A Wolf on the Prowl

The Bounty Hunter had no choice but to tell the group to take the documents they found, keep them secret to everyone and bring them directly to the Guild Master after they speak with Alana, his handler. At first, the trio mentioned that they would like to help him on what would happen next, but Richard refused it claiming that: “I’m diving into a world of trouble, and I don’t want to drag you guys down with me. When the job’s done, I’ll regroup with you at the Guild. Don’t wait for me. You understand?”

The trio had no choice but to accept. Mr. Wolf was the kind of man who worked better when he was alone, and taking a group of inexperienced adventurers along would only slow him down or cause unnecessary trouble for them.

When Richard was alone, he tapped his ear to get a communication circle active. He ordered his composite bow and “Shutter” arrows which was met with a response from the other side. As soon as he said that, another magical circle appeared in front of him. Reaching into the circle, he pulled out his bow and a quiver of special arrows as ordered. At the same time, he placed some of his more cumbersome weapons inside the circle as well as his long coat, deciding to go light for this job. He kept his revolvers, his bowie knife and tomahawk axe, a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun for emergencies and other assorted grenade weapons, just in case.

According to the documents they had recovered, the Black Talon was expecting to meet up with “the client” at a specific location in the forest to conclude some sort of “transaction”. He’d heard from his contacts and gossip around town that there were some shady deals going on in the forest that caused people to disappear if they delved too deep into it. Richard had been in enough of these situations before to know what was going to happen and why… still, he had to take a look.

Making sure his light gear was properly ready, he took out his knife and tomahawk, and rushed into the forest to find the location of this meeting.

Nights in forests like these would usually bring a smile to Richard’s face. He enjoyed the outdoors and had grown up in them after he learned how to take care of himself as a boy. It was only natural that he would love the Wild no matter what kind of world he was in. However, given his experiences, he also knew that this was a favorite environment for criminals and goons to go about their business without interference from the law.

While navigating through the forest, Richard caught the scent of smoke and badly cooked meat. Whomever was nearby, had horrible cooking skills or wasn’t paying attention to their meal. Taking to the top of the trees, he kept his eyes open to see if he could notice smoke or a campfire. Unsurprisingly, he caught both.

Sneaking closer to the campsite, he noticed that there were a few sentries guarding the area surrounding the campsite. They had some modicum of intelligence, he thought, since they were hiding atop the lowest branches of the nearby trees. If he made an appearance, more than likely they would try to kill him.

He stayed hidden for a moment, studying the environment and his possible opponents. He noticed that all of the hidden thugs were members of the Black Talon group - their armor and insignia were easy to identify. He continued to look around when he noticed the campsite itself. There was a large covered wagon under guard which was partially hidden at the entrance of a cave. “10 to 1 odds, this is one of their hideouts.”

“Hey!” One of the guards near the wagon yelled out to some of the other guards who were busy trying to eat some of the poorly cooked meat. “Keep your eyes open! We don’t want anybody finding this hideout.”

“Too damn easy…” Richard grimaced to himself as he realized he wasn’t surprised at anything anymore. Chances are, he could tell who might be coming around. To his surprise, he hadn’t expected who arrived.

A group of orcs and kobolds arrived at the camp, following the scent of the burning meat no doubt. This was bad… These monsters had a good sense of smell. If Richard made a wrong move or stood downwind, he’d be noticed.

“Oi! You finally came! Took you long enough, you stinking buggers!” The leader of the guards stood up and approached the monsters who growled in anger at the comments being made. However, they didn’t look like they were going to cause a stir. They were outnumbered and the Black Talon goons were seasoned adventurers - to a certain degree.

“Enough of insults, meat! We’re here on business! Get on with it.” The largest of the orcs stood up and faced off against the guard who spoke. Trying to look tough, the Black Talon guard kept his face unchanged, but anyone with a keen scent could tell he stank of fear.

“Fine! Let’s take this inside and get this over with quickly.” The guard waved at the orc to follow him, leaving the Black Talon guards and the monster group by the campsite as the two leaders went inside the cave.

Judging by the way the humans were wary of the monsters, and how the orcs and kobolds were glaring menacingly towards the Black Talons, Richard could tell they didn’t like each other much, and all it would take was one spark to blow up the powder keg. A wicked grin spread across the Bounty Hunter’s face as he figured out how to level the playing field for him.

“The enemy of my enemy… is still my enemy.”

The sentries were keeping an eye on the campsite while the guards on the ground were keeping an eye on the products and the monster crew. Some of them were thinking of how easy it would be to kill them, collect proof of their kills and deliver them to the Guild to get some pocket money right after they finished their business deal.

However, their boss Grove had told them to not cause any trouble during the deal by order of their benefactor. They knew they couldn’t go against the word of their sponsor, so they played along for a moment.

While their thoughts wandered, one of the kobolds suddenly got riled up and started yelling at the guards.

“Hey! You want to repeat that, you pink skinned son of a whore!?” The other kobolds and orcs stood up and began growling at the guards who had a look of confusion on their faces.

“W-What’re you talking about? I didn’t say nothing!” His comment was met with approval from the other guards. One of the sentries who was watching thought this situation might escalate into a fight, but he couldn’t act unless there was trouble.

