Cutlass Sharpened

by H. Lee Morgan, Jr

  “A Beast I must have. I’m starved for it. It’s a hunger I haven’t to compare with. Its drawing me.”

  “Calm yourself, Oliver.” Sparky landed and filled his entire vision with his bright green head. “Do as I taught when you get overwhelmed. You are making little sense to them.”

  The caped man in brown and black closed his eyes and took slow, deep breaths and let them out slowly. When Sparky taught etiquette he also taught how to control anger and uncertainty with simple meditation. No one spoke as he did this, nor made signals in fear some vital clue would be missed. At last he opened his eyes to tell the Drake “The scent I found is less than a day old this time. When we initially left the ship I smelled it then, but it was weeks old. Whatever it is, I must hunt it down right now. Its taking everything to stand here and talk… and I must go alone.”

  “No, Brother. Not…” Sparky lifted a deadly claw to Elder Javelin.

  “The scent is weak to me. Are you certain it calls? Is it wounded?”

  Oliver sniffed the air deeply and moved around the crops and came up close to the trees and licked the bark. No one stopped him, so captivated as he went on tracking as an animal would rather than as a human.

  Each person saw a predator at work.

  A half hour later he said “You’ve been going about it all wrong. Instead of hunting the creature, you should scent for the lion’s blood if you can’t track it.”

  Bell loped forward and scented and licked near where he did on the tree to bark “Re’s rrright. Rood is raint, rut there. Reast is like Ralamander and not at rame time.”

  Elder Scythe came forward and asked in complete seriousness “Brother, you do not know these lands and they are deadly. I cannot just let you go without a Second to watch over in event of injury. It’s why we have companions.”

  “I’m not asking, Elder. I’m telling you I’m leaving to sate my gnawing hunger. It’s got more than a half day on me and standing here talking won’t help me get it. If all the fruit in the area is gone and you don’t have a spare supply at the village to keep it close, it’s leaving the area and none of you can keep up with me on foot.”

  Scythe’s jaw muscle twitched as he could not dispute such a fact after seeing it personally in the trials of strength and speed earlier. “Alright.”

  “No. He cannot…” The youthful female elder stopped as Scythe held up his hand.

  “But, we need to give you a monitor to see what you do. Your armor doesn’t have cameras like ours does. It’s mandatory. If you are slain none will know how you fell so the same mistake isn’t made again.”

  Oliver came forward and took a close look on the right shoulder where at least one micro-camera was imbedded in the man’s shoulder. “Hold still.” He warned and Scythe did as Oliver’s right hand came forward and a tendril enveloped the camera and saturated deep in the airtight compartment that found a crystal storage device that recorded during times of great activity and was powered by the most miniscule amount of psionic energy the body manufactures naturally. The technology came alive within Oliver’s mind and could be copied and enhanced.

  The tendril came away and speared itself into the ground to search for the natural ingredients found everywhere. No need for mining when a multi-tool can gather what it needs. A pea sizes bulge was sucked up like a straw before being remade at the atomic level into a camera more robust, smaller and more powerful than the original that was scanned. It was then integrated into the malleable armor and a tiny bulge appeared over his right shoulder. Oliver could sense the camera working through the portable manufacturer upon his body to say “Pull up your data screen.”

  Scythe did and gasped “By the stars!”

  “What is it?” someone said.

  “He’s transmitting images like our own recorders, straight to my relay.” With the screen still over his left eye he said “Go with my blessing, Brother. Hunt relentlessly.”

  “I shall feast well.” He replied to the Hunter’s code of honor.

  With that Oliver let go and allowed his hunting instincts to guide. His mask encased his entire head before everyone lost sight of him. He cut through the jungle in pursuit of what drew him like nectar to a bee. It was a call he could no longer deny and nothing would stop him.

  Scythe stared dumbfounded as he watched Oliver tearing across his lands he’d known for more than two centuries. His speed was one thing, to watch trees blur on screen and not crash headlong was another issue. As he and others watched on he was contacted. “Elder, I’ve finished my report on the remains. It was a Beast as few animals exist which can cut a lion completely in half with one bite. I’ve scraped cell from the bone to discover the Beast is a quarantined S-Rank Fire Wyrm that is not registered on this planet. I repeat, get the hell out of there. You are unprepared to face a Fire Wyrm. Psionic class nine Hunters only. Pull back. Pull back now!”

