I am 15 chapters ahead on my patreón, check it out if you are interested.
https://www.patréon.com/emperordragon
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Chapter Six: The Hunt
The arrow released with a sharp, snapping twang—a sound as sudden and final as the crack of thunder. It surged forward with a violence that almost defied physics, slicing through the dense woodland air like a lightning bolt let loose from the sky itself. I didn't even realize I'd stopped breathing until the chill of held breath prickled at my lungs.
It moved so fast it was a blur—just a flash of steel and fletching vanishing into the green. I was watching it, eyes locked on its path, but even then, I could barely follow. One second it was nocked, the next it was gone.
I should've known it would be a kill shot.
By all rights, it should have been.
But it wasn't.
A moment before the arrow could reach its target, the bear—a massive, hulking shape half-lost in the undergrowth—jerked awake as though some unseen force had warned it. It roared, a sound that wasn't just loud—it was cataclysmic. Like the sky itself had split open. Like thunder with teeth. The cry of something ancient and furious and wrong.
The arrow didn't miss—it struck true, burying itself deep into the beast's chest. But the angle was off. Too high. Too far left. It missed the heart. And somehow, impossibly, that mattered. Because the thing didn't stop. It didn't even slow.
My eyes widened. That arrow had sunk more than halfway into its body. That wasn't a standard hunting arrow—not by a long shot. And Richard's bow? That wasn't some casual tool you'd use to bring down deer. That was something else entirely. A weapon of war disguised as wood and string. Something built to bring down fortress gates… or monsters.
The bear—if it could still be called that—snarled, eyes wild with fury. The pupils burned with something unnatural, and its mouth frothed with rage as it lunged forward, every muscle in its towering form driving it straight at us.
Straight at me.
Time shattered. Everything moved too fast.
My body reacted before I even thought to move. Instinct kicked in and shoved me into action. I dove backward, tucking into a roll that carried me behind the thick trunk of a nearby tree. My breath came in fast, shallow bursts, heart racing so hard I could feel it in my throat.
But Richard—he didn't move.
He just stood there. Bow still in hand. Posture relaxed. Calm. As if he were part of the forest—rooted and unshakable.
No fear in his eyes.
No hesitation in his posture.
Only focus.
He moved like a storm brewing beneath the surface of still water. Smooth. Deadly. He notched another arrow with practiced precision and released it in one fluid motion. The second arrow struck true as well—buried itself into the bear's shoulder with a thud that echoed through the woods.
Another wound that would've killed anything else. Anything normal.
But this creature wasn't normal.
It was beyond that. A nightmare made flesh. A thing that shouldn't be.
It kept coming, unrelenting. Its massive paws pounded the forest floor like war drums, saliva spraying from its jaws as it bellowed again—this time louder, angrier.
It was too close now.
Too fast.
No time to fire a third shot.
Richard didn't try. He simply let the bow fall from his hands, the motion smooth, like the decision had already been made.
Then he drew the dagger.
A dagger.
Against a creature that size? It was madness. It was suicide.
My breath caught in my lungs as I watched him, disbelief turning my blood to ice. The blade gleamed silver in the fading light—clean, sharp, deadly. But still—just a dagger.
Was he insane?
No.
He was something else entirely.
He moved.
Not like a man—more like a ghost given form. His steps were impossibly fast, deliberate, elegant. There was no wasted energy, no panic, no second-guessing. Only clarity.
The bear lunged, one enormous paw sweeping toward him with the power to crush a car. But Richard was already moving—already gone. He slid just outside the arc of the attack, impossibly close, so close that the beast should've torn him in half.
But it didn't.
He stepped through the attack, under it, around it, the dagger flashing like a streak of moonlight. It bit into the bear's bicep, slicing through thick hide and muscle with terrifying ease.
The bear shrieked in pain—a guttural, otherworldly noise that made the air vibrate.
Another slash. And another.
Each movement was a symphony of skill. A dance of death choreographed by someone who had done this before. Dozens of times. Hundreds.
He wasn't fighting.
He was hunting.
The bear swung again, teeth gnashing, claws swiping at the air where he'd been—but Richard was never there. He was already somewhere else, each dodge timed to the inch, each cut drawing blood. Slowly, methodically, he dismantled the beast—one wound at a time.
And with every hit, the creature slowed. It bled. It staggered. Its fury burned bright—but its body was betraying it.
Then it made its final mistake.
It lunged, jaws open, aiming to end him with a single bite.
Richard didn't back away. But he stepped in, into the attack, ducked beneath the snapping maw—and drove the dagger up.
Straight through the eye.
The blade vanished into the creature's skull.
The bear went rigid.
Then it collapsed.
It was dead before it hit the ground.
The silence that followed was suffocating. Even the forest seemed stunned, as if it couldn't quite believe what had just happened.
I stepped out from my hiding place, legs trembling, breath catching in my chest. The adrenaline hadn't faded yet. My body still buzzed with it, but my mind was somewhere else—trying to understand what I'd just witnessed.
Richard stood over the corpse, calm as ever. He wiped the blood from his blade with a cloth and slid it back into its sheath like he'd just trimmed a branch off a tree. Like he hadn't just faced down death and won.
The thing at his feet wasn't a bear anymore. It looked like one, sure—huge, furred, clawed. But what had lived inside it? That had been something else. Twisted. Corrupted. Possessed by something darker than nature. But now it was just a husk. Meat and fur and blood leaking into the soil.
I looked at Richard, really looked at him. And I saw something I hadn't seen before.
This wasn't just a man who hunted animals.
This was someone who hunted nightmares.
A predator—but a different kind. A force of nature in his own right.
And for the first time since I'd learned what I was… I didn't feel like the most dangerous predator.
Richard glanced back at me, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"You okay, pup?"
I nodded, slowly. My voice barely made it out. "That… that was insane."
He just shrugged and sheathed the dagger.
"Just another Tuesday."
I wasn't sure if he was joking.
And I wasn't sure if I wanted him to be.