A decent distance from the dark elf village, Aura raised a bow in her hand. Made of metal, it was significantly bulkier than what the other villagers used.
The bow was also longer than she was tall.
When she drew it, it creaked.
This bow belonged to the village, but even their strongest ranger had been unable to draw it. When they watched a kid draw it like it was nothing, their eyes shot wide—and then they all nodded.
“This wasn’t well looked after. That noise is because bits of it have gone bad. Could be less nobody could use it than it being unusable. Ugh, not sure about the aim, though. Will the arrow go where I want it to?”
Aura was aiming at a magic beast known as the Gigahorn Elk. Like the name implied, the horns were extremely oversize, but it had Forestwalk and could easily move around the forest—and when it charged, the destructive force it packed was devastating.
If Aura had her gaze laser focused on it, she might have appeared like a top-class hunter—but to Ainz’s eyes, she looked just like always—completely stress-free. Like she was about to nonchalantly toss a pebble.
Near Aura were three rangers from the dark elf village—two male, one female—and their reactions were quite the opposite. They were all equally grim while hiding carefully, doing their best to stop their prey from spotting them. Ainz had no way to tell for sure, but he assumed they were holding their breaths and stifling their heartbeats.
They carried bows but hadn’t raised any.
Ordinarily, everyone would fire at once to ensure their prey was downed and to avoid a dangerous counterattack. They’d abandoned that tactic to avoid getting in Aura’s way.
He could tell that much from their positioning alone. They were all waiting on the ground below.
Dark elf hunters lived in fear of retaliation, so they nearly always took positions in the relative safety of the trees above, waiting for the right prey to appear—an ambush-centric approach to hunting. Their current tactics were a show of faith in Aura’s skill.
Ainz was the worst at stealth in this hunting party, so naturally, he was doing what he always did—abusing the hell out of Perfect Unknowable. He’d used it so much lately, he was starting to worry he’d turned into a one-trick pony. But it did make him virtually impossible to detect, and neither prey nor dark elves had noticed him there. He’d been following them around the whole time, but only Aura seemed to have picked up on it.
Aura released the drawstring.
A short beat later and the Gigahorn Elk turned its head, looking around.
The loosing of an arrow made a sound that would never be heard in nature. Had its ears caught that somehow?
Ainz found it hard to believe.
The sound was very faint. And the target was far enough away that it should render this feat impossible. So how had the elk managed to react?
Coincidence was likely the best answer. Or did it have some relevant skill? If not, perhaps it had somehow picked up on that subtle shift in the hunter’s disposition the instant she took her shot. Ultimately, that was nothing more than Ainz’s speculation.
Aura may have even predicted this reaction, because her shaft struck the creature’s head as it moved, ignoring all resistance the flesh offered and burying itself deep.
The Gigahorn Elk staggered but did not fall, despite the arrow piercing its brain.
Great beasts—magical or otherwise—were tenacious in life.
Aura’s standard Yggdrasil bow would easily have robbed it of that vitality, but the bow borrowed from the dark elves could not fell this elk in a single shot.
This goes to show what a difference the right equipment and weapons make. Aura herself seems to be refraining from using any support skills. Those might have changed the outcome.
Despite the arrow impaling its head, the elk bounded off. Its injuries were grave enough that the animal chose flight over fight.
But Aura had seen that coming, too. She was already loosing a second shaft.
Shot through the head a second time, the Gigahorn Elk hit the ground.
“There you have it.”
“Most impressive, Lady Fiora!”
She acted like it was no big deal, but the man closest to her gasped with adoration. Plum Ganen was a hunt adjutant and the leader of the group accompanying Aura.
His reaction was clearly genuine, and he was a considerable ally. But not one Ainz welcomed.
This man was a bit too enthusiastic.
The glow in his eyes contained a blend of admiration, awe, appreciation, and ardor. Ainz had seen this in the Sacred Kingdom—it reminded him of the girl with the scary eyes after she came back to life. And frankly, not the sort of look you gave someone who appeared to be a much younger child.
This was their second hunt together, and he hadn’t acted like this during the first one.
Aura had driven off the ankyloursus.
But that had simply been a display of her raw strength. From the dark elves’ perspective, hunting skills were a different thing entirely. The ranger who’d invited her on the hunt had been mainly curious to see what she could do—Ainz had heard him say as much under cover of Perfect Unknowable.
But he’d shuddered at how nimbly Aura had walked the forest, gasped at how utterly she’d hidden herself, and gaped at the accuracy of her shots. It was downright comical how wide his mouth opened. Now, he was likely the most ardent of Aura’s admirers in the village.
But given Ainz’s goals, people like him were a headache.
It made it that much harder to remind everyone she was just a child.
If he’d been trying to use Aura for his own goals, that would have been easily handled. But this was quite the opposite.
Killing him should be a last resort…
“Oh, please. You can praise me later. Dress the thing first.”
“Right! As you wish, Lady Fiora! Come on, rangers!”
The others were wincing slightly at Plum’s antics. They had plenty of respect for Aura, but Plum’s behavior was something else.
They moved in, tied ropes around the Gigahorn Elk’s legs, slung them over a branch, and pulled it into the air, upside down. Given the sheer size of it, this was a tall order even with three of them pulling.
Aura reached out and grabbed the end, going, “Hup!” and giving it a tug. The beast easily lifted off the ground.
“Amazing, Lady Fiora!” Plum gushed.
Aura frowned at this.
Ainz knew why. He nodded, picturing the faces back in Nazarick.
Unwarranted praise was creepy enough, but effusive praise for the simplest acts could also be generally uncomfortable. Almost like they were making fun of you.
As Ainz wondered if this boiled down to a lack of real confidence on the ranger elf’s part, the hunting party carved up the elk.
A male dark elf pointed his arm at their prey and emitted a white mist—apparently a skill that would keep the meat chilled. As far as Ainz knew, standard rangers had no such skill, so either this was a druid ability or this dark elf had some other class.
They slit the elk’s throat and let the blood pool in a bowl below. This was to prevent any pathogens present in the blood from multiplying and to keep the meat from spoiling. Perhaps that dark elf’s ability couldn’t cool a beast of this size without help.
The blood was also often used in cooking.
Carrying blood around would draw in carnivores, so they rarely bled beasts when hunting on their own. Ainz had heard them discussing this exact thing during the first hunt.
The head and organs were discarded and went into a hole they’d dug. Normally, they would haul some of those organs back, but the Gigahorn Elk’s meat alone was more than enough.
That was all they did here.
The dark elves skinned their game only once they were back at the village.
Ainz acted like he was an expert on the subject, but if anyone asked how people did things in the rest of the world, he would’ve promptly admitted he knew little about hunting. Maybe the way dark elves did things was typical.
The hunting party lowered the carcass back to the ground and ran a pole through the rope. Grunting in unison, they hefted it up. It looked pretty heavy. Ainz wasn’t sure what the actual carcass yield was, but it looked well over 50 percent.
Aura didn’t help with any of this. Her job was to watch the perimeter.
Now that their catch was ready for transport, the party started heading back to town.
Since they usually waited in ambush, it could normally take a while to fell any prey, but thanks to Aura, they were headed back early, more than pleased. The dark elves spent their entire lives in this forest, but leaving the safety of the village was still nerve-racking.