Chapter 13
Blood of the Hunt
Ronald and Tara stepped out into the darkness–but they could still see. They had noticed as much ever since they Awakened. Base stats weren't just random numbers in an equation–they improved their bodies, toes up. Their sight, hearing, sense of smell, their conditioning, all of their physical attributes exploded. In fact, both suspected they could easily compete against the world-renowned athletes just on the basis of their bodies alone.
However, just because they could clearly see in the darkness did not mean that its terrors did not cause them anxiety. Tonight, after all, they would be fighting something inhuman–something misshapen, unnatural, alien. But however apprehensive they were, neither was willing to let it show. So, they steeled their nerves and put on stern expressions as they followed Ethan away from the lodge and into the shadows of the tall trees in the night.
They walked in silence, every sound alerting them. It got so bad that, at one point, Ethan stopped and looked back at them, his expression quite… complex. It looked as though he wanted to laugh until he keeled over and scream at their stupidity at the same time. In the end, he did neither, merely sighing, shaking his head, and resuming the walk. They forced their jitters down and calmed somewhat, just in time for Ethan to stop once again atop a faint slope overlooking a trench of trees huddled closely together.
“There,” he whispered so lowly Tara and Ronald felt no other human on the planet could hear him besides the two of them. “You can find the thing lodged in the thickest of the trees. It dug out a hole in the trunk and hid itself there. Approach it slowly, stealthily, silently, and try to ambush it.”
“...” neither Tara nor Ronald spoke as they were scared they’d alert the beast, and they were beyond certain they couldn’t lower their voice’s decibel as far as Ethan did. However, their intent was quite clearly evident from their gazes.
“If you fail? I dunno. Try fighting it maybe? Geez. I thought kids that went to college were smart. Anyway, off you go. Have fun~”
In front of their terrified selves, Ethan sat down, took out a plastic container of seeds, and started snacking on them. The two kids stared at him in absolute disbelief for a moment but he no longer paid attention to them, seemingly just wanting to get this over with so that he could go back to the lodge and ‘take a nap’.
Ronald and Tara took a deep breath before they departed. They’d already talked a bit about how they’d do it before departing, so they proceeded with following the simple plan they made: they’d flank the creature from two sides, and whoever the creature decided to focus on would then immediately start running while the other person tried to inflict as much damage as possible. However, as they had the advantage of an ambush, they’d both get a few strikes in before needing to flee.
They were under no illusion that they could ‘one shot’ the beast–they wielded ordinary kitchen knives as Ethan didn’t allow them to use anything else, and their sole active ability wasn’t exactly a head-splitter either. However, they held high hopes that they’d at least be able to harm the beast enough to slow its movements down and bleed it out as they ran around.
The two spotted the beast through the faint opening in the thicket the beast lay on top of the hole in the tree. Nodding toward each other, they approached at the same time from two sides, intending to stab the knives into the beast at the same time, and immediately jump back. However, dreams often went unfulfilled and hollow, and tonight happened to be one of those times.
Ethan observed their movements while snickering inwardly. Even stealth classes struggled to actually ambush any creatures–especially so Kaynul–and non-stealth classes could simply forget about ever even trying. Naturally, he didn’t warn them–babying the two would do them no favours long term. Even though they’d never be fully away from Ethan due to the nature of their classes, that was irrelevant–there will come a point where Ethan would be unable to defeat whatever monster he was facing alone, let alone prevent the two from dying.
Furthermore, there was no better practice dummy than a zowolf. While the monsters looked terrifying, they weren't actually that strong. To a normal person, naturally, they were unconquerable mountains, but that was only face-to-face. Zowolves were one of the few creatures that could be directly harmed by guns as they didn't have the protective aura of Mana shielding them. As for the Awakened, fighting zowolves was akin to a normal person fighting a stray dog, just without the chance of contracting rabies or getting an infection after the fact. While a dangerous proposition still, most of the danger from dog bites wasn't in the bites themselves, but in whatever disease they were carrying. Once that was removed, most average people would be able to fight off a stray dog.
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It was no easy feat still, however. The duo came two feet within the tree trunk when a screech bellowed out that seemed to freeze them in place. Ethan observed the comical arrangement of events that followed with a nostalgic expression. He was just like them at one point, as were most people. At least the so-called First Generation Awakened.
Ronald reflexively pulled back first, tripping over a root of the tree that he hadn’t noticed before. Tara remained for half a second longer, prompting the wolf beast to jump at her. She only registered what happened when the wolf was half an inch from biting into her thigh. Screaming in horror, she instinctively stabbed downward, managing to stab the creature in its left-end shoulder. However, at the same time, the creature bit hard into her thigh and even managed to yank out a chunk of her flesh. Blood sprayed out and she thrashed backward, likely horrified at the sight, not realising that the pain she was experiencing was nowhere near what she ought to experience.
