“Let’s go hunting!”

They had another fifteen cycles before they needed to be back to the settlement. Coming back early would mean, to an outside observer, that they met more than they could deal with, which shouldn’t have been likely considering the strength of their party. The fact Dice had died was already strange, but explainable through an accident or Dice’s inexperience.

Karmis was strapped to Wersa’s back, little could be done other than to drag her along until they could go back to the settlement. He wanted to make this time productive, not just sitting around watching Karmis decline. He had an idea, he couldn’t just claim Karmis’ gold, but he could hunt with Wersa’s help and bring in a good supply of beastcores and beast parts. The beast parts could be put into the Storage which would keep them fresh. If they were lucky and efficient they could bring in a gold or two worth in materials, that would give him more leverage with Greer.

The most difficult obstacle was getting Karmis secured and armoured. She hadn’t been particularly helpful during the process. He needed her to live for a while yet, and the spelled armour would ensure her safety against many threats just by itself. He had asked about selling it, but Wersa had said it was made for, and tuned specifically to, Karmis, Karmis’ Path, and Karmis’ Class. Some of the materials could be reused at least, Wersa said. He had gone through Dice’s things, but found little of note. Karmis would sell Dice’s blades for him, but Dice’s leathers were tattered and worthless. All he could feel for Dice was pity.

They moved further south into areas he had never explored. This portion of the Wilds was sandwiched between a mountain range and areas less densely forested than the Wilds. He didn’t really know what lied this way, the maps were vague. Beyond the mountain range was the True Wilds and eventually the ocean. The other direction, towards the True Human Realm, was forest that eventually gave way to prairies, meadows, and then to the Human Plains. Somewhere along the way was the Human Breakwater, the wall that protected humanity from.. something? He did not know what it protected humanity from, he had only heard there was a large wall there, taller than the tallest trees in the Wilds. Why it would be called ‘Breakwater’, was a mystery to him and to anyone he had asked. There were no large bodies of water anywhere near it.

It would take, at the very least, a few rotations of heading towards the True Human Realm, to see the Breakwater Wall, so he put the thought of it away for later. Instead, they moved further towards the mountains and the True Wilds.

***

He heard the sounds of battle before he could smell it, and long before he could see it. He could hear powerful clashes of metal on metal. A battle between fighters with metal weapons was fairly rare in the Wilds. Occasionally, he would hear rumors of Adventurers clashing in the Wilds over a beast kill, or over even more petty reasons, but true conflicts were rare. Banditry was uncommon, as few could survive in the Wilds during night cycles. Either you lived in a settlement, or near one, or not at all.

Once he could hear the battle, he was at something of an impasse. He could hear well enough to know there were only a few fighters, it was wasn’t a pitched battle, but some sort of skirmish. The blows were heavy, metal rang like the toll of a church bell repeatedly. They were strong, whoever they were. Taking Ina and Wersa, and just turning around and running, would probably seem like the be the safest thing he could do, but the cutthroat nature of the Wilds often turned common sense on its head. People who immediately ran to avoid conflict in the Wilds were often assumed to be weak, very weak in fact, and they would likely to be pursued as a result. It was often safer to maintain a safe distance, even if only to pretend to be interested in taking advantage of the weakened participants of any particular conflict. He would also had to be wary of other observers.

While he considered his options, waiting a distance away from the battle, he finally got the scent of the fighters. They weren’t humans! They smelled more like beasts to him. They had weapons.. His mind took a moment to put the pieces together. Beastfolk. These were Beastfolk.

The fact these were beastfolk, armed beastfolk at that, didn’t really change the situation for him. These beastfolk would likely be more dangerous than regular beasts, but not much more. He decided to wait out the results of the battle and then maybe take a look. He had to watch out for the participants, yes, but he also had to watch out for other parties and beasts drawn to the sounds and smells of the conflict. This latter issue was perhaps the greatest danger.

His little party found a decent high branch to sit on, while they waited. Their hunting had been unremarkable up to this point. Only netting one greater beast, and no beastcores. The greater beast they had found was a long-wulf, a many legged, furred creature, that moved swiftly through the upper branches feeding on birds and small mammals.

It was something like a cross between a wolf, a weasel, and a centipede. It didn’t have the chitinous armour that most large centipedes had in the Wilds, but it had the many legs and the movement of a centipede. Its long body was sleek and furred like a wolf or a weasel, it even had a small muzzled snout. The snouted head of the beast was odd, it actually had six eyes, organized as pairs, set into what seemed like three cranial cavities forming a triangle shape with the snout being the middle of the triangle. The snout’s shape might fool someone not familiar with the beast, but, in fact, its actual mouth was much larger than it appeared. The whole front section of a long-wulf was its real head and mouth, and would peel open into three separate portions to devour prey whole. It ate oddly, less like a wolf or a centipede, and more like a snake, he supposed. It had died easy enough after Ina had dropped down from above and eviscerated it, while Wersa chopped a decent portion of its head off. It was a young greater long-wulf, probably new to its ascension. Its fangs, hidden deep into its mouth and throat, were worth silver, so he had pried those loose. Its lengthy pelt was worth something as well, even with what Ina and Wersa had done to it.

