Chapter 19

To Hunt Or Not To Hunt

"No! I'm going hunting. We need to get stronger and test ourselves. We're in a new world. We need to hunt!" Akoth shouted at Jaxon.

Jaxon simply crossed his arms before shouting back, "We're not ready yet! We need intel, upgraded equipment, and time to adjust to this world's gravity. I know we are all feeling a bit sluggish, well, except maybe Zeke, but even you, Akoth, are not as strong as you think you are. We need to train and let our organs adapt. Plus, like I said, I have a lot of new gear to upgrade and forge. I'll need at least three weeks."

"I, for one, want a break. And I'm missing a lot of my favorite shops, which means we might need to open them ourselves. This town could use a hot spring, a restaurant, and live music. Seriously, what is with this place?" VeLana grumbled.

"Fine, you all sit around. I'll go hunt by myself!"

"Hold up," I raised my hand to halt Akoth from walking off. "How about this: I'll go hunting with Akoth. You two look into opening a business, which we'll start with one first, and then once that's done, you can train or forge whatever."

"Sounds great. Let's go, Vel," Jaxon said, turning to leave. VeLana gave me a quick kiss and jogged to catch up with Jaxon.

"Well, let's go see what lies on the other side of the gate," I said to Akoth.

"Fine," he replied and rose off the ground by about ten feet and then flew toward the gate. I shook my head before doing the same thing. I had seen other people flying around occasionally, so I knew it wasn't frowned upon.

When we arrived at the wall, though, the gate guards motioned for us to land. "Hello, Hunters," the Kojin said. He was a lionkin, with a white mane. Unlike TelVurn, this one didn't have anything wrong with his legs, and he was far larger, with way more muscles. Behind him was an Aquarian who, judging by his appearance, was a sharkman. He, too, was jacked. "I hadn't summoned my Lycan Nano Powersuit armor yet, so I still had on my cloak over my normal attire. I opened the cloak to reveal my Hunter's badge. "Ah, a 6-star Hunter and a 5-star Hunter. Since we've not met, you must be new here. I'm impressed with your ranks. Normally, you need a full team to hunt, but your rank," he pointed at me, "gives you the opportunity to Hunt solo if you want. So, we're good to let you two go. But you should at least take a map and a Monsterpedia. You'll find the monsters here are quite different than back home and way more nasty." He handed us a book and a map. I gave them to Harry, who exited my arm, and he started to scan them.

"Wow, has Draotis changed that much? It's been a few hundred years since I've been there, but we didn't have that kind of technology."

"It changed a little, mostly because of me and another friend of mine. But I'm sure it hasn't changed that much since then. But, if you've been here for that long, why not move on?"

"I started a family here, but now that they've all grown, me and the misses might go on the next push. If we think we have the numbers to make the climb that is."

"Well, we plan on making the climb, so if there is ever a time, it'll likely be it," I said.

"Confident, I like that. But do some hunting first, and then see if you're still that confident. If you are, then maybe I'll prepare my speech to the wife," he said chuckling.

The sharkman stepped up. "Maybe when we're off duty, we'll go hunting with you sometime. We know the best spots."

"If you hunt on occasion, why be guards as well?"

"There's an exclusive officers club, and one way to get in is to serve as guards for the city. There are other ways, too, but we don't have the money or talent," the lionkin replied. "Anyway, good hunting."

We nodded and took to the skies. There was no need to open a gate when we could just fly over it. Harry had the map already pulled up on my H.U.D. "Akoth, hold up." I flew down to the ground, removed one of the four treasures I bought from the Soul Realm, and shoved the beacon into the ground. Then, I covered it with grass. This beacon was a Transportation Beacon. It came as a four-pack and would allow teleportation from anywhere back to this location. If I used another, I would have the mental option of choosing which location. I could also teleport anything within ten yards of myself. So, when it came time to return, Akoth and I could simply teleport back.

The last of my treasures was an Inheritance Compass. Starting on the Second Layer and going up, hidden locations could grant great power, items, or knowledge if found. The compass would make finding those locations much easier. I would check the compass periodically, but I wanted to focus mostly on hunting and not dying for our first time out, especially since we were down two people. Once we land and engage our prey, I would summon Ferra so that we'd have at least three of us. I won't count Harry as a fourth.

