The Best and the Pest

Chapter 22

By some circumstances Steve got hit by Skara then they had later arrived at a small prison where Hunter was talking to his team again with Gus telling him that friends don't stab each other in the back. Hunter's answer was that the Coven Heads had been like that to him once. This had improved now, but for Hunter it counted more towards the fully developed friendship, which is why it was worth mentioning for him.

However, when he asked Willow if she agreed with him, she didn't answer in the way he expected and he began to realize that he had done something wrong. But before he could react, an Abomination form suddenly came and embraced those sitting in the cell and made them disappear along with themselves, which Hunter said Darius must be nearby.

He immediately exited the building and saw the Abomination leader on a large ship in front of the building. "Darius! I did it! I found recruits!" he called up to him happily. "Yeah, and you're making me work on my day off." Hunter took out the cape he was carrying around without having put it on. "I can wear this proudly now, right?", the boy said and looked up at the older one full of hope. Darius eyed him calmly. "Can you really do that...? We'll talk about everything in the castle...", Darius then announced, since he didn't want to have so many listeners, which left Hunter with a sad and then somewhat disappointed expression on his face.

"See you then.", Darius said goodbye and with that the ship took off. Sometimes the boy could be really dogged, which reminded Darius again that this boy was apparently raised by Belos personally, which at least explained a lot of things that concerned him...but in those moments Darius wondered where the boy's own opinion had gone. Almost too often he was simply the loyal lackey who would immediately do everything he was told to do instead of just listening to his heart more often. Darius shook his head inwardly...how was the boy supposed to make friends like that or develop his own life when he was only ever looking for a job and immediately stabbing everyone outside the castle in the back with whom he built a connection....

Hunter meanwhile looked after the ship when Steve came up to him. "I don't envy those kids man." "They just have to go through basic training before becoming scouts. It's not too bad.", the younger of the two faltered, but Steve didn't let up. "Dude, do you even remember what we had to do? The duels, the mazes with the traps, that time we were left alone on a mountain?" Hunter laughed a little. "Ha ha classic."

"And of course Belos likes to collect everyone's Palisman." Steve brought him back to reality and Hunter looked down at the ground in horror at the memory of his uncle breaking the creatures and inhaling their insides to get himself back to normal to be able to continue. Whatever curse he had, these palisman kept him happy.

"Steve is beginning to regret his choices...", the Coven Scout sighed and left Hunter alone in front of the prison door. Lost in thought, his gaze wandered to the ship that was already far away in the sky. "I think Hunter is too...", he murmured to himself before he made a decision. He quickly jumped onto Flapjack's staff form and teleported himself a little closer to the ship to catch up faster, he had put on his cape so that he had both hands free.

Meanwhile, on the ship, Darius was scrolling through Penstagram, looking at the top posts rather boredly, at least until he saw one from his rival Alador with the hashtag "who's the heck now." Darius rolled his eyes. "Urgh mute," he muttered to himself, knowing who that hashtag was referring to. Then he looked up at the 4 children sitting in front of a cage in which their palismen were.

He saw how one of the children wanted to grab the cage, so he stopped it with his skills from getting closer to the cage. When another attempted it with Plant Magic, he stopped it again with magic and then gently smacked the girl on the head with the Abomination, then put the Penstagram scroll aside and stood up.

"You're gonna need to be a little more clever than that.", he said calmly when suddenly a yellow light flashed next to him and Hunter appeared. "Darius!!" The Abomination leader looked at him in surprise and a little startled when suddenly the Plant Coven girl called "Now!" and the 4 jumped off the ship. Hunter and Darius immediately ran to the railing and watched as the 4 children vanished into thin air.

"An illusion.", Darius said and immediately turned around again just to watch as the 4 children flipped the ship's lever. "Wait!" he exclaimed, but too late. A few seconds later the ship crash landed and the 4 children ran off the ship. They didn't get far, however, as a giant Abomination form prevented them from running away.

"Did you really think you could get away with endangering a Coven Head?" said the Abomination leader as he stepped out of the shipwreck that was slowly bursting into green flames. "Do you have any Idea what I'm capable of?" His right arm turned into Abomination Slime and then into a scythe.

Willow reacted immediately and used Plant Magic to shoot some vines at him, but Darius severed them with no problem. This made Willow build a kind of protective wall in front of them with vines, but even this could not withstand Darius.

The older man only had to swing back once and the protective wall was gone. Again Darius raised his scythe-shaped arm as if he wanted to reach out to finish off the four children. Willow stood protectively in front of the others with her arms outstretched and closed her eyes to avoid seeing the approaching scythe.

But before either of them could move any further, Hunter jumped between them both. "Wait!" he exclaimed, looking at Darius in front of him. "Out of my way," said the older of the two, eyeing the boy, was he just getting his own opinion back? Darius wasn't sure. "No! I was mistaken. These four are insulin agitators who aren't fit for the emperor's coven and I'm unfit to wear the sigil of the Golden Guard."

The boy took the cape, he was still wearing and dropped it on the floor between himself and Darius. Then he turned to the four children. "You can go..." Willow had tears in her eyes and raised her palisman ready to do something, but Hunter's gaze softened. "Please Captain..." This made Willow pause and lower her palisman again. "Let's move team."

The other three looked at her. "We need to find a replacement..." Willow turned away and started walking. "After all it'll be 52 weeks before Caleb's next day off." She smiled before she left with the others. Hunter looked after them in surprise, had they forgiven him...?

"You befriended them and then you disobeyed me to protect them?" Darius' voice woke him up from thoughts and made him turn back only to see Darius with his arm raised. Having a déjà vu, Hunter squeezed his eyes shut and tensed, ready to take a punch... but none came... Instead, he just felt Darius' hand gently touch his head.

"Well done." Confused, the young boy opened his eyes and saw Darius smiling in front of him. "I thought you were totally crazy trying to trick some kids into recruiting to the coven." "Huh...?" "You're 16, right?", the older one asked, whereupon Hunter just nodded gently. "It's about time you made connections outside the castle."

Using magic, Darius summoned a Penstagram Scroll to Hunter, who opened it in surprise and confusion. {Sign up for Penstagram 2.0}
"I was just gonna drop them off at Hexside. Did you thought I would kill them or something? Don't worry I wouldn't do that.", Darius smiled softly and watched the boy. "We have more than enough recruits in my opinion. It was a joke from me to let you search for new ones."

"Are you gonna tell Belos about this...?" Hunter said uncertainly and looked up at the man. "I never did that didn't I? No, you can trust me besides are you going to tell him about your secret Palisman?" the Abomination leader then asked, pointing to the red bird that had perched on Hunter's shoulder. Startled, the boy jumped and held a hand protectively in front of his little friend, as if he hadn't even noticed that he was sitting there.

"Magic or not, I think you'll make your predecessors proud." Darius turned and threw the cape in Hunter's face. The boy took off the cape and noticed a purple light, so he turned the symbol around to face it and saw the Abomination Slime on the sewn point, which disappeared a second later, leaving a neatly sewn seam.

"But you could still use a sewing lesson. Now let's go home."