Here's the next chapter :D. Actually most of the chapters are done. I've just been doing minor edits. ANyways enjoy!

"Something's wrong." Halt pulled back the cowl of his cloak and looked at his former apprentice, Gilan as soon as they got out of hearing range. They have been leaning on the side of the tent, listening in on the conversations of the Nemi pirates for the past 30 minutes. To the younger ranger's relief, they still planned on recuperating from a last encounter that caused a lot of casualties. According to Halt's calculations, that was almost always correct, that would take about three months then another five since they were planning on causing havoc in some areas of Tuscan first. Araluen was safe for about one more year.

The relief was short-lived when the two rangers realized that much time has passed and Will still wasn't back.

Gilan nodded his head in agreement at his mentor and looked around him hoping he could find any movement among the woods—any sign of a person hiding behind a mottled cloak. As far as the ranger could tell there wasn't any. He looked at Halt, hoping at least he was able to spot their comrade among the trees. To Gilan's disappointment, Halt shook his head.

"It's been over 30 minutes, Will should have killed him by now. " Halt said

" You think I should have taken the job? A sword would have been a much better match against a hammer." Gilan wrinkled his forehead as he thought of the possible reasons why his fellow ranger hasn't returned. He turned again to his master. He needed just a bit of assurance that what he was thinking wasn't plausible. " What if…" He started

"I trust Will enough not to have made a careless mistake as to underestimate his opponent. Besides, the guard would have at least returned if, you know he, …"

Halt wasn't one to be superstitious but he decided not to say the word just to be safe and as to not jinx what may happen or may have already happened. It was supposed to be just another routine job for Will. He was supposed to lead the man up the hill and shoot him there, where no one would notice the dead body until, hopefully, a few days later when the rangers were all long gone. He could already tell just by how much time Will was taking, that that man was no ordinary giant.

" Should we go and help him? We already got our information" Gilan loosened his sword from the scabbard, ready to make his way up the hill.

Halt gestured to him to stay where he was. " Wait. Not yet. "

Gilan stared at Halt, confused. A part of him was thinking that Halt's age must have been already catching up with him. His former apprentice could be in the brink of the death at this exact moment and Halt was still willing to give an allowance of how long and in that span time, Will could already be taking in his final breath.

" Halt! What if Will 's dying at this very moment? We have to hurry. We've already wasted too much time." Gilan said almost desperately. That young ranger was almost like a brother to him and just imagining him dead was enough to leave a hollow feeling in his chest.

Halt sighed and looked at him. His reply came in a whisper.

"Gilan, if the safety of Araluen wasn't on the line, we would've already been on our merry way to help Will. Right now our duty comes first." Halt sighed once more. It was a painful choice but he knew he had to make it. He knew he could've sent Gilan to help Will out; it was a tiny feeling of guilt though that stopped him from letting his former apprentice leave. It was that memory of when he got himself exiled just to save an apprentice that made him rethink. He did not regret that decision but as a ranger he knew he couldn't put his personal needs over kingdom's needs too selfishly more than once. Also, this job he was about to do may require more than one person if ever they slip up and the whole band of pirates swarms them. Besides, this time, Will was a full-fledged ranger with about ten years worth of experience compared to the boy who was taken by the Skandians years ago.

Come on Will… Hold on just a few more minutes. He whispered almost as a prayer, hoping that that message would reach Will. That boy had the tenacity of a cockroach and he was praying that it would apply the most right now when he really needed it to stay alive.

Gilan looked at his mentor who looked like he was thinking much more deeply than usual. That's when he realized the reason of Halt's surprising choice of the mission at hand over Will's safety, which was rare. Halt wasn't satisfied with what they had uncovered from the meeting. Gilan knew the unsatisfaction that sometimes plagued Halt in recon missions were almost always correct.

"What's wrong?" Gilan started.

Halt looked back at his comrade and, as far as Gilan could tell, looked almost glad, to have his co-ranger, understand him so quickly.

"No one was interrupting the speaker as he spoke, there were no side comments, suggestions, all murmurs of agreement. That's pretty bizarre…" He answered as he put the cowl of his cloak over his head

" For a group of pirates…" The younger ranger scratched his chin as he started to get the drift of Halt's initial suspicion.

