The Cyborg System-Chapter 75: Hunting

As they walked through the forest in the larger group, students kept their eyes peeled for any signs of life. At one point, a grub was spotted by the base of one of the large trees, squirming in the mud as it regurgitated some food. A green sash called Max was the first to react, throwing out a wind slash that created a large gash in its soft flesh.

Thick yellow liquid spilled out, presumably blood, which began to cover the ground around it. A couple more wind slashes and a green ball of energy followed, as their team went to finish it off, but it gradually became apparent the grub had some kind of regeneration ability which drew out the fight longer than expected. It tried to move towards them, slowly crawling along the ground, but with a little effort and an increase in caution, it was finished off quite quickly.

The team looked pleased with themselves as they pulled the core from its body. It wasn’t supposed to be so easy to take out scavengers, but they all varied in terms of strength and resilience. Sometimes a weaker beast would progress into a stronger one as it matured, making up for its temporarily weakened state.

A few moments later, one of the green sashes from the Drowned used her water affinity to fire a powerful jet at a kind of giant woodlouse, that fell from the tree and was quickly finished off by a speed user with a sword from another group.

This caused a minor argument over who the kill belonged to, before the consensus prevailed that it belonged to the speed user from Les Chevaliers. Kill stealing was a valid tactic.

"We’re gonna struggle to bag ourselves the last strike if we stick with the large group," said Lenny.

"But aren’t we all supposed to stay together?" asked Ollie.

"We don’t have to wander too far," said Nicholas. "As long as we keep track of where we’re going, we should be able to get back to the main group. Besides, that whistle the scout had, I’ve seen them before. Let’s just say we won’t have any problems hearing it when the time comes."

"Alright," replied Ollie reluctantly. It was difficult for him as the only member of the group with no ability. Other than his impressive stamina, he really didn’t have much to offer in terms of combat utility.

Breaking off from the main group, they walked for a few hundred yards before spotting their first beast. It was a large red caterpillar with black patterns running along its back. Nicholas’ flames quickly set the thing on fire and proceeded to summon more essence. Before anyone else had an opportunity to get involved, it dropped to the floor, shrivelled and crispy. They didn’t even get a chance to find out what its affinity was.

"I thought we were going to work together?" asked Harry.

"Sorry," said Nicholas, a little embarrassed. "I’ll hold off on the next one."

Ollie assumed the role of spirit core collector and made short work of retrieving the core from the charred remains and placing it in his backpack. He was determined to offer as much utility as possible to his group. After all, they would be the ones protecting him if anything happened.

The next beast they saw was a grey bird, roughly the size of a cat back on earth. Nicholas clipped its wings with a quick blast of his flames, then held off while Harry summoned clods of earth to repeatedly smash the downed beast. It cawed and twitched as it righted itself and moved towards the group, throwing a couple of wind slashes of its own that the group did well to avoid. As the distance closed, Lenny and Vee were ready to enter the fray, but before they could, Harry had finished it off with a large arc of earth that smashed it from above. It took a lot more time and effort, with far more strikes, but the beast was just as dead.

"Nice," said Nicholas.

"Thanks." In truth, it had taken far more essence than he had thought, and he wouldn’t have been able to maintain that level of intensity for long. After all, in first year, the yellow and green sashes were only supposed to be scavenger tier hunters. The orange and reds were thought to require working together to achieve the same effect. Only Nicholas was supposed to be capable of defeating a prey tier beast by himself, but Lenny thought these gradings were overly cautious, considering he had taken one out himself, though at great personal cost. At least it gave some idea as to the level of competence of each ability user and the foes they should face.

After removing the bird’s core, which shone with a dull white, the group was ready to move again. At that moment, however, Lenny finally made a choice on something he had been mulling over for some time. He knew that a lot of details of his ability would be made clear when got back to base, so did it really matter if his group found out a little sooner.

"Can I have that core?" asked Lenny.

Ollie looked to Harry as if for approval. As the one to deliver the final blow, it was the decided upon rule that it belonged to him.

"Sure," he said, unsure why Lenny wanted it. Ollie handed it over.

"I have a confession," said Lenny. "I have an ability." The core glowed yellow as he absorbed its essence.

"Plus 1 spirit essence," came the notification from the system.

"Do you need a refill?"

"Please," said Harry. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Lenny walked over and used his spirit share skill. He was surprised that it had taken 11 essence before the notifications had stopped coming.

"Better?"

"Much," Harry replied.

Nicholas paused for a few moments considering his words. "I thought you had an ability, if I’m being honest. Naturally spirited are incredibly rare. I’ve never heard of an affinity that allows you to absorb and share essence. I’m pretty sure some big factions would be interested."

He said that as if it was a good thing, but that was exactly what Lenny was worried about. Lenny had decided that the story he would share with his group and the school was that his ability just allowed him to share essence. He would leave out the part about increasing his maximum spirit capacity and that he could use it to craft weapons, keeping this to his closest friends... and James, his roommate. Although that one wasn’t really through choice.

"I think we should try and preserve the cores though," Nicholas added, worried that their hard work would somewhat go to waste.

"I think we should look at bigger game," said Lenny. "Don’t worry about the scavengers, they’re a waste of time. Who wants scavenger tier weapons and armour."

"That’s bold," said Vee.

"You disagree?"

"No, I like the idea."

"Well I don’t," added Ollie. "We’re supposed to take out a few scavengers. This is our first hunt. We should play it safe and not go too far."

"We’re taking them out pretty quickly," added Lenny. It was true, he doubted there would be many casualties today if all the groups were as strong as theirs. Sure, most wouldn’t have a blue sash, but even Harry had grown considerably in the time they had been training together. It was apparent from his last battle. Lenny didn’t know if he was regraded if he would be a green sash now or not, but his ability was certainly a good mix of offence and defence and Lenny and Vee hadn’t even had a chance yet to get involved.

"Let’s just see what we come up against, and take it from there," added Nicholas, taking a diplomatic stance. In truth, it mattered little to him. He already had prey tier armour and preferred to fight without a weapon, relying on his ability instead. He did find the scavengers quite easy to kill though, and would have preferred the increased challenge of facing the next tier.

"Where to next?" asked Vee.

"I see a clearing up ahead," said Nicholas looking off in the distance.

"Fine, but just so you know, it’s mine or Lenny’s turn."

They descended down a gradual slope towards the clearing. Although there was increased visibility, something had made them stop. There was a group of ten or so large rabbit-like creatures congregated together. They were larger than either of the other beasts they had fought so far, but not significantly.

"What do you think?" asked Nicholas.

"I think we can take them," replied Lenny.

"Everyone else agree?"

"I’m game," said Harry.

Vee merely nodded.

"You can stay back, if you want?" added Nicholas.

Ollie gladly conceded and sat down with his back leant up against a tree while the others quietly made their way to the area below. He felt safer away from that many beasts. What he didn’t realise was, nearby, a prey tier giant red squirrel was watching him with hunger in its eyes.