Becoming Legend - Chapter 373: Hunter: Anjenette

Anjenette drummed her fingers over the table. Before her lined crystal balls blurring with the candidates participating in the first phase of the Hunter exam. To her left sat a man of silver hair, uncaring most of the time of the exam, his blue eyes seemed to dim as he threw glances at one of the recording claims. To her right was another woman with her bow resting before her, arms crossed on her chest. All of them wore diamond necklaces.

“Everything is going fine…” Anjenette began, her voice constrained by worry. Her eyes bore the crystals for hours.

The room was lit with bluish and greenish light seeping off the wall. The air was filled with decay, like fungi and dried woods. Evident that the place has not been used for quite some time.

The man to her left followed with a sigh and stood, and took one of the recording claims. Under his blue eyes, the man raised an eyebrow. “Well,” he said, “this must be the reason why a woman from House Winterstone was sent to this place.”

Anjenette raised an eyebrow. For the first time, looking up at the man. Locking both eyes as the man thinned his lips. “And a man from House Stanet as well.”

The Hunter to her right coughed, unsure how to ease the tension between the two. She knew the two houses were not on good terms for some reason, but she also knew that they were one of the respected hunters of the Kingdom. Before the two could start arguing again, the door behind her swung open. Rattles of chains broke the two off and looked at the arriving man.

Another hunter, diamond necklace hung over his neck, and did not bother to bow nor scrutinize the tension around him as he started. “Found it!” he said, handing a pair of recording claims to Anjenette. He then stood, unsure how to proceed.

“How is the situation?” Anjenette said, examining the crystal orbs. She then heard a crack from one of the claims as soon as she injected mana into it. The orb then shattered, leaving her with knotted brows. “It’s them.”

“If they could change the mana patterns inside one of your claims,” the man said, took one of the chairs across the three, and sat. Leather paddings squeaked as he took his desired position. “There’s one group that comes to mind.”

“Genesys,” the lady archer said, which almost came out as a gasp. She then went silent, letting Anjenette or Enel of House of Stanet get a hold of the situation. She knew, even though she was a Diamond rank, that the situation in the Sudden Plate Hunter Exam is not her ability to handle. And as far she knew, only three of them could handle this kind of alarming event. And as far she knew, she only took the job to oversee the Hunter Exam because she thought it would be an easy paying job. To her surprise, two of the most respected Hunters came aboard.

“The moment we sent them to the island,” Enel started, sitting. Put the orb back and rubbed the bridge between his nose. “Candidates and Hunters are going missing. It was as if they planned this all along.”

“And we were here to fulfill their plans,” Anjenette said, injecting another mana to the remaining orb. This time, the orb went blue and the light inside it swirled, blurred, then produced a silhouette of a man in blue uniform, surrounded by leaves and branches. She then sat the orb at the center of the table for everyone to observe.

The view inside the orb shook, then came to clear. Leaves and branches surround most of the orb. But it was enough for them to check what was happening. Through the wide gaps of the leaves, a man was standing against a tree. They could hear the stillness of the air, then screams. The man in blue uniform pulled a knife on his waist and chanted spells to it, making it glow in red. He then looked up as though murmuring and praying. After the screams faded, the man took a turn to look behind the trees but his body shook as his eyes went wide. His knife-hand trembled and raised closer to his neck, as though it had a life of its own. His other hand tried to stop his knife-hand. But as the tip of the knife got closer to his neck, his screams of ‘nos’ echoed in the silent forest. The Hunter could do nothing but let his throat water of blood and gurgled instead of his dying scream. His body twitched for the last time before it hit the ground like a sack of wet rice. Then the recording went off black.

For a moment, the diamond rank hunters took a breath, not of relief but demise and rage. For the dead hunter, he died as though his body was a traitor to him. For Anjenette and the rest, a thin white light in a form of a thread was coiling around his wrist, controlling his very last life.

“That control of mana,” the hunter who brought the orb started. Leaning forward to checking the remaining recording claims.

