Chapter 9: Settling In

Screams erupted from the far north end of Base Camp Six, though the cause remained hidden in the distance. They had a more immediate problem: a sadistic, giant feline, fresh off its first kill, was eyeing its next victim.

The beast hesitated, visibly confused that its flames had missed their mark. The brief pause granted the hunter a few precious seconds to scramble to his feet. Giddeon recognized the thin, dark-skinned man with a close-shaved haircut as Eseem, an advanced scout from a few units over. Snapping out of its hesitation, the monster let out a guttural growl and lunged at him.

Giddeon rushed forward, swinging his weapon with both hands. The Veridian axe connected cleanly with its razor claws as the beast swiped at the man, the head barely sinking into its thick hide but delivering enough force to knock the attack wide.

Hissing, the beast executed a small hop, twisting its mass in mid-air to slam its dense hindquarters straight toward Giddeon.

Surprised by its agility, Giddeon tried to dodge, but its heavy hip crashed into his midsection and sent him flying. He landed hard on his back, the sudden impact forcing the air from his lungs.

“What are you doing!” Johnny yelled. “I told you to run!”

He needs help.

“You all need help!”

There was no respite as the creature pounced, its claws tearing into the sand where he had been a split-second before. Giddeon rolled frantically, scrambling back to his feet. Staring at the deep ruts left in the sand, he knew his chest would have been an ugly mess of blood and organs had it not missed.

Uzari and Kilner appeared, swinging their weapons wildly to steer the beast away from him.

“Surround it!” Eseem shouted, pulling a pick-like weapon from behind his back as he began circling the predator. “Keep near its backside!”

“Orion!” Giddeon shouted, joining the others in surrounding it. He stole a quick glance across the beach. Two hundred feet away, their hunter stood watching, mouth agape. “Orion!” he screamed again.

Orion shook his head. “Run, you idiots!” he shouted back, then turned and fled toward camp at a dead sprint.

“Maybe he heard me instead of you?” Johnny quipped.

“He’s abandoned us,” Uzari breathed, circling along with the others to stay in its blind spot. “My AIGES is—” Her eyes went wide as it analyzed the beast. “It’s too powerful, we need to run.”

The beast circled with them, a massive, intelligent predator. It did not rush in, choosing instead to toy with its quarry, switching directions as it turned, testing for weak points.

It knows we’re outmatched. It’s waiting for us to run. We need help.

The moment the thought crossed Giddeon’s mind, the discarded rifle resting in the sand flashed in a sharp azure outline, alerting him to its precise location.

Did you do that?

“Just like a looter game,” Johnny said smugly. “What you see, I see, remember? Just one problem: the rifle’s right beside the hell beast.”

“We can’t run!” Giddeon shouted to the group. “It’ll just mow us down like it did the other hunter—keep circling it!”

Following the pattern, they settled into a strict defensive rhythm. Three struck whenever the beast lashed out, while the fourth focused entirely on dodging the incoming swipes. The rotating tactic prevented the creature from fully committing to a lethal attack. After several solid hits to its hide, the beast altered its strategy, reverting to frantic, lightning-fast strikes to keep them at bay.

It intends to outlast us.

“Judging from its Endurance, it likely will,” Johnny replied. “Its body temperature is rising. It’ll rush one of you soon. Better do something fast.”

The creature suddenly swiped at Kilner, presenting its back to Giddeon. This was the opening he had been waiting for.

Giddeon lunged for the gun, but its predator senses were faster. Whipping around, its jaws opened wide, snapping at his head.

Diving into the sand, Giddeon snagged the weapon, abandoning his axe in the sand as he rolled. He immediately flung his body blindly to the left, narrowly evading the beast’s follow-up lunge. Flat on his back, he held the rifle pinned tight to his chest.

The creature opened its maw, completely ignoring the others as they desperately swung their weapons, trying to pierce its iron hide. Giddeon stared directly into a throat packed with finger-long teeth. Deep in the back of its throat, a small, pulsing ball of flame danced.

