We were hiding in a giant tree that had been thoroughly hollowed, yet still lived. Elves’ knowledge shined at these kinds of things, and momma Jane had done a wonderful job of it.
We had climbed the tree from the inside out and were now standing behind two little doors, waiting for the Gnoll’s to pass. Our scent was covered by the intense perfume of the orange Amber that the tree produced.
I did not know of Amber that smelled like this. But M.J. did very well.
“It’s Gnolls’ bane. An Amber way too strong for their noses. It will cover our scent totally. However, Gnolls are not stupid. They will know we used this to cover our traces. I don’t know if they’ll dare burn the tree, given the implications but as long as we stall them long enough or they get scared of the coming night, we can be free of them. They’ll go back to their village. Or will smash their ugly muzzles in.”
We nodded. She was really starting to get back to her smug attitude. I liked her more that way.
“In case of a fight breaking out, though. I need to know your Duress ability duration, Star,” asked momma Jane.
“Twenty-four seconds,” said Alistar.
“We can work with twenty-four seconds,” I said.
Momma Jane nodded her satisfaction.
His granite scales ability duration was more than enough. The problem was that since there was not going to be any Flow during the day. He would have to use his Crystal reserves.
The shield’s two Crystals were full, and they were 250 grams worth of Flow. It was as heavy as they could get around here.
I had taken part of my collection with me, and so had done momma Jane, but the problem did not lie in the reserves, as much as in the time it took you to process it.
Crystals and Stones took a few seconds to adapt to one’s body, Soul, or whatever it was that they bound with, and for something as needy as his ability, the process of siphoning Flow from a hypothetical Crystal would be much too long to be used in a heated battle; he would have to prepare himself before that.
There was a limit to such abilities as well.
My master had taught me that transforming abilities could be used for a one-second per Bonus stat to which Skill they were tied to, before the body couldn’t support them anymore, went in Flow or Shade overload, and you’d start vomiting blood.
In Alistar’s case, that meant having a total duration of twenty-four seconds for his Duress ability. During the day, he could probably use it for the whole twenty-four seconds, but trying with a 100 grams Crystal, he could just support it for less.
The cooldown depended as well on the stat. It was recommended to have at least a cooldown period of one minute per Bonus stat point after one had spent his Skill time entirely.
So, during the day, he would have to go, fifty-four seconds of granite skin, then twenty-four minutes of cooldown, to be sure of not getting any drastic form of recoil.
My Trick Shot, however, worked differently. The Shade flowed through me, then coalesced around the arrow and later, having copied its form, detached in mid-flight, stealing a part of the true projectile’s momentum.
It was not even remotely as heavy on me as an ability such as Duress was. However, my weak point sight ability was much closer to a transformation ability; it partially transformed my eyes, which put the same strain of a transformation ability did on the body but, in my case, only on my eyes.
I had to be careful with it. It had already occurred to me to bleed from them when I overused it back in the days when I was still a novice.
It would not happen anymore. I just needed to gauge a creature’s weak points then disengage them.
“That’s an extremely good ability, Alistar. I have an Ultimate Class, and I don’t have a full-body transforming Skill like yours. Only my knuckles are perpetually hard as stone. That’s why the name of my Class,” she said.
“I believe you’re fine as you are. Your sight is an amazing boon for us,” I said.
Her Eagle-rocks were currently on the lookout for the Gnolls, and they were indeed coming toward us.
“So,” said Alistar. “This Amber hides us to their noses… here’s the thing; I’ve been holding it in for a while now…”
“No! Alistar, no, please!” I immediately whispered, realizing what he was about to do.
“No, everything but Kob’s fart. I’d prefer fighting a horde of Gnolls,” said M.J.
“I’m sorry guys; it’s about to come out…”
“Out of the door, out!” She said.
“Too late…”
“Nooooo.”
As punishment, we did not give Alistar anything to eat that day. No matter how much he pleaded.
Twilight was upon us, and the Gnolls had not left.
