Chapter 23: Ambush
The morning soon rises once more, the soft scent of morning dew drops lingering in the air. The trees moved ominously in the winds as Astra walked towards the village with Celi by her side on her back straps of gunpowder was attached to it, the other wolves on high alert.
"Astra, are you sure this ’Belk,’ is trustworthy," She spoke, the question only bringing unease to the young technician’s face, her mind clearly wandering on whether she had made the right choice or not.
"It’s fine," She said, more to herself than Celi, "the wolves are checking, all of them are where he said they would be—"
"Besides, with the gunpowder we have the advantage, all we have to do is line them up by the cliff’s end." though her words did nothing to make her feel any more certain.
"Found you~" at the sound of a distant voice, the ground started to tear below them, causing puffs of dust to shoot up beyond the trees.
Both Astra and Celi hardly managed to escape the attack’s devastating effects, her head raising to see a hunter walking up to them as the dust cleared. His wooden mask in the shape of what seemed to be an ogre, his tail whipping behind him almost ecstatic to start.
"I think I deserve a rematch, don’t you? Witch of the forest—" the closer he got Astra noticed his missing hand that hung limply at his side. Her eyes widened in shock when she realized.
"You..." Her voice trembled with horror as she remembered it, the encounter that night, the time she almost died.
The Aelavarian reaches for his mask, tossing it aside revealing his face. Baring his teeth in a sinister smile that almost touches his purple eyes.