Blood of the Hunting God

As if mocking him, no, that was indeed mocking his expression and words.

The dream of a righteous hero finally wakes up at this moment.

Looking at the colleagues of the police force and the subordinates of the nobles who appeared from around the house, they looked at the expressions that everyone was used to and didn't care about it.It wasn't until this moment that William realized what unrealistic things he had fantasized about.

Are you going to arrest them yourself?

No, not possible.

At this point, no matter what, he should understand that no matter whether it is his sheriff or this nobleman, they will not be judged.

Even if they are really subdued here and put in prison, they will come out the next day openly.

So, what else can you do?

Let these people go and join them?

No.

Kill innocent people to satisfy their own selfish desires.

Such an ugly person will never be his own kind.

Clenching the mace in his hand, amidst the barking of the hounds, William understood what he was supposed to accomplish.

"Yes, I killed them all."

Beside the gradually dimming bonfire, William watched the hunter and spoke slowly.

"Whether it's the nobleman, the sheriff, or those servants and colleagues, I killed everyone present."

"I escaped from the Star City immediately after the action was over. I spent some time thinking about where to go, and then I met the police officer who was going to Star Town to take office. He was killed by me. The sheriff's subordinate, so after I determined that he was an insider, I killed him, snatched his letter of appointment, made some revisions, and then hid in Xingkong Town."

"Facts have proved that these former colleagues are really a bunch of trash. I have been hiding in Xingkong Town for almost ten years, and none of them can find me out. They are completely a bunch of trash. Heh, just like me Like the sheriff who has no ability at all and only talks empty words to deceive others, he is completely useless."

The more he talked, the more agitated William let out a long breath at this moment, obviously his whole mood became a little agitated.

"And now, I'm going back."

In the murmur, the old sheriff with a big beard raised his head and looked into the dark distance.

It was as if the line of sight penetrated the mountains and rivers, and saw the huge city far away.

City, saw the city where his ideals and dreams were buried.

The past and the place you once escaped from, but now you have to return again, do you want to face it in person again?

"I don't know, am I ready..."

William shook his head lightly, stroking the dog's head, and finally said this.

In the final analysis, the ten years in Xingkong Town were just hiding here, hiding here, escaping from what happened.

Can the self who has escaped like this for a whole ten years really be able to face everything in the past?

"……no problem."

Stretching out his hand, the hunter patted William on the shoulder lightly.

The hunter, who had been quietly listening from the beginning to the end, stretched out his hand and patted his companion's shoulder lightly at this moment, and spoke calmly like this.

"Well, yes, anyway, when it's time to face it, you will face it sooner or later."

The originally stiff expression eased a little, William smiled, and the wavering in his pupils dissipated.

On the edge of the distant sky, dotted with dots of stars in the night, are still shining brightly.

The night is almost over.

Chapter 4: Ruins

When morning came, the soft moonlight shone down on the earth, shining on the ruins of Xingkong Town where there was only a huge sinkhole left, illuminating the people who woke up from sleep, and the sleepy people who were in charge of the night watch.

White ashes fell one after another, and even though the ancient spirit tree was dead, the power it radiated was still radiating, continuing to nourish the withered earth.Alhazred predicts that the ash snow will probably fall for half a year. By then, all the areas covered by the white ash will become extremely fertile arable soil, and it may even reach the point of random scattering. The seeds can easily usher in a bumper harvest even if they don't care about anything.

"It's really a great gift, but the premise is that human beings have the opportunity to digest this gift."

The mystic scholar seemed a little emotional about this, but soon he turned his attention to the distance, to the inland area of ​​the country where the star capital is located.

"It's almost time to study the next route. We don't have much time, so we must hurry up and get to the Star Capital as soon as possible."

Spread out a map on a stone, and William, who was in charge of the night watch in the first half of the night and slept for three or four hours at the moment, stretched out his finger on the map in his hand very energetically, and looked at everyone with a serious expression. Said.

"Although the Star God Church has not yet launched a large-scale operation, they will react sooner or later if they continue to drag it on."

"Only by entering the star capital before that, forcing the enemy to turn their attention to us, or secretly giving him a hard blow without anyone noticing, can we achieve the purpose of our operation this time."

"So next we have to take the shortest road, which is to pass through the big town of Grape Town, and stop at the small villages along the road, cross the Susui River and go straight to the capital of stars. This is the best route at this stage. gone."

William, who said so, drew a few lines on the map with a red marker pen that can be easily erased.

.

Hunter and Abigail did not express any opinions on this. After all, they knew nothing about the terrain and the convenience of transportation in the Star Country. Take a straight-line distance between them and then step forward.

