Chp. 9 The Biggest B*t*h

“Oh, so it’s going to be that kind of day is it” Ava said exasperated.

I looked up to see what she was talking about and heading our way was one of the most beautiful women I ever seen. She was like a Mediterranean goddess long leg, killer you know what’s, long black hair, and electric green eyes that looked they were lit up with LEDs, but then she talked.

“Hello mutt, long time no see” the woman said.

“I don’t have time for this today Rhamnusia” Ava said angerly “we are busy.”

“Oh, who is we? Is this cutie with you” Rhamnusia asked “What’s your name?”

“Jensen”, I replied hoping she would just stop talking.

“What are you doing running around with the city mutt?” she asked coldly.

Rhamnusia’s voice reminded me of a cat screeching the in night looking for a mate. The sound made my ears want to run and hide. I thought they were actually starting to bleed. It didn’t matter how beautiful she was nothing was enough to have to listen to that sound for one more minute. So as Ava said, “let’s go”, I was more than happy to keep walking, if only she would shut up.

“Hey Mutt see ya around” Rhamnusia hollered while laughing. The two girls with her laughed and pointed and in unison yelled Mutt.

As Ava and I got to the Hunter’s Guild, we noticed a big bounty sign out front. Notice to all hunters: Gigas have invaded the mountains to the west. All able and willing hunters are requested to take this bounty at once. It then had a picture of what looked like a cross between a gorilla, human, and something out of your nightmares.

“Perfect” Ava said, “we need a distraction after having to talk to Rhamnusia.”

I still wasn’t sure what to think of Rhamnusia, but I did know that calling my friend a mutt was not the best way to make a first impression on me, but I kept quite hoping Ava would cool off a little.

“So” I smiled “we are heading out west, going to be a cowboy baby.”

“what” Ava asked puzzled.

“Oh, never mind” I said.

The two of us left the city planning on being gone for several months. Ava explained that we would set out on our own and meet up with other hunters when we got to the mountains where the gigas were. We decided since it was such a long trip, they decided to pick up all the bounties we could for that area and try to complete them on the way.

The walk was long, and on the way, we completed even more bounties, we battled large swarms of thrafsi kouneli, aichmira arkouda, oxy Arouraious, Capricorn which was a large scorpion the size of a horse with fur and strips like a zebra, and a school of rivulet carcharias in a river wider than the Mississippi back home. Since we were alone, we decided to practice using our elemental rings, we knew once we meet up with the other hunters, we would have to keep the rings hidden, but we had to learn how to use this magic ability in a fight before it was too late. The ring made hunting the rivulet carcharias much easier, I for one didn’t know if we would have been able to defeat them without the rings. I of course as was the norm with this new world had never seen anything quite like them, they were large fish like great white shark fish, but their teeth where even larger than the ones on earth, and their skin was something like the snakes back home all scaley and rough. Ava had told me to stay away from their teeth, because they inject a venom through their teeth into whatever they bite causing a very painful death. Or at least that is what she had read about them. I would use my rings to lift them out of the water using the water element, while Ava took her bow and killed each one of them. After the first couple were taken out the others turned on our raft and started trying to break it apart before we could kill them. They were a lot more intelligent than what I thought any fish could be, probably dolphin intelligence times 10. During this time, I decided to disregard his HUD interface and just focus on the hunt and the time with Ava. I knew that other hunters did not have that ability and I wanted to treat this like a normal hunt and as if I was a normal hunter. After we finished the last of the bounties Ava told me they were within a couple day’s walk from the mountains. We decided to stop using the rings in case we met any other hunters along the way.

When we finally reached the mountains, we meet up with several other hunters and decided to set out on the gigas hunt, Rhamnusia was one of the hunters and had already decided to make life difficult for Ava and me. She started by following the two, criticizing our every move. But things quickly escalated when Rhamnusia began to sabotage their efforts.

One night, while Ava and I were on watch, Rhamnusia snuck away and set a trap for us. When we heard breaking twigs, we rushed to investigate, only to find themselves surrounded by a group of angry gigas. we managed to fight them off, but not before Ava was badly injured.

Rhamnusia acted as if she had nothing to do with the incident, but Ava and I knew better. We confronted her about it, but Rhamnusia simply laughed and told us that we were too weak to survive hunting gigas.

The tension between us continued to build until one day, when we finally found the troll, we had been searching for. As we closed in on the gigas, Rhamnusia suddenly turned-on Ava and me. She attacked us with a ferocity we had never seen before, determined to prove her superiority.

Ava and I fought back with everything we had, but Rhamnusia was too strong. She knocked me to the ground and turned her attention to Ava, intent on killing her. Ava managed to dodge her attacks for a while, but eventually, Rhamnusia caught her off guard and delivered a powerful blow to her stomach.

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Ava fell to the ground, gasping for breath, as Rhamnusia loomed over her with a menacing grin. I struggled to get back on my feet, but I was still recovering from my earlier injuries and was too weak to fight. It seemed like the end for Ava and me, as Rhamnusia raised her weapon, ready to strike the final blow.

But then, something unexpected happened. The gigas we had been hunting suddenly emerged from the forest, drawn by the sound of the battle. They swarmed around Rhamnusia, overwhelming her with their numbers. Rhamnusia fought back, but it was no use. The gigas had her surrounded, and they weren't going to let her go.

