Ignite the Sun

I invite you to join me on a hunting trip tomorrow morning.

-Sir Leon

The letter was delivered to them by Thomas while they filled him in on what happened.

"Leon doesn't visit me very often, but he's one of the few good people in the order." The blacksmith continued hammering. "I think you should go, so far you've been hiding and running from corrupted creatures, it would be good for you to realise we can also be hunters, not just prey."

"How do hunts like that even work?" Calen questioned.

"It's quite simple, a member of the round table gathers a team of ten to twenty people and together they roam the Order's territory in search of suitable targets - sometimes it takes a few hours, sometimes weeks."

"Does it mean all the hunters must be powerful aura fighters to resist the corruption for that long?"

"No, in fact we often take one or two recruits for the hunts, as it helps them gain actual experience."

Thomas rummaged through a pile of armour pieces and swords to retrieve an old chestplate. He placed the piece on the now empty anvil and pointed at a small tear-shaped hollow in the metal.

"See this? Every single armour has one."

"I assume you slot something in there?"

"Yes. Some time after the Order was established Nickolas learned that the scales from the dragon statue are detachable - they can't produce food like the original, but the are capable of protecting a single person from corruption for several months."

"So that's the reason you can send future knights on battle trial..." Calen grimaced. "Sorry, shouldn't have mentioned that."

"Eh, don't worry about it. I'm not actually still angry about the fact they denied me, I'm just incredibly petty.

"Right, but steering away from that topic - who else do you think he'll pick for this hunt?"

"I think he'll go with a relatively small team, the four of you plus him that's already five - I reckon he'll also take Matthew and that girlfriend of his."

"You mean Morgan? I thought they were just friends."

"I've known the boy since he was seven years old, trust me, the lad has a crush on her."

"He's twenty six and met her a few days ago."

"So? He never really had a chance to meet people of his age on equal ground before - in the Order he was slated to become Nickolas' student before he even started training, and was named an ambassador the first time he actually went to another settlement."

"I must say, he turned out remarkably normal for someone with such an unusual life." Isara commented.

"Quite." Thomas nodded. "As for other people who might join you, Leon has many loyal subordinates, I'm sure he'll find someone suitable."

"Should we leave an answer for him with you?" Elira asked.

"Nah, just show up at the gates tomorrow at dawn - I don't think he even consideres the possibility that you might not come."

"We should go then, we have a lot of things to prepare before an excursion."

***

They were already standing near the gate when the sun peeked above the horizon - Leon and his two most loyal knights were already here, as were Alfred, in his Matthew disguise of course, and Morgan.

"We're waiting for one more person." Leon informed them. "In the meantime I want to introduce my companions if you don't mind."

He gestured at a tall and broad man with long golden hair, bound in plate armour and wielding a truly enormous sword.

"This is Damien, he's almost as old and experienced as myself, and the only reason he doesn't sit at the round table is that he dislikes politics."

The knight nodded at the group.

"Greetings."

Leon pointed at the second man behind him, who was somehow much bigger than the other one. He was covered in intricate plate armour from top to bottom, not even a sliver of his skin was exposed. Most notably, his helmet featured two massive horns on the forehead, while his gauntlets' fingers looked like claws.

"Perhaps you already heard about our special knight who's not quite human - Greg might look a bit intimidating, but he's a big softie."

The steel giant gave them a little wave.

"We indeed heard about him, but I'm afraid our source didn't tell us much about his origins and story." Calen stared pointedly at Alfred.

"Ah, it's a fascinating, but quite lengthy tale - maybe I'll recount it when we make camp tonight." Leon's head moved to the side. "Our final companion is here."

The group was joined by Harold - and Calen was quite surprised by that choice.

"My apologies for the tardiness, there were some issues I had to resolve."

"No worries my friend, now that we're all here we can start the hunt!" He turned around and addressed the entire group. "To those who will be joining the Hunt for the first time, I have to inform you that cloaking objects will be unnecessary - power of the scales is enough to deter the smaller beasts, while the bigger ones wouldn't be fooled by minor illusions either way."

Without any further explanations, they simply left the safety of the castle walls.

***

"Hey, what happened to 'not trusting anyone's loyalty' and stuff like that?" Calen whispered to Leon while they walked behind everybody else.

"Did I say something like that? I'm afraid I don't recall." His tone was calm, but his face was stretched in a mischievous grin.

'I have no idea what he's planning and I'm afraid to find out.'

As if to confuse him even more, Leon suddenly told Alfred to take off his mask - like for some reason he gained a lot of trust in Harold overnight.

But what was even weirder, Harold didn't react to the revelation that Matthew was Alfred all along in any significant way; in fact he barely spared him a glance and continued walking.

After two hours of marching Leon suddenly stopped.

"Okay, this is far enough." He took out his sword and pointed it at Harold - his men followed suit. "So, what the fuck are you?"

Harold frowned.

"I don't understand your question sir-"

"Cut the shit, Ive found Harold's body yesterday, I know you're not him."

The man stared at him for a few seconds in silence-

Before suddenly exploding with darkness.