Zachary set to work trying to subdue the furious crab. It was strong and its reddish-brown shell was extremely tough. He tried to wound it with his small dagger but only managed to chip the blade horribly after trying to stab and slice the joints. He resorted to a wooden spear but that only resulted in a blunt tip after just one stab.
The crab also wasn’t one to sit still and get poked to death. It struggled nonstop. It tried to smash his head with its large claw, only failing due to being tangled by the net. If the net didn’t exist, one strike from the claw which was the size of a watermelon would have knocked him out cold.
He also had to watch out for the crab’s other claw which was like a pair of sharp scissors. It had no problem cutting through the green vines that made up the net. If he wasn’t careful, he would have to bid goodbye to his fingers.
Zachary struggled for a while with no progress. This crab Ensouled was much stronger than the ones he had encountered around the first hunting ground that had been so fruitful for him and Jean-Pierre. Its shell was tough as rock. His fruit knife was now a useless piece of metal. Kicking the thing was simply self-torture as it only left him with bruised feet.
“Onkie, come out!”
“Arrow, you’re up too!”
Zachary finally brought out two summons to help him. In the excitement of finally catching something, he had almost forgotten that he was a summoner.
“Onkie, sit on it, make sure it doesn’t move. Bite its claw if it tries to attack you."
“Onk!”
The obedient summon laid down on the crab. Onkie's weight was probably several times heavier than the crab's. And since the crab was still entangled by the net, it could still wiggle its limbs but had no hope of going anywhere.
Faced with this change, the crab started attacking the smelly thing on top of it with its two claws. Its heavy claw struck the pig's thick, overgrown fur over and over. Its sharp pincer took off clumps of knotted hair with each cut.
“Oonn! Onn!” Onkie cried out as it took the attacks.
It was a tough and thick-skinned Ensouled. It could resist it, at least for the moment.
“Arrow, poison spit, aim at the mouth,” Zachary instructed as he held the small frog in front of the crab.
Pu!
A blob of purple and green poison landed inside the crab’s gaping mandibles. A direct hit.
Pu!
Pu!
More spitballs followed. The crab clamped its mouth shut but it was too late. This poison could even threaten Zachary’s life so it was potent enough for it.
The crab soon started to make strange noises as if in pain. “Kack… kack…”
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It produced white foam to try and expel the poison but that merely allowed more poison to leak in. Meanwhile, Arrow never stopped spitting poison.
“Kack…”
It didn’t take long for the poison to spread and take effect. The crab’s movements turned sluggish. It gradually stopped attacking Onkie. It even stopped struggling to escape. It was still foaming at the mouth but that foam had turned from white to a mixture of purple and green.
Zachary felt the time was right. He retrieved an empty summoning card and filled it with Eternum from his brow.
“You’re trapped, little crab. You won’t be able to survive the poison.” He said earnestly and pressed the card against its head, “Come on, accept this summon!”
The summoning card glowed with a gentle white light. The crab barely reacted as a surge of Eternum penetrated its shell and raced towards its sea of consciousness.
A thrill of excitement arose in Zachary’s soul as he felt the faintest sensation of the bond forming. He couldn’t believe it was working on the first try…
Ka!
The bond broke the instant later. He never had a chance.
“Damn…” He sighed.
The summoning card had a brand new crack that ran halfway down the front side. He wanted to blame the failure on the quality of the card but he would only be lying to himself.
Because of the blocked soul path, his soul force was unstable. He didn’t have the control to compensate for it. He could barely establish the summoning bond briefly before it was broken by the Ensouled's unwilling soul. He could not exert enough strength to resist.
He braced himself and tried again. Another failure.
He tried a third time which destroyed the card.
He quickly took out a second summoning card, then a third. Even a fourth one turned to dust.
On the fifth card, Zachary finally gave up and turned to his companion. Katherine had been watching him all this time. Sitting beside him by the river, she hadn’t said anything all this time. He briefly wondered what she thought of him, after witnessing his incompetent efforts.
“Can you…” He said as he fought off feelings of embarrassment and uncertainty, “Can you help me?”
He wasn’t sure because she never helped when Jean-Pierre was around. She made traps and watched over them but she never used a summoning card, at least he had never seen her do it. She had flatly refused even after countless arguments.
However, to his surprise, Katherine nodded her head with a smile. “Sure thing.”
“Really?” He blurted.
She laughed, “Only for you. If it was that guy, I would never in eternity. Marble wouldn’t allow that either, right?”
“Meow!”
Katherine stepped up and drew a blank summoning card. Without a word, she performed the ritual. Eternum surged through her body as she released her soul’s intent and inner strength. It was over as quickly as it began. The crab’s body turned into a deep blue light and entered the summoning card, leaving behind a small anima crystal with the color of the ocean.
“Here you go.” She said cheerfully and handed him the card.
“Thanks…”
“Don’t wait so long to ask me next time.”
He nodded slowly, with some difficulty. He used to be able to do that in the past. Capturing a novice rank Ensouled was as simple as eating and breathing. Now, everything was a struggle.
Zachary put away these frustrating sentiments and focused on his new summon. He extended his soul sense to examine the crab that resided within the card. To his surprise, it was actually at the Three Paths Novice Rank. It was indeed far stronger than the Ensouled of the first hunting ground. If this thing had been in deep water, he would have had no chance. He was able to subdue it only because he was able to lure it to the river bank and then pull it out of the water... because he had the help of his summons.
As he thought about it, he gradually came up with a new strategy. He could presume with some certainty that the deeper into the jungle he went, the stronger Ensouled he would encounter. Three Paths Novice Rank, Six Paths Novice Rank, even Eight Paths Novice Rank; as long as he was patient and did not challenge anything beyond his means, he would be able to steadily catch stronger summons.
It had been his mistake to try for that adept rank flower Ensouled. He would focus on novice rank Ensouled for now. Step by step, one path after another, he wouldn’t think about adept rank Ensouled until his roster was filled up by Eight Paths Novice Rank summons, ones at the peak of the novice rank. Only then would the true battles begin.