-...A Hunter Returns [3]

[Hours before]

As the group of Hunters left the ruined fortress, their outlines barely being seen over the night sky that encompassed the forest below, only visible by the linger flames of the destroyed fortress. Three sets of eyes watched as they left their vision, and headed deeper into the forest.

By now the sun was coming up, and with their super enhanced sight, they were easily able to track down where these Hunters were and where they were traveling.

One pair of eyes - a female twirling a dagger in her hand, spoke, her voice like violets in a meadow - if they had a voice.

"Why hasn't she admitted to being at fault? He didn't reprimand her for her to just accept it and move on?"

Obviously from the sound of it, this woman was very annoyed with someone's behavior in the group, a girl who could be seen walking towards the back of the group, head down and somewhat invisible to the naked eye.

Another voice, from another pair of eyes spoke, the owner a young man leaning against his spear that protruded from the roof of the fortress.

"Maybe she's thinking it over. You know - trying to come to terms with all of it."

Hearing this excuse, the woman clicked her tongue, turning her focus back on her blood stained dagger.

"Tsk. You always give the pretty girls a second chance."

Chuckling to himself, the spear man leaned back, balancing against the spear.

"You just insulted yourself, you know. Seeing as I never give you a second chance."

He said smirking the smirk one would see from some arrogant chap.

"What did you say?!"

The woman was up on her feet in seconds, knife in her hand and ready, but the spear man made no move to defend himself, and merely leaned back, folding his arms behind his head.

From the fading darkness, as the sun rose over the fortress, a stern voice called out, silencing the both of them, and halting the woman's footsteps.

"Enough. Both of you, enough."

The two glanced at each other, before similarly clicking their tongue in distaste. The spear man voiced his opinion before the woman could.

"Aw come on. You're ruining all the fun."

The third pair of eyes calmly spoke, as the rising sun began to reveal his features, as well as his dark eyes that, unlike the other two, did not follow the group of Hunters, but looked beyond them, towards the city.

"You both would be wise to be quiet, while we wait for him."

"What's the matter? She started it."

"Did not!"

The voice came again, this time sterner.

"You both are children in every regard and stereotype that people have for children. Please, just be quiet."

Pouting, the woman sat back down in her spot, her arms crossed and face turned to the side.

"Fine. You're biased, you know that Kal?"

The man, now revealed as the rogue assassin dressed in black, wearing daggers across his chest and sides, started on not caring for his name being spoken aloud.

The spear man, seeing the silence growing between the two, took the opportunity to speak.

"Aw, come on Gwen. You know that's no way to treat your lover, right-whoa!"

The spear man was narrowly able to duck and dodge a throwing knife as the woman lunged at him.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Through this commotion, the two did not hear the quiet and calm footsteps as they approached from behind. However, Kal did, as he quickly turned and knelt to the ground.

The other two, taking notice of this, looked up from where they were wrestling on the ground, to find two red crimson eyes looking down at them.

As one, they both fumbled it get up, before they too knelt to the ground, eyes to the floor.

"We apologize sir."

They said as one, their voices overlapping as they glanced up subtlety at Cain, who shifted his attention to the forest below him.

"I didn't share my power with you and give you speech, just so you could torment your sister Cleric."

Through Cain's harsh words, Cleric - the spear man - lowered his head in shame.

"I'm sorry sir."

Though his voice was meek, it did contain hints of true regret.

However, what came next put a smile on his face.

"And you Gwen. Don't think I can't see you smirking over there at your brother. Though I do have to admit, he is right."

As Cain turned to leave, he could already feel Gwen's shocked expression as it followed him with his next words, begging him to stop with just a look.

He smiled.

"You should just fess up and admit your love."

"Gaaaaa!"

As Cain left, Kal at his side, Gwen continued whaling on her brother who was no longer smiling any more.

"Come on you two. We've got something to investigate."

***

Traveling down through the wreckage of the fortress, the group of four's eyes each passed over a different section of the ruins. As it stood, the entire roof of the fortress had caved in, causing the main chamber, which Cain had fought the goblin King in, to collapse.

Kal kept his eyes trained on the tunnels, knowing that there lay something below - possibly more goblins that escaped the blast, or something else. Some other monster that dwelled in the depth of the earth?

Gwen, whose face was still red from Cain's comment from before, tried her best to keep her eyes off Kal as much as possible. This, naturally, led her to observe the fallen corpses of the goblins, their charged bodies and the ash covered walls that had crushed many of them.

Cleric kept his gaze waving between the pillars, balancing his spear across his shoulders, while draping his arms over the pole. He cared little to spot any district changes in the debris. In some way, you could say his faith in Cain was so strong that he doubted anyone would survive one of his attacks. But to others - Gwen mostly - he just seemed somewhat bored.

Cain was different however.

He didn't keep his eyes focused on what may come from the tunnels - a future battle he already knew lied ahead of him. Nor did he keep his eyes passing over the damage he had done - over the dead he knew were not coming back.

Instead, as his gaze slowly crossed the open chamber floor, his eyes came to rest on the throne sitting at the top of the stairs.

Eventually, the image of the goblin king having sat there hours before, his gaze imposing, and his voice filled with arrogance was still fresh in his mind. He had not yet allowed it to fade into the darkness of being forgotten.

