Ryan left the fortress, heading north. Katrina’s special meal had been satisfying and he was well rested after a good night’s sleep. The fresh dew glistening in the grass this early in the morning made his shoes squelch noisily as he walked along the jeep track. After speaking to John and Lizzy yesterday evening he had decided to find some evolved Beasts to hunt and subsequently eat. In essence, John had argued, Recombinant Omnivore would basically allow him to doubly benefit from any strong monsters he hunted. First, obtaining the experience, and second, possibly obtaining beneficial mutations. So, with John’s expose on the haunts of various animals prior to Initiation fresh in his mind he had decided to find some worthy prey on the next farm which had been a carnivore sanctuary. They had had everything, from the small black footed cat to the lion, from jackals to hyenas. It should be possible to find at least some higher levelled beast with interesting mutations there.
He had elected to go alone, not wanting the responsibility to ensure anyone else’s safety and with Dimensional Shift he was most probably the person with the best ability to escape risky situations. After religiously training the Skill during the last few weeks it was second nature by now, although he had elected to reserve it for defensive use as his Energy Pool only allowed limited use, currently a total of three charges before he had to recover Energy for several hours. Eventually he would be able to use it at will, but that was a long time off. In addition, he had finally remembered to place a Dimensional Anchor at the fortress which would allow him to easily transport back any harvested animals via Portal once he was done with the hunt. Ryan, was really annoyed with himself that he hadn’t remembered to do so before the raid in town.
The hike of 17 kilometres took him close to two hours as he was moving through the veld carefully, staying aware of any potential threats and keeping a lookout for any interesting prey. He had stalked and ambushed a troop of meerkat, shooting three from out of their troop of about 15 before the rest disappeared in their burrows. The small predators were surprisingly high levelled at Level 12, but hadn’t proven to be a challenge due to their size and their instincts to flee from larger predators. The experience gains had been good and Ryan made a note to pass by their burrow again on the way back if at all possible.
“Here be dragons” Ryan spoke quietly to himself as he inspected the imposing fence surrounding the carnivore sanctuary. Although he had forgotten to take along some pliers to cut the wire the fence, now not electrified, should be easy to scale. Ryan slung his bow over his shoulder and quickly passed over the previously formidable obstacle, then made a beeline to the large camelthorn about a hundred metres away. It would make a great vantage point and Ryan wanted to peruse the lay of the land before he took any further action.
The sanctuary had been divided into several strictly segregated camps for various different populations of large carnivores and glassing the immediate area Ryan found that he was right next door to a pride of lions. The large cats had definitely been productive during the last few weeks, the fence was breached in several spots and the pride looked well fed. Failing to find any unpleasant surprises between his targets and himself Ryan commenced his stalk, thanking Fortuna that he was downwind of the pride which made the entire endeavour possible in the first instance. Keeping to the cover of a thicket of bushes he managed to close the distance to a respectable 70 metres before he paused and re-evaluated his approach.
The perch he had initially chosen as a possible point of ambush was unsuitable upon closer inspection, the tree to slanted, easily allowing even non-mutated lions to scale the damn thing. The next likely prospect was a bit close to the prides position for comfort, barely 30 metres away from the cats relaxing in the shade of another tree. More worrisome, he couldn’t observe the pride from his current position and had no idea if they had remained in position although it was likely they had.
“Well, nothing to it.” Ryan thought, safe in the knowledge that Dimensional Shift should get him out of any tight spots he might manoeuvre himself into. The slight breeze had died down and the sweat soaking his shirt betrayed his tension. Carefully Ryan took one small step after another, always inspecting where he placed his feet, noiseless step after noiseless step. Minutes later he reached the tree he had picked out. Still out of line of sight of the pride, hidden by a small rise in the land he hopelessly looked at the thorny tree covered in rough bark. He clearly hadn’t thought ahead far enough. The tree would provide the perfect position of ambush, straight trunk and unbranched to a height of several metres it would be immensely difficult for the lions to reach him. On the other hand, he had no idea how he could scale the thing without making an inordinate amount of noise and giving away his position together with losing the element of surprise.
