Percy took in a deep breath.
He had to calm his surging emotions. One of the many things that he had learned was that the rush of adrenaline was an illusion of strength. A facade to lure you into the trap of impulse.
His mind raced to remember his mentor's lessons.
You are not in control of yourself. Your raging desires and emotion were in control of you.
Emotions were the root cause of spontaneous action. Thoughtless actions leads you to death.
One must always be vigilant in the open world, dangers emerge the most when you least expect it.
When you are a guardian, you must be prepared to protect your summoner by any means necessary.
Your emotions hold you as a guardian back from doing your duty.
We are the ones who watch.
We are the ones who protect.
It does not matter what happens to you.
All that matters is the one you must protect.
They are the most important person.
They give your life purpose, so that they may live.
The best way to protect someone is to be able to act when necessary.
You are able to do that when you are able to handle every situation calmly and see what is in front of you.
This is the duty you were born for. The duty you must fulfill.
To become the shield of the one that needs it.
It was an unforgivable crime that Percy had forgotten. Such a simple lesson was lost in the temptation of frustration.
He could see why he had to control his emotions now. After all, it was the reason why he was in this situation in the first place. If he could've handled it better he could've prevented this situation.
The morning dew smelled sweet and refreshing, breathing in life to his empty lungs. A cold breeze swept around him as he slowly raised his sheathe preparing himself to swing.
His senses felt ever so simulated. His being tingling in ecstasy. Never has he ever felt more excited as his blood rushing through his body.
An overwhelming desire to swing his sword hindered only by his own mentality to contain himself. It was difficult to suppress this instinctual urge to force his hands downwards as the thought single-handedly dominated his mind at the moment.
A murky flow reflected onto his glazed eyes. Every line of thought faded into obscurity as this flow gently guided his hands.
His closed eyes emanated a subtle eeriness that the girls could not quite pinpoint. The less experienced huntresses of the group had allowed their pride and anger to swallow their reasoning. Their pride did not allow such a feeling as fear to take root within them.
Soft glows of silver light appeared around their hands eventually gathering into the form of a majestic bow.
"Wait!" A tall girl with hair as dark as ink shouted from a distance, her arms waving wildly in hopes of preventing anyone from doing anything rash. Her dimly lit red eyes were filled with caution towards the stranger.
"Just wait a second!"
Her name was Eviane.
Eviane felt an unnatural danger from the man that she had never felt before. To her, the situation felt similar to poking a bear with a stick. Nothing good would ever come from poking a bear with a stick. Especially bears that aren't initially aggressive towards you.
What was even stranger was his face was obscured in such a weird way that she couldn't really explain.
She could tell that he had facial features, but they felt unnaturally forgettable. It was as if his face had a censor in her mind that would reject anything that she could associate the man with. There was nothing.
Nothing to recognize him with.
Nothing to associate him with.
His face was like a blank canvas. Every time she tried tried on paint on the canvas, nothing would appear. There was paint on her brush. The brush was moving across the paper.
But nothing showed up.
It was as if the paint never existed in the first place. It had been removed by an entity she could not see and could not feel. There was no way to explain it.
Every time she thought about it, she couldn't maintain that image in her mind.
One moment, it was there and gone in the next.
She blinked multiple times as to confirm her vision of the man.
Eviane had heard that there was a strange male that had joined the hunt a few hours ago.
All men are the same. Her sisters were probably exaggerating. Despite what they were saying, it went through one ear and out the other.
She didn't believe them.
Now, was a different story.
There was a clear ominous aura around him that was giving her chills.
Goosebumps rose from her skin.
But.
It was already too late.
An arrow was already flying in the air. Its sharp tip hungry for blood like a ravenous beast.
Her eyes traced the surroundings for the source of the arrow.
A very young girl.
Eviane recognized the child.
Jayda.
Sadness filled Eviane's eyes for a moment before cursing to herself.
It was unknown if the young girl understood what she was doing.
One thing was clear though: she was swept away by the tension and let her emotions to get the better of her.
Regardless, the thing that Evaine didn't want to happen, happened.
And like a spark that lit a fire, arrow after arrow took to the skies until it was packed full of a gleaming rain of death.
T-T
Percy's senses were preoccupied by a strange feeling. An indescribable feeling. Something that not even he knew what was going on.
It was a blend of emotions that conflicted with his rationale.
A feeling of duty perhaps?
A feeling to fight-
The feeling to snuff out this uncomfortable thought of a slave.
To prove to himself that their hatred meant nothing to him.
To show that he was not a pushover.
That feeling to show that he was better.
...
But also a feeling questioning if this was the right choice?
But why did he think that he was a slave?
After all, he had only been in this world for less than a day so why did he think that.
This was an opportunity that happened only once in a lifetime. It had been centuries since the last chosen.
He should be happy. Right?
What would his parents think if they saw what he was doing?
Would they be disappointed?
What about his mistress?
Maybe she's watching right now and is testing him.
He didn't know.
