Celestial Sniper of the Hunt (open)

Chapter - 13 | The Lass

[Hey Lads and Lasses! Thank you for all the votes so far. Feel free to leave comments.]

[- Pringles out!]

It's been a few months since the day I showed up at the Hunt. Over that time a few things have happened.

First of all, I've managed to gain control my new powers... sort of. My food summoning skill only seems to work when I'm hungry or thirsty, which is good but I want to do it whenever I want to. My hearth-travel is still a pain to do. I only seem to travel to hearths that I've been to before, which appears to be Lily's and the Hunts. I still hadn't visited her yet. I tried to but fucked up the hearth-travel and I only appeared briefly. I think I scared her. Fire control is hard. I've only managed to to summon a small flame on my finger to light campfires with and was able to turn my eyes to flames on command, you know, the (cool) important things.

Secondly, I've been able to get better with my sword. I'm good as it is with my dagger but i needed to work on my new (favourite) weapon. Let me tell you about claymores. The claymore is a two-handed weapon used primarily for slashing, although it could also be used for stabbing. The overall weight of the blade combined with the strength of a two-handed swing allowed it to sever heads with ease, as a few sneaky snake-ladies found out one night while spying on the camp. Due to the claymore's size, it gave the wielder an advantage of distance. In battle, this combination made it a devastating weapon in close quarters combat. A warrior armed with one could easily hack through an enemy formation.

It was still heavy as fuck.

Thirdly, the hunters were not make my life easy for me. A constant mixture traps and the occasional arrow has definitely increased my awareness. I've managed to deal with the traps by just cutting myself lose or burning the rope, however the arrows are still a bit of a problem. Due to pure skill (aka dumb luck) I've been able to dodge or block the arrows with my sword, except once. You won't believe it but yes, I took an arrow to the knee (haha, I'm a meme). It wasn't too bad, it's healing rather quickly, but now having a bit of a limp is irritating.

Not all of the hunters hated me though.

Both Chelsea and Isla were accepting to my presence and only had recently joined, so they still haven't been brainwashed by that whole "all men are evil" stuff yet. They were pretty close to each other as well. When I asked them this they said that they were both saved by the same male (me) and were more trusting to me because so. This made me smile.

Artemis was as you'd think. She didn't quite like the fact that a male was in her. Apparently she talked (argued) with Hestia, who kept my identity secret still, and was persuaded (told off) to not kick me out. Since then she's kept a close eye on me, trying to figure out who I am. I'm telling you it's very hard to hide your accent.

The lieutenant, Thalia, and another newer hunter called Reyna didn't fully trust me, but accepted me because I remind them of a friend (probably Percy). They were experienced in melee combat so every once in a while we would practice and duel together.

Thalia's whole strategy seemed to be brandishing her shield at me every so often. I didn't know why. I has a rather cool design with an image of Medusa on the front. When I asked her about it she seemed both stunned and confused. Apparently, it's supposed to magically scare opponents into hesitation, giving her attacks of opportunity, but for some reason it didn't work on me.

I honestly would have had my arse handed to me if it wasn't for the uniqueness of Fax. It's length helped me keep an advantageous distance from Reyna and her gladius (a Roman short-sword), and it's strength allows me to so knock aside Thalia's shield and parry her spear. They kept using their powers to cheat.

"Come on lieutenant, stop zapping me." I complained.

"What? Is our mighty guardian still struggling to use his powers?" She mocked.

"Very funny. You try turning down gifts from Hestia."

I quickly dodged an arrow coming from the woods. I turned to where it came from.

"And can you please stop that already!" I shouted to no-one.

Both Thalia and Reyna burst into laughter.

"At least your getting better at something." Said Reyna.

"Yeah, the other hunters are getting annoyed at your luck." Replied Thalia.

"Aye." I said angrily. "What else can you do when-" I saw another arrow flying towards me.

Out of some unknown instinct, I raised my hand and a bolt of flames shot out of me. I saw as it disintegrated the arrow midair and continued into the woods, where a rather surprised yelp was heard. A hunter stumbled out of the trees, patting away at the small flame on her shoulder.

"Are you ok?" I called out.

The hunter just glared at me and walked away, her parka still smoking.

"Well well well. Looks like someone has a temper." Said Thalia. She meant me.

"Oh, ha-ha." I replied. "Who was that anyway?"

"That's Lyra. She really take after Phoebe."

"Who's Phoebe?" I asked.

Thalia and Reyna's face turned sad.

"She was a hunter. Had a short temper and really hated males. The two of them were close. She died when we were fighting the giant Orion."

A moment of silence passed.

Then I sensed it. A huge burst of fear about a mile away. My instincts kicked in and I ran towards the source.

"Where are you going?!" The two called.

I ignored them.

As I got closer I heard two things, a roar and a scream. And then I saw it. It was a dragon of sorts, but it had no wings. So that would make it a drake. It was towering over a little girl, 7-8 years old, with her backed against a tree. I also saw that the beast was ready to pounce.

Knowing that I couldn't reach them in time, I summoned Silex and Scintilla, and threw them at the beast. They impaled themselves into its side, causing it to roar in pain. I managed to run up to the girl as the drakes mouth began to smoke and it breathed a wave of flames at us (because of course it could do that).

I was immune to fire but the girl was not, so I pulled her close and shielded her from the flames. I felt the heat wrap around me and them die down, leaving us unharmed and a very confused drake. It was probably thinking "Why people not burnt?" or something.

Using its confusion to my advantage, I quickly pulled out my welrod pistol from beneath my cloak and fired a shot. It hit the beast between the eyes, dead-centre. The beast stood there before falling to the ground and turning into the usual golden dust. Returning the pistol to is hiding spot, I looked down at the little girl in my arms and saw that she was crying.

"Shhh. It's ok, I've got ya. The bad monster is gone now." I say as I hugged her, trying to calm her down.

Hearing footstep approaching, I looked up to see Thalia and Reyna running up to me.

"What was that about? What happened here?" They asked.

"The young one here was being attacked by a drake."

"A what?" Thalia asked

I described the creature to them.

"That was a drakon Geordie."

"No, dragons have wings four legs, this one didn't have wings so it's a drake." I replied.

"A drakon, not a dragon. Has a "K" in it." Said Reyna.

I nodded and looked back at the girl, only to see that she was asleep. I picked her up and turned to the others.

"Let's take her back to the Hunt. She'll be safer there."

[Hi Lads and Lasses! Holy shit! Just realised halfway through making this that this book now has over 1k reads. Thank you so much. Anyway, I hoped you've enjoyed the chapter.]

[- Pringles out!]