Spirit Hunter

Chapter 5: Our First Day of Being Warriors

The trip to the Spirit World wasn't very easy; In fact, it was actually queasy (Get it? It rhymes!). I would be lying if I told you I didn't lose my lunch the moment we got there. Believe it or not, Portals aren't very fun. "Alright, this will be the last time you see me. I believe you are ready. This stadium has a spell put on it: if it detects a spirit, there's no way out. Once they're all gone, portal opens up. If you get don't finish in the two-day deadline, there's no way out. Any questions? No? Alright. It was good working with you." He vanishes, and a loud cannon goes off. The other side is 20 miles away, so we start preparing to ambush them, same as we did against Kana'ti, which was in the trees. We find a river flowing about 800 feet away, and fill up our pouches that we made from the leather from the sleeves of the jackets he gave us. We also find some fruits and some various vegetables for food. With them likely getting closer, we start building traps as well (we had a session on it). I make a make-shift bear trap using the elastic rope on the handle of my club, and the spikes are sharpened sticks. I hide it in some leaves, then go to work on another. Mara and Al join me using the same cord to make more. We make about 5 total, which is good enough. Next I form some spears to use for long-range. I take some mostly straight branches and sharpen them. I also make edged rocks for the tips. It's about 4:00 pm when we predict that they won't get here until around midnight, so we all take turns sleeping and watching. At what we think is 11:30, we take position. As if on queue, we start to hear hollering. We hide in the leaves knowing they're so close. Lucky these trees are so close, we could probably avoid ground travel altogether. We hear the first scream, and then the second. The traps worked beautifully. I can tell they split up; there only about 50 of them here, including the three we injured. This is when we start to ambush them; I throw a couple spears, as Al rains down on them with arrows. Mara must've left her tree because I saw her darts flying from a nearby bush. Taking them out was easy, because they never even had the chance to figure out where we were. I slowly crawl down, look for survivors, which there were none, and retrieved my spears as Mara collected what darts she could, and the traps. Then we try and find anything useful, but there was nothing that we could take because most of it was bound to them, making it impossible separate from them. Knowing that whoever was nearby probably heard them, we started to run towards the way they came so that we don't run in to anyone except a few stray ones. We also knew that they would quickly find out our strategy, so as we made our way to the other side, we tried to find a way to ambush them again without the covers of the trees. I start with "What if we buried ourselves in leaves, and when they walk past we slowly get up and surprise them?" Al nods. "That doesn't seem like a bad idea. What about you, Mara?" She frowns. "It doesn't, but what if they step one of us? And, even worse, we don't know if there are any animals in this 'arena.' What if we get killed?" "Mara's right, Al. So, any other suggestions?" "Well, we could find a nearby ditch and form a sort of trench." "Yea, and once you guys got a good amount of them gone, I could jump out of a nearby shadow and take the rest." "Remember, we don't have a lot of time left. At one point, we're going to have to make a push." He's right; about 13 out of 48 hours have passed, and we're only a tenth of the way through our objective. "Why don't we follow them, picking them off slowly enough to be hidden, but not too slow?" I nod and say "Sounds like a plan to me. Mara?" She nods. "Alright," I say. "Let's do this." We gather up our stuff and go hiking back the way we came. We know they've split up, so we'll have to use a sort of distraction to get them all together. Our solution: We get to a good vantage point and shoot a fire arrow in the air; we know this is their set distress signal because one of the spirits we killed attempted to do this. Sure enough, roughly 150 to 200 spirits come running, only to find no one in danger. Before they can realize what was going on, Al and Mara unleash a barrage of projectiles from the trees, killing at least 10 spirits right off the bat. Once their attention is pointed towards them, I run out and start cutting them down. It's a massacre. But, they had strength in numbers, and years in fighting experience. We killed half of them, but we were driven back after they regain their bearings. Overall, we're about 100 shy of half-way there. This time, we're stumped. "I can't think of anything else. What else could we do?" Al says hopelessly. I grin. "I have an idea. We all know that they're most likely going to split up right? So what if we split up and come at the from 3 different sides, forcing them back until they get trapped between the wall and us! If we use the trees to our advantage again like we did before, then maybe it'll work!" We all nod. This is our best shot if we want to make the deadline. We decided that I would take the middle, while Al and Mara take the sides. It was a good plan, but we all had to be 100% we were ready to take on over 100 spirits each. It's going to be outrageously difficult, but if we aren't up to it, the world is screwed and so are we.

Walking alone, in the wilderness, with the knowledge that you're about to fight 100 people alone is NOT my kind of vacation. Nonetheless, I should make the best of the situation. If I make it through this, I have a good chance of succeeding my "mission," if you could call it that. If I don't, then... I'm dead. Forget what I said about comforting myself, I guess. It's a very quiet walk, and it gives me a lot of time to think, namely my parents' disappearance. I haven't figured out where they are, let alone how I'm going to save them, but I'll figure it out. I have to figure it out. There is no other option for me. I won't let it happen, or at least I'll die trying. I guess I have a lot of dying in my future. I can only imagine what it's like for them, getting trapped, with no hope of rescue. Probably getting tortured. I shiver. I don't think I could handle that.

I am probably about a mile away from my position when I hear a pair of scouts whispering below me. "I'm so surprised that we found that archer guy setting up to the west! They'll be so pleased with us for telling them where he is!" "Shh... I think I heard something" the other guy interrupts. I crouch behind a bush, please don't let them see me I think. The footsteps come closer, until they stop a couple of feet away. "You must've been imagining it. If there is something here, then we should hurry up. I heard from the squad leader that he found wolves in this place. Could you imagine if--" He gets cut off by a throwing dagger in the back, thrown by me. I tried to get the other guy, but I miss and he yells. Although I hit him with the second throw, I know that anyone nearby heard me. Crap, crap, crap! Not only did they find Al, but now they're gonna find me! I realize that this means nothing but trouble. I hear hollering from the right; they definitely heard him. All I can do is hide up in a tree and try to force them back, and maybe (just maybe) kill them all. It doesn't take them long to get to me, and I guess they noticed the pattern because they looked up in the trees right away. Of course, I wasn't in the trees, so from a distance I used my spears to pick off about ten of them. With all of their clamoring, they panic and run the way we want them to. I may not have beaten them, but they've definitely fallen for the trap. I wonder how Al and Mara are doing?

When we thought of this plan, Quentin made it sound easy: push them back and trap them. But now I realize that it's not nearly as easy as it seems. Not only are we viciously outnumbered, but trying to get 100 spirits to retreat simply with one bow and arrow? It just doesn't seem feasible. I think a pair of scouts saw my position earlier, so I'm probably going to die here. And almost on queue, a whole tribes-worth of spirits come out of the bushes. Without thinking I fire a couple of arrows and hope that it drives them off, which kills a few of them. But they know that they have the advantage; strength in numbers. I may have just screwed myself.