Children's of the hag

Larian turned back to face the flock.

Flying towards him in a straight line, Larain concentrated and sheathed his blade.

One Strike, four targets. His first strike killed four birds again

'But it's not enough!'

Against the horde, Larian knew he would get swarmed easily if this continued.

Under the pressure, Larain was slowly pushing himself past his limits.

*Clink

One Strike, four targets.

…

*Clink

One Strike, four targets, almost striking a fifth

…

*Clink

One Strike, five targets.

…

*Clink

One Strike, six targets.

The more Larain practised his quick draw the more enemies he killed.

By the time the entire flock started to retreat, a pile of raven corpses laid by Larian's feet and the horde had been pushed back.

'I've done it! My mastery of Shinki Style is getting better.'

Exhilarated Larian pushed past the pile of raven bodies and dashed to the flock.

"Wait. Arg. Please hold your blade and hear me out dearie."

The hag had reappeared from the surviving birds, but she looked exhausted and smaller than her previous form.

Larian walked up to the cowering Hag.

He was quite proud and disappointed at the same time. Proud in the fact that he defeated his first enemy while suppressed and disappointed that the rest of the birds left too early.

The black ravens stood out from the surroundings were great target practice for Larian who has only utilised the Shinki Style on individual opponents.

"What are you trying to say? Speak up."

"Killing me is useless. As long as the ravens live, I will never die. But to come back is… tedious and unpleasant. So let me cut you a deal."

"Let me go with the children and I promise you, you won't regret it."

Larian didn't answer and pulled his blade closer.

"No wait! I can make you stronger or smarter, anything is possible. Just let me go."

Larian smirked at her remark.

"Let's entertain the idea that you could possibly make me stronger. How strong do you think I am?"

"W-what do you mean, dearie?"

Larian released his dragon form and the dense energy shrouded him. The armour grew horns and tails. On the back his wings spread wide.

"I never fought with my full strength, you stupid hag."

Stabbing downwards with his katana, the hags expression was filled with horror.

"No!"

Her shriek echoed around the swamp and the environment lost its lustre.

Once her scream faded, the ensuing silence was deafening. The croaking of the ravens, the ravings of the children and the cackling Hag were all gone.

'I had hopes that a 200 year old witch would recognise a dragonoid. But she didn't. Is this dragon form not a common thing among dragon hunters of the past?'

A layer of fog descended upon the swamp. This made Larian suspect that the sunlit wetlands were an illusion the whole time

'She must have casted the illusion to attract guests to gather blood from.'

Suppressing the draconic energy Larian looked around the cottage.

He saw the cabinets filled with bottles and books.

'The bottles might take some time to filter out the suspicious worms but more importantly, the titles of these books are stuff not seen in the Academy.'

Flipping through the books he found many titles that interested him.

'Herbology Vol .23, Magic of the Weavetress, Minor Illusion guide and Notes on Blood tests'

As Larian flipped through the books he was slowly releasing the reality that he didn't understand most of the basic contents.

'Huh… And I thought I could go on a random adventure to get stronger techniques or something. Don't most wuxia novels get their techniques through adventures? Why do I get a textbook that's like 10 grades above what I know?'

As a man who dropped out of school, Larian never could be considered smart or talented.

Him trying to learn anything from the books was akin to a child picking up a university professor's handbook and trying to understand them.

As an author he designed the plot of the world, not the systems and mechanics. So these concepts did not come naturally to him.

Larian might have given up on studying in the past, but he has changed. He was motivated to learn as much as he could of the new system of the world, so he understood that it may take a long time to learn them.

'Now I slightly regret leaving the academy, If I had gone to its library to try study more of its subjects maybe I could've had a greater head start to understanding these books.'

Storing the books in his arm, Larian heard a groan from the doorstep.

"Wait. The kids!"

He quickly rushed to the kids who were passed out by the doorstep. One of them had recovered earlier than the rest. He was a boy with a dark brown hair.

"Hey, are you alright?"

The kid awoken from his dreams as he stared at Larian.

There was a layer of fear in his eyes as he trembled. His eyes darted around like there were horrors from the shadows that only he could see.

"Get a grip! The witch is dead. You are safe now."

