Chapter 6: First Hunt (Part 2)

Morning came hard and fast. It came in the form of a pack of sheena. Brother Hidden Shade, the last of the nightwatch, shouted us all awake. As soon as his shouts entered my still-blurry thoughts, I heard the sound of traps and the small bells we brought going off. Snarls and growls were the response.

My hands reached for my blade-spear, which laid always beside me. Every waking moment. Every sleeping moment. I had my blade-spear with me. And had I not been mocked at by my brothers, I would have also taken it with me to bed.

By the time I stood up, I was already in the Lower Assailing Stance, blade-spear in two hands and my weapon a tad lowered as I crouched. This was the best position to fight against a sheena.

“How many, Brother Hidden Shade?” I called out, my waking grogginess already far, far away. Hunter training had become harsher by the time we hit the age of five. By then, from day to night, we trained daily. Hunter would even sometime ambush us in the middle of the night while we slept in the clearings.

“I counted twelve,” he replied. “Perhaps more. Unlikely, though. A pack of sheena is usually at the most a dozen.”

I nodded, then smiled while confirming the four-limbed shadowy figures that were moving toward us. “Almost two for each of the Brothers then, eh?”

By that time, all six of my Brothers were wide awake and alert. We had our backs to each other, each of us positioned to form a crudely shaped circle.

“Why does it have to be this early in the day?” Little Bird complained. “I just went to bed after trading nightwatch with Hidden Shade.”

None of us had time to respond to his question. By that time, the pack of sheena were already upon us. A shadowy figure leapt toward me, a mass of snarling teeth and claws. I had plenty of time to decide upon my move. Half a second was plenty of time.

I didn’t go for a lunging strike. To use that on a sheena in the midst of its leaping attack was pure folly. If my lunge missed, then I would be almost fatally injured, if not dead. And even if the lunge was a hit, the vitality of a sheena was absurd.

Even if it was stuck on the blade-spear, and the weapon was through its head, it could still move for a few seconds, rampaging out a vengeance.

I entered into Half Circle, slashing out an arc. There were various forms to Half Circle; different arcs could result in defensive measures or assaulting measures. The arc I entered into was a pure slash, almost straight toward the middle.

I put all my strength behind the blow. There was a satisfying crunch of bones and a responsive half-snarl, half-whimper.

The sheena hit the ground, hard, the left side of its body half-caved in with a deep laceration. Blood dyed the grass red.

But even then, the creature still stood up, almost unfazed. This was what made a sheena dangerous. Its vitality, its will to live.

In my many years of living, only a few creature I have met could live up to a sheena’s relentless vitality. Among these creatures were human men, the ones who had been lauded as heroes. Let me tell you, they were survivors. Their will to live was impressive.

I didn’t stop to look at the sheena. I was already moving toward it the moment I had smashed it away with a pure slash. From the corner of my eyes, I saw my Brothers entering into similar moves like the Half Circle.

Brother Big Bear was a work of artlessness. Rather, he didn’t need to put any art into his blade-spear. No, he simply grunted, putting behind all of his fearsome strength into his blade-spear. His weapon went straight through the sheena, splitting it in half. Flesh, fur, bones, vitality. None of it was an obstacle to his strength.

Brother Big Bird, on the other hand, was a work of art. He was probably the best with the blade-spear out of all of us. When the sheena jumped at him, he merely flung the creature upward further into the air with an underhanded swing.

Then he cut it right through into the ground with an overhanded swing.

Not as simple as it looks. But it works.

I didn’t have time to pay attention anymore after that. These two Brothers were the closest ones to me, so I had an easier time observing their battles from my periphery.

My blade-spear was about six feet tall, almost a whole foot taller than me. When I got within range, just short of five feet to the sheena I had wounded, I executed Hanging Moon. It was an overhanded strike that smashed into its head.

The result was a little regrettable. The explosion of blood came close to me, dying my chest red with flowers of blood.

Luckily, it was just on my chest.

The scent of blood entered my nose, and I almost growled at its taste. Let me tell you, when your sense of smell is strong enough, you can almost taste the food. Almost. Not quite close. But enough. I speak from experience.

All of us brothers were in our second stage of growing also. I was no exception. So our hunger was amplified. We were mad for both flesh and blood. Our appearances may not betray our lust for blood and flesh, but our stomachs did. So did our noses.