They had understood our plan and camped a few hundred meters from the tree.
They did not dare burn it down, in fear of part of the forest catching on fire. However, they did indeed choose to wait the night out.
“Damn, they’re stubborn,” I said.
“It seems we’ll need to take them on in the end,” said M.J.
There was no other choice. We could run and choose another day to attack the slave traders or take them on now and attack their camp before the night was over.
We could always find another patrol or even a more intense search party if we delayed this.
Even though this was not their territory, it was clear that the Gnolls wanted to expand it. They would not simply give in.
We had to kill them all off; it was the safest choice.
By the time night was upon us, I had left from one of the little topmost doors and found myself on one of the tallest branches; it was time I scouted them.
I could not Trace someone without Tracking them, which meant giving out the fact that I was indeed Tracking them. The target of my Minor Perk felt as if they were being pinned by someone.
I doubted it was enough to have them run away, but it would indeed put them on the defensive. So while I put myself on top of my sniping spot, the others left the tree and went around them, barring them passage in case they decided to run.
I would signal the start of the dance by dropping the sentries. There were two of them, and the entire patrol team was composed of eight Gnolls.
Most probably a Howler, the leader who directed the flow of the battle, there was always one and not more in any patrolling Gnoll’s party. Two fast warriors, two heavy warriors, two archers, and if we had gotten lucky there were no Shamans, but a Slinger.
A Slinger was a peculiar role, they did not wear bow but threw stones and other projectiles at the enemy, also, they wore hoods to cover for their traits. It was not rare for a Slinger to really be a Shaman in hiding. Shamans were too recognizable to be placed in the open. Their skins were tainted by nature and spirits.
Few knew of Gnolls’ magic, but it was capable of summoning the dead back to life to fight and protect the still living Gnolls. It was useful magic, and rarely stopped there.
While in their element, forests, Gnoll Shamans could summon the Phantoms of the Forest to aid them. Phantoms were worse than raised dead. They were entirely immune to physical contact and did not die as long as the Shaman was alive. Nasty indeed.
I raised my bow to take am, and I could spot three instead of two sentries already. They were indeed expecting something to happen.
My sight grew clearer. My Passive Animal Instinct Perk added up to my Perception during the night, and I could already feel the voices whispering to me that my Trace Passive was gaining Skills.
But that was meaningless right now. If I could take all three of them down, I had done my mission, and they would lose; Shaman or not, they would have suffered too much damage to fight us in the open, their numbers were still higher than us, but we had the surprise by our side, and myself.
One of them was indeed an archer; his eyes darted everywhere, including the three; I doubted he could see me. Gnolls’s sight was good at close range but not as good at long range. Although their smell and hearing were extreme, their eyesight was nowhere as good as ours.
The second sentry was a light warrior, and of course, the third one was a heavy warrior. The Howler, the Slinger, and the other three stood inside the tent. I could bet they were not sleeping in there, but it would not make much of a difference.
They could not see us because they did not have any tamer with them; a grave mistake. And they had lit a campfire, to try and keep monsters away, giving out their location to them, but most importantly, to me. This other mistake would cost them their life.
I needed to kill the heavy warrior first; the ideal choice was… a Green arrow, my Piercing arrows.
My irises became concentric circles, and as I could already notice, the best place in which to hit him was the neck. Neither his Constitution nor a chain mail would stop me from snuffing his life away like a candlelight.
I had to be fast, though.
“Trick Shot,” I whispered as I released the arrow.
I did not stop to see if it worked; I couldn’t. Instead, I picked up a Saw arrow, Red fletching, and aimed at the light warrior right away. After aiming, my release was almost instantaneous.
The warrior was wearing leather armor; the Saw arrow would both cut through it and help in bleeding him to death if the Trick Shot did not do the trick.
They both died.
The Piercing arrow dug itself in the neck and, given the angle, penetrated deep inside the Gnoll’s fat trunk. The Saw arrow cut through the light warrior’s neck as well. There was no need to check the damage of the Trick Shot; both the two regular arrows had done their job.
