Super Genetics
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B2 - Chapter 27: The Hunt
🕑 Added 2024-10-03 19:17:53 +0000 UTCWhy didn’t I kill you?
The question caught him so off guard, he had to repress a humorous snort.
[Terry]: I won. It was over. What would killing you have accomplished?
Al’Ruzan read the message, and even with his alien features, Terry could see he was displeased. He turned away without another word and Terry found himself wondering about the question.
Honor or cowardice?
[Terry]: You want to know the real reason?
Al’Ruzan turned back, his eyes reflecting the soft embers of Juan’s fire.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: Of course. Why else would I ask?
Terry nodded and was relieved to find his body responding—although sluggishly. He shifted, pulling an elbow under him to prop himself up.
[Terry]: The truth is…I was scared. Not of you, but of me. What I would become.
Al’Ruzan didn’t move—didn’t even blink—his eyes studying Terry as he formulated his thought.
[Terry]: I’ve never killed another person before.
Al’Ruzan’s head rose, his lips pressing tight over his tusks in an expression Terry didn’t have the context to recognize. A great breath seemed to leave the Duelist, as if a weight have slipped off his shoulders.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: I see. You are unblooded. A failure in your upbringing.
He turned away, then glanced back over his shoulder.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: I have a feeling that is a failure you shall rectify before your time in this realm is up.
As he stepped back toward the cave entrance and resumed his crouched vigil, Terry found Mara-Lin-Jaid watching him from her bed, her dark skin making her nearly invisible inside her furs. Only the whites of her eyes shone through.
He was thinking of something pithy to say, some joke that might have defused the tension between them. But before he could find something of suitable wit, the whites of her eyes flicked away as she settled her head back on her bed.
When he looked away, the only thing he could see other than Juan’s embers was Al’Ruzan’s back as he stared out onto the frozen wasteland.
For some reason, that comforted him and he drifted back into darkness.
***
Nearly a week passed while Terry recovered.
It was the most boring week of his life.
After the fiftieth game of bootleg Go Fish, he wanted to shout until his throat was hoarse. The only thing that kept him mildly sane was that Big Al had eased up on his vow of silence shtick, allowing Juan and Terry to speak in English whenever they wanted.
Allowed, because Terry was still weak from whatever numbing agent the alien insects had infected him with. For most of the week, Al’Ruzan could have knocked him over with a single finger. Not that Terry was defenseless, but he also didn’t want to portal Al’Ruzan in half just when they were starting to understand each other.
Still, tensions were escalating. While the others had initially bombarded him with questions, relishing in having someone new to chat with, that eventually gave way to a general malaise that seemed to be the team’s baseline.
Even Py and Chippy got into a System chat scuffle that eventually turned verbal. Chippy’s squeaks and Py’s sing-song language clashed so brashly that even Terry began to understand the appeal of a silent cave.
That was when Terry learned to appreciate Mara-Lin-Jaid’s people management skills. She always seemed to know the exact thing to say or the perfect gesture to defuse an argument. A subtle hand on the shoulder or a seemingly incongruous query about someone’s parents that deflected the negative energy at just the right moment.
In this particular case, she cut through Chippy and Py’s argument with a single, simple sentence.
[Mara-Lin-Jaid]: It’s time to hunt, Al’Ruzan.
At first, Terry furrowed his brow at the statement. Why did Al’Ruzan need to be told to hunt? They’d scarfed down that single dire wolf leg days ago. Why hadn’t he gone out to hunt earlier?
But as he read the reactions among the team, the pieces fell into place with a practically audible click.
It was a vision. She wasn’t stating simple, obvious fact, but prophecy. If she had kept silent for another week, Terry wasn’t entirely convinced they wouldn’t have let Chippy starve to death.
The spirits in the cave immediately lifted. Chippy chirped happily while Py clutched her four hands in a complicated gesture that he had learned was synonymous with prayer hands back on Earth. Juan literally licked his lips in anticipation and Al’Ruzan stretched his limbs like a tiger set free to roam the reserve.
