Hunting

We waited quietly in the branches of a tree, looking down as a deer heard slowly moved below us. They were grassing; we had used shadow steps to get up a tree in their path without them noticing. Our goal was a mighty looking buck that was leading the heard.

The reason was that his horns could be sold to make medicinal products and his hoves could be sold because of the large amount of titanium that was present within them. Once he stood under our branch, we made our move.

I dropped down with my blade shinning gently with a light blue; I landed plunging it between his head and shoulder blades. But true to the creature's strength it didn't immediately drop dead but reared frantically. Callise had me backed up by throwing a grenade into the heard designed to scare the others off. Then launched throwing knives into the buck.

Mystic knives technique was special because it compressed a large amount of internal energy into the tip of the knife. Once this buried itself in something, it would explode. The blades embedded themselves in the hind of the buck showering me with gore and blood. The buck was now bleeding heavily, and its strength finally started to fade. I lent round to the front of its throat and wrenched my blade through its flesh-ripping open a huge gash in the throat.

Now starved of oxygen and bleeding out, it staggered and finally fell to the ground. We pounced on it quickly afterwards it fell and started dismantling it for its parts. Once done, we headed back to the city. The hunt took us around two hours. We headed to the trade centre and the butcher. He took the body from us, and we headed to the trade centre to sell the hooves and horns. With this short trip, we had earnt 1200, which was around tripled my daily wage. And we were planning to go back out this evening. Of course, the payment was divided between us.

We parted ways after that and I went back to the inn. It was called The silver fox by the way.

"Heya George, back from the hunt already. Was it good." Boss greeted me as I walked in. It was a little past 10 am, and we were planning to go back out at 4 pm. So I decided to earn my stay.

I dropped into the back room as I started to get changed. "yeah it was a decent hunt, we brought in a crystal antlered deer. But he really didn't want to go down." He still minded the bar as we spoke, but the door didn't muffle our voices.

"looks like those late-night training sessions worked ey." He held a hint of surprise in his voice, but I didn't mind it. But I was confused about how he knew. I hadn't gone out in training gear.

"How did you know." I walked out from the back room and was ready to get started.

"Common, you didn't dress for training, but you would always come back looking beaten and bruised but very satisfied. It was quite obvious, but easy to make the wrong assumption, I guess." He gave a funny smile. My hand twitched.

"Uhh just help me tie up the back." I pointed to the back of the apron and he helped me out. "My partner and I just have some skills that complement each other."

"Oh, what skills prey tell." He sounded genuinely curious, but I just gave him a wry smile.

"Sorry Boss, trade secret." With that, I started getting to work laying tables and taking orders. It felt nice to come back into this routine. It was quite unlike the predatory stress I had felt outside the wall. It was relaxed. Knowone was going to die if I screwed up. This wasn't effective in the amount of pay, but I knew myself well enough. If I tried to spend all day hunting, I would end up dead at the moment. One day though.

It was around three now, so I decided to get ready again. I change in an ally around the corner before going online and check out the emergency board. There was still a large price for the deer as the crystals were mainly used to power heating in buildings and winter was approaching. The other was rodent extermination. The rats would become very desperate in these months to secure food for the winter, so the job was very common.

I signed up for the two-person job before heading to the hunter shop.

I ordered ten grenades as well as two Ar-15 with five spare magazines each. The problem with the rats didn't come with their ability but the number. It wasn't as bad as an ant colony, but rats could end up in the 200 hundred range, and with each of them being about the hight of your knee, they would be hard to deal without ammunition.

Gun in this world had limited use. The example being the buck earlier, even if it took the bullets directly, I wouldn't be able to down it with a magazine. But for smaller creatures that rely on the number rather than defence, it would end up being a blood bath.

After getting the weapons and putting down a deposit. I headed back to the gate. I took a seat near the entrance, pulled out a throwing knife and waited. I still had twenty minutes. I was testing the knife using Honed edge. It could envelop the blade in thin blue energy that would prevent friction while cutting, and create a razor-sharp edge. Using the blade, I picked up a stone, slowly carving into it.

The practice helped me build a stronger aura than didn't fluctuate creating clean cuts — the stone started to take shape just as callise arrived.

"Hey George, you ready." I didn't like to speak much, so I just nodded, handing him one of the AR-15 and five mags. "You saw the rat notice I take it." A nod and a smile. "It should be hell, but safe." Let's get going.

"Hey, collapse the tunnel and retreat." The grenade was thrown deep into the tunnel as the rats continued to pile over each other. Blood poured out from a mountain of corpses as seeping into the ground. The thunk and bang heard every time the trigger cocked back. My head was ringing as the blessed sound of an explosion reached my ears. The tunnel collapsed as a mountain of durt rushed towards us. We let out a breather as we cut the few rodents that hadn't been crushed.

