Hunter's Choice

by C E Keene

  "Because I sided with you."

  The Pruvari nodded, seeming visibly uncomfortable with this whole conversation. "Yeah."

  Arheis decided not to push anymore, but it gave him enough insight to think he was definitely on the right track. The way Zindar’s own people had treated him still weighed heavily. It made Arheis want to march down there and demand they listen to everything he had accomplished.

  But he knew that wouldn't help. Worse, it'd likely just embarrass his friend. So he kept those thoughts to himself and remained silent until they reached Crestwind Lake.

  He was afflicted by the stench before they even got close. Something acrid rose through the air, so sharp it stung Arheis' eyes. The sickly sweet smell of death followed soon after, and he and Zindar both had to cover their faces as the stench became unbearable.

  The closer they got, the more it strangled the senses. Zindar gagged, coming close to dry heaving. He held up a hand, imploring Arheis to wait as he got hold of himself.

  "I'm okay," he rasped, immediately covering his nose and mouth again.

  Arheis didn't patronize him by asking if he wanted to turn back. They likely shouldn't have even been on this hunt, but Zindar was obviously determined. So they kept on.

  When the lake finally came into view, it didn't even look like a body of water. It was pure sludge, as if someone had been dumping chemical waste into it for decades. Bubbles rose to the surface and popped, spitting poison onto the banks. Fish decayed belly up, with a few unfortunate critters dead nearby, too.

  "How could one creature do all this?" Zindar asked, squinting as moisture pooled in his eyes.

  Arheis shook his head, afraid to know the answer to that. This bounty had a small reward and a relatively low quest level. It shouldn't be that difficult. But he was beginning to have second thoughts about not asking Mira to come along.

  "Let's try and get the jump on it if we can," he said, keeping his voice quiet.

  Part of him expected to see the beast standing proudly over its handiwork, but it wasn't anywhere near the lake. They canvassed the area, looking for signs of its presence, the first of which was a rotting deer carcass that was the same color as the lake.

  > Discovered: Half-eaten Carcass

  Because of the chemical make-up of their bodies, Lupeleus cannot consume fresh meat. They must inject it and wait for it to decompose, feasting in a small window before the carcass becomes inedible.

  Well that was incredibly gross. Not to mention wasteful. But Arheis saw something of interest on the carcass--a spot on the flank that was still swollen and filled with pus. Closer examination revealed a needle-like stinger lodged in the site.

  > Discovered: Lupeleus Stinger

  Though they are certainly capable of killing with their strong jaws and sharp claws, Lupeleus almost always sting their foes with their tails before death, hastening the decomposition process. The stinger is left behind, and it takes a day for the Lupeleus' body to generate another.

  "I'm not sure I want to see this beast," Zindar said, his tone only slightly joking.

  Arheis agreed, but it seemed they weren't going to get a choice in the matter. A gurgling growl sounded nearby, and he immediately reached for his spear and shield.

  The Lupeleus stood on a ridge not thirty feet away from them. In terms of its head and body structure, Arheis might have likened it to a wolf. A wolf that was badly emaciated and literally wasting away. He could clearly see every rib bone, the beast's skin so paper-thin it was translucent, revealing a churning mess of poisonous bile within.

  The tail wasn't anything like a wolf's, though. It looked more like a scorpion's tail, with a prominent stinger that had obviously had enough time to grow back.

  "We'll need to be extra careful of that tail," Arheis told Zindar.

  The Pruvari nodded, slowly moving laterally in an attempt to flank the beast. The creature's eyes followed him all the way, sunken yellow orbs that were clouded over with a viscous film. It let out a snort, sludge foaming up from its mouth and nose.

  There was no way Zindar was going to be able to get in position, so Arheis used his Provoke ability to draw the Lupeleus' attention, going so far as to pull his hunting knife from his belt and chuck it at the creature. It embedded in the beast's neck with a disgusting squelch.

  > You pierce Lupeleus for 12 points of damage.

  Yellow eyes fixed on him. The creature threw its head back and let out a wet howl, the notes muffled as foam continued to rise up from the Lupeleus' mouth. Then it lowered its head and charged at Arheis, tail primed like a catapult's arm.

