Wanderers

Chapter V

At first, there was nothing.

And suddenly there was an explosion of action.

Leaping out from his hiding place, Lavi hurled his fistful of dirt at the creature’s face, aiming to temporarily blind it.

Screeching in what seemed to be surprise, the monster took a steps back as the cloud of dirt covered its face, its miniscule grains becoming lodged in its eyes.

Expressing its frustration and rage, the beast flew into a frenzy; charging around and hissing furiously.

It couldn’t see but it was now acutely aware of Lavi’s scent.

But that’s all it needed.

Drawing an arrow, the hunter knew that his plan hadn’t quite worked the way he wanted it to.

The beast was blinded, yet it was still rampaging about with unpredictable movements; making it difficult to run away.

‘How could I be so foolish?’Lavi thought to himself as he took cover behind an upturned tree trunk. ‘I should’ve been more ruthless, I should’ve stabbed its eye, I should’ve…’

“What’s done, is done”

Another one of Orin’s sayings.

But it was right.

All that mattered was the here and now.

Not the past.

All that mattered was what steps Lavi wanted to take next.

The future.

Readjusting his focus, the lalafell called upon a special technique he’d learnt from his prior hunts. 

An indispensable skill for slowing down and capturing prey.

Poking his head out from the trunk, he channelled some of his own aether into the arrow as he loaded it into his bow.

Taking aim, Lavi watched as the beast slowly came back to its senses a few yalms away, seemingly a bit tired from his earlier tantrums.

The timing was perfect.

Loosing the aether-infused arrow towards his target, Lavi watched as it rocketed directly towards the creature’s right leg; lightly grazing it.

Normally, this would be an unfortunate outcome but thanks to the aether that had been poured into the arrow beforehand, the monster was now suffering from a very helpful ailment.

It’s body had suddenly grown extremely heavy. Despite its muscular legs, the creature was struggling to move even a single step under the immense weight.

The hunter’s second tactic had gone according to plan.

The moment was just right.

Wanting to keep up his onslaught, Lavi loaded a poisonous arrow into his bow next and shot it at the beast with relative ease.

The thing was practically a sitting dodo at this point.

The tainted arrowhead pierced the scales of the monster with astonishing speed, letting the fast-acting venom to seep into the open wound.