Chapter 4: A problem that is growing

The day dawns on Hallguna, the first rays of the sun light up the hall residences.

The air was humid and carried a scent of freshness throughout the village.

WIIIIIIIIIIII

The faint sound of a whistle rang through the village, drawing many of them still asleep from their beds, mostly those from the south.

The serans are back !

Habel was already awake when the sound reached her in the garden.

<< Again… It's really strange.

In the distance, we could hear the sounds of residents rushing to take shelter.

To avoid any accident that might occur, the inhabitants would take refuge in the north, leaving this place to the warriors responsible for repelling the invaders.

After checking that Maha had not been awakened from her sleep by all this commotion, he went back to watering the plants in the garden, not caring much about what was happening.

SH-SH-SH-SH-SH

Digging noises could be heard not far from him.

<< Where does this sound come from ?

Looking a little, he understood that it was coming from the fence surrounding the village, as if the ground was being dug…

Sensing the danger, Habel took a fairly long knife while waiting to see what would rise to the surface.

One leg came out of the ground, then a second before four others came out.

It was a seran !

<< They managed to overcome the barrier ? The foundations are nevertheless deep.

GRRRrrrrr

The beast began to growl at the sight of Habel, and behind it, another one prepared to come out.

'There must be a lot of people wanting to go through there, fortunately, the hole isn't big enough for many to come out at the same time… I'm going to have to plug it'.

'1,2… And 3, I must not let more go'.

Habel got into a fighting stance, holding the knife in her right hand.

He threw himself at one of them before they attacked.

Swooshh

Habel narrowly missed causing the head of one of the beasts to fly off, but managed to seriously injure it in the neck.

'Hmm… Rather agile, I thought I had removed her head, she won't be able to escape it next time'.

A seran lunged at him, but he easily dodged before attacking the wounded beast.

He stuck his knife directly into its skull and then before the others reacted, he blocked the hole by pushing the body of the dead beast inside.

At the same time pushing back the exit of the fourth.

<< Good, now it's just the two of you left.

Wisshhh

Woooshh

Before he took action, an arrow suddenly stuck in the head of one of the beasts and a spear in the ribs of the other, killing them on the spot.

When Habel looked at where the attacks were coming from, he saw two people wearing masks heading towards him.

They were warriors, a man and a woman.

-It looks like she was right, many serans slipped through another place.

-It's true, I never thought these beasts were capable of it.

Habel was surprised to see warriors here while we were under attack.

-Are you okay, little one ? Asked the man.

<< …Yes, I have nothing.

-It was dangerous to decide to fight them instead of running away for help, well, you have nothing so I'm not going to say anything more about that. She says.

-Hahaha, he's strong for a kid.

The man began to pat Habel on the shoulder as he laughed at the sky.

Habell removed his hand from his shoulder, quite annoyed by the warrior's behavior.

<< How did you know there were serans around here ?

'They can't be here by chance'.

-Hmm… It was Milkha who sent us to check, the serans were behaving strangely. Normally, after seeing the obvious failure of their attack, they would have withdrawn as usual, but this time, they were particularly persistent as if they were trying to buy time.

-That's why she sent us to check the surroundings, especially the north.

<< I see…

'Milkha hum… The brain of the warriors, she lives up to her nickname'.

-Let's go check the passage they made, I'll remove the corpse. Get ready to shoot them if there are any more that try to get out.

The warrior gave instructions to her colleague after they had recovered their weapons from the corpses of the serans.

-Understood !! Exclaimed the warrior.

She pulled the corpse out of the hole and quickly moved away to avoid a surprise attack.

'…'

'…'

'…'

No seran came out.

After checking, there were no more animals in the tunnel.

-It looks like they have withdrawn. Said the man.

The warrior shook her head in acceptance.

-We have to report this to the boss, as for you, little…

* * *

After the events of this morning, warriors arrived to take care of the tunnel that had been dug.

Maha checked Habel multiple times after hearing what happened.

Around noon, Habel was summoned to the upper courtyard by the idykachi.

The upper courtyard is a completely different place from the lower courtyard, particularly in terms of the quality of construction and its layout.

Beyond the different and varied structures, the major difference lay in the material used, here, everything was made of wood.

Wood is a resource that is not rare on the island, on the contrary, we see it as far as the eye can see.

In the past, the majority of buildings were built with wood, but everything changed the day the current Kachi took power.

Habel was led by a warrior to the court of elders, the place serving as an audience and discussion room for all important matters.

