16 First Demon Hunt: Luring The Anomaly/Assailant (5)

The hunter gently patted his young Miss head when he heard what she said. Seeing her smile warmed his heart but, in the end, he released a disheartening sigh. "Sadly, by the time we caught wind of what had happened, everyone in the village was already dead. Me and a few other hunters secretly searched the village while the two demons were sleeping. We located and rescue the young Miss from the well, and then brought her back to our hometown. She was adopted by the leader of our hunter guild. As the years rolled by, I believed that this life event would haunt her forever. For the majority of her childhood she lived her life as a mute. No one foresaw that she would actually grow up to be a decent hunter and even more so a demon hunter," confirmed Bruce after he retracted his hand from Artemis's head.

"Oh wow, to experience since an event, resulting in becoming a mute and a hunter. You life is a lot more interesting than mines. Tragic…... yet so thrilling. You seem better though, since you're having a full conversation with us right now," rambled Libbey as she looked at Artemis with excitement. She really liked Artemis' strong aura and calm demeanor. She reminded her of one of the female warriors from the stories her mother used to tell her about.

"Libbey dear…... let them first talking," uttered the lumberjack as he shot a subtle glance at his daughter. Unlike him, his daughter was just like her mother, who loved folklore and mythology. Anything other worldly stories would spark her attention.

"It's okay. I don't mind and YES, I am better now," Artemis graciously responded with a nod.

"Well that event did result in the young Miss refusing to speak during her childhood. After ten years, our townsfolks figured that she had lost the ability to talk, rendering her a permanent mute. In truth, the young Miss only speaks to those she wants to speak to," Bruce added, finishing in a light chuckle towards the end.

Artemis did not deny and only casually took a sip from the cup of tea that was served by the young lady, Libbey.

"Hmm... so being a mute not only stop others for pestering with daily matter, but also gain other's sympathy as a tragic survivor. Indeed, your young Miss is an exceptional and smart young lady," Nate said in an understanding tone, then he changes his tone of voice to asked another question. " Sir. What type of creatures attacked Miss Artemis' village?"

"The two creatures were from the giant family known as Cyclopes. They are a B rank level demon, whom excels in terms of strength, as well have a very sharp and sensitive nose. They love the taste of humans, however if there are no humans around, they'll eat any animal that they can find," replied Bruce concisely.

"So, you have encountered those type of creatures before?" inquired Cain with holding his chin in an attentive manner.

"Yes, I have. I almost lost my life in the first encounter. If I didn't have the backup of my fellow hunters, I would have been eaten, or maybe flatten by that creature for sure. If you clear your mind of fear and focus on survival you can barely except death, however we were in the middle of a mission, so I was unable to flee to safety. Although, this Cyclops was unlike the ones that attacked the young Miss villages.

It took refuge on purposely within a nearby forest not far from a populated town. If someone took the path through that forest the distance to the next town was cut in half, so this route was used quite often. The creature waited quietly inside the forest and only made an appearance when they smelt a human approaching. At first most of the townspeople believe it was a case of a wild beast attack. After the number of missing people continued to rise, our guild was notified. Our mission was to investigated the forest for the missing people, as well as, determine whether a demon was involved or was it just a wild beast attack.

We started our investigation by locating the notice sender once we arrived within the town. It did not take long to locate then, since they too were looking for us. So, before we could ask any question, we were informed that, a father and son had just entered the forest. The young boy friend had went missing two days ago and they wanted to go look for him. Even if the boy was dead, they wanted to at least find his body and bury him," reported the older hunter.

The older villager sighed in a lifeless manner. "Honestly, if this did not happen to our village or to my daughter, I too would not believe that demons exist. However, I am a bit curious about the method on how your organization receive mission notices?" Nate probed.

"It's really a very kept secret, only known by people who have experience a demon attack or is an elder of a town or village. Demon hunters existence are like a type of myth. You can choose to believe in our existence or not. If you do believe there are many ways to contact us," Bruce answered in a roundabout way.

"Mr. Nate we should be asking questions about their experiences not their mailing service. I wanna know about the father-son pair. Did the son find his friend? Was he eaten by the creature already and did they survive their encounter with the creature? I'm dying to know over here," protest Libbey as she puffed out her cheeks. She was quiet like her father recommended and was listening intensely to the older hunter's story, but her senior was distracting the storyteller.

Cain could not help but laugh at his daughter unsatisfied expression. Both his daughter and his old friend was curious about the nature of these hunters, although their interests clearly conflicted with one another.

The older hunter's expression did not change as he continued to explain his mission with the Cyclops encounter. "They both were still alive. The creature was still in the process of looking for them, so he could eat them. I went into the forest first to investigate, being that I am the senior tracker in our group. When I came across the creature, it was standing still with it head tilted up. I believe he was searching for them by smell. Just as a precaution, I rubbed on an extra layer of pine scented cream onto my face and arms. The scent from the cream helps with masking the odor that we release.

After that, I had my messenger eagle sent a message back to my leader. Once the message was sent, I secretly searched around for the father-son pair and found out that they were very close in proximity to the Cyclops. Instead of heading straight towards them, I chose to use myself as bait to lure the creature away. Due to the fact that a Cyclops originally have bad eye sight and it could not smell me it could only rely on its ears to track me. The Cyclops then would issue a few attacked at my blurred figure based on the location of my voice. So, I intentionally would yell at the creature, so that it complete focus remained focus on me and not the father-son pair. A few times when I almost got step on, was because I was hiding in the creature's blind spot, while I provoke him. Fighting a creature of that size is dangerous, but not impossible to do.

In our line of work, we have many rules that we go by. When one encounter a Gigantes or Cyclops, one must decide quickly whether to fight or flee. If you encounter more than one of these gigantic beings the answer is always to flee. One should never try to fight a group of them alone. Hiding is also a good option."

"Okay. So, what happened next? How did you dealt with that demon and stop it for eating more people?" the lumberjack quickly asked as he carefully observed the older hunter's behavior.