  Waiting until the last moment, Arheis lifted his shield high to block the tail. The stinger speared his shield before the beast yanked its tail back so hard it nearly pulled Arheis off his feet.

  > Lupeleus stabs you for 9 points of damage. (21 deflected)

  He saw the next attack only seconds before it actually happened, and tried to get his shield down in time to block the beast as its disease-ridden jaws snapped at his stomach. He managed to knock it away, but one of its rotten teeth raked his arm.

  > Lupeleus bites you for 30 points of damage.

  > You are poisoned!

  "Shit," he hissed, shoving at the Lupeleus with his shield. "Already poisoned."

  He'd accomplished what he’d set out to do, though. Zindar came in with a flurry of strikes, his blades easily slicing through the thin membrane of the beast's skin. It staggered, then flipped around, its tail poised to attack Zindar. Arheis aimed his spear right at the base, driving it forward through muscle and bone.

  > You pierce Lupeleus for 147 points of critical damage.

  The beast stopped in its tracks and yelped. Zindar still leapt backward, landing smoothly on his large feet, his bracer glowing with yellow light. Thunderheads swelled in the distance, barely visible above the forest canopy, and Zindar's Fulcorn crashed down to earth in a jolt of lightning, its hooves stopping just short of the Lupeleus. With its horns tilted down, it rammed upward and gored the beast, sending electricity arcing through its exposed insides.

  > Lupeleus has been stunned!

  Arheis shifted his shield to his back and took advantage of the beast's vulnerable state. Both hands gripped his spear and he thrust it into the creature's rib cage. It penetrated in such a way that he could watch as it ripped through, bile rising in his throat as it did.

  Or maybe that was the poison coursing through his veins.

  He realized a little too late that he should've used that stun to fall back and take an antidote. His skin was clammy, sweat dripped from his brow, and a sharp sense of vertigo hit him as he yanked his spear out of the Lupeleus.

  It sent him backward, his limbs failing to work right. He dropped to one knee just to stabilize himself.

  "Arheis!" Zindar called, running to his side.

  "I'm okay, I just need to get an antidote."

  He tried to reach his pack, but Zindar had to help him do it, his muscles far weaker than they should have felt.

  "I'll keep it busy."

  Arheis nodded, then doubled over as fierce stomach cramps ripped through him. God, he hadn't felt this bad since he’d gotten food poisoning and was laid up in bed for two days, barely able to move without puking.

  His fingers shook as he reached for the bundle. In Lacerda, the antidote had been applied directly to the wound, but he knew from his sea sickness that it could be chewed for the same effect. He did that now, shoving more than he could handle into his mouth and biting down.

  Nearby, the Lupeleus was beginning to recover. It snapped at the Fulcorn, clamping down on its neck and tossing it to the side like a ragdoll. Zindar cried out, obviously affected by the attack, but he didn't stop moving.

  Instead he leapt from one side to the other, disorienting the Lupeleus. He waited until the beast faced him again, then sunk both of his blades into its throat.

  Arheis was sure that would have been the end of it, but the beast thrashed wildly, bile and poison sludge foaming up from ev
ery wound. Zindar was forced back lest he incur the same fate as Arheis, and he only narrowly avoided being stung by the tail as it stabbed down at him.

  Zindar was bleeding, red staining his silver fur, and the Lupeleus had gone into some kind of near-death frenzy state. Arheis used his spear to push himself to his feet. The antidote was beginning to work, but he still felt weaker than he should have.

  "I'll draw its attention," he called to the Pruvari, "you finish it."

  Gripping hard with clammy hands, he held his spear out in front of him and used Provoke again. The beast moved erratically, but those yellow eyes shifted focus to him, and Arheis found himself really hoping Zindar could make that final blow.

  He needn't have worried. Zindar rose from behind, slicing his blades along the Lupeleus' tail, doing an acrobatic quarter-turn in mid-air, then coming down so hard that his weapons sank all the way into the creature.