In the blink of an eye, the blazing sphere expanded.

“Roll!” Johnny screamed.

Giddeon threw himself sideways across the sand as molten flames licked at his back. Striking a half-buried rock with his left shoulder, his body jarred to a painful stop. As his head swiveled to look back, a mere inch away the entire swath of sand across which he’d rolled was transformed into smoking, blackened glass.

Eseem, Kilner and Uzari landed heavy-handed blows on its flank—not enough to draw blood, but inflicting enough pain to yank its attention away. The hell beast leapt toward the three, snapping and swiping with renewed fury.

Scrambling to his feet, Giddeon raised the long-barreled rifle, taking aim. The beast began weaving erratically between the others, giving him no clear shot.

It’s like it knows.

“It probably does, in a primal sense,” Johnny said. “It’s a magical beast, after all.”

“Whe…t…brea…ire!” a voice barely pierced through the chaos.

Glancing back, Giddeon spotted Eddington off in the distance, hands cupped around his mouth. “Fire! When…the…s…fire!”

As Kilner, Uzari and Eseem resumed a coordinating circling of the beast, Giddeon waited with rifle leveled, his hands sweating, yet his arm steady. Eddington continued shouting in the background.

“What’s he blabbering about!” Eseem snapped, narrowly dodging the beast’s claws.

“Something…about fire…when there’s fire,” Uzari gasped, her shoulders heaving. They had been dodging and attacking for well over two minutes now, and the exhaustion was rapidly settling in.

As if sensing their fading energy, the hell beast whipped around, slashing its claws with blinding speed.

Uzari screamed as its talons pierced her left thigh, the force instantly knocking her flat onto the sand. Its mouth opened, and its head reared back. The flames were coming.

Fire when there’s fire. The words suddenly rang through Giddeon’s head.

Giddeon didn’t hesitate. Sprinting forward, he dove onto the sand next to Uzari. Rifle lifted, he aimed the barrel squarely into the hell beast’s open maw. The fiery ball flared deep in the back of its throat, and in the split second it expanded, he squeezed the trigger.

BOOM!

The discharge sent his ears ringing as the recoil smashed his shoulder into the dense sand. He lay perfectly still, staring up into the beast’s blazing eyes. The light in them flickered, then vanished. Like a toppling rhino, the creature crashed down, the beach shaking from the impact. The pulsing coming from within dimmed, then went dark like a snuffed-out candle.

Tiny motes of glowing green lights floated up out of its body, separating to drift toward Giddeon and the others. One small, stray wisp trailed toward Eddington off in the distance. As the lights touched each person, the green energy was absorbed into their skin.

It’s mana, isn’t it?

“Yes!” Johnny shouted, beaming. “You sent that hell beast back to…well, hell! Good job! I thought we were dead, if I’m being honest, but hey! You did it!”

Giddeon stared at his companions as their stats updated in glowing gold on their character sheets. Eseem gained Dexterity and Endurance, while Uzari’s Dexterity and Intelligence improved. Eddington, unlike the others, gained only Luck.

Kilner was the outlier. While the motes swarmed the others, disappearing instantly into their skin, they merely sat on his arm, quivering like plucked strings before fading into nothingness.

Why didn’t it enter Kilner?

“Not everyone can absorb mana,” Johnny answered. “Don’t ask me why. It’s a mystery from what little I recall.”

Stats.

His screen flickered, projecting his character sheet. Everything was still ten.

“I already took the liberty of putting the mana into your general pool,” Johnny explained. “You gained the most, though.”

Giddeon checked his leveling page.

GENERAL MANA POOL: 55

They only gained a couple of points. Why’d I receive more?

“You contributed the most. Thus, you earned the most. Eddington contributed the least.”

But he wasn’t even in the fight.

“He contributed still,” Johnny replied. “And was blessed with mana for it—again, don’t ask me why or how.”

Uzari suddenly let out a sharp cry of pain. Giddeon jolted upright, instantly at her side as he remembered her wound. Two deep, crimson gashes tore through her Ambus suit to the flesh beneath. Blood was already pooling around the openings. If not for the Ambus—a weave twice as strong as Kevlar— she likely would have lost the leg.

