Odina was a loud place.
The grunts of its people filled the sky, the Dark Hunter; warriors and mercenaries. Murderers from across the universe all in one place
The island was surrounded by mountains; the huge cliffs only had one opening, a single pathway leading to a beach and to the docks. New recruits came from there either blindfolded or knocked out, to keep the location a secret.
But that was not the case with Nidhiki.
He wasn’t worth it, he thought. His grand betrayal, his grand revelation. Something that would have taken everyone by surprise.
But that was not the case with Nidhiki.
His exile from the city of legends was a long and silent trip, taking almost an entire day. He was expecting at least one of the Dark Hunters to confront him, to say something. But none of them did. And the one that convinced him to do this was nowhere to be seen.
The morning routine in Odina was no different from the one he had back home, no, not Metru Nui. The Tren Krom Penninsula.
The training grounds covered the red sands of the island. Different arenas for those who battled each other, and target shooting.
Naho would keep whining about how bad their form is, Nidhiki thought.
He spotted a group of hunters throwing large chunks of rock to a flying Rahi; not at it, but rather to the ground. Once the Rahi spotted it; it would ram its head against the rock.
Great, even the local wildlife is terrible here.
Without him realizing it, the hunters were all looking at him now and for good reason. A Toa Mangai, defender of the Silver City who was fighting against them in a war less than a month ago; was now just walking around them like he owned the place.
Nidhiki knew too well the meaning behind those looks and did not want to see what would happen next. He needed to do something
The green Toa leaped into a fight arena. The least he could do to not draw attention. His opponent appeared, a bipedal Kane-Ra carrying an axe that seemed familiar to Nidhiki. The red hunter towered over him, despite the physical differences with his namesake; it seemed the animalistic side never left him.
Charger started to swing his axe around, looking to intimidate the enemy, breathing heavily and stomping on the ground. The traitor didn’t flinch, and the Kane-Ra was mad.
Once Charger started running towards him, Nidhiki called upon his elemental power. A strong current of air shot from his hands and threw his rival to the side, crashing down against a weapons cache. With the noise of metal hitting the ground, all eyes were on him.
Nidhiki got out of there before things got out of control.
He decided to go inside the fortress. He was looking for someone and if his instincts were correct, she would be in the training room alone, as she always was. The place wasn’t a “City of Legends”, but he had to admit it was far better than the place he had back home.
Something scuttled through the shadows on his right. He jumped a little at the sight of a spider heading off on its hunt. He wasn’t expecting the Dark Hunter’s base to be the cleanest place in the island, but still, Nidhiki waited until the spider was well out of sight before moving on, a little more cautiously than before.
He passed through a large entrance made for beings much taller than him.
“Now that I think about it, I’m one of the shortest here”
The room was probably the largest inside the fortress, with dummies and platforms all over the place. A single hunter with dark-teal armor was jumping around at a surprising speed.
Lariska’s abilities were superior to even the Kanohi Calix, Nidhiki wondered if that was a trait her entire species shared, but something told him that wasn’t the case. The huntress hurled daggers at the practice targets, two on the center and one on the head. The Toa was amazed, almost hypnotized by the swiftness of her movements, at least until a dagger almost hit his head.
Lariska shifted her attention to the entrance, where she spotted her green watcher.
“Oh, hello there,” she said in a sarcastic tone, doing a dash to front-flip to a platform below her without breaking a sweat. “What are you doing here?”
Nidhiki cleaned non-existent dust off his armor. “I wanted to train here, less noisy.”
“That is true, but I remember you complaining about the smell of my base for an entire day.” Lariska glanced at him. “I figured for someone who grew up so close to the acid falls, your sense of smell wouldn’t be so sensible.”
“The acid falls don’t have a strong smell,” he said while rubbing his nose behind the Volitak. “But they do leave a burning sensation on your nostrils.”
“I do suppose all that noise is less distracting than a foul smell. Hopefully, me jumping around and hitting all the targets won’t be as distracting for you.”
Nidhiki knocked five over training dummies with a breeze. “Don’t get cocky.”
