A Night Stalker

Raven rubbed his face as he suppressed a sigh of frustration. Beside him, the young man that was in his early twenties stifled a mocking laugh.

"You are too impatient." The young man commented.

"We have been out here for two hours already, Gavin." Raven glared at his friend. Gavin was the closest to his age among all the people that Old man Wikes had hidden in his underground haven, so the two of then got along after some time together. Wikes often paired them up to run errands for him. And although Raven had been quite tough to get to know, the time had worn down his defenses and Gavin became his only friend.

"You will get used to it after some more time. There was an errand the old man sent me out for a couple years back. It took me three days to complete. This is an easy one." As Gavin spoke, a bush a distance away rustled. Gavin raised a hand, calling for silence before turning back and raising his bow, an arrow already nocked.

The bush rustled once more before a dark figure crawled out from underneath its cover. It was a creature with horns resembling a deer and a body like that of a wolf. It was a Night Stalker.

Night Stalkers were a rather rare breed of creatures. They were difficult to find, and without prior preparation, it was incredibly difficult to catch one if a person stumbled upon it. However, Old man Wikes had intentionally sent the two boys out to hunt down a Night Stalker, which gave them ample time to prepare to hunt one of these elusive creatures.

Raven watched silently as Gavin pulled back the string of the bow, his back straightening and his eyes narrowing as he took on an excellent posture.

Snap!

Whoosh!

The sound of the string snapping back to place and the arrow tearing through the air was crisp in the evening breeze. The two ears of the Night Stalker twitched as it turned in the direction of the arrow, jumping forward and low in order to avoid the arrow. However, the arrow still buried itself into the creature's right hind leg, drawing blood.

A low whimper left the creature's mouth as it stumbled, but kept on running, enduring the pain to escape the danger.

Seeing that the arrow had only hit the creature's leg, Raven slipped back into the shadows of the tree that hid the two boys, merging with the shadows and vanishing. He felt a considerable drain on his mana reserves as he used this technique, but he could put up with it for some time.

Using the shadows, he chased after the fleeing creature. He was surprised to find that the creature was somewhat able to blend in with shadows. And not just in a way that obscured its form. It actually leaped in and out of shadows!

'A creature with a similar power to mine?' Raven thought to himself, however, he was not worried. From what he could see, the Night Stalker could not truly immerse itself into the shadows and travel through them. It could only use the shadows to somewhat boost its movement speed to an extent. It was no match for Raven's own speed.

In a few seconds, Raven was already breathing down the creature's neck without it knowing. Just as it tried to jump into a shadow, Raven jumped out of that same shadow, wrapping his hands around the neck of the creature and giving it a twist.

Crack!

The sound of bones snapping was very clear as Raven tackled the Night Stalker. The creature's tenacious vitality allowed it to hold on for a few more seconds before eventually succumbing to the cold embrace of death.

Raven's tense body relaxed as the creature's breath ceased. He could hear the sound of Gavin's approach, but he was not focused on that. Instead, he was focused on the wisp of black smoke that suddenly escaped the body of the Night Stalker and jumped into his body, sending a chill running down his back.

"Raven, are you okay?" Gavin's voice snapped Raven to the present before he could even begin questioning what had happened.

"I'm fine. I caught it. Let's head back." Raven responded and got to his feet. He dusted off his body and turned back to the dead creature, intending on keeping what had happened to himself; He would find out more later on his own.

"Okay. You can carry it." Gavin nodded and turned around to examine the area. Raven did not complain. Despite Gavin being older, Raven had a better constitution because of his strange powers so it was not a problem for him to do the heavy lifting. This Night Stalker was not a fully grown one, and was around the size of a dog, so Raven was able to lift it to his shoulders with ease.

Raven was only fifteen years old, but he was not much shorter than Gavin, and his body was much more mature than that of boys his age. Someone who did not know him would imagine him to be in his early twenties or so. The only thing that gave him away was his rather boyish looks.

The two boys set off back to the underground hideout under the covert observation of none other than Old man Wikes. The man had been observing them right from the beginning!

"Hmm, there was no reaction like I expected. Is he already much further ahead than I expected? That is possible." The old man rubbed his wrinkled skin and nodded his head, his eyes clouded with many thoughts.

After collecting his thoughts, he dipped his hand into the pool of silvery liquid that reflected the situation outside before stirring it, destroying the image that it had been showing him. He then stood up and went over to a desk in the corner of the room, sitting down and picking up a fountain pen to write.