As they walked and shifted ever east Ryan pondered his decisions and the path forward. Unless the guild clearly shifted their goals he would stick with it, even if that meant he’d reach his goals slower than acting on his own, it was the safer choice and the right thing to do. He’d have to explain the decision he had made to William, Lizzy, Alexis and John but he didn’t foresee that becoming an issue. Turning his thoughts to more practical concerns he considered the possible ways of growing the Guild’s strength.
The point of departure was their piddling number. Exsolutus should definitely consider recruiting more like minded members. Their current location presented a problem however, as the fortress couldn’t easily hold more people than their current numbers. The second issue to tackle would be increasing the member’s levels and cultivation. While the latter was an issue of time, the former was dependent on the availability of foes to slay. Their nearer environs where thoroughly cleaned out and this too spoke for considering relocation of the guild. Ryan was also worried by their proximity to the city. Another point in favour of relocation so he decided to approach William, John and Lizzy with his concerns once he was back from the hunt.
Putting aside his thoughts Ryan focused on his surroundings. While he hadn’t realised it initially, closer scrutiny showed that life after the System was different not only for humanity, but all of earth’s natural denizens. The change must have been incremental but comparing his immediate surroundings with his memories of the bushveld prior to Initiation showed how stark the changes actually were. It wasn’t simple to condense the variety of changes to a straightforward summary, but if he had to put a word to it the bush was more vibrant. Plants were larger, stronger, more robust and more lush. Instead of the slightly dusty appearance the veld presented save for directly after rain it was greener, bursting with vitality. Ryan also spotted plants he couldn’t easily identify. While plants clearly didn’t mutate as thoroughly as animals and camelthorns, omatjetes, kudu-bush and a variety of grasses were recognisable without too many issues, other plants left him at a loss at identifying their pre-Initiation equivalent. A small, hardy and purple grass carpet covered the previously bare ground interwoven with tiny patches of yellow that shot spiky balls of wood at him. The latter he eventually identified as “Morgenstern” which plagued many a pedestrian traveller pre-Initiation. However, instead of dropping their caltrops-esque seed for dissemination by unwary foot traffic the mutated plant actively shot its seed at the passerby to have them carry it far and wide. Twisting its ropy stems tight it hurled the spiky, and now also sticky, balls at any source of movement and Ryan wondered how it identified suitable targets. Sense of vibration through the root system maybe? The adaptation was fascinating.
It wasn’t the only fascinating change. Ryan lost himself in observing many smaller life-forms, some surprisingly high level. An armored bush cricket, or Panzerheuschrecke, most surprising of all. Formerly a pest in high numbers ravenously devouring everything they walked across the solitary Level 32 specimen lorded over its domain. Its German name had become as apt it possibly could. The insect was now a hand-span tall and covered in a thick radiant black carapace. Ryan had spotted the beast after a resounding crack echoed through a grassy clearing he had stalked past. The obviously dazed beast had struggled out of a tiny mound of rock-chips and he was confused as to why it would hide under the rubble only to have his jaw drop to the floor as it charged the nearest rock and smashed it to bits.
Ryan climbed the nearest tree and spent the better part of an hour observing the insect while Fury explored the surrounding area. Both were unwilling to enter the strange clearing before they better understood the danger they might face. Its origin became crystal clear after a short time. Panzer, as he had quickly dubbed the perplexing existence, was actively terraforming his territory. Crushing rocks and spreading the rubble evenly. Shredding a branch that had fallen into the clearing, eating the green leaves and burying the mulched wood. Resting in absolute stillness before resuming its efforts in frenetic bouts of activity.
Save for a near uniform cover of knee high grass the clearing was bare of any other vegetation. Ryan couldn’t figure out why Panzer would actively shape the area to such an extent before the reason suddenly became abundantly clear. A lone partridge wandered into the area halfway through his vigil, scratching through the gravel to pick out the thick kernels of seed that Ryan had previously missed. Alerted by the noise, most probably, Panzer charged diagonally across the partridge’s front, hidden in the grass and only betrayed by the slightest rustle. The level 6 fowl froze for a moment before it resumed its meal. Tense in anticipation of the imminent drama Ryan focused on his Hunter’s Mark which told him that Panzer was ever so carefully repositioning itself until it was at a right angle to its prey.
