Nothing compared to a good hunt.
The thrill of chasing a prey, entrapping it, and killing the creature.
I had never find such enjoyment in other things.
The method of the hunt was always the same and it was fun in and of itself.
But what made one hunt more exciting than the other was the quarry.
The more valuable the prey, the better.
And I valued my prey from how deadly they were.
I had made it my life's goal to find the deadliest prey the world could offer.
The deadliest of preys only dwelled in danger. You would not find them simply in the comfort of your home.
What better way to seek danger other than being a soldier?
And of all the soldier there was, the knight order of the Farista Household sought the most dangerous of places.
For the past forty years I had been dedicating myself to become the finest knight that had ever served the Farista Household.
In doing so, I hoped the Farista would deploy me to the most dangerous battlefield there was.
Fortunately, ever since I was appointed as the commander of the 4th Battalion, the Farista had been doing just that.
My first mission as a commander was to subjugate a horde of ogres in eastern Tsatu.
The fourth time I was deployed was to clear a den of giant poisonous scorpions along the border of the Great Desert.
And once we were tasked to hunt down a wyvern near Phirdaus, in southwest region of the empire.
All were good hunt.
Splendid deadly preys and splendid satisfying kills.
The taste of a successful hunt could always reinvigorate these old bones of mine. The smell of the blood of my prey always made me feel like a youth again.
Each completed hunt always made me eager to begin the next.
That being said, despite the joy of a good hunt, it was getting harder to ignore the wounds I received while hunting down my prey.
The deadlier the quarry, the bigger the wound.
When the Farista finished building their new air fleet, my battalion was deployed to the Tsayap Mountains in southeast Dunia.
We were tasked to test the new flight engine of the airships and to exercise aerial formation and maneuvers.
No better way to achieve those goals than to challenge the Garuda folks.
We had ten armed airships with us and five hundred soldiers on board.
When we saw the three Garuda patrols, I planned to engage them as warm up before we invaded the nearest settlement we could find.
I lost eight airships and more than four hundred men in that confrontation.
We had no choice but to retreat right after.
The three Garudan died in the end. The hunt was completed and a success despite we never attacked any settlement.
But damn it! I lost some good men that day!
"General Landoas!"
A young officer suddenly entered my tent.
Well, what was lost was lost. No use dwelling with what could not be recovered.
Tonight we had a new hunt.
"What's the matter?"
I asked him.
"Captain Curdin is asking for your presence in the southern blockade. He said there's something you needed to see."
"Ready my horse."
"Yes, sir!"
The reason of tonight's hunt originated from Viscountess Ferelin.
The lady had been having some trouble with bandits lately.
A group of rogue mercenary stealing from her merchants and supply trains all over her region.
It was not surprising for this to happen, in my opinion.
Viscountess Ferelin was known to be a corrupt noble. There had been a growing unrest among the people of her region from what I had been hearing.
The Farista was not used to deal with mere bandits. But Viscountess Ferelin was a huge supporter to the family, so her request could not be ignored.
Had it been only that, other battalion would be sent to take care of this matter.
But apparently the mercenary had a monster among their ranks whenever they raided the viscountess's caravans.
A vicious monster which kills with claws and teeth.
A perfect deadly prey.
Thanks to the information we got from the bandits we interrogated, we managed to locate the monster's hideout.
A remote dense forest in northwest Tsatu.
Upon learning of this fact, I ordered my men to set up a blockade around the whole forest.
A thousand soldiers I brought along for this hunt.
And with permission from the Farista, I also hired a few dozens of mages to help raise a barrier to prevent the monster from escaping.
The plan was to gradually narrow the barrier closer to the center. Eventually pinning the monster in a single location, surrounded by a thousand soldiers.
Curdin and the other captains should be done setting up the blockade by now. Perhaps he wanted me to see the preparation had been completed, so we could begin the operation.
The young officer quickly brought my saddled horse as ordered.
With the thrill of the hunt welling up inside me, I belted my sheathed sword on my hip, mounted up and rode through the main camp set up on a plain south of the forest.
A good two hundred men were stationed in the main camp while the rest were spread out on the blockade.
We already learned that the monster was situated around the southern side of the forest, which was why we set up our main camp here.
With the young officer as my escort, I rode out of the camp and into the dark tree line.
I brought four captains with me for this hunt. Each was responsible of a portion of the blockade.
Curdin was supposed to handle the southern perimeter. The closest part to where the monster settled itself in the forest.
