Lineage: The Legend of The Red Riding Hood

Chapter 07: The Wild Hunt

Hunters, mercenaries, palace guards, pretty much anyone who can swing a sword is flocking the outskirt of Willow's Edge. Everyone went into a hunting spree at the first crack of dawn after one of the kingdom from the Enchanted Forest released a Subjugation Quest, open to all willing participants from all the realms.

The large bounty was placed on an 'Ishtlaoken Aober' a were-beast hybrid. This rare breed is the result of crossbreeding an orc with a were-boar. Falling under Lycan Carnvivera familia, this monster is surprisingly a non-social animal unlike its closer relatives. They don't stay in groups, preferring to hunt alone, they live in isolation and only interact with its own species during mating season.

More than 10 groups of hunting parties have already ventured into an expedition after taking the job. With 5 members minimum in each group, bringing only about 4 days' worth of rations, barely equipped with any proper protective gear, and each person having brought only one weapon as their means of killing the beast. Some of their swords chipped, with a loose handle and rusts forming on the edge. Unsharpened arrow heads with dull tips that hardly looks reliable.

Those who ventured ahead were clearly amateurs with no previous experience in the fields of monster hunting, only taking the job for the reward despite being ill prepared.

The veterans stayed behind, doing equipment checkups and weapon maintenance. They stacked rations about a months' worth. The Ishtlaoken Aober lives in isolation deep inside the black forest, an area mostly composing of swamps and ghastly marshlands.

"10 minutes." Cole said, loading their cargos inside one of the carriage.

His party member's already wearing their plated armor. Swords, knives, and spears already sharpened and resting in their sheaths.

Hitting his knuckles 3 time on the metallic center of his shield, Cole got everyone's attention. "Saddle up!"

3 carriages in the front and 2 in the rear, while 2 horsemen rides on each side. Cole's large hunting party is heavily funded by a rich nobleman who has a hobby of collecting rare and endangered specimens. They were given clear instructions not to kill the beast and deliver it to his manor with little to no harm as much as possible.

Absurd, obviously. Normally any group of hunters would turn down this ridiculous request with no further discussions, but the reward their proposing is even bigger than the one the kingdom is offering.

Riding to the Black Forest for 3 and a half hours, the scouts that went on ahead stops the main party a couple of meters away from the entrance.

"Flint, is there a problem?" Cliff pokes his head out of the carriage, asking one of the scouts.

"We'll be travelling by foot from here." Flint said, getting off his horse. "Oh, and try not to slip."

"Huh?" Cole and the rest of the men notice Flint suppressing his nauseated look.

78 people gets in formation, spearmen at the vanguard, swords and shields covering the flanks, and archers at the rear. They slowly made their way to where the other scouts were standing, only to abruptly stop a few meters away after seeing what welcomed them, scattered on the open road.

As the hunting parties were greeted by a grizzly sight. Back in Willow's Edge, everyone aren't doing so well for themselves either.

"LEAVE THE BOXES! BOY, FORGET THE ALE! WERE LEAVING NOW!!!" The merchant yelled at the top of his lungs. The other helpers unloaded the contents of the wagon so nothing could weigh them down.

The scrawny young boy drops the medium sized barrel and jumps on board with the rest of the crew.

Right after he made sure everyone was safely on the back. The reins smacks sharply on the horse's side, its speed breaking winds as none of them even dare to look back.

It was the same everywhere in town. None bothered to pack up their belongings and simply fled as they are.

Huh? Coraline slowly awakes to the commotion, her one eyelid lazily opening.

Unfortunately however, she was never given the chance to prepare. Still half asleep, she didn't even have the energy to be surprised as the ceiling on top of her splits in half.

What the-

The entire floor below her collapses, some of the splintered debris falling and injuring her. She finds herself hitting the ground quickly, a quiet breaking of a branch snapping as the bone burst from the back of her arm. Coraline catches the glimmer of white, mixed with a light coloration of red.

Lying there motionless, unable to move. She winces on the floor, her legs trying to move themselves. The pain was already enough to keep anyone wide awake, but what really woke her up was the ear piercing screech the reverberated in the air.

What happened next truly caught her off-guard.

The solid ground beneath her started to ripple, like a calm water in the pond that was disturbed. It began to rise and fall, much less of an earthquake but more closely resembling that of a large wave crashing on the rocky shores.

Struggling to lift one of her feet as the ground around her began turning into mud.

She managed to get her right leg out, but it got pulled further down the moment she puts it back down.

I'm sinking? Coraline was already knee deep in the ground. A large portion of the dry thick soil around her starts to move in a wave like motion, turning into a mushy wet swamp.

Pushing her body out of the sinking mud, Coraline's arm got sucked and is now waist deep in this strangely sticky earth like substance. "Ugh, what now?" Loud sounds of snapping beak came beneath the ground. Dark brownish tentacles with gray spots came bursting out of the surface, uprooting the trees and leveling the houses in the surrounding area.

"ARGHHHHH!" The colossal tentacles have razor sharp beaks in each of its suction cups, slicing Coraline's skin as it wrap around her body.

Dreadmires?! Coraline's face was painted in horror as she immediately recognizes the monster.

She tries to pry the tentacles that's carving her neck. The sharp beaks have already cut deep enough in the carotid artery that blood is belching out of her mouth. Bubbles of blood starts foaming every time she tries to breathe, her skin color is starting to change from the lack of oxygen flowing through her brain.

"Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!" Giving an air shattering screech, half of the monsters head resurfaced, revealing a giant beak with rows of sharp teeth, shredding the side of Coraline's torso.

Coraline couldn't even scream. The sharp beaks from the suction cups have punctured her throat, the tentacles are wrapped around half of her face. Her ribs are poking out and a few entrails are visibly seen.

Coraline's skin were being shredded like leaves by the beaks inside the Dreadmire's suction cups. The bones in her left shoulders are visible to the naked eye since most of the meat on that part have already been sliced and sucked out of her body. The pain she's going through is probably worse than death, it's crushing her sanity. Coraline wished this would all just end quickly, but the tentacles wrapped around her limbs are killing her slowly. It's like having blades dipped in acid sliced into your skin while you're being gagged by an animal's carcass that's been soaked in poisonous slime.

The process wasn't quick and painless. Seconds felt like hours as she slowly descends inside the Dreadmire's serrated cavernous mouth. Her body going through a meat grinder as her final destination leads her sliding down its throat covered with spiraling teeth.    

Sensing that there were no longer any living creatures in the vicinity. Like a predator finished with its hunt. The Dreadmire dipped back into the ground, vanishing from sight.

The only thing proving its existence, was the ruins that used to be a town.