The day is finally here. I've done all that I could and will have to make do with what I have. I've spoken to Rose and Lily that Peter was willing to tutor them on the condition that they were willing to head over to the Eastern Continent. A small price to pay considering that they'll be able to learn under the guidance of one of the Great Powers. They were indeed thrilled to hear about it and they had considered requesting a favour from him in the first place. I was fully expecting them to rush over immediately but they said that the war had just ended and they wanted to be sure that I was fully healed before heading to the East. I didn't know they cared this much about me.
It was early in the morning and I'm eating a small meal that I prepared the night before. I wished to be as quiet as possible and head out without them knowing. Q appeared from the ground to deliver the papers. Someone is delivering early today. I took the paper from him and lifted him up.
"Q, I'll be going to hunt the person that killed my grandfather. I promise you that I'm going to avenge him. Please, deliver this letter to Rose or Lily if I don't make it back in a week's time," I told him as I gave him a belly rub.
He tilted his head as he stared at me. Why the hell am I talking to a hedgehog? I guess he's the only one that I know who won't spill the beans. I just hope he doesn't give Rose or Lily my letter too early and make them worry.
I placed him back on the floor and he tunnelled away. I approached as softly as I could to Rose's door. I wanted to say my goodbye to them before leaving. Hmm? It's partly opened. I pushed the door as slowly as I could to peek in. I hope I don't see them doing something that I never wished to see. Rose told me it was just a joke, but is it really?
Thankfully, both of them were asleep and not atop each other. Rose was tucked in her bed while Lily was snoring loudly on a futon. I sneaked over as softly as I could and gave a peck on Rose's forehead. Lily's hair was messy so I had to brush some aside to give her a peck as well.
I headed out the door and steeled myself as I headed towards the caravan that awaited me at the southern entrance.
***
Why do you have to treat us so equally? And why do you have to seek revenge alone? Lily and I sat on our bed while hugging our pillows. Ever since he returned to the city, he had been treating both of us as equally as possible. We spoke between ourselves that if he were to show any sign of favouritism between one of us, then the other would back off. But he said his goodbye to both of us in the same manner.
Damn it. Lily's idea is starting to sound really good now. Forcing him down and rape him so that both of us end up getting pregnant is starting to sound appealing. In doing so, he will be forced to marry us. But we know that he'll hate us forever by doing so. Sigh.
I turned to look at Lily. She was also in a trance-like state, seemingly thinking about him while hugging her pillow. But I shook her to snap her back to reality, as now is not the time to be thinking about love. We have to follow him before he leaves the city. We quickly prepared ourselves and headed out as fast as we could. The first thing we need to do is to find out where he is heading. Where exactly is Tom residing, and how did Onii-chan know about it? Is it from that weird entity that he was talking to in the dark alleyway that we couldn't see?
We came out of the Dark guild's entrance, but Onii-chan was nowhere in sight. We thought of going separately to each entrance, but to our surprise, Q suddenly poked his head out of the ground and suddenly began swinging his head in a cute way. Is he—pointing to us— the direction where he went? From the way he's swinging, it seems to be—south!
I gave my thanks to Q and started running towards the direction he was pointing. Q is smarter than he looks, and honestly speaking, I think he understands our language. Lily followed behind and asked whether it was a good idea to follow the direction of a hedgehog. I told her to put her trust in him as he's no ordinary hedgehog and he is Zen's favourite pet.
We saw Zen boarding a caravan heading out of the southern entrance. Thankfully, we had planned a few things in advance. We had booked caravans on all four entrances for the entire week. We paid in advance so we don't feel bad if they ended up waiting for nothing. We told them at a certain time of the day that if we end up not showing up, then they are free to do whatever they want. We brought along basic supplies and whatever medical supplies we could find. If he loses a limb, we have a tourniquet to prevent him from dying. I just hope he doesn't get injured in any of his vital organs as we have no way of healing that. Fingers crossed that he survives.
Alright, we have done all we could to prepare ourselves; time to follow Onii-chan and find out where Tom is hiding. I look forward to killing Tom, who had caused so much trouble for John, Lily, and more importantly, my brother.
***
It was night when I arrived at the elven forest. According to the knuckleduster weirdo, Tom is currently residing here. Why, though? Who's he hiding from? Is it due to the Queen finally kicking the bucket that he no longer has a place to hide? Or did he fail some assassination that caused him to be hunted? And why are the elves even allowing him to hide here unopposed at their borders? Either way, I do not care about his circumstances. If he's here, all I need to do is interrogate him and kill him. I really hope that he's here, though. I paid a pretty penny for this information.