As for Terry, he also found himself filled with anticipation.
[Terry]: I’m going with him.
Unlike the others, he could survive outside the cave and now that he was mostly recovered, it was time to start scouting out the surroundings.
This Quest wasn’t going to complete itself.
The tension came back with a vengeance, revealed in the concealed looks from Py and Chippy toward Al’Ruzan, Juan’s jaw clenching tight, and the sudden straightening of Al’Ruzan’s posture.
Only Mara-Lin-Jaid remained composed at his declaration.
[Mara-Lin-Jaid]: Yes.
He was surprised at the declaration, as if it were her idea all along. That was her game, he realized. She played the prophet to keep them all in line. Perhaps she did it because she felt it was necessary. Who was he to judge?
As long as she didn’t try to stop him, he wouldn’t complain.
Al’Ruzan relaxed slightly after her endorsement, but Terry couldn’t miss the appraising glances the giant was sending his way.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: Keep up.
Then he was past the fur covering and out of the cave. Terry hesitated, glancing between the others for a surprised moment before bursting to his feet. He gripped the fur he’d been using as a blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders, then followed Al’Ruzan out of the cave.
Terry had learned that the blizzard that raged outside their cave never relented, only ebbed and flowed. Some days, it stormed so bad they had been forced to huddle for warmth, while other days, the visibility actually extended out more than a dozen feet.
Today was a relatively calm day and the whiteout only blocked his vision after about thirty feet. But the sun seemed to reflect off the snow with malicious intent, blinding him as he pushed the fur covering back.
He activated Master of Light to conserve his heat and dim the reflected light to a manageable level. Blinking away the blindness, he looked around and found no sign of Al’Ruzan. A glance down showed footprints fading quickly from the swirling snow and he started following them.
The wind was biting, trying to steal his warmth past his fur cloak and Master of Light. The snow stabbed at his face, flakes sneaking through his eyelashes to blind him. His tennis shoes soaked through in moments and he nearly lost his footing with every step.
For the briefest moment, the thought of turning back and huddling in the relative dryness of the cave infected him. No one asked him to go out on a hunt, no one expected him to keep up with Al’Ruzan regardless of the outcome of their fight. And though he knew he’d have to leave eventually to start getting to the bottom of this Quest, no one was pushing him out the door to figure it out.
The thought was insidious and he squashed it immediately.
Pride pushed him out the door. He expected himself to keep up with Al’Ruzan. He demanded that he get off his ass and be self sufficient. He refused to be dependent on Al’Ruzan for food or knowledge of the world outside their cave.
So he pushed through the snow, tracked Al’Ruzan through his footprints—and when those began to fade, he tracked the infrared light left behind by those footprints.
A minute turned into ten and he was on autopilot by that point; one foot in front of the other. The trail left by Al’Ruzan was fading but he knew he could always portal back to the cave if he found himself lost. That wasn’t his concern.
What concerned him was the feeling of being useless, of not contributing, of never leading them from beyond that damned cave.
His pace picked up, the trail grew stronger. In the distance, he saw and felt Al’Ruzan crouched behind a snowbank—his aura and heat signature lighting up in Terry’s senses.
As he approached, Al’Ruzan sent him a message.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: Stay down.
Terry bent his knees awkwardly as he approached, his legs sinking into the snow up to mid shin. Just to be safe, he twisted the light around him to make himself nearly invisible to the naked eye, keeping only his face free so he could see.
When he stopped at Al’Ruzan’s side, the Duelist eyed him up and down with a peculiar expression. Terry realized how he must have looked with only his face visible.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: I’ve picked up a trail. There’s a small pack that dens nearby. I suspect it’s one of theirs.
Despite Terry’s magical advantages, he was grateful Al’Ruzan was here. He didn’t know the first thing about tracking or hunting. He kept his reply purposefully simple to avoid revealing his ignorance.
