"Tom!" Cassi yelled from over my shoulder. I turned back, having barely left the Pylon building. That last spar with Korbin felt much more akin to the session we used to have before the integration, only I found myself landing far more strikes than I would back then. The comfortability however was uncanny, like countering his strikes was almost a preference. In any case, I still fucking lost, though by a definition far kinder than getting my neck snapped in front of the entire multiverse. Progress, but I'll be damned if I don't bother Cassi to no end about grappling defenses.
"Hey, are you headed out for a hunt?" Cassi continued after catching up to me.
"Probably. I just need to find Steve so the feathered serpent can pass a message on to Becky on behalf of Phoebe, and collect Hayden wherever he is. Want to come?" I offered, assuming she was antsy to prove herself anyhow. Demotions ought to be humbling, especially for someone with Cassi's potential.
"Definitely." She replied wearing a look of determination I could fully empathize with. Passing through the residential area heading for the outskirts of the settlement I knew Steve liked to hide out and nap at, a familiar voice halted our strut.
"Cass! Tom!" Lonni's thundering baritone echoed across the settlement, gaining the attention of most anyone with ears.
"Hey, what's up my man?" I asked, giving my towering friend a handshake.
"No invite? I could hear the grunts of combat from outside the building." Lonni said, sounding rather disappointed.
"Sorry Lonni, it wasn't our call." Cassi replied.
"I'm not so sure you would've wanted to join this time bud." I added, gesturing to my black eye.
"Callin' me weak?" Lonni joked, lightly punching my arm.
"It was a tournament amongst all of us, and the winner had to fight Korbin." Cassi explained, pointing to Tom. Lonni squinted in thought before realizing he would've had to fight Cassi, possibly me, just to get smacked around by Korbin.
"Ah, then I'm glad you're walking okay." Lonni amended, chuckling.
"Hey Lonni, have you seen Hayden? I'm supposed to take him hunting until our next meeting." I asked, hoping to save some time for hunting. Korbin gave a rough estimate of an hour, which really isn't shit.
"Oh, last I checked he was heading out for a hunt himself. Told me he'd be back soon." Lonni replied. I smiled hearing my new friend was just as much a proponent of solo self growth. Honestly, I'd envy him if I didn't have a 30 foot winged serpent to carry Cassi and I around.
"He wasn't supposed to leave." Cassi said under her breath.
"We're supposed to do a lot of things. Besides, it's not like you gave him a warm welcome, I'd want some alone time too." I shot back, beginning to feel fed up at her constant skepticism.
"Look, he's new, and…he's not all bad, I just don't trust him yet." Cassi replied.
"Let him earn it before passing judgment then. Hey Lonni, new slot just opened up in our hunting party?" I offered, hoping to dismiss the Hayden-talk.
"Wish I could, Korbin's got me in charge of updating the smithery here until further notice." Lonni replied, sounding a tad deflated.
"Sucks. Alright, we got to go." I replied, grabbing Cassi by the wrist and heading for the pylon exit. Knowing Steve, he probably huddled under the shade to evade the sun and me. See, Steve already had his own 'house' cozied right next to Becky's. However, I'd already caught his ass multiple times trying to hide from a hunt. He's…selectively disciplined, as in he lacks the entire meaning of the word. There's no way he was going to hide in the same spot.
…and I can ping his location when he's this close.
"Hey buddy! Enjoying an afternoon snooze?" I asked, coming at my feathered snake's scales with a finger. His head jerked up, ready to pounce until he realized it was me.
"For fucks sake Tom, don't sneak up on me like that." Steve replied, unraveling from his coiled sleeping posture.
"Why's he mad at you?" Cassi asked, looking Steve up and down. It was the first time I'd seen anyone size up Steve that I didn't want to immediately assault.
"You're damn right I am! I haven't slept more than 3 hours in how long, Tom? Let me guess, 'time for a hunt'? Fucking hells, it's never when I'm RESTED." Steve passionately proclaimed toward Cassi, though I was the only one hearing anything.
"No, I think he's just tired." I said to Cassi, tilting my head to Steve after.
"You don't have to go, Steve. It's just free experience points you're letting go, weird for someone who's contracted with the Chosen of Wrath…"
"Ugh…yeah, yeah you're right. Come on." Steve said finally relenting. He whirled around us, stretching out his 30 foot figure and spreading his feathered wings. Slowing his pace to a halt, he lowered his head and body beside us to climb on. With that, Steve launched forward, flapping his wings and clearing the Pylon wall. The many automated turrets locked onto us, tracing our movements without ever engaging. They didn't normally do that, at least that I could recall. We also didn't usually have Korbin here, though.
