Summoner's Second Chance

Chapter 03

In the dense and dark forest, the two brothers waited for Trace to come. He had told the group to gather back there again by sundown. The sun had set hours ago, but Trace was nowhere to be found.

"Fang, do you think Trace forgot about it?" Slightly disheartened, the younger brother asked the older. Fang gave him a reassuring smile. His eyes were enough to convince his younger brother. He was sure that Trace will meet them without fail. Liu nodded and went back to idling around with his brother.

Suddenly, the bushes behind them rustled. The air was still and not the tiniest sliver of air moved. Something was there. This area was relatively safe, but that didn't mean that there were no threats around. Reaching towards their swords' hilts, they focused their ears on the sound, and their eyes on the bushes.

A few seconds passed and the rustling continued dauntingly. Every second felt like hours and every movement would made their hands tremble more. The rustling stopped abruptly and the brothers sighed in relief. Even if it is highly unlikely, sometimes, Einherjars would stray into the forest. No matter how thorough the hunting party is, sometimes, they would miss one Einherjar.

"What are you two doing?" Seemingly out of nowhere, Trace appeared behind the two brothers.

Startled, the two of them screamed like a pair of little girls. "Trace! Please, don't do that!" The first one to speak was Fang, probably because Liu was too busy shaking like a leaf.

Trace only raised one of his eyebrows and asked, "What did I do? Didn't you hear me walking around? I'm pretty sure you did." The brothers looked at each other and sighed.

"Then why did you try to walk through the shrubberies? There must have been another way to get here."

At the two brother's question, Trace raised one of his brows again. "Shrubberies? Why would I do that? And I'm carrying him too, so there's no way I would be able to walk through any shrubberies." Trace pointed at the unconscious Gilbert behind him. He had put Gilbert on a makeshift stretcher, tied it with a rope and dragged him all the way here.

"If it's not you, then what was..." Like it was set up by Trace himself, the bushes behind them shook once more. The two brothers nervously looked at each other, but Trace was strangely composed. The two of them suspected that this is all a part of Trace's joke, but they realized that this was not when they see the seriousness in Trace's face.

"I am sorry, but could you go and take Gilbert somewhere safe?" This time, it's not just his expression. Even his voice was telling them of a threat behind the bushes. Quietly nodding, the two brothers took Gilbert away from him.

Taking a lungful of breath, Trace prepared himself for a fight. The shrubberies moved once more and from it, appeared a creature that look slightly like a canine. The creature snarled and growled at him, but Trace stood his ground. There's no way a hound could beat me. I can take care of a whole pack, even in my current condition. As the thought crossed his mind, he pulled out his sword from the scabbard and took a stance. His stance was self-taught, as he never studied under anyone. His legs were bent slightly and apart and he held his sword behind him with his right hand. His left hand was stretched to his front like he was pointing at the beast.

"Now... come to me, you beast." Sensing the aggressiveness in his voice, the hound let out a loud growl and lunged straight at him. The beast was fast-- faster than his eyes could follow, but he had all the experience he needed to defeat it.

Without even moving from his current position, Trace summoned a glistening fire to the blade and swung down his sword in a powerful overhead and felt the blade slice through the monster's neck like butter. He flicked the sword clean of blood and put the sword back in it's scabbard as he sighed.