The Results Of The Hunt

Shelee didn’t make any effort to stop Idalec as he moved away.

‘Maybe they deserved to be crushed?’ Idalec thought angrily. Those types made up the coalition of demons and beastfolk that fought against the Second Levidian Empire. ‘Maybe I’ve softened too much to these scum.’ Idalec zipped silently around the trees looking for Sato. ‘Hmm,’ Idalec snorted as he came across a single limping wolf. It locked eyes with Idalec. Idalec slowly raised two fingers at it, casting Pure Attack on it, and in a moment it keeled over. ‘The very height of modern spellcasting.’ Idalec landed on the ground. ‘Thought it’s funny just how it represents the people of this era!’ Idalec walked over to the wolf before floating up in the air with the wolf by his feet, flying with it in the direction it came from. Pure Attack is a spell that all shields are efficient against and has no mana advantages when cast. Though its two upsides had made it a favorite in General Vazove's time, you can cast it with any amount of mana, which meant that the likes of Idalec- General Vazove- could practically suck up all the magic in a space, and its piercing quality- one can imagine a fireball being stopped by a couple of kilometers of steel- any man could stop a fireball; with Pure Attack it could pierce through hundreds of meters of solid rock, and with every bit of mana that touched its target they would lose some of their vitality. Idalec had resisted casting that spell for sixteen years, ‘Maybe I could avoid casting it for another sixteen.’

“AHHHHHH!” Sato’s scream echoed through the forest all of a sudden. Idalec floated around to try and pick up on the difference in Sato’s screams to try and figure out where he was, but to no avail. Idalec huffed before picking a direction and flying over; luckily for Idalec, Sato’s screams grew louder, then his footsteps became audible. “AAA!” Sato panted; a stag had been chasing after Sato,

“I’m glad I found you,” Idalec said gracefully, landing in between the stag and Sato.

“You wouldn’t believe how hard I had it out here!” Sato said, pointing his sword at the stag that ran off.

“We should go back.” Idalec said, pointing at the dead wolf by his feet, “Do you mind carrying it?”

“So you were out there hunting wolves by yourself?” Sato sassed, putting away his sword and picking up the wolf with great difficulty, “Light. Work.” Sato said between tense breaths.

“That's good to hear.” Idalec is said to lead the way towards the village that originally requested their help.

“I can’t walk any more-” Sato said, faceplanting onto the forest floor with the wolf's corpse beside him. Idalec walked back over to him.

“Why can you not walk anymore?” Idalec asked, bending down in front of Sato

“I’m tired,” Sato complained into the ground,

“What if I taught you a healing spell?” Idalec asked, “You could cast it on yourself to remove your fatigue?”

“But I’m not injured, I'm tired,” Sato whined,

“If your body is tired, then you're sick.” Idalec stood up and lightly prodded Sato’s shoulder with his shoe.

“Fine.” Sato rolled over onto his back, looking up at Idalec. “Maybe I just have an aptitude for healing, you know?” Sato panted,

“That’s not a thing.” Idalec laughed,

“What do you mean? Like what if I was destined to be a healer hero but picked up a sword?”

“It’s because you can either learn it or not.” Idalec stopped his laughter and explained Simple Heal. A decent spell for beginners.

Not even five minutes later, Sato managed to cast it. “Holy shit.” Sato raised his hands. “Does everyone else have it this easy, Idalec? How’s this even fair?” Sato stood up, his body only slightly aching now,

“You could start to feel mentally fatigued if you cast the spell more than a few times," Idalec said as he started to walk again,

“What!” Sato yelled, picking up the wolf before following after Idalec. The two of them managed to make it back to where the heroes split up, finding a pile of dead wolves. “Hey, Idalec, do you think we can go hunt a couple more wolves to win?”

“No chance,” Idalec said, looking upon the pile.

“Don’t you dare touch it,” Luna said in a muffled tone as she was running back with one wolf body in her mouth and one in each arm.

“Idalec told me that you cheated,” Sato said so confidently that Idalec questioned himself for a moment,

“I won.” Luna lay down on her pile of dead wolves and dropped the three she had been carrying on top of the pile. The five other girls also returned with armfuls of mushrooms.

“I won.” Luna bragged; the five girls looked upon the pile with amazement. Miki even dropped some of the mushrooms she was carrying. “Now what did Sato say? One wish for the winner?”

“You know if it hadn’t been those crazy cat folk, I would have gotten more kills.” Sato pouted,

“Did you even kill that wolf?” Prix walked over to the wolf, who looked rather healthy but for the fact he was dead.

“Y-Y…” Sato tried to say yes instead, breathing out a resigned “No.”

“Ok, I want to challenge Sato, Miki, and Prix to a duel to the death~” Luna said, sitting up in cat posture.

“That’s not going to happen,” Idalec said,

“IT’S REASONABLE!” Luna demanded from Idalec,

“It’s not,” Idalec replied calmly, causing Luna to seethe

“Can I state my wish?” Sunya perked up,
“NO.” Luna shouted at her, “I won! What did you do to help? HUH?”

“I-” Sunya stuttered as she gathered up all her courage, “I didn’t get in your way.” Luna kept herself from laughing for a second before she started rolling around on her mountain of wolves.

“Who do you want what from~” Sato asked Sunya,

Sunya looked at the ground for a few moments before looking up at Prix and then at Sato. “I want you to set me free~.”

Sato went pale. “What…” he asked weakly; it was barely a whisper,

“I want to be free~” Sunya reiterated, looking confidently at Sato,

“But I don’t want you to leave?” Sato said, looking around at everyone who looked indifferent, “My… my slave harem?” Sato once again looked around, and nobody said a word.

“Well?” Prix spoke up, “Are you going to keep your word and do what Sunya asked for?”

“No.” Sato laughed hollowly. “I paid three-” Sato put up three fingers, “gold coins for her; that’s like more than I paid for everyone else combined.”

“But if you had won, you would make sure we followed through on our promises, wouldn’t you!” Prix shouted at Sato; Luna rolled around to be on her belly, enjoying the fight.

“Look, I can be free like Miki?” Sato said, pulling his hands apart in an accordion motion,
“Am I really that worthless?” Miki whispered,

“Noooo-” Sato said unconvincingly to Miki, who looked like she was on the verge of tears. “No, but like what if I free Miki instead?” Sato begged Sunya,

“I-” Sunya pointed at herself, leaning forward, “-want to be freed.”

“No, no, no. Idalec, that’s unreasonable!” Sato turned to Idalec,

“I mean slavery isn’t right.” Idalec shrugged,

“You're such a hypocrite! Luna’s your slave! Why don’t you free her? Huh?” Sato was crying as he begged,

“Luna, do you want that to be your wish?” Idalec looked up,

“No~” Luna said happily, “Master can take responsibility for me~.”

“That almost makes me want to free you more,” Idalec replied coldly, to which Luna snickered.

“Free her, Sato,” Prix demanded, moving closer,

“But- Sunya, ar-are you just going to leave me?” Sato wailed, tears rolling down his face,

“Umm,” Sunya looked uneasy, “No?”

“You're lying to me!” Sato clutched at his heart with one hand and with the other, holding his sleeve, wiped away his streaming tears. “Then why do you want to be free?”

“Sato free Sunya. You promised to give anyone who wins one wish.” Prix kept advocating for Sunya. Sato stumbled backwards into the pile of dead wolves as he kept sobbing,

“Sato~” Sunya said, walking towards him. “I just don’t want to be a slave.” Sunya patted Sato’s hand.