We eat a quick meal before making our way toward the sound of clashing metal, grunts of exertion and curses of pain. Getting closer, I find that the sounds echo out from the open area of the clearing near where I first met Grover and Belina two long weeks ago.
I observe nearly every able-bodied member of the settlement training and sparring, in both groups and individually under Belina’s loving care.
Several people collapse in the few moments we stand there watching, each brought back to their feet and back to their training by one of the several capable healers watching on.
Belina, catching sight of me, wanders over, giving pointers all the while before asking me with a bright smile on her face, “What do you think?”
“They are certainly a far cry from the ragtag group you and Grover started with. How are they handling the ‘Burgess’ training regimen?” I ask with a wry smile.
Belina, her response flavored by the diabolical smile on her face, replies “Oh, they probably hate me right now. But if it keeps them alive, that’s fine by me. Plus, it’s been pretty therapeutic to dish it out, helps me get over the nightmares from our own training.” she states with a dark chuckle.
“Ha! I suppose that’s fair, just make sure they get plenty of breaks, we don’t want them worn out whenever that Clan shows itself.” I tell her earnestly, her sharp nod response enough as she hustles back to her trainees just as Grover walks out of the Village, a scout in tow.
His expression, worried and anxious, cues me in to the urgency of whatever news he brings.
“What is it?” I ask brusquely, meeting him halfway and turning to come into step alongside him as he continues on toward Belina and her few more experienced “sergeants”.
“We found them. They have one main body about roughly our size who sound like ‘regulars’ basically. Moderately trained and equipped, the same as most of our group. The problem is, they have two advance Parties of 5 that will reach us within the hour and they appear much higher leveled with better armor and arms and each has some sort of Beast leading the way. Thankfully, I got a notification from the System that the town will not have the daily Beast "test" today as we are about to be attacked.” He explains quickly with his expression bordering on desolate, just as we reach Belina and her men.
Before he can begin to tell them, I interject with a confidence bordering on the demanding, “We will handle the advanced teams. Just form up here for the main group. Lucky thing with the whole Beast swarm not happening today though, that would've been a clusterfuck, no doubt about it.”
Horus, still perched on my shoulder, voices his august agreement with my volunteering us, “Screeee!” his piercing cry drawing pained expressions from those nearby.
“Are you sure? You will be seriously outnumbered and while I know Belina claims you both are far stronger than your levels, these guys are approaching 20!” Grover tactfully explains with concern.
“Don’t worry about us. Leave the worrying to them…” I state ominously, flames of rage growing across all three members of our bond at the prospect of just revenge.
Grover, sensing our underlying intensity perhaps, stutters out his acquiescence, “O-okay, we will form up here but I’ll keep one of our scouts out on each Party from a distance to send back word.”
I nod, wish everyone else good luck, give Belina a nod and a hard smile, and then we are off into the undergrowth like we were shot from cannons.
The forest seems to blur, our steps pulling us through raised root systems, hurdling over fallen logs and under low hanging branches.
Artemis, 15 feet to my left, lopes agilely through narrow passages, her tongue lolling as she looks to me with a doggy grin of anticipation, the promise of earnest violence alighting her glacial eyes.
Horus, apparently eager to stretch his wings, lifts off my shoulder with a flap of his now 6 feet wingspan, his mixed feathering blurring his outline as if by mild camouflage.
He sends me his intentions to scout for us, sending helpful images through our bond as reports on what’s ahead.
Narrowly dodging a massive snake hanging from a branch due to his swift warning, I send him a feeling of thanks and turn on my ‘boosters’, rocketing even faster toward our destination and our waiting enemies.
Moments later, Horus sends an image of a small group making their way at a walking pace through the brush, blazing a large trail through the thick brush for the following army.
But what draws my attention, and my Class’s as well, is the somewhat haggard looking mountain lion at the forefront of the group….
…and the newly familiar collar hanging from its neck.
Instantly, my rage goes from burning like a small flame to erupting in an inferno that spreads to my two companions, adding to their own righteous anger and fanning our collective flames ever higher into a metaphorical explosion that fills our very hearts.
Keeping tight rein on my self-control and adding some buttressing to my two friends, Huntsman’s Duty triggers at the enslavement of the wild Beast and my stats climb, my speed increasing instantly as I encroach upon the area just outside their hearing range.
“Lady A, take one of the humans out quickly and then can you try and keep the mountain lion busy when they force it to attack us? I can try to remove its collar after we handle the rest.” I subvocalize to Artemis and receive a feeling of acknowledgement in return before she leaps off to the side further away to come up on their left flank.
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I do the same from the other side, intending to start from the back and work my way up.
“Hey bud,” I think to Horus as he wings by far above, “Bide your time, wait until they are busy with us and then try your new Skill on anyone distracted. Make sure you swoop in and out quick, don’t let them get a hand on you.”
Receiving an affirmative from him as well, I use my Advanced Companion benefit to gift them both the ability to use my Natural Reinforcement, pointing out to each the number of Aster Boons growing around the area of the battle, the better for them to heal if pushed to it.
Preparations complete after casting Natural Reinforcement on a nearby stone, I reach out a mental hand toward that flame of fury.
I find it now as a slowly simmering volcano trapped inside my mind, and after a final check for readiness, I let it erupt with all of the pressure and force it has to offer!
I channel it toward my will, my intent, my very motivation and apply them all to my growing Style as fuel, as power, as further drive.