Then I whirled around, taking care of the other sheena in mid-leap. I had seen it coming from steps away. From the pivotal force of my whirl, I struck out at it. I came close to splitting the creature in half. It was close. There was probably just half a foot left before I could have cut the body in half.

My weapon became stuck inside the sheena, the hard flesh of its organs, muscles, and bones hindering it. I didn’t falter. Exerting some strength, I pulled it free, then I put out the lights in it eyes.

If I was honest, I did not look the beast in its eyes. For some reason, ever since my first kill—the Bigger Ronat—I had trouble looking into the eyes of the dying beasts. An enmity. A willingness to survive. To live.

Don’t get me wrong. I could have stared into its eyes while I killed. My pride as a Hunter and my Brotherly pride with the rest of the Hunters would not allow any less. But, it was still better to avoid unnecessary things.

After that second kill, there came no more growls nor snarls. Only the scent of blood remained in the air. None of it belonging to me or my Brothers.

“How boring,” said Leaping Fox. “The sheena are only worth fifteen points. And that is counting them as a pack.”

“A good morning workout, at least,” added Little Bird.

“Let’s get to work before the scent of blood attract more troublesome foes.” Brother Eagle Above Skies was as cautious as ever. “Some of the more formidable creatures in these forests would easily be able to challenge us. We also do not want to alert the Scylla.”

“Yes,” said Big Bird. “We have bigger prey to hunt.”

So we went to work then, cutting off the small triangular shaped ears of the sheena. They were made of soft bones, crunchy and tasty if one ate them. We didn’t. They were proof of our fifteen points.

Upon gathering them, I realized that Brother Ronat, the smallest and meekest of us, had killed three of the sheena. Most likely, the sheena had underestimated Brother Ronat. It wasn’t wise to judge from appearance.

We put our spoils into one of the two backpacks we had brought along. The ears did not even fill the backpack one fifth of the way.

Our breakfast, having kindly delivering themselves to us in the morn, consisted of sheena delicacies. None of the creatures who were attracted by the scent of blood bothered us. Most likely, they were either wary of us, or the Scylla had a wider range of territory than our initial estimations.

Personally, I think it was the former. My Brothers and I were also not to be judged from appearances.

Luckily, the heart of the sheena I had killed had not been damaged. My blade-spear had narrowly missed it. The raw flesh of its heart was chewy, and the heartblood was rather sour. I could taste the vitality in that sourness as it scoured down my throat.

“Heh, don’t get too excited now, Brother Wolf Under Stars,” Leaping Fox wryly commented.

I didn’t let it get to me. It was all in fun anyway. “If you want more excitement, we can eat the more…gamier…parts of the sheena,” I said with an innocent look on my face, also making sure to emphasize the “we.”

Brother Leaping Fox paled at that. He knew what I was talking about.

Little Bird chuckled at that. It was a strange chirp of a chuckle. Most likely, the sheena limb he was devouring had become stuck in his throat.

When we finished, we gathered our belongings in haste and dragged away the remaining corpses, stowing them behind a thorn bush. We were careful to avoid any of the thorns. They were, as Hunter had once articulately put them, like putting the piss of a Ronat onto your wounds. It was one of those rare days Hunter put out a joke.

“You know, Brothers,” Leaping Fox suddenly said. “I had a dream about my favorite knife last night. I miss it. It’s like longing for a lover.”

It was a trap. And Brother Little Bird instantly fell for it, like a thirsty sheena seeking out blood. “Hah, you have never even had a lover before, Brother Leaping Fox.”

“True.” Leaping Fox sighed in exaggeration. “Only you would know, Brother Little Bird. I heard you calling out for your Mina last night.” He mimicked. “Oh, Mina, Mina. I miss you so much. I long for your little touches and kisses.” He made out a fake smooch.

Brother Leaping Fox was cunning like that. He had a flair for words. And a flair for the blade-spear. He was quite speedy with it, akin to that of a Leaping Fox.

The Brothers laughed at that. I was no exception, considering that even Eagle Above Skies gave a small chuckle.

Little Bird blushed, muttering to himself for a while, most likely making plans to get back at Leaping Fox.

The two Brothers bonded well like that, I knew. They loved to poke fun at everyone, but especially each other. There was just a certain presence to them. Us Brothers would have been dreary without the two.

We retraced our path, arriving at the cave of the Scylla. Of course, we were vigilant about this. All of us separately looked for any new tracks, making sure that the Scylla had not yet left its cave.

It hadn’t.