Instead, his mind shifted from the king, to his four knights.

They, like the king, were incredibly strong - each of a goblin Lord's rank, withering supreme to all the other goblins that currently littered the ground.

However, he could still vividly remember the feeling of smashing his fist through the armor and flesh of the great sword wielder. Splitting the head of the spear man, before tripping and smashing the tank with his foot.

The last was an archer and was easily decapitated by Cain with the wave of his hands.

The knights, thought to be so proud and strong, were nothing in his eyes.

Of course this didn't stop the Goblin King, who thought himself all powerful, as he threw himself at Cain, engaging in a battle worth his time.

'Well, I wouldn't give him that much credit.'

He thought, going back to the fight they had and seeing how one sided it had been. If Lia hadn't interrupted him - which he believed justified over her fear - he would have killed the king the moment those Hunters entered the door.

However, he had other plans.

"Do you know why the goblin king was spared for so long?"

He asked, turning his head to glance back at the other three figures, each snapping their full attention towards Cain when he spoke.

Kal was the first to answer, as he scratched the chin hidden behind a face mask.

"Entertainment?"

Cain smiled when he heard his guess, placing both his hands behind his back, before turning to the throne.

"A good guess, but no."

A moment of silence passed between them as they simultaneously glanced at each other. Apparently this was not a common thing.

"Was it because of the girl?"

Gwen asked, her hands on her hips. Clearly she was not a fan of Lia.

"No, though your close."

Cain gestured to the throne, the sun glinting off the stone crest.

"I did it so the Hunters accompanying her wouldn't find me guilty of killing four of their own."

"Why would they accuse you of that?"

"Simple. They were afraid, had nothing but speculation to blame this on, and…"

He shifted his gaze to a large body that sat with its back against the wall, head down, and charred flesh from head to toe.

'...They were not even aware of a monster like the goblin king to begin with. So, after fighting against the titans and shamans he sent after me - no doubt after sensing my power - I decided to leave them rather than clean up. Similarly I left Lia alone, and cut off all feeling and contact between us. So not only could she not tell if I was alive or not, the strength my presence gives her would undoubtedly be lost."

Kal took a step forward, his brow furrowed.

"Are you telling us that you purposely made Lia afraid so she would come after you?"

Nodding, Cain turned to meet eyes with Kal, who held his own ground against the monster in front of him.

"That I did. Doing so, she would push for the Hunters to come find me - thought they probably were going to set out themselves, Lia acted as a "wake up call" as you could say."

He made air quotes when he spoke, slowly taking steps upon steps around the three.

"The Hunters would stumble upon the corpses I left behind, and Lia's assurance that her summons was alive, would prompt Randolph to believe there was some monster out there. A monster which he didn't know existed until now."

Gwen held up her hands, taking a moment to process all the information being fed to her and the other two.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Your telling me that you did all this on purpose, just to spark fear in them - enough fear that they would come investigate, and find a monster they didn't even know was here."

Cain nodded, his face giving nothing away.

"Why? It was their problem to being with. Why go out of your way - possibly get blamed for the deaths of their Hunters, just to make them believe they had "happened" to discover a hidden monster in the forest?"

Cain stopped, a frown on his face as his voice carried hints of sternness.

"Because Lia was with them."

"Then why would you cause her fear? If your goal was to help her - help them - why go through such length to make her scared."

"Because she needs to learn what its like to be without my protection. I won't be around forever, and there will be many cases where I will be away from her in the near future."

Stopping for a moment, he gave Gwen a sideways glance, all to aware of how much Gwen disliked Lia.

"She needs to learn fear, if she is to first overcome it."

"But I think-"

"Enough Gwen."

Cain's voice was stern and prune, not leaving any room for negotiation, as he made his way to the nearest tunnel leading downwards, deeper into the ground.

Once Cain disappeared down the tunnel, Kal was the first to follow him, no more than a few steps behind him. Finding some humor in the situation, Cleric, who had been watching from the sidelines silently - which was unheared of for his character - spoke.

"You know, eventually your going to have to come to terms with Lia. They are partners in contract, you know?"

Gwen scoffed at Cleric, who looked down the tunnels after Cain and Kal, knowing that the former could hear them even as far as he was, while the latter would kill them if Cain so much as found their words even a little insulting.

"They're not partners. Ones a master, the others a servant. That's the way a summoner and summons work, and you know that."

"So what? Your upset that he happens to be a servant to his master."

Cleric chuckled, finding the idea somewhat humorous.

"No. I'm upset that we - as powerful as we are, are forced into the shackles of our masters."

Cleric stopped chuckling, dawning on him that this was Gwen's normal character, as she was one of the summons who despised the way they, as all powerful beings, were forced to submit to weaker ones.

He sighed, knowing that there was no possible way to change Gwen's view on it all, but at the same time, he was somewhat disappointed.

"I'm a bit let down Gwen. I thought, you of all people, would learn to trust our master more."

And with that, he walked away, following close behind the departing figures of Kal and Cain as they disappeared deeper into the darkness, Gwen was left alone to her own thoughts.

"..."

For several minutes she said nothing, her mind gone silent after processing the words Cleric had just said to her.

But when her mind did eventually start thinking, she was left with only a handful of words that left her mouth.

"He's not the one I distrust."