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For a few moments Ryan was vacillating between the choice of abandoning the stalk or, what he considered a reckless use of his get out of jail free card, using Dimensional Shift to displace himself into the branches. In the end, Ryan decided that the risk was worth the possible reward, he would still have to charges left. He shifted into the tree, settling on the highest branch that looked like it would carry his weight. The crunch of the bark beneath his feet as his weight settled onto the branch sounded like rolling thunder and Ryan silently swore, remaining as immobile as he could, holding his breath and listening for any sign of alert from the pride. Nothing, the growly grunting sounds emanating from the direction of the pride didn’t change. Slowly he turned his head, spotting first one and then several more members of the pride lazing around. Identify showed that the pride’s levels ranged between 9 and 15, the lion levelled lowest at Level 9 and two of the seven lionesses at Level 15. No cubs where in sight but that was a situation the lion was most stridently in progress of rectifying. The source of the rhythmic grunting sounds and the occasional deep meow had become immediately obvious as soon as Ryan spotted the lion pumping away on top of one of the younger lionesses.
Ryan didn’t watch the spectacle for more than a few seconds. Feeling dirty and somewhat guilty he didn’t let the golden opportunity of the natural distraction pass and released an arrow at the closer of the two Level 15 lionesses. It struck true and the bright arterial spray painting the grass around the lioness assured Ryan she wasn’t long for the world. Three lionesses immediately disappeared from view and worried Ryan released another arrow at one of the younger members of the pride, killing the confused animal clearly. The lion and lioness were uncoupling hastily and Ryan released a hurried potshot at their entwined forms, desperately trying to determine the location of the rest of the pride who had disappeared from view entirely. Thanks to Enhanced Senses he could roughly determine the location of the lionesses charging at his position by the soft grunts and the muted impacts of the padded paws on the hard ground. He couldn’t see them however. Bifröst proved as much if not more a boon than his enhanced senses. With his primary sense unreliable Ryan and straining to obtain any information on the opponent’s whereabouts previously neglected senses had the opportunity to rise to the occasion and shine. Ryan could vaguely feel the spacial distortion of the heavy bodies charging through the fluctuating space time continuum in his direction. Although he couldn’t determine much more than mass and vector together with the sounds of padded paws striking the ground in a staccato rhythm it was sufficient information to aim at the closest shape rushing at the tree.
As soon as his arrow hit centre mass the other Level 15 lioness faded into view with an arrow buried in her chest nearly up to the fletching. Ryan’s experience hunting told him that she was likely fatally wounded and so shifted his aim to a second stealthed lioness who had reached the tree and was making swift progress up to his position, the loud sounds of her ascent pinpointing her even more clearly than his Bifröst. He released quickly and the lioness dropped, not releasing her stealth. He could vaguely feel the remaining four stealthed lionesses surrounding the tree, now hesitant to rush up and engage a target that had killed the stronger members of their pride. He aimed at another stealthed form but as soon as he released the arrow they all dodged, alerted by the twang of the bow. They were clearly highly intelligent and after another dodged shot Ryan settled in to wait, keeping an arrow knocked but leaving the bow undrawn.
The uneasy stalemate continued far longer than Ryan would have ever expected, the lionesses patiently waiting in stealth. The lion and the wounded lioness it had been mounting earlier had withdrawn some distance and were making their displeasure clear through loud roaring. Eventually the lionesses withdrew as well, soon fading out of stealth and moving off with the lion. Ryan didn’t trust them not to counter-ambush him so marked one lioness with Hunter’s Mark before they left his range of sight.
Ryan kept track of the Mark for while longer but eventually was satisfied that they wouldn’t be returning soon so left the tree and scouted the nearby area for any further possible threats before he channelled most of his Energy into a Portal to the fortress after informing William that he had some loot to recover. Tethered to the dimensional rift by a flexible cord of energy funnelled to maintain it he only watched as Mike, William, Miguel and Gabriel quickly gathered the three carcasses and returned through the portal. The second they were through he let the thread unravel, sighing in relief. Maintaining the portal had been more difficult than he had expected and he had nearly emptied his pool of Energy. “Time for a bit of rest and some food” he thought, casting around for a suitably defensible spot to get some grub into his system.