The Winner

By nightfall, all of the remaining groups had already regrouped at the outpost, There were alot of noise and excitement but one of the groups suffered some injuries. One of the seniors who excelled in healing spells took care of it, There was a bonfire in the middle of the camp, Master Senx was sitting on a boulder near the bonfire and he looked down on all of us sitting in cross legged position.

" Well done, students ! all of you have hunted successfully and I can see some of you have exceeded my expectations, there will be rewards for your hard work, " Master Senx declared loudly. Chattering and murmurs rose from the groups. " How awesome !, " Dan commented.

" Well then, your senior here will announce the first three winners and the rest of you can try harder next time, " Master Senx said.

A tall senior with short hair and a scar on his left cheek came forward and said, " My name is Najaki and I will now announce your results "

" First place Gira Bren's group with six Red Hounds, Second place Dan Vonter's group with five Red hounds, Third place Quillen's group with four hounds. That's all !, " He announced and bowed at Master Senx to deliver his last announcement.

" The point of today's test was for you to gain actual experience in the field, you shouldn't never underestimate even the weakest varae, in real battle you never know what could happen. Learn your weakness and improve upon it, A slayer must always hunt with precaution and strategy, " said Master Senx from the boulder. " Now, you can return back to your dorm "

We left our hunts at the outpost, they could be used for meat but red hounds meat was not known for its taste, it's bland and hard to chew.

" Ahhhhh- they got six kills? that guy as Zenora said is good !, " Dan complained.

" As expected of someone who was trained from a young age, " Ellena said while cleaning her sword as we walked our way back home.

" Also he was the first one to come back from the hunt, " I said.

" Crazy ! looks like he hunted them before, " Ellena added.

" But hey we also did good, we got five kills after all, " Dan encouraged us. " And Zenora thanks for the boost spells, it really did help a lot, "

She just nodded and didn't join the conversation.

" Anyway, Lan who taught you to shoot arrows like that? that's some troublesome skills, " Dan praised me again.

I laughed and replied humbly, " My father taught me and I just did some hares hunting and sometimes birds, "

" Hah! you are an interesting guy ! " Dan patted on my back.

Ellena smiled and said, " Without your arrows, we might have been in a tough spot, "

" Thank you but this bow will only work on lower varaes, other upper class varaes has insane hard scales and fur, so it will be useless there, " I said. " Even on lower varaes, it won't work on that big reptile, Drasentra. "

" Yeah, although I have never seen one, Drasentra has scales hard as woods but that also goes the same for us, swords won't do much damage if its scales are hard as wood. " Ellena said while rubbing her chin.

" But it's abdomen is unprotected, we can hunt it down if we can wound it's belly, " I said as I recalled the information from the books I read in the library.

" I didn't know that, Interesting. " said Dan.

" You seemed to know a lot, " Ellena remarked.

" Haha- The library, " I replied.

Dan and Ellena smiled at me and we went back to our dorm rejoicing our first successful hunt, However Zenora didn't even say a word the whole trip and she looked ashamed for some reason. Was it because she couldn't get the chance to use her offensive spells? she did contributed alot to the fight, without her support Dan and Ellena wouldn't have been very much confident during the battle.

" See this wound, Master Senx, " said Najaki while examining the hound's body Lan killed with his arrow.

" Hmmm, looks like it pierced through the eyes from the sideways. " Master Senx examined the other hounds left by Dan Volter's group.

" Yes, Master Senx. This level of precision is not just some mere luck, It's a mastery of art. " Najaki was deeply impressed.

" Someone killed them with just arrows, that's remarkably brave no matter how weak hounds are, " said Yori, one of Najaki classmates, a senior who was intrigued by the wounds.

" Plus no one would ever imagine bringing a traditional weapon like a bow to hunt a varae, " said another senior. " oh hoo! He is quite accurate with his shots, look at those wounds, he purposely hit the limbs so that he can restrict their movements. "

Master Senx smiled proudly and remarked " He does possess the qualities of a hunter, "

" We have some quite talented students this year, " said Najaki.

" Yes, looks like a new era of slayers is coming " said Master Senx while looking up at the sky.