The young officer eventually led me to a clearing in the forest.
The whole place was torn apart as if hit by an earthquake.
The corpses of my two dozen soldiers were strewn all over. Bloodied, dismembered, gutted.
I could see why Curdin wanted me to see this. The man himself was standing in the middle of the clearing with a couple of his own officers.
"General Landoas!"
The one-eyed captain saluted as I approached him.
He lost his eye during our skirmish with the Garudan patrols. Would even lost his leg if it weren't for me.
"What the hell happened here, Curdin?"
I asked the captain.
"Monster attack, sir. I'm afraid the prey managed to slip out of the blockade before we sealed the forest completely."
I had expected this after seeing the bodies.
It would be a pain to track the monster. I heard it was quite a swift creature.
Did not matter. Most of the thrill of the hunt was on the chase itself, after all.
"Have you informed the other captains about the breach, Curdin?"
"I have sent messengers, sir."
"Good. We'll rendezvous at the camp. But I want our trackers to start--"
An explosion and a series of shouts disrupted my order.
I turned around and saw a huge crimson glow to the south. Trails of smoke were billowing up to the sky.
"The main camp!"
Curdin shouted.
I could not help but smile.
Apparently the monster did not escape. It wanted to confront us instead.
Lucky me.
This might be an exciting hunt yet.
"Curdin, tell the other captains to hurry back to the main camp! I'll keep the monster occupied till you all arrived!"
"Yes, sir!"
I whipped the rein of my horse and galloped back to the main camp.
Curdin and his officers went deeper into the woods to inform the other captains.
The young officer rode alongside me.
"This would be your first hunt, isn't it?"
I asked him.
"Y-yes, sir! I was just recently assigned to the 4th Battalion!"
"Well, you'll soon see why we're one of the fiercest soldiers in the empire."
The two of us rode hard back to the main camp.
As expected from the sound earlier, the entire encampment was in chaos.
Soldiers rushing out from their tents, carrying their weapons, and rushing off to the center of the camp where the rampage was happening.
The center of the camp?
The prey did a very good job sneaking in.
A senior officer soon joined up with me when he saw us riding in.
"Sir! The monster has infiltrated our camp!"
He reported.
"Gather all the mages in the main camp. We'll need their help to reduce casualties."
I said promptly.
"The mages are all dead, sir! The monster sneaked into their tents and killed them first!"
What clever prey.
It understood the danger that mages possessed.
"Surround the monster. Make a circle of pike men around it. Then set up a layer of crossbow wielder after them."
"Yes, sir!"
The senior officer said before rushing off to relay the orders.
The young officer and I then hurried to the center of the camp.
The entire section of the camp was on fire. It must had been from the mages' attempt of defending themselves.
And there at the very center of the camp, rose a mound of corpses. Both soldiers and mages.
Standing atop of the mound was a man with raven dark hair and deep violet eyes.
A really tall muscular figure wearing a dark coat and stained gray shirt underneath. Torn black pants hanging loosely above his bare feet planted right above three men's severed heads.
An appearance of a normal human. If one could disregard the pitch-black claws extending from its bloodied fingers.
I was used to monsters wearing human skin. And so was my soldiers.
The pike men soon surrounded the monster as ordered. The crossbowmen immediately set themselves up behind the line as well.
It was a death trap for the monster. It had nowhere else to go.
We might not need to wait for the reinforcement Curdin was bringing.
Pity. This would probably turn out to be such a boring hunt in the end.
As I was about to order the crossbowmen to launch their arrows, I caught a glimpse of the monster's face.
It was smiling.
Boom!
The monster suddenly erupted in a huge shockwave, wrecking the lines of pike men and crossbowmen.
I fell off my horse and so was the young officer.
Unfortunately, the young man broke his neck upon his fall.
Though I supposed he was actually the one being fortunate. For it was a great mercy he did not saw the nightmare that manifested next.
"What in the Goddesses' names?"
Standing tall as huge as a mature wyvern was the monster.
It had the appearance of a six-legged wolf. Fur as black as night, flickering with silvery glowing dust at every gesture.
Its penetrating violet eyes were glimmering like the glow of the full moon. Its fangs and claws were now as silver as the moon itself.
Its tail was burning with bright white fire.
Into the beast's form that I saw no prey, but a hunter.
Into the beast's eyes that I saw defeat, mine.
Into the beast's maw that I saw my death, swiftly approaching.
It was a really good hunt.