The Blair Forest

6 months later...

In a forest illuminated by moonlight, a group of 10 armed men were seen walking. Seven of them were carrying swords, two were carrying bows, and one was carrying a mage's staff.

As they were walking, one of them said:

"We can't find any monsters, don't you think that's strange? Because at night is when they come out to hunt."

"Hm, it's strange, but we're at the beginning yet, so it's likely that when we get deep into the forest, we'll find enough monsters to pay for booze and a prostitute Haha."

They all laughed and walked back towards the depths of the forest....

After a few hours, one of them said in frustration:

"Aren't we already deep in the forest? Why haven't we found anything yet?"

"Something's wrong... Have you heard about the superpredators?"

"Superpredators? Yes, they say it's a monster at the top of the chain, but why are you asking that?"

"Because the only way to justify the disappearance of the monsters, would be that they were devoured by this superpredator."

"So our mission to subdue the monsters has been altered to kill a single monster?"

"A superpredator is not a mere monster..."

Suddenly, the mage began to use a signaling magic, magic that was intended to draw all attention to where it was signaled.

"Are you planning to attract this superpredator to where we are?" Their leader asked the mage and he just nodded in response.

Seeing what the plan would be, All agreed with the mage to lure the beast, after all, it is better to lure him into an ambush than to enter his territory. But little did they know that from the start, they were already in the beast's territory...

The wizard lifted his staff up and hit the ground with all his might. When the staff touched the ground, a blue fire came out of it and spread to all corners.

After this event, everyone got into battle formation where they covered each other's backs and protected the wizard and the archers.

They stared into the darkness of the forest while waiting for the monster to come.

After a few minutes without any appearance of the monster or any sign like noises, their leader said:

"Perhaps the superpredator has come out of the..." Before he could finish his sentence, he heard crows flying out of the forest and everyone was startled for a few moments, but they quickly regained their composure and increased their guard.

As all the crows were leaving, a small light was turned on inside the forest, a light coming from a lantern attached to a tree branch.

Their leader used fire magic on his sword and shouted:

"Reveal yourself!"

Suddenly, the lantern began to sway and his response came soon after.... "Paft" the lantern fell to the ground and broke. Along with the lantern's light going out, mysteriously the leader's fire magic also went out, but the problem was that the only light that illuminated the forest, was that one...

Quickly the leader shouted to the archers to light a torch, but as he looked back, the leader realized that he was alone in the middle of the forest... Suddenly a strong fright that could easily cause a heart attack came to the leader's heart and he began to tremble.

He started to get scared and to make matters worse, a new lantern was lit in front of him.

"This is not a monster, This is something worse than a monster..." As he finished saying his sentence, the lantern began to swing again on the branch and driven by desperation or pure instinct. The leader ran to the lantern and held it, he didn't want to lose that one light.

While holding the lantern and preventing it from falling, out of sheer desperation, the leader began to run as far away from that place as possible...

In the darkness of the forest, a woman's macabre laughter was heard as she watched the man running for his life...

.

.

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1 day later...

Walking through the streets of a rainy city, two people in black robes and wearing hoods were seen by the citizens. They, who had lived in the city for years, could easily differentiate a civilian from an outsider...

The two hooded people ignored all the prying eyes of the people and entered the adventurers' guild. As they opened the door, a "ding" sound was heard and as expected, they attracted everyone's attention.

Not caring about this, the two walked to the tavern and sat down at the counter. Near them, there was a group of drunken adventurers who were celebrating the completed mission and one of them who by the way was arrogant, stood up and walked over to the two hooded people and said:

"We don't like outsiders here, especially when they don't reveal their faces."

Calmly, the two hooded people took off their hoods and the faces of jacob and grace were revealed; jacob possessed a face with handsome features and with a badly trimmed beard on his face, his hair was long and dirty. Grace, on the other hand, was wearing a new hairstyle that highlighted her beautiful face.

"Hm, I'm glad you did that, you shits!" The adventurer spoke that and returned to his seat.

Jacob and grace didn't mind the man's insults, he just looked at the clerk and said as he tossed a silver coin:

"We want two chicken soups and a room with two beds."

"Ah, yes sir, I will provide that..." The clerk took the silver coin and quickly went about solving his requests.

Suddenly, Jacob and Grace began to hear two men talking about a story...

"I have heard tales told by bards that told the story of a man riding a huge white wolf.... He is said to be the greatest enemy of humanity and the goddess freya." A man spoke that and his friend replied:

"That is just a story."

"You think so? The bard told that he is dangerous alone and with his wolf he is a fortress. They say that not even the entire army of a nation can defeat him."

"Pffff, but heroes can."

"Heroes? They say he has already defeated several..."

"Oh? Really? But tell me something... How did this guy come about?"

"It's a mystery, but they say he roams the continent after wealth and power."

"Hm, so he's a pirate?"

"No! He lives on land and not at sea, you idiot!"

"Hm, but do you know his name?"

"Yes... His name is Jacob voss." Suddenly, a gentleman entered the conversation and spoke:

"Jacob voss, I've heard that name before..."

The two men looked at the old man and asked:

"Have you ever heard about him? Mister glaus?"

"Jacob voss... For my religion, he is the most dangerous man, in the world." The two men and others who were listening to the conversation, were shocked and terrified by that statement.

"He is more dangerous than the demon king? Mr glaus?"

"we should not fear the dead; We should fear the living.... This man has the gods on his side."

"Hm, so he is a heathen.... But how do you know all this?"

"A few months ago, my group and I received a mission to help the soldiers of the Duke of Garinfield. The mission was to exterminate monsters, but actually our mission was to exterminate heathen humans from a nearby village. We tried not to get involved in that, but since we had received orders and mostly money, unfortunately we had to kill everyone..." Glaus paused in respect for the dead and then told again:

"Just as we were about to finish... Two people appeared riding a white wolf. Their faces were covered by the hood and before we all realized it, a slaughter took place... One by one they killed each of us and by sheer luck I had managed to escape. I had then hidden in a forest and after a few hours I returned to the town of Garinfield, but when I got there... The town was completely burned and destroyed. All I could see was a man riding a white wolf in the smoke."

People were surprised and terrified by this story, because it was public knowledge that Garinfield was destroyed by monsters, so to hear someone say that it was a man who destroyed the town and not an army of monsters, was absurd.

Grace smiled upon hearing that story and whispered to Jacob:

"You're getting famous. Pretty soon there will be people knocking on your door after autographs."

"Yeah, there probably will be..."

Suddenly a waitress arrived with the two chicken soups and gave them to Jacob and Grace. Just then the clerk returned and said:

"The room is ready now, here is the key." The clerk put the room key on the counter and Jacob took it and asked a question:

"Can you tell the story of Blair Forest?"

"Blair Forest? Let's see... It's a legend that tells about a witch who lives there, a gruesome and dangerous witch. They say that in the past she was burned inside and ended up resurrected as a curse. But no need to worry, the only thing inside that forest are monsters."

Suddenly, the door of the guild was rushed open and everyone looked at the door only to see a man trembling with fear while holding a lantern in his hands...

[...]

Author's note:

Illustration of Jacob's new appearance in the comments!

Let me know what you think about the chapter, thanks for reading (^•^)