He didn’t need Al’Ruzan realizing just how reliant he was on the Duelist’s hunting skills.
[Terry]: I’ll follow your lead.
Al’Ruzan took off without another word, loping through the loose snow like he was born to it.
Terry sprinted awkwardly after him with a desperate speed, feeling like a fish out of water.
They ran like that for another few minutes before Al’Ruzan slowed by a snowbank that rose ten feet high. He held out a hand to stop Terry and crawled up the snowbank alone. Peering his head over the small hill, he seemed to be watching something on the other side.
[Terry]: What do you see?
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: There’s too many. We must find another trail.
Al’Ruzan slid silently down the snowbank and past Terry without another word.
[Terry]: That’s it? How many, exactly?
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: Too many.
He continued walking, which annoyed Terry. Rather than follow blindly, he began climbing up the steep snowbank. It was tiring work and far less graceful than Al’Ruzan had made it look, but he was nearing the top when another message came in.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: Don’t be foolish! If they catch your scent, we’ll have to run for our lives!
[Terry]: No we won’t. I can portal us away anytime, remember?
Al’Ruzan didn’t reply. Terry crested the top of the snowy hill and glanced down at what the Duelist had seen.
Eight large dire wolves were tearing apart some creature he didn’t recognize. The creature was massive, twice as large as a polar bear, covered in white fur matted with crimson stains. The pack of dire wolves were ravenous, as if worried there wouldn’t be enough left after their siblings were through.
Terry felt movement at his side and glanced over to see Al’Ruzan crouched next to him. They shared a look—Al’Ruzan’s yellow eyes appraising Terry, while Terry shrugged as casually as he could manage while watching a pack of alien wolves at dinner.
A terrible groaning sound echoed out through the howling wind and Terry’s eyes snapped back to the giant polar bear thing. Its head lifted up halfheartedly, then collapsed back to the snow. That only seemed to excite the dire wolves, who tore into it with greater abandon.
[Terry]: It’s still alive!
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: Yes.
Terry stared at that casual message in shock.
[Terry]: Shouldn’t we put it out of its misery? They’re eating it alive!
Al’Ruzan gave him a second, sharper look.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: That is the way of the wild. The weak suffer the whims of the strong. I wonder what your world must be like for you to be so naive.
For a moment, Terry was blinded by anger. My world is civilized! he nearly responded. But that statement rang false. On Earth, the strong ruled and that was the simple truth. But there was ruling and then there was just plain cruelty.
Still, he understood Al’Ruzan’s point. And that giant polar bear looking animal didn’t exactly look all cute and cuddly; those were killing claws and meat-eating fangs after all. But predator or not, the terrible sounds coming from the dying animal grated on his ears.
[Terry]: I can teleport the wolves away and we can put the animal out of its misery. And that much meat? Could last us weeks.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: The monster would never let us keep it.
[Terry]: Who says it has to know? I’ll portal what we need into the cave, stash the rest underground somewhere.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: With those insects that attacked you?
Terry shivered at the memory.
[Terry]: Somewhere else.
Al’Ruzan studied the feasting wolves for a moment, a thoughtful expression behind his eyes.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: We’ll still have to give it its due. It will know if we do not.
[Terry]: Fine with me. Let’s clear our these wolves and get to work.
He surveyed the frozen wasteland around them. Even when the constant blizzard didn’t hamper visibility, there were almost no land markers to judge distance or location. He’d have to do it by feel.
Reaching for space, he found a spot roughly a quarter mile away—in the opposite direction of their cave. Then, he felt for the wolves with his senses, feeling them more as displacements in space than anything else.
[Terry]: Here goes nothing.
Al’Ruzan pulled his dagger free and adopted a fighting stance.
No faith, Terry thought.
Then he parted space, pulling the three closest wolves through portals before they registered what was happening. The others’ heads shot up, their eyes surveying their surroundings, the hair on their spines standing upright.
