Duskbound

Sildra had been impressed with Jensen's work. He was quick, decisive, and devastatingly accurate with that bow of his. When the monsters had threatened to overwhelm them, he'd magically pulled something out of nowhere to turn the battle around. She'd been quite taken by his performance.

Then she'd accompanied Torwin to Beldrit the night he'd returned. He'd needed her [Eye of the Moon] skill to confirm the corrupted seed bearers were entirely purged, and her quest had evolved from saving Deshir to encompassing the entirety of the frontier. It was immediately obvious what the difference was between a gold-ranked monster hunter and his young apprentice. He had arrows in the air even before she could open her mouth to let him know a monster was approaching.

How high is this man's mental stat to not only hear everything around him, but to be able to track them through the brush? He has to have at least a couple of skills helping him along.

They reached Beldrit after a short hour of travel, and Sildra caught her breath upon coming in range. "There are at least twenty or thirty monsters inside the walls," she informed Torwin.

"Probably more under the roofs," he said. "We'll have to drag everyone out house by house to make sure we've got them all."

That wasn't going to go well, but then again, the people of Deshir had been far more pliable than she'd expected after she and Jensen had rescued them. She expected that had more to do with the more recalcitrant elements of the town being dead than anything, either because they'd resisted the invaders or because they'd been part of the attack.

Beldrit was in better condition, but things were still tense. They'd survived the initial assault, but a quarter of the town had been killed and they had no way to know how many monsters still lurked among them, no way to know if a man who'd been on the side of humanity yesterday was still himself now.

Sildra could tell, though. It was only a question of whether they'd believe her. No woman wanted to hear that her son had been killed and replaced by a monster. No husband would believe that his wife was working with the body snatchers, not even in the face of overwhelming evidence. That, more than anything, was what made it so hard to quell the invasion. People just wouldn't do what was needed when the victims were their families.

At least, that was how things had gone in Deshir. When they walked through the open, unmanned gates of Beldrit an hour or two before midnight, they immediately found a crowd gathered in the middle of town, loudly arguing.

"I'm telling you, you're wrong! I think I'd know if my own brother had been replaced by a monster!"

"Then what was he doing in my house!" another man yelled back.

Torwin turned a questioning gaze to Sildra, and she shook her head. There were indeed seven corrupted seed bearers in the crowd, but the man in question wasn't one of them. Whatever it was he'd been up to in his neighbor's home, it wasn't to spread more corruption through Beldrit.

"Which ones?" the old monster hunter asked.

"There, the bald one with the scar under his eye. And there, the young man with the long hair in the faded green coat. There, to his left – the girl with her hair in braids." Sildra choked for a moment as she pointed Torwin there. The girl couldn't be more than twelve. She took a moment to compose herself, then pointed out the remaining monsters.

"There can't be any mistakes," Torwin said. "Make sure you're sure."

"I am," she told him with a firm voice.

"It would be better if the blame for this falls squarely on me. When this job is over, I'll be gone and everyone who wants someone to blame for the death of whoever was important to them can point their anger at me. When the rest of them make their move, just keep your calls under your breath. Do not worry; I will hear you."

"Your ears are truly that sharp?" she murmured, practically inaudibly.

He grinned and said, "They are."

And then that terrifying bow of his came up, and an arrow appeared out of nowhere, already set on its string. Torwin killed all six of the monsters before the first scream started, then he pushed his way through the crowd to where two men held a third by the arms and had him pushed down on his knees.

"This one is no monster," he said. "At least, not one recognized by the system. Whatever he was doing, it was of his own free will and not because he is a corpse puppet controlled by a seed of corruption."

"Who the hell are you?!" the accusing man demanded.

"The hunter," Torwin said simply. "And a damn good thing I'm the one who came out here. The scope of this infestation is far greater than your towns reported. No bronze-ranked monster hunter could have handled this threat. Despite the fact that my apprentice and I have killed thousands of monsters over this last month, more and more keep showing up. This is an absolute disaster, and now your towns are infested with monsters the likes of which I've ever seen.

"I am here to purge this corruption, and by Morgus, that is exactly what I'm going to do."

The crowd surged, screams of denials and raw, primal hatred ringing out. Sildra worried briefly, not for Torwin, but for the townsfolk who were trying to reach him. If he felt threatened, she didn't know what he'd do. No, he wouldn't hurt the people he'd been hired to protect, not on purpose.

A new monster appeared in the square, a middle-aged man with a lumberjack's ax held loosely in one hand. He stood in the front door of a house and gazed casually at the commotion. Before he could take another step, Sildra whispered, "To your left, just pass the crowd. Dark hair, dirty skin, holding an ax on his right side."

It seemed impossible that Torwin could have heard her, but somehow, impossibly, his bow snapped up and a new arrow manifested, its tip held in line with his finger. A fresh round of screams went up, but too late to warn the imposter. The arrow flew true, lacing its way through the startled faces of the crowd to sink into the monster's face.

It took him between the eyes, sending up a gout of blood and dropping the monster straight to the ground. "The whole village will assemble in front of me so that I might sift out the monsters among you," Torwin yelled, his voice pitched to be heard over the crowd. "Every last one of you, and if anyone thinks to hide in their cellars or attics, know that I will drag you out myself."

Despite any protests to the contrary, Torwin bullied the entire town into doing exactly that. After the first few kills, he answered calls to prove he wasn't just killing random citizens by claiming a machete and shoving it into the mayor's hand. "There," he said. "This man here is a monster in human skin. Execute him yourself and see the system message."

Despite protests to the contrary, Torwin had no mercy for the man and bullied him into it. At the same time, a group of six monsters burst out of the inn, axes raised overhead as they charged the crowd. Sildra started to draw on her power, to use [Lunar Flare] to cut them down, but Torwin put arrows through them all. His eyes shifted to Sildra for a moment and took in her slight nod.

His features hardened and he gestured to the group. "There are six more for you. Kill them and see for yourself."

"No! Not my boy!" a woman cried, rushing forward. She was older, perhaps forty or fifty, and attempted to throw herself in front of a young man in his early twenties who was clutching at an arrow lodged firmly in his leg, just above his knee. His face was twisted up in a grimace of pain. "Mom," he gasped out. "We can't let him… He's the monster… Must stop him."

More protests rang out. More townsfolk rushed to defend the monsters wearing the bodies of their loved ones. Torwin was merciless, so much so that he pulled a dagger from his belt and demanded a random man hold one of the monsters up. Forced to comply, he held his struggling neighbor while Torwin slit the monster's throat.

"You have helped slay a corrupted seed bearer, level 15," the man who'd restrained the monster said, his voice breaking halfway through. "Gods, he was right."

Despite any cries of protest or attempts to stop him, Torwin did his job. It was a grim, bloody harvest, one no one thanked him for, but in the end, every last man, woman, and child was examined thoroughly. Those that tried to hide failed to veil themselves from Torwin's senses and were dragged out under the moonlight for Sildra to covertly examine.

Beldrit hated him for it, just as he'd told her they would. There were some who understood the necessity, maybe even most, but Sildra knew it would be weeks and months before they accepted the reality of the tragedy, that these monsters were no different than the ones who dragged their victims off into the trees to eat them alive, that their family members were already dead.
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And then it was over, in just two short hours. It was like a nightmare she hadn't realized she was trapped in until she woke back up. For a few brief minutes, she was just thankful that the job was done. Then she remembered the truth.

Beldrit was only the first town on their run tonight.