Hunting Hunters Hunt - Math Arnottir

"ONE!"

Reithi immediately sprinted towards us, a smile on his face, "Let's start with a bang!" He yelled out, ducking behind a tree before I could ready myself for a counter. I made sure to take note of the others as they left Reithi to his own devices as he faced both me and Stolt.

"I'll have you handle this, it'll be good practice." Stolt backed off, Reithi weaving back and forth, making his footwork sporadic to throw me off.

I brought both of my hands out, open, relaxed -- Reithi shot forward, reeling a fist back and throwing a wide swinging punch in my direction.

I ducked under the punch and got a shot on his stomach but he retaliated quickly as I distanced myself from him by jumping toward me with a knee in the air. I jumped back and fell to the ground and he noticed, falling to the ground with me to mount me.

I pulled my knees to my chest and shot my legs out, pushing Reithi back who crawled away quickly, jumping back behind the trees, cursing under his breath.

I had a quick moment to compose myself, and process the name that Stolt had provided me and the like but that moment didn't last long as Reithi began moving in again.

He brought both of his arms close to his chest, keeping his chin just behind his fist, and started weaving in a way that mimicked the shape of an infinite symbol - this was the Dempsey roll. Right as he got close to me he threw out a jab and I dodged, almost hit by his cross but luckily also dodged that but it didn't prepare me for the next jab, which I was vulnerable for.

The jab was hard and hit my cheek, stunning me for a few seconds but still attempting to distance myself from the irritable and aggressive Reithi.

I tried to attempt my own jab but missed it, but it gave me a clearer idea of the distance between each other.

This gauging of distance came at a price though when I took a hit to the ribs, it was just a jab but it shook me a bit and made me flinch as he went in for an uppercut, which I managed to dodge narrowly as the knuckle of his thumb scraped my face.

Shockingly, out of the blue, Reithi stepped to the side and with one quick step got me with the hardest jab he had thrown thus far.

My knees buckled for a moment before quickly regaining my sanity, throwing a kick to his dominant leg which was quickly thrown up into the air and used as an ax kick which missed as I had moved out of the way, almost tripping over myself.

"Seem to know a lot, but inexperience will be your downfall!"

"Ha!" I couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Like you're one to talk, you're me!"

With a smile on his face, he squared off with me, "I'll show you how much better I am..."

He spun, his upper body lowering to the ground -- I couldn't help but recoil at the sudden movement, not even noticing the back of his heel which was quickly speeding toward my chin. That doesn't mean I hadn't dodged that as well but it was even more narrow than his uppercut as he grazed past my chin, spinning in the direction of the kick to diminish the damage.

By the time Reithi was back standing normally again, the skin of my chin was hanging loosely off my face, blood pooling slowly on the exposed fatty layer of my face.

I clicked my tongue as he snickered.

"I'm so glad I can finally put a weak fucker like you in their place!"

I ignored his comment, bringing my left fist up to my face and lowering my right, my arm looking as if loosely hanging on by my shoulder as I hopped rhythmically.

"You think that's gonna work?"

Hitman Style boxing, that is what I'm using. The next step now is to catch Reithi in my combo.

Two jabs from me were thrown out and he dodged both then I quickly threw out a cross. The cross though was a feint that made him dodge out the way which was used to bait him into a right hook. It smacked against his cheek which made him retreat but I couldn't let him get away yet as I kicked the ground, sending me toward him with an uppercut, slamming in the chin then backing up again, hitting him with another quick jab through the Hitman style.

He looked enraged that he got caught, too distracted that he didn't even notice that I was about to kick him in the leg, which threw off his balance when I did, his dominant leg reeling back as his expression quickly became worried.

I kept the pressure up until I baited him into thinking I was gonna do a jab and kick him in the leg once more which was a double feint as I managed to hit him with a crescent kick in the jaw, dropping him.

I wasn't out of stamina and I didn't get a cramp from it all luckily due to my use of mana.

As he was on the ground looking at me, I could visibly see the veins on his face, his jaw visibly tightening and his eyes growing wider with rage.

He stumbled a bit as he rose off from the ground but as he stood his mana grew stronger and stronger, spitting at the ground a small bit of spit with blood mixed in.

"I ain't lettin' that happen again."

"Go fuck yourself, Reith."

It looked like he became heavier as the ground shook in response to the change, his glare becoming more and more threatening as his body became more relaxed, head held high and looking down at me.

Each punch thrown at this point looked slow at first but suddenly became faster and faster as time went on. I could dodge it but sometimes exhaustion combined with how overwhelmed I felt pushed me back significantly, each hit feeling like a car had slammed into my body, my arms, and chest riddled with bruises.

I decided to use body enhancement.

I attempt to punch him back but he quickly parried my attack, moving straight into another punch, dropping me to the ground where I swiftly took him down.

He cursed as both of my legs locked around his and kicked his feet out from under him.

He panicked, attempting to both get his legs away from me and me away from his legs as I locked around his ankle.

CRACK!

He screamed as loud as he could, his ankle twisted and broken.

"Holy shit!" Jidu exclaimed, "I actually didn't expect him to lose, ha!"

Stolt jumped straight at Jidu who jumped back in response.

Stolt fell in front of him and Jidu smirked thinking this was the perfect opportunity before being quickly taken down by Stolt as his landing quickly transitioned into a tackle. Stolt began raining down punches onto Jidu's face, as he blocked the front of his face Stolt started down hooks, and when he tried blocking the sides of his face, he started slamming his fist into Jidu's face again until finally, Jidu gave in, passing out from the physical trauma, blood spilling from his nose and lips.

Stolt cracked his neck before getting off of Jidu, looking over at me with a blank expression on his face almost as if asking me what we should do next.

I exhaled sharply out my nose, looking at the writhing Reithi before looking back at the curious Stolt.

"So... does that mean we hunted them?"

Stolt nodded, "They are technically targets... it's a free for all after all."

"I mean... do we capture them?"

Stolt looked to the passed-out Jidu, tilting his head, "Hm... we can kill them. It's not like they'd be gone for good if we did."

I pressed my lips together, my heart dropping to my stomach as I glanced at the both of them nervously, "I don't... I've never killed a person..."

"All other hunts will have to be kills as well, I'm assuming the same thing applies here."

I let out a sigh, hands on my hips looking in the air, "O... O-okay." I nod, "I'll kill Reithi, you got Jidu."

"Yep."

We killed both of them and moved to a safer place, specifically a cave that looked over the large forest we were in before.

It was an odd experience and honestly sort of shook me since I visibly saw myself die twice. Slitting their necks, watching the life drain from their lives as they helplessly attempted to struggle.

I almost vomited seeing that, it truly is a different feeling compared to killing Goblins or even just killing myself regularly without literally murdering myself.

I hope I can end this hunt early.

*End of Volume 1*