  It howled in pain, writhed, and finally collapsed, jaws, claws, and tail working harmlessly as it died.

  > You have slain Lupeleus!

  > You have gained 28 XP.

  Arheis struck the point of his spear into the ground and leaned on it, weakness still clinging to his muscles. He chewed on the herbs, a burst of bitter oil coating the back of his throat, and slowly he began to feel more like himself.

  "Are you okay?" he asked.

  Zindar's hand covered his collarbone, blood seeping out from underneath. "I think so. It needs to be bandaged."

  Slowly regaining his strength, Arheis searched his pack for first aid materials and used his skill in the ability to do just that, cleaning the wound out first before he wrapped it with a bandage.

  "It doesn't look like you were poisoned," he observed.

  Zindar shook his head. "I wasn't. What you've done has already helped a lot. Thanks."

  Arheis nodded, then looked over at the creature. It was well and truly dead now, its body lying in a pool of its own poisonous goo. He made a face, his nose scrunching as he looked at it.

  "That was really unpleasant. Let's get what we can from it and take the bounty back to the Matron."

  "Agreed," Zindar said, pulling his knife from his belt.

  Arheis retrieved his own knife and worked alongside his friend. It was a difficult and perilous task as they tried to avoid the poison while getting the parts they could from it. Arheis had a feeling this was going to cancel out the rank he'd put into Hunter’s Perception, but maybe he would've gotten less otherwise.

  Above all else, he made sure to get the heart and the tail. Between his work and Zindar's, they managed a few more parts.

  > Materials Gathered:

  Lupeleus Heart

  Lupeleus Stinger

  Abrasive Fur x5

  Perforated Bile Duct x2

  Sharp Claw x6

  Sharp Fang x3

  Corroded Brittle Bone x2

  Not a great haul, but they wrapped everything up and both took another antidote, just to be safe. Afterward, Arheis stared down at the corpse. The grass beneath it was already dead, the decay spreading outward.

  "I think we should burn this," Zindar said with a frown.

  "Yeah. I don't know how flame will react with the poison, but we need to do something."

  Walking deeper into the woods, Arheis found enough dry sticks and logs to build something of a pyre. By now, the poison and fluids had seeped into the ground, and they were able to safely lift the corpse onto the bundle of wood, setting it ablaze soon after.

  At first, it burned the same as anything would. The smell of flesh and hair coming into contact with the flames was awful, but not deadly. As soon as the flames licked upward and reached some of the Lupeleus' organs, though, a noxious gas began to permeate the area.

  It was thick and acrid, reaching into Arheis' throat and threatening to close it. He pulled his cloak over his face, trying to filter it, but it wasn't helping.

  "We need to get out of here," he said on a hacking cough.

  Zindar just nodded, his own cloak wrapped around the lower half of his face. They turned and ran from the site, and Arheis hoped those fumes wouldn't linger. The Lupeleus had already killed enough wildlife. It didn't need to take the whole forest with it.

  Once they were clear, Arheis drew in a gasping breath of the mountain air, his hands on his knees as he bent over.

  "Is it just me, or did that seem a lot harder than it was made out to be?"

  "Much," Zindar said, wheezing beside him.

  It took several moments for him to feel like he could breathe again, his eyes still stinging from the fumes. His heart slowed, and once his brain realized he wasn't in fear for his life anymore, that adrenaline cocktail pulsing through his veins calmed somewhat.

  Night was close on the horizon, nipping at the spires that marked Iskaral's castle. They needed to get back, but there were still things Arheis wanted to talk about.

  Because what they'd just experienced was a hell of a lot to go through on what was meant to be a day of rest.

  “I’m glad you didn’t take that thing alone.” Maybe he was being overly cautious, broaching the topic this way, but Arheis would rather show some sensitivity than just immediately confront his friend.

  “Me too,” Zindar admitted. “It was enough of a challenge with two of us here.”

  “But you would’ve gone it alone. That was the plan.”

  The Pruvari’s ears drooped a little, but he nodded. They’d started walking back toward Iskaral, leaving Crestwind Lake behind them. The setting sun backlit their steps, casting long shadows from the forest that loomed ahead.