He had been to the upper courtyard many times, but this was the first time he had set foot in this place.

The room was large and many decorations could be seen adorning it, in particular, the sculptures and paintings.

Two crescent moon-shaped tables were arranged opposite each other with the elders sitting on them.

Between the tables, there was a path leading to the throne of the Kachi and to its right that of the priestess.

The Kachi throne was carved in the image of the man carved from the stones at the entrance to the village, but in more detail.

It was made from the highest quality wood.

As they entered, all eyes were turned towards them.

Among his looks, there was one that was full of malice and hatred towards him, it was that of the priestess.

'She must be angry because of what I did to Hayak'.

Habel was positioned between the two tables.

To start the meeting, it was the idykachi who spoke.

<< Now that everyone has arrived, the meeting can begin !

An elder with a very long beard spoke : << I thought I heard that Serans had entered the village, is this information correct ?

<< Indeed, some of them managed to escape our vigilance. Replied the idykachi.

-How is this possible ?

-Our warriors, do their job so badly ?

-If I was still a young warrior, this kind of thing could never happen !

-We should reduce their resources for the trouble !

-Yes, that would be a good punishment !

-Yes, this way they will be more careful next time.

-Milkha and Halzir were not there ?

-It's true, this kind of mistake should not happen with them present !

Many reprimands were pronounced against the warriors by the elders.

Many had doubts about the veracity of this information, because, in the general unconscious, warriors were supposed to be competent enough to handle simple serrans.

It's not like they're being asked to fight 'the guardian of the forest'.

To stop the noise, the idykachi raised his hand : << Calm down everyone, it's not the fault of our warriors, I assure you…

<< In fact, the serans managed to pass under the barrier north of the village. They appeared in a place where no one could expect them. Despite our deep foundations, they managed to create a tunnel, and those without anyone being able to realize it, beasts more clever than expected.

-WHAAAAT !

Some elders jumped from their seats, shocked by this news, widening their eyes in shock.

The foundations of the barrier are deeply embedded in the ground, it would take many days spent digging to hope to be able to reach the bottom in addition to having to rise to the surface by the same process.

The serans would be capable of it ?

-So, all the attacks until now were diversions so that they could create another passage…

-Impossible ! They would be so smart ?

<< I'm afraid so… Said the idykachi.

-In this case, now that we've found it, we just need to close this damn tunnel and all their work will ultimately be for nothing. Said one of the elders.

-Hahaha, it's true ! You are quite right.

The pressure from all the elders seemed to have disappeared after hearing this.

But it was short-lived…

<< sigh. Speaking of which, I have another piece of bad news…

Everyone's eyes went towards the idykachi.

<< After a little search around the barrier, many similar tunnels were found. They are spaced by significant distances between them, and for the most part, we find them in the north and it is not excluded that we have not spotted all of them, basically, the situation is very serious.

In an instant, the small spark of relief they had acquired was extinguished.

Not one, but several passages…

Far from each other on top of that.

How were they going to manage this ?

It's not like they can plug the tunnels from the outside, because they'll never have enough time to do that with the daily attacks.

In addition, there are not enough warriors to be able to manage all the tunnels.

An elder hit his armrest in anger and shouted in rage : << WHY ARE THESE DAMN BEASTS ATTACKING US YET WE HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO THEM !!!

No one responded to these words, the basic situation was incomprehensible from the start for everyone…

-Ma-Maybe it's a punishment given by the gods because of this 'w-woman' Said one of the elders in a low voice.

Words that everyone in the silent room had heard.

Boom !

<< Silence !

The narrowed dark eyes and stern tone of the Idykachi made everyone who was preparing to talk more about this topic shut their mouths.

'A woman Who could it possibly be for them to react like that…'. Habell thought.

Listening to the conversation without saying anything from the beginning, he was a little concerned about the situation since it was the area he resided in that was the most in danger.

'Tss, damn animals, I'm not going to let you do as you please and disrupt my daily life…'.

Huuffff

After regaining his composure, the idykachi turned his gaze towards Habel.

<< We will find a solution to this problem when we discuss it among ourselves later. I have informed you of the general situation with this child present, because it is thanks to him that the damage was limited, and we were spared from a disaster.

<< This is why I decided to reward him for his actions.

The elders accepted the decision of the Idykachi.

The priestess, for her part, almost seemed to want to burn him on the spot.

Ignoring everyone's reactions, the idykachi addressed Habel, extending his hand towards him : << Tell me, what reward do you want… My son ?