My Last Hunt

Quests: Making A Team (part 8)

War between teams;

"So are we going to hunt as well as continue to keep a wary eye on those seniors?" Linwin asked, displeased. 

He thought that their good times had begun after making a separate team and having a successful hunt today, but what was with this quest competition?

"Don't lose heart. It is part of the life and learning as well," Qiao patted his shoulder and chuckled. He used to fear one particular guy in the university department because he was particularly buff due to gym and belonged to a rich family. Qiao always made himself believe that one day he would be equally powerful and return all the mistreatment he faced at his hands but now when he thought about it, it was his mere frustration of the situation. 

Today with the strength that he had, he felt no sense of a grudge and only felt pity towards that guy.

"I wish to become stronger and exude the same level of confidence as you can in front of those bullies," Linwin laughed to his heart content after saying what was on his mind. 

Before seeing this brother and becoming a part of this team, he was sure that he would die without reaching level one. And now he was already level one. 

The second morning since they came to this Guild arrived. They were going for the quest with no other option and who knows what awaited them in the open forest. 

If they could, the three of them would have shouted vulgarities at the damn rules of the Guild and ran away but the problem was that they had to return back to the same Guild after the hunt. 

So, there was no other choice than to bear with it. 

They left the Guild and this time they were on more alert. 

They had been forced to join in the middle of this competition, so they had currently no idea how the other teams ranked. They were also cautious about whatever plan these teams had made for them.

If a team was without any loss, it would be promoted and other team would be demoted. Many of them had faced damages in some ways. They knew if any new team, no matter if it was of newbies or low level ones, if it could maintain a daily hunt without serious losses, they might be promoted and for others that would mean demotion.

Qiao did not bother to further ask the reception man since they were being forced to do the quests till the end of month, they had no choice in this. 

"I will walk at the rear and keep eyes at those who want to harm the team. You both have to keep a quick eye on our surroundings and look out for the monster," Qiao ordered them and they diligently nodded. 

They could tell the team leader was not in a good mood and they could understand the reason.

Following the direction they were aware due to their earlier hunts when they were in the previous Guild, they reached a part of the forest where only level one or two monsters could be find in abundance. 

This was the only way to avoid stronger monsters and their habitats. They had no map given by the Guild and can only rely on their sense of direction to avoid danger. 

They were advancing while Qiao was looking around and they happened to see few monsters of level one on their way. But these were not separately wandering but instead in a pack of three or four. 

They would not stop there and trigger them to court death. 

It would be equal to picking up fire in your hand and hope it would not burn you. 

So, they slowly and silently walked away and ahead. They even held their breaths in fear to get caught by the monsters who were wandering aimlessly. 

"We barely made it," Linwin whispered. 

Qiao gestured him to remain quiet.

When they finally walked past the habitat, they heaved some breaths of relief. 

This was the disadvantage of quests, the hunters cannot tell where they might end up searching for prey, either among the pack of monsters or find none after searching whole day. This was because they had no predetermined destination.

"I will climb the trees to improve the search," Qiao suggested and used the horn of his weapon to climb up the tree and looked far and wide. 

On the left side, there was an empty area of forest for some reason. On the right, there was the pack of monsters. He then looked toward the front as far as he could see. There a monster of unknown level that was wandering he noticed, but the monster was about to reach them. 

'Shit' he voiced to alert the other two. 

"Quick, hide somewhere else don't blame me later." Qiao voiced to them. He looked alert and warned Linwin and Quipu. 

They heard and got baffled, "Damn, just tell us which direction should we hide," they asked with fluster. 

They don't know from which direction the monster was coming. 

"Ah toward left quick, no wait it is changing its direction," Qiao seemed to be commentating rather than giving order. 

They heard the first words and ran towards left then when they heard the last part of the sentence they stopped and wanted to cry. 

What was happening?

"Just turn right and hide there," another order came. 

They listened and stopped, waiting for him to finish. They thought he would change his order once more, but they never thought that this time the warning was true. 

They were standing straight and then it was already too late. The monster came right upon their heads. 

"What are you both doing?" Qiao heard their screams and lowered his head to see what was going down there. 

"Damn, you both are lazy," Qiao shook his head and prepared to land between the monster and his lazy buddies. 

They both looked to each other, 'what lazy' were they not played just now?

"Don't panic now, there is no time to consider it," Qiao voiced to support their courage. 

And they brought up their weapons after getting some courage. 

"See, you are already prepared to face the monster. Ready with your weapons even before me," 

Both of them felt strange as they no longer wanted to hunt. They wanted to sit aside and see their leader hunting singlehandedly, after all their leader had some experience to hunt this way. 

"Again lazy, come on we are not on a picnic. The monster is right front of us, can't you see?" Qiao was worry-free as he aimed at the level one monster with his level four weapon from above. 

Linwin and Quipu were waiting for this rescue moment to move onto attacking. Else they felt their legs would give in when seeing the monster right in front of them.