Chapter 44: The Alliance

“ALL OF YOU IS A BUNCH OF USELESS PIG!” The Bald Man screamed in anger. He couldn’t help but compare the skill of the young man he fought earlier to his hunters, he was frustrated that a young hunter was more skillful than the bunch of adult hunters. “HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT NOT EVEN A SINGLE ONE OF YOU CAN NOT KEEP UP WITH OUR ENEMIES? ARE YOU ALREADY TAKING IT EASY BECAUSE WE WON OUR FEW FIGHTS WITH OTHER TRIBES? WE ALREADY LOST HALF OF OUR FORCE, FOR F*CK SAKE, AND WE DIDN’T EVEN SEE THE TRIBE WE SUPPOSE TO DESTROY!”

All the Blood Hunters lower their heads and didn’t dare to talk back, their leader was more annoyed that he didn’t able to kill the hunter he was fighting. All of them knew this fact because the Bald Man always like to bring the head of his enemy and brought it back to the tribe as a trophy of his victory. However, they didn’t see the head of any enemy in their leader’s hand when he came back, so they knew he failed to kill a single one.

Although they knew that their leader also failed to catch an enemy, they didn’t dare to bring this topic up because they knew the moment someone did was the moment of his death.

“GET READY! WE WILL GO BACK TO THE TRIBE!” The Bald Man shouted. “WE WILL JUST FAIL IF WE CONTINUE THIS MISSION!”

“W – what a – about the chieftain?” one of the Blood Hunter asked timidly.

“WHAT ABOUT THE CHIEFTAIN?” The Bald Man became even more irritated when he heard this question. “YOU ARE ASKING ME WHAT ABOUT THE CHIEFTAIN? ARE YOU THE ONE WHO IS GOING TO DEAL WITH HIM?! NO, IT IS ME! IF ALL OF YOU JUST DO A F*CKING BETTER JOB! WE DO NOT NEED TO GO BACK AND REPORT THAT WE FAIL! SO, SHUT THE F*CK UP AND JUST FOLLOW WHAT I SAID!”

All the Blood Hunters instantly move to prepare to go back home, they didn’t have any courage to disobey their leader’s order especially right now that he was enraged. Soon after, the Blood Hunters start moving back where they came from after finishing their preparation.

Meanwhile, Berus reported what they found to the oldest Arrow who was currently acting as the leader because of the absence of Gunnar.

“We believe that Gunnar was captured by the Blood Hunters,” said Berus depressingly. “We need to save him, if not he is going to die to their hand, or worst tortured to death!”

“I know how you feel Berus,” The acting leader sympathize. “I also want to rescue Gunnar, but as you can see, we are not in the condition to fight anymore. I cannot put everyone at risk just because of a single person. I act as the leader not to make a decision and give order to the Arrows, I volunteer because I want to make sure that most of us come back home safely.”

Berus wanted to say more, but before he could the scout who was watching the Blood Hunters’ movement returned.

“They are retreating!” reported the scout. “The Blood Hunters are retreating!”

“Wait! Did you see Gunnar with them?!” Berus asked with anxiety.

“I am not sure, I am watching them from a distance so I didn’t see them clearly.”

“This is bad! They are taking Gunnar back with them!” Berus started to panic. “We need to move now before it is too late!”

“No Berus, we cannot do that,” The acting leader said while shaking his head. “In the first place, we are not sure if Gunnar was really captured by them. In addition, we cannot win in a head-on battle. Furthermore, a lot of our members are already injured. In conclusion, even if Gunnar was captured by them, we do not have enough manpower to save him, we only going to put our lives at risk. Do you understand now?”

Berus bit his lip out of frustration, he didn’t say anything anymore because he knew that what the oldest Arrow said was true. Although he and Gunnar were not close to each other, they still grow up together. you could even consider them childhood friends.

After discussing for a while, the Arrows decided to also go back home and reported everything that happened here to the Elders.

======

Vir’s group finally returned from their mission, and together with them were a few strangers. The Elders immediately called Vir to meet the people that they brought back with them. Alfred was having a nice conversation with Aponi about their white lions when someone suddenly called him and inform him that he was being summoned by the Elders.