“Forty points, Brothers,” Leaping Fox said. “After we kill it, we will have fifty-five points.”

The surroundings of the cave was a small clearing with only one large tree to the side of the cave. The opening was large, perhaps about fifteen feet by ten feet. The cave itself was covered in green and blue moss, along with various types of plants. There were even some flowers hanging vertically, not to mention horizontally.

We were cautious as we approached closer toward the opening of the cave. We stopped briefly behind a ring of tree trunks. A closer look at a target could reveal various more things than a look from a distance. Of course, while we ourselves were observing the cave, we were still aware of our surroundings.

Stilling myself and sharpening my senses, I could hear the chirps of small birds on the higher branches of the trees. There was also the buzzing of some small insects. Not particularly dangerous by their looks.

The surface of the opening of the stone cave looked somewhat strange. There were claw marks to its side, and a closer observation revealed tiny patches of moss that had been ripped off. I didn’t need to tell any of my Brothers this. They themselves, in all likely probabilities, had seen the marks.

“Think a battle took place here?” I asked. It was probably unlikely since I did not see any damage to the surroundings of the cave.

“Possibly.” Eagle Above Skies frowned. “I didn’t see any tracks of other beasts that could pose a threat nearby though.”

We thought in silence for a while more.

Hidden Shade broke it. “It most likely has a mate.” He continued. “The creatures have strange methods of mating, some of which involve gripping onto the surface of walls.”

Little Bird grinned at that. “I didn’t know you were so knowledgeable in the mating habits of beasts. It’s no wonder I couldn’t find you on some of the nights. I might have to come hear advice from you Brother in the near future.”

Eagle Above Skies waved a hand to quiet him while Leaping Fox rolled his eyes.

Hidden Shade merely continued, not bothered by his words. He, no doubt, was already used to Little Bird’s antics. “Fighting with two Scylla will be challenging.”

We nodded at that. A Scylla could easily take on a pack of sheena by itself with four limbs tied behind its back. Indeed, it would only need two limbs out of its six limbs to destroy a pack of sheena easily.

“Ronat’s piss,” Leaping Fox cursed. “And we will only get half points for the second Scylla, if there is one.”

“So, shall we take up the challenge?” Eagle Above Skies asked.

There was only one answer for that. All of us answered with the same word. Even Brother Ronat, the most silent out of all of us.

“Yes.”

Hidden Shade spoke up after that. “The female Scylla could also be in its pregnant state. Their gestation period only takes about a month, and it is a hard task. Luckily, conception is so rare or else we would have already been overrun by Scylla.”

Eagle Above Skies agreed. “That could be the reason why we did not see any other different Scylla tracks near this territory. Seems plausible.” He steadied his blade-spear. “Very well, we will split up into two groups to deal with the two beasts.”

There was no need for further instructions. Before the First Hunt had even begun, we had already decided on how to split up to deal with possible situations like this.

One group would be Little Bird, Big Bird, Leaping Fox, and Big Bear. The other group would include me, Brother Ronat, Hidden Shade, and Eagle Above Skies. Four in each group.

“If there is a pregnant female, your group will deal with it,” Eagle Above Skies said. “Whichever group finishes first will help the other group.”

There were no complaints from the members of the other group. A gestating Scylla would be ferocious. It would do anything it could to protect the young life in its womb. In fact, I believed that the male Scylla would be easier to deal with. At least then, it would be a little more predictable.

“Before we start,” Leaping Fox said, “let me answer a quick nature’s call.”

======

From behind the ring of trees, we steadily closed in on the cave, our muscles tense and our blade-spears ready. We would move at the slightest bit of provocation.

The opening of the cave, being surrounded by overhanging plants, was dark. I could barely see through it. But even if my sight was clear, the cave was deep enough that I would not see anything of note.

Brother Eagle Above Skies picked up a small stone nearby. “It’s worth a try.” He threw it inside the cave then.

The sounds of the rock bouncing resounded from inside the cave, but there was no response. “Smart beast,” he muttered. “Looks like it wants a fight on its own turf.”

It was a shame that the beast wasn’t provoked by this. The Scylla had probably sensed our presences from a distance away, and was awaiting us inside the cave. Smart was right. It was the reason why we always kept a set distance away from the cave.

“At least it will be trapped then, though we have less space to work with,” Little Bird asserted.

Brother Big Bear simply shrugged. I could see the shaking on his hands, not from fear, but from battle-lust. He was itching for a battle. And the bigger it was, the better it was. He was what was known as a Berserker, I would know later.

