The Bounty Hunter Chapter 28: The Hunters Become The Hunted

October 28th, 2088

Terras POV

I am calmly standing at the bottom of Bittergourd Canyon, waiting for the set-up and ambush to begin. Most people would be nervous or anxious, but I have had too many life and death encounters to care. What a sad statent for a 15-year old kid to make. I am confident in my abilities and in my preparation, theres no point to thinking any further than that. I was instead pondering on Reijis behavior early today during swim class. I still dont understand what I ssed up. I asked Reiji afterwards and he simply turned away with a Hmph, if you dont know I wont tell you why. Think about it yourself, you dense rom-com harem protagonist!

Seriously, Reijis behavior is too inexplicable sotis. I was well-aware that my appearance during PE caused all the girls to stare at like starving dogs at a piece of at. I ignored them since it was annoying. I also noticed that Hikari was wearing a particularly tight swim-suit, which was apparent based on how everything was straining to burst. It was rather hot, but based on Hikaris red face she was probably being self-conscious. So I didnt say anything about it. Besides, the other world has completely skewed my standards on what is revealing or too risqu so although it was hot it was not at the level to get my blood boiling.

The combat slaves have started to secretly gather on the top of the canyon out of my sight. They seem surprised I ca so early. I look up and see Kovart standing next to the silver-eyed elf. And next to them tied up with rope and with a gag in her mouth was my eyes widened in surprise and I stiffened up. The elf spoke Hello Terra, I see you recognize our guest. My na is Eual Percin and I am the Bound One you are looking for.

He had a serious expression on his face as he continued You truly are a mysterious person, two days of intense investigation and I didnt learn a single thing about you. Had I not finally tracked down our guest, I would have had no choice but to eliminate such an unknown elent. But your reputation precedes you and it would most certainly be a waste of your talents to have you water the grass. I dont like senseless killing after all. As such Id like to make you an offer of employnt. At those words, the combat slaves all stepped up onto the rim of the canyon. There seed to be about 300 of them and they were all ard with basic magic equipnt. I casually looked around at this private army and noted their relative positions before I turned back to Eual and said I would first have to hear the terms.

Eual gave a small smile and said Of course. Id pay 10 silver coins a month to keep you on retainer and give bonuses every ti you need to actually do a job. Youd be free to do as you like in the anti. I also took the liberty of putting a Slave Mark on the beautiful miss here. As a precaution against betrayal, I gave her the order to die if you had any treacherous thoughts. If you accept our offer, youll be set as her owner and shell follow your every word. Everyone lives happily ever after. Not a bad deal, right? He opened his arms widely as if to welco . If you decline, youll die and well sell this beauty to a pleasure house that caters to rather unique tastes. It wont be a pleasant ti for her. Now, whats your choice? His small smile broadened into a big one as he thought he had cornered.

Much to his surprise, however, all I did in response was laugh. And as I laughed I started releasing mana without restraint, causing a strong pressure to press down on everyone present. Looks of shock appeared as they realized that I was a wizard. I finally started to speak I never would have thought that my paranoia was so justified, I guess having a decoy was the right choice. Demon, restrain him.

At my words, the tied-up elven bitch I had set-up as a decoy so long ago burst into a pink mist which then morphed into sothing else entirely. In her place there was a mass of tentacles stemming from a large bloody eye. The black tentacles had the stingers of bees sticking out of their suckers and the large bloody eye had a vicious mouth full of fangs where the pupil should have been.

It was a demon familiar that I had created 3 years ago. It had possessed the elven bitch I chose as a decoy and gorged on her life force for the past 3 years before consuming her completely at my signal and appearing. It heeded my command and imdiately lunged at Eual, enveloping him in tentacles and injecting paralytic poison with its many stingers. The ball of tentacles with Eual imdiately rolled away from the canyon rim. This all occurred before anyone else could react.

I snapped my fingers and chaos ensued. All around the canyon my explosives went off, causing the walls of the canyon to collapse. Simultaneously, the ground further back from the rim rose higher as if to fence everyone in. Everyone fell downwards into the canyon along with a lot of rubble. Many combat slaves were killed by either the blasts, the fall or the rubble falling on top of them. Of the 300 or so soldiers, 120 survived. Kovart was of course among those survivors.

Far from shock or rage, this battle junkie was absolutely stoked. Wahaha, I knew I could count on you to make things interesting! Who would have thought youre a wizard! Kovart had already recovered from the fall and drew his slingshot, which started making a deep grating noise that signaled sothing big was going to happen. However, my centipede golems that I had planted on him last ti made their move.

These very small and fragile golems (and also extrely expensive and difficult to make golems) were sothing I developed as an excellent assassination tool. They are very difficult to detect and sneak into the body and target several different vital points. At my signal they simultaneously shattered in the brain, heart and lung. The shrapnel-like crystal tore apart those organs and the High Inquisitor died with a smile on his face. Thats what he gets for thinking I would fight fair.

Now that the biggest threat is dealt with, I started to deal with the slave soldiers. I drew my two 9mm pistols and proceeded to do the classic run n gun. I sprinted all around the canyon, shooting away at the slaves while dodging their return fire spells. Slaves that tried to engage in lee died as they stepped upon so of the many mines I had planted in the floor of the canyon. No slave tried to escape as their last order had been to kill if I was deed hostile. This made things easy for as I freely used magic and gunfire to blast them to shreds without worrying about any stragglers escaping.

Soon the ground was dyed with red. 5 soldiers managed to surround and launched a combined attack of lightning, wind and water. The miniature storm surrounded but I avoided it by leaping high into the air. I flipped in mid-air and quickly dispatched those troops with gunfire before landing once more. There were only 40 so troops remaining, but I was low on ammo and my traps had all been used up. I quickly casted a spell before they could swarm .

A pillar shot out of the ground beneath , launching high into the air. With my high vantage point, I made the earthen walls I had raised earlier collapse inward. The sky above the soldiers beca filled with falling dirt. I threw the majority of my remaining mana into increasing the weight of the falling earth. Those 50 soldiers were helplessly crushed. I landed with a soft *thump* onto the new rim of the canyon, looking at the large carnage I had caused.

I dusted myself off and then turned towards the ball of tentacles that was rolling towards with Eual in tow. This was it. Eual was not a wizard, nor did he have a plethora of protective enchantnts on him. He would be completely helpless before my telepathy and Ill tear everything I can out of him. As Demon arrived, I teleported us to an isolated cave far away. Its ti to know the truth behind Project Redemption.