Grand Hunt Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Artemis was a goddess of the hunt for sure. But beyond just hunting she had many other talents and had long... Many millenia to train other talents.

A man has never lived until they had tasted a prime cut of meat cooked over a slow-roasting fire by a goddess of the hunt. As their domains didn't merely only encompass the hunt itself, it also included the butchery and part of the cooking for the kills they and their worshippers collected.

Artemis and I were holding up in the dark forest outside of the small enclosed city of Granat as we knew that with actual demons coming in the area. That meant that other monsters would follow as they knew that with powerful demons in the area, that meant that there would be blood spilled and humans to eat.

"The monsters of this world are interesting. Hundreds if not thousands of beings formed out of mana that are purposefully driven to slaughter humans and the other races... It reminds me of the firstborn of the dungeon but they become degraded as they reproduce." Artemis spoke softly as we huddled together in a thick blanket as we watched over the main road leading to Granat.

"Monsters are smart... Not sentient smart like demons, but they know when to flee, how to target weaknesses in people and such." I muttered before I looked out before saying to Artemis.

"Demons are sentient level intelligent, they have almost human appearances most of the time but they are monsters... They literally conceptually do not have a sense of empathy at all. They are monsters born of mimics that evolved to hunt humans so much more freely." I finished with the night going silent as Artemis remained silent beside me.

And after a bit, she slightly leaned against my shoulder properly with her head resting against the top of my shoulder as she whispered softly. "The forest is too quiet. You are right about them being predators." 

We became utterly silent as the forest around us was shocked and silent as horrors untold stalked the forest looking for its next meal. And after a bit, Artemis shifted and moved the thin blanket covering our forms completely onto her body as she moved her head away and I silently took my war bow off my lap and in total darkness found the bead on the string of my bow to where my arrow would go and put the arrow on.

'It's good that she has her own falna now.' I thought as I was far more comforted in the thought that Artemis now with her own Falna was ever so slightly superhuman.

The sound of gravel crunching under boots hit our ears and I began breathing softly but deeply as I put myself in the zone. I waited patiently as Artemis took out her own bow and with Artemis's divine arrow readied in my own bow, I watched with a small frown as she herself knocked her bow.

The endless repetitive crackle of the gravel road leading out of the city grew louder and then carefully I saw them.

A dozen armored forms that wore the thick armor that the guards of Granat wore stomped past the tree we were perched upon and I frowned as I realized that all I could smell downwind from them was the rot of decomposing bodies and rust from their forms. So I every so gently whispered to Artemis amid the crackle of the armored steps. "Demon... Aura... Undead..." 

I could all but feel Artemis's ire at hearing about Aura as I had made sure to tell her about Aura's ability to enslave other's souls due to their extremely powerful magic that could weigh people's magical power and the loser with the least amount of mana would been enslaved with their very soul being ripped out of their bodies and put into the control of the owner.

And then before could relax we both stilled and as our eyes lasered in on two... Things walking across the road with more of the undead behind them. A younger man with horns was wearing a pair of suspenders and a commoner outfit. The other was a petite girl who also had horns atop her head while having red hair and wearing a nicer dress.

"The girl," I whispered and I tracked her and giving Artemis a couple of seconds to take sight of the demon girl I knew was a warrior with a powerful physical body. I loosed the arrow of Artemis's divine arrow and with another soft twanging noise I heard Artemis's bow go off as well but I was already sprinting away as Artemis and I had already trained for this moment of dealing with demons.

We both attacked with our arrows aimed for lethal spots and then using our talents as hunters that could see through the dark forest like it was day. In but in ten seconds we had already sprinted more than two hundred meters away using our fauna-enhanced bodies.

Then abruptly we both shot up into our nearest trees and hid within the tree's thick leave-covered foresty while I recalled Artemis's arrow that reformed into my hand.

I looked at the arrow in my hand and gave a wane smile seeing its head was covered in blood that was evaporating into dark mist... Which meant that we had killed the demon with our sneak attack!

The undead knights raged as they tore through the forestry looking for us but the male demon that was out there obviously knowing the forest was a death trap stayed put out on the road. And without a hint of shame Artemis and I hid in our tree's until day broke and the knights retreated from the forest.

"Let's go back to Grenat. We kicked the hornet's nest." Artemis whispered from the bottom of the tree I climbed up and I nodded with a wry smile as she scared me with how silent she could be.

And we ran off back to the city of Grenat, to its protective magical barrier to evade the certainly pissed-off demon sage of destruction as we had killed one of her underlings.