Mythical Creatures Hunter-Chapter 72 - 70: A strange little village (6)

The black energy surging from the staff swept through the place all at once.

It caused the air throughout the area to tremble, and it pushed everyone back with an unnatural force until their backs slammed hard against the walls.

Isaac completely lost his balance, and Lemur slipped from his arms and fell to the ground, but the little one did not wake up.

He remained sunk in a deep sleep, dreaming a pleasant dream as his chest rose and fell with an extremely calm rhythm.

The old man stayed standing, his frail body unmoving and his staff trembling, while beside him stood that massive one eyed face.

The red eye widened sharply and in an instant the creature lunged at the masked man with a speed that contradicted its massive size.

The masked man jumped back at the perfect moment before it could strike him, then his body twisted in the air and he landed lightly on his feet.

He was ready to pull the bandages off his hand, but his hand trembled and he hesitated.

The open wounds, the burnt flesh, and the rapidly dwindling green vials.

And he needed to keep as many of them as possible to find the "Spirit of Autumn." All of this made him realize that revealing his hand now would be suicide.

He needed every grain of strength to face the "Great Spirit of Autumn." So instead of fighting, he turned and ran toward Oliver while dodging the creature’s blows behind him.

As soon as he reached Oliver, he bent down and grabbed him, hoisted him onto his shoulder, and ran out of the hut immediately.

Isaac recovered Lemur into his arms and ran after him, gasping for breath, and although his steps stumbled, he did not stop.

Behind them, both the old man and the creature paused for a moment.

Then they both took off running after the three with a speed no man of the old man’s age should possess.

Oliver, who was being carried on the masked man’s shoulder, raised his head toward him.

"I knew you weren’t asleep."

The masked man didn’t look at him; his eye simply narrowed slightly.

"Of course I wasn’t asleep. I had a plan before you showed up and ruined everything."

Oliver exhaled sharply.

"If only you explained what you were planning..."

"I didn’t explain because someone might have been listening using some kind of dark magic."

"In that case, what were you planning?"

"I wanted them to drag me to that mythical creature’s agent. And once we were alone I would get rid of him with illusion magic. And just like that everything would have ended." The masked man’s voice grew harsher. "But no, you had to come in and ruin everything."

"How was I supposed to know this would happen?"

"In that case, you should have stayed where you were. I heard you say you thought I actually had a plan."

"True but..."

"This is your fault, and I don’t have my tools because of you, so deal with the mess you caused."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

The masked man smiled behind the cloth covering his face.

"Child, start fighting."

"What?"

And without warning, in the next moment, the masked man grabbed him by the collar of his coat and threw him to the ground with force.

Oliver rolled across the dirt while the masked man kept running without looking back.

Oliver, the old man, and the massive creature were now in one open clearing.

And as soon as Oliver lifted his hand, multiple vines formed in front of the old man and attacked him instantly.

Isaac finally and clearly noticed that the masked man had thrown Oliver just minutes ago.

The scene was so strange that his mind refused to process it immediately; he needed long moments while running to convince himself that what he saw was real and actually happened.

He swallowed hard and unconsciously glanced toward the masked man as they ran.

"You didn’t really throw him... right?"

The masked man didn’t even turn. He kept running with steady steps and replied in a cold voice, void of emotion.

"Don’t worry about him. He’ll manage somehow."

Isaac’s eyebrows rose slightly in surprise.

The masked man continued, his tone heavier,

"He is the only son of a mythical creature. Even if he is weak now, he can at least delay them."

Isaac felt a bitter mixture of confusion and shock. Words like "son of a mythical creature" were not something a person heard every day. In fact, he had never heard them in his entire life.

Even so, given the intensity of the situation, he didn’t ask for details.

But he couldn’t stop the question that had been buzzing in his mind ever since he saw that huge one eyed face.

"That creature..." he raised his voice slightly as he tried to match the masked man’s pace, "is it the Guardian?"

This time the masked man turned toward him before shaking his head.

"Yes. It is."

A strange feeling ran down Isaac’s spine: the Guardian they had been sacrificing for.

"Wasn’t he dead?"

"He returned," the masked man said simply. "Somehow he managed to come back."

Isaac stumbled but quickly regained his balance.

The guilt he had tried to bury for the past days began to surface with even more force.

The masked man noticed this and turned to him again, his eye glowing with a purple light.

"This is not your fault."

Isaac stopped running for a fraction of a second.

"What?"

The masked man repeated, with a stronger tone, "I told you, this is not your fault."

But Isaac didn’t absorb the words, or didn’t allow himself to absorb them. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"But I was selfish. If I had handed over my daughter from the beginning, none of this would have happened."

The masked man exhaled sharply beneath the cloth.

"If you had handed her over, what would have happened would have been far worse."

He raised his finger and pointed toward the horizon at the edge of the village.

"I found magical traces all over the village, a complete circle capable of draining the life of everyone here that time."

He continued, raising his voice slightly.

"He had been draining your energy long before. The illness that struck the village? The death of the animals? The weakness of the children? None of that was because of you. It would have happened anyway in the end."

He paused for a moment.

"And if the mythical creature were at full power now, the village would have vanished in less than a month."

Several seconds of silence passed. Isaac tried to speak but found nothing to say.

His eyes dropped to the ground as he continued running.

"Now..." the masked man turned to him again. "where did you put my tools?"