I sneaked around the forest, trying to pinpoint the exact location where the weirdo had pointed it out on the map. It should be somewhere around here. I spotted a small light source up ahead among the trees. I crouched and moved as slowly as I could towards the source. Someone was there, and from the looks of it, I might have hit the jackpot. That blond hair of his that he combed backwards and those scars of his. Hang on, there seem to be even more scars now as compared to the previous time I met him. And these are just on his back. I hope there are more scars up front. Finally, I have you in my sights. Target acquired.
Bravo 6, going dark, I thought to myself as I cast Conceal. Odd, I swore I heard this somewhere before. Why does my brain keep thinking of weird things that I cannot seem to remember?
Tom stood up and unsheathed his dagger quickly as though he had heard something. His instincts are certainly off the charts to be able to detect me when I'm using Conceal in the cover of darkness when it's at its most potent. And true enough, he had plenty of scars on his chest and other parts of his body. A whole lot of it, to be honest. Is it because he had grown too weak and he's forced to hide like a coward? Let's not get too carried away; this man is still one of the Four Great Powers. I'll need to use everything at my disposal to kill him. I don't have any support from the Light Guild to help me, unlike my previous fight with the Queen. I'm on my own.
Tom continued to scan his surroundings cautiously. He knew something was nearby and he was aware of it. Should I remain hidden or do I take the first strike?
"I know you're here. You can't fool me with your spell. I've fought with plenty of Dark Knights before and I know when one is using Conceal. Come on out!" he shouted.
I guess he is called the Fourth for a reason. No point in hiding anymore. I shall take the first strike then!
I appeared behind him and swung Tengu-kaze. Even with my sudden attack, he managed to block it with his dagger almost instantly. His reaction speed is off the charts. No matter, I swung Tengu-kaze once more using wind pressure but he dodged out of the way skilfully.
"Another moron trying to kill me, eh? I'll show you people not to underestimate—wait, I know you. You're that kid from that time," he said.
"Surprised you even remembered me when we only met for a short while," I told him.
"I made sure to burn all of you brats' faces into my skull. Your fucking old man caused me a fuck ton of problems," he raised his voice.
"Really? That is music to my ears. Now—where is he?" I gritted my teeth.
"Puhahaha!! You think I kept him alive?! I took my time torturing him, slowly savouring his slow death. But I do have to give respect to him though; he refuses to budge even under his dying breath. If only he told me which one of you two was a Hawthorn, I would have gladly hunted you down," he spat.
So, he didn't know whether it was me or John who was a Hawthorn. Obviously, he ruled out Lily as she was an elf. But—what's stopping him from hunting both of us in the first place?
"Why bother? The Queen is already dead. You won't be getting bounty money any longer," I told him with a sarcastic tone.
"She's—dead? Puhahahaha!! Bitch finally got what she deserves. That sly snake had always been a pain to deal with. Only giving me contracts that are near impossible to complete yet giving me shitty rewards for it. Humour me though, how did she die?" he asked curiously.
"Roasted by lightning," I shrugged.
"Lightning? A bit overkill for a human, isn't it?" he chuckled.
"She's not human," I glared at him.
"Hah! I had my suspicions. Only a monster would order genocide on a single bloodline. I would have ordered the soldiers to eliminate everyone instead! Hahaha!!" he laughed loudly.
"You're mad, but what would I expect from someone who's willing to take a contract from a monster," I said bluntly.
"Anything for money. The only thing I trust in this world," he shrugged.
"Such shallow thinking. I guess that's the only thing you deserved anyway," I spat.
"Watch your words. You don't know me and what I had to do in order to survive in this world," he gritted his teeth.
"Nor will I care. You made me your enemy by killing my grandfather. Now, just await for your death," I summoned Inazuma.
"I look forward to it then, Hawthorn. You're not the first dumbass who sought revenge and died by my hands," he smiled.
Our weapons clashed as both of us got in close. He summoned his bow to stop my swing. His bow was made of metal and had blades on the entire section of the limb. Maintaining close combat is what I must do to prevent him from shooting his arrows.
As I attempted another swing at him, he tossed a small-looking ball at me. Is that—poison? I held my breath and expected the worst. If it can be absorbed through the skin, then I hope the antidote that I crafted works. Smoke erupted from the ball. As I guessed, it's just a smoke bomb. Using poison is not his forte, as there was no evidence of him using it in any of his assassinations before.
I charged ahead, ignoring the smoke, but Tom was already gone. Such a quick reaction to disappear in such a short amount of time. I hid myself as well, using Conceal. I must find him. A blue, glowing arrow flew right at me, but I managed to dodge at the last minute. How did he know where I am? I stopped moving entirely, and it was eerily silent. Conceal is supposed to muffle my movements entirely, but he can still hear me? Or perhaps, he can see me?
I crouched and scanned for the possibility of where he's hiding. Just when I was about to pinpoint his position, another arrow came flying towards me in front of my vision. I parried the arrow and ran towards where he was hiding, with Conceal still active. He's in a strategic position on top of a tree. I climbed up using the same method I used to climb the castle. It was not long until I reached the top. Fully expecting Tom to be there, I was greeted by bombs instead, with the fuses about to run out. Shit, it's a trap!
