Ch12 First Hunt

Reaching the outer gates took far longer than Ryan expected.

The glowing navigation route made getting lost nearly impossible, but it couldn't make the city smaller.

For more than two hours, the five of them followed one enormous avenue after another, descending through crowded market districts, crossing elevated walkways, and squeezing through streams of alien pedestrians who rarely bothered moving aside for humans. More than once, Ryan caught sight of a distant gate through the buildings and assumed they were almost there, only to discover another entire district stood between them and the wall.

By the time the outer fortifications finally came into full view, even Ben had stopped making jokes about the walk.

The walls were enormous.

Ryan had seen them from the plaza, but distance had hidden their true scale. Up close, the black fortifications towered hundreds of feet above the surrounding landscape, thick enough that the passage beneath them resembled a tunnel carved through a mountain.

Alien guards watched from elevated platforms.

Automated weapon systems tracked movement from recessed emplacements.

Above the gate itself, a translucent barrier shimmered faintly in the sunlight.

Ryan glanced upward.

"Okay. I understand why the monsters stay outside."

Raven followed his gaze.

"I wouldn't bet on that stopping everything on this planet."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because I enjoy watching your optimism die."

Ben snorted.

"I like her."

The five approached the outbound checkpoint.

Unlike the massive lines of recruits returning from outside, the departure lanes moved quickly. Leaving the city required no payment, exactly as the City Lord had promised.

A bored-looking guard scanned their wristbands.

Five green lights appeared.

The barrier ahead opened.

Ryan stepped through.

And the world changed.

Heat struck him first.

Not warmth.

Heat.

Dry, oppressive, immediate.

The climate-controlled comfort of the city disappeared so completely that Ryan stopped after only a few steps.

"Whoa."

Ben came through behind him.

"Oh, that's disgusting."

Jessica shielded her eyes from the glare.

"How hot is it?"

Ryan didn't need to ask.

Skynet had already reacted.

[ AMBIENT TEMPERATURE: 41.3°C ]

[ ELEVATED THERMAL STRESS DETECTED ]

[ HYDRATION RECOMMENDED ]

"Forty-one degrees," Ryan said.

Ben stared at him.

"In normal numbers?"

"That's Celsius."

"I know what Celsius is. I mean numbers that don't sound fake."

"About a hundred and six Fahrenheit."

Ben grimaced.

"See? Horrible."

Dezzy stepped through last and studied the landscape.

"The city is definitely using environmental regulation."

That much was obvious.

The wilderness beyond the fortress walls looked like two incompatible ecosystems had been forced together and somehow survived.

Cracked, sunbaked earth stretched away from the city, its surface ranging from pale brown to deep rust beneath the light of the twin suns. Yet from that arid soil grew an astonishingly dense forest.

Massive trees with smooth, pale trunks towered overhead, some wider than houses. Their branches spread into broad interlocking canopies packed with thick emerald leaves. Vines wrapped around their trunks, while clusters of waxy vegetation pushed through fissures in the dry ground.

There should not have been enough water to support any of it.

Yet the forest thrived.

The larger golden sun blazed almost directly overhead while the smaller crimson star hung lower on the horizon, staining portions of the sky a faint red.

Ryan activated Skynet.

"Local time."

[ LOCAL CYCLE: 08:47 ]

He blinked.

"Still morning."

Jessica looked at the suns.

"That's morning?"

"Apparently."

Raven stepped beneath the shade of the nearest tree.

"I'm going to hate afternoon."

Everyone followed her without argument.

The temperature beneath the canopy was still uncomfortable, but the relief from direct sunlight was immediate.

Ben pulled at the collar of his tactical uniform.

"Who designs a military uniform in dark colors and then sends people into this?"

"The same people who charge us to come back inside," Jessica said.

"Excellent point."

Dezzy crouched and pressed two fingers against the cracked soil.

"We need water."

Ben looked at her.

"We have some."

"Not enough for prolonged operations in this temperature."

Ryan checked the supply pouch attached to his belt.

