Mage And Wolf
Chapter 107

Chapter 107: Chapter 107

True to his word, we’re all awake and coffee is ready by the time the sun clears the horizon.

"Do you have a vehicle?" Kel’Mira asks "We are all on foot, but we can rent one"

"I brought an armored pickup from Arcana" I tell her "Fully loaded with a hard mounted 50 cal in the bed"

"I heard Arcana had enchanted rifles" Vinnie gushes "The Magical city is somewhere between rumor and legend around here"

"We can go see it once things are settled here" I assure him "I’ve got plenty of room for guests"

"About that rifle though, does it have enough enchanted ammunition? These things are big"

"6 thousand rounds" Hui’Jin smiles "and I can make more"

"You’re making a solid case for being my new favorite dragon" Paul laughs. "Everyone else is struggling with swords, you brought a sniper rifle"

"You misunderstand. It’s a 50 caliber machine gun, not a sniper rifle" I tell him and he shivers happily.

"Stop, I can only be so happy"

We grab an unclaimed location report from the counter staff and head out, everyone loaded in the cab.

"This is nice. I’ve never been in a truck before. Just a bus." Vinnie jokes with clear excitement.

"Target ahead, 3 kilometers ahead, to the right of that thicket" Kel’Mira stops our banter.

There’s a huge beast sitting down, surrounded by hundreds of smaller beasts. Still three times human size, the fish headed humanoids are dwarfed by the 20 meter tall misshapen beast. It looks like a child’s drawing of a Gorilla. Bipedal, strangely proportioned and horrific with giant teeth.

"Kel’Mira can you drive?" I ask and she gives a noncommittal wave of her hand.

"I’ve got a license, but not much experience"

"That’s fine. Just don’t hit any big things and move at a steady pace to let the gun and arrows do the work. I’ll flank left and deal with the big thing then come back through."

I pull into the field and everyone piles out. Hui’Jin is on the big gun, the guys have their bows ready for anything in range and Kel’Mira is uttering a quick prayer.

"The first shots will be my signal to charge. Good luck and try not to get swarmed."

With that I jog off, everyone knows their duties. Soon the hammering of the big gun and Hui’Jin’s laughter fills the air and the little monsters start to move towards the truck.

I start running for the leader, shredding everything in my way with my claws, coated in the Flaming Sword ability. The shrieks are distracting the pack, slowing their progress towards the truck. Good, the more time they get the better.

I hurl myself through the air at the Gorilla beast, noticing it has gills. Maybe it’s also aquatic in nature? No matter. A sweeping kick of the Blooming Lotus Style slams into its ribs with a resounding crunch and a roar of agony.

I push myself upwards, clawing into its shoulder, nearly detaching the arm before being tossed away by its motion. The assessment was right, their size doesn’t match their power, they’re very much vulnerable at my current level of ability.

Its good arm smashes the ground and I activate Shadow Meld, rolling behind it to attack the spine. It seems to sense my intentions, but too late. A claw severs the spine at the neck and it collapses.

Hui’Jin is mowing down the far flank with gunfire, so I return the way I came, killing everything that moves until I stand in a red stained wasteland with a lightning arrow sticking out of my skirt.

"Paul, care to explain?"

"Sorry, you are kind of scary and I forgot you were an ally?" he says, the question clear in his tone.

"It’s the giggling." Kel’Mira decides "Both of you do it when you get excited and it’s terrifying. I think your Goddesses power seeps into it."

I heard Hui’Jin doing it, do I just not notice when I do it myself? Does she know she does it? By the look she’s giving she doesn’t accept that she does.

"Now for the less fun part. Collecting cores. Hui’Jin how many do you think we got?"

"We’ll need to see the drop rate, but there’s about 400 bodies."

This is going to take all day.

All day ends up being literal. We’ve got over 80 grade 2 stones and one shiny grade 3 stone when we finish.

"1 in 5, there’s got to be a better way than cutting to check" I grump, tired and bloody.

The Guild wants left ears as proof, so we’ve also got a huge sack of fishy flesh in the box of the Toyota. What a day. But, I can see the ocean, so we’re going over to wash off and maybe go for a swim.

The darkening sky kills any plan of swimming, but we’re clean to go back.

"Let’s get this done and see how much bounty we earned." Vinnie calls, pointing down the road toward town.

The roads are almost deserted after dark, nobody wants to risk a nighttime ambush, but I can see just fine. Lycan advantage.

"You’re back late" the clerk greets us, not recognizing my status in the fine dress I got from Elder Song.

"Counter still open for bounties?" I ask pointing at the truck out front.

"All day everyday." She assures us. "Today’s high is 35 category 2s and 2 category 3s. If you care."

"Well we only got one category 3, but a lot of 2s" I shrug and the others all grin.

The big Dragon Kin assistant grabs our sack from the truck, obviously used to teams bringing back trophies to trade in along with the ears.

"Dump it in the sealed room, that fishy smell is bad even from here" The counter attendant instructs.

"You lot trading in your stones or just the bounties and trophies?" she asks, clipboard in hand.

"Just bounties today, we ran low on stones" she checks a box and then looks at the contents spread on the floor.

"What did you lot do? Set the Death Priestesses loose on the beach? How many ears are even here? Hundreds for sure."

We’re all laughing way harder than we should be at a Guild representative responsible for getting us paid.

"May I introduce Hui’Jin, Junior Priestess of the God Of Death. Who was in fact let loose on the beach"

The laughter has not at all slowed at my half explanation.

"And the little blonde would be High Priestess Katrina, also a follower of the God Of Death who was let loose in the beach."

Now even the clerk is laughing, but she’s bringing in staff to count all the ears.

"You’re going to milk us dry if you keep up like this. Each of you killed more than any other party combined."

"Actually, I never got out of the truck" Kel’Mira clarifies. "I’m the healer. Speaking of which, do you have any wounds Your Highness? You didn’t mention needing my services."

"I heal fast, by the time I got to the truck they were nothing more than scratches." Really, there was very little to begin with, the category 2 beasts have a difficult time getting through my armor.

"One grade 3 beast for 5 silver and 417 grade 2 beast ears for a half silver each comes to 213 silver 5 bronze. Congratulations on a successful hunt." The clerk looks a bit stunned.

"Time to restock supplies then. I think Hui’Jin burned all the ammunition we had enchanted in advance." I laugh "Or do we do a late meal first?"

The staff agrees to send a late meal up to our room and we get together to split the loot and unwind before dinner.

"Can we even replace that ammunition? We’re half a continent away from Arcana and I don’t even know if we can get the basic bullets to enchant here" Vinnie sounds concerned for the future of our hunting endeavors.

"I’ll admit, we did go a bit overboard today. But if we start later tomorrow we should be able to get everything restocked in time. Let us take care of that, we’ve got it" I assure him, while keeping secret the fact we can simply summon more ammunition. The knowledge of the abilities of that spell has been deemed restricted to the clergy. Most of the population thinks it can only make simple foodstuffs.

Over dinner we agree to start at 10 tomorrow, Hui’Jin will need at least 2 hours and a grade 2 stone to refill the ammunition. She fired every single round today.