“Being sane or insane is relative.” ~ The Dark Truth

The rain continued to fall and Marama tried to get a mana reading of the town. She stopped as soon as she realized what was going on.

"It´s hopeless. I can’t get a clear picture in this rain."

She looked down before the decision to get inside came to mind. It was quickly discarded. She had a job to do.

Marama began to walk as the thunder bellowed over the village. A shade appeared among the curtains of heavy rain and she frowned faintly as she moved towards it. She took a closer look and the lightning revealed the person ahead of her with its bright light.

A boy, no more than four years old, with short, black soaking-wet hair. He wore a simple black tunic and shorts that clung to his body. His blue eyes blinked with haunting emotion behind them as he shivered from the rain. They were endless like a deep abyss.

The hunter stopped and looked down on him for a short while before she asked, "Why are you standing out here in the rain?"

The boy didn’t respond at first, shaking from the cold rainwater with his emotionless eyes aimed straight forward. The huntress looked around and couldn’t see any clue as to where this child lived. It would be easier to ask.

Marama looked directly at him with a stoic expression as she tried to start a conversation with the child. "Don’t you have a home of your own?"

The boy looked up and nodded.

"You do? Then why are you out here then?"

"Too scared. I am too scared to go home."

Marama didn’t like the sound of that and looked up at the dark sky once again.

"You do know that standing here in the rain is going to make you easy prey right?"

"It is better than the other choice."

"Aren’t you afraid that they would come for you out here?"

"I am not worth it. They stay indoors."

Marama just couldn’t argue with children. She instead put up another question to make him listen and go home.

"How do you know that I am not a monster?"

"You have not attacked me, that’s why. You look kind."

Marama looked down at him as the toddler slowly lowered his head and clenched his arms around him to keep his body heat.

She began to walk away and passed by the boy. "Not my problem."

Marama stopped three meters behind the boy and looked down at the muddy ground. She turned back went back to the boy again. She stood right in front of him and looked down at the cold, seemingly emotionless face. Marama then shook her head as she removed her traveler cloak and put it around the boy´s shoulders.

"Here. I don’t need it."

The rain hit the hunter's uniform and the boy slowly grasped around the cloak tightly.

"You will freeze to death out here. Can you just go home for tonight? I’m here to kill the monsters so you don’t have to stand here in the rain anymore," Marama said. Concern was as clear as day for the young girl.

They looked at each other for a while, and the huntress walked past her once she had made certain that the child had begun to walk home. She looked after him and felt the rain tap on her exposed head and shoulders.

"Good deed for the year is now officially done twice over! Now, where’s the tavern?"

Marama left for the closest one and got a single room for three pieces of gold in her pouch. Her main intention was to get her uniform dry for tomorrow as she needed to be prepared for the upcoming battle.

With a sharp thrust, she impaled the floor with her ax in front of the fireplace and leaned her back against it. The armor was piled up behind her and the heat of the fire slowly dried up the grey bodysuit she still wore. Outside the dark sky continued to rage through the world and drown it in rain and thunder. She ignored it and thought about something more important for the time being.

I hope I will get them all…

She sat there with the fire behind her as the only source of light. The cold from the rain didn’t bother her even the slightest since her body stayed warm no matter what. She took a short look at the bed in the room with a mixture of dislike and defiance.

"Like I would sleep on one of those."

The huntress crossed her arms and tried to sleep through the thunderstorm.

Outside, the little boy stood in the middle of the street in his borrowed cloak. His breath became a faint cloud in the air and his eyes looked up at the window where the huntress slept. He clenched his hands tightly around the edges of the robe and inhaled the scent on it in deep breaths. A small smile built upon his young face and the bottomless black eyes slowly began to brighten up from hope.

A shout in the middle of the night got his attention. He turned around with a visage of hopelessness and then glanced back at the tavern. He couldn’t stay out here any longer now that his father called.

The calling went on for a couple of minutes, and the boy slowly headed home with sad eyes.

It continued to rain just a little bit the next day. The ground had become soft and muddy from the intense weather she walked through the other night with small puddles here and there. True to his word, the village chief had gathered the people of Ferina at the decided time. They complained about the rain. But those trivial concerns paled in comparison over their new visitor that now stood and looked at them.