  "I always hoped that if I worked hard enough, the rest of it wouldn't matter," Zindar admitted, his fingers curling around the strap of his pack. "I guess I still think that; that I can do enough good in the world to make up for what my people think of me."

  Arheis had to bite his tongue. He wanted to rail against the Pruvari of De'shal for casting Zindar out the way they had, but that wasn't going to help his friend.

  "I know it shouldn't matter. But I'm Pruvari." He gestured down to his slim, fur-covered body. "I am my people, and they are me. Every time I register with a new Guild Hall or pay for armor or collect on a bounty I'm told how odd it is to see one of my kind actively hunting, and the cycle starts again."

  Advice sprang to the tip of his tongue on reflex: If it's wearing on you, then just stop caring. But that was the advice of a cynic, and a philosophy he'd only adopted after several years of working for Belsoft. Back when he felt like nothing he did mattered, so why bother caring what his colleagues or society as a whole thought of him?

  Estalia was different, though. It did matter here. Zindar wasn't wasting his days typing obsolete code into a console. He was killing beasts that were real problems for a lot of people. He was doing something few in this world seemed capable of doing.

  Still, if Zindar ran himself ragged for the sake of proving a point, he'd do a lot less good overall. A secondary condition to Arheis, since he was more focused on his friend's mental health.

  "Will it ever be enough?"

  The question was a philosophical one with a bit of existential flavoring, but it was genuine, and spoken with concern.

  "I don't know." There was a pained honesty in Zindar's voice. His left ear twitched. "You're not going to… cut me off, are you?"

  Arheis stopped right in the middle of the dusty road to look at the Pruvari. "What?"

  "If it wasn't for you and Mira, I wouldn't even have access to half the bounties I've taken on."

  Ah. Zindar thought he was going to pull a "this is for your own good" on him. Arheis was fortunate enough that he'd never had a parent try that one, but a few mentors over the years had done so. They'd almost always been wrong.

  "I trust you to know what you can and can't handle, Zindar." He reached out to clasp the Pruvari's shoulder. "And… I know this is important to you. All I'd ask is that you let us help when we can."

  Zindar smiled, one of his fanged teeth catching his lip a
nd tugging it upward. "Thank you. Not just for being a good friend, but for treating me like your equal."

  "That's a really low bar," Arheis said with a small smile, "but I get it. And if I ever treat you any differently, please call me out on it."

  He'd met plenty of people who were worse than him. Hell, even he'd treated NPCs as just expendable resources whose opinions didn't really affect much beyond an end state or two. He hadn't thought twice about it in other games. He was the player. He made the choices for everyone.

  But while he'd been effectively given the reins of leadership in their little group, he refused to think of his companions as anything other than people he absolutely relied on, trusted, and needed for more than just hunts.

  "I'll let my spirit give you a little zap if it ever happens," Zindar said, his eyes glinting with amusement. "Enough to hurt, but not enough to stop your heart."

  Arheis laughed, patting his friend approvingly on the shoulder. "Thanks, I appreciate that."

  As they headed back to Iskaral, Arheis felt a lightness in his soul--a sense of contentment that told him everything was going to turn out all right.

  The instant the text alert came up to inform him of his current status with his friend, he silently wished it away. Some things really were better felt than stated.

  25

  The trip to Iskaral's Guild Hall was an uneventful one. Arheis and Zindar turned in the Poison Heart bounty, registered the Lupeleus, and collected their rewards. 88 XP for each of them and 5,500 GC added to the pot.

  Arheis had been prepared to lie about where they'd been all day, but Zindar took point and explained what they'd done and why they'd done it. After some initial surprise, everyone seemed to relax. Higrem was the only person to mutter about being excluded, and even he shut up after just a few minutes.

  Fatigue caught up with Arheis quickly, though. It became a chore to chew his food, his jaw fighting against his natural inclination to just crash head-first into the table and sleep for an eternity. He and Zindar had been the first to head upstairs to their rooms, and when Arheis shut his eyes, he was out like a light.