They had been issued basic emergency water, but not enough to spend an entire day wandering through forty-degree heat.

"Then we don't spend all day out here."

He looked toward the forest.

"Crystals first. Water if we find a safe source. Then back to the city."

Raven nodded.

"Works for me."

Ryan looked toward Jessica.

Her sidearm remained holstered.

"Your Talent makes you our best shot."

Jessica raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I."

Ryan ignored that.

"If we all open fire every time we see something, we'll burn through ammunition for no reason. You take the opening shot."

Jessica's expression became more focused.

"If it doesn't go down?"

"Then we adapt."

Ryan looked around the squad.

"Nobody fires unless Jessica misses, the target charges, or we find something she can't put down quickly. Dezzy handles close range if it's safe. Raven keeps anything from reaching us. I'll have a barrier ready whenever we're approaching a target."

Ben raised a hand.

"And me?"

"Try not to get eaten."

Ben stared.

"Excellent leadership."

Ryan smiled.

"You've also got rear watch and storage."

"Less inspiring, but acceptable."

Dezzy nodded toward Jessica.

"Concentrating our ammunition expenditure through Deadshot is statistically efficient."

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Raven looked at Jessica.

"How much do you have?"

Jessica checked her ammunition pouches.

"Fifty-one rounds. Three magazines total."

Ben tapped his own pouch.

"Same."

"So do I," Ryan said.

Raven and Dezzy confirmed theirs.

Jessica looked around.

"That's two hundred fifty-five rounds."

"Not anymore," Ben said. "That's two hundred fifty-five opportunities to avoid getting bitten."

Ryan pointed at him.

"I like that better."

Jessica shook her head.

"If I run low, we redistribute."

"Exactly."

Ryan looked back toward the main path.

Dozens of recruit squads were already leaving the city. Some disappeared directly into the forest while others stayed on the broad dirt route leading away from the gate.

Arguments broke out over directions.

Someone fired a weapon in the distance.

Another squad immediately began yelling at them.

Ryan frowned.

"We're not following that."

Raven looked toward the east.

A low ridge of dark stone rose through the forest, separating their position from the largest concentration of recruits.

"That way."

Ryan followed her gaze.

"Why?"

"Elevation. Fewer people. Less chance of getting shot by somebody who discovered their Talent yesterday."

Ben nodded solemnly.

"She continues making excellent arguments."

Ryan smiled.

"East it is."

They left the main path.

The forest swallowed them quickly.

Within minutes, the city walls were barely visible through the vegetation.

The thick canopy shielded them from the worst of the sunlight, but it came with another problem.

Visibility.

Dense shrubs, broad leaves, twisting vines, and waist-high grasses reduced sightlines to a few dozen meters in some places. Every rustle became suspicious. Every shifting branch demanded attention.

Conversation faded naturally.

Ryan moved near the front.

Not because he believed he was the best tracker—he definitely wasn't—but because if something charged them, he wanted his barrier between it and everyone else.

Jessica walked several steps behind him with her sidearm drawn.

Dezzy watched the ground.

Raven divided her attention between the undergrowth and the branches overhead.

Ben repeatedly checked behind them.

Ryan's heartbeat gradually settled into the rhythm of the march.

For the first twenty minutes, they found nothing.

Then thirty.

Then nearly an hour.

Ben finally whispered, "I thought this place was supposed to be full of monsters."

Raven didn't turn around.

"Keep talking. I'm sure something will appreciate the invitation."

"I was just saying—"

Dezzy stopped.

Everyone froze.

Ryan turned.

Dezzy had crouched beside a narrow fissure in the earth.

She touched a shallow depression.

Three long marks had been pressed into the soil.

Claws.

Dezzy followed them toward a cluster of broken stalks.

"Recent."

Ryan lowered his voice.

"You track?"

"No."

Ben blinked.

"Then how do you know?"

Dezzy pointed.

A thick green stalk had been snapped near its base.

Moisture still glistened inside the break.

