C12 The hunt: Part 5

The mountain slope was hard to walk over for normal people and combined with the blinding mist and the small path it made it even harder and someone was fighting?

Circe instructed the people behind him to hold tightly then slowly walked a head. He was curious. As he walked snow came up and covered his and his oblivious teammate's feet making their footsteps silent.

He had already seen the group that was fighting. His eye site was better, he could see at that distance at least. They both seemed powerful but not experienced, they were clearly nobles from their outfit. Probably one of the people dumped here because of the hunt.

One of them had a sword and the other was a wind elemental.

The swordsman seemed powerful, and his sword seemed to carry a lot of power with each swing. But every move he made was pushed back, the wind elemental floated in the air and swung his arms causing a sound of explosion leaving cut marks on his opponent and probably broken bones.

"What's happening?" Asnir whispered.

"A fight," Circe answered without taking his eyes of the two.

"Are you planing to help?" Rode asked.

"No," he answered.

"Judging by the fact you stopped here does it mean you can see the fight?"

"Yes, it's interesting, but for some reason it's also annoying," he says turning back to look at them.

"What do you mean?" Rode asked.

"The knight seems to think he will win but the elemental is just playing with him," from those words they got a basic picture of what was happening.

"Shouldn't one know their strength and know when to retreat, he is obviously weaker," that's what Eliphas told him.

"Maybe he is fighting for something," Elor says

"Or maybe he knows he will die even if he escapes," Asnir adds.

"That's sad," Like when he used to accept beatings from the children of the village cause if he ran their parents would beat him and when he fought back, he would be called a monster, just like his mother. It was a feeling of helplessness. It was annoying.

"You don't want to help?" Rode asks again.

"We can't intervene in a fight between strangers especially without knowing why they are Fighting,"

Bang!

Hearing a loud sound blast, Circe turned to look at the fight again, the had fallen to the ground again with blood all around him, he wasn't getting up this time.

The wind elemental got down from the air and landed in front of the fallen man and with a small movement of his hand, the body was cut in half.

It was gruesome.

Despite standing straight and seeming well, it was clear to Circe that the noble was badly hurt.

He sat down against the mountain wall, his complexion was flushed and his breathing erratic. He was poisoned.

"Circe?" Elor called in a whisper.

"Let's go," he said and began moving again.

Even though he had covered their presence with the snow around, he knew the elemental had spotted them the moment Elor spoke.

"Ease dropping, isn't good, especially for children like you might see something you shouldn't?" the man said as he stood up.

He laughed.

"You must be part of the hunt, are you aiming to go to the academy? You know, there, we cut the limbs of those who walk where they are not supposed to and pluck of eyes of those who see what they shouldn't,"

He continued and Circe frowned.

"Three commoners and a noble an interesting combination?" he said and they felt the air around them shift. He could see. And clearly at that.

"Seeing as you were grouped with commoners it shouldn't be a problem to kill you, İ don't like loose ends,"

"Why would you want to kill us? İt's not like we know who you killed, and even if we did which 'commoner' in their right mind would report a noble and risk offending a powerful family? ," Asnir said clearly vexed .

"You are an interesting bunch, İ won't kill you but İ will join your group, you clearly need a strong person on your side." he said.

Circe spoke.

"As much as we would like you to accompany us, we can't afford baggage especially in this-

His expression suddenly changed.

He suddenly looked up, Elor who was directly behind him noticed his sudden state of vigilance, he also looked up but ofcourse he could see nothing, but for some reason he it felt like the fog had increased.

"What wrong?" he asked

"Something is coming."

"What?" he whispered a little scared.

"A big bird."

"What!"

Immediately he finished speaking the ground suddenly shook. A sound of wings flapping could be heard from far, their expressions at the suddenly changed.

At that moment the wind elemental jumped back stumbling, as he did something fell of his garment and on to the ground, before he could rush to pick it Circe picked it up and something flicked the area became colder.

"Pure Eternal frost," he muttered mostly to himself.

So this was the artifact on the mountain. it was quiet rare.

The bird above roared, it was definitely angry!

"Is this why your team mate betrayed you?"

"Yes, we found it in a cave up the mountain," the man said.

At that moment, a surging screech swept out in all directions. It was so loud their ears started bleeding.

Circe's gaze shifted. His eyes glowed a bit, he resisted the urge to hunt the beast above, just how strong was it?

A flying beast would be good target for him. There weren't many of the same size back in the village and the one that were there were used for trade and transport and could not be hunted.

The bird's speed was fast. It arrived before them before they in a breath's time and the force of it's wings pushed them back each of them hitting the wall.

A crack was heard and Asnir screamed, it was a broken bone.

Wow.

That must have hurt.

Probably because of the stone in his hand. After landing the bird moved again and its feathers stuck directly at Circe's head. Circe dodged and threw ice spears at the bird which moved back a bit disoriented then charged in again.

It's figure was like a fast as it moved through the mist as it tried to capture its target width was moving surprisingly well considering the width of the land and the mist around.

Just as Circe was starting to have fun he noticed other huge black objects coming their way, although smaller than the one he was dealing with, they were still big.

He immediately stopped dodging and stood still. İt would get annoying if he dragged this fight.