BOOOOMM!!!
I fell to the ground and landed on my left side, which injured my arm. I hope it's not fractured or broken, as it hurts to even move it now. I scrambled to hide myself as Conceal was deactivated after the explosion. I'm a sitting duck right out in the open. No arrows came as I hid behind a large tree. He must be repositioning himself. I reached into my potion pouch and took out an adrenaline potion. While I might feel more pain afterwards, I needed to continue fighting effectively if I wished to win against him.
I took a peek out of the tree and an arrow came flying towards me immediately. I quickly hid back to avoid the arrow. I need to assume that he can see me using something. Possibility is that he is using heat. It must be that weird visor of his then. Now, how should I play this? My main objective is right in front of me, it is the final quest.
Main Objective: Eliminate Tom Snapdragon with extreme prejudice.
Should I assume that he has set bombs where he's hiding right now? I should assume the worst. Alright then, you're willing to sit next to bombs? I'll make you regret that.
I summoned my fully juiced-up favourite gauntlets and rushed towards where he was supposedly hiding. Arrows flew at me with precision as I ran towards him with the cover of trees and bushes. I deflected the arrows or used tree trunks as cover. Not too far now, and he should be getting ready to run to another hiding spot. Not that I'll let him!
I ran as fast as I could to where he was supposedly hiding and called forth a lightning bolt with my right gauntlet.
BBBBOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!
The explosion was even worse than the previous one as the lightning destroyed the entire tree along with the bombs that he had set up. I hope that had injured him in some way. That's for detonating bombs in my face. Now, where is he?
I heard some sort of flapping sound above and turned my gaze upwards. Damn it, he can fly? It looks like his Rend is some sort of armour that gave him wings along with some light armour on his chest and hands. And that triangular-shaped visor that he's wearing. I'll remember that damn thing forever even in my dreams. I launched Lightning Strike at him but he protected himself with his wings.
So, Rend is capable of blocking a spell from legendary equipment. No wonder Peter was so displeased that his treasured spell was being misused by a number of beings out there. Who did these people even learn it from? He flew down and took a good look at me. I saw a part of his arm was charred a little, possibly due to his own bombs exploding in his face. Serves him right.
"Bloody hell, colour me intrigued. A Dark Knight capable of using lightning? Now that is certainly unheard of. I thought you were joking earlier when you said that the Queen had died from lightning, but who knew that it would be you. Now things are getting interesting. I WANT those gauntlets," he licked his lips.
"I'm a Dark Wanderer, mind you. As for my gauntlets, you want them? You can dream of having them when you're dead," I spat.
"Oh ho, I will be prying them from your cold, dead hands. I'm so looking forward to it!" said Tom as he readied his bow and wings.
Why do I end up fighting beings that can fly? So troublesome and annoying! Why can't I just fight something that solely plants its feet on the ground? But at least Tom has no regeneration, unlike a demon. Perhaps in a battle of attrition, I might be able to win.
Tom flew backwards and shot consecutive arrows at me. I deflected all of them with Inazuma and charged towards him. Sometimes, I tend to forget that Inazuma, being as light as a feather, really gives me good reaction speed. Tom tossed several bombs at me, but without the element of surprise, I avoided all of them. He then tossed a couple of smoke bombs on his feet, but I used Tengu-kaze to blow the smokes away.
Tom grunted with a huge "Tsk!" and decided to fly upwards. Damn it, I wished I could fly too! He started spamming his arrows at me, which I either deflected or dodged. He has the advantage of height and range against me. No wonder other beings had difficulty killing him. With his infinite bombs and arrows, not to mention with Rend and Sunder, he is certainly one of the most bullshit bosses that I've ever had to fight. Might as well throw in a large health pool and infinite stamina for him then.
He drew his bow and held it. I thought he was going to shoot immediately, but blue particles started to accumulate at the tip of his bow, forming a huge ball. Then he shot it into the sky and grinned at me. That can't be fortification magic, that is, real magic!
I started running as I somehow predicted what that ball of his was going to do. And true enough, a shower of arrows started pouring around me. He started chasing after me while flying, adding more arrows to the showers. I'm so glad my agility skills are high enough for me to dodge and react fast enough to all of those incoming arrows.
I felt some resistance from my boots as I ran. It was as though I had snapped something. Immediately, I started hearing loud hissing sounds around me. SHIT!!
BBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!
Showers of arrows continued to pour onto me until the dust settled. I stood up from my crouching position with my purple spectral cloak. Bloody hell, that was deafening. Glad I managed to cover my ears before all the explosions occurred. I glared at him above while he made a whistle, being impressed at me. This guy is going to be such a chore to fight.