" Look back at their plans too." Halt added

" They planned on recuperating for about three months. Force on Toscano then Scotti then back to Gallica…" Gilan frowned as he realized the idiocy of their plan, even for a bunch of uneducated pirates.

Why would they plan to attack Toscano which is in the mainland, take a boat to Scotti and go to Gallica which is back in the mainland when it is much easier to charge to Araluen from Scotti? "

" It may be for recon… " Gilan suggested mostly as a weak effort to give an answer to all of their questions about the pirates so they can finally help Will out.

" They're pirates Gilan. At least one of them would have been impulsive and impatient enough to mention the inconvenience that a certain plan would cause and suggest a more convenient plan." Halt said again noting the out of character civility of the pirates

Gilan understood Halt's plan as soon as the grizzled ranger reacted to the sound of the leader dismissing his people through a bell .The former watched as people were already coming out of the tent, some in twos, some in fours and the occasional one.

Halt was waiting for the whole group to disband and the tent to be emptied. He was planning to search the tent and validate the information from the meeting or most probably, confirm his suspicions.

They only had to wait a few more minutes before the last few people left the tent. It was getting dark and that made it easier to sneak through, especially for expert unseen movers in mottled cloaks.

In no time, they were able to reach the tent without attracting any attention. Halt gestured to his former apprentice to stay outside and keep watch. They would be dead if someone found them. He started to search the shelves and the chests around the big tent. Within a few minutes, he had a breakthrough in the form of a leather bound stack of parchments that contained the raiding accounts of the pirates since their formation almost thirty years ago. He was able to scan the latest raidsthat until recently were only around the Skandian area, especially around the Eastern area that he recalled was called Lappland. There must have been some important reason why they decided to head so far South because Halt knew it wasn't like pirates to go to far from their area and home region which, he could tell from their accounts was most likely around the Eastern Area of Skandia. The last attack in that area was dated almost a year ago. He flipped to the next page and found a parchment wedged between. It looked a lot like the treaty made with the Skandians except in a completely different writing system, resembling a mixture of all the Skandian dialects. The only thing he was able to read was the name and the signature below. Adriel Althing. It would probably be useful for him to remember that name.

The ranger set the book back down and looked back at everything he remembered about the pirates. It started with their sudden appearance a year ago then the chaos created in all surrounding countries around Araluen but for some reason never within its walls. The meeting that was obviously staged, the lack of accounts of recent attacks, the paper that resembled a treaty, the body guard who seemed to be more than meets the eye.

He had a gut feeling these were all connected through this Althing figure who is the mastermind behind all this and if he doesn't stop him in time , not just Araluen but all the other countries would be victimized .

Halt's gut feelings where never wrong.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Will backed up against the cliff and braced himself for his third option that he knew was gonna take a lot of willpower. The man 's hammer was already raised and up for the attack. The ranger clutched the longer half of the broken bow in his hands ready to use it as defense.

He tried to measure and time everything as perfectly as possible. The man's blow should be significantly weakened because of his injured arm and that should make his sacrifice a bit more tolerable.

The hammer will fall in…

Three… Two…

The broken bow and his fingers were what deflected , or more appropriately , delayed the path of the hammer. Will knew he had to use his fingers . If he held the bow on the side , it would have definitely broken from the impact of the hammer .He ended up using his fingers as support to keep the bow intact. The price… The pain was unbearable. The ranger almost bit his tongue when he stifled a sound that felt like it would come out as a sob and a scream at the same time.

The hammer was going to go down on him faster if he didn't add any extra support. He planned for that already though. The answer was in his belt. He just had to ignore the intense pain that was flashing through his fingers. He closed his eyes. He had to concentrate on getting the saxe knife from his belt and at the same time focus on not looking at his fingers which he guessed were most probably badly broken from the impact of the hammer and the fight the giant's weapon was putting against his.

After what felt like an hour, the saxe knife was loosened from the scabbard and he was able to add the extra support to his half bow . The result was a makeshift double-knife defense. The broken bow ending up the substitute for the throwing knife

As soon as the saxe knife started to push the hammer away, the pain in his right fingers started to die out.

At first , the ranger felt relief .He, then, realized that that didn't make any sense. The pain wasn't supposed to die. It was supposed to get worse. The giant was pushing down harder as soon as he felt the threat of the saxe knife. The ranger pushed his weapon up in return. In between the hammer and the saxe knife was the bow and Will's fingers.

