5

Tristan has been doing the hunting and sell for two months now and now he and Kyle were not in the poverty line. Tristan could definitely feed his little brother to become a little fatty but he had reservations. With a good diet, Kyle had started doing little exercises per Tristan's instructions and he could say that the boy was very good with a spear. Tristan always made sure he took him to the arena everyday before sun rise so that they can start their exercises and he left two hours after the sun rises. He had been known to be a very good hunter and it was made official when he brought back a 49 years old two horned Rhino, a beast one year shy away from starting to cultivate and become a demonic beast.

When Tristan was walking out of the arena after an intense workout, he noticed that the town was crowded more than usual. He went to check on what was going on and realized that people from another town were running away from a beast tide! Apparently, a silver furred alpha wolf had evolved and became a demonic beast. Even though it has just evolved, it can easily destroy a small town and with martial artists becoming a rarity in this part of the world, the people just had to move. The reason it forms a beast tide is because it need large reserves of food in order to grow larger and stronger before it can actually start using World Energy. How he knew this is because of a talkative old man. With this in mind, he wore his armor, armed himself with his sword, two daggers, a modified bow and a quiver filled with arrows. When he reached the gate, he found a group of hunters talking to the usual guards.

"Yo, Henry," he greeted one of the guards who smiled back.

"Tristan, just the guy I wanted to see. Listen, the mayor just gave an order that the town needs a large supply of food due to the refugees. So, you hunters are not going to be selling to the vendors but actually to the city itself. Also, due to the tide, you have been ordered to be in a group of five each," Henry the guard said.

"But I work alone," Tristan protested but Henry just shrugged.

"Sorry, Tristan, but the only way out of this door is if you have a five man team of hunters with you. Right now, all your lives are very important if we have to keep this people fed," Henry said. Tristan sighed in disappointment and looked at the four hunters.

"Let me guess, you're my team?"

"You sound disappointed, boy. You should be glad to be in the company of expert hunters," a middle aged man said.

"That's what I am worried about. To have lived this long as a hunter means you are not good enough," he said, making the four glare at him.

"Those are big words coming from a kid who has barely stopped suckling!" another one tried to infuriate him.

"You stopped suckling at fifteen? No wonder you smell of baby powder!" Tristan shot back, making the man groan in anger. His right fist shot towards Tristan's head but Tristan got hold of it quite easily before kicking him in the nuts, making the man stop moving as if lightning had hit him, his face making a weird face like he was constipated before he fell down on his side, clutching his nuts, a wheezing noise coming out of his mouth. The other were ready to fight but Henry the guard stepped in.

"Any more fighting and I am throwing all of you in!" the threatened them, making the three men back off, but they were still glaring at him. "Now, all five of you are going to hunt and if you come back with one less person, I will take that as murder!"

"Fine!" all four said with resignation. The three helped their friend up and they walked out of the gate, a small space between the two groups. They did not talk till they reached the forest where it was eerily quiet.

"Seems that the tide scared even the insects!" one of the hunters said. Tristan could feel something was wrong but couldn't point it out so he just followed the four into the forest. One hour of searching for prey and they hadn't even seen a hare in their burrows, hiding! Tristan was starting to feel things were definitely wrong.

"We should head back!" Tristan warned the group.

"Go back! We haven't even caught anything and you want to go back!" the nut-cracked man mocked him.

"Go back to your mommy, kid, real men are never afraid," another one said. The others dished out their mockery before going on their way without waiting to see if he followed, and he was. Two hours in, they finally saw tracks.

"Finally, some prey! Looks like deer, a doe actually from the size, shape and depth. The tracks are still wet from yesterday's rain, no water collected so it might be an hour away!" one of them examined. Tristan looked around and saw that there no other prints on the ground.

"Can deer climb trees?" he asked the four.

"Deer climbing trees? Maybe a demonic beast deer. I thought you were a hunter!" one of them mocked but Tristan had zoned out. He looked around carefully before unsheathing his new steel sword, making the four take out their weapons too thinking he was going to kill them.

"What do you think you're doing!" one of them questioned him, aggressively. Tristan did not answer as he just sheathed the sword and continued walking, his mind racing.

"This guy's trouble!"

"Right! What's the point of just unsheathing his sword just to sheath it back when we armed ourselves!"

"He must be planning something against us. We need to protect ourselves,"

"If something happens to him we might be arrested. Remember what that guard said!"

"I don't care. We know this forest like the back of our hands, we can just kill him and go to another town. Rainfall town is screwed anyway with the tide coming," The others nodded in sudden realization before they turned to look at Tristan with crafty eyes.

"Okay, here's the plan..."

They had been tracking the deer for half an hour yet they had not even seen its tail. So, they decided to take a break because the four hunters were out of breath from all that jogging. The spot they chose was a small pond which didn't even have frogs. The four men looked at each other, smiled then one of them went to fill his water skin with water. He had just bent over when he suddenly screamed and jumped away in fear.

"There's something dangerous in the water!" he cried out as he ran away from the pond. What happened next could only be described as retribution for a figure suddenly leaped out of the water, sword in hand and with a swing, the man's head was flying in the air, a sprout of blood following.

"Dammit, even after all that I was still discovered! I must have let my guard down on these mortals!" the figure spoke in a raspy, spooky voice. Tristan already had his sword in hand the moment the figure jumped out of the water and now, he was looking at the attacker.

He had black combat clothes (A/N: Please use your imagination on medieval combat clothes for there are too many to name), a short sword in his right arm, black light boots and had a hood on. On the left side of his black flannel, he had a crest which reminded Tristan of private school uniform embalm, in the shape of a skull that had blood dribbling from its eye sockets. The figure turned to look at the four.

"I was going to herd you to my elder in order to make a pill out of you but it seems I have to carry your almost dead bodies to her!" he raspily said before his sword started shining red.

"Martial artist! He is a martial artist!" one of the men suddenly shouted in dread and slight revelation. The figure did not even respond to that as he charged forward, his body a blur to the three men who had started to run away. With a swing of his sword, a body was cut in half, another swing and the second man was decapitated and just for fun, the third man had his heart tore out. The figure then charged at Tristan and swung at him, only to have his sword stopped by Tristan's.

"I can see you!" Tristan said with a creepy smile, making the figure very much shell shocked that it was like they had frozen from that position, neither of them being pushed back, same strength!