Hunter gritted his teeth and gripped both his staff and Flapjack even tighter. Normally he wouldn't have been so tense, he was confident that he could fight against a large group of people, but there were too many things against him at the moment: for starters, he didn't know the exact number of his opponents, and he wasn't in an open area where he could control the entire perimeter; it was likely that the enemies planned to concentrate his attention in one point and move around him to attack him from behind. Furthermore, and worst thing of all, now he was not alone, but there were three people he had to protect, which made him extremely vulnerable. And he couldn't even escape, because his staff couldn't carry four people. He had to think of a plan and quickly; therefore, the best thing to do was to buy time. "Who am I privileged to fight? State your names, so I can have them written on your grave after I'll kill you!"
His words were deliberately provocative, and as he expected he could clearly heard his opponents' hands tightening around their weapons. Then, a tall individual came to light. He was completely covered by his clothes and it was not even possible to see his face, because on his head he wore a broken ram's skull with two long curved horns stuck on it, and in his mouth he had implanted three sharp molars, two flat front teeth and very long canines, making it very similar to King's face. He also wore gauntlets resembling the young Titan's three-clawed hand, dark gray furry fur draped around his neck and upper arms, large dark gray wings plucked probably from an eagle or hawk, and a thick gray tail with a tip light grey, probably belonged to a badger. As for the other items of clothing, he wore a mustard yellow shawl-shaped garment with light brown trim and wing holes on his shoulders, as well as sleeves on his forearms of the same color on which he wore a purple gem, with his waist below three large battered brown tassels with tan trim over a long and worn black tunic. The only distinguishing feature were the eyes, red and yellow. "Step aside, boy. I don't know who you are, but we don't care about you. We only want the half-vampire. Go with your friends and your lives will be saved"
But Hunter knew that wasn't true. He had experienced a similar situation so many times that he had now learned to recognize the warning signs: the man's eyes were focused on him, but every few seconds they darted for a very brief moment in another direction. Through them Hunter could notice various shadows moving in the darkness and began to count them in a low voice: "Seven people on my right. Eight on my left. Three in the trees. All armed and dangerous. Very dangerous"
The situation was getting complicated, but he knew he had to keep his cool and continue to buy time. But of course Luz almost ruined any plan that he could conceive: "If you think we're going to leave Katya to you, dude, then you can wait here until you're old! We don't abandon anyone, let alone hand them over to some guy with really bad taste in clothes!"
The man seemed quite irritated by those words, and Hunter quickly drew his attention back to him: "As my friend said, we're not leaving. If you want to have the half-vampire you'll have to fight me. I'm still waiting for your response, by the way. Tell me your name, so I can pay someone to provide you with a worthy epitaph. So?"
The man seemed hesitant, then he declared: "My name is Tarak, and I am a faithful servant of the great god Collector. My life is in his service and I will die following his teachings, and when the time comes, if he wills it, I will be welcomed into his realm as one of his Trappers". He paused, then he added: "Now it's your turn. Tell me your name"
Hunter was thinking quickly, and a plan was forming in his head: Maybe he could use that guy's own fanaticism against him. He just had to play his cards right. Of course he wouldn't tell him his name, so I used the one he used for his alter ego to play rugby. "My name is Caleb, and I am a hunter. I hunt everything from the most terrible monsters to the weakest creatures. I have hunted fairies, witches, basilisks, creatures brought to life from enchanted books, and much more. It would take me a whole day just to list it"
Tarak's eyes widened slightly at those words. "A hunter?" he said surprised. "I thought you were a warrior. So, just like me, you follow the ancient teachings of the Great Huntsman, the Collector?"
Hunter smiled internally: Tarak had taken the bait. While he didn't know much about the faith of those fanatics, he knew enough about the Collector and the religious extremists to know how to deceive them. "I follow them, yes" he declared. "And therefore I cannot allow you to proceed further. As the Collector teaches, it is the duty of the strongest pack member to protect the weakest members. Therefore, if you dare to come near to my friends, I will fight you"
According to the ancient books, the Collector was the representation of life magic; which meant that he represented life in its purest state. It was no coincidence that he was represented as a jovial child, since he was exactly like a new life that continually blossomed without ever running the risk of decaying and dying. Therefore, he extolled whatever he considered good and enjoyable about the lives of all creatures, such as that the strong members of each pack or flock or tribe always protected the weak. So Hunter could use his fragmented knowledge to confuse his opponent.
And indeed Tarak looked somewhat doubtful. "You know her sacred teachings... if so, why do you oppose us? That half-vampire helped eliminate many of our brothers and sisters, and her devious leader dared to hold captive a djinn, a being of life magic! She committed horrible crimes against the Collector, she must be punished for it!"
