Chapter 11: Tools of the Hunt

Alex the Hunter sighed to himself when Tobias’ arrow missed its target, a straw-filled pillow the size of a rabbit, at over ten meters away.

Over the distance, he could see the ground – his backyard, really – littered with arrows. Some were slanted, as their arrowheads dug through the ground, others were simply lying on the ground, yet not a single one of them was attached to the target.

“I am not good at this.” Tobias admitted, as his lips curved into a frown. He was most definitely dissatisfied with himself.

“It’s alright.” Alex said, flashing him a thumbs up. The boy only gave a sigh in return. “You can’t just learn a new thing in a few hours, you know?”

“I know that.” He said. “I know that it takes time to get decent at something... but really, I feel annoyed for wasting hours upon hours and not getting any tangible results.”

Alex winced. The boy was right; he had been training for almost five hours straight now, and he had never managed to hit his target at any point. The only reason why he continued to practice so long was because his third or so arrow almost managed to hit his target, and he believed for a brief moment that he was learning.

The next few hours proved him wrong. Terribly wrong. It was as if the boy had somehow managed to get cursed by some God of Archery, or something. He had never seen someone this awful with a bow before.

“Is this your first time experiencing failure?” Alex asked.

“Maybe not.” He replied, as his hands moved to his chin. He liked to assume a thinking pose whenever he had to think, Alex noted. “I was trained hard by my mentor, so I failed a lot. But in the end, I managed to learn whatever they taught me. But for this one thing... I can’t see myself succeeding. Not at all, not now, not ever.”

Alex nodded and hummed. Maybe the boy really was cursed. Well, if he didn’t want to learn how to use a bow, there were other ways to hunt. A spear, a throwing axe, or maybe even a throwing knife for smaller prey were decent alternatives.

And if he proved incompetent at any of those – he could always resort to traps. Such things were successful regardless of one’s talent, as proven time and time again.

Well, it didn’t matter. All he needed to know was to pass on his knowledge on this boy who seemed to need to learn everything he needed to survive in his journey.

Alex stepped into the wooden storehouse, and searched around. It was a well-used storehouse, and dust wasn’t quite allowed to settle anywhere, he noted with pride to himself. There – he found it.

In his hands were a hunting spear – a weapon of practicality. Its spear point was broad to maximize impact power and wounding potential, and the blades serrated to draw more blood. Even large animals like deer or bears wouldn’t be able to run for long after losing enough blood. It had a simple metal crossguard slightly behind its blade, so that thrusts wouldn’t get the spear stuck too deeply. Its handle was a lacquered wood, but he knew that it was more durable than it looked. It was wrapped with cords of leather at where the optimal throwing angles were.

Tobias had looked at it with a particular glimmer in his eye – except his expression was more focused on the handle of the spear, and not the spearhead as he expected. Alex looked back at the handle; it was simply lacquered wood. What was so interesting about it?

Alex shook his head. It was probably just the boy’s quirk. “Be careful with it.” He warned, as he handed the spear towards the boy. He seemed to weigh it with his hands, before he held it by the wrapped leather handles.

“Perfect stick.” Then, a smile emerged from his face. “I like this.”

“Really?” The Hunter asked, his brow raised. “Then if you do, give it a test throw over there.”

And it was then – Tobias’ form changed. His body had tensed itself, as he held the spear and drew it back. This... was a boy who knew how to throw a spear...!

Tobias’ arm reached back as far as he could go, and the spear’s point was aimed just slightly above the target. And with the full might of his entire body – the spear sailed into the air with a faint hiss, landing on the rabbit-sized target.

Alex was in awe. Particularly because he had never seen a boy his age exhibit such mechanical coldness when it came to handling a weapon – it was almost as if the boy had a honed sense for hunting.

“I really like this.” Tobias simply smiled even more, as he stretched out his throwing arm to relax it.

“You really are cursed by a God somewhere.” He said. Tobias looked up to him with a particular tilt of his head, and he shook his head. “No, it’s nothing. Anyways, we’re moving on to throwing axes.”

He went back into the storage room, and came out with an axe. It was much simpler compared its spear counterpart – it had a wooden handle, and the axe-head widened towards its edge. He hefted it with hand, and knew that it was balanced for throwing.

The Hunter handed the axe towards Tobias. He took it, and looked at it, partially because of curiosity and partially with a sense of excitement. He lifted it up and down, swung it lightly with one hand, then with both hands, trying to figure out its sense of balance.