Hearing no response from the kid, Larian activated his Dragon Vision to check for any problems.

'The mark on their head, it's still here.'

Looking around he quickly took out the notes of the blood test he found.

Flipping through the contents he found rows of the children's names and the plans the hag had for each of them.

Under each name words like, brew into stew, marrow or youth potion and extract for spirits were common.

'What a disgusting witch. She labelled how she would eat each child.'

Reaching the end of her notes, there were details on worms which were infused with her blood. It spoke of the stages of the children the worm would transform into.

'First stage, mild delusions and confusion. Stage two, recognise the owner of the blood the worm has drank as their master. Final Stage, complete hypnosis and obedience.'

Larian closed the book. Looking at the child's irritable state he was quite worried.

'Blood of the owner huh? Will the owner change if they drink the blood of someone else?'

Unsure of the next best step, Larian gave it a try.

Stabbing his fingers, a drop of blood flowed to his finger tips. Larian made the boy who was awake drink his blood.

When the blood flowed into his stomach Larian noticed the symbol on the kid's head start to shake erratically. It moved to the stomach of the child and pounced on the blood Larian had given him.

'There's a reaction. It's reacting strongly to my blood that's enhanced by the dragon stone.'

As Larain examined the process, he realised that he could still control the blood that had separated from his body. It was similar to how he could change and control his armour which had been forged by some parts of his flesh.

Feeling into the droplet, Larian came face to face with the symbol. The symbol was burning intensely. This was the worm which had burrowed into the child's brain.

'There's no way I could compete with the symbol which has been growing for such a long time. There must be some way I could fight with it besides giving the children all my blood to drink.'

When the droplet of Larian's blood came into contact with the symbol, the symbol consumed him. But something strange happened, the the symbol which had just eaten Larian's droplet of blood seem to twist and turn.

Blood like chains wrapped the symbol and compressed it into a ball.

'Suppression? Even my blood has properties of suppression on beings that eat it?'

Larian was pleasantly surprised. While he did successfully save the child, he was worried that the blood might have an effect of suppressing the talents of the children as well.

Larian released some of his magic and controlled the bloody chains containing the symbol and forced it to rise up the throat of the boy.

Soon the boy puked out the contents. A blood stone was among the vomit.

'This contains the worm the witch had implanted in the kids. Stange. How does a worm transform something so complicated like a symbol?'

But Larian had no time to investigate, the rest of the children were waking up and he had to remove the symbol from all of them.

After an hour of feeding the 8 kids his bloods and extracting the symbols they finally regained some semblance of clarity in their eyes.

The boy which had woken up the earliest was the bravest among all the kids and spoke to Larian

"M-mister. Where are we?"

Larian looked at the mess in the house which contained corpses.

"The witch which lives in this cottage kidnapped you and planned to eat you all. I killed her and saved all of you."

Looking at Larian's red armour the boy's eyes shone in awe.

"Are you a adventurer mister?!"

Larian laughed at the children's change of mood, he was worried that the blood might've scared them but they seemed more excited of a knight in shining armour saving them then caring that they were almost eaten.

"Kind of, but I'm quite lost. Do any of you know the way back to your village? We should go find your parents, they must be worried."

"Yes mister!"

On the way back, Larian learned from the children that they were a group who had tried to explore the forest which were rumoured to contain monsters in hopes of finding one. Who knew they would meet a full fletch witch.

Finally arriving at the village, the guard by the wooden gates recognise the kids.

"The lost kids! You there! What happened with the missing children, how did they dissapear for 2 whole weeks?"

The guard pointed his makeshift spear towards Larian in clear hostility.

Larian was immediately upset.

"I saved the children from your village from a witch that lives in the forest."

While explaining, Larian still angry from the unjust hostility, walked up the guard and grabbed the tip of the spear. By clenching hard the tip broke off from the shaft.

This is not because Larian was strong but because the spear was just poorly made.

The bravado scared the guard and he backed off.

"S-so sorry man. The village has been in constant tension for the whole week. The children's disappearance has been the worst news we've had in the past 5 years. Everyone's been worried and no one has had proper sleep the entire week."