He portaled three more before they took a single step.
The final two somehow zeroed in on their location with a snap of their heads. Without a moment’s hesitation, they began loping up the snow bank toward them. An idea came to Terry and he decided to improvise.
[Terry]: I’m gonna leave one of them for us. The monster would be suspicious if we brought back that giant bear thing.
Al’Ruzan shot him a harried look, rising to his full height to stare down at the racing wolves. Terry snapped open a portal before the closer of the two, sending it off with an undignified yelp as it realized midair what was happening.
Leaving a single dire wolf sprinting toward them with its jaw open wide. Terry expected Al’Ruzan to feint, perhaps slash at its underbelly after a mistimed leap—anything except what happened next.
The giant Duelist let out a bestial roar that Terry felt in his chest, then threw himself physically through the air to meet the wolf mid-jump. They clashed with a deep thud that only several hundred pounds of muscle could make and began tumbling down the snow bank.
Surprise and panic filled him as he realized just how reckless Al’Ruzan’s approach was. The two of them were rolling down the hill in a death clutch and Terry had a tough time differentiating which was beast and which was a person.
They crashed to the bottom in a heap, Al’Ruzan laying on top. His arm pistoned up and down into the wolf’s gut, splashing crimson upon the snow.
Terry raced down the hill, a sick feeling in his stomach at the gorey display.
When he reached the two of them, Al’Ruzan shot up to his feet, a mixture of intestines and blood drenching his clothes. He began barking in Terry’s face and for a moment his irrational brain thought Al’Ruzan was in the midst of some feral bloodlust.
Then, the System message came in a moment later and he realized that the giant was just super pissed.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: What in the Twelve was that! You risked everything and for what!
Terry backed away, his hands held up between them.
[Terry]: I assumed you could handle one dire wolf, Al’Ruzan! You’ve been killing them for years!
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: Yes. With planning! Traps! Only a fool wrestles a dire wolf by choice!
He bit his lip at the giant’s words, realizing that he might have messed up with his improvisation.
[Terry]: That’s my mistake for making assumptions. Are you injured?
Al’Ruzan’s yellow eyes bore into him, clearly wanting to lay into him some more. After a moment though, the rage drained away. He looked down at his blood-soaked clothes and snorted derisively.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: It isn’t mine.
He turned to retrieve his dagger from the wolf’s body.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: But you owe me a new set of clothes.
Terry chuckled lightly, nodding as Al’Ruzan stood.
[Terry]: That’s fair. Again, sorry about that. I shouldn’t have improvised without talking to you first.
Al’Ruzan wiped his blade on the wolf’s fur, then turned back with a widemouthed expression that could have been a smile or a threat.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: No need to apologize.
The giant leaned in until they were face to face.
[Al’Ruzan, third of his name]: But you’re wrestling the next one.
Comments
White Rose
Good questions, I don't want to be too specific for reasons. But keep in mind that Terry has some advantages with regards to training that a lot of D-ranked Travelers don't have (Marlon). This informed his understanding of space and traveling quite a bit. As far as offensive capabilities, I think if Al and Terry had another duel, Al would put up a bit of a better fight (at least in the portals slicing him up department).
Andrew Simpson
I'm wondering what Terry's limits for portalling things in half is. I know Marv and the other guy fought like that in the cavern, but they were masters of their craft. If I'm not mistaken slicing Al's finger is the first time Terry has used his portal offensively, and it came pretty naturally to him. Could he just have decapitated the wolf? I imagine you resist being portalled in half by just being too aura dense, meaning it would be hard for a traveler to bisect someone who was stronger than them. If that isn't true, then travellers would be the defacto best combatants in the world. But dire wolves probably don't have a ton of aura right? Probably not more than Al, at least. They're just big angry dogos. By that logic could he use it as a blade to slice through any matter that wasn't aura dense? Can he slice through stone, or does there have to be space on both sides? So many portal questions!! 😱
