My Last Hunt

Quest For Three Stones (27)

Zunal;

My mistake is not that fatal but yours

His last words were enough to pick the interest. The stone loosened the hold on the sand and they could easily get out of the puddle of the sand. After getting to know that the young hunter does not belong to this world; the stone has some other plans that's why it was giving itself enough time to organize those few stolen parts of memories. Those stolen parts of memories can be helpful against the sharp hunter; just that the stone has to work hard for this. 

Qiao no matter how strong hold he bear at his intellect as well as consciousness; he forgot that he should not let loose the tongue especially when the enemy was powerful not in just words but in reality. It was saying that a triggered or a wounded monster would go any limits to take the revenge even if it has to sacrifice the most precious life. Being part of a monster; the stone also learned this stubbornness and since Qiao was blabbering to no end then the stone was also willing to break all limits and reach this hunter at any cost. 

It was matter of ego; ego of a powerful stone which wield the power of a near hunter king and this hunter was simply humiliating, it was necessary to tell him who he was and what real circumstances he faced in his previous world. The hunter was bullied in his previous world; he was poor to not even able to bear the expanses of good food in months, he was reckless and vents his anger on others because he was too weak to vent it out of the real bully. He was a looser; an orphan and a young rascal. 

The few stolen memories were enough to fork out the circumstance of the hunter in his previous world. And the stone was currently deliberating as to how it would trample the confidence of this hunter. 'It would crush the consciousness and then tame it and own it; it would be an advantage for the stone to yank and hold the consciousness of a hunter who was currently facing two lives. It would benefit this stone in broad sense and compared to the other stones aspiring to cross the Requiem level; this one would be powerful among them which was more than one time benefit' these were all wistful thoughts of the stone. 

And these thoughts could actually come alive if the stone was able to perfectly grasp hold on the hunter. Qiao has no reason to believe all this because he was not someone bearing the intellect of a beast instead he was still a human who was vulnerable. The intellect of a level five hunter and how far he could go against his enemy was limited compared to a monster. And Qiao currently neglected this very thin point. Only few stolen memories can go against him without him being aware of it. 

It was not that the stone cannot communicate with the hunter; all the infinity level stones could communicate with anyone through the active cognizance of the hearing consciousness but this stone was holding it until now. The reason was strong; it was preparing all this while to suddenly give a surprise. Nothing changed and there was complete silence; it was not the silence which brings peace for the onlooker instead it was warning silence that appears in the ocean before the torrent. The hunter king shook his head. In his eyes; this youth was simply inviting the wrath of a stone. 

Humans learn after mistakes but in case the mistakes become deadly then the humans must face the consequences. And few mistakes were irreversible in circumstances. Qiao could also feel the threat; he was not sure what was about to come in front. He perhaps got a notion that the stone could only create illusion or so on. In reality it more power than that. For this not even the hunter king could blame this young hunter because the information and the secret knowledge remained limited for anyone much less a young hunter struggling to rise from the Azzura continent. 

The hunter king looked at the arm where the cloth was fastened; now he has a choice whether to leave the side of this young hunter before the actual storm appear or stay beside and face the outcome. "There comes a day in the life of a hunter when he has to decide or chose one out of two options. For me it is coward to choose the first option from the very first day when I started the career of hunting. The second option is hard but you see; no one can grind the real aspects of hunting without facing the death in front of life." He deeply sighed. 

Now from his words; Qiao understood that something unseen was about to unfold. The sand where they were standing suddenly shook and they fell. It was similar to that the ground lambasting and making way; they felt that they were falling from the sky but before they believe it; their bodies knocked against the rocks. Now they were rolling against the rocky mountain and the rocks were hitting them. The surrounding was dim and dark. The sky was crimson in color and they were still rolling. Few rocks seriously hit against them, and they felt the forming bruises. 

This made Qiao lost his composure and he was trying his best to halt the fall but despite all the effort he was helpless. It was because he was rolling from a very steep mountain. He was groaning at the every new bruise; he was actually shocked that the senior hunter was not crying or screaming. "Kid; wait a bit, I might be able to halt this fall." He smashed his fist in the mountain. His fist dug deep in the mountain and it kept slopping until his fall came to halt. 

To stop Qiao; he extended his hand holding the fastened cloth. Qiao finally felt that he might stop his guts from slipping out of his mouth. His guts were already lined up in his throat after few moments fall. This was a temporary illusion and the hunter king has seen through it. As soon as he held the hand of the young hunter; Qiao started to scream as if needles were piercing in his consciousness. "You little rascal; the mistake is not mine but yours." A voice boomed in his head. The voice does not match with any human or the robot; not even the artificial program which supposed to take hold on the advanced world in the movies. 

Qiao screamed because these three worlds were from his memories. He loathed hearing these three words. He has deep hatred against the person who used to call him rascal. The man running a shop in the small street next to his trifling house; Qiao grew up earshot these three words every day at him after the death of his father by the man. He always covered his ears when he was supposed to walk from the front of the shop. 

There were many days in his life when he has nothing to eat and he was forced to walk near the shop where the people or the small kids threw their empty wraps of the food. He searched them in hope to find some crumbs and indeed his effort rarely go waste especially when the man used to throw the packet of expired bread. The shopkeeper always shouted these three words before throwing the packet. Though Qiao disliked the words but he cannot leave the opportunity to get the bread. Empty stomach was more painful than the tainted ego. 

Currently Qiao was screaming because of two reasons; first that he was being tortured by relating the utmost cruel memory. It was so much cruel that his heart can explode unable to bear it. The second reason that the stone piercing the stratums of the consciousness in this time of turmoil. Qiao was at the weakest point of his consciousness at this moment. He was seeing the memories in visual in his head. The present illusion was also part of his problem. Only hunter king holding his hand can shook him out of his memories and the hunter king did it when he saw that perhaps the stone was using the second level illusion capacity attack against a small hunter. If compared it was vicious act of the stone however if it had been doing this to get something precious in return then there was no doubt that the stone was also in the same turmoil. 

"Kid; you have to defy whatever attacking you from inside." The hunter voiced out loud in his ears to get his attention. The wide opened eyes and the screams were evidence of the destruction he was going through and how his consciousness was getting affected seriously.