Uzari’s face was pale as she looked down at her wound. Giddeon cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him rather than her leg. “I’ve got you. Just breathe, ok?”

She nodded, her expression vacant, a shuddering breath escaping her as tears trailed down the dirt on her face.

“Take your gun.” Giddeon tossed the rifle to the Hunter. “Keep a lookout.” Unzipping his suit, he drew his utility tool and sliced the undershirt, ripping it into thick bands. Wadding the center of the fabric against the gashes, he put his full weight into the puncture. “Tear more strips,” he snapped at Kilner, placing his tool on top of the bandage. As the short man did so, Giddeon looped the strips over the wound, wedged his tool into the knot, and twisted. The makeshift tourniquet bit deep into her thigh—enough pressure to stop the bleeding.

As gently as he could, he lifted her, then began jogging back to camp. Halfway there, he looked down. Uzari’s face was pale, and her lips turning blue as her eyelids flickered.

“Gid,” she whispered so low he could barely hear her, “I think I…I messed up.”

“You did fine,” he told her, pulling her tight as he tried his best not to jostle her leg. “We’re almost there. This is nothing; you’ll be just fine.”

“You were…never a good liar,” she mumbled, then went limp in his arms.

“Medic!” he shouted. Eddington, Kilner and Eseem joined his cries. “Medic!”

Aiges at the southernmost tents rushed up as they pushed through, helping to clear a path to the center of camp. Before long, they found one of the medical pavilions. It was ten times as large as any other shelter, with a white cross painted above its central flap.

Rushing inside, Giddeon was immediately directed by a woman in a mask and wearing bloody gloves to a nearby cot. He laid Uzari gently down. The room was pure chaos; five other spaced out cots were occupied by Aiges in various states of trauma. Swarms of figures in white medical gear rushed around them, grabbing instruments and supplies, shouting at one another while treating everything from a simple forearm gash to a deep, gaping side wound that refused to stop bleeding.

“You have to leave, now. It’s too crowded.”

Giddeon whipped around. A masked nurse was there, pointing toward the tent flap.

“Do you have any Hemozin?” he frantically asked.

“Of course we do,” she instantly replied, unceremoniously pushing him out of the tent. His last view of Uzari was of multiple medical personnel surrounding her cot. Outside, he numbly stared at the entrance flap.

“I’m heading back, to see if everyone’s alright,” Kilner said gruffly. “I know some of the medics—they’re good.” With an awkward nod, the short man walked away, followed by a quiet, pale-faced Eddington. Eseem, who surprisingly still lingered nearby, patted his back. “I’ve seen her before,” the man gave him a reassuring smile. “She’s strong. She’ll pull through. I have all three of you to thank for my life.”

“It was nothing,” Giddeon murmured absentmindedly, his eyes glued to the door.

“I have to return to my team as well,” Eseem went on. “Walk it off. You’ve too much energy inside you. Use it, while you wait.” With another pat, the man jogged off, disappearing in between tents.

Giddeon paced the perimeter of the medical pavilion, his eyes darting back to the entrance every few seconds. Despite Eseem’s advice, he could not force himself to wander too far. A half-hour later, to his surprise, Oomah exited the pavilion. In the chaos inside, he must have missed her.

“She’s going to be ok,” were the first words out of her mouth. “Thank the lucky stars this is Vibane, and we have several vials of Hemozin. Her body took to it just fine, allowing us to stitch up two deep lacerations and stop the bleeding. We may not have modern tech, but we’ve the best medicine and tools Vibane could buy.”

Giddeon let out a sigh that carried the weight of his heart with it.

“She’ll make a full recovery,” Oomah went on, giving him a small, comforting smile as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll need at least a full week off her feet, though.”

Removing her hand, Oomah’s eyes narrowed. “What happened out there?”