The world, the soul, whatever it was, whispered to me.
However, my attention was elsewhere; the hunter was howling and aiming his arbalest at me. But he had started howling too late. Both my Warrior and Brawler were already on the attack.
I could see Alistar’s tall frame; his tail swung about for the excitement, or fear, or most probably a mix of both.
His visible scales had turned pinkish, showing its granite transformation. The projectile aimed at me, even though improved in some way or another by a Skill I could not understand, bounced off his eyebrow.
Jane was already at the tent, and I could see her two Eagle-rocks plummet down like boulders in the tent’s general direction. They would most probably shatter some bones.
Alistar was not a good match for the Hunter. I could see him backing away while trying to be careful of my sniping. He couldn’t do both.
I smiled as I raised my bow in his direction and released a regular brown arrow.
I was surprised when he evaded the first regular projectile, but he had not considered my Skill. The Gnolls couldn’t possibly have noticed it. The Shade projectile took him squares in the back of the head, dropping him dead.
Alistar raised his spear for thanks; then, he turned around to head back toward the tent. The other hunter and what was revealed to be only a slinger were uncertain if to focus their efforts on him or the much harder to pin down brawler.
I took that chance to release another arrow.
Another shot, another body hitting the ground it was the last Hunter.
The Howler had already dropped to the eagles. The first one had taken him on the leg, destroying it; the other one dropped on his head when the Gnoll was already on the ground howling for the pain.
There was only the heavy warrior, the light warrior, and the Slinger alive now. They joined back to back. And now we were three against three.
The fact that I was there gave our party the greatest advantage, even though I had been discovered. It didn’t matter, I was deadly, and their effort in avoiding one of my shots would mean exposing themselves to the fury of the warriors in front of them. Even if we had to consider Skills usage that the surprise attack had not counted for, we had the win.
The only thing that could endanger us was a monster’s attack. That was a certainty more than a possibility given the fire and the shouts. We had to finish this fast and run toward our objective.
I nocked my arrow at almost the same time, one of the moments in which one of the Eagles that now were circling the battlegrounds shrieked to get our attention. There were indeed monster’s incoming.
The arrow I nocked was a Blow-Arrow. One of those equipped with Shade stones; they would be more effective at night.
The moment I released, a trail of frost was left in the sky, frost that right away turned into snow that gracefully flocked toward the ground.
The sight of the snow slowly falling down was the perfect contraposition to the ice bomb that had just exploded on the light warrior’s back.
Spikes of ice generated from the explosion and skewered the Gnolls thoroughly; some other spikes exploded at their center, battering them with ice smithereens.
It looked like a scene taken from the Tales of the Abyss. The book described to us what we had to expect in the afterlife. Me especially, given the fact that I was a Shade-cursed, at least in the more Sun Church’s fart-minded followers, the extreme ones.
Anyway. The Gnolls, they had all died. Not a single one of them had been left alive to tell the tale.
“Take whatever you want, but hurry, there are monsters incoming!” I shouted at them. Then I raised my bow in front of me.
I had no idea where the monsters would come from, but sure as hell, they were on their way here.
In the meanwhile, I thought back at what the voice had just whispered to me. For some reason, she, since I decided to refer to it as a she, refreshed the memory for me.
You’ve earned 736 + 737+ 815 + 756 + 732×2 Soul fractions. Soul fractions for next Hunter level: 4843/25000
You’ve earned 3×4 + 5 + 4 Skill points. Skill points for Trace Minor Perk Promotion: 241/1000
You’ve earned 17 Skill points. Skill points for Trace Passive Perk Promotion: 174/500
Good. Those were a lot of points; sadly, in the heat of the moment, I did not manage to Trace even one of those Gnolls. It would have only confused me and slowed me down. So no Major Perk Skill points for me. But I didn’t care, it was going smoothly, and I had all the time in the world to level it up.