Without the ocean emitting an endless supply of water and air mana bundling and clashing below, Steve's glide quickly brought us back to the open fields outside the settlement. Steve shot forward the moment his body touched the earth, Cassi's grip on my waist tightening as we rode my noble bird-serpent through the tree-lines heading southwest into the forest. We slithered through the massive trees and tall vegetation peppering the incredibly green biome. Over time, I couldn't help but notice how quickly the plant life grew in this area. It certainly was no wasteland when we'd arrived, though tangled vines and massive tree roots covering fallen trunks had made for a far more clustered environment to traverse.
Cassi's head bashed into my back from Steve stopping his momentum nearly all at once, his head high in the air shooting his forked tongue out of his mouth.
"Ah, fuck." Cassi said in a nasally tone, clutching her nose. Before I could say anything, her hands jutted to the side with a crunch. Both hands fell to her sides as she wiggled her bloodied nose.
"Did you just reset your nose before even checking if it broke?" I asked, feeling genuinely amazed at how fast she was to fix that.
"Tom, I've broken my nose plenty of times before this Tutorial bullshit. How many times have you and Korbin broken mine since?" She asked, leaping down from Steve. Chuckling, I dropped down beside her looking up at Steve.
"You got something?" I asked, Steve just nodded slowly in response.
"Take us there, but don't get caught." I instructed. Steve lowered his head till it was damn near dragging across the foliage. I waved Cassi to follow, hunching low and putting a finger to my lips. After roughly 70 yards of creeping through the many bushes, vines, and thick, knee-high grass, Steve finally stopped.
"Just through here." He said, gesturing his massive head toward a series of thick greenery blanketing a massive tree branch hanging over 50 feet overhead. Slowly, I peered my head through enough for my eyes to see through the gaps in the greenery, finding an entire camp set up in a clearing just below a 7 foot drop. Pulling back, I made sure to inform Cassi since, well, she's pretty out of the loop on the whole 'inter-species mental communication' thing.
"Hey, we got a pretty big group of folks up ahead. Looks like they have a mobile set up for camping." I explained, Cassi's eyes widening in response.
"Wait, how many?" She asked. I didn't have an answer, though Steve's uncanny scent came through once again.
"30. They're not that strong, either. They REEK of all kinds of manas, though." Steve added.
"30. And they…smell strong?" I said, turning back to Steve in confusion.
"Shit, okay. We'll have to head back, inform Korbin, or maybe we can even pinch them from the sides since they're next to a wall. If we had more ranged fighters we c-" I grabbed Cassi's shoulder, her eyes refocusing back to mine after drifting blankly to the forest.
"No. Fuck that shit. You may have always called the shots during sieges and defenses, but hunts are my playground. Leave that homework talk at the settlement for once." I instructed, seeing the overwhelming options she was hatching in real time scramble her mind.
"I, I don't know what you mean." Cassi said, stuttering nervously.
"Fucking, commit, remember? Why are you planning, they're nothing to be scared of, and they don't even know we're here. Why not let loose a li-" a gust of air blew into my cowl, creating a small wind tunnel causing me to blink. When my eyes opened, Cassi was gone, the sound of rustling foliage further south reaffirming my suspensions. Steve's towering figure started to rush by to join her when my hand extended out, grabbing his chest. Steve stopped, looking down at me puzzled.
"Let her get it started. If she needs us, we'll hop in." I said, smiling up at my serpent friend.
"Well, let's get a better view then." Steve said, swooping under me and slithering around a nearby tree. He wriggled onto a long branch, both of our heads tucked low looking over the small camp. A group of 8 were gathered around a fire, their indistinct chatting barely audible from above. Around them were two rows of tents, though most everyone appeared outside having more private conversations throughout the makeshift settlement.
"How do you think she'll do it? Offer sanction and fight their leader?" Steve snickered as we awaited Cassi's first move.
"I wouldn't be surprised if she just charged in screaming a battlecry. She's been going through it, I won't lie to you Steve." I replied, not being entirely comfortable with ragging on my friend. At least not until she was here to hear it. Steve sighed, giving a rather dismissive answer.
"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."