"This is indeed the fastest way. However, won't you encounter an ambush or something? After all, I have heard that this road is not very peaceful. There are many bandits active in this area. Mmmmm …If I remember correctly, Xingkong Town also issued a wanted warrant, but after the attack by a group of monsters, it disappeared.”

Karnis frowned, and raised his doubts.

"Bandits are not a big problem. If you encounter a serious problem, just run over it. At the important time, the faster we arrive at the Star Capital, the more favorable the situation will be for us. As long as we can reach the Star Capital, we can reach the Star Capital." The old lair of the Church of God, whether they know that we have come to take full precautions, or they don’t know that we have come to emptiness inside, is a good thing for our team and the situation of the entire Star Country.”

Alhazred already fully understood what William meant, and explained it to Karnis very seriously.

"Okay, then I have nothing to say."

Karnis, who was just a rough hunter, shrugged his shoulders, and had nothing more to say.

Pack your luggage and start walking.

The town where the hunter and Abigail once lived, but now there is nothing left, just like this, as they gradually went away, slowly disappeared behind them, and gradually there was no way to see it again. to its traces.

The distance from Star Town to Star Capital is not that short. Without horses and other means of transportation, William estimated that it would take more than a month for them to reach Star Capital at their most optimistic speed. Go, and this is based on the premise that there are no obstacles encountered along the way.

Walking along the cracked road that is said to have been left over from the age of the old gods and is still more or less maintained today, the hunters moved forward step by step, passing

After visiting several small villages and small towns, they stopped in front of a small town when the moonlight was low.

"What a mess..."

William, who was leading the hound, murmured in a low voice.

"This is the fourth village we have passed through. Are all the villages like this?"

Abigail looked at the burned ruins ahead, with an ugly expression on her face.

"..."

The hunter who didn't speak, just stared at the ruins, a corpse that seemed to be burned alive holding a child. Both corpses had been burnt to charcoal, and they couldn't recognize their original appearance at all.

The Star God barrier was removed, the corrupt field was no longer corrupt, and the original stalemate was broken. Coupled with the Thunder left behind by Father Marman, a large number of border towns rebelled. Fleeing from the rich and fertile fields, from the lords and priests over their heads.But in the face of such a situation, before the Star God Church itself could fully react, the lords thought of a good way to restrict these slaves.

That is to directly destroy the surrounding small settlements, and forcibly gather the remaining people in big towns for strict supervision until the situation is confirmed to improve.

Obviously, this process of centralization has essentially become a plunder of the townspeople and villagers by the lord's private soldiers and his subordinates.However, as long as the basic purpose is achieved, these lords who enjoy the glory and wealth do not care much about some innocuous little games of their subordinates. As the lord's subordinates, these private soldiers also know what can and cannot be done, so they will not mess things up. It is particularly ugly, or it will not make things particularly ugly in front of the lord.

"Because they didn't want to withdraw into large towns, did they just set fire to the village? Well, it seems that there are more than that. It seems that after the private soldiers kidnapped people, bandits and robbers also came and set the second It looks like it's on fire, tsk..."

William, who has many years of experience in reconnaissance, quickly found a lot of clues among the ruins of the village and figured out some things.

"Just because you don't want the farmers in your territory to escape, what's the point of doing this kind of thing directly? Gathering so many people together, even if you want to manage it well, it will be very troublesome, right?"

Abigail couldn't understand the thoughts of those lords.

"Don't think too highly of those lords, little girl. In the end, they are just a bunch of garbage eating the estates of their ancestors. There are not many knowledgeable people in this group. When he encounters such a situation where he may suffer losses, he is like It is a normal idiot operation to gather everything that can be seen and touched into their own hands like a miser, and they are too lazy to think of more complicated and effective solutions."

Alhazred leaned against a ruined wall, and said with a slight sigh in his voice, as if he had a lot of resentment towards these lords.

"The small settlements along the way have basically been destroyed, that is to say, either escape or be gathered. There should be no third possibility. And the only place that can be concentrated nearby is Grape Town. When we arrive That town may face a very bad situation. So before that, try to keep your spirits up."

William, who had already chosen a relatively suitable place to put down his sleeping bag, shook his head and said, then got into the sleeping bag directly.

The smell of gunpowder smoke and charcoal fire permeated the hunters.

For Abigail, this was not a night where she could sleep peacefully, especially when she was vaguely asleep and dreaming, she always felt that she could hear the miserable wailing of the villagers and townspeople before they were burned to death, just It was as if their spirits were still hovering around, wandering, screaming that they could not find rest.

This made the girl wake up in the middle of the night. When she opened her eyes, she found that the hunter who was supposed to be on vigil was not by the campfire.

Sitting up and quietly crawling out of the sleeping bag, Abigail walked out of the camp for a few steps, and then saw the hunter sitting in front of several small dirt bags, and placed the wild flowers cut by the roadside on the grave bags.