“Cocky? I can’t get cocky when I have the abilities to back my comments up. I believe you the word you were looking for was…” Lariska did an air flip, hitting all the targets around her and landing on the ground without making a sound. “…confident”
She’s speaking my language now, Nidhiki thought. She’s speaking my language and I hate it
She was looking down at him- like she’d been doing since Metru Nui, weapons at the ready.
“What are you scared to continue our fight at Ga-Metru?” He didn’t know why he said that. He didn’t know why he came here at all.
“Hmph, very well,” Lariska said, abruptly turning her back on him. “You better keep up this time.”
The huntress jumped against him. Whatever kind of finesse her movement had, it was now combined with the strength of three Toa.
Nidhiki dodged the blow, his legs getting swept over by hers. Before he got back up, he was kicked in the chest and sent flying ten steps back. Summoning his elemental powers, the Toa threw the dummies at her, but she evaded them with a spinning jump. It was clear as crystal now, she was holding back before.
With that idea in mind, what was stopping her from killing him here? All he could offer during the war was gone now, and he was the reason she got shunned after thousands of years of a perfect track record. Did he accidentally welcome Lariska to kill him?
He used his air powers once more; Lariska took his eyes off him to see where the wind went.
Now I got you.
Activating his Volitak, Nidhiki got close to Lariska, and gave a right hook to her face.
Whatever kind of commotion or adrenaline or feeling of battle that Nidhiki was having at this moment disappeared. He wasn’t expecting that, and judging from her reaction, neither did Lariska-
“Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!” he said, deactivating his mask power.
“Nice arm,” she said, still caressing her own jaw “You passed.”
“…Excuse me?” Nidhiki couldn’t be more confused.
“I was trying to see if you could hold your own against me and you passed,” she said in a casual tone while putting the training dummies back in their place. “This wasn’t a test assigned by The Shadowed One, you have potential and I wanted to see it.”
“But I… I thought I was already a Dark Hunter. I’m confused.”
“Oh you were, I mean you are, but I wanted to see if you were able to last at least another month.”
“So I was an honorary Dark Hunter and now I’m an official Dark Hunter?”
“If you want to put it that way,” she stated while taking out a dagger from her belt. “Now the interesting part begins.”
Nidhiki took a step back.
“Relax.” Lariska handed him her dagger. “Scratch my armor.”
If his eyebrows were visible, they would be at the top of his head.
“Why?” he said, turning his head to the side as the words came out of his mouth.
“It’s an old Dark Hunter tradition-.When a hunter trains someone and that being is ready to be a hunter, they scratch each other’s armors with our insignia. Last time this was done was five thousand years ago”
“…Where do you want the mark?” Nidhiki asked.
Lariska started to rapidly tap her helmet. He carved the knife as gently as he could- marking the symbol of the Dark Hunters on the front of her helmet.
“I’ve never had one until now,” Lariska stated. Excitement could almost be heard. “I’m going to assume you did a good job. Now it’s your turn.”
Nidhiki gave her the dagger back and started looking for a free spot on his body, before Lariska interrupted him
“Oh no, it’s not going in your armor. The new recruits get their markings on their skin.”
“Huh?!”
“Hey, are you really going to question my knowledge of this organization? I’ve been here for eight thousand years.”
He couldn’t argue with that, she definitely had a point.
“Alright stay still, all my daggers are coated with poison so we’re trying a different approach,” she firmly said while holding Nidhiki’s head on place. “I didn’t go through this entire ordeal for you to die in an anticlimactic manner.”
Lariska moved the Toa’s head to the side, exposing his neck. She opened her mouth, revealing a sharp set of teeth. Nidhiki could feel her hot breath on his neck-. Once her teeth started to touch his neck, he winced in pain but kept still, he had to. He tried to look down to see how much Lariska was going to take, only to meet her eyes, she was looking at him in a rather apathetic way, while circling her mouth around his neck. Once the whole process finished, she cleaned his blood from her mouth.
“Welcome to the Dark Hunters”