The Slayer Of Monsters (3)

I managed to wake everyone up and calm them down without any problems. Thanks to that, they were at least willing to listen to what Valentine had to say.

We were all sitting down, us on one side of the tent and Valentine sat in front of the only entrance. We all had our weapons still, not that it really mattered… We could have all the weapons we wanted and Valentine would still be able to kick our asses. That’s just the truth of the difference in our strength. We were barely able to do anything to him and yet he was holding back the entire time…

I’m very glad he’s not actually trying to kill us.

“First off I’d like to apologize,” Valentine said. “Even though I did have my reasons for it, I attacked you guys without listening to anything you had to say. So I’m sorry.”

“…”

Of course there was silence, it wouldn’t make much sense otherwise. But still… Since I already know about this I kinda just wanna skip past this part and get to the important stuff.

“What… were your reasons?” Marion asked.

“I was sent down here to test you and discern whether you should be allowed to take the FuzzyCoats entrance exam,” Valentine explained. “Everything I’ve done up to this point was for that purpose.”

“You were testing me?”

“I also decided to test your friends as well. Made it easier for me that way…” Valentine said.

“Wait, so you were testing me the whole time!?” Tyler shouted.

“No, I decided to do that today,” Valentine said. “If you’re wondering why I didn’t kill you when we first met it’s just because I hate seeing young people die. I spared your life on a whim. You didn’t escape from me.

“Actually, I’d decided to follow you from a distance ever since that day,” Valentine said. “It was really surprising when that whim led me straight to Marion-”

“Wait, so you’ve been following us since yesterday!?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah,” Valentine said. “What, did you think I would’ve gotten enough information to decide whether to let you guys live after fighting you once?”

“Let us live?” I asked. “You didn’t mention that before…”

“Well, if Marion failed I was supposed to keep her out of Dragons Hollow entirely, but if it was the worst case scenario and you were a danger to the world, I was supposed to finish you off by any means necessary…

“But you don’t need to worry about that anymore, you’re not dangerous enough for me to have to do that.”

“Thanks…?” Marion said. I mean, how are you supposed to respond to that?

“Also, I’d like to apologize for some of the things I said to you, Marion,” Valentine said. “About whether you deserved to live and whatnot.”

Wait, he said what? Must’ve been when I was unconscious…

“Even though I was lying the whole time and it was just to see how you’d react, I feel pretty bad about saying those things,” he continued. “The truth is I accept and agree with your reason for living. And no one has the right to tell you it’s inadequate.”

“Thanks, Slayer,” Marion said. “It actually means a lot to me that you said that…”

“You can call me Valentine,” he said. “Nobody calls me by my codename outside of work, so it’s kinda weird for you to be doing that.”

“Oh, okay…”

“So,” Jessica said. “I guess it’s clear you’re not trying to kill us, but now what?”

“Now I’m going to personally escort you guys to FuzzyCoats,” Valentine said. “Tomorrow actually… I wanna get some sleep before then…”

“Wait, you’re gonna take us to FuzzyCoats!?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” he said. “I’m only taking you guys to the exam. Whether you pass or not is an entirely different story.”

I guess he decided not to tell them that he thinks we can do it. I might as well keep my mouth shut about that.

“Now that that’s all wrapped up, I’m going to sleep,” Valentine said as he got up and moved to the back of the tent. “If you want me to escort you, you can stick around until morning. I’m not gonna force you to stay if you don’t want to. Of course if you leave I’m not gonna go looking for you, so keep that in mind…”

He went up to part of the tent wall and opened a curtain that revealed a backspace. He went in and closed the curtain behind himself.

“So…” I said. “What are you guys thinking? Should we stick around and go with him or not?”

“Well, he said that he’ll escort us to FuzzyCoats himself,” Marion said. “And if someone as powerful as him is with us, that should basically negate any danger that could come up along the way. Especially other bounty hunters… So I think we should.”

“But man is he powerful…” Jessica said. “He was just toying with us the entire time… I thought for sure we would get away the one time-”

“Is that a yes or no?” I interrupted.

“Well obviously it’s yes,” she responded. “I thought we already came to an agreement.”

“We’re coming to an agreement,” I said before turning to Tyler. “And what about you?”