Larian just noticed the heavy eye bags under the guard's eyes. He was slightly ashamed that he lashed out at the guard.

"We've sent the whole village to search for them but we found nothing. Even the parents were starting to lose hope that the kids are alive. Please come with me sir. I'm sure the elder would like to see you, I heard he was preparing money to hire an expedition team. There might be a reward."

Larian didn't reject him and followed the guard. The kids had separated within the wood walls to their homes. Larian could hear cries from the parents as they hugged their children.

'Family… I wonder if Luman has a family that would miss him.'

Larian didn't have much time to think, the village was small and he had already reached the elder's hut.

"Here, you will find the elder inside."

When Larian entered he realised the hut was quite spacious despite the small size. There was little furniture in the single room hut. The Elder of the village was sitting on the single stool within the house while leaning onto a wooden stick as support.

Walking in, the guard behind him closed the door on his back.

"Young adventurer, I've heard the news. You've brought out young'ins back to the village have you not?"

Larrian nodded his head in response.

"Truly admirable! It is rare to find such heroic spirit within strangers outside the walls these days. You are a miracle we are blessed with."

The Elder smiled as he spoke, but his expression made Larian uneasy. The smile was familiar, not because he had met the elderly man before. But because he would always see such fake smiles of the people around him back on earth.

Masking his unease, Larian asked the Elder.

"You don't talk with the people outside? What about nearby villages or cities?"

The Elder gestured with his hands when he spoke, his words were spoken with such zeal that he didn't even notice the saliva spitting out his mouth when he spoke. Larian was slightly disgusted but chose to ignore it to pay respects.

"Our village can handle our own problems! It has always been so since the elder before me and the elder before him. Through our Mother's blessing the village has remained safe from the horrors of the world outside."

The Elder rubbed his hands together.and mumbled a prayer to thank the Mother the guards the village.

Larian furrowed his brows, he was trying to recall why he felt this 'Mother' was someone he knew.

"We prepared some coin in hopes of hiring some help but it seems like it was not needed. Here you can have it."

Larianw as handed a small pouch. Opening the pouch he saw 5 measly silver coins inside. This was humans currently which Larian was familiar with, 5 silver could buy him 10 barley bread from the academy.

"8 Children from your village disappeared and you only prepared 5 silver? Are their lives only worth 5 silver?"

Larian asked not hoping to bargain for the price but the amount was simply too low that Larian doubted the Elder's urgency in rescuing the kids.

"Ahh… I understand the confusion. We villages don't earn as much as you adventurers do. We can't afford to spend too much for help. We can only pray that through Mother's Blessing that all will turn up well."

Larian was speechless. He was unfamiliar with a villagers income, but he was sure even the beggar from Trier could earn twice as much in a day, not to mention the entire village had 2 weeks to prepare the funds.

"Do you know what was going to happen to your children?"

Larian was about to throw the booklets of Blood Test notes he found from the hag to the Elder's face but the interrupted him.

"It doesn't matter. I'm sure in Mother's Embrace they would end up in a happier place."

'Mother's Embrace? Who is this mother of his? Is it some kind of goddess I never heard of? And the kids were kidnapped! Not in some mother's… embrace… huh?'

"Say, young man. The woman whom you've brought the kids back from. How is she? Is she living well?"

The hairs on Larian's skin jumped. He recalled that the children who were marked call similarly called the hag their Mother.

'Something is seriously wrong with the elder!'

Larian immediately activated his Dragon Vison and he noticed the mark. The mark which caused the hypnosis of the children was on the Elder.

But this mark looked old and directly engraved into the brain of the elder. It looked as if it had been staying there for a very long time.

"..."

"Young man? How is mother, is she still alright?"

'This explains why 8 kids had even heard of about some strange rumours in the forest. They were led from the village to straight into the hag's arms.'

Swallowing some saliva, Larian spread his vision out into the entire village. To his surprise, no one else bore the mark in their heads.

'Wew, the situation wasn't as bad as it looked.'

"The hag. I killed her."

The Elder's face remained smiling, it appeared as if his face froze in the fake smile.

"Pardon?"

"Your Mother. I killed her. Do you see this book? She was planning on turning your childrens into potions and snacks to be consumed."

