Stanning

Here I am, nervously waiting at the southern gate. It is ten minutes to 9pm. The night is cool with the smell of wild flowers hanging lightly on the breeze.

This hunter, Aba did his riddle of ways to explain things, but she is an original. I have dreamed of this moment but never thought this is how it will be.

"Hey Doc." Hazel says walking up to me with Samantha quietly following behind.

"It's pro- ..." I can't finish my sentence due to feeling mana pulse through me.

Samantha did another barrier with ease. She has a spear in her right hand and a shield in her off hand. Her armor is not much to speak of with most of it being leather. Hazel has a black bow with arrows and is lightly armored herself.

"Well let's get this underway. We need to split up because the vamp won't attack with three in a group." Hazel slaps my shoulder a bit forcefully. Making it so I fall in step with her on the path away from the town.

"You're going to use me as bait as payback aren't you." I mutter.

"Now there's an idea!" Hazel says snapping her fingers to point at me.

I sigh. "What breed are you dealing with?"

"A Stoker, Samantha hasn't encountered one yet. She's helped stake a few vamps but beheading a corpse can be a bit gruesome. So you want to help with that." Hazel leans in and I knew she wasn't asking but telling.

"Fine. I will be bait and help with the aftermath. I'm sorry for following her." I plead.

"Hmph." Hazel says eyeing me down and then slows her pace to be with Samantha.

I continue walking as Hazel happily talks with Samantha. Their pace slows and I continue to walk towards danger.

With the sliver of moonlight everything in the area is pretty visible even if it is grayscale with a few pops of color. A few farm houses, the rolling fields, the patches of forest and the murderous looking vampire under the tree by the road. 

My heart and feet stop. I could take on one of these but something feels off.

His eyes flick open in my direction. The vampire's black hair glistens under the sliver of pale moonlight. His skin is also very pale compared to his dark clothes. With a pointed tooth grin he takes a few steps my way.

"Good evening." His voice is smooth and calm. "I'm not from around here. Could you give me directions?"

I prepare my dark mana beside me ready to block any attack.

"Oh no no no." He puts his hands up. "I will not hurt you. You see I like young virgins not..." He gestures towards me, "old ones."

"Well that's just rude." Hazel blurts out releasing an arrow for the stoker vampire's heart.

He phases quickly and is on her in a second. He tips her head back with only a finger. "Now you may be older but your scent is divine." His lips whisper over her neck.

"Mine!" Samantha shouts plowing through this guy with her shield.

She manages to throw him off. Taking a few steps back he looks at her with lustful red eyes. Samantha is braced behind her shield ready for an attack. Hazel looses another arrow and he dodges.

Coming from Samantha's left side she isn't able to move fast enough. He grabs her from behind knocking her spear away. The vampire holds her close. His right hand is under her chin stretching her neck back towards him with his left arm over her chest while his left hand hangs onto her right shoulder.

"Now this one." He licks his lips. "I should try to keep this one alive for I am drunk on just her scent alone."

Hazel shouts but Samantha has already in motion. She grabs his arms, picks her feet up and kicks both back landing a critical hit on a sensitive spot even for a dead person. With the momentum of him buckling forward, she is able to get free from his grasp with a tuck and roll.

Samantha lets out a battle cry and stakes the vampire with a spare spear. She begins to weep while holding onto the spear.

"It's alright now." Hazel says pulling the young girl from the scene. "You did good putting him to rest. We can take it from here."

Samantha nods and starts taking ragged breathes to calm herself. Hazel nods to me and I help finish beheading the corpse and filling the mouth with garlic.

Hazel sends a message on her translator for a clean up crew to come out and take care of the corpse. Then we start the quiet walk back to town. Hazel rubs Samantha's arms and back every so often counsoling her. Letting her know his spirit needed to be at rest and we stopped him from hurting someone else.

After a few moments of silence, mana pulses through me again. That's right, I never felt a barrier during the vampire fight. I look at Samantha and she is looking off to the right. Following her gaze I see a hooded human shaped shadow figure. It's lurking just outside of Samantha's barrier.

"Tsk." Hazel says loosing an arrow at the shadow figure. It dodges and takes off away from us.

"I don't like those things." Samantha mumbles.

"Well if it weren't for your barriers we would be dealing with them even closer." Hazel shrugs.

"Barriers?" The blonde looks up at Hazel confused.

"Yea, the barriers you have been sending out to stop them from getting closer. Those barriers." Hazel explains.

"You mean me wanting to push them back isn't just my imagination? Like it's actually working?" Samantha looks starstruck.

"Not again." Hazel mutters. "You have been using a high level technique without even realizing it?"

"Sorry." Samantha apologizes.

"Again?!" I look to Hazel then to Samantha. I can't hold back any longer. "And you don't apologize to that mad woman. From what little I have seen, everything you are capable of is an amazing feat! You are able to effortlessly construct barriers and ones that start from you then outwards. Ones that push the shadow figures back without pushing humans with them. That takes YEARS of training. Very few are able to do that now. Then your fight with the lizards. You had that barrier at first, weakened all three lizards with a different strand of poison, struck that shadow figure down and then took down a lizard that poisoned you. Some of your classmates can't even see shadow figures. Not to mention your strength to brush off being thrown into a tree is almost overshadowed by the fact you were severely poisoned and coherent."

I stop talking once Samantha bursts into more tears.

"I, uh." I continue to short circuit while looking back and forth from Samantha and Hazel. A woman is crying and I don't know what to do!

"She is just over emotional sometimes. It's fine as long as she knows you're praising her." Hazel explains will half hugging the young girl and rubbing an arm.

"Thank you." Samantha mumbles.

"Uuh, you're welcome. So what other things are you able to do? Control elements, summon beasts or see things others can't?" I lean in with anticipation.

"I can shoot an arrow that explodes. Its got a lot of kick to it." Samantha says proudly.

"That's it?" My heart sinks.

"What do you mean that's it?" Hazel barks. "She just started training only a few months ago and she is from Earth. And that barrier you witnessed was all self taught."

"Well now that she knows about it, it might not be so easy for her." I explain.

"Prove him wrong." Hazel looks Samantha dead in the eyes.

We stop and Samantha closes her eyes. A second later a huge mana pulse moves Hazel and I back a step as it passes through us. This new barrier is stronger than the others and the dome shape it carries is lower and wider.

"Alright that's impressive." I admit.

Samantha has a big grin on her face the whole time we walk back to town.

[A week later]

I'm sitting at my desk finding no interest to do anything. The trips of watching Samantha fight play in my head. This last week I have been wishing to go on another hunt or even an outing just to watch Samantha interact with the world.

James pops his head in through the door. "Hey professor, you busy?"

"No come in." I reply.

"I can't stay long since a big job came up but here is that metal piece." He says laying it on my desk. "Just send me a message on anything you need. And no rush on any answers. Just something I found on another world in an old mansion that bandits seem to be squatting in."

"Very well." I say lacklusterly.

James leaves and I glance over at the engravings. Just basic Latin explaining how hunters bring forth their wings. I look back out the window just to get whiplash but turning my head back to the metal. Books have talked about hunters having wings but never how they got them. This here though.

I read til the missing chunk of metal interrupts me.

James. I need to find James!

I bolt from my study with passion and fire burning in me to keep learning about these amazing beings.

[Poor Garrik had to wait a few months for James to return. Just for James to break the news that he had no access to the world that held the rest of the metal piece.]

{The end}