I spoke in a breathy voice. "We have fifteen minutes before they find another way around." I had emptied two magazines and had finished around 60 rats before the tunnel became unworkable due to the pile-up. I Took out some water as we started to move back to the next fork in the road.

We hung some grenades in the tunnel so that when it becomes unworkable, the tunnel would completely collapse. The rumbling and scratching could already be heard in the distance. "Fuck, This shits hard." Callise would complain whenever the gunfire stopped so far. "Their Back get, over here." I turned a face the tunnel gun cocked as I retreated to him. Finally, the rats appeared. Black matted fur covered them as if they had been wash with tar. Yellow rotting claws and teeth gleamed in the dark.

A familiar sound greeted my ears as we began to fire. The rat exploded as yellow puss and blood seeped out, but that didn't anything as they rushed towards us. Bodies were piling up every second. 5 dead, 10..15.. clicked and my hards blurred, the empty cartridge falling to the ground as a new one took its place. Trigger pulled back before the fire began again. 20..25..30..35.

"Its time."Granade out..Pin.. I pulled hard as I hurled it as hard as I could. The explosion rang out just as a huge rat ran out of the dust. "Shit, its an elite. Move-in for close combat ill cover you." I dropped the gun, pulling out my sword as I sprinted forward to meet it.

Once we neared each other It pulled back on it hin legs and swung the rotten yellow claws at me. I dropped lower, hoping to finish this fast. But to my surprise, it moved fast swinging its whole body around. The whip-like tail came out. The hind may have been able to stop Bullets, but It didn't have the defences necessary to stop my blade from cleaving of its tail. In pain, it swung the claws at me, but I took a light step back. It revealed its flank with the attack and I buried a throwing knife in its side. The rat exploded, sending pus and blood flying: I and the walls where coated.

I wiped the fluid from my Visser and looked around the other had been dealt with.

"We got to go; they'll find another route soon." Still breathless we moved off. We started to trudge through the tunnels again. At this point, we had killed around 140 rats — 90 from gunning them down and around 50 from the collapsing tunnels.

I picked up my gun, and we trotted to the last point of defence. We had set up this place earlier in case we need to make a quick escape. I took a second to drink some water. The scratching could be heard, but it was still faint. I slumped to the ground and reloaded my Gun. It was more mental exhaustion than physical, but it was still taking a toll. It was finally time as soon as the elites were pasted the grenade we would detonate and kill of the rest of the colony.

We took aim. Fired. The rain of bullets passed into the hoard as more screeches join the racket as the dropped, the elites hadn't shown yet and the bodies we already beginning to pile up. Then a deep raw sounded, and the fice of them charged out of the darkness. Immediately gunfire stopped as two grenades flew towards the hoard. A thunderous boom vibrated the chamber as the cave bulge outwards by force before collapsing. Completely decimating the tunnel system.

The sun started to peak, threw the dust, and the elites continued to run towards us. I took out some throwing knives and hurled them. Once rat dodges the knives while the two others tried to parry them with their claws. The blade made contact, and a light flashed as there piercing screeches could be heard the light cleared to show the rate had wholes were blown in their chest and both their arms Ripped off by the blast. They screamed as they collapsed to the ground. The other three where here, two jumped at me while the one that dodged went after callise.

One was slightly faster than the other, so I slipped past it, drawing a throwing knife in my left hand across its side. The speed of the rat let the knife tear through it as the second lept straight at me. Aiming for the chest, so I moved and pivoted on my foot, bringing my sword down and in a swift movement. The blade pierced its skull before pinning its head to the ground just before me.

The other rat was whimpering behind me before I heard the sound of tearing through flesh and then silence.

"Thanks." It was callise that had cut of its head. He dropped to the ground exhausted, but the atmosphere and sense of victory would let me sit down. I wanted to win again, I wanted to put my life on the line and come out victorious. Blood started to pump fast around my body. But my mind soon settled down the urge; I had always had that erge, but it wouldn't control me. I took a few breaths before speaking "let's get out of here."

It took around an hour to get back. But when we collected the reward, it was all worth it.

"Tar rats 200 colony scale. You'll receive 3000 draks in three days once the request has been confirmed." The shrewd woman didn't look at us in quite as much disdain as she had in the morning. "you'll receive a thousand now and the two thousand later once the request has been confirmed. If you try to leave before the request is confirmed, a bounty of 5000 will be placed on your head. Understood."

"Yes mamm." Callise saluted and walked off clearly taking the piss. I just nodded before heading back to the inn it was around 8 in the evening, and I just wanted to sleep.