Hunter's Academy (Veller) (38 page)

“Why didn’t we think of this sooner?” Alex asked, finishing off his third fish.

“We were too busy looking for the orbs.” Daniel replied.

“Or it could have something to do with the lack of fish in the middle of the forest.” Carter remarked.

They spent the night beside the river, having finally eaten a decent meal after four days. By morning the sun was completely out and the sky was a clear blue, it only added to the speed at which they traveled. They were close to the finish line and they knew it as things started to look familiar.

“I know this place.” Carter exclaimed as he ran ahead. “Right over there under that rock is where I spent the night during the survival examination. Just over that hill is the clearing where Master Folkstaff brought us.”

“Then we did it, we’re finally home.” Alex shouted falling to his knees. “We survived the five days and we’re finally home.”

“There’s still a half a day's walk to go.” Daniel said, bringing in a sober note of reality.

“Yeah, but what could
possibly happen now.” Alex laughed.

As the words tripped out of his mouth, Kile suddenly had a bad feeling that everything was going to go
terribly wrong, and in fact it had already started.

“Hang on you guys.” She said, calling a halt to the celebration.

“What is it?” Carter asked as he came closer. His hand instinctively went to the sword at his side. He was beginning to respect Kile’s hunches even if he didn’t want to know where they came from.

“We’re not alone.” She said as she looked across the field. She wasn’t sure if she was being
overcautious, or if she actually sensed something, either way she had the feeling they were being watched.

They were just below the hill, over that hill and another ten minutes would have taken them back to Master Folkstaff’s clearing, a three hour walk would bring them back to the road and the field outside the western gate
where they trained their horses, ten more minutes from there and they could be in the dining hall celebrating their victory. They were four hours from completing the exercise, would the Hunter’s guild throw something at them this late in the game.

The wind blew down around the hill, and upon it she picked up that same scent that she had been following the last couple of days.

“Where are you Eric?” She called out.

“Very good Veller.”

He rose from the far side of the hill, his hair matted down over his eyes, his clothes in a state of disarray, he looked more like a brigand than the son of a Lord, and it suited him better. “I have to admit, I really didn’t think you would get this far.” He said as he started down the hill.

Three more figures emerged behind him. Roger off to his left, Anthony on his right and a smaller kid who’s name Kile didn’t know stood in the back. That left one more she thought, one more member of his group was in hiding, but why?

“What do you want Eric?”

“Nothing from you.” He replied, pointing at Daniel. “What I want is from her. I want her to surrender, I want her to give me the orbs and give up.”

“And why would I do that?” She asked.

“Because if you don’t…” He said trailing off with a grin. “We’ll have to make you.”

There was a movement of his head, ever so slight that she may have missed it if she wasn’t expecting it. Whatever was going to happen just did.

He came at them from around the hill, down wind from her, which was foolish if he had known whom he was trying to sneak up on. The speed was incredible, but she was already in motion as the blur of what had to be the fifth member of Eric’s party flew out of the woods from behind one of the larger trees. She
sidestepped him and stretching her leg out. He struck her at tremendous speed spinning her around and knocking her flat on her ass as he flipped over her outstretched foot landing face first in the dirt a good six yards away. The red headed boy lay motionless on the ground and Eric just sneered at his incompetence. It may have been an amusing and effective tactic, but the pain in her ankle was more than she was willing to pay.

“Then we’re doing this the hard way.” Eric said as
he started down the hill at a run, his hands burst into flame. He pulled his arm back and whipped it forward, launching a ball of fire into her direction.

She tried to get to her feet but her ankle wasn’t going to cooperate. All she could do was close her eyes and wait for the impact.
It was a fiery blast, but she never felt the heat. When she opened her eyes she saw Murphy standing between her and Eric, his body completely encased in stone, his tunic still smoking. Eric stopped a good ten feet away.

“Get out the way Murphy.”
He ordered.

“No
t this time.” Murphy replied.

“This is between her and me.”

“Not any more.”

“
You’re going to side with her?”

“I don’t know you anymore Eric, I don’t understand you. I don’t understand why you even wanted to be a hunter in the first place. You have no idea what it
means; she’s ten times the hunter you’ll ever be.”

That was probably not the right thing to say at that movement as Eric’s eyes just lit up, he had moved from mildly annoyed to incredible ticked off in less th
an a heartbeat.

“Then maybe we’ll have to remove that from the equation.” He said, and his hands bursting into flames
once again.

This time he brought them together
and a swirling ball of fire began to grow between his outstretched palms. Murphy launched himself across the open field, moving surprisingly fast for a man currently made of stone. One massive fist connected with Eric’s face as the ball of fire exploded between them, throwing them both backwards.

It was as if the explosion had set the chaos in motion. Daniel was running across the field to where Murphy had laid on the ground, but the big man was now flesh and blood and his tunic was smoking. Carter was suddenly knocked back as
a wall of stone erupted from the ground around him, completely cutting him off from the rest of the group. Alex was trying to get to Carter but Robert and Anthony had managed to combine their edges and were now launching large projectiles of stone at the smaller boy who was forced to seek cover.

Kile was at a sudden loss as to who she should try to help. Movement was a bit difficult, as the pain in her ankle prevented her from putting too much weight on it.
She had forgotten about the speedy fifth member of Eric’s group and was suddenly broadsided, finding herself once again on her back on the ground, minus the pack that held the three orbs. At first she thought she might have dropped it after the collision and quickly searched the grass around her, but unfortunately she wasn’t going to be that lucky.

