My (Monster?) Hero Life

While all of this was going on over at the main force, it took Lorget's team some time to discover their own target. As soon as he spotted Charlie, he could understand that this hero was beyond them. Even if they all worked together. They would only have a chance at victory if Shadow joined them with his group. However, that was only a chance.

Lorget was not one to potentially throw away his life when a better avenue to approach the situation appeared in his thoughts. Although they took their orders from Shadow most of the time, each and every one of them directly answered to Kace's authority. Shadow naturally acted in a manner to protect Kace's wellbeing. However, Lorget preferred the idea of bringing everything to their Lord's attention.

It was only right in his mind that Kace should intervene if they discovered an enemy that could threaten the tribe as a whole. Surveying their enemies was one thing, so was launching ambushes that had a chance of victory. However, leaping towards the inevitable death of a large number of their tribe was another. 

Lorget immediately settled on sending someone to get Kace and chose to withhold this information from Shadow. Sure, it may create a rift between the two of them, but he acted in the best interests of their tribe as a whole. 'Shadow's become too different since Kace's arrival. He's so focused on protecting him that he doesn't realise that Kace rarely needs help at all!'

While they waited for the messenger to return with Kace in tow, they kept an eye on Charlie so that they would not lose him. Lilly's body lay next to him. She was tied up in a way that would be difficult to undo discretely. What made the situation worse was that Charlie did not seem to need to sleep at all. 

They could only watch him silently from a distance as he drunk a potion each night while pouring another into Lilly's mouth. Lorget deduced that the brew was what kept him awake while the other acted to subdue Lilly from acting on her own. The situation frustrated the Tu'Thrag to no end. 

They had no idea what Charlie was capable of, and they could not risk exposing themselves. There had to be a reason that he was entrusted with protecting Lilly alone. This made any ideas that they had become obsolete quickly. On one night, they thought they finally had some hope of discovering Charlie's strength for themselves as a small pack of beasts appeared.

However, the hero quickly dashed those hopes as he spread the contents of a potion around himself and his captive. Whatever it was seemed to deter the beasts from coming close as they wrinkled their furry noses and scurried off on the eight legs as quickly as they could manage. The days passed slowly, and they remained unaware of what Shadow was up to on his end. 

However, a sudden change occurred in the hero's behaviour as he abruptly stood up in the darkness as gazed around. Lorget wore a confused expression on his face as he tried to pinpoint what had caused such a reaction from Charlie. However, he could not detect anything suspicious at all. This only served to confirm his thoughts about being cautious with this situation.

The hero's instincts were clearly more developed than those of the Tu'Thrag watching over him. It was highly likely that he would be one of those who could detect their appearance whenever they surfaced from the shadow realm within a specific area of him. Lorget and his team sighed in relief for not acting when they discovered their target.

At that moment, Charlie suddenly drew the two daggers at his waist and slashed towards his feet! A metallic clang erupted in the night air as the Tu'Thrag witnessed the blades being stopped in their attack by the shaft of a stave with a horn on its end. A burst of chilling laughter followed the metallic noise as Kace's figure slowly ascended from the darkness covering the ground!

His white air fluttered in the breeze as he gave Charlie a mocking glare. The pair stood with their respective weapons interlocked as they sized each other up. Charlie's face suddenly broke out in a wide smile! 'Finally! An opponent worth killing!' Battle lust oozed from the hero as he met Kace's eyes with a steady stare of his own.

In Charlie's mind, there was no way that he could lose with all of the various poisons that he had access to! If he played his cards right, he could even capture the chimera here and now! Earning himself a more than generous reward in the process. Kace snarled when he realised that the hero was not going to back down. Instead, he held the intention to force him to fight.

"Lorget! You did well! Seize Lilly and return her to the army. I'll take care of this!" Kace's voice resembled more of a growl than actual words, but that did not stop the tribe from bursting into action!

Charlie's eyes went wide as he realised that a large group of monsters had been tailing him. Which was how Kace had managed to discover his location! He felt appalled that the original plan was taken apart so quickly, all because of a few dirty monsters! Before he could react to the unfolding situation, he felt a heavy strike land on his ribcage!

Kace's knee had come up to strike his exposed ribs while Charlie was distracted by the Tu'Thrag's rush to secure Lilly. Kace did not wait for Charlie to recover from the blow and raced after him, using Stampede to close the distance. Charlie was no slouch and instantly recognised the danger that he found himself in!

As Kace appeared right in front of his eyes, Charlie managed to find a gap in Kace's armour and felt the resistance of his poison coated blade sink into his soft flesh. A dark grin spread across Charlie's face at the look of pain on Kace's face that haunted his attack. The hero felt like laughing his head off! As far as he was concerned, he had already won the battle!

"Why do you look so happy?" Kace said to the figure before him with a confused expression. "Is it because of this poison?"

Charlie did not know how to respond to the chimera as he pointed to his wound, drawing Charlie's gaze to its location. A faint purple smoke leaked from the injury, and none of the signs of a successful poisoning began to appear anywhere on Kace. This shook Charlie to his core. 'That's impossible!'

Kace smiled as he took hold of Charlie by the throat. "Let me show you how poison is meant to be used!"