The Divine Hunter

ng nothing but a trail of blood and flesh leading into the darkness.
They followed the trail and left the drowners’ turf only to leap into another monster’s lair.

“They eat everything wherever they go, including humans.
Beware the monster that preys on flesh.”

Ghouls.
A monster ruled by the desire to eat.
They usually appeared in cemeteries, graveyards, and battlefields, where human bodies were abundant.
Humans would balk at the stench of rotting corpses, but ghouls thought of them as a delicacy.
These monsters had arms and legs, just like humans did.
However, they walked on all fours like beasts, and their muscles were as hard as boulders.
Their faces looked like someone had smashed them in, and their eyes were devoid of any emotion.
They were dark and filled with nothing but greed and cruelty.

‘Ghoul

Age: One year old

HP: 110 (Weakened)

Strength: 10 (Weakened)

Dexterity: 8 (Weakened)

Constitution: 11 (Weakened)

Perception: 6

Will: 5

Charm: 2

Spirit: 5

Skills:

Plagued Claw Level 1: Ghouls are filled with toxins, bacterias, and viruses.
Anything that they wound will start to feel feverish and weak.
Their wounds would start to rot as well.

Devour Level 1: Ghouls can devour flesh to quickly heal minor wounds and regain some HP.

Madness (Passive): Ghouls will store a part of the energy from the flesh they consume.
Once they receive heavy damage in battle and have less than one-fifth of their HP, they will activate this energy and heal themselves swiftly.
They shall receive +1 to their STR, DEX, and CON.
The ghoul will become crueler and immune to pain for a minute.’

***

“Lucky us.” Roy heaved a sigh of relief.
There were only four regular ghouls and no alghouls or graveirs around, or they would have been in trouble.
The ghouls’ bellies were swollen up, and they were crawling as slow as tortoises.
They also smelled like shit, as if they had food poisoning.
Roy’s trap was effective, and they devoured a lot of the poisoned drowner flesh.

Right.
Time to kill them. Roy put his finger to his lips and drank the decoction.
Black veins popped up all over his face.
He whipped out the necrophage oil and shared it with everyone.
They greased their swords with it.

Agorn, Mars, and the other knight held their sword and shield up, standing back to back and forming a solid formation.
The witcher took up the vanguard position.
He was the spear of the formation and the fighter who could deal the most damage.
The witcher pulled the trigger, and the bolt arced through the air.
It pierced the ghoul’s skin, but the skull defended against it.

The arrow was powerful enough to destroy a drowner’s head, but it could not deal a lot of damage to the ghouls.
The monsters were angered, and they charged at the group, shouting and screeching.
Two of them were in the lead, and the other two followed.
They were as big as calves, and the small group of ghouls were enough to fill the space before the witcher and the knights.
They were unstoppable.

Roy could even smell their stench from where he was standing.
He cast Igni, and a stream of fire charged at a ghoul.
It howled in pain and rampaged around, breaking the formation.
The witcher leaped up into the air and landed on its back.
He held Aerondight horizontally and brought it down.
Blood splattered everywhere, and a big head flew into the air.

‘Ghoul killed.
EXP +80.’

The witcher leapt down and rolled away.
He stood up immediately and sent two bolts flying at the ghouls at the rear end.
He attracted their attention and ran away immediately.
The wastewater splashed everywhere, the narrow passage filled with the sounds of footsteps and roars.
The ghouls chased after the witcher, and they eventually turned the corner, where the knights could not see them.

The ghouls had power, and they could pin the witcher down if they flanked him.
Roy did not face them head on.
Instead, he kept his distance, kiting them around.
The ghouls growled at him in anger, keeping up the chase.
However, the narrow passage was hindering their movements, and they would crash into each other, making things even more chaotic for them.

The witcher had a chance to regroup.
He switched his blade out for the crossbow and turned around to shoot at the ghouls.
The bolts hit the face of the ghoul on the left.
It shook its head in an attempt to shake the blood off, but suddenly, the ghoul and its companion lost sight of their target, much to their confusion.

All of a sudden, the air started to ripple, and a slender silhouette descended on its back, swinging his blade down.
Aerondight buried itself in the neck of the ghoul, but it was not enough to kill it.

The ghoul roared, but before it could do anything, countless crimson tentacles showed up from nowhere, tying them up and pinning them down.
That was the last thing the ghouls saw.
Roy cut off the head of one and turned around to thrust his blade at the second ghoul’s eyeball.
It almost killed the ghoul, but not before it screamed and regained control of its body.

The ghoul gleamed red, and it pounced at Roy.
Roy was faster.
He tilted his head, and the attack missed.
The young witcher leaped up into the air and landed on the ghouls back, swinging his blade across its neck.

***

A few moments later, the last ghoul was finally killed in battle, but Roy was hurt as well.
He had a gash on his shoulder, and his clavicle was showing.
The young witcher took a breather before going back with the ghouls’ bodies.

The knights only had to face one ghoul, so they won without any trouble.
They formed a solid wall of shields according to their training and kept the ghoul in a corner.
They were lucky this was a narrow passage, and the ghoul could not escape.
They poked at the ghoul through the cracks between the shields and killed it eventually.

Agorn let his shield go, staring at the mangled corpse of the ghoul that was lying on the filthy ground.
He was in disbelief.
“W-We killed a ghoul?” He had bruises all over his face, and his body felt like it was battered countless times.
The ghoul did this to him.

“Congratulations.” Roy stabbed the ghoul one last time.

‘EXP +80.
Level 6 Witcher (1990/3500)’

“And now you can call yourselves Ghoul Killer.
You can tell this to your kids and their kids every day.” Roy swung his short sword and cut up the corpses again to collect the materials.

Luck was on his side that day.
He got one lesser red mutagen from the ghouls.
“Don’t let your guard down just yet.” Roy cut off the ghouls’ nails and split them between the knights.
“These guys are weakened because of my poison.
If they were in their top condition and led by an alghoul, all of us could have been injured.
This is also only our second day.” Roy frowned.
He had a bad feeling about this.
“I have a feeling we’ll run into something more dangerous.”

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