Hunters: The Prequel - Chapter 301

“I will kill you, Foolish Beast!” Unbound Mongoose screamed in rage.

“Calm down,” Domineering Tiger who was closest to him wasn’t going to let the man make a stupid decision. He restrained Unbound Mongoose and prevented him for rushing to his death.

“Let me go! I’d kill that damned beast! I said let me go!” Unbound Mongoose struggled with all he was worth, trying to squirm out of Domineering Tiger’s strong hold as he screamed with all his might.

“I cannot allow you to kill yourself. You aren’t a match for it,” Domineering Tiger resisted Unbound Mongoose’s struggles and still held onto the man. However, his words seemed to have calmed the raging Predator down, and his struggling ceased.

Looking at the heartbroken figure of Unbound Mongoose, the others were saddened. Arthur watched in sadness as the stoic figure of Unbound Mongoose was reduced to a mess of snot and tears. The scene of a Predator bawling his eyes out was rare enough, but the fact that the one he was mourning had only been killed because of him broke Arthur’s heart.

“This is because of me,” he mumbled silently. Village Head Fan sighed quietly, having no words of encouragement to offer to his son. After all, it was true that the man sacrificed himself for Arthur. And in the situation where the Cheetah’s friend was mourning right beside them, any words of encouragement to Arthur would seem ins.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e. Frowning Tiger was also silent. The man who saved all their lives by getting them out of harm’s way was dead. With the kind of speed that Wandering Cheetah displayed, there was no way that the Resurrection Cat should have been able to kill him. After all, he was so much faster than the beast. But the man had fallen. And he had only fallen because he chose another’s life over his own.

“If only I was stronger,” Arthur mumbled, his eyes reddened by the latest death in their ranks. None of them truly knew or understood Wandering Cheetah. Only Unbound Mongoose who had been his friend for so long understood the man. The others knew nothing about him.

Domineering and Beastly Tiger regarded him a coward, and Frowning Tiger and Rash Tiger considered the man as one who had never lived up to expectations. Village Head Fan had nothing but pity for the fallen genius, and Arthur had only heard rumors about the Cheetah, never really interacting with him until today. But in this short time he had fought together with the man, he had been saved twice by the very man they called a failure. And now he was gone. He didn’t die by his hands, but the fact that Wandering Cheetah died saving him made Arthur feel like he might have very well been the killer.

“It doesn’t matter,” Unbound Mongoose looked at the towering figure of the Resurrection Cat with hatred. He couldn’t feel the pressure of a Pseudo Legendary Class Magical Beast radiating from the creature anymore. It wasn’t because it had grown weaker. Whenever a Resurrection Cat was killed, its attributes would increase by 15% so it certainly wasn’t weaker. Rather, the problem lay with Unbound Mongoose. The hatred he felt canceled out all other emotions, and even fear was no exception.

“Do you think he saved you because you’re the son of the Village Head?” Unbound Mongoose turned to look at Arthur and said. Feeling Domineering Tiger’s hold on him weaken, the man broke away and walked to Arthur.

Arthur’s expression was enough for the others to see that Unbound Mongoose’s words were right on the money. Indeed, Arthur was feeling extremely guilty because he felt that the only reason he had been saved was because he was the next chief of the village. To him, if that wasn’t the case, there would have been no way that Wandering Cheetah would die for him.

“Is Domineering Tiger Village Head Fan’s son?” Unbound Mongoose stood right in front of Arthur and looked him straight in the eye as he questioned. His question stunned the young boy for a while.

“Well is he?” Unbound Mongoose asked again.

“No, he isn’t,” Arthur found his voice and answered.

“Beastly Tiger. Is he your brother?”

“No, he isn’t.”

“What about Frowning Tiger. Is your master your father’s son too?”

“Master isn’t.”

“Rash Tiger?”

“He isn’t”

Unbound Mongoose mentioned the names of all who had been rescued by Wandering Cheetah before he died.

“So what makes you think your rescue was any different?” Unbound Mongoose finally asked. Arthur was tongue-tied. Listening to Unbound Mongoose’s simple words had left him with no answer to his question. Wandering Cheetah had saved everyone. The only person who didn’t need his help was his friend. The others, including Domineering Tiger and Beastly Tiger who called him a coward and with whom Wandering Cheetah didn’t have a harmonious relationship with had all been saved. What was it that made Arthur’s rescue any different?

“He saved all of you because he reckoned that there would be no chance of defeating the beast if any of us was dead” Unbound Cheetah turned to face the others and said. His grief filled face forced an ashamed Beastly Tiger to turn his head away. How could he face Unbound Mongoose now that the man’s friend whom he called a coward had saved his life?

Unbound Mongoose was filled with pain at the thought of his friend’s death. Everyone saw Wandering Cheetah as a coward. But was his friend really a coward? Unbound Mongoose knew the answer even better than Blistering Cheetah. It had to do with a sequence of unfortunate events right before Wandering Cheetah was declared a Cheetah by the Oracle.