Hunter feigned surprise, and to give the impression of surprise even more, he lowered his weapons slightly. "Is that so? I didn't know anything about it"
"I can assure you that this is the whole truth" Tarak said, then he opened his arms wide, "You need not protect her, brother! Join us and help punish this miscreant!"
Hunter was purposely silent for a moment, to make it seem like he was thinking, then he replied: "I have no guarantee that you're telling me the truth... but I want to listen to you again. And to prove my sincerity, I will now deprive myself of one of my weapons" and with that Flapjack abandoned his wand form and transformed back into a bird. Hunter pointed out Katya with his eyes, and he chirped to confirm that he understood, and he flew towards her without being noticed.
Tarak didn't notice that rapid interaction, and he seemed satisfied: "Your actions show your loyalty to the Collector's teachings: as he said, two hunters shouldn't choose war, but become friends and help each other" he declared. "I will prove to you that what I tell you is true. Allow me to guide you to our elder and he will explain everything to you"
"So be it. I'll be happy to meet him" Hunter said, but in the meantime he whispered to Katya: "Can you turn into a bat like pure vampires?"
The half-vampire replied softly: "I can only turn my hands into wings and my feet into claws"
"That's enough. As soon as you see the orb on my staff light up, transform and use your wings to protect Luz and Skara. If you don't have enough energy to do so, bite Skara and drink all the blood you need. Don't worry about yourself, Flapjack knows how to protect you. You won't have more than three seconds, so act quickly" Hunter told her, then he turned back to Tarak: "Now I will lower my other weapon and advance towards you. Take me to your elder, so that I can listen to it"
"Of course. Follow me, he will welcome you with open arms" Tarak said holding out his hand, clearly inviting him to give him his staff as a sign of friendship. Hunter pretended to be about to do so and advanced on the man... but at the last moment he made his move.
The orb on his staff glowed with blood-red light, and Katya behind him immediately changed: her hands expanded and became two enormous wings that she immediately wrapped around Luz and Skara, creating a barrier around them. Just three seconds later, the energy of the staff condensed into a single, very hot point, which shone with the light of a million suns; Tarak was blinded and his clothes immediately caught fire, and everything within tens of meters around Hunter caught fire instantly. The ball of boiling energy created a barrier of super-compressed and super-charged air that exploded with unprecedented violence, generating a shock wave that traveled in all directions faster than the speed of sound, uprooting bushes and trees and roaring so loudly that it damaged organs. By the time that violent attack subsided, the entire area had been completely leveled, and all the fanatics who had surrounded them were half dead on the ground. Katya was completely paralyzed, seriously thinking she was dead, and for a moment she couldn't understand how she could still be alive after that cataclysm, and above all without any wounds on her... but then she noticed the presence of Flapjack on her shoulder, who had a very determined and at the same time relieved look.
Hunter knew that the best way to win a battle with multiple opponents in play was to eliminate everyone in one shot, before they could use some sneaky tactic to hit him in an open spot. Therefore, he had decided to release half of the energy contained in his staff to generate a cataclysm of sufficient power to wipe out any opponent and which could affect everyone. His main problem was protecting his friends, but fortunately Katya's presence had solved this dilemma: the half-vampire had wrapped Luz and Skara in her wings, and Flapjack in turn had grabbed Katya and at the last microsecond had used the same magic that allowed Hunter to move almost instantly and brought him to the other side of the shockwave. It had been a risky plan with very little chance of success... and that was precisely why Hunter had asked Katya to protect Luz and Skara: if something went wrong, she would shield them and they would be protected by most of the destructive force. In this way the one who would have risked dying would have been just one person instead of three, moreover the one with the greatest chance of surviving given her vampire blood, and also the one who mattered least to Hunter at that moment. Of course, he wasn't going to say that last part out loud, though. "Good! Come on, let's leave right away, now that we can still...!"
His reflexes warned him of imminent danger and he moved quickly, dodging a knife that passed inches from his cheek. He turned and saw that Tarak was still conscious and was getting up: apparently the armor he wore, however damaged, must have possessed some kind of magical power, because it shone with a white aura; evidently it had to be light magic, since it had resisted his dark magic. Of course, Tarak had not emerged unscathed: he was moving jerkily, a sign that his body must have been very sore, and the skull he used as a headdress had shattered, revealing the face of a man with dark skin and a long brown mustache. , thick eyebrows of the same color and a long gray beard, on the right half of his face he was tattooed in dark blue, with a star of the same color on the left side of his forehead and a jade-colored crescent moon on the right. And he was clearly very angry. "Deceiver! That was dark magic, the Collector's nemesis! You lent an ear to the evil god Grometheus! I will dye the ground with your heretical blood!"