“Both of you, come with me.” Hinelin’s voice suddenly cut through the air. He stood nearby, disheveled and covered in blood, gripping a gory hatchet. “I’ll fill everyone in on the situation.” Turning on his heel, he strode off.

Giddeon and Oomah shared a glance, then followed quickly.

Back at Camp Panda, Hinelin waited until everyone gathered, then sat heavily on a crate. He buried his hatchet into the wood with a loud thwack, then wiped the blood from his face with a cloth Vessa handed him. As he handed it back, Vessa tentatively pinched it with two fingers, a look of disgust crossing her face.

“We had two encounters tonight,” he began after a moment. “One to the north, one to the south. I was closest to the northern side when the news came and joined the skirmish there. What I saw I can only describe as a…a giant red cat that breathed fire. From what Kilner described, it’s the same thing you four fought.”

His eyes locked onto Giddeon, Eddington, Kilner, and Orion. “Unfortunately, the northern hunters never saw it before it ambushed the foragers. Several were wounded, and two killed before we took it down. I heard a hunter died before you were able to eliminate yours?”

“One that we know of,” Kilner replied. “Poor sap.” He shook his head. “Thing dang near ate him alive.”

Hinelin’s eyes darted down to his bottom-left interface, checking each of them in turn. “I see some of your stats have gone up,” he murmured. As the team leader’s gaze fell upon Giddeon, his eyebrows scrunched together. “I heard you shot the beast dead. Who taught you how to use an old-school rifle?”

Giddeon shrugged. “Earth One.”

“Why are your stats still the same?” Hinelin pressed.

“This is not what we signed up for!” Redler exclaimed, breaking the tension in the air. “Half a day, and four already dead? This…this isn’t what Vibane described!”

“I concur,” Eddington agreed, biting at his nails.

Kilner snorted. “It’s what we get for trusting big corporations.”

“Everyone needs to remain calm.” Vessa’s voice rose above the others, though it remained steady. “The important thing now is to prepare for the night. We can discuss this tomorrow.”

“No!” Kilner’s fist jabbed the air, shaking with pent-up anger. “This is a right royal screw-up! Either Vibane misled us, or things are out of their control.” He unclenched his fist, lowering his hand. “Which is it?”

Hinelin stared the man down, unfazed by his outburst. “Doesn’t matter. It’s about survival right now. We can blame Vibane all we want. Tomorrow. From what our Denizenary tells us”—he tapped the side of his head—“fire scares away most of Enivia’s inhabitants. We need to get one started, as of five minutes ago.”

Is he correct?

“Checking the Denizenary… yes, fire wards away most creatures. A few, like the hell beast, would be drawn to them, ironically putting everyone in more danger.”

Wonderful. We could be speeding up our own demise. You still don’t remember anything?

“No, but I do recall hell beasts are rare. Encountering one is bad luck, let alone two. Normally, they’re solitary creatures. It would appear Vibane’s information is lacking.”

Let’s hope most of it was correct. I’d prefer a good night’s rest.

“We still need firewood,” Hinelin continued while Giddeon conversed with his AI. “I’ll go myself if I have to. Is anyone else—”

“I’m going.” Giddeon strode to the crate of axes, pulling one out. With a flick of his wrist, he flipped it toward Orion.

The hunter fumbled the catch, cursing as the heavy handle smacked his palms before he managed to grip the wood.

“You’re cutting the wood this time,” Giddeon ordered. “I’ll play guard.”

“You can’t be serious!” Orion stepped toward Giddeon. Instantly, Hinelin was up and moving, stopping the hunter flat in his tracks with a heavy hand pressed against his chest.

“He killed one of the beasts,” the team leader said in level tones, his hard gaze pinning Orion in place. “He’s earned it.” Gray-blue eyes looked the young man up and down. “Where’s your weapon?”

“I dropped it,” Orion said, jerking his chin south. “Back there.”

With his eyes still locked on Orion, Hinelin called out, “Kilner, you’re with us. Eddington, make a fire pit. The rest of you, continue digging that latrine.”

Dropping his hand, he strode past them. Orion sneered, but hooked the axe onto his belt anyway.