Just then, Ronald came screaming from the side and lunged himself at the creature, having dropped a knife. The wolf and the man rolled on the ground for some five feet, with the wolf coming on top and pressing down. The acidic saliva fell onto Ronald’s face and burned him, causing him to yelp out in pain once again. As he struggled to keep the creature’s head from biting down, Tara managed to recover somewhat and, driven by pure adrenaline, ran over and jumped onto the creature as well, tossing it away from Ronald.
Ethan stifled a laugh–it wouldn’t be right. It was funny, watching them struggle, but it was understandable. They’ve already forgotten everything he mentioned. They weren’t fighting through logic and reason and experience, but through pure, primal instinct that every man and woman, at some point in their lives, were beholden to.
While Tara struggled to yank herself away from the beast, Ronald got up, slipped again at the protruding root of the tree he didn't notice, cracked a tooth from the looks of it, but still ran forward as though there was wind blasting into his back. Screaming, he jumped at the beast's back, chained its neck with his arms, and pulled back. The beast heaved onto its hind legs and roared in a high pitch, gurgling something in the closed throat.
The two fell back, and while Ronald held on with dear life, Tara picked up a nearby rock, walked over, and started slamming at the beast wherever she could as hard as she could. She continued doing so long after the beast died, some two minutes, until the muscles in her arms gave out. Both Ronald and her were heaving, soon after keeling over and letting their innards out. Blood covered them from head to toe, wounds scattered everywhere–some merely scratches, but some genuinely appeared horrifying.
They both got a whole slew of notifications that they were too dizzy to notice and even Ethan, though not having participated in the battle at all, got some.
[Your Devotees have slain a Kaynul Beast! You have gained 50% of the Experience. Your bond with the Devotees grows. Your stats will increase by 10% when protecting them from harm.]
[You have gained 50 Experience–Experience until next Level: 50/200]
He put away the bag of seeds and descended the slope toward them. Hunching over the dead zowolf, he rolled it on its back, dug into its stomach, and took out a tiny, fingernail-size pebble. It was dull grey in colour and virtually worthless in the future but, right now, it was almost priceless. Wiping it on the nearby grass, he put it in his pocket and focused on the two who were lying on their backs, sweating and bleeding, but Ethan knew they were in no immediate danger: Tara had just short of 70 Health left, and Ronald was at staggering 90. Even if he did nothing, they’d naturally heal within 4-5 days, possibly even faster thanks to their class.
“So, how was it?” he asked calmly, arms crossed over his chest.
“Bet… bet you had a laugh,” Tara mumbled in-between taking rapid and shallow breaths.
“Oh, I had several laughs,” Ethan said. “But I kept them all in. I may be a perpetual child in terms of insults, but I can recognise effort. And I will never laugh at people giving it their all, no matter what.”
“...”
“You did great,” he added, shocking the two. “I mean, you forgot every nuance of fighting, brain farted on all the training we did, but it doesn’t matter. Real fights are always messy and ugly. They ain’t choreographed scenes where you end up looking really cool. Well, unless they feature me, of course.”
“Ugh…” even through pain, the two groaned at the comment as Ethan chuckled, crouching down and tapping their thighs gently.
"Rest, now," said. "You've more than earned it. It will all be better when you wake up." The two didn't wait for him to repeat the instructions–they were barely keeping their eyes open as-is, and it took all but a few seconds for both to pass out. Ethan stretched lightly before picking up both of them, as gently as he could, and putting them over his shoulders, walking toward the lodge. Each step was deliberate, slow, and methodical so as to not shake them up.
"Man, I really did grow fond of these pissants, huh?" he mumbled softly into his jaw, shaking his head in disbelief. The trek to the lodge was silent, the rays of moonlight faintly piercing through the canopy of thriving trees. It was a scene that was left unseen by the world, but it was a time that had a profound impact on Ethan. He was old–quite old, in fact. In many ways, he was a rock–undaunting, unchanging, ever-stubborn, as most old people were. But the two snoring happily on his shoulders proved to him that he was not a man done still–there were parts of him yet untapped, and parts yet perfected. Perfection, after all, was an ever-elusive goal, one that most people stopped yearning for at some point in their lives. Ethan, however, never did. Most who lived as long as he did in that world didn't stop chasing after the ineffable. Those who settled fell short and fell dead soon after. Mediocrity was a road of demise, and only those who struggled until their flesh was melting and their eyes were bleeding and their lips were mumbling for the God who was not there ever came close to the finality of life post-Descent. Such was the life of the Awakened–a consistent, painful, hellish struggle to be better, stronger, faster, and indestructible. And these two kids seemed fit for that life, however barely, and however hauntingly.