A month had already passed after our first practical hunt, we continued to learn about new varaes and the same intensity of combat training continued and I haven't heard a single word from Nyaka, I wondered how she must be doing, ' Is she happy? Has she gotten stronger? How much has she changed over the last few months? '

With my strict routine and secret training, two months later I saw some visible changes in my body. I developed some muscles and was looking healthy. I was happy, finally I looked like a proper healthy boy. Ellena also said I look much better now, my cheeks have become much filled with flesh which was just a skin covering previously when I first came. I felt weird, I was so used to my skinny body that I felt alienated with my new healthy body.

Meanwhile, Master Senx didn't take us for another hunt but continued to train us even more intensively. Teacher Ferei's class shifted from talking about lower varaes to upper division varaes. Dan dozed off her class most of the time but I listened attentively. Zenora seemed to have progressed a lot in her magic, she also declared she has learnt most of the combat oriented lower tier spells upto level two. Ellena sparred alot with Dan and both of them seemed equally matched, Dan asked me to spar with him but since I needed to train at night, I insisted I conserve my strength for later training. Quillen and Gira were not on good terms, most of the time in class they exchanged hostile glares and It seemed Gira was kind of a bully. Although he didn't approach us, he indulged his superiority of his strength on others, weaker students. He made them run his errands and made them follow him around like his lackeys. I didn't like that, I thought I would just break his neck if he ever touched me. I didn't like his personality, he caused pain on his classmates just for his mere entertainment. The fact that he didn't approach us was maybe because of Dan and Ellena identities, even no matter how much of a bully he was, he wouldn't dare mess with Pillars. Quillen on the hand was continuously getting poked by Gira Bren. Zenora also admitted that he is quite a bully and has a nasty personality.

Gira Bren, being the winner of the first hunt. He looked down on everyone and being the best so far, no one protested against his behaviour, however I wouldn't tolerate his forceful imposing just like them. One day, I was sitting silently in the class reading a book I borrowed from the library, Gira Bren jumped on me out of nowhere " Hey, Lan " He put his hand around my shoulder. Unfortunately, Dan was not present in the class at the moment.

" What do you want? Gira, " I said, starting to get annoyed. If possible I didn't like to cause a scene in the class.

" I heard you killed hounds with arrows?, " He said while chuckling.

" Yes and?, " I replied, shrugging his hand off from my shoulder.

" How lame !, " He chuckled. " You think slayers are some kind of rabbit hunters?. "

His lackey also laughed along with him. " Why don't you just leave him alone? Gira. " Ellena was glaring at him.

" Oh my, it's the Raskira girl, Alright, alright I was just having fun, " He said and detached himself from me.

As he was about to leave, he smacked on the back of my head and laughed again with his lackeys. I was so infuriated that I almost forgot I was in the class, everything I thought of being rational was suddenly overwhelmed by my instant rage. Consumed by blood lust, I stood up and as he was leaving I called his name and at the same time I threw a swift punch at his face as he turned around. It landed good, he was caught off guard. It was not cowardly because to me it was the same as a hunt. Gira flew backward and landed hard on the ground and hit his head on the tough floor, I was not over. I mounted over his fallen body and started pummeling his face, he brought up his hand to guard his face but then I swung my fist from the sideway and got him good on his face, blood and mucus started flying out from his nose and mouth. His lackeys didn't even interfere, all of them just backed away in fear. Gira was falling unconscious, his hand dropped off but I was not done. He needed to be taught a lesson that if he thought he was strong then I was savage, if he was trained from a young age to bully others then I was conditioned to kill or be killed in the wild from a young age.

Ellena, Zenora and everyone was watching the slaughter without a word. For the Final blow, I pulled his bashed face by his hair which was now swelling in places and blood dripped from nose and teeth were missing, and declared, " Do that to me ever again, I will gouge your eyes out " I glared with blood lust straight into his soul. From his eyes, I could see he was traumatized, his spirit was crushed. However, he had it coming. I was not so kind enough to let it go after humiliating me like that in front of everyone.

Just like animals, humans also learn through fear and what Gira experienced was true fear that he will never forget for the rest of his life. From this day onwards, Gira would never go near me ever again and for better, his bullies would also decrease.

Leaving his wounded body cold on the floor, I calmly returned to my seat, wiped my fists of blood and resumed my reading.