A Hunter's New Home

Selina Snubs The Order

Spencer and Valarie had been on edge since the "meeting" began. The two of them had stuck together to not get lost among the other Heroes in the crowd. They had managed to get a spot in the front row, along with a few of their colleagues from the Vinvers Branch. However, any small talk or happy reunions was squashed by the oppressive atmosphere that permeated the room. Both Heroes had waited for the outcome of the trial with baited breath.

Spencer was worried for Cynthia. He knew how the Order tended to view something that could threaten the Mamono and wasn't apart of their organization. While he hadn't seen any of it himself, he had heard the stories. The bounty hunters brought in for daring to commit the crime of fighting Mamono without the Order's explicit permission. Villagers attempting to organize to deal with a Mamono problem persuaded to drop the idea lest they anger the Order and thus lose access to much needed resources.

He figured they were just rumors. But seeing Felix and Tina in shackles...maybe there was something to it. He didn't know either of them, nor did he think Felix's decision was the right one, but that didn't mean they deserved to be chained up and treated like that. And if the Order was willing to do this to them, then what would they do to Cynthia?

Valarie, on the other hand, was worried for her fellow Heroes. When they first fought, she had thought she had seen the extent of Cynthia's abilities. Skilled she maybe, she was no Hero nor Mamono. Even if she does have no Mana, her capabilities could only take her so far. And, if she were still operating off that assumption, she would not be concerned about the current situation. There was no way a single woman could defeat an entire room of Heroes in the middle of an Order Branch's Headquarters.

But that assumption had been completely destroyed by today's revelation.

Cynthia, someone who was neither a Hero nor a Mamono and had no Mana of her own, managed to clear an entire camp of Mamono. Even if she hadn't killed them all herself, she still managed to fight her way through a veritable small army of monsters. And if the bodies left behind were any indication, there had been more than enough to fill the city streets of Vinvers twice over. Loathe as she was to admit it, even Valarie understood the kind of danger such a force would be. All but the greatest of Heroes would fall before such numbers. And even then, there was a high chance they would end up monsterized anyway.

Yet Cynthia had the power to defeat them all, come out of the battle unscathed, and without any sign of monsterization.

When Valarie first saw Cynthia return, she had been too focused on processing the carnage around her to fully understand this fact. But their walk to Headquarters had given her all the time she needed. Now, she understood how much a danger Cynthia truly was. Someone with her power could endanger not just the Mamono, but the entire world if left unchecked. And....and she wasn't sure if their current forces were enough to deal with the extremely willful criminal.

Both were expecting this trial to go poorly.

Neither had expected it to go the way it did.

And now they stood in fearful awe at Cynthia as she told Priest Galoran and Sister Viola, arguably the two primary leaders of this Branch of the Order, "no" right to their faces.

Valarie was fuming at her arrogance.

Spencer was fighting to keep Valarie from rushing forward with the rest of the gung-ho Heroes.

A twenty man squad of the remaining Heroes surged up the steps of the platform. They drew their weapons, rage at the insolence of the stranger driving them on. The melee combatants took to the front, while the magic users remained behind and prepared their spells. They did not immediately attack the Huntress, but they did cut off any easy exit by blocking all the obvious escape routes.