  “Er… Ms. Dorgen.” Scythe began.

  “Oh, why do I get the feeling Oliver is involved?”

  “Your instincts are honed…”

  “Don’t bother explaining. Sparky just told me.” Renee ran a hand over her face as Scythe’s gaze turned to the Drake still with them. “Whatever. I’m initiating quarantine procedure till the Wyrm is killed. You better also send for extra Hunters incase Oliver bites off more than he can chew. It’s too late to track him down now so don’t bother. The jungle is too thick and he’s way too damn fast. Worry about yourselves if the Beast laid a false track and is still in the area. Oliver’s olfactory receptors are good, but not infallible. I’m ordering you to get your asses back to the village pronto! I’ve already convinced Elder Pilum to permit the release of drones to aid in the search. This is a priority command, Elder.”

  “We’re on our way. Send one in our direction.” She promised it was already done as he turned to the unaware group. “We return to the village. No breaks. Weapons at the ready and initiate battle mode formation.” Metallic plates in the collars transformed into a full helmet as weapons were out and cackling. Companions ran in the safe center as the armored humans set up a barrier perimeter and ran back at a faster pace.

  Late afternoon showers proved to be a blessing and problem. Blessing as it cooled Oliver’s body and problem as it washed and diluted the scent. But it was eventually picked up. The hunger would not be denied. Oliver would not leave Zerika without it or him becoming the prey.

  But even hunting had limits and the body needed rest. Oliver chose to do as before and sleep in a tree, but contacted Renee first. As expected she was on the warpath telling him how stupid he was, but didn’t once tell him to get his sorry ass back to the village. She knew he wouldn’t let this go and didn’t bother. Renee knew she found someone more stubborn than she could be at times.

  After an hour of yelling and him not apologizing she decided to give lessons as promised. They were similar to Scythe’s, but she was more vocal, explaining how synaptic responses could be willed or given. Pain though was how she was taught. Pain ignited the entire brain into ready response to defend itself. It was a proven fact pain made the whole brain feel and react equally. So Oliver used the sharp Salamander spine around his neck to stab the backside of his hand enough to draw blood and visualize the sensation he was given the night before.

  No results were made other than multiple puncture marks on his hands.

  As soon as sleep recuperated the body’s functions Oliver was back on the prowl. The Fire Wyrm Renee warned him all about was no slow Beast and didn’t go in a straight line, but a pattern led him further and further northeast.

  Day after day passed in the difficult pursuit, as if the Wyrm knew it was being hunted, but such was not the case. Rain fell off and on and ate up more time in recapturing the scent. It did help to find fresh drinking water, but streams and stagnant pools that didn’t smell right were not drank from.

  Each night though he found Renee’s voice the motivation to keep advancing. She no longer was spiteful as that first night’s telling off. She merely wanted updat
es and to train in abilities that had yet to show promise. In this, she was not surprised. Sometimes she’d pause to take care of an issue and pick up again. And each night he’d sleep in a tree further and further away from the one he desired.

  Often, remains of a dead animal or two would be left, helping to keep track.

  In the fierce tracking Oliver passed what looked like ancient ruins, but could not be sure with nature moving on and retaking what belonged to it. Whatever draw it had to his curious nature, Oliver’s prey took priority. Sometimes he’d even see speeding orbs like the medical scanner cross the sky. The drones were working tirelessly, many going ahead of him as Renee put one in front of him and said she found him and would be his eyes to inform if his nose couldn’t indicate properly.

  Twenty two days and one village compound later, after crashing into Zerika, Oliver caught the freshest scent yet. The village was prepared for his arrival and gave him the basic needs of a shower and full night’s sleep. He made it clear he was going alone, but experienced Hunters had been called who had decades hunting A an S-Rank Beasts. Only the full assembly of Elders backed him up, wanting to see how he’d deal. If Oliver was killed, a Hunter squad would be sent promptly to finish it off with maximum force.