He didn’t quite smile or grin, but his eyes shone a particular interest to the weapon. Then he lifted the axe, and brought it down. When it was released, it spun through the air once, before it crashed into the straw pillow. It didn’t manage to cut into the pillow, and he knew why.

“It didn’t land on its edge.” Hunter said. “Didn’t like it?”

“I knew it.” Tobias said, shrugging. He raised his right arm, then brought it down as if to figure out the optimal throwing angle for the axe. “I think it’s got a particular learning curve to it.” He hummed, thinking to himself.

Alex shrugged. “We have all day.”

Tobias began to walk towards the fallen target to reset its position, and to retrieve the throwing axe and spear. Withdrawing the spear was loud – its serrated edges cut through straw with a ‘schk’. Then he walked back towards the starting location.

The boy raised the throwing axe once more, released it, and this time, its edge chopped deeply into the straw pillow.

Alex let out a grin.

So he went back to the storeroom, and retrieved a leather strap with three leather sheathes attached to it. It was a throwing knife strap to place on one’s thighs, and it was secured by a belt-like mechanism. The knives themselves were simple enough – It had a handle and blade, but no knife guard. It was simply a triangular piece of solid metal. Its edge near the point was serrated, and its point was weighted to guarantee ample penetration.

Alex handed Tobias a knife, giving him the handle. He stared at it, and stared at it some more. He held it with two fingers as he shook it around, trying to find its balance point. Then he realized that it was weighted more towards its point-side, and he faintly hummed with realization.

Tobias’ arm raised, he held the knife’s edge with his two fingers, as he drew back. His instincts were sharp – he knew how to throw it, and he knew that from the distance, he shouldn’t flick the knife. The knife sailed through the air – slightly curving and spun through the air, before it sank into the target, its serrated point digging through the straw with a faint hiss.

“I like this one, too.” Tobias said, his expression satisfied with himself.

Alex let out an appreciative whistle. This boy knew how to throw his weapons, if nothing else.

He decided that it would be fun to teach everything he knew. He had been planning on that already, anyways.

***

Tobias wasn’t too good with traps. He learned fairly quickly how to make simple tree-powered snare traps, and spring-powered spear traps, and everything else came with decent learning speed.

But the problem was, his traps were... weird. No matter how long they waited or how much bait they put out, it seemed like animals just avoided his traps. One time, they spent hours watching over a trap, and they saw a rabbit approach the bait.

Then it looked at the area, and it shivered as if knowing its fate. It hopped away shortly after.

“You really are cursed, aren’t you?” Alex said, his voice in deadpan as he almost failed to believe what he just witnessed. How was that even possible?

“Maybe I am.” Tobias agreed, his head nodding. “That rabbit – it literally proved that something about my traps are weird.”

“So aside from archery, you’re good at projectile weapons. Not so lucky with traps, but you know how to construct them at least...” Alex listed, and looked at the boy. He gave a satisfied grin. “Not bad for the first day, I guess.”

***

Alex wondered if Tobias was blessed, or cursed. On one hand, his hands-on hunting capabilities were exceptional (bow excluded). But on the other hand, his trap-based hunting was virtually non-existent. So he knew where to focus, at least.

For the past two days, he had been teaching Tobias how to identify signs of animals and their trails. The boy already had some basic instinct about him (as proven when he hunted the deer and killed off the wolves), and he only needed to teach him the specifics and knowledge that only came with years of experience.

And now that he taught Tobias the signs of animal activity, the boy was either the most gifted hunter alive, or the luckiest;

Because the moment he picked up a sign or a trail, he would almost guarantee finding the animal in question while it was still eating something. A rabbit? It was munching on grass. A boar? It was munching on grass. A deer? It was munching on grass.

Tobias’ spear throws were something else – deadly was one way to put it, and the strength behind each throw meant that even a glancing blow could be crippling against... anything it glances, really. So if his initial throw didn’t kill the animal out right, then the chase was relatively short. Only a minute or two before the animal exhausts itself.

And the boy had even found a bear trail somewhere – and he pursued it, like it was the most exciting thing ever. He had favored the hunting spear, and carried about three throwing knives. Alex briefly wondered if the boy would get himself killed, before he realized the audacious glint in Tobias’ eyes. That’s when he realized that the boy might be unto something.