Ava and I managed to escape in the chaos, but we knew we had to help Rhamnusia. We circled back around to the fight, hoping to pull her out of danger. We took on the trolls two on one working through the surge of trolls until we got to where we had last seen Rhamnusia. When we arrived, we found Rhamnusia battered and bruised, but alive. She looked at us with a look of hatred. The we tried to carrier her out of the forest, but when we got a little way away from the trolls, she demanded that we put her down. She said “she did not ask for or want help from a half-breed mutt or her weak friend and to leave her there.

Ava and I were hesitant on leaving her there, it would surely be a death sentence. We were sure the trolls were not going to be far behind. In the end we left her there leaning up again a tree cursing us, hoping we would die slow painful deaths.

“Talking about an ungrateful bitch” I said loud enough for Rhamnusia to hear me as we walked away.

As her curses faded the last thing, we heard from her was “I’ll never be grateful to a mutt like her you bastard.”

And that was the end of the biggest bitch in Astria.

As we made our way back to Maraschino, Ava and I nursed their wounds and tried to make sense of what had happened. We knew that we had been lucky to survive, but we also knew that we couldn't continue to ignore Rhamnusia. I knew Rhamnusia was not the evil I was brought here to defeat, and that evil would be much more terrifying. We would have to find a new way forward, but for now, they were just happy to be alive.

Ava and I were still in shock from their encounter with Rhamnusia, but we knew we had to keep moving. They pushed themselves to keep walking, even as their injuries throbbed with pain. As we trudged through the forest, we discussed what had happened and tried to make sense of Rhamnusia's actions.

"She was always so competitive," Ava said, wincing as she touched her bruised ribs. "But I never thought she would go that far."

I nodded grimly. "I guess we will have to keep an eye on her for now one, she may cause more trouble in the future."

Ava sighed. "I just wish we had seen it coming. We should have known she was capable of something like this."

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't blame yourself. We couldn't have predicted what she would do. The important thing is that we survived."

We continued in silence, each lost in our own thoughts. As we walked, we began to notice signs of civilization. There were more paths, more signs of human activity. We realized they were getting close Maraschino.

When we finally arrived, we went straight to Enzo's to get our injuries treated. I thought we should find some kind of healer, but Ava insisted that Enzo would know what to do. Ava had a broken rib and some internal bleeding, while I had a shoulder wound was getting infected. We both needed medical attention but were grateful to be alive.

As we recuperated at Enzo's, we started to make plans for their future. We knew we had to get stronger and one day we would have to deal with something far worse than Rhamnusia.

“So, you didn’t use the elemental rings, right?” Enzo asked.

“No” I replied.

While training at Enzo’s, Enzo had told them over and over not to use the rings unless they had no other chose, that keeping that power a secret was the most import thing to do for everyone.

“I know I keep saying this” Enzo begin again, “But not only would you put a target on your head for anyone wanting the rings. But one the truth is out that they do exist, and the elves are the ones who can make them, the elves will no longer have any peace every ambitious or greedy being in this world would stop at nothing to get one.

“I so wanted to just set her on fire” Ava said.

“But you didn’t and that’s what makes you different from Rhamnusia” I said as he put a hand on her shoulder.

“Grrrrh you know she really was just the biggest bitch. Why couldn’t she just leave us alone.” Ava said in anger.

“Why did Rhamnusia treat you so badly?” I asked.

"Rhamnusia had always been one of the strongest members of the Hunter’s Guild. She is quick and agile, with a sharp mind and a fierce determination. But she also had a dark side. She had always resented me for being half human half elf, she saw me as a mutt, a half breed who shouldn’t be allowed in the same profession as her. She things humans are at the top, and all other races are below her. And anyone who supports or are friends with a half breed are worse for not showing their superiority over us." Ava explained.

“Back in my world, we called that racist” I said looking kind down.

“So, you had different races in your world like we do?” Ava asked.

“Not really, we didn’t have anything like tibulls or Saurians. We just have humans, but some of them have different skin colors and cultures. But I guess humans can find anything to be prejudice for” I said in disappointment.

We decided to call it a night and get some rest and begin training even harder the next day. We headed back to Ava’s ate a quick supper and Ava passed out in a chair exhausted.

I laid down on the couch I was finally after all the chaos of the past few days able to look at all the notifications I had been pushing off to the side.

I realized he was going to have to do a better job of keeping up with the notifications, it had gotten too easy to just push them to the side and deal with them later. After hours of sorting through loot, coins, and crystals I finally had them divided up between Ava and myself. I took her portion out of his storage space and put it on the coffee table so she would see it in the morning. I also put all the items that could be used for cooking in her fridge. She was kind enough to let me stay until I got my own place, I needed to make sure to help with the food. I also decided to take a portion of my coins and crystals and give it to Enzo, if Enzo hadn’t been training us, we would have been killed for sure during the fight with Rhamnusia and the gigas.

After the loot boxes where gone I had my level up boxes, they were stacked in a way that I could tell there was several which was a pleasant surprise.

I managed to close each box without looking at the level until I got to the last one. It’s the little things I thought to myself as I tried to make the updated level a little surprise gift to me for all the work, I had put in.

image [https://i.imgur.com/84THOWT.png]

Wow from level 6 to 15 with the gigas, either they were worth a lot of xp or I managed to kill several. I was so frantic in trying to stay alive and help Ava stay alive that I had no idea how many I managed to take down.

I opened my stats box to see how much everything had increased.

image [https://i.imgur.com/tuvEqZ5.png]