"Oh."

Dezzy looked at him.

"Observation."

Ben whispered toward Ryan.

"She's terrifying."

"I heard you," Dezzy said.

"I know."

Ryan raised a hand.

Everyone quieted.

They followed the disturbed vegetation.

Slowly.

Twenty meters.

Thirty.

Then Ben stopped.

His head turned toward a cluster of moss-covered rocks.

Crunch.

The sound was wet.

Heavy.

Another crunch followed.

Ryan felt adrenaline surge through him.

There.

Something was feeding behind the rocks.

He looked at Jessica.

She already had her weapon raised.

Ryan concentrated.

X Energy stirred within his core.

Blue particles slipped from his hand and began weaving together several feet ahead of the squad.

Not fast.

That was the problem.

One second.

The lattice spread.

Two.

The light hardened into a translucent barrier roughly large enough to protect Ryan's torso and head.

Four X Energy vanished from his reserve.

Ryan felt the loss immediately, but he maintained control.

The barrier hovered silently.

Ready.

Then they moved.

Dezzy circled slightly left.

Raven took the right.

Ben remained behind Ryan.

Jessica approached the rocks.

The creature beyond them finally came into view.

Ryan's first thought was that it looked like someone had taken a lizard, given it six legs, then armored it for war.

The beast was roughly the size of a large Earth rhinoceros, though lower to the ground and significantly longer. Thick gray scales overlapped across its body like slabs of chipped stone. Jagged ridges protruded from its spine, while six muscular legs ended in wide feet tipped with hooked claws.

Its head was blunt.

Its jaws were not.

Ryan watched it bite through a tree root thicker than his arm.

The wood snapped.

His enthusiasm dropped slightly.

"Rank?" he whispered.

Skynet responded.

[ UNKNOWN FAUNA ]

[ ESTIMATED ESOTERIC CLASSIFICATION: RANK 0 ]

[ DETAILED BIOLOGICAL DATA UNAVAILABLE ]

Of course detailed data was unavailable.

That probably cost five crystals too.

The beast lifted its head.

Its nostrils flared.

Jessica moved.

Ryan watched the change come over her.

It was subtle.

Her breathing slowed.

Her shoulders relaxed.

The barrel of her sidearm rose.

Then her Talent activated.

A faint blue-white shimmer appeared in her eyes.

Jessica's attention locked onto the creature.

Ryan had no idea what she saw.

To him, it was an armored animal.

To Jessica, perhaps the entire thing had become geometry.

Distances.

Angles.

Movement.

Weakness.

The beast turned.

Its dark eyes found them.

Jessica inhaled.

Exhaled.

Held.

X Energy flowed down her arm.

The conduits along the particle sidearm illuminated.

The beast's front legs shifted.

Jessica fired.

The crack split the forest.

Ryan flinched despite expecting it.

A streak of blue-white energy crossed the distance almost instantly.

The round struck beneath the creature's jaw where two overlapping plates separated during its turn.

The effect was violent.

The projectile punched through the seam and detonated inside.

The creature jerked.

Its six legs locked.

For one terrible second, Ryan thought it was going to charge anyway.

Then blood spilled from its mouth.

Its front legs folded.

Several tons of armored flesh crashed sideways into the dirt.

Silence returned.

Ryan stared.

Jessica kept her weapon trained on it.

Five seconds passed.

Ten.

Nothing.

Ben finally whispered, "Holy shit."

Raven lowered her hand.

"One shot."

Jessica exhaled.

The glow faded from her eyes.

"Don't celebrate yet."

Ryan moved forward cautiously.

His barrier floated with him.

They approached from behind the creature's head.

No movement.

Ryan looked at Jessica.

"Where did you hit it?"

"Gap beneath the throat."

"Could you see that normally?"

"No."

Jessica's eyes remained on the corpse.

"Deadshot highlighted it."

Ryan grinned.

"Okay."

"What?"

"Your Talent is ridiculous."

Jessica smiled despite herself.

"I told you."