“That was too easy.” The red headed cadets announced from the top of the hill as he held the pack high above his head. He must have forgotten his face plant earlier
she thought as she struggled to get to her feet again. She had little chance of getting to him with his bursts of speed, probably a wind sphere thing she thought.

The
red headed cadets grinned at her attempts to get closer as he reached into the pack, he suddenly let out a blood curdling scream. When he pulled back his hand, there was a yarrow clenched down on the skin between his thumb and his forefinger.

“Get it off! Get it off!” He continued to yell jumping up and down, swinging his hand with the yarrow tightly clamped on.

Vesper finally let go and went sailing through the air, landing in the grass not far from the pack and the orbs. He grabbed the strap and made a run for the forest. The red headed cadet cursed as he held his now bleeding hand closed to his chest.

“Where did that rat go?” He shouted, and it took him a while to locate the pack moving through the high grass.

Vesper moved pretty fast for a yarrow dragging a sack that was twice his size, but he couldn’t move fast enough. It took the cadet a few steps to build up his edge and focus his concentration. Kile quickly threw herself forward just as the cadet launched into his blinding speed. It was the third time they collided, and each time was like being struck by a blacksmith’s hammer as she felt the wind driven from her lungs. The cadet went head of heels again, landing in the forest, colliding with something solid.

Kile struggled to catch her breath as she looked around the
field; this was not going well she thought. Carter had managed to escape his stone prison, or at least she had to assume he did since she could no longer see him on the field anymore. Murphy was up and back in stone form as he tried to protect Daniel from the balls of fire that Eric was tossing in their direction. It was too much to think that Eric would be down for the count. He had gone from trying to slow them down so they would fail the survival exercise, to eliminating them completely from the academy and probably from life itself. He wouldn’t be happy until they were all gone.

Murphy
managed to close the gap and threw another punch in Eric’s direction but a wall of stone stopped it cold, rising from the ground between him and Eric, but Robert’s manipulation of stone didn’t stop there. He quickly gained control of Murphy’s stone form, and Murphy, although he tried not to, backhanded Daniel across the field. The big man was now in a tight spot. If he stayed in his stone form he couldn’t control his own movements, if he changed back to his flesh and blood, Eric would roast him as he built up another ball of fire. He didn’t get the opportunity to hurl it as he suddenly went down again, this time he was struck by an unseen hand, which meant Carter was still around.

The best they could hope for was a stand still, a draw. They had no intention of killing a fellow cadet, but it didn’t look as if the other side held the same feelings as Eric began to torch the ground around him in a vain attempt to find his unseen attacker.

Kile turned back toward the woods where Vesper had gone, she wasn’t going to be any good in a fight, not when she could barely stand on her ankle. Her only hope now was to secure the orbs; otherwise this would all be pointless. She grit her teeth as she got to her feet and started to hop toward the tree line, but she didn’t get very far as the red headed cadet came running out of the forest screaming, not at his blinding speed, but fast enough for a man with twelve squirrels biting every exposed surface of his body.

-Help Kile-

-Help Kile-

-Help Kile-

The battle cries came from the trees and more squirrels joined into the fray. They scattered across the field going after anyone and everyone, friend and foe alike. A smaller group of about twelve squirrels, lead by a yarrow, broke off from the main army and encircled Kile.

Reinforcements she thought, although she would have preferred a couple of
bears or maybe a few dogs, something with a little more presence, but numbers can sometimes count for strength, although she didn’t want to see any of the squirrels hurt either.

She watched as the red headed cadet ran past her still trying to pick squirrels of
f his body, but for every one he removed another two leapt on. As he ran up and over the hill, Kile noticed the unknown boy still standing on the hillside. He had not joined the fight and so the squirrels saw no threat in him. Was it because he was ineffective in battle so Eric told him to stay out of it, or was it that  he didn’t believe in what Eric was doing, or was it the simple fact that he was loaded down with all the supplies. Seeing him standing there with the backpack that was almost twice his size, gave her an idea.

“Vesper, Tik.” She called out as the yarrow and one of the squirrels came forward. She didn’t have to tell them what she wanted, she could easily show them in a few words, the same way she had shown Tik who to bring the food to that night. It didn’t take long before the squad of squirrels understood
the new mission.

They covered the ground in rapid time, not being distracted by any of the activity on the field. They circled the hill and ambushed the boy and his
backpack from the concealment of the tall grass, catching him completely off guard. He screamed as the squirrels landed on him, and was running around frantically, waving his hands in the air. He came running down the hill knocking Roger over as he made for the forest, shedding his backpack and cloak in a vain attempt to rid himself of the rodents.

Kile quickly limped her way to the discarded pack, falling on it as she got there. She opened it up and dumped the contents out onto the field, rummaging around in the supplies until she found what she was looking for. A fiery explosion ignited next to her, throwing her backwards as the backpack burst into flames.

“Enough.” Eric shouted as both his arms were now engulfed in flame. As brave and as loyal as the squirrels were, they could not go up against fire and quickly fell back.

“Alright
, everyone stop!” Kile shouted as she sat up. “You win, we surrender.”

There was a silent hush that fell across the field, even the squirrels stopped and watched, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Too late for that Veller.” Eric said as he started to get closer

“Look… you win.” She said, holding up the small ebony box. “Stop and we’ll give up.”

Eric paused for a moment, considering the proposal, but a grin crossed his face that she didn’t really like.

“I don’t think so.” He replied as he lifted his arms over his head, and
another huge ball of swirling fire began to expand between his hands. She could feel the intensity of the heat as it grew.