That was supposed to be pain, multiplied .Why didn't he feel anything anymore? Will grew terrified. If he didn't end this soon , he may lose the use of his fingers.

With less than a minute left to save his fingers, that is if they were still alive, Will took another gamble. He quickly flashbacked to the lessons of Gilan about double knife defense.

Gilan grabbed a handful of Horace's shirt and mimed an underhand cut … Seriously? Could he still do that with broken fingers and with a man five times his size? A quick thrust up under the jaw… No. That would be too high…

The neck wasn't too high though. It was also a perfect target. One deep cut would be enough to incapacitate or hopefully kill the giant. That's also where all the major blood vessels. He cuts the right one then it's over. He rapidly scanned the neck of the man. He had only one chance to stab the giant and it had to be in the right area or he would end up falling to his death. He found one. He could see throb underneath the man's skin under the neck. It wasn't too subtle due to the thick muscle there but it was definitely there. The young ranger didn't have time to prepare. He pulled his left hand from its place under his marred right hand and quickly stabbed it into the man's neck.

It felt like almost a miracle. Less than thirty seconds ago, Will thought the man would walk away as he lay dying . Who would have known it'd be the other way around? The knife luckily hit a major blood vessel and the man attempted to scream but sounded as if he was choking.

Will ran away clutching his injured hand as soon as the man dropped the hammer. Immediately after he reached a safe distance , he assessed the damage.

This is bad... The fingers were turning a sickly shade of purple especially the three middle ones. He touched his left fingers to his injured right and what he felt was something like pins and needles . He needed to bind it. He grabbed a twig and put it next to his , it was just the right size.

He had to find something to hold them together before Halt comes or before he can get any real help. He ended up having to rip his sleeve off to bind it. That was good enough for then.

He wrapped his sleeve around his hand and the twig a few times then tied the knot.

Good enough. Will thought as he gauged the durability of his handiwork.

He stood up and was walking to leave when he saw his throwing knife on the ground. He contemplated whether to pull out the saxe knife from the neck of the big man who was most probably dead by then. It was a hard choice for Will. He felt almost horrified to pull out the weapon from a dead body but he knew he didn't want to ask for a replacement because of all the expenses it took to have another saxe knife made.

In the end, he decided to go back and get it. He was pretty sure Halt would be pretty angry if he requests for a new saxe knife because he was too scared to pull his old one from a dead body. His mentor wouldn't let him live it down if ever.

When he reached the body of the man, he loomed over it for a while. Its eyes were closed and it looked peaceful despite the gruesome death. It was almost easy for Will to imagine the body just asleep. The only thing stopping him though from imagining just that was the knife sticking out of its neck.

Will took a deep breath and placed his hands on the knife. He closed his eyes, ready to pull when…

"Help….Me…." It was hoarse and soft but it was still a voice.

The ranger opened his eyes again. The man didn't look asleep anymore. His eyes were trained at Will.

"You have to help me…Please… I don't wanna…" He croaked with a pleading voice. Will was almost tempted to call for help or find anyway to staunch the flow of blood from his other wounds.

The ranger's heart filled with remorse . It was when he looked at his already swelling fingers, did he lose at least some of it. There was still that human part of him that was pushing him to help the man. Will knew this man was powerful and for some reason he was aware of the rangers' abilities , he didn't want to take the chance of going against this man one more time.

It was a hard decision but after almost a minute of contemplating, Will chose to let the man die. He didn't want to endanger Halt or Gilan's life or in an extreme case, Araluen ,by letting him live . He pulled out the saxe knife to at least make it quicker. He turned away from the face of the man , which he could tell from his peripherals, changed from pleading to anger in a matter of seconds, and quickly ran out of the woods, both knives were back in the scabbard. He had to get back to Halt and Gilan. They must be looking for him.

The man stared up at the sky. He was definitely going to die and he could not accept it just yet.

He chanted soft witch like words, anger radiating from every syllable. With every word, his body got lighter and lighter. He wasn't in pain anymore. He made the chant harder and harder until he reached the limit of his already weak voice.

He gave one last cough and closed his eyes. In less than a minute, he was nothing but sand particles riding the northbound wind.

In the palace of one certain Northern Kingdom, a king was crying in his throne room. He had just received the message. His eldest son was dead and his killer was alive and free.

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