“Huh!? He called me a two-legged, mongrel mutt!” The kobolds took out their weapons followed by the orcs who were slowly advancing on the guards. Feeling threatened, the guards stood up and took out their weapons and shields.

“We never said anything of the sort! Just calm down and leave us alone. We’ll do the same!” The guards agreed with the comment made by the colleague.

The monster crew was growling low amongst themselves as it became clear that they were on the verge of getting violent. The sentry kept watch with his weapon at the ready in case something went wrong. He tried to signal one of his sentry buddies, but he realized that his friend had left his post. Confused, he looked around towards another spot where he knew a fellow sentry was posted, but suddenly felt a cold chill down his spine when he noticed he was clutching an arrow stuck to his neck, but no sounds could be heard from him! What the hell!?

He was about to signal the guards that someone was attacking them, but when he turned around to look at the camp, he felt a cold, sharp pain on his throat as his mouth was covered by the steel grip of a hand. His eyes widened up in shock as he looked up to see who had attacked him, only to see the cold-deadly gray eyes of a man staring down at him. He could no longer hold himself steady, his vision faded and, finally, everything went dark…

The guard who had stood up to the monsters was scared out of his mind! Those monsters started to accuse them of calling them names and such, but none of them had said a word! They were still pretty angry and ready for a fight, but they had strict orders to avoid conflict.

“Keep talking shit and we’ll make you eat your intestines, you little shits!” One of the orcs growled at them.

The guards were losing their nerve as tensions were rising. They could always call for backup from the sentries if things got difficult. They noticed that a few of the orcs and kobolds were looking around, sniffing the air as if they had caught something.

“Bring it on, you pig-f**king, mongrel-loving, green-skinned piece of shit! Humanity will kick your sorry ass back to your pig-sty!”

The guard looked around to see who said those words! He didn’t remember one of their crew having such a voice. He didn’t have time to question his buddies because the man standing beside him suddenly caught an axe to the face, killing him instantly. The guards turned to look at the monsters whose anger had boiled over and were rushing to attack them! They had crossed the line!

“S-Sentries! Shoot them! Kill them all!” The order came from the guard, but he noticed that something was off with his voice. It was as if he had been muffled by a thick wooden wall. Even the growls and obscenities the monsters were saying sounded muffled as well.

His message must’ve reached the sentries however, since some of the monsters were being killed by arrows! Having no time to make more conjectures, he had to fight for his life as the kobolds and orcs rushed to attack them even as some of them were being killed by the sentries.

He suddenly felt an arrow hitting him in the arm, which made him lose his balance. He couldn’t defend himself when his head was hit hard by a wooden club, making the world suddenly go sideways with blurry vision and a loud ringing sound in his ears.

So much confusion… so much pain in his body… he could barely keep his eyes open… All he could see were his friends being torn apart by the monsters while arrows managed to kill off a few of them. When all of his friends had been slaughtered, he barely noticed that the monsters had turned around as if someone had appeared behind them. His head was still ringing and he couldn’t really hear a thing… but he could feel the reverberation of two explosions that made two of the orcs’ heads burst like rotten fruit falling from a cart. The monsters seemed to be shaken by these explosions and the results that came with them. He managed to regain just enough of his hearing to catch the sound of six more explosions in quick succession making the remaining monsters suddenly fall to the ground dead. He could make the figure of the being that had killed off all the monsters… probably one of the sentries. Did any of them have any explosive weapons?

His vision got a bit clearer and he noticed who it was. He had a faint memory of that time in the Guild where Grove, their boss, was confronting some upstart adventurer who kept insulting them.

It was him! The Bounty Hunter! He tried to call out to the sentries, but his mouth couldn’t come up with the words. He saw the man walk around the slaughtered remains of his friends and the monsters as if he were looking for a missing trinket of his.

The Bounty Hunter went over to the guard who had taken an axe to the head, grabbed the handle of the weapon and yanked it off the face of his friend. It had been him… the Wolf had done this. He then saw him looking at him! Horror filled his muddled mind, he felt his body slacking and voiding itself. He had cut them down, all of them with his demonic weapons!

Richard was surprised at how easy it was to cause such trouble with only a few words and silent kills. With his “Shutter” arrows, he could kill silently and from a distance. With the magic stored in the arrow heads, he could create a field of silence on impact, therefore nullifying any unwanted sounds coming from his targets. After he killed the sentries, he had been whispering a few insults towards the kobolds and orcs, knowing fully well that they had a keener sense of listening than humans did. To light the powder keg, all he had to do was throw that final insult loudly, throw his tomahawk at one of the guards and let them start killing each other. He had to make sure those “Shutter” arrows had created enough of a field of silence to avoid alerting those inside the cave.

With the two groups fighting each other, it was now only a matter of picking them off one-by-one until they either killed each other, or he had to finish the job. As it turned out, the Black Talons had been killed off unceremoniously. Forced now to take matters into his own hands, the Bounty Hunter walked up to the monsters from behind them to catch them off guard. The moment they turned around, he blasted two orcs with his sawed-off shotgun for shock-and-awe, then used his revolver to shoot the rest as quickly as he could.

Now that the two groups had been killed, all he had to do now was finish the job inside the cave. By the time word reached the Black Talon that their little business deal had broken down, he’d be long gone…

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~Techno-Magical Explanations by the head of the Makers Of Guns & Ordnance (MOGOs) Brotok!~

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