By noon, the chase through the forest raged on. The giant was drawing ever closer, leaving Mila no time to think about an escape route. She had to focus every ounce of her concentration on the movements behind her.
Swoosh!!
Mila's hearing was sharp. The moment she heard the air split, she dodged. A log, thick as a human thigh, flew past where her head had been and slammed into a tree in front of her.
CRASH!!
"Almost there... almost there..." Mila's eyes stared forward anxiously. Just outside this forest lay the Stone Mountain region.
"Heheh... You can't escape!" The giant roared. As he ran, he would occasionally strike the nearby tree trunks with his axe. The chops were deliberate, carving V-shaped marks with the point aimed in their direction of travel.
If Mila had dared to look back and observe, she would have realized he was leaving trail markers. If she had analyzed his movements, she would have seen he was herding her. But she was too terrified and tense to calm down and think clearly.
Tweet-tweet-tweet!
Mila curled her index finger to her lips and blew a sharp, rhythmic whistle that carried far through the forest. It was a signal used by the birdkin. This specific rhythm meant: Enemy approaching.
"Finally!" Joy sparked in Mila's eyes. Through the gaps in the trees, she could see an open grassland—the plains at the foot of Stone Pillar Mountain.
Swoosh!
Mila's wings flared, and she put on a final burst of speed. She shot through the last of the trees, instantly putting a significant distance between herself and the giant.
"Heheheh..." The giant slowed his pace, carving one last mark on a tree. It was a sign for other bounty hunters. He intended to wipe them all out in one go.
The giant was here for revenge against the "Predator"—Amelia's older sister, Rhea. He had once been hired as a bodyguard, but the target he was protecting was assassinated. The killer was none other than Rhea.
It was the greatest shame of his career. He was the seventh-ranked bounty hunter, yet he had failed. The failure caused his rank to drop to ninth; the top eight all had 100% mission completion rates.
He despised the Predator for this. He had clashed with Rhea before and felt her strength was nothing special. If it weren't for her flight and her speed, he would have just sat on her and crushed her flat.
Swoosh!
Mila burst from the treeline in a low glide. She immediately spotted over a dozen figures in the near distance—some were flying birdkin, while others, unable to fly, stood ready with weapons.
"Mila, over here!" One of them shouted.
"Watch out! Dodge!"
"Behind you, Mila! Run!"
Hearing her companions' desperate cries, Mila's blood ran cold. Her heart seized. She slammed her toes into the dirt and threw her body sideways.
Swoosh!
A vicious sound split the air. A silver blur flashed past her, and she saw from the corner of her eye that it was the axe. It buried itself deep in the earth right where she had been. If she had been a second slower, she would have been split in two.
"Oh?" The giant, now in a low crouch after his throw, looked at Mila in surprise. He hadn't expected her to dodge at the last second, causing his axe to miss.
"Heheheh..." He let out that low, grating laugh. His bloodshot eyes peered from his helmet, taking in the dozen birdkin, and he felt a deep sense of pleasure.
"Is this guy insane?" Mila scrambled to put distance between them, staring back in terror at the hunter who was still crouching and laughing. All her companions were here, and he still dared to laugh.
"Mila, you're finally back! If you'd been any later, Big Sister was going to go out and find you," A birdkin said, landing beside her. He looked past her with concern. "Is that... a Giant?"
"Yeah. He saw through my disguise on the road and hasn't stopped chasing me since." Mila gave a bitter smile. Her wings, still not fully grown, couldn't be perfectly hidden. She couldn't truly fly, only glide, so she had to keep them bundled in robes. But now it was spring and the weather was warming. Wearing such heavy, concealing robes was a dead giveaway that something was wrong.
"That guy... isn't that the 'Giant Hunter'? What's he doing here?"
"Huh? So that's a Giant? It's my first time seeing one."
"I thought Giants were extinct. How is there one here?"
"People say birdkin are extinct too, and we're still here, aren't we?"
The group of birdkin began to chatter, pointing at the giant and sizing him up, as if they were one step away from trying to capture him for research.
"Is Big Sister here?" Mila asked, scanning her companions.
"She is. She just got back today," One of them replied.
"Go! Inform Big Sister. Tell her a powerful enemy is here. We must take him down today. Our refuge cannot be exposed!" Mila said urgently. If their home was discovered, it would be a disaster piled on top of another for the birdkin.
"Leave it to me!" A birdkin with functional wings flapped, gaining altitude and speeding toward the peak of Stone Mountain.
"Oh? Going to call for help?" The giant watched the messenger fly off. He rose slowly to his full, terrifying height and said icily, "Since you've sent for reinforcements... let's have a warm-up."
BOOM!
The moment the words left his mouth, the giant exploded into a sprint, gripping his axe and charging straight at the group of birdkin. Today, he would slaughter them all.
"Everyone, be careful! Do not engage him directly!" Mila shrieked, her voice raw. Veins bulged on the back of the hand gripping her knife, her eyes locked on the charging behemoth.
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