When Alfred finally walked inside the big tent, he saw 4 strangers sitting in front of the Elders, 3 men and 1 woman to be precise. All 4 looked strangely at him, he was caught off guard by this. He didn’t expect that they would have a visitor today or ever.

Alfred sat down beside the Elders in front of the 4 strangers. The 4 people became more confused by Alfred’s action, they didn’t understand why a young man like him had the right to listen to this important meeting. Nonetheless, they didn’t say anything because they didn’t know if this was a tradition of this tribe.

“Now that we are all here, let us start,” Chief Viren spoke after Alfred sat down. “Can you introduce our guest to us Vir?”

“Yes Chieftain,” Vir replied without a second thought. He was sitting beside the 4 strangers, so the guest would not feel that they were being interrogated. He started to introduce them by starting with the person closest to him. “The person next to me is Jara, He is the leader of the Shadow Tribe Hunters. Next to him is Cora, she is the leader of the Tree Tribe Hunters. After she is Rag, he is the leader of the Stone Tribe Hunters. lastly is Bear, who is the leader of the Axe Tribe Hunters.”

“I see, welcome to our tribe.” Chief Viren warmly said to the guests, then shifted his attention again back to Vir. “May I know the reason why they are here? Do they need something from our tribe?”

“No, they do not need anything, they are here because I invited them here.” Said Vir. “I think it is only fair that they also know the location of our tribe, so they will know that our intention is pure and have no ill intent.”

“I understand, I approve of this decision.” Chief Viren nodded his head.

“Excuse me, may I ask something?” Rag asked for permission while raising his hand.

“Go ahead,” Chief Viren agreed.

“When I observe your tribe earlier, I do not see any particular uniqueness in the tribe. May I know what kind of specialty your tribe has?”

“Uhm…” Chief Viren thought deeply before answering. “I do not know what kind of specialty you are talking about, but if you meant to ask what things are tribe is good at. I can confidently say that we are good at hunting, or fighting. Especially when it comes to speed, we are very confident with our speed.”

Rag seemed satisfied with the answer. Thus, he didn’t ask a follow-up question. While the other 3 had no interest in the Phantom Tribe, they already know what they want to know by just observing the inside of the tribe.

They know that the Phantom Tribe had fewer tribesmen than them, so they thought that this tribe didn’t pose any threat to them. The only reason why they agreed to come here was that they wanted to know where the location of the tribe and how many hunters they had. After knowing what they want to know, they didn’t care anymore.

After a few more pleasantries, the Chief Viren ordered the guard outside to escort their guest to where they could rest. When the guest left, Chief Viren instantly asked Vir.

“How many tribes did you able to find? And how many of them join the alliance?”

“thanks to Dara we find 8 tribes in total,” Vir replied with a straight face. “However, we only manage to convince 4 of them to join. Some of the tribes are too scared to fight, while the others do not find us trustworthy enough. Only 4 tribes saw the value of this alliance, that is why they send some of their tribesmen here for final confirmation.”

“So, how many hunters does our alliance have?” Shaman Catori interjected into the conversation. “Dara said that the Blood Tribe has hundreds of hunters. Therefore, we need at least a hundred hunters if we want to have a chance of winning this war.”

“Do not worry Shaman Catori, the 4 tribes promise that they will send 30 to 40 hunters for the war,” Vir assured. “Together with our hunters, our alliance can have 100+ hunters to fight in the incoming war.”

“Do you think the war will reach here in our tribe?” Alfred worriedly asked Vir.

“I do not know yet, but as long as I am alive, I will do my best to stop the army of the Blood tribe before they can reach here,” Vir reassured Alfred.

After the report, the Elders inform Vir about what happened in the days that he was gone. When Vir heard that the Arrows were waiting for the Blood Hunters to ambush them, he wanted to immediately stand up and went with them. However, Chief Viren stopped him and commanded him to rest for now and do it tomorrow.

Although Vir really wanted to went where the Arrows were, he held himself back and follow the order of his father. On the next day, the 4 strangers were saying goodbye to Vir, Elders, and some people. 1 day was enough rest for them, they wanted to go back to their own tribe in fear that the Blood Tribe would attack them while they were not there.

Suddenly a loud voice resounded.

“THE ARROWS ARE BACK!”