Chapter 57
But the night presents its own risks, as monsters become stronger in the darkness. This presents a significant challenge for those unfamiliar with monsters, especially the parasitic types, which can cause considerable trouble.
However, this is a story for novices.
‘I’m tired of parasitic monster hunting.’
The strategy is straightforward: lure the monsters out of the shadows by stimulating their instinctual craving for blood. Most parasitic monsters, being of lower to middle grade, are easily drawn to the scent of blood as they had no sense.
As the monsters, parasitized within wild animals, began to gather around Yekaterina, it was clear that most were minor threats.
‘Looks like two middle grades and four lower grades.’
Parasitic monsters of higher grades can inhabit larger hosts and even grow in rank if they feed enough. It’s crucial to eliminate them early on.
‘The small number and lower grades suggest none have fed enough yet.’
Conversely, this meant no high-grade monsters were nearby. If there were, they would’ve hidden at the scent of blood, fearing a superior predator.
‘Time to move.’
Yekaterina slowly stepped away, pulling the dagger from the rabbit’s corpse and throwing it at an approaching fox.
With the fox’s demise marking the start, the tension snapped, and animals, now mere vessels for monsters, charged at Yekaterina.
“Rah!”
“Growl!”
A few swift movements of her silver dagger later, the once pristine snow-covered forest was marred.
Amid the animal corpses strewn about, there was only one woman standing alone. The gap between the monsters and Yekaterina was so great that she was unblemished by the chaos.
“…I just cleaned off the marks.”
Looks like it’s time to clean again.
Seeing the carnage around, Yekaterina muttered to herself.
Before long, the human footprints faded, replaced by the long trail of a horse’s passage.
* * *
“Sir Vasily, there are human footprints here! It seems they’ve been moving on horseback.”
Vasily turned at the call of his name.
He spotted one of the knights, Anton, hurrying towards him. Anton was the youngest member of Vasily’s command.
“What is it, Anton?”
“As I mentioned, it seems there are others in this forest besides us! Likely, the person who created this scene is the culprit.”
The scene that Anton referred to was the sight before them: the forest stained red with the carcasses of slaughtered animals. The carcasses are marked by the black stains of parasitic monsters.
Hunting was common, but the presence of parasitic traces changes things. It meant monster hunting.
Vasily responded nonchalantly.
“Perhaps another scouting party crossed paths with us.”
“Had that been the case, wouldn’t we have heard them? We all set out in roughly the same direction. It’s impossible that one group could advance so much faster without notice.”
Anton’s logic held some truth.
“Moreover, did you notice the corpses are frozen? This happened a few hours ago. While not too old, it’s been at least a couple of hours.”
As Anton deduced, other knights gathered around.
“And?”
“The culprit’s footprints match the start of the horse tracks. Judging by their direction, they headed northwest from here.”
“Continue.”
“The angle and roughness of the wounds suggest a short weapon, and the presence of puncture marks implies the use of a throwing weapon, likely a dagger of this size.”
Anton demonstrated with his two fingers, and the knights nodded.
“It seems certain they had a throwing weapon.”
“Quite the observant eye, youngster!”
Amidst the senior knights’ praise, Anton beamed proudly. Vasily, seeing Anton’s eagerness to discuss the ‘culprit’ further, cut him off with a gesture.
“So, what’s your conclusion, Anton?”
“Yes! My conclusion is that there’s a highly skilled monster hunter in this forest. We should capture and ask for their assistance—ouch!”
“Hey, you fool!”
“Where did you sell the pride of the Rostislav Knights?”
“Ouch! That hurts! It really hurts!”
“I knew this would happen. Stop it now.”
As Vasily shook his head in disapproval, Anton rubbed the spots where he had been hit by the seniors.
“But Sir Vasily! My deductions aren’t wrong, are they? There’s definitely someone else here! We’ve come across scenes like this several times now!”
A female knight, who had been watching the men’s scuffle from a distance, chimed in to support Anton’s statement.
“Anton is right. Someone seems to be hunting monsters ahead of us. While it does lighten our workload, which is nice…”
“Enough, Daria. There might be other scouting parties operating at different times.”
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