21 The First Mission

After two days of practicing poking spear at slimes, Naomi embarked on her first hunt with the mercenary team of leader Anver.

Ex-captain Jack told her about the circumstance of the team and asked her to be careful. From what he had learned by talking to mercenaries in the bar, some mysteries were surrounding Anver's team.

Half a year ago, the team had seven people. However, a disastrous hunt had led to five members being killed in one single mission.

They were hunting a mysterious creature called a "Lich". It sounded like a creature that defines a nightmare. A lich was able to raise the dead, turn them into either zombies or walking skeletons, depends on the level of decomposition. A lich had some degree of human intelligence.

There was no mention of the fate of the lich. Jack assumed that it had not been slain.

The old leader was among the members slaughtered by the lich. The new leader, Anver Remington, despite being an experienced fighter, for some reason refused to expand the team to more than three people.

After which, the team had lost five new recruits, while failing several missions. This led to the team's rating being lowered to the bottom among the mercenary groups. There was no evidence of mistreatment, however.

Naomi's joining Anver's team was not a favorable decision, but she did not look like someone suitable for combat, and with her speech incapacity on top of that, other teams would refuse her without second thoughts.

***

Most of the time, the mission of the team would be to patrol an area of the Beast Forest near the village and take out any vile beasts spotted at the scene.

The most important thing that leader Anver had repeated time and time was never to let the vile beast touches you, or any of its blood or saliva spray on you.

The sun had begun to set on the horizon, colors were fading away, the last bit of twilight was disappearing from the sky.

Right now, the team was facing three vile goblins.

A goblin jumped at Anver, wildly swung the wooden club on its hand. The mercenary leader deflected the danger with a shield on his arm.

Another goblin shrieked as it ran at Naomi. The thing did not have any weapon. It latched itself onto Naomi's shield and screamed its lungs out at Naomi's face.

Naomi was beyond horrified. The creature had a grotesque face that looked like the worst miscreation of nature. Its dark red eyes locked onto hers and its unholy sound pierced her eardrums. In her panic, she was in no mind to remember Jack's advice to limit her strength.

Naomi kicked at the shield with all the might. The creature was instantly pulverized in the face of extreme acceleration. The shield broke into several pieces, as did the goblin. Blood, limps, head, wood pieces rained down on Naomi's position. The girl immediately tried to cover herself with her long hooded coat.

When the organic rain stopped, Naomi stood up. She got rid her coat like she was throwing away a cockroach, and retreated several steps. She took a nervous look around.

Lena was looking at her, wide-eyed. In front of the woman, a goblin was nailed to a tree, an arrow protruding from its forehead.

Anver also had a stupefied expression. His hand was still holding onto the spear, the tip of which was on the other side of a goblin's abdomen.

The goblin speared by Anver fell onto the ground, motionless, producing a small "thud" sound, which woke up everyone.

"Holy sh*t…" Anver murmured in astonishment.

Lena dropped her crossbow and rushed to Naomi. She checked the girl from top to bottom. There was no blood on her. The white shirt Naomi was wearing was still clean, except for some marks of dirt.

After taking a while to digest the event that transpired, the mercenary leader walked toward the two. Naomi felt dread in her heart.

[Would he berate me for that excessive force that nearly endangered everyone?]

[Or… would he accuse me of being a witch because of my unnatural strength?]

None of that happened. The team leader smiled as he reached out his hand and patted her head.

***

The team was resting outside the village after the long walk. Farmers and lumbermen had all wrapped up their working day and gone home. Teams of armed men and women were coming out of the forest. Some looked tired and quiet. Some were rowdier. They were probably the lucky few that did not encounter many or any beast during today's patrol.

Anver was sitting beside Lena. The new recruit was seated a bit further away, silent, her hands clutching the inside-out dirty coat.

"I knew she was strong. I never thought she was that strong. It's almost like she is…" Anver was struggling to find an appropriate word.

"…A witch?" Lena raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

Lena laughed. Anver looked at her, confused.

"You should know by now, when a witch uses an ability, there would be some sort of 'wave' in the air. The more powerful the ability is, the more you can feel that wave." Lena tilted her head at the girl's direction. "And that looked pretty strong."

"I know… but then, what is she?" Anver turned his eyes toward the girl.

Feeling gazes at her, the young girl looked troubled. She hid her head in between her knees, occasionally peeked toward the other two.

"If she is a witch, what will you do? You of all people wouldn't report her to the church, right?"

The leader did not answer.

"Isn't it better for us if she is a witch?" Lena smiled. She jokingly punched at the man next to her.

Anver shook his head and smiled wryly. He stood up and gestured to the others to do the same.

"That's enough rest, let's go home."