Larian tossed the bloody notes on the floor, the book spread open revealing the names of different children.

"No… It can't be. NO! NO! NO!"

The Elder grasp his head in denial, his face was riddled with despair from the news.

Staring at Larian he pointed with his fingers.

"You've doomed us all! How could you! Our mother has kept us safe for decades! She is the guardian of our village! No no no, how has this become soo wrong…"

Not expecting such a response from the Elder, Larian lowered his guard which he raised when he expected a fight.

But seeing Larian's hand on his blade, the Elder was quick to realise that if Larian had indeed killed the hag, he was much more powerful than he looked. He quickly explained himself.

"The woman. She is a goddess of fertility that brings us good harvest every year. In exchange we would return her virgin blood every year. For the survival of everyone else in this desolate place, this sacrifice is what we desperately need."

The Elder grabbed the notes from the floor. He flipped from the first page, there were many names he recognised.

"Every 5 years we would give up one person to be sacrificed. This year… the kids were just too unlucky. They decided to go together so we had to exhaust everyone to find the remaining 7."

When he finally stopped flipping through the pages, a tear was flowing from his eyes.

"What do we do…? Without the Goddess protection, we would starve to death. This place is too remote. From any human cities or villages."

'Hmm. The nearest cities are all closer to the Gyth mountains than the villages around Trier.'

"Why not the Gyth mountains?"

The Elder shood his head as he seemed tp reminiscence some times of his past.

"The Gyth's look down on us humans. We are always taken advantage of. Without a referral from a Gyth, we will only be killing ourselves if we trade with them."

'When I entered Orsen Mountain I directly headed to Old Peal's shop. Maybe it was because I was associated with Peal and Kait that I was not discriminated against.'

Larian took out a pouch from his bag. In it, there was a medal among the pile of Gyth currency we was rewarded. Larian tossed it to the Elder.

"I was a participant of their recent festival. This is a proof of my contribution to the Orsen Army, with it you can try speaking to the Gyths on equal standing. Maybe then can you find a solution to your village dilemma."

The Elder fumbled as he caught the medallion, he breathed a sigh of relief that he did not drop and break the object.

"This… why are you helping us?"

Larian recalled his own thoughts on how he nearly chose to abandon the children.

'That's right, everyone here is not part of my problem. Why am I helping them voluntarily?'

Larian struggled to find the answer within himself.

"I don't know, I am just easily taken advantage of I guess."

'What bullshit. Didn't I swear to take revenge? Maybe I am hoping not to lose myself in pursuit of this revenge…'

Looking back into his past Larian was unsure.

'Is there anything in the past even worth keeping? I've been passive and subservient my whole life and where has that got me?'

Larian was starting to be sure of his thoughts.

'When I crawled with my melted skin through the mud I swore not just to take revenge. But to change myself. That's right, I can't keep blaming my recent rashness on the red cocoon. If there is something I'm unsatisfied about I'll fucking say it.'

Clenching his fist Larian's face looked more serious than usual.

"You will pay me back. Not now when you are still struggling. When you become self sustainable, find a man called Old Peal. He runs a prosthetic shop in Orsen. Find him and repay the debt of the children's lives I saved today. "

The elder shivered slightly.

"How much will depend on how valuable you think the children's lives are. If I come back in the future and I find the amount unsatisfactory, I'll come back to take back lives of the children."

'If the guardians of the village don't appreciate the life of these kids I'd be better if someone else takes care of them. I wonder if Kait would be willing to raise the childrens with me. If I make it back.'

But the Elder seemed to misunderstand and prostrated himself.

"Y-yes esteemed sir! I'll make sure everyone in the village knows of your glorious deed! We will definitely repay you back for saving the children. "

Larian nodded in satisfaction. He was done intimidating the old man.

'Let's hope he knows how to take care of the village now that the hag is gone.'

"Oh before that. Drink my blood."

"Huh?"

When Larian was done removing the symbol from the Elder's brain he left the village.

He had finally found what he was looking for, directions.

Not bothering to find the parents to be thanked, Larian left to continue his training.

'Fifth cycle of suppression… Let's do this.'

***