The second night, hunters subjugated the northern portion of the island. It was a larger area than the east side, which made it more of a struggle than the first raid. Six hunters ended up dead. Clearing the northern part of the village wasn’t finished until 10 in the morning. Kino, Solar, and Calix were some of the hunters ordered to bring the bodies to the northern shore where a rescue team was waiting.

“Are we going back now? I’m starving!” Solar hugged her growling belly. They watched the rescue boat disappear into the sea. The hunters from the other teams returned to the camp first, leaving the three standing idle on the shore. “Anyone wanna go fishing? I’m craving some fried milkfish.”

“I think we should return to the camp, Solar. The team is waiting.” Calix took off his trench coat and went to the water to wash his face, trying to ease his sleepiness.

Solar frowned. “Then go back yourself. Kino will be staying with me.” She put her arms around Kino’s shoulders, the casual motion was so powerful that his face almost met the sand.

I hope she can minimize her brutality for once…

“W-Wait! I never agreed to anything yet!” He escaped her hold but her hand quickly gripped his bloodied unbuttoned coat.

“You’re not going anywhere. You’re the hero’s sidekick today and we’re going fishing!” She took large steps and pulled his arms. Kino tried to escape her hold, but the girl’s grip was strong.

“Solar! Let me go! I’m not your sidekick!” He exclaimed. He tried to run, but Solar immediately jumped on his back to stop him. She controlled his movement, a shove here and a tug there, to make him walk towards the water. Kino’s hands tried to break away from her strong arms wrapped around him, his palm reaching to her face to get her off. Solar screamed.

“Sand!”

“Get off me! I don’t want to fish!”

“But I need you!” Solar tried to do the same thing. She pushed Kino’s face from the back but she touched his open mouth to her surprise, and fingers scraped his tongue and teeth. “Yuck!”

She hit the back of his head upon the touch, hard enough for Kino to collapse in the water as if he had been shot by a bullet in the head. Her eyes widened when Kino remained unmoving in the water.

“C-Calix! Help! I think he’s dead!”

Calix, who was sitting on the sands and looking at the sea, pulled down his aviators to give her a short glance and shrugged his shoulders. “You’re on your own. I’m going back.”

“CALIX!!!”

The hunters spent the night in the woods. Kino wrapped himself with a blanket while he drank hot cocoa made by Solar as a sign of compensation for almost killing him. The news made its way to the captain as one hunter from the Darwin Team saw the incident. She was banned from approaching the teammate as a form of punishment, but she kept apologizing through compensation. Kino found her apology sincere regardless of her earlier antics. The continued apology in her eyes was starting to make him feel awkward. He knew despite her energetic mood and cool appearance, Solar had a kind heart for everyone. She’s just naturally brutal sometimes.

The following morning, the hunters travelled to the west as planned. It was easier than the east and north. They managed to clear it before noon, seeing as the area was primarily crops, small nipa huts, and two guard towers. There, they discovered a nest of orc eggs floating in the waters of the rice plantations. They destroyed the eggs and found more humans to rescue imprisoned in a nipa hut basement acting as a chicken coop. Just like in the north, they couldn’t tell whether they were human or a wraith who was responsible for the orc attack.

“It could be any one of these people, but we couldn’t prove it.” Captain Darwin heaved a defeated sigh, eyes observing the people walking into the forest to meet the rescue team on the shore.

The hunters spent their third night in the woods and prepared themselves for the last battle planned for the next day. At dawn, they were woken up by Parker’s authoritative voice.

“Everyone, wake up!”

“What’s happening?”

“A meeting in the middle of the night?”

Kino sat up and placed his back on a tree trunk behind him. His eyes were still half-closed when the young captain continued speaking. “I received a call from headquarters. They already have the H-type who was behind all this.”

The news earned interest from everyone. They listened more intently to what the leader had to say. “It was Anna. The woman who was rescued the other day.”

Upon hearing what he had just revealed, Kino choked in the middle of yawning. He felt bile coming up his throat, and his chest began thumping painfully as if his heart would come out of his ribcage at any moment. Cold sweats instantly formed on his neck and back.

Parker moved back and forth with hands on his back. “Now we have good news and bad news. The good news is, that she and her children were captured and killed, and all we have to do now is to wipe out all the wraiths on this island, and our mission is done; the bad news is–her last words were ‘one of your hunters is one of us.’”

Kino couldn’t look the captain in the eyes. Now he regretted everything. He should’ve quit after he learned what he’d turned into. He should've never become a hunter. He should’ve never made all those decisions for money.

The hunters mumbled amongst each other upon hearing the news. Some were furious, some were frightened. It was becoming loud enough that Parker had to shut them down.

“D-Did she say who it was?” A female herald asked.

“Nope.”

“Then are we going to inspect each one of us?”

“I know that we have to, and everyone wants to. But if it’s one of us, which means he can’t take all of us out. They could’ve been one of those who died or are still here. Who knows. But either way, we can’t be put into danger by a single wraith.”

