Chapter 18: First (Party) Quest

Tobias – or Marcus, as his current party knows him – was an exceptional tracker of animals. As in, the moment they stepped into the forests, he told them to follow him, and he confidently walked in one direction, as if he seemingly knew where their destination would be.

A turn here, and turn there, and straight ahead... Tobias listening to his instincts eventually paid off – it always did when it came to these sorts of things. It even guided him to lost pets, and he decided that it was probably because he was technically ‘hunting them’. No wonder those poor animals fled the scene whenever they noticed him.

A den was ahead of them – a burrow in the ground, with two wolves standing by the entrance to guard it. Somehow, the image reminded Tobias of the town and city guards, who just stood by in pairs to defend the gates.

Maybe these wolves also bickered with each other a lot. But no, unlike their human counterparts, these wolves seemed to take guard duty very seriously, as they only kept looking around themselves while their ears twitched about.

At the same time, he remembered the first time he encountered wolves. They usually attacked in pairs, and that trio who had a plan seemed to be out of the norm for them, no? And besides, they seemed a little smaller than those wolves from a few weeks, maybe a month ago.

Luckily, they were still far enough to not be heard or seen, even by wolves’ enhanced senses. That being said, wolves tended to have incredibly sharp noses... so Tobias had suggested that they cover themselves with leaves and branches or something. When they asked about it, he replied that he didn’t know what exactly fooled their sense of smell, but it was worth a shot right?

Well... seeing as how to those wolves didn’t react, then he must have been somewhat correct.

“You can shoot them down, right?” Tobias whispered, his voice kept as low as possible while still letting the Archer hear his words.

In turn, she only gave him a light glare. “Who do you think I am?” She said, as she raised her bow and nocked an arrow. When she drew it, Tobias only raised his hand to stop her. “What is it?”

In response, he withdrew two of his throwing knives. The serrated edges glimmered ominously. “On my mark, you shoot down the wolf on the left, and I will shoot down the one on the right.”

“Really?” She gave the throwing knife a stare, then gave a scoff. He only looked back, just as seriously and ominously, as his knife glinted with lethal intent. And when she realized that he was serious, her eyes narrowed. “You’re not joking.”

He shook his head. “Three,” Raise knife, “Two,” Set arm back, “One. Go.” And finally, hurl knife with a strong flick, to give it rotation and power.

Both arrow and knife sailed through the air – but the arrow was faster and decisively lethal. The arrow landed on the wolf’s head, immediately making it drop to the ground.

In comparison, the knife landed on the wolf’s eye, and the moment it opened its mouth to howl in pain, another knife found itself inside its throat, killing it.

“How the fuck –” Bastille muttered, as he saw the events that unfolded. That was two accurate knife throws within a second, at over a hundred meters in distance. “That’s bullshit. Your knives are fucking magic. Enchanted? Blessed?”

“None of those.” Tobias said, shrugging. “I practiced, that is all.” A glance towards the archer revealed that she was in between mild confusion, and covertly trying to hide her amazed expression.

“Anyways, we better go there before the wolves come out.” Jacques whispered. “They smell blood pretty well.”

And they quickly sprinted towards the entrance of the den, as they saw the corpses of the wolves, bleeding out on the ground. Tobias retrieved both of his knives, never grimacing or expressing disgust at his casual retrieval of the knife inside the wolf’s throat.

“Yeah that’s kinda impressive...” Jacques whispered, giving a light cough to himself. “Anyways, Bastille, give them a fire.”

“Got it.” With that reply, Bastille raised his grimoire, before closing his eyes, as if he was in deep thought. Then he intoned a single, unfamiliar word with a sharp close of his grimoire, as a fire stream spewed out of his book, roasting the insides of the burrow.

And a few seconds later, wolves with singed and flaming furs ran out, only to get killed by the party. When it was done, Bastille was told to do it again, just to be safe. More wolves ran out, meeting the same fate as their former brethren.

“Strange.” Tobias muttered, looking at their surroundings. Bathed in blood, and corpses of the countless wolves slain. “How come there are not any baby wolves about?”

And as if on cue, a strange noise came from den. Tobias bent over to listen carefully, and realized that it was crying noises from mentioned wolf puppies.

“What?” Clara asked, with some minor hostility. “Are you saying that we have to even kill the little ones?”

“It would be a disservice to them if we do not.” He replied back. When she was about to speak, he only raised his hand to stop her, to let him speak more. “Listen to me. Even if we spare them now, that would only make them suffer more, right? They have no more family, and they probably can not protect themselves.”

“But they’re children.” She intoned, her eyes narrowing. “Are you so heartless that you would even kill wolf cubs who did nothing wrong?”

“Yet.” Tobias said. “Nothing wrong, yet. But it is as you say. They are harmless for now. And they cannot protect themselves at all.”

“Okay, okay.” Bastille said, stepping between the two. Clara turned to glare harshly on him, but he seemed to bear it with a small wince, before relaxing again. “I mean, I won’t lie; you both make some pretty good points. But what do you think, Jacques? You’re technically the leader after all.”

Clara turned to the Swordsman, her eyes imploring him to take her side. On the other hand, Tobias simply looked at the den, with a perfectly unbothered, neutral face... No. It was almost as if he resented those wolves for some reason.

Jacques sighed. “Sorry Marcus, but killing them is simply too cruel. At least, if we leave them alone, they have the chance to grow up.” He replied, giving a small shake of his head.

In turn, Tobias only nodded. “Indeed. I guess it was too cruel of me to ask.” He said, giving a light shake of his head. “I apologize for suggesting such a thing.”

“Uhm, I know you’re not the most socially aware person,” Clara began, nervously looking at Tobias. Her nervous expression stemmed from both confusion, and surprise that he just relented that easily. “But you should try to be more... considerate next time, alright?”

“I will try.” He said, nodding. “Do we return to the Guild to report our success now?”

“In a nutshell.” Jacques shrugged. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah! You saved us so much time, Marcus! We’re treating ourselves to some food. What do you want?” Bastille asked, patting Tobias on his back.

“Huh, ah, yeah, I’ll get whatever you recommend to me.” Tobias mentioned offhandedly, his gaze still fixed on the wolves’ den.

“Ah, but I challenged you, remember?” Clara interjected, pointing at him. “I killed the wolf first, therefore I won. And because I won, that means you should pay for whatever I choose to eat.”

“But Marcus killed more wolves when they came out.” Bastille pointed out, before he got elbowed in the side. “Gah! What was that for?!”

“A Hunter brings swift death.” Clara sagely said, her voice deepened to provide more emphasis. “I read that somewhere. Therefore with that logic, I won.”

“What kind of books do you even read?” Jacques pondered.

“No, the real question is, can she even read – gah!”

“Shut up, will you?”

While the party bickered on, Tobias’ gaze was still attached to the den. And in the darkness of the burrowed den, he could just barely see a small wolf emerge, its fur singed at the ends, its fangs exposed, and its eyes glaring in silent fury as it seemed to stare at Tobias’ soul, burning his image into its memory.

He idly wondered if the wolf cub would grow strong enough to the point where it would hunt him down.