Chapter 25: 25: Sometimes, the hunter becomes the prey.

I didn't even want to think about what would have happened if Fiona wasn't with me. Probably I wouldn't be here in the first place but that wasn't the point. Her sharp senses saved us this time. 

That was good. Maybe I would praise her after we get out of here. But that wasn't what bothered me at the moment. 

The real issue was that these unknown monsters wouldn't roar like that without a reason. They were monsters but that wouldn't explain this behavior. 

That meant that something else was attracted by our campfire and met with these ugly guys, starting a fight. We would have been so dead if we didn't get away from there...

” Fuck with all of this. Come here, you piece of shit! ” another loud roar reverberated through the place, this time one that we could understand.

Fiona frowned instantly. And it wasn't that hard to guess why... The voice was a familiar voice even to me, and I heard it just once.

” Fio, we were followed. ” I... kind of felt stupid for pointing out the obvious but...

Looking at her, she didn't said anything but I knew that she was feeling guilty about it.

” This isn't your fault, Fio. I chose to take you with me and that's all. If they came after us... that means that we have to take care of it somehow. ” 

The problem was... how to do that?

” How? ” She looked back at me. ” If they followed us this far just to catch us, I don't think that we can escape so easily. ” 

She had a point, and a really good one at that. Was Fiona that valuable for them to go to this extent to get her back?

The answer was most likely no. If she was that valuable, they wouldn't put an explosive device tied to her neck. 

’Then, were they after me?’ I couldn't think of another reason... Unless there was no reason at all. Not a logical one, at least. I saw my fair share of pettiness from people you wouldn't expect.

” Let's go and take a look. Maybe the monsters will do the job for us. ” I said after a bit of weighing our options.

She simply nodded her head— albeit with a somehow awkward expression on her face— and we moved slowly towards our abandoned camp. 

Fortunately for us, we made our camp in a small opening, so we couldn't get by surprise and all that. If they were still in the same place, we could observe them from a distance without much risk. 

At the moment we arrived close enough to see what was going on, we could also hear a lot of swearing and cursing between the monster's roars. They seemed quite pissed off...

It wasn't that hard to spot them since there were torches thrown on the ground around them. My vision wasn't as good as Fiona’s but I could see in the dark quite good just as well.

The three of them were in the middle surrounded by the monsters. There were six monsters growlings at them and searching for an opportunity to attack. 

They were quite smart— as expected of humanoids. They weren't blindly throwing themselves at their prey. Even so, I could also see two monster bodies lying on the ground not too far.

Using [Appraisal] on our followers was for naught. They were too high level for me to pry anything we didn't know already and question marks for the anything else. But there were two monsters with a lower level than me.

...

Also, from the foul-mouthed man called Gerrard, I learned that these monsters were called trolls. Not that it had any importance anymore. 

” What to do, Lizza? ” Fiona asked me in a quiet voice. 

Looking at her, I could almost see the anger in her eyes as she was glaring at them. It wasn't too hard to guess what she wanted to do and frankly, I was a bit tempted by that as well. 

For some reason, I could almost hear in my head bells ringing and signaling that this was our only opportunity. 

My breath got rougher and I could hear my heart beating faster and faster. I could feel my body heating up as well. It was the same sensation I felt when I killed my first goblin. But something was different this time.

This time, it wasn't just me killing a monster. But backing off wasn't an option anymore. It was now or never.

” Fiona, I don't think they will stop chasing us even if we get away this time. ” I said with my serious voice without taking my eyes off the battle. 

” Mm. I think so too. ” she nodded at me. 

” I'm going to show you something... ” I said and paused for her to look at me. ” but I don't like talking too much about it and I would like for you to keep it a secret in the future as well. ”

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” I understand. ” 

She was... surprisingly cooperative at times like these.

I extended my left hand and a bow appeared on top of my hand. I had some spare ones from the time I had to figure out how to improve my current one.

She widened her eyes for a moment but recovered quickly after that. Maybe this useful ability wasn't that rare? Or that wasn't the moment for questions? Most likely the second one.

” But I don't have any skills with the bow. ” she said and took the bow with a bit of hesitation. 

” You don't need to have. All you have to do is to shot from a different direction to make it harder to predict from where I shoot. If you actually hit, that would be even better but you don't need to worry about it. ”

” Oh, ok... ” she said taking some arrows I prepared for her.

” Come back to me after you shot all the arrows. Don't do something stupid like going there to fight head-on. ” I warned her. She didn't seem the impulsive type but you never know what could happen in situations like those. I also barely knew her for several days so anything was possible.

She considered what I said for a bit but nodded her head to me in the end. I could not believe that she had to consider the options...

’Maybe my warning wasn't for nothing...’

After she left, my vision focused again on the trio and I took out my bow and some arrows from the ring. There was quite a bit of distance between me and them but I didn't want to risk and approach even further. I had to work with what I had.

I put the arrow on the bowstring and focused on which one to aim. Two men with swords and a woman with a bow. There wasn't even a doubt about who I should aim for. 

I patiently waited for the woman to put an arrow on her bowstring and to shoot at one of the trolls. I had just a single shot before they notice our presence so I didn't need to mess with this one.

The best opportunity to shot her was when she had her guard at the lowest and that was when she was concentrated on her target. That was the moment I was waiting for.

I now understand what they meant with the saying ’seconds were like whole hours’  and I perfectly agreed with it. It was absolutely nerve-wracking. Even though just a few seconds passed, my hands were already sweaty. 

When she finally decided to shot at a troll who approached them dangerously close was the moment I let go of my arrow as well.

There wasn't any special effect to it or some dramatic slow-motion thing like in the movies. The arrow just went straight at her and pierced through her neck. There wasn't even a dramatic struggle or something. She simply fell off to the ground and twitched a little. There was a small attempt at grabbing the arrow but soon she stopped any movement at all.

” Vanessa... ” the one called Ron shouted at her.

” Hey Ron, what happened to her? ”

” Someone shot her with an arrow, that happened. Stay on guard. ”

” Fucking hell, exactly at this moment... ”

I could hear their panicked voices but I didn't have the time to process what they just said because another thing stole my attention.

[*Ding: You have killed level 36 Human (Vanessa)!] 

[*Ding: You have reached level 24!]

She died. I just killed a human. But outside of the huge relief I felt since I didn't miss, there wasn't anything else... 

When I killed that first goblin, I just pushed the issue on him being just a monster but this proved me wrong. There was nothing, no crushing guilt or anything like that. 

If I were to describe the current situation, ironically, I was relieved that my arrow didn't miss the target. Even a little scared at how easy was for me to take a life. 

I even gained experience for it, the single difference between killing a monster and killing a human was that there was a name attached to that damned announcement screen. 

Maybe this was what they call the heat of the moment but I could fell that this world changed me in ways that I wouldn't have imaged before. 

’If I were to make it out alive of here, I should... I should...’ I didn't even know what I should do, and to be honest, that wasn't the time to dwell on philosophical stuff either. In a sense, it was better than I wasn't affected by her death at that moment. 

 

 

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