“D-Did you hear that?” out of the three people who had decided to venture deeper than usual into the forest, one was not feeling very safe surrounding the tall trees and vegetation, the cracking of the drying leaves beneath their feet might feel satisfying to some, but right now, it only served to heighten the tension already present in the meek boy’s body.

“Don’t be such a coward, we aren’t actually going deep into the woods, we’ll encounter some wolves or kobolds at worst, big woof, they’ll probably just run away without letting us kill them” another responded, a woman carrying a shortbow and sword, one could clearly see that her arms were well-built as there was nothing covering them.

“Do remember, we are not here to slaughter the wildlife! We are just supposed to gather some moonlit herb” another man, presumably the leader seeing how he shut down the other two, spoke up, reminding them that they were here as gatherers, not hunters.

“But, my danger sense is flaring up!”

“Your danger senses flare up at anything, it literally activated for a freaking fox last time, get a grip and grow some balls” with a distinct lack of kindness, the woman gave advice to the meek boy who could only shrivel down at the remarks.

“I-It was a very big fox…” he muttered to himself.

“Though, why do we even have to go deeper into the woods at all? Moonlit herb or whatever grows in quantity”

“Because winter is approaching and the cold is making it die, we can only find good ones further into the forest where it is still somewhat protected from the cold winds by other plants, why do you think we are getting paid so much for it now compared to the rest of the year?” from their discussion, it was pretty clear that this trio hadn’t been doing ventures together for a long time at all. 

The boy wasn’t very old and clearly not taking on these jobs because it suited him or because he wanted to, if he could, and wasn’t too scared to be alone, he would turn tail right now and get out of the forest.

The woman was definitely older and more experienced in this sort of job, although, from the way she was looking around and inspecting the trees and ground, it was rather clear that she was a hunter and wasn’t all that familiar with the gathering of plants, being clearly more interested in shooting something with her bow.

As for the man, who seemed to be acting as the de-facto leader, he was clearly more knowledgeable, although his attention wasn’t solely focused on it, he was sharp and looking for moonlit herb all the while taking in his surroundings.

Really, only the boy seemed to not have his place amongst the group, he was contributing to absolutely nothing and was very much looking like a deadweight.

From above, hidden amongst the needles of a coniferous tree, Edrick was stalking his preys, most casually and stealthily jumping from one tree to the other to follow them, his presence totally unknown, well, save for the youth’s supposed danger sense, which he wasn’t certain whether it was an actual ability or just a vibe he had, in any case, it was no problem, the other two didn’t place any trust in him.

Anoteros just kept on following as they moved deeper and deeper in search of that precious moonlit herb- On multiple occasions did the boy attempt to convince them to turn back, saying that his danger sense was really, really starting to get bad.

But he was swiftly ignored.

“We are really getting far…”

“Far? We’ve only been walking for ten minutes!”

“Quiet you two- I see some moonlit herb just ahead, and more than enough to complete our job at that, we’ll be able to sell some of us on the street at a good price” the leader smiled, breaking his expression of focus as he headed directly for the herb, closely followed by his two companions.

“Nice”

The boy lingered behind, he felt like suffocating right now as he seriously felt like his life was in danger, he turned around toward a tree like all the others and stared at it for a few seconds.

‘I must be imagining things…’ he just needed to help gather the herb and then, they would just leave this forest, whatever it was that was making him feel like his heart was going to stop wouldn’t be able to reach him once he was out, or so he told himself in an attempt to calm his nerves.

The second he turned back and moved up to the patch of moonlit herb growing amidst the dense bushes, a hairy figure poked its head out from behind the tree, fur as black as a moonless night, Edrick casually began walking right behind the boy, his two compatriots were busy doing some gathering.

Despite looming over him, Edrick was unnoticed, the sun peering through the trees wasn’t positioned behind him, so his shadow didn’t stretch within sight of anyone, his steps were quiet, and his presence simply dim as it barely even seemed like he was breathing, Anoteros’s heart beat slowing down as he focused.

“Hey, are you helping us or wh-” the woman froze, grabbing her bow, nocking an arrow and pulling back on the bowstring before her mind caught up.

“Wait, don’t shoot me!”

“Idiot, move out of the way!” she yelled at him, the leader also turning around then, his face turning ashen as she laid eyes on the massive beast that was just standing right there, its features impossible to make out underneath that thick layer of dark fur.

Unfortunately, the youth didn’t understand in time, and was picked off the ground by the head, Edrick seizing hold of his shoulder before pulling on the young man’s head like he was uncorking a bottle of champagne, his neck offering no resistance to speak of as Anoteros popped him open, an arrow making its way right into his chest as he did so.

“Ahahah” with the deep vocalisations of a sasquatch, he chuckled as the arrow failed to penetrate his fur, probably due to the fact that the archer was trembling like the temperature had dropped to absolute zero.

Throwing the body with blood gushing out of its neck to the ground, Edrick instead took aim and launched the disembodied head at the leader, the man was stunned and positively terrified, but still had the presence of mind to realise what was going on and dodged out of the way, the head instead exploding into a red strain against a tree.

“Run!” shouted the man, he didn’t even bother to unsheath his own blade and just took off running, or at least, he tried to.

Turning his back on an enemy who had just shown willingness to throw things at you was a remarkably stupid move, and the leader was stopped in his escape by a rock chucked at his back, sending him tumbling forward, rolling against the ground and getting himself wrapped up in some bushes, covering his cuts.

The woman didn’t want to watch what was going to happen as the beast rapidly caught up with the fallen man and raised its foot up, only the sound of something squelching following a loud crack.

Understanding that outrunning this thing was a fool’s endeavour, she tried to make best use of what she knew about the creature, which she deemed to be sasquatch and just dropped limply to the ground, unmoving.

She could only pray that it would work as she had been told.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep