I'm not sure why but everyone seems more relaxed now that they know who I am, but they all agree to call me Eclipsed Rainbow. When I ask Nate says an unknown nightmare is more terrifying than a known one, laughing all the while. We divvy up the bodies, 1 Silver Hart for Nate, 1 Silver Hart for Hatchet Hair, 1 Silver Hart for Freckles, 1 Silver Hart for Joe, and 1 for me. This was such a windfall that they want to head out and turn in their proof, processing the bodies as quickly as possible.
-*You... Want to leave? After one deer?*- I'm not sure how to not call them idiots so I have to chose my words very carefully. Even I think I sound like I'm having a stroke.
"One? We got five," Nate emphasizes, dragging his kill and hatchet's.
Bubbles takes Freckles corpse with her into his core, Joe and Hatchet asking him what it feels like and the kid says it doesn't feel like anything, which is apparently more disturbing. Joe drags his own corpse, I bank mine, an then we're off. After a few minutes Hatchet asks why Nate doesn't get me to bank their corpses, and Nate points out that I don't really stay in one place for very long. I don't know why this is so embarrassing, but I swear I feel my face catch on fire. It's not like I mean to wander off. I'm supposed to go somewhere, stuff happens, I never get there. Although nothing was as bad as my Seven Moons student badge cock block.
Nate learns me some stuff on this hunt. The value of one deer, intact, is 100 spirit stones. The hares are 20 stones each, the lions and tigers vary based on age and fang count, -- the curling fangs that jutted out of the Stone Lions mouth? Not all of them have developed them yet, and they can form top and bottom -- and the tigers are just worth 1000 stones on their own. Minimum. I ask about the flint cats and Nate whips around on me quick. Teeth bared, jaw clenched, he's fucking glaring me down 'cause why?
"Flint cats are pests. You want to keep anything alive? Kill them first."
Guess they killed his other pets? I recognize the flash of hatred as bloodlust not just a flash of memory mood.
[Silk Spray (Tier 4) Successful]
[Successful Uses 34/100]
[Qi -200]
[Karma -2000]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,184/23,764,293]
[Current Qi: 249,392/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,057,172/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
I toss up a cloud of silk and there's a chunk missing from it before it manages to drift to the ground. The flint cat yowls, rolling and thrashing, chewing and slashing at the rest of the silk attached to it.
[Piercing Shot Successful]
[Successful Uses 91/100]
[Qi -30]
[Karma -5]
[Feeding Successful]
[Qi +1,000]
[Karma +10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,184/23,764,294]
[Current Qi: 250,362/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,057,177/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
-*Yoink,*- I tell Nate, hoping that the meaning is clear as I bank the silk and cat. So do living things just get dropped in my bank and dead things go to the crystal?
Nate flings a knife on his hip into the ground right next to me, and I don't move. Shouldn't I move? Something decloaks, the air shimmering and revealing something with an iguanas head and body, and a ridge of glowing spikes down its back, but gorilla limbs.
[Piercing Shot Successful]
[Successful Uses 92/100]
[Qi -30]
[Karma -5]
[Feeding Successful]
[Qi +1,000]
[Karma +10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1831184/23764298]
[Current Qi: 252332/957945100]
[Current Karma: 95057192/107275977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
-*What was that?*- I bank the corpse and comfort groom my face.
"Mist Dragon," Nate shrugs, head dipping, eyes closing, way too fucking nonchalant considering I almost got got by an invisible dinosaur ape. "Probably planned on chomping you and hiding. Might not have noticed if it curled up around you."
-*This is another dig at me wandering off, isn't it,*- I narrow my eyes at him and he just grins before sauntering off.
Another Mist Dragon goes after the kid, and I find out about it when he casually flings out his open hand, managing to smash its face in with a palm strike. He pulls a length of rope out of a small coin purse at his side, loops a bit around the not dragon's neck then casually drags it. I'm sorry, what? How strong is he? My shock turns to annoyance at myself. No. How weak am I? Fack! Is there like a Spirit Beast Combat training thing?
-*I'm not good at fighting, is there a place to train?*- I ask Nate who sputters and laughs, waving off the others as he keeps walking. -*I don't think it's that funny...*-
"That's one of many things we're going to work on after the hunt," he snickers, completely unaffected by Joe casually talking to him while I jump and recoil at suddenly noticing him.
-*How does he do that!*- I hiss, embarrassed and terrified. I have a hard time keeping my focus and he's actively dropping it!
"Same way I can do this!" Nate scoops me up, flips me on my back, and, while holding me, this bastard pretends to tickle me. And I can't hurt him!
-*How are you doing that?!*- I scream, the area filling with light.
Further out the lights start to bleed together. Now we're in an elemental essence ball with a miasma coating. The others scream at him and he apologizes, flinching under their judgement, and stopping his assault on my dignity. When he sets me down I thrash and flail away, -- because I can now. This is bullshit. -- and slurp up the energy. And get no credit for it. Guess 'cause I shed it and it wasn't just in the area?
"Why would you do that..." Nate breathes at me, pale.
-*I was raised on miasma and strong elemental flowers if that's what you're worried about,*- I groom myself, calming myself from the repeated hits.
Why is moth baby kid so strong? The fack is a king lizard doing with stealth armor? Why can't I bite Nate when he's begging to get his ass kicked? Why am I so fackin' weak? I'm furiously combing my underside, the silk not tangled but twisted into loose braids -- did he braid me? Really? -- as Nate apologizes to the others and shares a little of what he knows about me. And I don't know how he knows about me.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Today I learn another reason people hate Crawling Hands besides the too many and they're dicks. 'Cause they're huge dicks. A friendly crawling hand will sell your information to any bidder. You can try to pay them extra to keep the information exclusive, and they'll continue to sell it to everyone. Including enemy countries. New question! How the fuck did they know about me?
I flinch at the memory knowledge that crawling hands consume life, not just Qi. Wait, crawling hands soul suck? Is that where I got it from? 'Cause I ate a few monarchs. But that doesn't explain why it took so long~--. Did it really? No, I was gaining information from --.
"Deer!"
I jump, head down, legs locked, tense and completely unable to do anything because this fucker is actively keeping the energy contained. He's struggling with it, literally holding out his "hands" and keeping it contained, grinning with sweat dripping down his fucking forehead. I turn, stiff legged, bank the cloud of upset me, and wonder if a piercing shot counts as an attack. Let's test this.
[Silk Spray (Tier 3) Successful]
[Successful Uses 4/100]
[Con. Qi -20]
[Karma -200]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1831164/23764248]
[Current Qi: 252332/957945100]
[Current Karma: 95056992/107275977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
Baby steps. Spit ball works. No one expects the --! He rips the silk off, screeching and trying to shake it off as quickly as possible. It doesn't look infused. The others stare at him, blankly, walking away while Joe stands nearby, silent and still. Nate excuses his behaviour by telling everyone that I'm not a good fighter, but, due to my banking and tailoring, I can do truly awful things through my silk. Was hoping no one would piece that together.
-*What?*- I ask as flatly as I can when he looks at me.
"Grass Skirt found another flock of Silver Harts," Nate lightly grins, slightly flushed.
He doesn't look as energetic. He fucked around, and now he's slowly finding out. I don't know what he does that makes it to where I can't hurt him directly, but he lost a hand when we first met an hour ago. A horn sounds in the distance, Nate and I turning to look in that direction while Joe just frowns.
"And then you scared them off." Joe sighs, turning away and walking back towards the entry area. "We were trying to grab one more before it was time to leave. Competition's over now. Let's head back."
-*That's on you,*- I point out to Nate as he side-eyes me sheepishly. -*You know me? You know of me? Let's see if you don't show me a new way to make you stop...*-
Nate stiffens, but doesn't run. Not impressed, asshole. To be fair, if our positions were switched I wouldn't be jumpscaring me for fun. I'd be petting me. Or using me as a pillow. I'm so fucking fluffy. The Hatchet and Freckles come back, pouting and glaring. They're not mad, just disappointed. For my part I keep my head pointed at Nate as we all start following after Joe. Until I almost walk into a table leg.
-*What the fuck?*- I accidentally send Nate, still trying to deadeye him before getting startled.
"We got transferred out," Nate shrugs, going to the bundle of corpses he's been dragging to give Hatchet hers.
"The spirit beast joined the hunt?" Freckles tells the clerk while stepping back and waving weakly to me.
"Hmm?" the man at the table isn't the asshole from earlier.
Either this portly, chubby-cheeked bastard is a straight-laced killjoy or he's more corrupt. He seems the type to go either way. A rule follower because the pretty boys keep breaking them, or a rule breaker because the pretty boys keep breaking them. Heh.
"Kisandera the Devourer?" What the fuck?! I tense as he casually squints at me then goes down the list in front of him. "Ah. A walk in. Welcome to the Golden Empire. Must be quite a change from that cesspit." I'm pretty sure I can hurt this guy... And I want to. "The Emperor of the Empire of the Rising Sun used to be a pet for our Holy Empress' ancestor.
"He'd taken over a couple of tribal lands to help her and then went rogue when she died. He's become even more impressive over time." Oh. Nevermind then. "What have you to turn in?"
-*I don't know where to place it,*- I tell Nate. Just 'cause everyone knows I can talk doesn't mean I want to.
"Next to the table is fine," Nate waves his fingers loosely to where Freckles is standing, causing the boy to yelp and high step out of the way.
A hart, lion, two flint cats, the tattered earth hare pelt, the dragon, and Heavenly corpse I dump in a pile on a patch of dirt. Nate shouts, turning to me, fists clenched, hunched and glaring while others make equally offended sounds. They all came to the mountain for my color show and didn't see the hare corpse? Didn't see me bank it? Or are they getting mad because I'm the one that killed it and no one managed to take it from me? Dumbasses.
"Quite the haul," the record keeper says, frowning and nodding, somehow seeming friendly and impressed. "I take it you got distracted a few times, but it looks like you've most likely won the competition.
"Two Flint cats for 35 points, a mist dragon worth 50 points, a silver hart for 30 points, the earth hare's only worth 10 points, the pelt still has the energy signature, so it's fine if you ate the rest," he reassures me, sliding counters on an abacus, holding a jade slip. Is he keeping honest count? Noice. "Stone Lion is 70 points, well done! The real prize, as I'm sure you know, is the Golden Hare. It's worth 200 points!"
I clap politely even though he's talking to me about my catch. His abacus skills were mesmerizing. I don't know if he was keeping accurate count, but it was cool that he was recording on a jade slip, using the abacus, talking to me while being friendly and making small talk.
-*Very nice multitasking skill,*- I whisper send him, failing not to lean towards him to do it. Fail.
"Too kind, too kind," he waves his calculating hand around, smiling and beaming, chin dipping and head turning away. "You've earned a total of 360 points! You may take your catches back, and make sure to keep them somewhere safe. Someone might fake a catch and you might have to dispute it," he frowns before smiling and waving for me to take back my pile.
-*Not bad?*- I ask Freckles. They know who I am and I'm not feeling Nate right now. -*Thanks for sticking up for me.*-
"Aunt's haul is truly impressive," he clasps his fist, and gives me a little bow, and I'm wondering who he's calling "Aunt".
"Someone caught the Heavenly Hare?!"
I roll my eyes and see everyone else slump or shift in annoyance. We all know what's coming. If this isn't the entitled little lord who bought out a hunting event, then the world is truly becoming a sad place. Or this place is as bad as Rising Sun Empire, despite Finger Food's national pride. A not kid storms up to the table, shoving people, or trying to, aside as he tries to make a beeline. Anyone he can't move gets stared down by men in uniforms.
"Imperial guards?"
Tch. No. I groan, loudly, holding the noise while slowly deflating and collapsing into a pile of fluff on the ground. Royals and nobles are more annoying than entitled shits because they're entitled shits with armies that have to swear allegiance to them.
"You!" the brat shouts, storming up to Freckles, pointing with his sheathed sword hilt at Freckles. "Did you catch it?"
There's a glow and Bubbles materializes between Freckles and the Imperial Brat.
-Stay away from him!- she shouts, her shout sounding like trilling bird call.
"Snow Jelly!" Freckles cries out, reaching for her and freezing with the imperial guard all reveal an inch of blade from their swords.
-Bubbles! Get back in your hole before you get Freckles killed for attacking the royal heinie,- I admonish her and she turns to me in confusion.
-Who's Bubbles? Will they help me protect Valiant Wind Knight?- she cries. And she. Sounds. Terrified.
-*I'm the one who caught the hare,*- I wander up to the noisy lordling. -*It thought I was food.*-
"I can hear this spirit beast!" the boy shouts, dropping his weapon and something else in the dirt to pick me up, an Imperial Guard swooping in to pick up his discarded items. "Surely this pet is as good as a Heavenly Hare!"