Ryan dismissed his barrier.

It didn't dissolve.

Instead, he mentally released active control and left the translucent plate hovering where it was.

Still there.

Good.

They could retrieve it before moving on.

Ryan crouched beside the corpse.

"Now we find out if killing it actually made us money."

He drew his combat knife.

The others gathered around.

None of them reacted much to the blood.

That wasn't surprising.

Earth's Exclipse curriculum had included field anatomy long before Recruitment Day. Preserved Esoteric fauna had been dissected in school laboratories precisely because anyone entering military service needed to know where organs, energy structures, and common biological weaknesses were located.

Those specimens hadn't smelled like this.

That was the main difference.

Ryan grimaced as he cut between two armor plates.

"Okay. Fresh is worse."

Ben stepped back.

"Much worse."

Jessica covered her nose.

"You're the squad leader. Enjoy your responsibilities."

"That's not how leadership works."

"It is today."

Ryan drove the blade deeper.

Dark blood spilled over his gloves.

He worked through layers of dense muscle until he found what looked like the primary circulatory chamber.

Then something faintly glowing caught his attention.

"There."

He reached inside.

His fingers closed around something cool and hard.

Ryan pulled it free.

A small cloudy fragment rested in his palm.

Amber light flickered weakly within it.

Skynet reacted.

[ ESOTERIC NUCLEUS FRAGMENT DETECTED ]

[ ENERGY DENSITY: 34.1% LOW-GRADE STANDARD ]

Ben leaned closer.

"That's it?"

Ryan looked at the enormous corpse.

"Apparently."

Raven frowned.

"So three kills per crystal."

"Approximately," Dezzy said.

Jessica looked toward the forest.

"Then ten crystals for the gate means roughly thirty kills."

Silence.

Ben's face fell.

"I liked the math better before you said it out loud."

Ryan looked at the fragment.

The First Hunt objective required one complete low-grade crystal.

They weren't even halfway there.

"Fine."

He placed the fragment into a sealed utility compartment.

"We keep moving."

Ben nudged the carcass.

"What about this?"

Ryan looked at him.

"You want to carry it?"

Ben smiled.

"I have literal dimensional storage."

"Right."

Ben placed one hand against the creature.

Space distorted around his palm.

The effect spread.

For a moment, the corpse seemed to blur around the edges.

Then the entire creature vanished.

Ben stumbled.

"Whoa."

Ryan caught his arm.

"You good?"

"Yeah."

Ben blinked rapidly.

"Just felt weird."

A status display opened in front of him.

Ben shared it.

[ STATUS ]

Name: Ben Brimhug

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Cultivation Rank: Unranked

Qi Points: 0 / 360

Talent: Space Storage

Strength: 8

Constitution: 8

Dexterity: 6

Speed: 8

Mental Energy: 7 / 7

X Energy: 5 / 6

Skills: None

Unique Skills: None

Ryan frowned.

"Your maximum was six?"

"No."

Ben pointed.

"Seven."

Dezzy stepped closer.

"The storage reduced your maximum."

"Looks like it."

Ben concentrated.

The creature reappeared.

It hit the ground with a heavy thump.

His status updated.

X Energy: 3 / 7

Ben stared.

"Okay."

Ryan looked between the corpse and the numbers.

"Explain."

"Putting it inside cost two X Energy."

Ben pointed at the display.

"While something that large stays stored, one additional point of my maximum capacity gets reserved."

Dezzy nodded.

"Remove it and the reserved capacity returns."

"But the transfer cost doesn't," Ben said.

"Exactly."

Ryan looked at the corpse.

"So you just spent another two bringing it back."

Ben slowly looked at him.

"...Yes."

Jessica covered a smile.

Ben sighed.

"For science."

Raven snorted.

"Put it back."

Ben placed his palm against the creature.

"Third time's the charm."

The carcass vanished again.

Ben's status changed.

X Energy: 1 / 6

He closed the interface.

"All right. New rule. We do not repeatedly teleport dead animals for demonstrations."

