A dense forest surrounded Alice and Franklin along with five other uniformed men. Alice was wearing her uniform with some armoured pads on her upper body and is holding her bow with the quiver hanging from her waist. Franklin, who is now wearing the same uniform as the other men, began to speak.
"We have received numerous reports recently that monsters have been gathering in this area. We will split into two groups, just as we discussed before we left, and rondeau at the manor in 3 hours. I trust that you all brought your equipment with you otherwise it's going to be a long walk back with you. Now before we begin the search does anyone have any questions?"
After a moment of silence, one of the men, who was tall, blonde and quite muscular, spoke up, "If I may ask sir, who is she and what is she doing here?" He points towards Alice. Alice's head drops and begins to tense up.
"She's here for training," Franklin responds glaring at the man who asked followed by saying, "Are there any further questions?" Before anyone has time to give a response he speaks again, "Good. Hunters, begin the search," and starts to walk away from the group with Alice following close behind along with two other soldiers. The other three men go off in the other direction, one of which was the blonde man.
As the group of four walked deeper into the forest, one of the men leaned close to Alice and said, "Sorry about my brother back there, he shouldn't have been so rude."
"Oh do-don't worry about it," Alice responds tripping over her own words.
"He's like that with most new people." The man responds in an attempt to reassure Alice. He is also blonde but not quite as tall as the other man.
"I'm Harry, by the way, Harry Painter. My brother is Robert."
"I'm Alice, Alice Howard."
The group continue to walk until Franklin stops them and crouches down to inspect the ground.
Harry calls out "What did you find?"
"Tracks, they look like they came from some large insect. Most likely a spider. Everyone be on your guard," Franklin responds.
The prints were shaped like roundrects and each one was wider than it was long.
Franklin removes his gun from its holster as do the other two men standing there. Alice reaches for an arrow and clips in on to her bow.
The group continue to walk weapons in hand. *Giant spiders! Why oh why did this world need giant fucking spiders. As if the green bees weren't enough.* Alice thought to herself clenching her fingers on her bowstring. *Okay stay calm remember what Franklin said, just keep a level head and focus on charging the arrow with my Lifeforce before releasing. We should be fine. I'm not alone.*
Minutes go by and the trail of prints keep going. Until eventually the prints are met with specs of red getting larger and more frequent as they went. A faint smell of rotting hits the group. *Oh god it's like a dumpster that no one's cleared for years and has been set alight by some idiot only to realize that it was filled with nothing but rotten eggs.* Step by step the smell gets stronger. Step by step the red drops turn larger. Step by step by step.
Five suites of what looks like knights armour spread across the ground. The armour was a dulled chrome painted in red with their blood. Their helmets had an image of a red shield with a lion on it and each helmet lied sperate from the rest of the body but the heads were still inside. Parts of their insides were falling out of holes in the side of their torso.
Slumped by one of the trees is an old man. Red covers his withered body and wreaked cloths. His head only had half of it coved in the skin, the other like an overgrown fungus. His arms lay lifeless by his side and one of his legs was detached from the rest of him revealing a pulsating muscle spilling blood over the grass that lay beneath him, like paint spilling over a canvas. His stomach looked like a bite had been taken out of it. His stomach poured out the remains of a meal. Yet he was still breathing.
Franklin walked over to the man and knelt down in front of him and wished something to him. The man nodes in response. At this response, Franklin stands and says, "May the creators grant your soul safe passage to the palace of the Ever void, " raising his gun to the man's head, "Rest in innocence fellow walker of Rosea," and he pulls the trigger.
A deafening bang fills the air and echos throughout the forest.
The other two Hunters stand in attendance, saluting before Harry walks over to Alice, still processing what just happened.
"I'm sorry you had to see that on your first day but this is part of the job. But the next part is making sure it doesn't happen again."
"Was-was there really nothing else we could do to of helped," Alice stared on has her eyes welled up.
The air fills with a deafening silence for what felt like an eternity before Franklin response, "With his wounds and the blood loss, no. All we could do is prolong his suffering or end it quickly." Franklin begins to inspect the body. "And with what's growing in his head, I can't even imagine the pain. What is growing here," he asks himself before standing. "We are not dealing with a typical monster or beast here. This trail suggests a monster, the large insect kind and most likely a spider however they attack with venomous fangs and webbing. No webs but there are fang-like marks on his head. This bit out of him looks like it was done by some kind of bear. No, it's no big enough for that, maybe a wolf. But how would they work together? Do they have the cognitive ability to do that? No, this was the work of one monster and it's something I've never seen before. We need to return back and report this." Franklin reaches into his bag and pulls out a small stone that is purple in colour and drops it next to the body.
"Shou- shouldn't we bury the body. Or take it to his family. I'm sure they'll want to know." Alice is shaking has she speaks.
"They will be notified. But we don't know what did this which means whatever it was is still out there and can kill more people so we need to work quickly, gather information, find out what it is and kill it before it kills more." Franklin reaches for another purple stone by t this one is glowing, the other Hunters do the same.
Alice reaches for her one, not taking her eyes off the body. After a deep breath a cloud of purple smoke covers each person and just like that, they're back outside the Gotwald mansion.
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