While I waited, I saw Alistar and M.J. fiddle with the Gnoll’s bodies. I smiled when I understood what Alistar was going for. Then less than two minutes later, they were climbing the tree.
I did not dare enter back inside. Also, I was rather intrigued by the idea of killing the monsters that had been attracted by the explosion. If it was a Vortex, though, I knew I wouldn’t even remotely dare try to Trace it or kill it. I was fairly sure that the bastard could bring down our tree, even taking into consideration its huge size.
They reached the maximum height of the carved tree and opened up the little door from the inside.
“That was an amazing work, Loke,” said Jane. “You’ve become a master Hunter. If I can say so myself.”
I smiled at that. I knew that my master would have been proud of me. It took a lot of mistakes and a lot of hurts to get to my level, but it was worth every pain, every sore, and every second of it.
“Thank you, Jane. But tell me, did you manage to get something good? Their equipment is not usually worth much.”
Although Gnolls were a sentient race and had their Tinkers: their leatherworkers, their blacksmiths, and weaponsmiths; they were not really smart nor technologically advanced. It was probably related to their lack of… manners that held them back in dealing with the other sentient races.
“I got this nice buckler,” she said, “it might come in handy.”
“And I took this!” Said Alistar excitedly.
Like I had guessed, it was the arbalest. I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I guess you’ll have an opportunity or two to try your skills at it,” I said. “Monsters are coming. There’s the first one.”
A storm of Howling bats, of course.
The sounds had driven them.
There were a bit too many of them for my tastes, so I entered back into the house. “I don’t think there’s any need to waste a hundred arrows and all the night to get rid of them. Don’t you?”
“Yup, I’m entirely okay with you,” Alistar said.
Holes had been drilled inside of the trunk to spy in all directions. They were at the height of all the exits. Momma Jane had really managed to create a little fortress for us.
“This tree is amazing,” I said as I placed my eye on one of the holes to see what was going on.
Indeed, bats were not the only things that had been called by the explosions.
But when a chill pervaded us, we all shared a look.
What did just appear in the middle of the forest?
For the first time in my life, I felt a dread so powerful that it did not only make my skin crawl, it made me think of ending my own life, right then and there.
“W-what is going on?” Alistar whispered.
At least he could talk; I couldn’t do even that.
However, what I could do was place my eye on the eyehole; if I could see what the source of that absolute dread was, maybe it would disappear, maybe I would-
Momma Jane pulled me back from the shoulder.
“Don’t,” she said just that. But I could see from her eyes that she was looking at whatever was out there from her Eagle-rocks’ eyes.
Her own eyes were already shedding tears, but why?
Then they soon became hollow, and she receded from her bond.
She curled up, so much so that although she was one big woman, she looked now so damn small that I felt I could carry her in my embrace and rock her to sleep.
It was a few way too long minutes later that the dread disappeared and left us with an unaccomplished promise of certain death.
Only a few minutes after it disappeared did Alistar proffer another word. I was trying to wake Jane from her torpor. It was a slow process, but it was working.
Alistar’s voice helped in that.
“What did we just almost meet?” He asked.
“I… have no idea,” I was sincere in that.
The questions were answered by momma Jane a few minutes later. She took us into a big hug. It was almost a hug of desperation.
“M.J., what was that thing?”
“That was a Ghost… a Ghost of the Night.”
We fell in silence.
The stories were true? The Ghost of the Night did indeed exist? And it did really dwell in our forest. Sun be damned….
I would never dare doubt her; M.J. did not lie. And not only that, when I finally had the strength to look out from the eyehole, I could see the body of one of her Eagles that had been entirely ripped apart.
The brutality and sheer might that it took to catch a flying creature with the frame of solid stone, and tear it apart with what seemed like only bare hands, was such that I could not even fathom.
My arrow would have amounted to nothing in front of such a being.
We were lucky to be alive.
However, we could not stop there for the night. We had something to do. Something as important as our lives. Save Roana, and exterminate one of the plagues that had cursed our territory for far too long.
I would never stop saying it; slave traders needed culling.