His grip around the sheathe unconsciously became tighter as if he were holding an actual sword. There was a tug from his gut reassuring him that everything was fine. That feeling completely dissipated his troubled mind.
A feeling of liberation. As if nothing really mattered. This moment he felt free of the responsibility that had weighed upon his mind since conception. Washing away his concerns of chores and duty.
It was only him in this very second.
A clear and cool sensation cleansing his mind.
The breathe of wind brushing against his body, the cold surrounding him. A very unfamiliar feeling to him.
He had never felt such coldness before. But, it felt strangely nice.
The wind grafting upon his body as if they were helping him to become one. Its arms gently guiding him slowly downwards.
His eyes were closed, but he could clearly see a line. It wasn't a line but rather a flow.
To what?
He didn't know.
He didn't care.
His sheathe was clear in his hands. Its outline flowing the trace of flow.
T-T
Ding!
The soft ring of a bell sounded. Despite its softness, the sound was clear to everyone as if the bell was right next to them.
In a situation like this, it was strange for a bell to ring.
There was no particular direction that the sound came from but somehow all of the hunter's eyes looked in the same direction.
That male.
It was the only thing that the girls could attribute the sound to, and it was the man in the center of their encirclement. But, it didn't look like he had done anything besides swing his sheathe down.
The man seemed to be moving in slow motion. Like they were watching a turtle walk.
Each of every one of his movements were perceptible to his many onlookers.
Even the slightest tremor could be felt as if they were doing the action for themselves.
It wasn't as if they couldn't look away, but their eyes refused to budge an inch.
Their eyes were stuck tracing the path of his sheathe.
Something was so mesmerizing that made them want to see what would happen next.
The sheer elegance and the flow.
There was a force that kept them watching, even making them forget to blink because it felt like if they blinked it would've felt like they would've missed something very important. Maybe making them regret it for the rest of their lives.
It was a dance.
A very beautiful dance.
What Eviane saw reminded her of a bird in the sky. Her eyes were locked onto his figure that did not look fazed at all in the current situation. Rather, it was as if this was a play, and he was merely acting his part.
The dozens of arrows in the sky were ornaments. Ornaments to his grand performance. The girls were just an insignificant addition to highlight the climax of the play.
She looked around at the other girls.
It was easy to tell what they were thinking.
Their eyes were shining, full of expectations of what would happen next.
His body turning into a porcupine, or maybe he would weave through the arrows somehow, or perhaps he would cut the arrows in half like in the movies.
Although there were many "expectations", the vast majority were of the former.
Eviane knew that majority of the girls absolutely detested men to the bone.
She wouldn't be surprised if some, if not almost all of them, wanted all men to go extinct.
As much as she herself disliked men, Eviane would not go far enough to wish death upon them, much less the one in front of her.
But, she knew that not all of the girls thought the same way as she did.
Some would kill on sight if they were allowed to.
In fact, it seemed as if the girls here unanimously agreed to get rid of this male in particular.
Get rid of him now and make up a lame excuse afterwards.
It would disastrous if Artemis caught wind of what was happening right now.
Even so, it could be considered a good thing for the hunters.
If the male really did die, then they would no longer have to deal with a male in the Hunt.
Lady Artemis probably wasn't too keen on having a male in the Hunt, but it didn't take a genius to come to that conclusion.
It also didn't take a genius to see that there was a large chance that the male would actually die if he didn't defend himself.
How he would do so?
Who knows?
The male didn't seem to pay mind to his surrounds including the not so conspicuous arrows flying in his direction.
At this rate, he really was going to turn into porcupine.
How did this happen?
Yesterday, she was out hunting when the male was summoned, and she didn't even know there was a male in the hunt until moments prior.
She didn't even have time to process that thought before the current scene unfolded in front of her.
From the point where she had arrived at the scene to the initial shot, only a few seconds had passed.
At this point, Eviane was just curious what would happen.
For some reason, she felt like things would not pan out how it seemed like they were going to.
No particular reason why.
It was just a feeling.
And just as the very first arrow was going to hit him right on the forehead. It froze.
When it happened, Eviane doubted her eyes, but after closing and opening her eyes again the scene before her did not change. All of the arrows in the air were frozen in place, even the ones that were just releasing from the bow itself.
Her eyes scanned the other members, and they seemed just as bewildered as she was. Everyone else was frozen in space, surprised by the sight.
She went to go touch one of the arrows, but for some reason her body refused to move.
Then, she noticed that she couldn't feel herself breathing.
That was the exact moment that she began panicking.
She could feel her heartbeat pulsing throughout her entire body.
The only sound that registered in her mind was the sound of her own heartbeat gradually getting faster and faster.
Cold sweat began to trickle down her neck.
Her breathing began to roughen. Or rather it would have if she could feel anything.
She wanted to flail her arms around, but again she was stopped.
Eviane didn't know what to do. Never had she ever felt so helpless in her entire life.
She wanted to scream out but she could not. No sound escaped from her mouth.
Inwardly, she felt like crying.
T-T
Eviane pronounced "eh-vee-en"