Karmis’ body had healed well enough she could left for a moment, but the movement on Wersa’s back had made her sick. She had slowed them down, but at the very least he had gotten to see how Ina and Wersa could hunt together. He was pleased, with their potential. He just needed to get through the next rotation or so, and he would be free to just hunt and be what he wanted. He could even hide the grimoire away somewhere. He would stagnate, of course. His spell casting would grow difficult, but it wouldn’t really matter because his life would be set. He could put all this behind him.

The scent of blood in the air woke him from his thoughts. There was a quite a bit of blood in the air, the battle had been messy. He called on Wersa to leave Karmis with him, and to move in slow, with Ina overhead as back-up. He moved to the rear of their procession, slowly bringing Karmis with him. He was strong enough carry her short distances. Overall, he was more worried about ambush from uninvolved parties than he was worried about the participants in the conflict in front of him.

As they drew closer, Karmis pull her sword out, to make ready. Ina was the first of them to sight the aftermath of the battle, as she crept closer to a rare clearing on the ground where the battle had taken place.

She sent over the bond, “Dem, at least three are still alive, or at least three have still beating hearts. Two of them are quite weak though.”

“Thank you, Ina.”

He could rely on Ina to position herself around whichever beastfolk was the biggest threat. He did not know what Wersa would, but he would find out. This could be a way of learning more about how Wersa dealt with dangerous situations. He needed to know more about her to make his little party work.

He heard Wersa stop a short distance away from the clearing, just head of him. He left Karmis high in a tree on a thick branch. He stabbed his blade through her robe and into the tree to keep her from leaving, and jumped down. Even in her addled state, her armour would protect her from most attacks. It was spelled defensively and would react automatically to all sorts of threats, or at least that is what Wersa had said. He moved to join Wersa, standing just behind her, peering past her, into the clearing.

What he found that was gruesome. Blood was splattered everywhere, and there were at least a few bodies lying on the ground in various states of dismemberment. What was immediately interesting to him about the bodies was that they were all the same kind of beastfolk. They were all large boar beastmen, each one a mountain of flesh, even dead and in pieces. He could even identify the sub-race they hailed from. These were Quill-Boar beastmen, each at least half a head taller than Wersa, and three or more times her weight. They had massive tusks jutting from snouted faces. Their eyes were black and beady, and were quite small compared to their overall size. He could tell they were from a Quill-Boar bloodline because on each of their backs was a forest of hair-like quills protruding outward. These quill-hair were as tough as steel and more resistant to blows than most armour due to their springy nature. They didn’t so much block blows, as they absorbed them. They were also very sharp, and provided some immediate protection against anyone who would grapple with a Quill-Boar beast. Quill-Boars, in their natural state, were much smaller than rubber rhinos, but lived usually much longer lives, and were more likely to ascend to a greater beast as a result. They were tough, fast, strong, and moved in packs, unlike the solitary rubber rhino. Few beasts could get through the quill-hair, making them nearly impossible to kill. They literally outlived potential predators.

Each of the boar beastmen had been armed, mostly with spears, but one especially large beastmen had an axe. He was still alive, though bleeding profusely from a hundred small wounds. He was propped up against a tree, breathing harshly. In addition to the axe, he was armoured crudely. Something about the beastman made him wary, wary in the same way he was around Adventurers. This beastman likely had a Class.

There were two others still living in the clearing. One was passed out, from what looked like a head wound, the other was splayed out on the ground, its breathing was irregular. The one laying on the ground looked to be on his last legs, one of his arms was missing and there was blood spilling out of him in no small amount. Only the beastman with an axe registered their presence, his head turn toward Dem’s approach.

Wersa turned to look back at him, seeking permission to do.. something. He just nodded his head, mostly out of curiosity, to see what Wersa wanted to do. There wasn’t much to gain from this particular situation, dead beastmen would have little, and so it didn’t hurt much to indulge her. She was more experienced than he was anyway, he could probably learn from her in a few ways at least. She nodded in return at him and then with a few swift steps was standing over the boar beastman who was passed out. Her sword plunged into the neck of the beast with no hesitation, and a moment later the already dying beastman got the same treatment. He didn’t really know what he was expecting her to do, but killing the beastmen still surprised him. He didn’t mourn them, exactly, they were probably already going to die from their wounds, but the casual manner Wersa had dispatched them, had disconcerted him.

Wersa then slowly walked towards the axe-wielder. This time taking her time with her eyes on the beastman every step of the way. The beastman also eyed Wersa as she took careful steps. She had deemed the beastman a threat still, despite its wounds. Ina too had chosen the axe-wielder as the central threat here and was quietly waiting in the tree above its head.

He decided he wanted to know what all this was about before the beastman died or Wersa got another urge to kill.

He spoke to Wersa, “Don’t kill that one, I want to talk to him.”

He presumed it was a male beastman, but he didn’t really know for sure. The sexual characteristics of beastmen.. varied.. greatly.. which only added to the mystique around Beast Tamers. He sighed.

He walked into the center of the clearing, cleared his throat, and spoke to the beastman.