Blistering Cheetah didn’t know this because he wasn’t a part of the mission then. But when they were just Thrashers, and were close to breaking into the Predator level, they were given a mission to investigate some strange occurrences in a forest next to the village. The young Wandering Cheetah was chockfull of confidence. He was a young prospect and one cherished by the village, so naturally he was very arrogant. And he wasn’t lacking in admirers. One of these admirers was a Thrasher. She was also vastly talented, only second to Wandering Cheetah and Domineering Tiger among the younger generation. And Wandering Cheetah was in love with her.

During the mission they were lax since the forest they were sent to investigate was a normal one and since it didn’t have any Magical Beasts, they didn’t take the mission seriously at all. It became a picnic for Wandering Cheetah and his girlfriend, leaving Unbound Mongoose as an unwanted third wheel. Leaving the two lovebirds behind – on the outskirts of the forest – Unbound Mongoose ventured into the forest to investigate the strange happenings and finish the mission. The other two reckoned that since the forest wasn’t enchanted, it was okay to leave Unbound Mongoose as the sole investigator and enjoy themselves. Unbound Mongoose came back empty handed. He hadn’t discovered anything worthwhile. But when he reached the outskirts of the forest he came across several corpses. Corpses that reeked of magic. And amongst the many bodies, he discovered several Middle Classes and a few high classes – not enough to threaten a Predator, but more than enough to deal with two Thrashers at the peak of their level.

He found Wandering Cheetah amidst the corpses, holding on to the one he loved. She had no breath in her, her body riddled with several injuries that even a Predator wouldn’t be able to recover from. Seeing the heartbroken figure of his friend sitting on the ground with lifeless eyes, Unbound Mongoose did the only thing he could. He pulled his friend away and they returned to the village, carrying her corpse with them.

It turned out that Village Head Fan had a feeling the mission wasn’t going to be easy, and that was why he sent three Top level Thrashers. He had asked them to exercise caution, but they disregarded his words, and they paid the price. When they returned, the elders asked them a simple question.

“Why didn’t you run?”

It turned out that the girl had suggested they escape, but Wandering Cheetah, inflated with pride and confidence, rejected her idea. In the end, she died saving his life. They had lost a genius because Wandering Cheetah was too arrogant to escape. The only positive was that Wandering Cheetah broke through amidst the chaos and became a Predator, which was how he killed the Magical Beasts. So they couldn’t fault him. Especially since he was grieving harder than anyone else.

Unfortunately their words, “Why didn’t you run,” was deeply imprinted into Wandering Cheetah’s mind. And the genius touted as having the potential to become a Tiger, unconsciously changed his path. He started to pursue speed instead of power because he said to himself that as long as he had the pace to escape from any creature, he could rescue those he loved. He believed that even Tigers had enemies they couldn’t overcome, but Cheetah’s could always escape. Unbound Mongoose didn’t stop his friend from pursuing this path, because the last words the girl he loved left him were,

“Live. Don’t die”

Unfortunately the event traumatized Wandering Cheetah, and every time he faced a foe, he became afraid, making him incapable of displaying his true speed. And soon everyone believed that he was slower than Blistering Cheetah. That he was nothing more than an average Cheetah. Even Unbound Mongoose didn’t know that Wandering Cheetah was that fast until the recent events, hence his surprise at the revelation. Many called him a coward, and before long that description had stuck.

“He was never a coward,” Unbound Mongoose turned to Beastly Tiger and said. The Tiger lowered his head even further. But Unbound Mongoose couldn’t be bothered about him. He turned to face the Pseudo Legendary Class Magical Beast. The angry cat was unusually patient, as if it had nothing to fear now, and had waited for them to sort out their emotions.

“We need to kill that thing,” Unbound Mongoose gritted his teeth and said. He unsheathed his twin daggers and gripped them so hard that his hands turned pale.

“We will,” Arthur declared and hoisted Durandal onto his shoulder. Feeling the familiar strength of the magical sword coursing through his veins, he charged at the beast with a mighty roar.

*****************************************

“What happened? Why did Unbound scream like that?” Back on the sidelines, Blistering Cheetah anxiously asked Samoa. Samoa gritted his teeth in frustration. He didn’t know if telling Blistering Cheetah that his friend was dead was a good idea, given his condition. He was no healer, but he knew that it wasn’t wise. He tried ignoring the Predator, and tried to get away.

“Tell me!”

But Blistering Cheetah was having none of that. It was unknown where he got the strength from, but Blistering Cheetah was holding onto Samoa’s arm so strongly that Samoa could hear his bones squeaking.

“He saved the others. Got them all out of harm’s way” Samoa started.

“But,” Blistering Cheetah demanded.

“But he died in the process. I’m sorry” Samoa turned his head away. There was nothing else he could say to comfort Blistering Cheetah.

Who would have thought that Blistering Cheetah would rather regain his calm upon hearing the news?

“I see,” he said, and then he lost consciousness.