"Excellent rule," Ryan said.

Dezzy considered the result.

"Large objects impose both an activation cost and a persistent capacity reservation. Your Talent will become strategically valuable, but until your X Energy pool increases, we should prioritize valuable materials."

Ben looked offended.

"You want me to throw away our first kill?"

"No."

"Good."

"I want you to avoid storing the next fourteen entire carcasses."

Ben paused.

"Also reasonable."

Ryan retrieved the barrier he'd left behind and mentally guided it back toward the group.

He looked at the fragment in his pouch.

One-third of a crystal.

They needed more.

"Formation."

Everyone moved.

This time, it happened faster.

Less hesitation.

Ryan took the forward position with his barrier floating several feet ahead.

Jessica remained just behind him.

Dezzy moved left.

Raven right.

Ben watched the rear.

Their first kill was behind them.

Now they had to do it again.

The second beast took nearly forty minutes to find.

The third took almost an hour.

That became the real challenge.

Not killing them.

Finding them.

The Rank-Zero creatures near the walls weren't especially aggressive. Most fled when they heard the squad approaching, forcing Dezzy to track disturbed vegetation while Jessica searched for movement through gaps in the foliage.

The ones they managed to corner rarely survived long.

Jessica was frighteningly efficient.

One shot through an eye.

One through a gap beneath a forelimb.

Another into the softer tissue behind the jaw.

Every time, Deadshot found something Ryan would never have noticed.

Every time, a single reinforced particle round ended the fight.

Ryan quickly understood why ammunition was so valuable.

Without Jessica, each creature might have required half a squad firing repeatedly to penetrate its armor.

With her, one round was enough.

But not every encounter went perfectly.

Their fifth target smelled them before Jessica had a clear angle.

The creature charged.

Ryan had already formed his barrier.

It slammed into the translucent plate hard enough to send a thunderous crack through the forest.

Ryan felt the impact through his Mental Energy like someone had struck the inside of his skull with a hammer.

But the barrier didn't move.

The beast did.

Its head snapped sideways from the collision.

Raven reacted immediately.

"Move!"

She thrust out both hands.

X Energy erupted.

The air distorted.

A kinetic blast struck the creature broadside and hurled several hundred pounds of armored flesh off its feet.

It crashed into a tree.

Dezzy was already moving.

Her legs changed visibly.

Muscles tightened.

Her acceleration nearly doubled.

She crossed the distance before the beast could recover, planted one boot against its neck, and drove her combat knife through the exposed seam Jessica had been trying to target.

Once.

Twice.

The creature stopped moving.

Everyone stared.

Dezzy pulled the blade free.

Blood ran down her glove.

"What?"

Ben pointed at her.

"You could do that the whole time?"

"I explained my Talent."

"You said Body Control. You didn't say turn into a missile."

"The description was sufficient."

Ryan started laughing.

Not because the fight had been funny.

Because it had worked.

His barrier.

Raven's Push.

Dezzy's close-range power.

They had reacted without anyone needing to explain what to do.

Jessica approached.

"Everyone okay?"

Ryan checked himself.

"Yeah."

Raven rolled one shoulder.

"Fine."

Dezzy wiped her blade clean.

"Uninjured."

Ben raised both hands.

"I contributed emotionally."

Jessica smiled.

"Important role."

They harvested the beast.

Then continued.

Hours passed beneath the alien canopy.

The twin suns climbed.

Even beneath the trees, the temperature rose steadily.

They rationed water.

They rested when necessary.

They became quieter.

More efficient.

The novelty of killing wore off quickly.

By the eighth beast, nobody celebrated.

By the tenth, Ryan could locate the nucleus chamber without hesitation.

By the twelfth, they had developed a rhythm.

Track.

Approach.

Barrier.

Identify.

Jessica fires.

Confirm the kill.

Harvest.

Move.

They didn't win because they were powerful.

Ryan understood that.

