Axel and Aria moved north to avoid the valley of the Quakes for the moment and, after a few miles, headed west towards one of the mountains. The jungle was spotty, with some areas holding only a handful of trees and bushes, while others were incredibly thick, making movement difficult. This would curtail their scouting as they had to manage their time to return.
As they moved, both stayed silent, keeping an eye out for signs of predators. Axel found days- and weeks-old tracks of various kinds, but everything was too big, like a Quake, or moved in large packs like the Gar. Aria occasionally used the air, both by flying and through aero, to feel around for more chameleonic creatures like Twilight Stalkers. It was then that Axel smelled a whiff of ozone coming from upwind, which set off immediate warnings in his mind. He waved at Aria, who was in the air above him.
When he saw that she noticed, he started to climb a nearby large tree quickly and as quietly as possible, adrenaline surging through his body. One of the first things a hunter from his village learned was if you smelled the scent of ozone, hide. If you couldn’t hide, flee. If you couldn’t flee, be ready to die.
Aria moved close and leaned into Axel’s side, right near his ear. Axel could smell the scent removers that covered her normal smell.
“What happened?” Aria asked in a whisper so soft that even near his ear, Axel could barely hear it. “You seem panicked.”
“Tempest Beast,” Axel whispered back. These were the only words he needed for Aria to go very still and look terrified.
A Tempest Beast was one of the deadliest, if not the deadliest, creatures outside of the deep sea, jungle, or mountains beyond the people’s control. They stood between twelve and thirty feet tall—tiny compared to many powerful beasts—but they were born at the Expert tier. They moved at speeds that generally required speed powers to keep up with, had the reflexes of a body expert, their bodies were tough enough that a normal novice would only scratch their scales, and generated a constant torrent of electrical energy.
You might think this wouldn’t be an issue if you had a hunter with electro, but unless that hunter specialized in having an enlarged energy storage, they would run out of power before a Tempest Beast. That was if the beast didn’t target that hunter first with its speed and claws, making it easier to kill the other hunters. The true terror of a Tempest Beast, though, was its intelligence. While not as intelligent as one of the people, they adapted quickly to any situation.
Older Tempest Beasts were known to figure out people’s powers and tactics, even setting traps by wounding a hunter to either draw in others or create a distraction to escape. They also remembered encounters well and seemed to plan for the next time they met someone who had defeated them. Overall, if it could be avoided, do not engage with a Tempest Beast; it was a losing prospect even for a team of Expert hunters.
A tense fifteen minutes passed when a herd of small, three-foot-tall, two-legged lizards passed below them. Each beast was almost neon blue and had tiny sparks of lightning wrapped around their bodies, moving in quick, jerky motions.
Seeing these, Axel relaxed into the trunk of the tree. Zips. It was only a pack of Zips, thank the Goddess. The pack was about twelve in number with no younglings in sight, but it was hard to tell their age. While not as fast-breeding as Gar, they grew very quickly. A pack would normally be around eight to twenty in number, as any more would start causing issues with electrical discharges in their environment.
Axel looked over them and scanned them with his index.
Index Basic Mode
Zip
Known Dangers:
Claws
Speed
Low-level electrical discharge
Pack Tactics
Estimated Age: Unknown
Beast Potency Level: Novice Beginning to Mid
Now that his heartbeat was calming, Axel felt dumb, but training had taken hold when he smelled ozone. While Zips were a hard fight in numbers, a Tempest Beast would unlikely be upwind in this kind of area, as even as tough as they were, a Tempest Beast was unlikely to fight a herd of Quakes. Axel then decided to take out this helpless feeling on the Zips below.
“Stay high,” Axel whispered to Aria. “The Tempest Beast was a false alarm, it seems. These Zips release the same smell when threatened or after hunting.”
Aria nodded and drew an arrow in preparation while Axel loosened his discharge chain that was wrapped near the bottom of his halberd. Taking a deep breath, Axel dropped and swung the axe blade, taking the head of a Zip by surprise. Axel then rolled the landing to cushion the fall, only seeing slight cartilage damage to the knee and shoulder that healed before he was back on his feet from the roll.
As Axel got to his feet, he threw the chain into the ground before seeing sparks shooting out of the Zips, but it was not controlled by a power. The electricity gathered onto his halberd, then through the metal rod in the shaft, and threw the discharge chain into the earth. As the pack tried to shock Axel, Aria rained arrows down on them, killing three more before the pack realized.
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The pack milled around for a moment, trying to find the new threat so they could fight or flee. Axel attacked again with a sweep of his halberd, taking down another three. This made seven killed within moments of the fight's start, but the fight was over as the remaining Zips fled. Aria missed her next shot as the little beasts ran in erratic patterns.
With the fight over, Aria jumped down and landed near Axel, hugging him. Her scent was still covered, but Axel leaned into the warmth of her embrace. The fight helped relieve the adrenaline in his system and gave him a sense of control again after being terrified. Axel then breathed in and out in his meditation pattern to regain his center, clearing his head of memories now trying to flood his mind with the aftermath of the one that was found near the village.
--
The sobbing wails of a wife holding her husband, they had just confirmed their mate bond a few days ago, filled Axel’s ears as he and Cade sat wrapped up in blankets, shivering despite the early summer warmth. The disaster of their first hunting trip for training was still being tallied, with the blood toll being two Novice, five Adept, and three Expert hunters killed by a Tempest Beast. The Novice and Adepts were part of the original hunting group that ran into the beast, but the Experts were the rescue team sent.
