Years have passed since that fateful day.
Dirk has become Luna's father figure, and the monster slayers living in the fort are her family.
But she has longed for freedom outside the walls of their fortress.
Luckily, an opportunity has revealed itself.
...
Roars of huge beasts echoed through the forest covered in snow.
A pack of grizzly bears ran like their life depended on it, trampling everything in their way.
Even though they were at the top of the food chain in this part of the woods, fear drove them to flee, unable to even glance back at the terror stalking them.
Rustle of leaves followed after them, creeping closer and closer.
[Thunder Step lvl 1]
What looked like lightning penetrated the bear, which paid the least attention to its surroundings.
Shock that spread through the beast dropped it to its knees.
Rest of the pack left their brother behind.
Their instincts of self-preservation won over fighting for their family.
SLASH!
Blade went through the torso of the wounded animal, dropping it to the ground.
Blood sprayed everywhere, painting the snow around them dark red.
Its attacker, a tall girl for her age, walked towards the dying beast.
Her eyes shined with deep purple color.
The girl clicked her tongue. 'Now my face and hood are dirty.'
Using her white shirt, the woman cleaned her face, not caring about the stains left behind.
After that she took off the hood of her clothes, letting her curly black hair drop all the way to the shoulders.
A faint purple gradient accompanying the dark tone.
The girl placed the palm of her hand on the torso of her prey.
[Corpse Devourer lvl 1]
...
But nothing happened.
THRUST!
A different blade, which didn't belong to her, penetrated the bear, piercing its heart.
Her ability absorbed the body of the bear right after.
A mist of purple smoke ate on its body like locusts, not leaving anything behind.
The girl could feel her strength increasing as the bear's energy got absorbed into her body.
[Level up!]
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Exhaustion disappeared when the first pop-up rang in her head.
"I thought by now you would remember Luna." The man speaking sheathed his sword back.
"Your ability only works on dead things, not ones that are still alive." He put a hand on the back of his head, scratching it and making a loud sigh.
"You don't need to remind me, Uncle Dirk." Luna scoffed, arms crossed over her chest.
She gazed at him with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.
"I'm no longer a small girl, you know?" She was right; today marked her eighteenth birthday.
Both of them started walking towards the fort.
"That's even more of a reason to remember." Dirk replied.
The passage of time treated him as well as it did Sillia.
Neither of them looked that much different, if not better than before.
The only noticeable change on the monster slayer was his irises being fully yellow now.
WHOOOOoooosh... BOOM!
Colorful patterns lit up the sky, sparkling for just enough time to be spotted but fizzling out right after.
"Let's speed up, or you will be late for your ritual ceremony." Dirk picked up the pace, leaving Luna behind due to his higher agility.
She followed right after.
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'Slayer ritual is the most important event in the fort. I can't miss it.' She thought to herself while running.
Her pace accelerating as she also remembered the most important part.
'Shit... this year I'm one of the contestants...' She turned red from embarrassment about this fact.
How could anyone forget about their own coming-of-age ceremony?
"Remember what we agreed upon." Dirk said.
"Yes, I know... If I fail, I will do chores at the fort and never leave. But if I succeed, you and Aunt Sillia will let me become a part of the monster slayers." She scoffed, unhappy that he was bringing it up now.
"Good luck." The man said. "Do your best." Luna didn't hear the second part as he said it under his nose, his cold shell cracking with the years that he took care of her.
Dirk sped up, getting to the fort way faster than her and joining the already present crowd.
"And with that..." Rogard's speech could be heard already, meaning she wasn't late yet.
"...the hunt for...." Luna sped up even more, pushing herself as much as she could.
'They won't let me take part if I am late!' Sweat started dripping down her face.
She could already see the five other contestants of today's event, ready to start running towards the forest.
"...the thunder wolf begins!"
[Thunder step lvl 1]
Luna dashed through the entire grounds of the fort at once. Creating a strong shockwave.
All the racks fell over.
Barrels rolled under the wind pressure.
The crowd of slayers almost fell over.
She quickly took the lead as thanks to not having to accelerate from zero, leaving other contestants far behind.
'Thunder wolf? A tier two monster? Did that senile old man finally lose his mind?'
That was the first time in the history of their fort that anything above tier one and a half was chosen as a target.
Luna started second-guessing if it was a good idea to continue, but she looked back to see the five other men running.
Their faces were confident, not an ounce of fear.
'Maybe I'm just overreacting...' The stressed girl continued.
The woods on this side of the forest were way more tangled and harder to navigate.
That was to be expected since no one would want to go there if they had a different choice.
"Hey!" Luna shouted towards the five men behind her.
"What do you want?" One of them yelled back.
"Do they really expect all of us to catch a thunder wolf?" All of them slowed down.
Flora of the forest was too thick to run through.
They kept walking, letting them talk without screaming.
"You might not have heard, but Elder Rogard promised us the finest elixirs if we succeed." A very excited one from the group said.
'Seems they don't know what that means.' Luna rolled her eyes.
She remembered the days that no one at the fort had time to play with her.
Being forced to read books out of boredom.
"Well... good luck, guys." She smiled at them.
"I hope all of us pass." She took a different turn than all of them.
All five of the guys looked surprised at her choosing a different path than them.
"Oh shit!" The sharpest of them tried to chase after her, but the thick roots were too hard to pass for him.
"What happened?" Another one inquired.
"We forgot to tell her it's a group hunt because of it being such a high tier!"
They completely glossed over the fact that Luna didn't hear a single part of the speech.
But they also know that going after her could lead to five of them failing the test due to time restrictions.
"..." Their leader was lost in thought.
"... If we hunt one fast enough, we will have time to help her." That was the only solution he could think off.
Four of his comrades nodded in agreement.
They walked through the way towards the den of thunder wolves.
Meanwhile, Luna had a different approach.
The forest around her became less and less tangled with each minute, revealing a small open field with bushes.
'If I am to hunt something stronger than me. I should approach it at it's weakest.'
A wide smirk appeard on her face as she spotted a deer feasting on a bush of berries.
This place was close enough to the den of the thunder wolves to count as their hunting ground. High intake needed to upkeep a massive body like theirs meant that they would need to visit it frequently.
She hid behind a tree waiting for one to approach.
Sun moving slowly in the bright sky.
'It should start any minute now...' Luna couldn't lose her focus, the prey she was after wouldn't allow her that.
A terrifying howl startled the deer and the girl.
It sounded like nails on an electric chalkboard.
Electric static could be seen around the whole area.
CRACK!
The static snapped, creating a lightning as the wolf dashed towards the deer.
Snapping its neck in half with one bite.
The sheer size of the creature sent shivers down the spine of everything around it, the birds stopped chirping, and even the air itself felt like it slowed under the beast's presence.
Luna's body trembled, but she knew that she had to wait. Her plan was to attack it once the wolf gets full.
'The body usually is slower after eating, which would make its movements sluggish.' The dagger in her sheath waiting to be used.
An enormous beast feasted on the dead body of its prey.
Not letting a single piece of meat be left out.
Luna kept watching, finding her opportunity as the monster stood up; it was disoriented due to just eating its meal.
She dashed towards the wolf, alerting it of her presence.
AWOOooo!
The beast created a shockwave with its howl, pushing everything around it away.
Making the girl go flying, hitting her head against the trunk of a tree behind her.
Before she had time to stand up, the wolf was readying its attack.
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