With that, we went inside the cave, all eight of us easily going in at the same time. But before we did, we left our two backpacks near the entrance, so that there would be less of a hindrance while we fought.

Naturally, the cave was dark. There were no shafts of light to pierce through the roof of the stone cave. It was sealed shut.

The place was dry, lacking the smell of dampness. But the air, it held the smell of blood and the decay of bodies. We went further in, and the cave became narrower. Not much, but it was noticeable.

I felt myself walking downward, as if into the depths of some hellhole. The ground became slightly uneven, and through my observations, I could see pieces of torn stones lying all around. Most likely, the Scylla had dug deep. And hard. Hard enough to tear through stone.

Then the ground evened out, and the cave, now seemingly a tunnel by its look, became wider. By now, we were deep enough into the cave that we could make out only a small radius inside the darkness, despite our night vision.

Then we felt the wind rushing, and the scraping of dirt and stone. Mostly stone.

Each and every one of the Brothers rolled over to the sides as a massive figure smashed down onto the ground, and in its wake, leaving trembles all over. The Scylla roared, piercing our ears with the might of its voice alone. Its tail whipped across, smashing into Eagle Above Skies. He had been the closest one to the beast when it had landed.

“Brother!” we cried out, as we saw his figure thrown across like a ragdoll, and as his body smashed into the wall of the tunnel, leaving a good-sized imprint.

From my rolling to dodge the beast, I had already stood up. To my sides, my Brothers had done the same likewise.

Another roar resounded throughout the cave, a slight difference, almost unnoticeable, compared to the first. It belonged to the female Scylla.

Brother Little Bird, Big Bear, Big Bird, and Leaping Fox nodded at our group. They did not hesitate for even a second before leaving the four of us alone against the male Scylla. By now, Eagle Above Skies had shook his body free and stood up, looking only a little fazed. He would have a bruise to sport soon though.

The male Scylla, perhaps seeing the four Brothers leave to go deeper into the cave—deeper toward its pregnant mate—became enraged. The beast became more frantic, wildly smashing us with its tail and clawing us with its six limbs, two of which were more flexible than the rest, almost like hands.

Brother Eagle Above Skies and Brother Hidden Shade took up the back of the beast, while Brother Ronat and I faced the front. The Scylla, not caring the cuts it took at its back, tried to gore the two of us with its six horns that were split evenly between two heads.

Its two front limbs thrashed wildly, attempting to maim at us. I dodged nimbly to the sides, where its reach was a little worse. A glance told me that the two other brothers were busy dealing with the beast’s tail. They were also making quick work of it. By now, there was only about half a stump left.

The Scylla roared once more in pain as I pivoted into Big Whirlwind, using all of the momentum to cut right into the sides of its ribcage. It’s a grisly work, cutting into the flesh of a Scylla. All that thick fur, some parts scales, and muscles were in the way.

Brother Ronat, on the other hand, was quickly dodging the swipes from the beast. He was busy keeping the attention of the beast’s two heads. He was quite daring, contrary to his appearance. Then I saw a clean thrust and pull, which caused a roar that shook the entire tunnel. I almost thought the cave would fall down onto itself.

The thrust and pull, from what I could tell, had left one of the beast’s eight eyes blinded. I even saw a spray of red and black goo dye the tip of his spear. Grisly work it was.

At the same time, I slashed into its ribcage some more, leaving a deep laceration. There were a dozen or so of those lacerations, and blood was heavily flowing out. Its middle limb kicked outward, trying to brush away the unseen annoyance.

I avoided it easily, and gouged out a chunk of part-scaled, part-furred flesh. It was bloody work, and my chest was instantly red. I was close now, very close into gouging out the beast’s heart. It was now a matter of seconds, a few more gouges and cuts.

As if sensing my killing intent, the beast stood up on its two back limbs, its height reaching to the very roof of the tunnel, close to fifteen feet high. Then the Scylla smashed down. An explosion of dust and dirt exploded outward.

I caught more than my fair share of the explosion, being so close to it. Luckily, I had moved backward just in time to not catch the full brunt of it, else it would have left me broken in many places.

Then the beast almost fell down as Brother Eagle Above Skies and Brother Hidden Shade finally cut one of its back limbs off. The impressive tail of the Scylla had also been merely reduced to a stump.

