The Hunter of Hawk and Wolf-Chapter 23 : Chapter 23

Sevha and Yuska plummeted onto the snowfield below, the statue crashing down with them.
CRASH!
The impact made Yuska release his grip on Sevha’s neck.
Sevha slid and tumbled across the snow before skidding to a halt. As he rose, gasping for breath, he took in the scene.
A dim snowfield, the dawn light swallowed by heavy clouds.
A short distance away, the shattered remains of Diaka’s statue were half-buried in the snow.
Sevha and Yuska stood on opposite sides of it.
Weapons… just two.
Sevha’s handaxe and Yuska’s bow and quiver lay scattered around the wreck.
Sevha steadied his breathing, his eyes locked on the weapons. As his ragged breaths calmed, the snowfield grew quiet.
And as the silence deepened, the clouds thickened, darkening the world around them.
Crunch…
His breathing even, Sevha began to circle the statue.
Yuska mirrored him from the other side.
Crunch… crunch…
The sound of their footsteps was a taut string vibrating just before it snaps.
Crunch, crunch… crunch.
Their steps ceased.
A fierce wind rose, whipping up a blinding flurry of snow.
Just as Sevha and Yuska vanished into the swirling white, they burst from the curtain, sprinting for the weapons.
Three steps.
Sevha made no attempt to silence his footfalls.
Two steps.
Yuska drove his rotting frame forward with all his might.
One step.
Their desperate, unfamiliar movements spoke of a final confrontation.
I should aim for…
As Sevha weighed the handaxe against the bow, Yuska made his choice.
He lunged for the handaxe, a weapon he could wield even with one arm. He predicted Sevha, with his injured arm, would do the same.
If he could just grab it first, he would win.
Acting on that thought, Yuska threw himself off-balance in a desperate lunge for the axe.
But when he turned to swing it at Sevha, he saw his prediction had been wrong.
Kree!
Sevha had already nocked a bone arrow and was drawing the bowstring.
From the start, he had aimed for the bow, hoping to subvert Yuska’s expectation and end the fight with the first shot.
He fired at Yuska.
Yuska’s stance was broken from the sprint. The arrow struck the corpse squarely between the eyes.
But what followed was not what Sevha had expected.
He still moves, even with an arrow in his head…
Yuska was a corpse. An arrow to the brain couldn't kill what was already dead.
He snapped the arrow shaft with his handaxe and swung at Sevha.
Sevha slid back to dodge the blow and fired again.
The second arrow struck Yuska’s shoulder, but he charged on as if he felt nothing.
Sevha leaped aside to evade him.
I have to create distance. Disable his limbs, one by one.
Sevha retreated swiftly, trying to put space between them.
Yuska gave him no ground, pursuing him closely and swinging the handaxe relentlessly.
SWISH!
Sevha had no time to look back. He dodged by instinct, guided by the sound of the axe slicing through the air.
SWISH!
When Yuska brought the axe down toward his head, he twisted aside. When it swung for his neck, he ducked.
After dodging a dozen more times, Sevha saw a downward slope ahead.
He threw himself down it. As a gap opened for a moment, he fired back at Yuska even as he fell.
The arrow missed.
My arm…!
Sevha skidded to a stop at the bottom of the slope, just shy of a cliff's edge. He looked up.
Yuska stood at the top of the rise, looking down as if to ask what he would do now.
Trapped.
To subdue Yuska, he had to pin his limbs with arrows. But with his injured arm, his aim was useless at this distance.
I have to get close, dodge the axe, and land my shots.
Just as Sevha thought it impossible, Yuska charged down the slope.
The cliff was at his back. Knowing he was finished if cornered, Sevha ran up to meet the charge.
The moment they drew near, Yuska stopped his descent and swung the handaxe in a wide arc.
Without breaking stride, Sevha ducked low beneath the swing. He continued up the slope and fired a volley of arrows.
They struck Yuska’s arms and legs, but he paid them no mind and charged again.
Like a fight between a rabbit and a boar… I can dodge, but I have no way to win.
Sevha turned and sprinted back toward the shattered statue. Just as he reached it, the handaxe came flying from behind.
He threw himself forward. The axe embedded itself in the statue’s stone face.
He threw his weapon?
Sevha thought Yuska had made a foolish mistake. He was about to drop his bow and pull the axe free when he heard it.
