CHAPTER 67: THE HUNT

~Amanda POV~

As I felt the lurch of being teleported away I held back any reaction knowing this shouldn’t last longer than an extended moment. Sure enough I swiftly found myself stand on solid ground once more, sunlight dappled through the canopy of tall trees that surrounded me as it appeared I had found myself withing a forest of some kind.

The trees were a mix of Ash and Oak only magnified to truly astounding proportions. The nearby Oak stood with a width of at least 3 times my height and its trunk stretched up to heights unknown as it merged with the lush canopy above. The ground was surprisingly lush for such a dense canopy with a carpet of grasses and smaller shrubbery mixed with fallen sticks and leaves.

The air smelt fresh and earthy and as I took in a deep breath I was surprised at how.. pure? The mana was in the air, I would have expected it to be thick with nature or earth mana as it was back in the Tenebre Forest. But this mana held no affinity that I was able to detect, almost as it something were filtering it without allowing it to mix with anything at all.

I seemed to be alone but I carefully observed my sure just in case, after all I no longer had Lilly as a natural repellent to beasts with me. Really that girl was just unfair, everything about her still confused me at times. I knew logically that she was an outworlder and got to choose her race, but that was only the start. From her strange boons she seemed to have been granted to her ability to have gained a affinity with nature and how she is somehow bonded to a dragon!

And then then we have her personality... oh she was a treasure, one I intended to never let go of! I was brought back out of my musings when a system screen popped up before me.

[You are challenged to participate in the Grand Hunt.

The grand hunt is a time old tradition where countless young and upcoming hunters are brought forth to stalk and kill a foul beast that has been stalking these woods. They have a week to hunt their prey or are to return empty handed.

You are that prey.

Objectives:

-Survive for 1 week or eliminate all of your hunters.

Hunters remaining 30/30

Time remaining 6D 23H 59M

-(Optional) identify and defeat the actual darkness that plagued these lands

Good luck challenger.]

Well I didn’t expect that, but at the same time I cannt help but feel my heart race and I just know that my eyes are turning that same shade of crimson that excites my love so much. After all I am a vampire and they think that they can hunt me? A wide smile breaks out over my face as I let out a chuckle. Oh this will be glorious, I have missed being able to let loose for quite some time. It has been far too long since I last went on a true hunt of my own!

As the screen flickered away I thought back on how my farther had taken me out on my first hunt. It was transitional to take vampires out on a hunt when they reached the age of 12 and first became able to safely drink the blood of people. Not to say we couldn’t drink blood before then it’s just that our vampiric nature didn’t truly come into effect until that point in our life.

He had captured a criminal who was guilty of murdering his wife and unborn child in a drunken rage over gambling debts he himself acrued. Whilst he was Iron rank my farther had inflicted him with a blood curse to reduce him to mortal strength just for me. The criminal was then released into a secluded forest somewhat similar to this one and told to survive. I spent 2 days tracking him down then and I can still remember the taste of his blood when I finally got my fangs on him.

Shivering at that vivid memory I came back to my present situation enjoying how similar this felt to that first hunt of mine. Only now I was stronger, the trees were taller and the prey was much more plentiful.

I had worked hard to keep a lid on my more predatory nature for quite a while after my garter was hunted down and killed but ever since meeting Lily I have slowly felt that bloodlust that I had worked so hard to keep a lid on crack open ever so slowly. Her willingness to allow me to feed so readily from her rich blood had awakened the hunger and this trial seemed eager for me to relish in that feeling of it even more.

Without further ado I slipped into the all too familiar shadows and readied myself for the fights to come. Whilst the system said that I had 7 days to complete this challenge I intended to get this done much faster. After all whilst it might be fun to hunt the hunters it did mention that their was an actual source of evil here and I am pretty sure that completing that optional objective would be worth doing.

I idly wondered what sort of reward I may get from this, would it be an item? A skill scroll or something else. But regardless of what it was I intended to get the very best reward available from this challenge. After all I can’t imagine Lilly not getting something amazing from this and if I wanted to stay by her side then I would need to be able to keep up with her. And whilst I might never be as strong magically I still have my own strengths that I can utilise and develop.

That doesn’t even take into account how much her blood has already helped me. The blood of an elf is a truly wonderous thing, full of magic and untapped potential. My ability to manipulate blood has grown in leaps and bounds ever since getting to feed on her and I can only wonder what other changes my delightful little elf will undertake.

Watching her grow and adapt into her new life has been a fascinating experience. And I have to admit I have become quite fond of Kana too the big bombshell can be quite fun to play with and watching her shift from shy and innocent of proud and domineering is quite the treat to witness.

Then we have little Dawn, I truly never imagined that I would get the chance to meet and interact with a dragon, let alone a baby dragon! After all dragons are known to be extremally protective of their children. Actually now that I think about it myself Lilly and Kana are all quite overprotective of the little scarf wannabe, I wonder if that is just something that happens to any creature that is around a dragon when it is first born. because whilst Zara is protective of the little one it is not at the level of myself and Kana, to speak nothing of how protective Lilly is! I wouldn’t be surprised if she would go on a killing spree if anyone harmed her child.

But enough of these idle thoughts, I have prey to hunt and whilst they might find me by themselves as I technically am the ’prey’ in this scenario I have no intention of waiting around for them to come to me. No I will be the one to find them, lets see how they enjoy being the ones to be hunted!

I waded my way thought the shadows that clung to the trunks of the colossal trees that surrounded me marvelling at the sheer size of them, the lowest branches of the large trees was easily 20 meters up, and that was just the lowest of them among the smallest of them. Sadly this meant that I would be unable to advance from above but I suppose this could also be a blessing as i wont have to worry as much about facing an attack from above either.

I travelled for some time before I heard movement from ahead, it was quiet, very quiet. Clearly this individual had some skill in moving through wooded areas with a measure of stealth but, similarly they were not at the level of a true hunter. Or well at least not a hunter of my level, they were around Zara’s level if I had to guess. within our party I was the true stealth specialist and made the least disturbance where I travelled, Kana was next her skills and a scout lending her solid knowledge of how to move without disturbing her surroundings or making much noise. Lilly came a close third, but hers was different she made no real effort of staying stealthy. no her method was as bazar as she was, fallen leaves would subtly move out of the way of her footfalls, the ground will fail to leave a footprint in the mud if she walks though it. It truly is as if nature itself is helping her along, I don’t think she is even aware of what she is doing!

Shaking my head of unnecessary thoughts once more I focused back on the approaching hunter ahead and melded with some deeper shadows awaiting for my prey to arrive, my heartbeat sped up and my eyes flared crimson as I laid eyes on my foe. they had failed to notice me and i slowly pulled my dagger from its sheath. This, this was going to be a fun trail!