While Axel’s father did finish off the beast, it took its toll on the hunters, and the money from its parts was being argued about. Axel’s father would hand the money to the families that lost one of their members. As Axel looked over the bodies of people who, just a couple of days ago, were showing him how to trail a beast, now laying on stretchers covered by sheets.
--
The memory stopped as Axel did not have time to go through the feelings that his mind was trying to invoke. Axel also seemed to miss what Aria had just said as she began to move away from him and secure the kills.
Axel shook the wandering thoughts out of his head and went to help her. The process, as gory as cleaning a kill was, helped Axel finish centering himself. With the prey now secure, Axel turned to Aria and was ready to call it a day.
“Let’s head back,” Axel said to Aria while picking up the bodies for transport.
“Aria agrees,” Aria nodded to Axel. “Also, we need to talk to Jareth or Roran for an expanded bag to carry any prey back.”
“Fair,” Axel agreed, as moving eight bodies was going to be difficult through the jungle. “This is going to be a long trip back.”
Aria began to retrace their tracks back to the camp, but like always, no plan survived contact with reality. Axel again miscalculated how quickly the dark came to a mountain with a valley they needed to travel around. Dusk arrived well before Aria and Axel were ready for it, and with it came many dangerous beasts.
Near a stretch of open area between dense patches of jungle, Aria held up a hand in a sign to stop. Axel halted his steps and placed down the pile of dead so that he could fight more easily. Aria had her eyes closed and seemed to be sensing something, so Axel covered her back and watched the deep shadows. This was when Aria lit a flame and created several fireballs.
Before Axel knew what was happening, four balls of fire hit a dense brush and exploded in a burst of light. Axel locked himself and Aria down from the shock wave, but Aria had already taken care of it. Out of the now burning foliage, three Twilight Beasts fled, bodies still on fire, and started to roll around in the dirt. Axel could only look on in shock and awe at Aria’s display of growing skill but then noticed that the fire was starting to spread.
“Aria,” Axel said with a sigh while looking at Aria’s manic grin, “please put your budding jungle fire out before it disrupts our hunt more.”
“Huh?” Aria blinked from staring at the burnt and likely dying beasts. “Oh!!”
Aria then spent the next while trying to stop the fire, figuring out how to reduce the oxygen to the fire, and putting out her budding blaze. While Aria was putting out her problem, Axel made sure that the Twilight Beasts were dead and cleaned. The trip back was even worse than before that fight, as Axel now smelled of smoke and was hauling an even more awkward burden.
When they made it to camp, Lyra rushed over to them, worry etching her face. Roran was only slightly behind her, though he seemed much calmer. When the pair arrived, Axel’s burden was lifted greatly as it was split between the four of them.
“I was so worried,” Lyra complained as they completed the walk to the cleaning area. “When the sun went down and you were not back, Pearl and Larimar had to almost sit on me before I started to go searching for you.”
“That would have been dumb,” Axel told her. “While you have basic hunting training, going into the jungle at night would have only made the situation worse.”
“I know, but I was panicking,” Lyra whined.
“Aria knows, but please don’t do that,” Aria said and placed her burden on the pile with a tired voice. “It would have been so tiring to have to find you after returning from a hunt.”
Aria’s voice sounded about as tired as Axel felt. While his body still felt energetic, fatigue was laying over Axel’s thoughts. The early morning, Quake hunt, Star’s issue, and the scouting trip made for a long day. Sky sent a quick mental greeting and started to go through the pile, tearing apart the bodies with efficiency that made Axel blink in surprise.
Leaving Sky to her work, she was even sending a mental humming noise that Axel was hearing. Axel moved to the stew pot. It was well past dinner, but a night stew was sitting over the warm coals, something made for night watches to eat, having several herbs that helped with alertness and warmed someone when the night’s temperatures dropped.
Sitting near the stew on a downed tree trunk was Jareth, poking the fire in thought, so deep he did not seem to notice Axel until he sat down across from him. Axel pulled out the trail food, though not that appetizing on its own, and served himself a bowl of stew. This seemed to snap Jareth out of his thoughts, and he looked Axel over with a sharp glance before returning to his casual smiling face.
“It’s good to see you made it back safely,” Jareth said, still poking the embers with his stick. “I was starting to worry that you ran into trouble.”
“Some,” Axel said after putting down his spoon after eating a mouthful. “Had a scare with some beasts and misjudged when sundown happens out here. We were ambushed by a trio of Twilight Beasts, but Aria roasted them.”
“Then I was slow with bringing everything back,” Axel finished, eating another spoonful of stew.
“Rough, but at least you have material to work with until the next big hunt,” Jareth nodded to himself. “With that fire and boom, I think we will need to wait a couple of days for the beasts to settle down.”
“I agree with that,” Axel said while relaxing. “Had a bit of a scare and I still can’t calm down from it.”
“Scare?” Jareth looked up from the fire to look at Axel. “What happened?”
“Smelled ozone,” Axel said and did not need to continue as he saw Jareth sit up quickly but held out his hand to forestall his reply. “It was a pack of Zip, but I panicked into a tree to hide.”
“That is a good reaction,” Jareth said with a sigh of relief. “If a Tempest Beast was in the area, we would need to evacuate right away.”
Axel nodded in agreement, and both men fell into silence, staring into the flames. After a time, Axel was not sure how long as he did not even have the mental energy to check his internal clock. Axel got up and asked the twins for a shower to rid himself of the smoke smell. The cold shower also just felt good after the long day, feeling clean for the first time all day.