As we were flying, I was stunned at the terrain. The grass was green, but that was the only normal thing. The few trees we saw were flower trees. Like instead of leaves, there were flowers. The bark was blue, green, or yellow. Depending on the type of tree. The trees weren't nearly as large as in Draotis, but they were still larger than most on Earth. I never spotted any rivers, lakes, or even ponds, but there were large areas of land with jutting rocks, almost like spikes scattered everywhere.

We could also see signs of many battles, whether against monsters or possibly even other Coalitions. I know mountains are separating the territories, but I'm sure all sides have found ways into each other's territories.

After flying for ten minutes, we spotted our first monster, and what a monster it was. It looked like a dragon but with fur instead of scales. Also, it was massive. For the moment, it was preoccupied with eating something too mangled to make out, but as we approached, it suddenly snapped its head in our direction.

"I can feel its power from here," Akoth said. I was too stunned to respond. The eyes were larger than my werewolf form. I used Appraiser's Oculus:

Name:

Elder Flame Carrigan

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Energy:

120,000

Aura:

Ethereal Blue

Damn… that's a lot of energy. I referenced the Monsterpedia and saw that this particular monster is recommended to have a full raid party of 5 and 6-star Hunters. A full raid included over 25 people. I gave the information to Akoth but didn't get a reply. So, I turned to look at him and saw nothing but empty air. Then I looked down and saw him rocketing toward the giant beast, with jets of flame shooting out of his feet. He formed a flaming spear and used one of his explosive skills to launch it.

Dammit, that moron. The spear struck the aura of the monster and sizzled out with hardly a spark, and then the next thing I knew, there was a beam of fire heading my direction. I flew quickly out of the way but still felt the heat scorch my skin. I lost sight of Akoth but noticed his earpiece was still registered with my H.U.D.

When the firey breath attack ended, I saw a smoking, charred form hovering some distance away. "Hey, you all right?" I spoke to him on comms.

"Yeah. I have a flame immunity, or so I thought. But that fire still caused much damage. I lost an arm. I don't think we can fight this thing."

"You think? If you had waited, I would've told you we were short about 23 people." The monster jumped into the sky to try and bite Akoth, and he quickly burst away on another jet of flames. We flew for a while until we landed next to a forest, where we finally found some water. It was a small lake, and Akoth took no time to enter and wash his burnt skin and ash away. I used my best healing skills on him, but it still took an hour for his arm to regrow.

While we waited, I felt a presence in the forest and turned to see something with more than a dozen red eyes. It resembled a spider but was nearly twenty feet tall and had four mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth. I summoned my two-handed axe in one hand and the hammerscythe in the other.

Throwing the hammerscythe caused a sonic boom, but the monster still managed to raise two of its arms to intercept. The skills unleashed upon the metal claws of the beast caused the creature to stumble backward, but I was surprised that the arms didn't break. Still, I used that time to close the distance with Burst Step, followed by Acceleration and Sonic Speed. Then I channeled Momentum Strike and Necrotic Strike into the axe and became a whirlwind of spinning slashes beneath the body.

I wasn't able to cut all the legs off, but I did split them all open, which gushed out a green fluid of some kind. The wounds began to blacken as dark veins shot up the legs. Before I could get clear of the legs, one of the metal claws struck my shoulder and nearly pierced through the armor. But, the armor was powerful and of a higher Layer than this world. So, I was merely shoved backward instead.

Ferra spoke from behind me. "I want to fight, too!"

"Go for it," I told her. And with that, she burst forward also utilizing my Skill, Burst Step, but then used Momentum Change to leap onto the spider's back. She raked the monster several times, coating herself in the green liquid. I reached out and summoned my hammerscythe back into my hand and returned my axe back into storage. As the spider thrashed about trying to dismount Ferra, I Burst Step again and put all my considerable strength, which was infused with my Astra, into a baseball swing. I aimed for a joint where the leg merged with the body, and this time, the arm exploded, and a massive chunk of the side of the beast blew outward in a spray of green blood.

The spider fell over, and Ferra went for the neck and clamped on for all she was worth as the beast tried to get back on its feet. But it was too late. I was there with another swing of my weapon directly onto its head. "Jeez… killing even the smaller monsters is a real pain in the ass," I said.