"Hey, why hasn't little Abi slept yet? It's still early before dawn, so let's rest for a while."

Karnis, who was sitting beside the hunter and wiping his sweat, was taken aback when he saw Abigail approaching, then smiled and said.

"I just woke up, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Karniss, you are..."

While answering, while looking around, Abigail noticed that the corpses in the ruined village had disappeared, apparently the hunter and Karnis were busy burying these people just now.

"Just letting these people expose their corpses in the wilderness, it's quite pitiful to be eaten by wild dogs. At least they should be buried, at least they will feel better."

Karnis shook his head lightly, as if thinking of his sacrificed companion, the expression on his face was not very good-looking.

The hunter still sat silently on the spot, just picked up the soil silently, let go of it on a small grave, and let it fall.

Abigail stepped forward, knelt down beside the hunter, imitated his movements and picked up the broken soil on the ground, and let go above the grave, letting the gravel just flow away from her hands.

May you find peace and rest.

The little girl prayed silently in her heart.

Among the ruins, the atmosphere seemed a little gloomy for a while.

But in such an atmosphere, the hunter suddenly raised his head and looked into the distance.then

After a while, Karnis also raised his head with a serious face, looking in the direction the hunter was looking at.Feeling that she heard something, but she couldn't confirm what it was, Abigail finally turned around, and then the hunter stretched out his hand and pressed it on the head, and was pressed down with a small mournful sound. Lying on the open space next to the grave, his blond hair was immediately covered with a lot of dirt.

"It seems that a guest has come to the door."

In Karnis' murmur with some amusement, outside the ruined town, a flame suddenly lit up.

Chapter 5: Bandits and Cannons

bandit.

It can be seen at a glance, the bandits running around in the nearby mountains.

Carrying a rifle, holding a dagger and short sword, the guy in tattered clothes can smell the stench accumulated from not taking a bath for several years from a long distance, which makes people's noses tingle. As if it was going to fail.

The three kingdoms established after the old gods corrupted and the new gods came to the world have never been a beautiful place.On the contrary, with the decline of technology, the decline of combat effectiveness and the shrinkage of productivity, people's living standards are constantly declining, and the relative security situation is becoming more and more backward.Under such circumstances, bandits gradually became active in the border areas, using complex environments such as mountains, forests and swamps to cover themselves, and satisfying their own consumption by plundering merchants and towns.

The hunter still remembered that when he first arrived at Xingkong Town on the spot, he saw a wanted commission to exterminate bandits.It's just that he didn't choose that task at that time, but went to the sewer, thinking that he would wait for one task to be completed before thinking about the next one.As a result, it was delayed because of various things, and the things after that became nothing, and I didn't pay attention to it.

Obviously, although Xingkong Town has been destroyed, the bandits who have been doing evil in the nearby mountains are still alive and well.

This is not surprising. The real seasoned gangsters are actually very cunning guys. They will never confront powerful enemies head-on. They must use their own advantages to find weak opponents that can be plundered. When you encounter a difficult enemy, you will scatter and run away, and then reunite after the limelight passes, or simply change the place before developing.Some time before the collapse of Xingkong Town, this group of gangsters had already withdrawn once, but now they have returned with the disappearance of this border town.

It's just that it's not clear what the purpose of these bandits is to return to this abandoned town where there is no "oil and water" in theory.

"They seem to be pulling something?"

William looked out from the crack in the wall, and whispered to the people around him.

"I'll try to see if I can see what it is."

Alhazred nodded slightly, and the skeleton candlestick in his hand lighted up quietly // with a little bit of faint fire, which was then covered by his hand to prevent the light from revealing their positions.

Some kind of hidden vision emanates from his body, slowly spreading from an angle that ordinary people can't detect.

Hunter and Abigail instinctively felt a little bit of being spied on at this moment, but the strange feeling came and went quickly, but disappeared in an instant, as if the other party didn't dare to really keep going. Just stare at them.

And while the few members of the hunting god team were quietly dormant, waiting for the mysterious scholar to confirm the situation, not far away, among the bandits who approached the ruins, there were a few guys with relatively loud voices. He was talking carelessly about something.

"Hey, do you think the thing the boss gave us really works?"

"Of course, you didn't see it. Some time ago, the boss used this guy to blow up the bunker outside the town. Ha, you don't know how frightened the town lord was. Let me tell you, With this thing, brothers, we don’t have to worry about eating and drinking in our lives!”

"Is it really so powerful? Can this new boss actually get such a powerful thing..."

"I heard that it seems to be a treasure dug out from some old sealed warehouse in the past. I didn't expect it to be usable after repairing it."

"Tsk tsk, I really want to get to know you better."

"Wait, the head is already planning the location of the next robbery, and then it will be enough to rob money and women, hahahaha——"