Marama stood in the middle of the road while her pale blue eyes watched and searched over the unpleased and scared faces.

A Moira monster hunter was a rare and unwanted sight and they couldn´t help but talk about it.

"It really came…"

"What do you think she will do?"

"Kill the ogre, I hope…"

"Half-blood…"

Samuels stood among them and still looked annoyed from the incident the day before. If they did not need to get rid of the ogre, he would have kicked her out. But it would be interesting to see what a huntress really was capable of, according to him.

"I got quite an audience. Hopefully, it won’t last for long,” Marama thought to herself.

She seemed to notice something and looked at a group of four people. Much to her surprise, these were the ones from yesterday. Her left hand slowly reached for her ax´s handle and then she rushed forward without warning and sliced through two men in the group.

They stared as their wounds opened up and began to transform, gaining bulkier bodies and darker skin. Two of them gained fair longer and tangled hair, their beady and bloodshot eyes staring out of green skin. Other more specific traits denoted them as oni offshoots of the ogre variation, such as horns on their forehead.

Their ears grew pointed and big maws opened in their faces while they cursed their bad luck.

However, as they changed into their monstrous forms, something changed in the huntress as well.

The pale blue eyes stared at them and then a sudden rush of power surged through her as her eyes shifted to silver snake-eyes. The townsfolk around them ran away to hide in their houses at the revelation of the ogres. The town square quickly became deserted with only the huntress and the four ogre fighting.

"Just die already! Annoying piece of-!"

She swung the ax and delivered a clean cut through the ogre´s head. More precisely between its mandible and skull to kill it in midsentence.

"Watch your language!"

She bisected the left arm on one of the ogres while they attacked with their claws and brute strength.

She dodged to the side from their attacks and hit an ogre’s left hand with the broad side of her ax, breaking every finger in its hand instantly.

He roared in rage as he held his hand with his other hand.

Another one tried to attack her from the left side; she swung the sword in a down-going arc towards it. The heavy blade cut its way through the left femur and the right knee of the attacking ogre. It fell down on face first in the mud, and staining it murky rose-red.

The third one tried an aerial attack and prepared to strike her down. She just smiled at it in mockery when she prepared to swing at it. The ogre came down and the ax swung.

It cut the ogre in half vertically, blood squirted and it roared a dying shriek in pain.

The crawling ogre, now covered in mud, tried to attack her from below and got a hold around one of her ankles. She turned around on the spot with ease thanks to the mud and flipped the ax to slice through the crawling ogre´s head and into the ground.

It stopped moving and only one combatant remained. The ogre tried to charge while it flung its unbroken hand. She grabbed the remaining ogre´s head with her right hand and then rammed it right into the sharp edge of her ax still planted into the ground. The impact cut its skull in half right between the eyes.

When the edge cleaved halfway into the head she let go of it, the ogre still remained stuck to the blade. Itt twitched and coughed as the last remnants of its life sipped out.

She lifted one of her feet and kicked the last ogre between the shoulder blades and bisected the foul head as her ax forcefully went all the way through.

And then it was over.

The whole battle had gone very smoothly, almost like a dance, and it had not even lasted for one minute. Everybody in the village just stared at the scene and the huntress pulled out the ax from the ground with a single hand.

"That was four. Now the breathing exercise…"

Marama drew a deep breath and slowly counted down from ten.

No one moved or said anything. She rested the huge ax on her armored shoulder and kept counting. She could hear the rain tap on her shoulder pads.

She exhaled and opened her eyes which had reverted to their normal pale blue color. She looked around and the calm atmosphere slowly returned.

Some of the people gathered on the street and stared with a mixture of fear and relief. Samuels stood among them and with a sour scowl in his visage.

"So you managed to get them all?"

"I guess…"

"Then, I am willing to apologize. We are both grateful." He looked around as to search for someone, then muttered something in a slightly bitter tone. "Where´s that little…"

Marama kept a stoic expression as she felt something was amiss here. Her internal doubts reminded her like an annoying bird pecking on her thoughts.

Four…or five?