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A grinding warble echoed through the clearing and the partridge froze. A moment later it was over. The carcass of the partridge trembled on the ground, blood seeping out of its shattered legs and pulsing out of the ragged stump of its neck. Panzer dragged the animal into a hidden burrow, presumable to devour its meal in peace, protected from aerial threats. While Ryan waited for Panzer’s reappearance he carefully reconstructed the sequence of events his eyesight had missed using the ample evidence of the corpse and his recollection of Panzer’s movements thanks to Hunter’s Mark. Panzer must have created the sound that froze the partridge. Ryan assumed that it wasn’t a Skill and only a measure designed to freeze the ever cautious bird for a second as it had no effect on him and any strange sound would cause prey to freeze in fright. In that instant Panzer must have charged its target, smashing through and shattering both legs. By the time the bird collapsed to the ground and before it could think to utilise its wings the tank had stopped, reoriented and charged back though the targets head, securing its kill. As to why it had first smashed the legs before going for the head he suspected that similar to pre-Initiation Panzer was incapable of jumping like all its kind.
Before he made an attempt to secure the assumedly oh so juicy chunk of experience Ryan conferred with Fury who strongly advised him to let sleeping insects lie before retreating a good distance away as she saw no need to risk her hide in what she termed a foolish venture. Somewhat spooked by her absolute refusal to tangle with the king of the tiny domain and remembering that Panzer had moved across the 30 metre clearing near instantaneously Ryan repositioned to the highest branch that could safely hold his weight and waited.
And waited some more. And some more. Hunter’s Mark showed that Panzer was remaining near stationary, moving in tiny increments. Ryan could clearly picture the insect chewing through the partridge with its formidable mandibles and wondered if the wait would prove futile because the voracious insect would likely refuse to emerge before it had finished its meal.
“Compare its rate of movement to the partridges estimated size.” Fury suggested. The suggestion was a good one and Ryan promptly commenced guestimating before he shook his head in surrender.
“That can’t be right. At this rate Panzer should be done in 3 more minutes. That partridge was four times its size.” he complained to Fury.
“Another reason I don’t want to mess with it.” the lioness retorted. “I’m strictly melee and have no desire to come within a hundred metres of that thing. If you weren’t sitting in a tree ready to shift away I’d call you beyond foolish for even thinking to mess with that monster. Even so, I consider you brave but stupid.” She finished.
Ryan quietly considered whether she was right and then Shifted to a higher tree a bit further back to still his rising disquiet. He still had clear line of sight to the entrance of the burrow but it couldn’t hurt to have a few trees between himself and the threat.
It took a bit less than his guesstimate before Ryan felt his Mark moving to the entrance of the burrow and he readied himself for a shot the instant he spotted his target. Ryan released his arrow the instant Panzer paused at the entrance. A dissonant clang echoed through the clearing as the weighty arrow powered by a draw weight in excess of 300 pounds deflected of the insect’s carapace. The force pushed Panzer back a bit, the stalwart beast carving a deep furrow through the ground with all six of its claws.
Ryan had only a scant few seconds to wallow in perplexed awe before the crashing sounds of shattering wood heading in his direction forced him to re-evaluate his choices. He shifted to Fury and then, paranoid Panzer could sense his location, shifted both of them to a behemoth of a camelthorn half a kilometre away from the clearing. Grabbing Fury by the scruff of her neck to arrest her imminent plunge to the ground Ryan shifted around on his lofty perch and looked back to the clearing where a scene of destruction greeted his disbelieving eyes.
In the short interval of his flight from the ambush Panzer had cleared an appreciable area surrounding the clearing in direction of his shot of trees. Ryan knew the beast was now stationary in the middle of the clearing, waiting to ambush its attacker. Slowly it dawned on Ryan in shocked realisation of his narrow escape of death that the tree he had ambushed the monster from was smack dab in the middle of the tangled collapse of trees extending from the clearing and that a sizeable area had been cleared in a circle around it. How the pumped up katydid had tracked the origin arrow was beside the point as Ryan realised that he would have been its next meal were it not for his Dimensional Shift.