Upon arriving in the forest, Billy raised his guard since it was pretty dense and it would be hard to identify upcoming attacks or attackers in such a place, but Leo looked pretty calm. Was that confidence or arrogance? Both? Billy was pretty sure he had the skills to back his arrogance, but… he recalled the incident before where he got his balls smashed by a five-year-old.
After walking for a couple of minutes, the group suddenly stopped in an area between trees that were large enough to camp. They stopped, but they didn't do anything. Billy frowned since they looked at them, but it looked like they had turned into statues, and they closed their eyes. Billy could tell that they were concentrating on doing something, and it was probably a trick to find the nearest targets; he just wished that he had been informed of that…
"Which direction, Lily?" Leo asked.
"There is a small group of deers West of here," Lily replied.
"Good, lead the way," Leo said.
Billy frowned when he heard that. Do deers exist in that world? Or is it just another type of animal with the same name? Nevertheless, after a while, Billy confirmed that Leo was acting differently because he was there or didn't teach others things. He shows and expects them to learn. The second option was probably true since he knew that Billy was his daughter's friend. Even though some small stuff happened in the past, he couldn't be a small enough man to still hold grudges because of it.
Nevertheless, the group eventually found the deers that Lily had mentioned, and they were essentially the same as the one from Earth. The only difference was that the adult ones were three times as big as the ones from Earth and their horns? Looked as sharp as hell.
The group had five deers, while eight recruits were on their side. With Leo's help, taking them all down should be easy. However, Leo stepped back and gave the sign for Lily to take the command. The girl nodded, and with hand signs alone, she told the others their targets. Billy didn't understand much of the signs. Aside from that, himself and Lily would attack the big deers at the same time. There was no time for hesitation, and they had to pull it off.
"They are fifty meters away, so they are outside my best range… but I will Have to do it," Billy thought.
As silently as possible, Billy nocked an arrow and then began to Aim. He noticed that Lily did that in a single and fluid motion, to the point that even the string didn't make any noise, and she did that with three arrows at the same time. He recalled that before, she was trying to show off in the training grounds, but this time, she wasn't.
It was hard to tell when they were supposed to fire, but Billy assumed that they had to follow Lily's lead and fire soon after her, and so everyone did it. In the end, Billy's arrow pierced the belly of the beast, while Lily's arrow pierced the head of the deer. The others also hit their targets, but only two others fell dead. The remaining suffered mortal damage but still ran away for a while.
Billy thought that he would get scolded since the atmosphere grew heavy and the recruits that failed had their heads down, but in the end, Leo only gave them the order to chase their prey and bring them to that place.
"You got a lot better than I remember, Billy," Lily said. "I thought that you went to some specialized training regimen like the rest of us, but it seems you didn't abandon the bow for a year."
"It looks quite condescending when you say that firing three arrows at the same time and hitting the creature in the head," Billy frowned. "My arrow was essentially useless."
"Well… I would feel worthless if I were to lose to a spearman," Lily said while forcing a smile.
"You are not half-bad, kid," Leo said. "Your technique is lacking some polish, but if you train hard enough, you can achieve mediocrity."
That certainly wasn't a level that Billy wanted to reach, he wanted to be way beyond mediocre, but he wouldn't hear that kind of incentive from Leo. Nevertheless, instead of continuing their hunt, the recruits had to do the worst part of the hunting time… carry their trophies back home.
That same thing happened several times on that day, hunting was relatively simple, but Billy didn't have the skills to be proficient. Lily gave Billy some pointers when her father was correcting the other recruits. When searching for targets and enemies, don't rely solely on your eyes. Use them only when necessary, and that was when he was preparing to shoot. An archer also needed good ears and a good nose, after all.
Another thing that Lily asked Billy to do was to practice his firing posture without firing arrows. By doing so, he would be able to improve it without wasting the time that he uses to collect them. Unfortunately, that day, Billy didn't have the chance to see Leo's skills in action, but at least he earned some extra coins and the permission to come and hunt whenever he felt like it.
"Your skills won't slow us down if you keep practicing," Leo said. "So, you can come and help whenever you feel like it. Tell your father that he owes me one."
Billy nodded. While it seemed that Leo was planning to make Drew owe him many favors, Billy didn't feel any malicious intent coming from him.. He was troublesome and short-tempered to everything else aside from using a bow, but he wasn't a bad person… probably.
