Rebirth: Childhood friend of the heroine-Chapter 232 - 231- Hunt(1)

"Are we just going to sit here and wait for the target to walk right up to us?"

The speaker was a woman with dark skin and long, fiery red hair. Her golden eyes burned with a quiet bloodlust, and the irritation in her voice was clear. They were seated on top of a small hill in the middle of a dead, lifeless land, surrounded by silence and dust.

It had been two days since they arrived—sent on a mission to erase a being who had become a thorn in their master's side.

A being tainted by darkness.

The same darkness that could swallow anything whole. The same darkness known as the Emissary of Evil.

They should've been afraid. After all, the one they were hunting wasn't just anyone. He had once been immortal. A powerful warrior who had once stood by their master's side.

But now… now he is weakened. Bound to the body of a mortal boy. Sharing a single fragile life with a kid.

"We wait," said the man sitting beside her. He wore a brown hood that shadowed his face, fingers lazily spinning a dagger between them. "Until we know exactly where he is."

"Tch," the third one scoffed, cracking his knuckles. He was huge—taller than both of them, with long tusks jutting from his mouth and a body built like a war beast. "Why not just destroy a few cities and wait for the little hero to show himself?"

The others didn't respond. They didn't have to.

The thick black mist curling off the big man's body was already spreading across the land. It poisoned the air. Any creature that had lived here was either long gone or hiding far away, too afraid to even breathe near him.

The girl glanced out over the quiet horizon. "This waiting… it's making me itch to kill something."

None of them responded to that and the girl didn't show any sign of moving away from the group.

They knew what was coming. And even if their prey was trapped inside a weak human shell… they couldn't afford to lower their guard. Not against someone who once stood side by side with their liege.

Not against the Emissary of Evil.

It was then—

Shlink

A sharp chill ran through the air.

All three flinched at once, their pupils narrowing like a predator spotting its prey.

They felt it.

That presence.

The one they were sent to find and kill.

And it was close. Too close.

No words were spoken. None were needed. In perfect silence, they moved.

The woman was the first to break into a sprint, her body almost blurring as her claws extended, a wild grin twisting her lips. Her heart pounded with thrill. She could almost taste it—the cursed one's blood.

But then—

"Huh?!"

She stopped dead in her tracks.

So did the other two.

Their bodies stiffened, eyes scanning the empty land around them.

They felt it again.

The same cursed presence.

Fainter this time—but definitely real. It was farther, maybe a mile or two away.

No mistake. It was the same being. The same shadow they had been hunting.

Two of them?

No.

This was no trick.

It was him.

But split. Scattered. As if the curse had somehow… spread.

The woman's grin faded, replaced by a slow, creeping frown.

"What… the hell is going on?" she muttered under her breath, claws still glowing faintly.

The air suddenly felt heavier. And not just with miasma.

But with dread.

A different kind of hunt had just begun.

"I'm going after the other one!" the burly man growled, his tusks gleaming as he turned sharply and charged toward the distant presence.

"Wait, Osthalf!" the hooded man called out, his voice low but urgent.

Too late.

The beast was already gone—bolting across the barren land like a maddened hound. He wasn't going to leave even a scrap of that cursed thing behind.

The redhead took a step forward, then froze.

Her pupils shrank.

"Shit—another one!" she hissed, spinning on her heel. Her golden eyes burned, locking onto something far... far away. Across the world.

The cloaked man clenched his jaw, his voice like gravel, "This is a trap. He's trying to split us."

It made sense now.

The Curse knew.

It knew they were three.

And so, it divided itself—three bodies, three lures.

"To scatter us," the redhead muttered, her claws twitching. She could feel it. Each one of those presences carried that same haunting essence.

"But we're not wrong," she added, voice low. "That one... is him. And so is that."

They were all real. All part of the same being.

Her body was aching to move. To rip into something. Her instincts screamed at her to chase the one nearby.

But if they only struck one, it wouldn't be enough.

Not this time.

And not against this cursed thing that had once walked beside their liege.

"We either go after all three," she said, eyes locked on the horizon, "or we fail."

The shrouded man clenched his fists. Despite knowing that this was a trap, they couldn't do anything!

In the end, all he could do was to turn on his feet and go in the opposite direction from Osthalf.

His form became blurred as he advanced towards the place where he could sense it.

'We should have traced him down first…now, we are separated and would be easy to take down.'

It took him a few moments before he finally reached the forest which was located in a different domain.

His feet slowed down as he felt the presence nearing him.

*Rustle*

Jumping over the tree, he landed in a clearing…and found a sight which took him by surprise.

"Huh?" A small child stood there with her big bright eyes looking at him.

The shrouded man narrowed his eyes, a growl escaping his throat as he threw his dagger at the kid.

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*SHLINK*

However the girl was suddenly enshrouded by blinding light, and the dagger was deflected by someone who replaced the girl.

"That's not a way to greet a child." A boy with silver hair appeared there, a grin on his face as he twirled the dagger in between his fingers.

The man's aura shifted, blood lust covering his body as he prepared for the battle.

The hunt begins!

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A/N:- Thanks for reading.