  The Fire Wyrm had indeed been hunting for Inferno Fruit. The volatile juices gave it its name.

  Oliver stalked through the night, under thick clouds that blocked much of the moonlight cast by the three orbiting moons of the jungle planet. It was too dark for any human to see without aid, but to Oliver the forest was bright, but colored in dark blues and grays. Already his mask was on, crawling under a fallen tree. He made not a sound, going to the packed plantation filled with fruit. The close scent had his body going hot like imagining Renee naked. He kept swallowing copious amounts of saliva as its smell made him so hungry and he hadn’t eaten anything since the Piranha and three brains from Moles. He was starving physically as well as to put an end to the game of chase.

  He paused, hearing something up ahead. In his ear he heard Renee say “Two hundred twelve meters. Hold still, it’s looking your way.”

  He said “Shut up, Red. Nag me later.”

  “Oh you’re going to regret that.” She vowed with certainty. “Still. Do me a favor. If you get killed, come back to me so I can kill you again.” The line died.

  He moved again as a very soft crunching sound resumed. The snap of limbs told of fruit being pulled from the hanging clusters.

  Oliver stood and peeked around the side of a tree.

  Fire Worms were odd serpents. They had a long body, but down either length were hundreds of fins that also served as wings to let it fly. Below its narrow jaw were a set of grabbing mandibles. Its why there was no tracks. Its ability to fly didn’t leave tracks on the ground. In fact it covers its own tracks and all others with rapid wing beats. It’s coloring was black as the night it hunted in. From snout to the tip of its tail that wound around the tree was around ten to eleven meters in length. Large nocturnal eyes were busily focused on yanking fruit to sate it’s insatiable hunger. When it struggled and rustled the leafy branches he moved another tree closer, stalking in its blind spot with the cutlass out and hidden behind his flowing cape to conceal its sparkling light.

  Distance closed one tree at a time.

  Suddenly at a hundred meters Oliver must have realized the Fire Warm was sensitive to vibrations. They traveled from boot, to the ground, though roots, up the trunk and into the coiled Beast.

  It abruptly let go and snaked its head Oliver’s way and flicked a long, forked, Fire Fruit glowing tongue out to taste the air. It opened its maw to show it was also illuminated, but half meter long fangs dropped down as it hissed. The sound was impossibly loud and too late did Oliver dodge as a wall of sound destroyed the tree he behind. Oliver was thrown like a ragdoll. If not for the concussive sound capable of finishing prey off, the following wall of fire would do the trick.

  Night turned to day as Oliver yelled in pain, crashing into the trunk of a tree and was deflected aside. Fire followed him and before he could move, the hot liquid spray covered his entire body. His armor again changed, turning to a shimmering silver, reflecting all the radiating heat from his body.

  Yet it did not cover everything as Oliver reached down and felt the cause of the pain. A jagged piece of wooden shrapnel speared through his armor in more than one place. Sap in the wood mixed with blood and the fire outside did not compare to the inside. The largest spike was buried deep in his abdomen. He jerked it out first and his suit closed over the wound. It did so for the remaining pieces too.

  Oliver fought not to lose consciousness and found his sword ready as the Fire Wyrm’s once black body glowing like a Drake, began gliding over to have more prey. Oliver didn’t need to pretend to be unable to move, that was a certainty with sap being pumped throughout the entire bloodstream.

  Unable to give up, Oliver waited till it got up close and personal before rolling on his back in a last ditch effort. He swiped the cutlass and it cut the Wyrm’s upper skull away as it opened its maw to show off razor sharp teeth and fangs.

  He heard Renee screaming frantically in his ear, but could not make anything out. The pain was too much.

  Laying in a bed of fire inches away from a worthy adversary reignited hunger over pain and he got up with massive effort, but he ripped the Wyrm’s brain out and began eating as if his life depended on it.