“Does that mean we’ll continue our raid despite the knowledge that we might have a devil among us?” A dealer from the Maxi Team followed up.

“Correct. The raid is our priority. We can deal with the threat of an impostor later.” Parker smirked. He knew what he was doing. The hunters' complaints continued to fill the air.

Kino speculated in his head. Once they return, they’ll be tested in the headquarters for sure. He knew Parker didn’t say anything more. But any individual that he could find acting suspicious after his announcement would be carefully monitored.

The hunters weren’t able to go back to sleep after listening to the captain’s announcement. Kino couldn’t help but tremble under his blanket. He hoped his trembling body would be seen as from the cold or from when he almost drowned yesterday. The sun rose and lit up the hunters’ groggy faces while they travelled south. They were very alert, both to their surroundings and toward each other. The distance between every walking hunter from their colleagues was obvious. It was as if the trust they all shared hours ago was all but shattered.

Kino walked behind his teammates. He secretly took off his bracelet and let the waters drive it off the shore. A part of him was relieved upon hearing that his dark secret was still somehow safe, but there was a larger part of him anxious about his identity being disclosed soon enough.

Should I quit before I get back to the headquarters?

Should I fake my death here?

He feels crazy as he prefers to do the second option.

Subjugating the south was the hardest among the raids they had done in the last three days since the orcs in the area had heard of the attacks all over the island. The monsters managed to prepare for the battle to defend their base in a short time. Upon the hunters’ arrival, arrows rained from the skies and spears from the land and water. The wraiths used their numbers to trap the hunters in the village and burn everything. How they learned to make fire, the hunters didn’t know.

“Shit!” Parker cursed as he winced from a burned scar on his right shoulder. The attack took a whole day and the full moon was blocked by thick smoke.

Despite being weak and suffocated, the remaining heralds did their best to form a large fold to protect their group from the flaming buildings. Red eyes from the dark woods watched the humans like they were entertainment.

“We should retreat!” Maxi exclaimed. Like her co-captain, she was also suffering from burns on her left arm.

“No.”

“We’ll lose this raid, Parker.”

“And we’ll lose it even if we retreat. We are cornered from all directions!”

“I already called for backup. They should be here soon,” Captain Leon reassured a newly gained burn scar on his left eye.

“They should be. Our heralds can’t keep making folds in their state! Most of us are suffering from burns and we just lost 10 people.” Parker gritted his teeth and took off his broken glasses out of frustration.

What can I do to help?

Kino couldn’t keep standing properly from a burned leg and bleeding arm. He could run away or fake his death at any time, but doing that could lead to his actual death with them being surrounded by hundreds of monsters in all directions. Wraiths have fast natural regeneration but being a former human seems to be a disadvantage.

There were tears and ashes dried on his face and body. He wants to end the pain he’s feeling. He couldn’t bear it all. It was worse than when he got stabbed in that alley.

“Let me out,” Solar muttered.

The whole Parker Team looked at her.

“Are you crazy?” Aran was dumbfounded.

“I’ve conserved enough energy. I can try to do something. See those hills?” Solar pointed at the hill from the east side of the village. “I can make an explosion and cause a landslide and could potentially minimize their numbers. We can turn this back in our favour.”

“Do it,” Parker says. “Once the landslide happens, we’ll take that as a signal to make our way to the west until we reach the beach. Leon, tell the backup to meet us at the southern shore. We’ll move forward with the fold and purposely let the orcs in. Bullets are faster than spears. We can make it.”

Solar used heat energy to warm Parker’s long swords, making them flame-red and hot. “Let’s do our job. Don’t die while I’m away or I’ll kill you when I get back.” She jumped higher than humanly possible, using combustion energy on her bare feet, and shattered a hole in the fold.

Solar landed on the tree branches and managed to outrun the flying spears as they surrounded the trees, attacking her from every direction. Eventually, she spotted a large tree on her way and hid behind the protection of its thick trunk to catch her breath. But she felt a jolting pain in her right leg, discovering a large, slit wound. “Fuck!”

She hastily took off her thorned trench coat and cut a piece to wrap around her bleeding wound. The spears continued attacking in her direction, piercing the tree trunk enough to hit her even if she peeked her head out a little. “If only we were allowed to burn this damn forest!”

Soon enough, she heard the growling of approximately 15 orcs approaching in the grass trying to search for her. She looked up at the hill not far from where she was. “But does it even matter?” Solar didn’t waste any time. Using her gauntlet, she flicked electricity on her fingers and made a finger gun to shoot the wraiths marching below her. A fire immediately spread that burned the creatures alive. She used that opportunity to continue hopping onto the next trees until she reached the foot of the hill. She watched the spreading fire as it started burning the forest trees behind her. “I’m sorry Mother Nature, but even heroes make sacrifices.”