. That's why they hadn't used this method before, because with so many Calamities left, they would put the fire out quickly. That's why they waited until they had reduced their numbers, so that it would take them longer to put out the fire, and then they would take the opportunity to enter the village and steal the relic, which would be even more defenseless than it already was without the presence of the special category calamity.
Nathan didn't really have any objections to the plan, he didn't fully understand the behavior of the Calamities, so he left it to Maya and the other cadets to come up with a plan.
The cadets sighed, but seconds later determined looks appeared on their faces.
"Right, let's do it" another cadet said.
Maya nodded and looked back at the horizon above the trees, where some wooden structures could be seen almost a kilometer away. Then the young woman jumped off the rock and landed in the water, the other cadets following her, while Nathan walked slowly down without jumping.
They walked for about 500 meters until Maya signaled to one of the cadets, who nodded with some tension and walked quickly in the other direction.
Maya turned to look at the other cadets.
"Right, get ready. As soon as I get back, we'll head straight for the village"
The cadets nodded again, and Nathan remained silent.
If all went well, they could leave the realm that very night, if not... well, then they would die like the others.
Almost ten minutes later, the cadet who had left returned, breathing slightly harder.
"It's done"
Maya nodded.
"Good, let's go"
With nothing more to say, they all started walking in the direction of village. Nathan couldn't see or feel it, but a large part of the swamp was starting to catch fire.
'This will distract the Calamities for a few hours... just one if we're unlucky'
Nathan ran with his bow in hand in case they ran into anything unexpected, but they went down a side where they knew they wouldn't run into any Calamities. So, after 30 minutes of walking, they hadn't run into anything and reached the village.
It was the first time they had been this close, so now they could see what the village really looked like.
Quietly, without making any noise and without being seen by any calamity, they began to approach.
The houses in the village were huts, some larger than others, and judging by their size, there must have been at least 20 or more Calamities per hut. Nathan could only be surprised at how elaborate the huts were, he thought that with the limited intelligence of the Calamities, these huts would be much more ramshackle and less sturdy.
But nothing to be surprised about, the huts were actually quite sophisticated... considering the limited materials available in the swamp.
Nathan took a few seconds to observe the others, some of them had curious but worried looks on their faces, Maya had a determined look on her face and the soldier had an indifferent expression as always.
Nathan could not deny that he, too, was curious to see how the creatures lived and what their strange way of life was like. But there were more important things going on, so he turned his attention back to what was important.
Eventually they noticed that the huts were beginning to disappear into the trees, leaving an open area free of wildlife and a strange large stone platform.
Nathan was confused, the large stone platform didn't stand out at all from the rest of the village, but he just had to keep looking ahead to get a better understanding of the situation he was in.
'What...?'
Beside him, the other cadets watched the scene before them in confusion, as dozens... no, hundreds of inert corpses of calamities lay scattered across the large stone platform.
All of them had slash wounds on their necks and wrists, filling the platform with blood and an intense and very unpleasant smell.
Nathan grimaced at the sight and smell, but his surprise was not over yet.
In the center of the platform, where there were no dead bodies, were twelve wooden poles and a figure in the center of the circle formed by the poles.
Nathan gulped when he saw this scene. There were twelve bodies on the twelve poles, including his companions who had been missing for days.
Nathan still did not understand what was happening, nor did he know if they were alive or not, for none of them moved. Among them was Syril, his hair covering his face, his hands tied to the top of the pole so that his body hung uncomfortably.
The young woman was not moving at all, and Nathan was still too far away to know if she was still breathing. Either way, he didn't have much time to worry about Syril and the others, not when the figure in the center began to move.
"It can't be..." Nathan couldn't help speaking out loud.
But no one seemed to pay any attention to him, not when they were surprised themselves.
"Why is there another special category?" said Maya, completely stunned.
Nathan frowned but didn't care. He had killed one special category himself, now he just had to kill another. Besides, he wasn't alone, there were no more tribal calamities this time, so they could easily finish him off.
The figure in the middle rose to his full height, revealing that he was nearly two meters tall, then raised his hands, holding something in them, and showed himself to the sky.
'A fragment of... something?'
In the calamity's hands, a fragment of what appeared to be an ancient circle, with a design of its own, full of details forming symmetrical shapes between them. Almost two thirds of the circle was missing, but for some reason Nathan felt that no good could come from this object.
All the while, the Calamity had turned its back on them, until it slowly began to turn around, as if it had become aware of the presence of several unwanted visitors.
Nathan immediately noticed the resemblance of the calamity to the flautist. He was much taller than normal for a tribal calamity, and his mask was more elaborate but different from the flautist.
The most obvious difference between the two special category calamities was that while the flautist had some muscle mass, the calamity before them was the opposite.
His limbs were almost devoid of fat, leaving his muscles and bones excessively visible. He also had red tattoos all over his body, with designs similar to his masks and the mysterious fragment in his hands.
Suddenly the calamity spoke in a language no one could understand and then a faint cry echoed across the platform.
Nathan frowned and without a second's hesitation raised his bow and shot an arrow at the calamity.