“I agree!” he shouted. “We should ditch him and fend for ourselves until we’re powerful enough to best him in combat!!”

“That’s not what the consensus has been at all!” I yelled. “We’ve been agreeing to go with him! So do you agree to that or not!?”

“Oh, uh, sure…” Tyler said disappointedly. “Unless of course, you wanna go with my idea…”

“There’s no way we can beat him,” I said. “It’d take years to even reach a level where that’s possible…”

“You don’t know that,” he said. “It could just take months…”

“Still a no.”

“Wh-why!?! It’ll be fun!!”

“Why don’t you just ask Fenrir about whether it’s a good idea or not?”

“Oh, good idea! I didn’t think about that!” Tyler said before going silent.

“So anyway, it’s a three-to-one decision,” I said to others. “Glad we can all agree.”

“Well, it didn’t really seem like you gave Tyler a choice…” Marion said.

“Tyler doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” I replied, a little annoyed. “But he got outvoted anyway so it doesn’t matter. And I thought you hated him anyway.”

“I don’t hate him,” she quickly interjected. “I just don’t- like him.”

I just don’t care right now.

“Well it was getting pretty dark outside when I checked a while ago,” I said. “Maybe it’d be better if we all just go to sleep like Valentine did.”

“Maybe you’re right, Oliver,” Marion said. “There’s not really much else to do right now…”

“Alright, I guess I’ll turn in too,” Jessica said. “As long as we get to Dragons Hollow by Monday there shouldn’t be any problems.”

By Monday, huh? What day is it now again?

I first got here on a Wednesday if I remember correctly. So the thing with Trigger Happy was Thursday. The thing with Jessica and Tyler yesterday was Friday, so today’s Saturday.

Guess tomorrow’s Sunday then.

“Darn it!! Don’t agree with him, old man!” Tyler suddenly yelled. “My idea was way cooler!!”

“Tyler…” I said.

“Huh? What’s up Oliver-?”

“Go to bed.”

“But-”

“Now.”

…

“Is everybody ready?” Valentine asked.

“We should be…” I answered.

It was now Sunday morning. We were standing on the road that connected Shadow Shore and Dragons Hollow, ready to head out.

“Let’s go then.”

For whatever reason, Valentine didn’t actually look rested, at all. In fact he looked exactly the same as before.

When I asked about it he reassured me that he felt a thousand times better than yesterday. I don’t know why but I got the vibe that’s something he says a lot. I must not be the only person who thinks he doesn’t get enough rest when he claims to.

We all started walking towards Dragons Hollow.

“Hey, Valentine, how long will it take us to reach the city?” I asked.

“We’ll arrive pretty late,” he said. “I wish I had the foresight to bring a car or something, but it is what it is.”

“Are we planning on making any stops?” I asked. “Like for food and stuff?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because we didn’t even have breakfast…”

“We can go to a restaurant or something when we get to the city,” Valentine said. “If you stop to eat I’m leaving you.”

“Wait, really?”

“I’ll also pick up the pace,” he said. “Speaking of which…”

Valentine then started moving faster.

“Wait, what are you-?”

He then turned his head back.

“If you guys start to get too far behind me I’m picking up the pace even more,” he said.

“He’s not serious,” Jessica asked. “Right?”

Almost as though to prove he wasn’t joking he broke out in a jog. Wordlessly, we started to jog too.

I wonder how far he’s going to make us do this.

…

THE WHOLE TIME!!

HE MADE US RUN ALL THE WAY THERE!

We were now standing just outside the city. We were all panting, trying to catch our breath as Valentine just stood there bored out of his mind.

“I can’t believe… you made us do that… the entire time…” I barely managed to breathe out.

“Just think of it as… a stamina test,” he said. “You all pass, good for you…”

“Do you know how many hours you just made us run for?” I asked.

“You were jogging,” he said. “And yeah, I know. I was doing it too.”

“What time is it, Valentine?”

“20:17”

“When did we start?”

“Sometime in the morning.”

“Frick you…”

“I was being nice, you know,” he said. “I wanted to sprint the whole way so that we could make it in even better time, but I noticed you guys were having a hard enough time as it was so I didn’t increase the pace anymore.”

“But you couldn’t just have… slowed down…?” I asked.

“Nope. Now come on, let’s get something to eat…”