The end came quick, but slow for the beast. I kept digging at the beast’s underside, going through its ribcage, then toward its sternum. My hands were slick with blood, but my grip on the blade-spear was still firm.

It’s a nasty experience trying to dig into a beast like that. Not to mention the sickening resistance the blade-spear made against its flesh, muscles, and bones. I soldiered through all of it in silence.

The sternum was tough and wide enough to cover the entirety of its heart. It took more than three hard lunging strikes to break through it. Then I had to get through the muscles. By that time, the beast was thrashing wildly and I was hard-pressed to dodge the flailing limbs. Blood flew everywhere, showering me under its flooding rain.

A final thrust ended the fight, piercing through the thick muscle that was its heart. It took a second or two of nudging to free my spear from the muscles, all the time with the beast thrashing everywhere. Luckily, its underside was large enough that I could dodge with some space.

Then I scrambled to get out from under the beast. It’s no happy experience to have a large beast fall on top of you; furthermore, a beast that probably weighed more than a ton, all of it mostly muscles. Trust me, I speak from experience.

When the beast finally became still, there came another set of roaring from deeper within the cave. It was the other group of Brothers who were still fighting the female Scylla.

I felt a firm pat on my back. It was from Eagle Above Skies. “Looks like you took a nice blood bath, eh Brother Wolf Under Stars.” He looked toward the deeper end of the cave tunnel. “No time to rest, though. We got more work to do.”

Just like that, we moved deeper onward, leaving the still body of the Scylla. It had breathe its last, but its unblinking eyes still stared at me with enmity—at least what remained of its eyes. Brother Ronat had punctured four out of eight of the great beast’s eyes.

Deeper within the cave, we found some bones of what remained of the beasts the Scylla had eaten. Some of these bones were flung about like falling leaves as they were thrown up into the air by the rampaging Scylla. Five of its eyes had been punctured through completely, black and red goo seeping from these holes. One head had lost all four of its eyes.

“Need any help, Brother Leaping Fox?” I asked while watching him dodge another furious swipe from a paw.

“I,” he exerted, making another small puncture hole on the belly of the Scylla, “do not!” He dodged the half stub of a tail that came whipping toward him. “Need any help!”

In the front of the Scylla, Brother Big Bear wore an excited blood-smeared grin on his face as his massive blade-spear made another slash on the beast’s face. He almost looked as if he wanted to wrestle with the Scylla by himself.

As for the two other Brothers, they were busy hacking off the limbs of the Scylla, lowering its mobility. The small wounds would eventually add up, marking for a massive loss of blood.

When the beast finally died, the four Brothers did not look as if they were any worse for wear. In fact, they wore their shit-eating grins on their faces, as if they wanted a better challenge.

Eagle Above Skies only shook his head at that. “We have work to do.”

As proof of our hunt, we took the horns and tails of the Scylla, putting them inside our backpacks. When all was said and done, it was early afternoon outside the cave.

“With that, it’s seventy-five points. Only five more days and nights to go, along with about two hundred points,” Little Bird said.

We sat down outside the cave, all of us soaked in the blood of the Scylla to some extent. I was the worst out of the group. From head to toe, I was dyed red with blood.

“I think we should call you Red Wolf now.” Leaping Fox grinned.

Not caring that we were soaked in blood, we dug into the flesh of the Scylla. The blood bath had only wet our appetite. Finally, we traced out a path to the river, and cleansed off the blood of the Scylla on our bodies.

It would make tracking prey harder if we were covered in such potent blood. The beasts and animals would be able to smell us coming from miles away.

Afternoon was an easy twenty points. We had finally managed to find a nest of sky vipers. There were only fourteen of them. Easy pickings. There was not even a single sweat we worked up. We only had to throw our knives twice over and fourteen of them came rushing down in anger, each of them sporting a throwing knife on their head or body.

Our blade-spears made short work of them.

The largest of them was only fifteen feet long. It was the only one that gave us some pause. It had taken many stabs to die. It was not a peaceful death. Rather violent, I would say. Then again, that was a given.

Night fell and we set up camp.

“Good work, Brothers,” Eagle Above Skies said in his voice, ever full of patience.

“Only 205 more points to go,” I said, looking down upon my hands. They were no longer stained with blood. But somehow, I felt as if my hands, calloused from blade-spear training, were as bloody as before.

I looked up. This time, there were not many canopies blocking the moonlight. I felt my blood boiling, my senses sharpening. Strangely enough, I felt as if I was Surging.