WHOOSH!
An ominous sound, tearing through the air behind him.
Sevha abandoned the axe and threw himself to the side of the statue. An instant later, something grazed his back.
He rolled several times and scrambled to his feet. The back of his tunic was torn open, blood seeping through the fabric.
Sevha breathed out the heat of the fresh wound and looked forward.
Yuska was pulling the handaxe from the statue.
And from the sharp bone protruding from his severed arm, Sevha’s blood dripped onto the snow.
With the bone…
The moment Sevha realized Yuska had used his own arm as a weapon, a chorus of insectile cries spilled from the gash in the undead’s neck.
“Hunt…”
Yuska rushed him, swinging the handaxe and the sharpened bone of his arm.
Sevha dodged the flurry of attacks, left with no opening to create distance or fire his bow. He dodged dozens of times and was clipped dozens more.
By the time his body was a canvas of red lines, a voice cried out from afar.
“Lord Sevha!”
An arrow flew from behind him and struck Yuska in the neck.
The wound gaped, and a shower of grudge worms fell out. Unlike before, Yuska staggered backward.
He’s retreating?
On a hunch, Sevha lunged inside his reach and drove an uppercut into his chin.
As his fist connected, the gash in Yuska’s neck tore wider, and more worms spilled onto the snow.
Yuska thrashed wildly, swinging his handaxe and arm bone.
Sevha threw himself back to dodge.
This time, Yuska did not pursue, instead retreating a good distance. Worms writhed out of the wound, knitting the gash closed.
As Sevha realized Yuska’s weakness, someone helped him to his feet.
“Sevha. His neck is the weak point.”
It was Teresse. When Sevha looked behind him, he saw Legra as well, holding an old bow.
“To be precise, the more of those worms he loses, the weaker he gets.”
“Then…”
“Cut his neck clean off. The worms will pour out.”
“So you want me, covered in wounds, to get in that thing’s face and punch it in the jaw?” Sevha asked sarcastically.
Teresse gave him an infuriating smile. “Simple, isn’t it?”
“If it’s so simple, why don’t you do it?”
“Sorry, I’m not Anse Tribe. Didn’t you learn anything from that statue in the cavern? Hunting the undead in these mountains is an Anse duty.”
“Of course. Just a
centuries-old
ancestral duty I don’t even—” Sevha started to snap back, but he paused.
That statue…
He remembered the carving in the underground village.
That Hunter was using Hawk’s Talon within the undead’s reach.
A possibility sparked in his mind.
What if I was wrong about Hawk’s Talon?
Sevha closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, his gaze sharp. He slipped his fingers between three bone arrows in his quiver and drew them all at once.
“Teresse, Legra. I need you to hold his arms. Just for a moment.”
“Um… Are you asking us to get ourselves killed?” Teresse retorted incredulously.
Sevha smirked. “Simple, isn’t it?”
“Right… so simple.” Teresse sighed, then stepped in front of Sevha. Legra followed.
“Lord Sevha, a moment is all we can give you,” the boy said.
Sevha nodded. That would be enough. He took a position behind them.
Seeing the three of them grouped together, Yuska seemed to think it unwise to charge and simply watched them.
Wondering how to make him move, Sevha glanced at Legra’s face. It was tense and rigid, but his eyes were resolute, as if he would never retreat.
Sevha understood the source of that resolve.
“Legra. Say something to your… grandfather.”
Legra hesitated, then called out to Yuska in a ringing voice.
“Running away again?”
It was a provocation Yuska, even in death, could not ignore.
A roar erupted from the wound in his neck, and he charged.
Teresse and Legra clenched their teeth and charged to meet him.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Powdered snow flew with every footstep.
To Yuska, their charge was suicide. As if to prove it, he planted his feet and swung his handaxe.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Teresse’s eyes widened. Before Yuska could complete his swing, she threw herself forward and clung to his right arm.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
With Teresse hanging from him, Yuska swung his arm bone at Legra.
Legra grit his teeth and ducked under the attack, throwing himself onto Yuska’s left shoulder.
As if swatting flies, Yuska flung his arms out wide, sending Teresse and Legra flying to either side.
But even as they were thrown, Yuska realized something.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
He could still hear footsteps. He knew what it meant.
CRUNCH!
