Hunter Datapad (2)

Hunting with Ethelred felt different than hunting with others. His aura, his demeanor, his gaze. The methods he used. The atmosphere of wherever we walked changed simply because he was there.

From my time with the hunt I've learnt two things that would keep me alive inside.

First was to never anger a Progenitor. Second,never by any circumstance anger Ethelred, once that happens. Not even the Progenitors could save you.

Two hundred eighty seven confirmed hunter executions.

Two thousand eighty seven hunters hunted.

Ethelred was the only one who would actively hunt down hunters and the only one who would not hesitate to kill a hunter.

When we were following some tracks and clues I heard the wind whistle. Ethelred pushed my body back a bit and before I could ask what was wrong an arrow had notched itself on the tree in front of me, the arrow directly in front of my eyes.

"They know we're here," Ethelred calmly stated as he took out his greatsword.

"Make sure to record this," Ethelred smirked as his sword glowed red and a blood red moon hovered the sky above us. From what I heard the moon was some kind of barrier that would prevent people from escaping.

"Now…" Ethelred took a deep breath before getting into a stance. "Let the hunt begin again," He continued, he had disappeared in a flash and a loud crash could be heard. I watched as a swing of his great sword completely terraformed the forests around us.

For a second I felt bad for the people that he was facing. They were literally facing the devil himself. Ethelred was also infamous for toying with his food. He made sure to slightly graze their skin, avoiding any lethal blows, and allowing them to get some hits in.

This was Ethelred. The hunter that hunts for fun and amusement. How he had survived till now was a mystery to everyone, but that proved one thing. His capabilities. Even though he was always playful in a fight, he'd always come out on top, and that was what set him apart from everyone else.

Ethelred had the mentally and strength to win while enjoying what he does.

In the end the heads of the ten hunters we were ordered to kill laid in front of me. I was tasked to report and check that everything was right, but the state of their bodies almost made me puke. This was the first time I've seen a hunt this bloody, and this was not even against Honkai beasts. This was against another hunter.

I asked him why he didn't just end the hunt quickly, he was obviously far stronger than any of them.

His answer was "Humans or short life species have a tendency to suddenly gain strength from unknown sources when they are met with the face of death. Vivere Militare Est," He muttered the end part, but soon continued.

"Whenever I fight someone I push them slightly to the edge to see if they have that spark that would make them stronger through unknown sources. That sliver of hope that they might survive then the despair they'll feel after I defeat them is what I find most amusing," He chuckled. He was a man without empathy or sympathy. I for one rarely see him care for anyone, he was someone that even hunters avoid to converse. The only people I see him talking to are either the Progenitors or hunters that could actually stand a chance against him.

At the end of the day I reported the hunt to the Progenitors and gave them the recording of the hunt. They seemed satisfied and the look they had on their face was as if they had expected this to happen, like this was some common occurrence that would happen when Ethelred set foot on the battlefield.

After they dismissed me I was asked by a few people how the hunt went and the same reaction appeared when I told them, it was as if everyone in the hunt knew what would happen when you were hunted down by Ethelred. They all knew what that hunter was capable of and how deranged he was.

A/N: This is a note I decided to add a few years later. Imagine my surprise when he was dating someone. The cold hearted Ethelred holding hands like a sweet couple. I guess there are some things in life that will always catch you off guard.

The year **** I was tasked with watching over a few people along with a Progenitor. He was Emendiel. Rumors say that he had the Herrscher of Void's blood coursing through his veins. Although he still hasn't gotten the hang of the full power he could still do the small things the Herrscher of Void could do.

The group we were watching were called Fire Moth. This was when they were recently founded. Our goal was to observe and see if they can protect themselves at least before preaching of protecting humanity and in the end would kill more than protect.

I watched as Fire Moth grew from a small group to now the biggest organization to fend against the Honkai. Although their numbers are definitely higher than ours, their quality was poor.

So we hunters as usual played God and gave them a test. A few years after they started to develop their strength well we for the first time let a Herrscher unhunted and left Fire Moth to deal with the Herrscher.

We watched as they struggled to deal with the Herrscher as they lost two cities before completely subduing the Herrscher. The same can be said for the second. They were lacking in many things, but we were mere spectators. We were arrogant, we were selfish, there was a time where we thought that we would still do fine without them, so they merely served as a spectacle and entertainment.

We all watched as they soon did something similar to us, they fused their blood with Honkai beast. But the number of people that survived were merely twelve and they didn't continue with the project any further.

What a waste we all thought as we let them do as they please. There was a time when they found us. They thought we had a higher survivability rate, but we all chuckled at that statement and told them.

Some of us are thousands of years old. Our survivability rate was 0.02%, our numbers are high because we are able to preserve our numbers. The only thing we learnt from them was creating the Oath of Judah, we never thought that the core could be used like that and thanks to that we managed to find use to the dozens of Herrscher cores that were left unattended for years. We seriously had a hard time figuring out what to do with the Herrscher of Binding's core, but thanks to that, hunts became easier.