Hunters: The Prequel - Chapter 271

“It’s been an hour. Why haven’t they returned?” Within the house at the centre of the village, an important personage was currently panicking. Village Head Samoa pranced about his hall, his movements similar to a person who was on fire. He seemed very uncomfortable, and he didn’t feel safe in this place he called home.

“Master, could they have encountered Sir Dan?”

Village Head Samoa wasn’t the only one in this room. There were three other figures with him as well. These three people – who were Village Head Samoa’s personal guards and referred to as the Hands of Samoa – were all dressed in leather armor. Since this village was small and unimpressive, it was very difficult to procure a set of armor, even common leather ones. But the armor the men in this room were wearing weren’t made from common leather. These kind of leather armors were knit with the skins of very tough Magical Beasts. It took very skilled tailors and craftsmen to put together such masterpieces, and this village had none of those. So it was safe to infer that Village Head Samoa had procured it elsewhere, and had no doubt spent a hefty amount to acquire them. The guards were all men and had massive builds. They were almost as tall as Dan and just as thick! Each of them had a different weapon strapped to his waist.

The one who asked the question was the guard on the right. He had a jarring scar on the left side of his face that gave him a menacing look. Although one could infer from his tone that he was worried, there was no sign of fear or anxiety on his face. He was one of the four Hands of Samoa. In fact, he was the head of the Four Hands of Samoa, and he had a serious personality. He seldom cracked any jokes and few things could rattle him and rob him of his calm. His name was Scarred Boar.

“I hope not. That wouldn’t bode well for us at all”

The one who replied wasn’t Village Head Samoa. The reply came from another one of the Hands of Samoa. Unlike Scarred Boar, this man was good looking. He had refined facial features and beautiful black locks that cascaded down his shoulders onto his back. He had a feminine smile on his face. Unlike Scarred Boar who had a serious demeanor, this man came off as more playful and lively. But if one was fooled by his playful demeanor and made the mistake of making light of him, one would pay the price. He was the most unstable of the Four Hands. His temper was like that of a baby’s. At one point he would be laughing and smiling. But something simple could turn on his fury switch and bring forth carnage. And his name was enough to prove how dangerous he was. He was the Smiling Boar of the Four Hands, and the only one who had another nickname – the Beautiful Fiend. The most notable phrase amongst the circle of Elders was ‘When you see the smile fall off the face of the Beautiful Fiend, you better run’. And that phrase couldn’t be more accurate.

“Master, I’m a bit confused. You even dispatched Wild Boar and yet you are still unsettled. Is Sir Dan truly terrifying?”

The person who asked the question on the minds of every one of the Four Hands of Samoa was the last Hand. This man looked visibly older than the first two. There were a few strands of grey in his hair and he had a soft look. He looked like a harmless aging man who could do no wrong. But he was actually really terrifying. This seemingly unimpressive man was called the Hidden Boar because his true strength was a mystery.

Amongst the Four Hands of Samoa, the weakest was the one who was sent after Mane – Wild Boar. It was because he was the weakest that he was sent for this mission. Village Head Samoa was ready to lose him. This was because the other three were vastly superior to Wild Boar.

Wild Boar was strong, but when one looked at the strength of the other three, he fell short. The Head of the Four Hands, Scarred Boar wasn’t the strongest although he was the head. He was a Strength Oriented New Type and was stronger than Wild Boar by a large margin. But he was weaker than Hidden Boar.

Smiling Boar was stronger than Wild Boar, but he was weaker than Scarred Boar and Hidden Boar. However, the other two didn’t dare look down on him. If Hidden Boar had never been forced to show his true strength, then Smiling Boar was the same. Smiling Boar had an eccentric personality, and his strength changed based on his mood. In his usual state, which was his lazy laid-back personality, he was only stronger than Wild Boar. That was his weakest state. When he got slightly more serious, he was strong enough to threaten Scarred Boar and force the Head of the Four Hands to use all of his strength. And when he was pushed into a state of fury, even Scarred Boar was no match for him! In that state, he was so powerful that only Hidden Boar could stop his rampage, and even that came at a cost. The last time he had gone berserk, although Hidden Boar was able to stop him, Smiling Boar had broken his hand before Hidden Boar achieved his purpose. It could be argued that the only reason Smiling Boar injured Hidden Boar was because the oldest member of the Four Hands wasn’t fighting to kill, but to restrain. But it was still enough to show that Smiling Boar was very dangerous.

As for Hidden Boar, he had hardly shown his true strength in any of his battles. He was a powerful warrior who didn’t originate from this village. In fact, he was a guard in one of the bigger towns before he was recruited by Village Head Samoa. He had never been put in a position where he had to risk everything to fight for his life. That was exactly how strong he was. But although he was powerful, he was horrible leader. Unlike the levelheaded Scarred Boar, Hidden Boar was not very wise even though he was old. He seldom gave any good advice, and spent most of his time sleeping with the excuse that he was an ‘old man’ and needed to rest regularly.