“Is very precise,” the Hunter with a bow said. “That’s so thin I almost couldn’t see it.”

“Yet sharp as a sword,” Enel said, “and sturdy as a shield.”

“It was them indeed,” Anjenette said, but before she could finish, Enel interrupted: “No… it was ‘him’”.

The two cocked an eyebrow, while Anjenette nodded and said: “The Tailor.”

“But…” the lady diamond rank archer said, losing conciseness in her voice.

“Doesn’t matter,” Enel said, “it is our job. We must find what they want and why here?”

“And why now?” Anjenette finished.

“It has been days and we only find this out now,” the Hunter that brought the orb said. “Of all the places on the island, the southeast part is where they are focused.”

“Isn’t that where the slave is?” Enel said silver hair resting behind his back.

Different theater of war means different trials for the candidates to overcome. On the south-east part, wood-elf slave was the trial for the candidates located there. Most of the theaters were in the form of battles. This is to gauge the limit of the candidates both raw and mentally. No killing means between the candidates, but not to the monsters the association put together on the island. And by monster, wood-elf Tiathe was one of them.

Assumptions and speculations would lead them to nothing. Anjenette and Enel knew this. Anjenette stood just in time for the door to be slung open.

It was a hunter in blue uniform, silver ranked indication of his necklace. He ran with an orb he held and proceeded to bow but waited not for Anjenette or Enel to dismiss him or the other two.

“Lords and Lordess,” he said under his breath. He then laid the recording orb along with the remainder. It was already showing the recording inside the orb in repeated instances.

As the orb sat between the hunters, they could register loud noises off of it.

Anjenette caught the first glimpse of a hulking man, as big as hunter Brogan holding a man, perhaps a boy of 14 or 15, outstretched in front of him. It was a candidate of silver hair smudged with mud, and sweat, and blood. A sword left lying below him, and one seemed to be a lifeless thing standing with a pair of scythes stretching its arms. The recording was hovering amidst the chaos. Not far from the subject of the recording were a group of candidates in the ashes of brown and gray produced by a massive monster. A snake, a worm, or a parasite as what the hunters were looking at.

“It’s massive,” the silver-ranked hunter began. He stood closer to the door left open.

“And evolved,” Enel added. He leaned closer and looked at Anjenette. He then raised an eyebrow as he looked at the battered candidate with silver hair. “That’s the kid Brogan told me.”

“Silverthorn’s candidate.” Anjenette injected her mana into the orb after the recording ended with the hulking man letting the silver-haired candidate to the ground.

“Silverthorn?” the Hunter across Anjenette said. “The missing Silverthorn?”

Anjenette and Enel both nodded in unison, agreeing to one thing, to the thing the both of them only knew.

“Where’s Hunter Gan now?” Anjenette said, looking at the newly entered hunter.

“He already went,” replied the hunter.

Anjenette nodded and raven hair fluttered as he looked at Enel. “Your orders?” she said flatly. She knew that under them, they must secure the candidates. She also knew, with her rank among the hunters in the exam, she was the highest. Yet, Enel was the one to supervise the exam. A direct order from the Hunters Guild.

Enel stood after the recording orb ended once again. “Secure the place,” he began commanding and stopped. For days they were cut off from the events on the southeast part of the island, to do this among the ranks of diamonds requires a strength they couldn’t simply brush off. And to do this, someone must have been coordinating from the inside. Enel narrowed his eyes, and looked at the other hunters, aside from Anjenette. The two of them might be clashing houses, but he was certain that Anjenette would not betray the guild and the Kingdom. “Find the Tailor, and I want this man alive.” He finished by pointing at the furry man recorded from the orb.

After the hunters left the room, Enel requested Anjenette to stay. Under his commands, she agreed.

“I must be discreet with the exam ongoing,” he said, breaking the quiet room.

“I know,” Anjenette said, nodding. “A spy among us. I’ll handle it.”