The four of them headed south, retracing their steps. Before long, the silhouette of the hell beast loomed in the distance. Giddeon spotted Orion’s discarded rifle in the sand nearby. As he scooped it up, a weighty object flew directly at his chest. He caught it tight against his ribs, looking down at a thick canvas sack.

“You’ll need those,” Orion said, walking past without breaking stride. “Now they can weigh you down.”

Giddeon pulled open the flap to find it packed with ammunition.

Upon reaching the carcass, Hinelin prodded it with his gun. Finding it still, he stepped closer to inspect it. “Interesting,” he murmured, his hand hovering near its hide, “it’s still hot to the touch.”

Are any of its parts valuable? Can we eat it?

Johnny paused, considering. “That depends on what skillsets you have. To you guys? No. To others? Immensely valuable, especially its third eye. A tanner could make some tough hide armor from its skin, if you had one. As for food, it’s edible…if that’s what you’re asking.”

“It’s got a tough hide,” Giddeon pointed out to Hinelin, pulling back the rifle’s bolt to check the chamber. It was still loaded, but unfortunately, it was a single shot, just like Eseem’s.

“You seem extremely proficient,” Hinelin commented, nodding at the weapon. “Did you own one?”

“Several,” Giddeon replied. “My father was a military man. Just like you.”

Hinelin grunted. Drawing a thick knife from somewhere hidden around his waist, he began carving into its side, making slow, agonizing progress due to its dense hide. “Noticed, did you?”

“If you’ve grown up around someone who served, you’d have to be blind to miss it.”

“True.” Hinelin wiped beads of sweat from his brow. “Kilner, give me a hand with this.”

As Kilner stepped in to help saw through its skin, Hinelin kept his eyes fixed on Giddeon. “As long as you know which end does what, you hold onto that rifle from now on.”

Giddeon nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

After a few minutes of muscle-burning effort, they finally pried open the beast’s side. A loud hiss escaped, releasing a plume of hazy steam that filled the air with the stench of scorched flesh and sulfur.

“Orion, change of plans. Head back and grab Redler and some saws and knives,” Hinelin instructed, pointing a bloody finger at the carcass. “When you return, cut out as much as you can. This’ll feed us for a week. Have you ever gutted a deer, or anything of the sort?”

Orion frowned. “What’s a deer?”

Hinelin sighed, wiping his blade on a patch of clean fur. “Just get a tarp and start carving. If something looks like guts or organs, they probably are. Pull ‘em out and throw ‘em to the side. It’s a bloody job, but necessary. You don’t have a problem with this, do you?”

Orion’s face went pale, but he nodded.

“Good, now hand me your axe. We’re heading into the woods.” Hinelin pointed due east into the dark treeline. “If you hear gun shots or fighting, fortify the camp and protect everyone.”

Orion nodded, transferring his axe from his belt to the team leader’s waiting hand before jogging off.

The trek into the woods was nerve-wracking after what they had just fought. As soon as they crossed the boundary, the jungle closed in around them. Dead branches and viable firewood littered the forest floor, and the shadows were deep.

“Too much cover in here,” Giddeon muttered, keeping his rifle leveled at the brush. “Let’s drop two small ones and drag them out of here. I can’t protect us in this thick foliage.”

Hinelin nodded. “Agreed.”

Kilner and Hinelin went to work with their axes. The larger man quickly chopped through the base of his tree, then stepped over to help Kilner, felling both within minutes. Grunting under the weight, they hauled the timber onto the open sand where Redler and Orion were already elbow-deep into the steaming carcass.

While Hinelin and Kilner stripped the branches, Giddeon paced the perimeter, keeping watch.

Sighing, Hinelin and Kilner stood straight, stretching their backs. The team leader removed four large gear nets from his pack, unrolling them on the ground. The two men filled them, then tossed them to the men. “Carry it over your shoulder if you have to,” Hinelin said, hoisting his over his back. “Redler, Orion, tie off the tarp and drag it. Let’s head back.”

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