Mythical Creatures Hunter-Chapter 71 - 69: A strange little village (5)

Inside the house where Oliver and the others were hiding, Isaac stood in front of him, clearly on edge.

His eyes kept shifting left and right, while Oliver sat with an unnatural calm compared to everything happening around them.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Isaac asked in a low voice, as if afraid someone might overhear him even though the place was almost empty.

Oliver did not even lift his head. He simply said with steady certainty, "Yes, do exactly what I told you."

Even though the doubt was obvious in his eyes, he nodded and hurried out of the house.

...

When Isaac reached the place where the villagers had gathered with the old tattooed man, he walked forward until he stood before him, then dropped to one knee.

"Master, I did what you asked. All of them are in a very deep sleep."

The old man raised his staff decorated with a skull and slammed it against the ground. The impact rang sharply.

Under the staff’s influence, dust shot up in the air in front of Isaac.

"Good. Go tie them up immediately. Bring me everything they carried with them."

The men moved at once, half of them following Isaac and the rest staying as guards near the old man.

The tension on their faces was obvious, but their fear of the old man was much stronger.

...

When they reached Isaac’s house, one of the men kicked the door open, the wood creaking loudly.

Inside, they found Oliver on the floor beside Lemur, who was deeply asleep.

The masked man was lying on the bed, snoring heavily.

As for Tell, she was pressed against the ceiling between the wooden beams, holding her breath, trying not to move even a fraction so they would not notice her.

One of the men approached Lemur, leaned down slightly, and stared at him for a moment.

"What is this creature supposed to be?"

Another interrupted him, waving his hand nervously.

"Stop talking and do what the master told us."

The same man moved toward the masked man. He grabbed his bag, then pulled out the gun from the belt around his waist.

He held it very carefully, almost reverently, as if touching something forbidden.

He lifted it toward the faint light streaming from the window, amazement written clearly across his face.

"What is this thing?"

The man beside Lemur scowled and replied, "I do not know, just hand it to the master. He will know for sure."

After that they lifted the masked man, then picked up Oliver, and finally took Lemur who was in such a deep sleep he had no awareness of the world around him.

They all moved outside into the open square under the eyes of the villagers.

...

They tied Oliver and Lemur inside one of the houses as the old man instructed.

They were cautious when touching Oliver, not out of respect, but out of fear of harming a child in front of each other.

The masked man was taken to the old man’s hut, where he was bound with multiple layers of rope.

The ropes wrapped him from shoulders to ankles, as if they were restraining a monster, not a human being.

The old man then ordered everyone out. He wanted to deal with this one himself.

In the house next door, the village men stood in a circle around Oliver and Lemur.

No one dared to make the first move. They kept staring at each other, at Isaac, and at the small tied up child.

The fear was not of Oliver or Lemur.

The fear was of what they might become in front of one another, or perhaps of the punishment waiting for them later if they disobeyed orders.

In the crushing silence, Isaac felt like he was about to die.

"What have we done...?"

This was not what he and Oliver agreed on.

They were supposed to be tied beside the masked man, not shoved here waiting for a very dark fate tonight.

At that same moment, Oliver was even more tense than Isaac.

His eyelids moved slightly as he opened his eyes a little and looked at the feet of the men surrounding him.

"Perfect. This is completely off the plan."

That was his first thought as he tried to steady his breathing and search his mind for some way to get out of this mess.

The men standing over him were clearly hesitant.

They exchanged looks, afraid to get close.

Their hesitation lasted until one finally stepped forward.

He was carrying a large sickle. He inhaled deeply, his shoulders trembling slightly.

Then he stood in front of Lemur, lifted his arm, and prepared to deliver a quick strike meant to end the child.

But before the blade could reach its target, Isaac lunged forward from behind and shoved the man hard, knocking him to the ground.

The sickle clattered on the floor with a loud metallic ring that snapped everyone’s attention toward them.

All eyes locked on Isaac.

He stood in front of Lemur, his expression so sharp it looked like he was ready to kill anyone who took a step forward.

The man who fell rolled quickly, grabbed his sickle, and stood up in panic, gritting his teeth.

"What do you think you are doing, Isaac?"

Isaac answered immediately.

"Are you planning to kill children?"

The man shook the sickle nervously.

"These are the master’s orders. We are only following them."

Isaac shouted again.

"We already caught the masked man. These two children have nothing to do with any of this!"

The men exchanged tense, brief glances, then two of them rushed forward, grabbed Isaac’s arms violently, and dragged him away before he could move again.

The man with the sickle returned toward Lemur, lifting the blade with far more resolve this time.

Only then did Oliver raise his hand without thinking. The air around his palm shivered, and a sharp orange light flickered out of it.

In the next instant, the ground beneath the man cracked open and a thick twisting vine shot upward.

The vine slammed into him hard, knocking him backward and sending him crashing onto his face.

Oliver rose instantly, as if he had not been asleep moments ago.

He stood in front of everyone, his body slightly lowered forward.

All of them froze. Their faces twisted into a mixture of shock and terror.

Eyes wide. Mouths half open.

It lasted only a moment before some of them screamed and bolted outside in panic.

The ones who stayed raised their tools, their hands shaking.

Driven by fear rather than courage, they charged at Oliver.

Oliver did not think. He simply raised his hand again.

The ground shook under the men’s feet and more vines burst upward, thicker than before.

The vines whipped around them in a flash, slamming them collectively toward the opposite wall.

Their backs hit the wall hard before they fell, groaning and crying out.

Isaac stared at Oliver in disbelief for a moment, then ran toward Lemur.

He knelt instantly, wrapped both arms around Lemur’s small body, lifted him, and ran toward the door with Oliver right behind him.

The moment they stepped out, Isaac stopped for a single breath, panting.

"What do we do now?" he asked with wide eyes full of fear and panic.

Oliver answered without hesitation.

"We run to the masked man."

...

At that moment, the masked man was tied inside the old man’s hut.

The ropes bit tightly into his body, his shoulders strained, his head tilted slightly forward.

The old man lifted his staff and slammed it against the ground with force. Darkness spread through the room instantly.

From that darkness the face manifested again.

The large red eye appeared in the middle of a surge of twisted energy, staring directly at the masked man.

The moment it appeared, it snapped toward the old man.

"What are you waiting for? Get rid of him now."

The old man’s voice wavered with confusion.

"Did you not tell me he was just an ordinary human? Why all this fear?"

The darkness swirled violently, the creature’s voice sharper this time.

"Hurry. This person is not the same as he was the last time I faced him. This one is different."

The masked man opened his eye, its color a faint gray.

A gray mist seeped slowly from his body, spreading through the room.

Before he could move, the hut’s door burst open violently and slammed against the wall.

Oliver and Isaac rushed inside, panting, Isaac holding Lemur tightly, Oliver ready to fight.

The masked man noticed them and the mist instantly recoiled, collapsing back into his body.

He reached into his coat sleeve, pulled out a thin small blade, and cut the ropes cleanly. They dropped to the floor.

Across the room, the old man raised his staff again.

Dark energy burst from its tip, spreading stronger than ever. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

He did not give them a single moment to prepare.

The blast lifted the masked man, Oliver, and Isaac into the air at once.

Their bodies crashed brutally against the ground as darkness consumed the room and all light vanished.