Jora

Jora yawned, then gulped from the bag of water at his waist, and splashed a little at face, trying as best he could to get rid of the drowsiness he felt.

He rubbed his teary eyes and watched the group he was escorting from the global warrior guild. Not only was the group of amateur wira’s assigned to him, but he was also given the responsibility of guarding the caravan of merchants who transported logistics to the border of the Naraka Zamrud.

"Eleven, twelve..." he counted the number of carts present again, "as well as practicing my numeracy skills, so I won't be tricked by traders again", he cursed in his heart.

Dozens of wagons lined up side by side, wooden wheels rolling over the muddy path. Some are pulled by horses, some are driven by humans, some are one-wheeled and some are four-wheeled. All of them are competing to bring their transportation to build human civilization in a border area full of conflicts for hundreds of years between the human race and monsters.

“Why should I bring these amateurs to their death…” he whispered to himself. Jora could see the new kids were lifting their equipment, be it armor, weapons or helmets. His eyes were sharp trying to watch out for them not to steal their equipment, but that soon averted his eyes as he realized the new kids were getting nervous at being seen as thieves.

The higher-ups of the wira guilds casually said, 'you're the most powerful and skilled one, so teach them to expand our empire's territory’, his memory replaying the fat man's words as they chatted the top floor of the global wira guild.

"It's nice of him to say that, at least he's honestly burdened me with a heavy burden just because he was angry with me! You damn fat!” Jora cursed, which caught the attention of the people around him, he ignored it and drank the expensive wine he had stolen from the fat man's room.

After drinking the liquid and feeling warm in his throat, he finally realized that they had arrived at a village in the northernmost part of the Maghary Empire. The breeze from the north seemed to carry the scent of the blood of the dead wira’s there, he saw the sun was starting to go west, 'Looks like there's still time to do a hunt', he smiled happily thinking about it.

They stopped and Jora received a coin as a token of gratitude from a merchant, she looked at the bronze coin in her palm, “Hey Kim, why is this money so little out of the ordinary?” Anhakim is a regular merchant, they are good friends maybe because he always gives him a free escort when he delivers orders to the border area from Taraw to the Naraka Zamrud border.

"Sorry but I didn't make much profit last month, but I promise to leave some wine from the palm trees for you, you'll like it." He only gave a dissatisfied look, but Anhakim immediately changed the subject.

"That's the goat you chose for the sacrifice?" A look of confusion appeared on the face of Anhakim the young merchant. Jora estimated that he was as young as these amateurs, but the burden of being a merchant seemed to make his face look more like he was in his over the twenties.

"Yes," he answered simply, Anhakim's thin hand caressed the horned head of an equally skinny goat and then put a rein on Jora's hand.

"How can you sacrifice the thinnest goat to a god?" asked his interlocutor as he caught the coin that Jora threw at him.

"Of course because they sell it cheaply of course." Jora didn't understand why such a logical thing needed to be asked.

"Sigh... if later you get unlucky then it's not my fault" Anhakim tired of protesting his actions but he continued, "but usually even if you sacrifice fat goats the results are the same, it's not wrong if you just want to be skinny to reduce your funds and you can buy some of my wine eith the rest of the money," he said at length.

Jora was silent, "Okay," he answered briefly. Anhakim went off to push a one-wheeled wagon which was weighed down by several sacks of barley and smoked fish then left behind a clay barrel which gave off a stinging stench of alcohol.

"Quickly store this barrel in the usual shop, later we will make a celebration after winning," he said to one of the amateurs who looked battered from the exam this morning.

"Ah- ok sir!" The geek immediately lowered his spear and raised the barrel, while wondering where the shop was referring to. Now he takes the little goat to the edge of the village, uphill to a small hill that is higher than the residents' houses.

The other wira’s followed him in silence as if they already knew what he was going to do. The goat also seemed to be obedient and brought to the slaughterhouse, whether he was sincere or he was not aware of where he was being taken. They stopped in front of a structure of bricks arranged in the shape of a human silhouette. But instead of the head, the upper part of the neck is replaced by the shape of the sun with the inner circle covered in bronze, aiming to reflect the sun's rays

"Well even though you are still too young and you have a long life but your sacrifice is very important to us, so don't hold your grudge..." He stroked the goat and said the words as if the animal understood, "at least I gave you a better death than hundreds of other ways to die” he took the dagger at his waist.

“That is death for gods” and the obsidian blade cut the animal's neck. Blood dripped down a hole in the ground, deliberately made beforehand so that the liquid of life could be directly sucked in by the earth.

"Hopefully we have a good game-" One of the more religious members said a prayer and the others followed, a little louder for the others to hear.

His eyes are now closer so that he can read the lines of sentences engraved on the idol, he notices that under the relief in the form of a circle depicting the sun there is a carving of a village where the residents make offerings while circling human silhouettes.

Jora looked around and realized that the image on the idol seemed to depict what they had just done and the hair on the back of her neck suddenly got goosebumps even though it was still daytime and far from the cursed forest.

"How much longer before we have to hunt?"

“Shh.. don't make noise Guem, we are praying”

Jora turned back because she heard the conversation between prayers. He turned his head and behind him were the two most prominent people in the exam this morning, he even had time to be amazed at their enthusiasm while watching on the balcony, even though he had fallen asleep in the initial speech.

The messy black-haired youth looks thin, but the muscles he has to look so well trained that he can run as fast as lightning. Jora began to doubt that the child was a commoner, the body didn't look malnourished instead it looked like someone who ate meat every day.

And a young man who had shoulder-length brown hair and a feminine face, each of them was carrying a bag containing a spear and arrows while the other was carrying a set of armor tied to each end of a bamboo pole.