They were hunting the weakest creatures in the safest region of a Class-Three world, close enough to the city that patrols regularly culled stronger predators.

And Jessica's Talent gave them an enormous advantage against armored animals with predictable anatomy.

That didn't mean the wilderness was easy.

It meant they had found one small corner of it where they could survive.

For now.

Six hours after entering the forest, their fifteenth kill fell.

Jessica's shot punched through the creature's eye.

The beast collapsed almost instantly.

Ryan checked her ammunition.

"How many?"

Jessica ejected the magazine.

"Thirty-six rounds left."

Fifteen shots.

Fifteen kills.

Ryan shook his head.

"You're disgusting."

Jessica looked at him.

"Compliment?"

"Absolutely."

They harvested the final nucleus.

Ryan held the fragment beside the others.

Skynet immediately recognized the accumulated energy.

Three fragments dissolved into amber light.

The energy condensed.

A complete crystal formed.

Then another.

And another.

By the time they finished combining everything, five low-grade X Energy crystals hovered briefly in Ryan's interface before being distributed.

A chime sounded.

[ MANDATORY DIRECTIVE: FIRST HUNT ]

[ OBJECTIVE COMPLETE ]

Ryan smiled.

Then another notification appeared.

[ COMPLETION REWARD: 5 LOW-GRADE X ENERGY CRYSTALS ]

[ REWARD DEPOSITED ]

Jessica's interface chimed.

Then Raven's.

Dezzy's.

Ben's.

Ryan blinked.

"Wait."

He opened his crystal balance.

[ LOW-GRADE X ENERGY CRYSTALS: 6 ]

Jessica looked at hers.

"Six."

Raven nodded.

"Same."

Ben's face slowly brightened.

"Thirty."

Ryan looked at him.

"What?"

"We have thirty crystals."

The realization spread through the group.

Each of them had received one crystal toward completing the objective through the shared squad harvest, plus five as the reward.

Six each.

Thirty total.

Their first day outside the walls had earned enough to pay the ten-crystal combined gate toll.

Enough to return.

Enough to eat.

Enough to begin making choices instead of simply surviving the next hour.

Ryan felt a rush of relief.

"That's it."

Jessica looked toward the sky.

The golden sun had shifted noticeably westward, while the crimson star burned brighter through the haze.

"We go back."

Nobody argued.

Ryan checked the local time.

They had spent far longer outside than he'd intended.

And the walk through the city alone had taken more than two hours.

"Same formation," he said. "No detours. We get inside before dark."

Ben patted his side.

"I've also got several hundred kilos of angry lizard in another dimension."

"One angry lizard," Dezzy corrected.

"Formerly angry."

Raven looked toward the trees.

"Can we move?"

Ryan nodded.

They turned back.

For the first time since leaving the city, Ryan allowed himself to feel proud.

They had done it.

Five newly Awakened recruits.

One day of experience between them.

Fifteen kills.

No injuries.

Thirty crystals.

Not bad.

Then something changed.

Ryan stopped.

Jessica nearly walked into him.

"What?"

Ryan listened.

The forest had gone quiet.

Not the ordinary quiet they'd grown used to between encounters.

This was different.

No rustling in the canopy.

No distant animal calls.

Nothing.

Raven noticed it too.

Her hand rose.

Dezzy slowly turned.

Ben's smile disappeared.

Ryan felt the hairs on his arms lift.

Far behind them, somewhere deeper in the forest, something cracked.

Not a branch.

A tree.

The sound rolled through the woods like distant thunder.

Another followed.

Closer.

Ryan stared between the pale trunks.

He couldn't see anything.

Jessica raised her sidearm.

"Ryan..."

A low vibration passed through the ground beneath their boots.

Once.

Then again.

Footsteps.

Something was moving through the forest.

Something heavy enough that they could feel it before they could see it.

Ryan's pride evaporated.

He looked at the five glowing crystal balances in his interface.

Then toward the distant direction of the city walls.

"Move."

Nobody argued.

They started toward the city.

Behind them, another tree broke.