Sevha burst from the cloud of snow kicked up by their charge.
Before Yuska could bring his outstretched arms back in, Sevha planted his foot hard, forcing his momentum to a dead stop.
SHFF!
Showered by the snow from his abrupt halt, Sevha dropped into a low stance, bending his right knee. He aimed the bow at Yuska’s chin and set the three arrows to the string.
The motion of his arms was like a hawk beating its wings.
KREEE!
As he drew the bowstring in one smooth motion, it was like a hawk extending its talons.
KREEEEEEEE!
And when he pulled the string to its limit and let go, the three arrows that shot forth became the hawk’s talons themselves.
THWANG!
Watching the three arrows approach, Yuska recalled the knowledge that remained even in death.
This was Hawk’s Talon.
An archery skill used at such close range that accuracy was irrelevant, meant only to sever the prey’s life.
The technique of a hunter, not an archer.
Just as the thought finished, the first arrow struck his chin.
CRACK!
His head snapped back, the wound in his neck tearing open.
CRACK!
The second arrow hit. His head jerked farther back, the wound gaping wider.
CRACK!
The third arrow struck. His head was thrown all the way back, the flesh of his neck ripped wide.
Yuska stood there, head tilted to the sky, eyes empty.
A single snowflake drifted down.
Soft and silent, it touched his forehead.
CR-CR-CR-CRACK!
His head separated from his neck and fell to the ground.
From the stump, grudge worms erupted like torrents of blood.
Headless, Yuska’s body waved its arms desperately, as if pleading for the life it no longer had.
Then, as if to prove it was already dead, it dropped the handaxe.
When the last of the worms had emerged, Sevha gave the chest a light push.
The body fell backward with a thud.
The worms on the snow crawled toward the corpse before freezing solid, one by one.
When all movement on the snowfield stopped, a sound like a faint sob slipped from Yuska’s severed head.
My Lord… you saw what was inside… I… only… wanted… to return… to my family…
It was the last excuse he had made in life.
So… now… though it is late… I will hunt… please forgive…
But Sevha did not listen. He picked up the handaxe, drove it into the corpse’s chest, and tore it open.
The last of the grudge worms crawled sluggishly from the cavity and froze to death.
His strength finally spent, Sevha fell backward onto the snow.
As he lay there, panting, Teresse approached, asking, “Is it over?”
Sevha simply looked at Legra, who now stood beside Yuska’s corpse.
“Legra. Is it over?”
Understanding the question, the boy tried to say yes.
The words wouldn’t come.
He struggled with his own inexplicable silence, then asked, “Lord Sevha. You’re seeking revenge, aren’t you?”
Sevha answered in a voice devoid of hesitation or warmth.
“Uh-huh.”
Hearing the short reply, Legra felt a shiver run through him. He stared at Sevha, trying to understand his own reaction.
Sevha’s expression was as cold as his voice. It held none of the heat the word ‘revenge’ carried. There was no hint of the depth of his vengeance.
“It’s… only natural, I suppose.”
Legra couldn’t understand why this emotionless Sevha frightened him. He also didn’t know why he couldn’t say it was over, now that his family’s duty was done.
So he simply spoke his mind.
“I don’t understand. I should feel relieved now that my family’s long wish has been fulfilled. So why don’t I?”
Sevha didn’t know the answer either. He also didn’t know why Legra couldn’t say that what needed to be finished was finished.
So he, too, spoke his mind.
“I see. When you figure it out, let me know.”
It was a promise whose meaning, if it had one, was a mystery.
Legra nodded, and Sevha staggered to his feet.
The coldness of a moment ago vanished as he gazed down from the mountains.
“Shall we head down, then?” he suggested.
Teresse nodded. Legra was about to do the same, but he paused.
“By the way, Lord Sevha… why are we crossing the mountains? It’s the most difficult way out of Anse.”
Teresse explained why. “Now that your duty or whatever is over, I suppose it’s fine to tell you. We’ll be traveling together, after all. Legra, do you know what’s on the other side of these mountains?”
“Yup. The kingdom of knights, yeah?”
“No, that’s not it. What lies beyond the mountains is…”
Teresse trailed off and turned to Sevha.
He finished her thought, speaking of what lay just beyond the range.
“My mother’s homeland. The domain of my mother’s family.”