A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

But his better reasoning won out. He knew that the soldiers finding them would only invite trouble, even if they\'d already caught some sort of wind of his existence.

With them disposed of, he rushed through the forest once more, whilst continually casting his eyes towards the ground looking for tracks. He saw bootprints at one point and almost gave way to a flush of excitement. His sword hand was so eager to grasp the perpetrator that it ached. But when he followed those tracks to their conclusion, he only found yet more soldiers doing battle.

He sighed and sprinted away from them, the fog lending his movements greater stealth. He briefly wondered how the soldiers would fare if they encountered the Konbreakers – for such things were clearly far more dangerous than anything they\'d encountered before, after all. He wasn\'t sure whether they would be able to handle it, which meant more trouble for him.

He\'d almost completed a full lap without yet running into more monsters – aside from the ones that he\'d seen the soldiers fighting – until he bumped into some Gorebeasts of his own.

They came skulking out from behind the trees, a mere three of them, walking lightly on that single front leg. On closer inspection, Beam saw that there were no eyes in the Gorebeasts\' skulls. He had to assume, from the way they put their noses in the air and sniffed, that scent was their primary way of locating prey.

Such an enemy – an enemy that could not see – provided an interesting challenge for Beam, who had grown to rely on his ability to misdirect the opponent. He unsheathed his sword, relishing the test.

He rushed in, his feet thudding against the floor as he went. One of the Gorebeasts howled, hearing his approach and it charged in to meet him.

Beam raised his sword up high, gripping it tightly in his two hands, as he kept the elbows bent and prepared to deliver a single overwhelming strike. He made himself remain patient as the distance between him and the enemy closed.

At the very last moment, he swung his sword down in an arc, transforming it into a horizontal slash, that drove straight through the wide open mouth of the Gorebeast and half-severed its head.

The other Gorebeasts could not see what had happened to their brethren, but they must have heard it, for the two of them gave a whine and cautiously began to back away.

Growing a little more used to his skill by now, Beam gave a cautious command to "halt".

But the beasts did not react to his words. Whether that be because they had no eyes to see the golden flecks that were whirling around in his, or whether Beam simply did not say the command with enough authority, it did not matter, for Beam went racing after them.

The skill – as unknown to him as it continued to be – was not something he yet relied on too heavily. Every time he utilised it in combat, he did so prepared for failure and so his movements were not delayed in the least.

He caught up to the first of them, by shepherding its movements in a direction that was easier for him to manage. He forced the Gorebeast to turn right at a tree, but Beam was there waiting with his sword at the other side. He finished it off cleanly.

By the time he turned around, the other Gorebeast was long gone, having used the time to urgently dig a burrow in the ground, growing lost in the vast system of dirt.

"Tsch," Beam noted his failure with a tut. It simply wasn\'t acceptable to let a single one of the beasts escape, for that was all it took to create havoc. He wasn\'t even sure if ten hunters working together would be able to manage to brute strength and speed of the Gorebeasts.

With that irritation wearing on him, he continued his patrol.

It was dark by the time Beam left the upper forest, having been unable to find any new monsters for over an hour. He found Nila waiting for him on the road near the village, seeming to expect his arrival.

She saw the state of his clothes, drenched in mud and blood, and she could tell from the look on his face what lay in his heart.

She bit her lip. "No luck?"

Beam shook his head. "You neither, huh?"

"I told Greeves what you say – he said he\'d keep an eye out. Then I went into the lower forest with Rodrey and Rodrick. We saw a stray goblin, but no signs of anyone else. There were some tracks, but when we followed them, it was just another hunter," Nila said.

She\'d calmed down since Beam had last seen her, but she was still unable to hide the weight in her voice, her worry for her sister plain to see.

"One of these houses then," Beam mused, his eyes narrowing into a glare, as he looked around, as though he might be able to guess where Stephanie was being kept at a mere glance.

"Maybe…" Nila said. "I can\'t think of where else she\'d have got to, after we searched pretty much everywhere. There would be tracks at least, if they\'d gone into the forest – there should be signs somewhere."

"There should be, and yet there aren\'t. Greeves has mentioned that the Elder\'s been hard to spot lately. I\'m sure we\'d find something if we paid him a visit," Beam mused, a dangerous look in his eyes. He hadn\'t been able to trust the Elder from the first moment he met him. Even if the Elder kidnapping Stephanie didn\'t make sense, he was unable to set the thought from his mind.

"You still getting them knocking on your door in the morning?"