——————————————————————
"Oh fuck off, Paul. I saw your face, you damned near shit yourself seeing that fucking undead Gryphon." I said, not willing to catch all this shit for running away from a danger way too far away to notice me. In fairness, I barely unlocked Magnify along our mission.
"Not as badly as Sue did when that fucking winged snake showed up with that other one." Paul replied, deflecting the embarrassment elsewhere.
"Wasn't I the one who saved your ass with a bark skin spell, you just froze up like a fuckin' tree." Sue shot back.
"Hey, I think that bark skin suits you better, Paul!" Jeff added, laughing with his patented wheezing cackle after every one of his own jokes. He was older in the face but, having received Tytos's blessing gave his body a youth and exuberance I wasn't certain he'd ever known. That, and sprouted our feeble human bodies over 9 feet tall. Safe to say, he was probably the highest in spirit out of all of us, even if everyone here was on equal physical grounds.
"Ha-fucking-ha you guys. Just be grateful I found enough components for all of us to cloak out of there. The fact their turrets couldn't see us was, and don't be upset, a complete guess." Paul said, instantly enraging the lot of us.
"Are you fucking serious, Paul? You said you were sure it would work!" Cory spoke up, having been distracted from flirting with Jeneane. It was sickening if you asked me, considering Jeneane was very much married and had a kid waiting back at the settlement. Though, I suppose it's not my place to judge, and I certainly don't intend on seeing most any of these shitheads again after this blown operation.
"Yeah I know I did, I also had no other fucking options. We were lucky not to get have been burnt to fucking sod by their barrage of missiles during their Pylon defense, which by the way, no clue how ours went." Paul replied angrily.
"Don't twist this on us, we didn't vote you squad leader. Your fathers too busy dealing with real problems to have you in his ear bitching about not having enough pull. You do nothing exceptionally, except lie." Jordan said shooting up from having been sat on a log a ways away from the campfire. We'd assumed he'd fallen asleep given his posture, though he was clearly just as burning with rage as the rest of us.
"Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? I just saved you fucking life you ungrateful piece of shit." Paul shot back, pacing quickly toward Jordan.
"A nepo-baby, weren't you paying attention?" Jordan shot back, walking to meet him halfway.
"Okay come on, guys?!" She groaned disparagingly as Cory and I stepped between them.
"No come on, he wants to be the squad leader right? Come on show me why tough guy, I'm not special enough to win anyways right?" Paul said, trying to fight through my arms. Kevin rushed over, probably having heard the commotion from his tent to help me restrain Paul.
"Paul calm the fuck down, we're home-free don't start shit now." I pleaded, struggling to hold his thrashing elbows as he clutched his wand.
"Get the fuck off of me, Sam! I'll beat your ass too you sniveling little shit!" Paul screamed in my face. As much as I hate seeing two guys fight over their egos being hurt, it didn't mean I wasn't susceptible myself. My fist blasted into Paul's jaw, Kevin immediately grabbing onto me afterwards.
"What the fuck are you doing, Sam?!" Kevin yelled angrily.
"I'm sick of this fucking guy! You do your job and throw it in our face that it wasn't our responsibility to begin with, like if we beat you to it you wouldn't go crying to daddy how mean we were. Jordan's right, fuck you, Paul." I shot back, looking over Kevin's shoulder down at Paul. He wiped his bloodied nose, squinting his eyes looking past us.
"What was that?" He said, standing up.
"You're not sucker-punching me that easily, daddy's boy." I said, brushing Kevin's arm off of me.
"Shut up, I'm serious." Paul shot back.
"Hey, have you guys seen Jeneane? Wasn't she just right fucking here?" Cory said from behind. Concerned, I spun around finding most everyone searching frantically.
"She's probably in her tent guys, I can't imagine she finds all this arguing very attractive, bud." Paul said, walking past Kevin and I.
"I'll go check but I didn't see her move, man." Cory said, jogging down to her tent they shared. Honestly, I felt bad for Jeneane's guy, but it's not like we could tell him now. The funny thing was, there was absolutely no fucking way I wasn't going to snitch on her for this. I don't fuck with liars.
"I swear, he gets laid once and he's attached to her like fly on shit." I said, reaching back to pat Kevin on the chest. My shoulder strained, stretching unnaturally outward, expecting his chest to catch my fist. Turning around, Kevin was gone. I went to step forward, only to lose my footing under something heavy. My head bounced off the foliage, making it tough for me to focus for a second. Dirt flung up from under my hands and knees, scrambling back from Kevin's motionless body, his neck badly bruised blue and black. His face and chest were covered in sweat, though the rest of him was oddly dry. Finding my footing, I turned back hoping Jeneane, our healer, was found.