Compared to the three of them, Wild Boar was very weak, but he had the greatest reputation. This was because he was sent on the most missions. Since the others were vastly stronger than he was, they were hardly mobilized for any missions. The usual missions were trivial in their eyes and were mostly taken on by Wild Boar. This had led the villagers to misunderstand and assume that he was the right hand man of the Village Head, when actually, he was only popular because he was weak. To highlight how weak Wild Boar was, one would have to understand this: Wild Boar wasn’t capable of lasting ten seconds against the lazy personality of Smiling Boar – which was Smiling Boar’s weakest state! The others usually protected the Village Head from the Shadows, so they didn’t even care about popularity.

“If you had seen what I saw several years ago, you wouldn’t have said that” Village Head Samoa tried his best to regain his composure and slowly spoke. In front of his men, he could only lose his cool for so long. He didn’t want to weaken his image in their eyes.

“Several years ago, I had the chance to witness the strength of Sir Dan personally,” Village Head Samoa slowly recalled. Unlike his men, when he mentioned the name ‘Sir Dan’, it was done with respect.

“It was the most dangerous situation our village has ever been in. Have you ever wondered why our village is right next to an Enchanted Forest, yet it is never overrun by an Overflow?” Village Head Samoa questioned.

“I haven’t even thought about that,” Smiling Boar laughed loudly with an embarrassed smile on his face.

“I just thought we were incredibly lucky,” Hidden Boar’s statement showed that his level of intelligence was only at the level of Smiling Boar’s.

“Indeed I have always found that strange. Master, are you saying that it has something to do with Sir Dan?” Scarred Boar was indeed the smartest of the three. He immediately understood what Village Head Samoa was getting at.

An Overflow was a situation whereby a village, town or a city was attacked by a huge number of Magical Beasts. It was called an Overflow because it was caused by a case of overpopulation. Enchanted Forests were dominated by Magical Beasts. Occasionally, there were situations were the population of Magical Beasts grew so large that they ventured out of the Enchanted Forests and into the outside world. In situations where a large number of Magical Beasts left an Enchanted Forest and attacked a human settlement together, it was called an Overflow. Usually, the bigger an Enchanted Forest, the lesser the instances of an Overflow. But when large Enchanted Forests gave birth to an Overflow, it was always several times worse than those from small forests.

This village was small, and it was right next to a very large Enchanted Forest. It was because it was close to a large Enchanted Forest that it was avoided by raiders and bandits. Usually, small Enchanted Forests birth an Overflow every 5-10 years and large Enchanted Forests birthed Overflows every 15-20 years. The rate of Overflows could be reduced by hunting Magical Beasts on a regular basis to keep their population down. In large cities and towns that were built next to large Enchanted Forests, this was done very well. So they hardly experienced Overflows. But this place was different. Logically, this village should have been wiped off the face of the planet a long time ago. But it was still standing strong.

“Yes. It is indeed related to Sir Dan. About 20 years ago, during arguably the most prosperous era of this village, we received the worst news we could ever receive. Some of our hunters had gone into the Enchanted Forest and discovered signs of an Overflow. I was amongst those hunters. We predicted that the village had at most two weeks before the Overflow, and suggested that we evacuate.”

“The Village Head at the time was Old Fan. He was younger then, and in his strength had only started to decline. Yet he was still one of the strongest people in the village. He had his own trove of warriors. The villagers called them the ‘Tiger Squad’.”

“That’s pretty arrogant,” Smiling Boar scoffed. Hidden Boar also had a disdaining smile on his face. As people who came from big towns and had travelled to the cities, they knew just how powerful those who were referred to as Tigers and Lions were. Even they didn’t give themselves such titles and only called themselves Boars. Yet a few villagers dared called themselves that.

“If it were to be other people, or another era, I would have agreed. But these men were worthy of their titles. Remember what I said earlier: This was the village’s most prosperous era”

Village Head Samoa’s words caused the expressions of Smiling Boar and Hidden Boar to transform from disdain to amazement.

“Hidden Boar,” Village Head Samoa called out.

“Yes Master”

“You are someone who was given the title of a Wild Cat in the city. You know how powerful Tiger warriors are,” Village Head Samoa said.

“I do,” Hidden Boar replied. That was his true background, and everyone here knew it. But Village Head Samoa was even stronger than him. Village Head Samoa was a warrior who was given the title of Tiger in a city!

“Old Fan was a warrior that could best 3 warriors of the Tiger level by himself. And he was surrounded by 15 Tiger warriors!”

Smiling Boar gulped loudly, and Hidden Boar had a rare look of solemnness on his face. Only Scarred Boar was still composed. Village Head Samoa’s words were unbelievable. He was basically saying that this village had the strength of a small sized city in its prime!

“So what happened to all those Tiger Warriors,” Scarred Boar asked. The others were interested in this as well. They wanted to know what was going on.

“They all died! Every single one of them!”