With an unintentional, yet somehow appropriate, quiet growl, I hurl myself at the back of the first Clan-robed form visible, the tail-end Charlie of their Party.
{Human, Flame Mage, Lv.17}
My hatchet, Soul penetrating side first, comes swiping across the back of his neck, spilling blood and chunks of shattered bone dripping down his dark skin and now far less pretty robes.
Feeling Artemis crunching down on the torso of her chosen target and already moving to keep the mountain lion busy, I turn to the next in line as I pull my weapon out of the last guy with a squelch.
The next foe, turning at his companion’s soft groan and collapsing form, shouts an alarm but doesn’t manage to get his staff up in time, my hatchet coming down with the force of a pile-driver that nearly decapitates him.
Artemis, her size an advantage in her crowd control duty, bats the smaller mountain lion around like a soccer ball, getting some pretty impressive airtime.
Turning my attention back to my next opponent, I see it is the middle man of the Party, his level the highest of the group and the only unique Class in it.
{Human, Inferno Mage, Lv.19}
This time the Clansman is ready for me, his wand raised and a Spell preparing to fire.
I wait for him to release the casting, a beam of sunlight with the power of a laser, before leaping to the side 10 feet in a single bound, his laser cutting deep into the bark of the massive tree just behind me.
Turning slightly narrowed eyes from the bark and back to the mage, I launch myself forward at my fastest speed, reaching him before he can cast again. Fist cocked back this time; I hammer down onto the mage’s face with my stone-gauntleted hand, shattering bone and teeth with the first punch and collapsing his skull with second.
Blood now elbow deep on my off hand, I shake it off with the pitter-patter of falling droplets on the fallen leaves and undergrowth at my feet before looking to the final opponent expectantly.
But I almost forgot about our newest member of the team, Horus reminding me by swooping in with his talons alight with the very illumination of the sun!
The final enemy, already terrified, attempts to raise his staff to defend himself but Horus is just too fast and his talons rip into flesh and eyes with an ugly snikt!
As he flies off, the now blinded and defaced enemy falls to his knees with a scream of primal pain, one that Horus proudly ends with a mercy blow to the back of the neck with a re-empowered talon in a quick dive bomb.
As the last body hits the ground, I see the mountain lion calm down, staying down in submission to Artemis, whose paw rests on its back like a furry, bestial rendition of the Captain Morgan logo.
For killing a number of other Players, you receive no XP.
Congratulations, for heeding the call of A Huntsman’s Duty twice in a row with successful results, you have earned an additional +1 to the buffs granted while under the ability’s effects!
Hmm, well that’s a nice plus!
I jog over to Artemis, reach down and pull the collar off of the mountain lion, its mechanism unlocked at the death of the final member of the Party, likely its enslaver.
Stowing the vile thing for now and fully intending to destroy it at the earliest opportunity, I mentally urge both companions to hustle with me to the other Party before it can reach the settlement and the lower-leveled folks there.
We make a beeline through the forest, dodging left and right to avoid obstructions observed and reported to us by our very own eyes in the sky.
Horus, hawk eyes the eponymous top tier in capability, wings ahead to catch a glimpse of the current location of our targets, their Party closer to the Village by a margin larger than I am comfortable with by far.
Turning on the speed a bit more, Artemis lopes along beside me with the wild abandon in her eyes.
I find myself gripped by a mysterious feeling, one growing and swelling like the very sea itself flowing inside me, a feeling shared across our bond between all three of us.
For the battle to come and the bloodshed just past, we feel in this moment of peace between violence a freedom unmatched, one born of motion unfettered, movement unstopped and indeed, unstoppable.
I feel a wild grin fix itself upon my features as I round a massive trunk and leap over a small hillock, a racoon startled by my landing falling over in the process, I laugh aloud at the spontaneous beauty of it all, of life itself, of our place amongst it, my companions and I.
One moment, I have four legs and a tail, my long pink tongue dangling as I run beside my brother, my father, my friend, my family.
The next, I fly unbound through the sky, my wings cutting through air currents like so much butter, my attention on the path my clutch takes below me, my eyes tracking any and all movement.
Then, I feel alien minds peering through my own eyes, feeling through my limbs, an accumulation of our bond reaching a sort of critical mass.
Suddenly, that feeling of freedom, of peace, of union, coalesces of its own accord as we near our targets at last, and thankfully, in time to prevent them from decimating our army.
Congratulations! Through a union of Soul, the Advanced Companion ability, your compatibility with your chosen Companions, and the final discovery of your own Soul’s resonance with the Hunt, the freedom and wildness of its primal beauty, you have unlocked a new feature of your Class: Huntsman’s Pack(R).
Huntsman’s Pack(R): You have found your Companions, you have grown with them and grown together closer and closer each moment. You have hunted together, battled together, conquered together. Now, to further advance your Pack and feel more of the true nature of the Hunt, you and your Packmates will be granted the ability to take moderate damage for your Bonded through said bond and utilize a moderate amount of each other’s Mana pool. The Pack hunts for one, the Pack hunts for all.
Too close to enemies to exclaim my awe, I merely breath out a sigh of wonderment, the utility of this ability relieving much of my buried worries of losing my chosen family.
Explaining the gist of the ability to my Companions, Artemis immediately feels relieved as well, her own worry equal to my own. Horus, still young, doesn’t quite understand the full implications but definitely likes the idea of using his Skill without worrying too much about the cost.
The System, it seems, has just acknowledged the close and growing closer bonds that we already feel. Our family, our Pack, stands strong, stands together and I will, we will, not be stopped!