"Guys we need help over here!" I yelled in a panic. My eyelids fluttered seeing Paul's blooded face laying limp against a tree stump, with Jeff dangling above from a branch. He was strung up with his own tent rope by his ankle, droplets of water falling from his body into the soil. Cory's muffled yell, followed by a gutteral choking sound alerted me further into camp, sprinting along the tents. Behind each one lay our reconnaissance party in the twos and threes, some of them badly battered and bloodied while others lay peacefully on the earth floor.
"CORY!" I yelled, hoping to find someone still conscious. A sharp pain tinged in my forehead with a loud thump sending me stumbling back.
"Ow?! What the fuck, Sam?" Jeneane yelled, rubbing her head.
"Me?! Look around you." I said, pointing to our several comrades spread across the forest floor around us.
"Oh shit, oh shit I'm not ready to die!" Jeneane yelled, sprinting straight through thick bushes just outside of the clearing we set up camp.
"Jeneane, WAIT!" I yelled chasing after her. She winded aimlessly around the thick wooden giants standing by the thousands overhead, creaking and moaning in the wind as I sprinted after Jeneane.
"JENEANE, fucking STOP!" I yelled, losing track of her with every curve around the next tree. Before long, I lost all sight of her.
"JENEANE!!" I yelled, stopping to catch my breath. Looking back, our camp was nowhere to be seen in the maze of trees we'd weaved through. Of course, everyone there was fucking dying all around me. I knew it, I knew these fucking demon worshippers forcing people into their army's with infernal spirit contracts would catch up to us. How in the hells they managed to do so without even being here was something I could've never accounted for. Yet, people had their faces bashed and bruised, indicating there was certainly a physical struggle at times.
"JENEANE!!" Why the fuck did she run off? I get she has problems with commitment and all, but running like a crazy person in a random direction was a shit time to practice. A tinge of anxiety crept in, hearing only the trees whistling in the wind.
"JEANEANE!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!" A heavy thump from behind caused me to jump, firing an ice shard from my wand right behind me. Looking down, my wand fell from hand seeing Jeneane's battered face laying contorted and motionless at my feet. Seeing my last ally had been compromised, I turned back and adopted Jeneane's incredible idea to run the fuck away.
The overgrown vegetation whipped into my face with every step sprinting through the forest, the faintest cracks of branches and twigs occasionally popping from somewhere vastly different than the last.
"I'M SORRY! PLEASE, DON'T KILL ME!" I yelled over my shoulder. I ran for another solid 2 minutes before realizing the second set of breaking twigs had stopped. My palms dropped onto my knees as I fought to catch my breath and try to digest what just happened. While true, I shouldn't have hit Paul, we were having a rather pleasant last day running recon on this demon faction that's been running rampant the last few days. The Jaia giants were also spotted assisting, indicating they weren't unreasonable to mutualism. The problem is, we didn't introduce ourselves, and they more than likely won't be a passenger along the 'forgiveness' train.
There were so many of us, each completely capable of staying alive in almost every circumstance outside our walls. Yet not a single one of them were conscious. Though judging by the blood dripping down the back of my neck and pounding headache, it's entirely possible I blacked out for a while. Even still, to have taken on and defeated all of our soldiers must have taken a large group of trained warriors.
Trying to gather my senses, I looked up hoping to find my cardinal direction. The moment my head lifted to the sky, a cold wet sensation manifested at my ankle. Before I could look down, the world was turned upside followed by the crushing sensation of my spine slamming onto a large tree root on the ground.
"ARGHH, ff-Fuck!?" I grunted, my yells restrained by the severe lack of oxygen in my lungs. The impact from falling completely winded me, as well as worsened the blood leaking from the back of my head. My vision blurred trying to focus, seeing a figure step in front of the sun above me.
"P-please. Please don't k-" my words were cut off as the figure scooped their leg around my neck, rolling me around and tightening their legs clamps on my throat. My vision started tunneling, seeing only a foot wrapped under a second knee as the life squeezed out from my brain. Before I faded away, a man's voice from somewhere behind me left me questioning if my lack of air was playing tricks on me.
"There you are?! I thought you were skipping out on bringing them back. Cass, you're good I think he's o-"