"Hurry up and store the body. My arm is healed, and I want to kill the next thing we find," Akoth said grumpily. I vanished the body and cast Cleaning on Ferra and myself before heading over to the lake and washing my face. My Cleaning Skill was great, but cold water was simply too refreshing to pass up. Then we headed into the woods. In total, we killed nine more of the Spiders, three worms, and one monster disguised as a tree. Or it was a tree, we weren't sure.

I was about to teleport us back when my Danger Sense Skill alerted me to numerous threats. We were suddenly surrounded by… what? Humans? They looked human anyway. They had gray uniforms that were not completely unlike Earth's military attire. Luckily, they didn't have guns, but whatever weapons they were carrying weren't the typical sword or axe either. The blades were affixed to poles along the side and glowed with power.

Akoth was partially transformed into his Bear form, and I was fully covered with my green ethereal flaming armor. So, I knew the enemy was unaware of what I was. Still, I could sense that at least four of them were about my energy level, and the rest were about Akoth's level. An energy field popped into view as a dome over the entire location. I felt the connection to my Transportation Beacon cut off. Great…

"What do you want?" I asked.

"We're going to take you alive, injured, or dead, one way or another. How you come with us is up to you," their leader stated flatly. He had a mustache, short-cropped black hair, and a dark complexion.

"Why?"

"Aside from that armor? You're the enemy. That is all the reason you need to know. Now surrender."

I cracked my neck. Even if I didn't want to fight, I knew Akoth would, so I just prepared myself. Akoth's response was to fully shift into his bear form, even as I let the werewolf take over. I think they were surprised by my new height and form; I wasn't like any Kojin they knew of, after all.

My strength and durability were also far higher than my Astra level suggested, but in this form, it skyrocketed. Activating Skill Boost, Dual Mind, Thought Acceleration, Acceleration, Sonic Speed, Stone Skin, Barrier, Life Steal, Magnify Damage, and finally Blood Raven Swarm, which I sent into a group of them. Akoth attacked the first three nearest him, with Ferra closely behind.

I also activated Astra King and Berserker's abilities, letting Rage surge to Phase 3. Then, before I jumped into the fray, I unleashed two more skills. Taunting Shout and Tyrant. Taunting Shout caused anyone at my level to feel pulled to attack me. Anyone below my level was struck with Tyrant, which caused extreme intimidation and fear. These were veterans of the Second Layer, so the effects only lasted seconds, but what we could accomplish in seconds was enough to turn the tide of the battle.

I moved like a savage beast, relying on my claws instead of weapons. Their energy swords were powerful but not enough to get through my armor as I shredded them to pieces. I even ripped one guy's arm off and beat someone else with it at one point. The screams and cries of agony didn't last long before one of us would silence them for good.

Their leader put up the best fight as he managed to tear open Akoth's side with a decisive strike before kicking him into a nearby tree. Ferra bit his arm up to the elbow off but received a nasty head wound in return. I noticed the man used to reach out and crush one of the orbs floating around him, and his wounds instantly vanished as if he had never been injured.

The other three of equal energy levels were struggling to hold me back as I activated skill after skill, but they, too, had orbs and kept healing. But they could only do that for so long before they ran out. Then, one of them activated a skill that coated me in a sticky substance that glued me to the floor. I pushed myself forward, but it kept stretching and getting stronger. Then they jumped onto my back to try and pry my helmet off. They were having problems injuring me due to the armor, so I assumed this was their solution.

While Akoth was injured, had less energy than the leader, and was outnumbered, he seemed to have more combat skills than all of them. His blessings were Divine and very explosive. His raw power overwhelmed his foes, with the exception of the leader, but even he was on the back foot.

I used Heal Familiar whenever I saw Ferra take damage, but I was mentally scrolling through my list of options to get me out of this sticky goop. Getting desperate, I used Raged Fist with Sunder and blew the ground beneath me into a massive crater. This forced the goop to be freed from the ground, but it still clung to me. But Cleaning was rather effective, and shucking that nasty stuff off of me. I roared and charged with incredible speed at the first guy closest to me. He was stunned and on his back from the sudden explosion and couldn't react in time before I dug my claws into his chest and bit off his head. Let's see if those orbs help you now… When he didn't magically come back to life, I turned to my next prey.