Watching the kid while he engaged in combat against a bear thrice his size – Alex realized that this boy really did have what it takes to survive. He was fearless – he rushed in when opportunity presents itself and never hesitated even when threatened. And in the end, he took down a bear and he made it look easy.

It was almost as if... someone had taught Tobias how to kill. This wasn’t just a hunter’s instinct. His instincts were something much deadlier than the average hunting instinct. This kid... knew how to fight.

“That was fun.” Tobias said, his hands idly twirling the spear before setting it back on the ground, its edge pointing towards the sky. It dripped blood, but none of them stained his hands. The way he handled the spear was far too refined, far too lethal.

“Did you really need to hunt it down?” Alex asked, his gaze focused on the spearhead which was still stained with blood.

“It was a challenge from one hunter to another.” He replied, shrugging. He didn’t even sound winded. “And I wanted to win, you see.”

“Do I really need to teach you any more...?” He asked, his face set to one of confusion and some minor amount of hesitation. Was his expertise really needed by this boy... This boy who knew how to kill, as if it was the most natural thing on the world.

He just killed, almost as if it was the most normal thing he could ever do. A natural apex predator was the aura Alex had gotten from the boy. But at the same time... even with his refined killing technique, he never seemed to exhibit any sort of blood lust about him.

“You haven’t taught me how to hunt down birds.” Tobias said, and the hunter stared at him. The kid’s face was perfectly straight. His silver-like hair seemed to glint ominously, and his brown eyes burned with resolve. He was perfectly ready to learn.

Alex let out a cough. Maybe he was overthinking it. This boy just needed to learn how to hunt, and he would grant him that knowledge. He wasn’t some sort of inhuman monster, built to kill and to hunt, right? “That’s because you’re terrible with bows and bird traps. Actually, with traps in general.”

Tobias shrugged. “Unless I can get precise enough with a throwing knife.”

Alex stared at the boy. The sheer audacity of this kid...! But then again – with how gifted he was, it might just work... He hummed to himself, as he thought about it. In the end, his curiosity won out.

“Let’s go hunt birds then.”

***

As it turns out, even if Tobias was gifted and cursed in his own way, he was still human. His knife throws were precise, but they lacked the necessary power to get even close to the flying birds overhead. And when he tried to throw the knife at full force, its accuracy waned as it curved through the winds, throwing it off trajectory.

Alex let out a sigh of relief. This kid wasn’t quite inhuman, after all. Right when he was starting to believe he was... Well, it was better that way, wasn’t it?

That being said, he was extraordinarily good at finding the lost knives he threw in the air. Not a single was knife was missing – he still possessed all three knives he brought after retrieving them.

“Come on kid, day’s almost ending. We gotta go now.” Alex called out behind him.

And besides – while today was supposed to be spent teaching Tobias, his godlike luck led them to a lot of animals. He tied the carcasses of rabbits around his belt, while he hefted a dead deer over one shoulder, and a boar on the other one. The deer reminded him of the time the kid was surrounded by corpses of dead wolves.

“You go ahead.” Tobias said. “I’ll stay here and practice.”

“Are you sure?” Alex asked back, but he wasn’t particularly worried about the boy. “It’s gonna be dark soon, and you might lose your knives in the night.”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He gave a wave, to assure the older man, and proceeded to walk off without any more words.

Alex let out a shrug. If the kid wanted to practice hunting birds with throwing knives, who was he to judge? He didn’t believe it was possible at all, but if this kid can pull it off – then maybe he can say he’s seen it all.

He began the trek back towards the village, hoping that a legend will be born.

***

It was almost midnight when Alex heard a knock coming from his door. He briefly wondered who it would be, before opening the door revealed his best (and only) student. Tobias had brought with him the hunting spear, and strapped to his left thigh was the sheathed set of throwing knives. They were complete.

“I couldn’t do it after all.” Tobias said, his voice filled with some measure of disappointment.

“Don’t worry about it kid.” He replied, shrugging. “You tried to do the impossible, after all.”

“Hmm.” Tobias frowned, but said nothing more. Then he offered the hunting spear, giving it towards the Hunter, and moved to release the strapped sheath in his thigh.

“Come on, a growing boy like you needs rest.” Alex said, accepting the offered weapons. The spear was already wiped at some point, and the knives were pristine; clean of blood. The boy really wasn’t able to do it, after all?

It was expected, but he couldn’t help but feel just very slightly disappointed.