"Oh, shut up. I don't care about your fanatical ravings" Hunter grumbled, then moved his staff and formed a scythe of energy at the top of it with the intention of cutting off Tarak's head, but he quickly reacted and blocked the blow with what looked like a hunting knife, which glowed with benevolent energy. Yes, that was clearly light magic. "Why do you use light magic weapons? Shouldn't you use life magic?"
"The Collector teaches you have to take everything useful from your prey, leaving nothing but what harms you. I have faced people capable of using light magic in the past, so I made it mine after defeating them! This is what that the Collector wants!" Tarak replied. "I made it mine so I could eradicate beings like you who use dark magic! It is not useful, it is an affront to life itself! Anyone who uses it can only be evil at heart! By killing you I will only be doing this world a favor!"
"Damn, you sure do like talking" Hunter muttered, then attacked with more force. Tarak had light magic weapons, which meant he possessed magic directly opposite to his and could nullify all of his attacks. However, his opponent was wounded and he only needed one well-placed blow to win; this was an endurance contest, seeing who could last the longest.
But Hunter obviously had no intention of playing fair: Flapjack flew back into his hand and transformed into a magic wand, and he used it to transport himself behind Tarak, aiming for the base of the neck. The man managed to dodge it at the last moment, but he was still hit in the back, which made him fall to the ground on his face; Hunter lunged at him, trying to impale him, but Tarak blocked his blow with his knife. Their eyes met and they both used their weapons, trying to overcome the other and get the upper hand. "You bastard... using deception to get the upper hand... you have no honor!" Tarak growled.
"Honor? Don't make fun of me! Some things only exist in regular duels. In a real battle there is only one rule, and that is to do anything to win!" Hunter replied with a rather strange light in his eyes. "No wolf or lion would attack its prey with honor, they always do their best to deceive and defeat it! And the same is true in battles and wars! No one wins them with honor! They are won by those who are willing to do and sacrifice everything for victory!"
"What cruel words... you have truly been seduced by dark magic! I pity your soul!" Tarak answered him as he began to gasp with the effort of holding onto Hunter. "Tell me, why did you sell yourself to it? For a bit of magical power? What made you turn away from the path of life and light and plunge into the darkness?"
"I didn't plunge into it. I was born into it" Hunter replied. A few more centimeters, and he would have reached Tarak's neck; at that point a brief shake from his staff would have settled that fanatic once and for all...
But just then Katya intervened and after closing the distance between them she planted her claws in Tarak's arms, leaving deep sores on him. "Put all your strength into it, boy! I'll weaken it..."
"NO!" Hunter exclaimed. "Go back to Luz and Skara now and don't let your guard down! I'll take care of this here! Go back to them before..."
Too late: from the charred and broken remains of the surrounding trees emerged two figures wrapped in black cloaks and wearing a cow skull similar to the one Tarak previously had, who grabbed the two girls and held two large cutlasses to their throats. "That's enough" one of them, the one who was holding Skara down, said. "Let him go now, and throw down your weapons. I will not tell you this a second time". Luz was terrified, but that didn't stop her from feeling a certain confusion: she had heard that voice before...
Hunter narrowed his eyes and nodded to Katya, who lowered her head and transformed back into her normal form, then he stepped off Tarak's body and threw his staff to the ground; but this was not enough. "Don't get smart with us, boy" the person holding Skara repeated, and he brought the knife closer to her neck. "Turn your bird back into a wand and throw that away too, and then throw away all the weapons I'm sure you're hiding under your clothes too"
Hunter groaned, but then he obeyed and turned Flapjack into a magic wand and placed him on the ground, and he threw his knives away too. Tarak got up and grabbed him roughly, and he tied him securely with a rope. "I wish I had enough anger and fury to kill you now, but you are definitely too much of an unbeliever for me to risk dirtying myself with your impure blood. I will take you to the elder, as I said, and I will ask him to authorize your stoning"
"No!" Luz exclaimed at those words, fearing for her friend's life. "Don't hurt Hunter! He's not..."
But the person holding her grabbed her at the base of the neck and forced her to shut up. There was a moment of silence, then Luz heard a giggle. "Look, look... and I thought that having found this puppet again was surprising... but this is even more unexpected" that person said in a thin and hissing voice, which made Luz shiver the moment she heard it. "Do you have a new friend now, little puppet? What, did you get tired of the spider and the cricket, or did you just run to someone who could defend you better than them?"
Luz's heart skipped a beat and her body trembled. She had no difficulty recognizing both that voice and the hand that was blocking her neck at that moment. "Terra!"
It was only right to give Hunter another moment where he could show off all his badassery. And as the dear GodzillaMaster, who I now believe is endowed with prophetic powers, had guessed, we have the return of Adrian and Terra. After all, we certainly couldn't leave them totally unpunished. In Collodi's book the Cat and the Fox are punished only in the epilogue where they are shown that from pretending to be poor they have become truly poor; but obviously we want something more serious