 “Both of you, quickly pass your luggage to the seniors then walk near me when we enter the Naraka Zamrud”

"Okay sir" replied the jackdaw.

"Ready sir, do it!" the feminine face seems to be a noisy person, Jora hates noisy people but she will hold back for now, 'that's if they can survive their first hunt'.

They immediately put on their hunting gear. Wearing his green armor, he could feel the coldness of the metal plate that was between the two layers of hard skin, there was a metal boss protrusion on its front surface as a sign that the steel plate was firmly fixed.

Now his green mane was completely covered by a helmet made of leather with pig tusks attached to the outer surface. This helmet is light but feels tight on the head, 'if possible I want to wear it only when I'm dealing with ghuast'.

All of these are equipment that looks cheap but is suitable for those who are thin wallets. He looked at the others, and as he expected only his fellow senior wira’s had enough money to buy bronze equipment.

Others only use tools made of leather, wood, or stone. And almost all of them didn't have helmets, 'next time I'll teach them how important it is to protect their heads', he just sighed indifferently.

"Yeah! Well, I don't need to say much because I've been represented by the fat man with the rank of guild leader" some of them giggled, the one who laughed the loudest was a girl with a feminine face.

"Let's go in!" he shouted as he prepared his ax, one on his right hip, one on his left, and one behind his back. Many said that he was too paranoid about going into the zamrud hell with three axes at once but they didn't know how dangerous the ghuast was and he chose to be safe by having lots of spare weapons.

-EoG-

Their large group moved through the forest, setting foot on the monsters ground making them tremble slightly. His trusty tracker was staring intently at the traces of the humans before them, looking for the direction of the ghuast and his plate filled with human bones.

Passing through this forest sometimes incised a sense of wonder in the heart, 'how a forest as beautiful as this can be inhabited so many can be a home for the master of strange monsters' But the more his feet stepped in, the quieter the situation began.

It was desolate to the ears even though they were crowded and the darkness obscured the view even though it was still daylight as if it was not as if this forest was rejecting the rays of life from the sky and trying to keep the sun away from touching its ground.

“Hey leader takes a look, isn't this the trace of the group that failed in yesterday's hunt?” The tracer was one of the five senior members of the guild in this group, the rest were just amateur snots who were likely to end badly.

"Yesterday huh..." Jora now remembered that yesterday someone had targeted the guast in this location, but unfortunately only one survived and the rest were killed, 'their blood is now seeping into the cursed ground' Jora shuddered at his thoughts.

“Well it doesn't matter anymore, their corpses have been eaten by worms for sure. Do you know where this creature went?”

“Depends, what kind of creature are we looking for this time?” he said without taking his eyes off the ground. “There is one of them who managed to escape from yesterday's hunt. Seriously injured with a lot of blood coming out of the deep tear, a healer said that the mark looked like a big cat's claw."

"Then all I have to do is find a cat trail that's bigger than usual," said the tracker briefly, "Any other clues?"

Jora reached into the neck of his armor and took something, “This was found beside the victim, beautiful but covered in blood.”

He checked a piece of blue fur, then handed it to the tracker who looked at the thing that looked exotic with a mixture of green and blue looking very elegant "I can't imagine if this kind of pattern belongs to a monster"

"Hey that's a peacock feather right?" asked a person behind him, the two of them who were talking seriously would be surprised to be spoken to suddenly.

"Guem! Don't disturb our leader!" then suddenly the young man was pulled by his friend whose face was full of bruises, Jora remembered him as the person who lifted the wine barrel in the village.

"Oh, it's just a feminine face-"

“Just call me Guemwyn, boss.” Guemwyn released himself from his friend's grip.

"Are you sure this is peacock feather?" when he realized who had surprised him behind the young man there were two other youths one who looked badly battered and the other one who was muscular with strength in the back.

"That's right boss I believe that this feather is a peacock, an animal that lives in the eastern region of Agmus." He nodded firmly, “though I'm not sure why peacocks inhabit the Naraka Zamrud region”.

"Because the feathers are not from a peacock," said his spiky-haired friend, "is that so, chief?"

"Huh, you're quite smart are you...?" His sharp analytical power made Jora a bit stunned,

"Yep, that's right, it's a ghuast feather.."

"Killa, just call me Killa... chief” the spiky haired introduced himself before continuing to speak, "So now we have legs like a lion with peacock feathers?"

"That's right, usually called a hybrid," the tracker joined in.

Ghuast can appear in many forms, but hybrids are the most common among the many variants. 'And nobles are willing to buy leather from this type of ghuast at the highest price’.

"Well, we have to kill him first if we want to take that expensive skin-" Instantly their conversation was broken by a roar.

"Calm down, you guys are noisy!" shouted Jora trying to calm his subordinates, knowing that in fear they would be easily killed, 'and I will try to make them more afraid of my orders than afraid of what the creature taunt’.

Then appeared before them a majestic creature in the form of a king of the jungle with golden fur covering its entire body, for some reason in this darkness the fur seemed to emit its light.

The animal had been in a sleeping position but when his eyes looked at the food that was lined up neatly in front of him, the look in his eyes that had been surprised changed to a hungry look he got up.

The ghuast opened its jaws wide and at the same time, the mane around its neck expanded. Among the brown feathers appeared peacock feathers as if a dry tree suddenly sprouted leaves from its branches.

“Groah!!”

When he roared some of the feathers fell and flew away in the wind along with other leaves. When the others didn't flinch at the creature's roar, Jora just glared back and began to prepare the ax in her hands.

"Well, amateurs, he's our hunt today, make a battle formation now!" his pleas were immediately responded to by those behind him.

Jora realized that they were very responsive, different from his old subordinates, 'I have to admit that the guild master's training seems to have paid off. 

He smiled and charged.