Let The Hunt Begin III

"Haa. That was stressful as hell." Luke dropped the unconscious jackals close to the tree.

"Hey, sleepy head, I'm back." Luke shouted towards the top of the tree.

"Is this their base?" The guard whispered into Aurora's ear.

"Excuse me, is this your base? I don't see anyone else here." Aurora walked closer before she asked Luke.

He nodded and pointed upwards. The other two newcomers thought he had gone nuts but lazily, they looked closely and saw someone on a branch up above.

"Is that perhaps the person who these beasts were for?" She asked again.

He just nodded his head and climbed up the tree.

He walked towards the branch Kyne was sleeping on. "Hey, wake up this instant or you'll be pushed." He spoke into Kyne's ear.

At the mention of 'push', Kyne's hairs stood apart from each other and he jerked up from his sleeping position.

"I'm awake." He yelled.

"Good. Now let's head down. Your second training for today will begin in about ten minutes." Luke didn't waste any time climbing down.

"Um, who are these?" Kyne pointed at the new faces when he got down from the tree.

"Sorry I forgot to introduce them. They'll be staying with us for a while. Probably till we leave, so you guys should get to know each other." Luke scratched his head.

'He forgot to introduce us?' Aurora doubted what she just heard.

"That grumpy guy over there is Sihlon, her guard. And she's Aurora from the Davey family or whatever it was she called it." Luke introduced them.

"The Daveon family." Aurora corrected him.

"Yes, yes, that family. Hey, you two, meet Kyne. He'll tell you guys his family name himself." Luke introduced each of them to the other.

"The Daveon family? That famous Daveon family?" Kyne was already standing in front of Aurora.

"Um, yes. That Daveon family." She answered.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Kyne Gadoth, and you're welcome to stay with us." Kyne seemed more interested in them than Luke had thought.

"Hey, come here for a second." Luke called Kyne to a corner of the tree.

"Is her family really famous?" Luke asked in a low voice but the new members obviously heard because their faces got twisted. 

Sihlon had thought Luke knew of the family and that was why he took them with him so he could gain their benefits. On the other hand, Aurora was surprised to see that Luke didn't even know about her family, yet he took them with him.

"They're quite famous. You know about the twenty-five Great families in Auburn right?" Kyne asked and Luke nodded.

"Yeah, their family is one of them. Don't tell me you don't even know the twenty-five families." Kyne grumbled.

"I don't wanna know useless information. But at least I know that the Boldir family is ranked among the twenty-five, right?" Luke wasn't going to admit he was wrong. He only knew of the Boldir family due to Marcus, an old friend and bully from school.

"Yes, they're ranked twenty, but Daveon is even ranked higher than them. Should I go on listing all the families?" Kyne asked.

"No. Your training begins the moment those dogs are awake." Luke walked back to the others.

"It's my first time seeing someone who didn't know about my family." Aurora broke the silence.

"Yeah. It's also my first time meeting someone from the Great Families." Luke answered.

"But how come you don't know my family's name? Not only do you not know my family's name, but you also don't even know the name of the great families." She didn't seem convinced.

"Yup. The only person I knew from the 'Oh So Great Families' turned out to be a super shithead so I didn't bother knowing about the families." Luke shrugged.

"Oh, I see. Sorry about that. But we're not all bad." Aurora walked closer to the tree.

"It's all good. Anyway, this tree's our base. It's fine if you want to stay below, but the branches are safer. As you can see, the branches are wide enough to sleep on." Luke explained to them.

"Thank you for your help." She said, bowing her head.

He looked at her and waved his hand. "It's fine." He turned, facing Kyne. "Get ready, they're awake."

"They're obviously still uncon…" He had to swallow the remainder of his sentence when he saw the two beasts rise from their seemingly unconscious state.

Luke had already given prior notice to the newcomers without informing Kyne and so, immediately after the beasts woke up, they had gone into hiding along with Luke.

The beasts had been slightly injured, making them quite stronger than the last two he had fought but Luke believed he would win so he had inflicted fewer injuries on the beast this time.

Looking around themselves, they found leashes on themselves. They looked around and Kyne was the only one they could find.

Kyne noticed that the place was weirdly quiet so he looked around along with the beasts and to his surprise, everyone was gone.

"Shit." The beasts violently chased at him.

He rushed to a side of the tree where he had dropped his dagger previously. Pulling it out of its sheath, he sprinted towards the charging mad beasts.

"Do not make unnecessarily strenuous movements when in a fight. Try to end the battle as fast as you can." Luke's advice before he left in the morning kept repeating in his head.

'What would Luke do in this situation?' He tried to think like Luke.

'That's right, he would most likely…' He thought before shouting out loud.

"Jump." He leaped into the air just before colliding with the furious hounds.

While he was still upside down in the air, wrapping the dagger in as much mana as he could gather, he threw the mana at the waist of one beast. 

The beast seemed to sense the incoming dagger and its danger. Although it was at a fast speed in a straight line, it hurriedly dodged but the dagger ended up penetrating its hind leg.

It howled painfully, stopped its advancement, and then rushed to attack Kyne who had only just landed.

Seeing that only one was attacking at the moment and the other would soon be coming too, Kyne pulled a smaller dagger. The doglike creature jumped furiously at him.

The moment Kyne had been waiting for was now here.

"Do not make excess movements as they will put strains on your body. Also, you tend to lose more chances of victory if you don't work on that." Luke's advice rang again.

He took a step to the side and bent towards that side, pushing all his weight onto the leg. The beast passed by him and its claw deeply scratched his shoulder.

With fast reflexes, he stabbed at the side of the best, accurately puncturing its heart.

'I don't think I'll ever get used to this pain.' He groaned.

He would've loved to complain but another threat to his life was closing in on him.

He pulled out his dagger that was still stuck on the hind leg of the dead beast.

He sprinted to the approaching beast and when he was close enough to get hit by its claws, Kyne slid under its belly and plunged his two daggers into the two sides of the rabid jackal's neck.

The beast howled and dropped dead on Kyne's body which was beneath it.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

A sound resounded in the calm area.

"That was an amazing fight. Tomorrow will be between you and two healthy ones. So you better get enough rest and treatment for your injury." Luke was now sitting close to the tree that had been empty before.

"I feel like all my bones are broken." Kyne pushed the beast of himself. Deep down, he was happy with his growth.

"A few are probably broken. Just a guess from my part though." Luke scratched his head.

"Are you serious?!" Kyne yelled.

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Author's Note:-

I would be eternally grateful to receive your comments and supports for this book.

Your comments would urge me to write more because I'll be sure there's bound to be interactions.

I hope at the end of the book, I can dedicate it to a selected few top fans.

My next chapter will be dedicated to the first four comments on this chapter.

P.S: A poll might be coming up soon. Comment on this paragraph if you'd like that.