  A strange feeling, more stronger than any other Beasts’ very essence, flowed into Oliver’s body. The more eaten, the stronger the feeling got. He absorbed it willingly, gladly. It infused, rebuilt and fortified some profound need that could not be explained. His vambrace condensed the body like before as he needed the lavender’s bloody essence dripping hotly between gloved fingers. He left no pieces of the soft delicacy. He even licked his fingers, moaning in pleasure.

  To the side, the shrunken prey was condensed, leaving behind hundreds of liters of consumed Inferno Fruit. Still sitting in fire, he popped the nutritious morsel in his mouth and swallowed the bean size carcass whole.

  In just a few seconds he felt less burning coursing through his body, enough to stand, sheathed the blade and cleaned the armor of all gore.

  Just as he was stepping out of the fire there came a humming from overhead. It was a standard shuttle, one he saw back at the other village from another Hunter called in to deal with the Fire Wyrm. Little wind was generated by the thrusters as it landed and out jumped a medic. The large man had his gun at the ready and yelled “Don’t Move!” Oliver stopped and the man pushed the injector in his sore arm. It made a click and shot a liquid in his arm. The hot pain from the sap cooled quicker. The man said “That will neutralize the sap. Now get inside for surgery. You’ll have imbedded splinters.”

  Oliver followed the man to the round, metal shuttle with landing gear legs. They went inside and the man pressed buttons in the wall. The door shut behind Oliver as the medic in a standard white flight suit said “You know what to do.” to the pilot who took off immediately. There was no sensation of moving. The man had Oliver lay on the bed that unrolled from the wall. He willed his armor completely off as asked and laid down.

  The wounds looked worse without his armor sealing them and adding pressure. Open, they were an angry red that bled. The medic said “Renee Dorgen told me she has yet given you nanites and to not result to barbaric surgery, I need your permission to administer an above average loading dose of them. YAAA!!!” he screamed as the vambrace snatched his injector like it had Renee’s once before, absorbed them, figured their purpose, refined, enhanced and introduced the nanites not just in one place. It stabbed dozens of places for rapid spreading. Most went directly in the deepest wounds.

  “WHAT HAPPENED?!” yelled the Hunter pilot.

  “Don’t worry.” The medic said much more calmly as he watched in awe as splinters started being expelled at a rate he had never seen before. The raw, gaping wounds seemed alive beneath, but with a narrow device he vacuum sucked
each and every shard from all over. To his further amazement the nanites clotted the wounds so it bled no more and the angry red tissues started turning healthy pink before his clinical eyes. “I was warned about you. Now I see why. I’m going to add a sealant to further heal.”

  By the time a clear solution coated the wounds the medic noticed Oliver was too tired to stay awake so passed out.

  Little did anyone know the Fire Wyrm’s essence was still fortifying Oliver. He merely rested to assimilate. It was the first rule of the food chain. One lives, one dies. The dead feeds the victor, becoming more powerful as one than either had separately.

  The shuttle’s flight did not return to the other village, but the one holding a full elder council. Oliver awoke a little over an hour later sore all over, but strangely better than ever before. The weirdest conflicting sensation to date. His chest, arms and one thigh wound stung like crazy, but he could move. He reapplied his clothes, leaving his head uncovered as his excellent night vision picked up a huge difference around the village.

  Foremost floated the repaired Dorgenox. Mighty and magnificent. After the violent crash, it looked whole and undamaged as first seen in space. Someone probably ran it through a lake to clean off the debris as no mud clung to the outer hull. It hovered over the massive canyon with other, much smaller and varied FTL capable ships. Before, there were only one or two emergency shuttles, but it was clear why so many ships hovered around the cliff dock. None though looked like a sailboat. Others were either made of gem or metal, had an aerodynamically sleek design and probably had nifty and nasty tricks to stay alive.

  A lit landing pad was the beacon the pilot aimed for. Beside it was a rather formidable group if Oliver ever seen one. Three though stood aside from the main group. It was clearly Renee, Sparky and Rose.

  Darkness pushed further away, glinting the landing lights off the hull of the shuttle. As Oliver was about to disembark the male medic handed him a large cylinder filled completely with a reddish-orange clear liquid that was really thick. “You didn’t come all this way to forget about processed Booster Oil did you?”