Dawning Skye

466 Hunting Trip(Part Five)

***CONTENT WARNING: LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, AND A LOT OF GORE***

As Norvis watched the three disappear into the darkness of the forest, he and Marco went around to the monitors. It was far easier to get along with his King when they were alone versus having all of the instigatorss around. All they were to him were idiots, and generally unworthy of his time.

Marco was the one who told Norvis that he and his inventions were far above the others at court, and that Jakub was only chosen because of his status. Although his family were commoners, they were highly respected merchants, which gave Yeager a foothold into the world of the nobles. Norvis was a poor commoner who came from a poor family, and Marco knew exactly what to say to get Norvis on his side..

‘Everyone wants to be validated, and they want their envy and hatred justified.. Norvis decided that Yeager was beneath him, even though it’s the other way around.. Jakub is clearly the better of the two, but Norvis can re-create anything that Yeager comes up with, so I deemed him useful.. However..’

As the thought crossed Marco’s mind, Norvis was going off on another tangent about how he was the better inventor. Yeager drew inspiration from ancient texts, and used his knowledge to recreate or improve pre-existing ideas. Norvis thought that he was the only one smart enough to think of it, and was infuriated when he learned that Yeager used the same method for coming up with new things long before the idea had donned on him.

Norvis believed that his work would show his superiority, but Jakub had already presented and incorporated most of his best ideas. When he was made the head of the Department of Research and Development instead, Norvis had lost it. He had actually attacked Jakub by chasing him with a wrench outside of the R&D department.

He was escorted from the building property, and told to never come back. Norvis was in deep despair when Marco found him, and told him to come work for him. The Crowned Prince made him feel appreciated and valid.

Before he’d even heard Marco’s general plan about creating a new world, Norvis had already sworn loyalty to him. His now-King had saved him from the bulk of his humiliation, and given him his own laboratory. Marco gave him tomes to inspire him, and they had even created things together.

Norvis and Marco had designed the underground tunnels and passageways in the palace, the setup of Stein’s lab, and designed experiments for finding new energy sources. Norvis saw Marco as akin to a strict older brother, but lately.. ‘Marco’s growing colder, even to me.. Is it his power? Will he get worse the more he gains?’

.....

Norvis pushed the thought away right as Marco said; “Bring up the feeds. I need to keep an eye on them, and to see when to make my entrance..”

Norvis smirked; “Aye, My King. May I ask: why are you not wearing any armor?”

“I don’t need it. I’ll hone my Tank trait here, so the more consequences for failure: the better. Besides, Ahriman would never fail me,” Marco replied with a matter-of-fact tone.

Before he could ask anything else, something large had flashed across the screen at a surprising speed. Benzo and Draco were moving through the forest carefully, and Sheri was using her Water magic to make herself invisible. Ahriman was physically on the other side of the caves, scouting for escape routes that anything fleeing might use, so it wasn’t him either.

As they scanned the monitors for more movement, Marco flipped a switch to speak with Draco; “Double back thirty feet, and veer right by three degrees. There’s something large over there.”

“Aye, My King. I’m on my way,” Draco replied as he did as he was ordered to.

He didn’t need to go very far before Draco was face to face with an Orc the size of a boulder. It skin was a grey-green color, and it’s eyes were sunken into it’s sockets. They seemed to be black to Draco, but he was too distracted by it’s smell to focus.

The creature grunted at him as it grumbled the word; “Meat,” then ran at Draco.

He easily dodged the massive monster, then turned back to slice through the backs of it’s legs. Before it could cry out, Draco stabbed it’s throat, then yanked the blade out at an angle. The Orc spit and sputtered blood as it choked, then stopped moving altogether.

“It’s been taken care of, My King. Should I travel along the path that the Fae made, or circle back?” Draco inquired as he cleaned his blade of the purplish-colored blood.

Marco thought a few moments before he issued an order; “Circle back and continue on until you do your second pass. Norvis will direct you when you get to the marker again. I want Benzo with you in case it leads to housing for similar creatures.”

“Do you think that it was a perimeter guard?” Sheri asked in a low voice, trying not to give away her position.

“I don’t think so.. It called me ‘meat’, so it might’ve been either a hunter of sorts, or a loner. It had a spear and club-like log thing with it,” Draco replied.

“Just stick to the plan for now. If problems arise, then we’ll deal with them then. Sheri, I want you to make it to the caves as quickly as possible. I want to confirm what kind of gathering the Fae are having, and I want you to keep track of their numbers. There may be more than what Ahriman saw showing up.”

“Aye, My King,” was all Sheri replied before continuing on.

Draco and Benzo also continued on with their objectives, bobbing and weaving through the trees. As they passed by certain monitors at predicted times, Norvis realized something, and asked his Kung; “Pardon me, but how will Ahriman know what’s going on? He doesn’t have a communicator.”

Marco glanced at him, then looked back to the projections as he answered; “Don’t worry. Ahriman can hear and see me at all times. He’d have to be on the other side of the continent to not..”

“Is it because of his magic?” Norvis pushed.

Marco’s expression went placid again as he replied; “Something like that.. You will all understand after I retrieve the Ethereal Spear. I share my power with all of you, don’t I? When I gain power, so do you.”

“I-Is it going to hurt?” Norvis asked in a voice that Marco found grading.

“Not much. All gains come with preset pains, Norvis. You just need to decide if you can withstand it all.”

Norvis grinned and nodded, then they went back to staining the woods with blood. Goblins, Orcs, Barghests, and even a centaur were all seen and disposed of. It wasn’t until Draco had come across a Minotaur with unrealistic strength that he needed help. It was at the farthest point away from the caves, so if it made noise, the Fae at the caves shouldn’t hear it’s dying screams.

The Minotaur was a deep red color mixed with black, and had white eyes. It charged at Draco with a massive axe as it roared loud enough to shake the ground. He dodged several times while trying to attack, but the creature was too fast and large to handle on his own without going all out.

Marco told them to use as little magic as possible, in case the Fae could sense it. Magical creatures were all over the forest, so as long as they didn’t go past a certain threshold, then the Fae at the caves shouldn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.

As Draco started to run out of breath and was debating on using his full power, Benzo came rushing through. He cut the side of the Minotaur’s leg as he zipped passed, then went over to Draco. They grinned mischievously at each other, then readied to attack together..

The two dashed towards the creature until it was about ten feet away, then they split to the sides. The Minotaur movements were fast, but not it’s reaction time. It missed the two as they ran passed several times, cutting up it’s legs until it fell over.

As the Minotaur pushed itself up onto it’s arms, Benzo swung his long sword down onto the back of the Minotaur’s neck. It’s head dropped and skidded a foot or so away from it’s body. Benzo looked up at a smiling Draco with just as big of a grin as he nearly yelled; “That was fucking awesome! Let’s find another one that big!”

Right as the two went to dash away, they heard Marco’s voice in their ears; “Stick to the plan, you two. You’ll have all the fun you want in a few hours..”

The two acknowledged their King’s orders, then started to zip through the forest in sync. The trees were a decent length apart, and bushes everywhere made natural trails. An occasional branch would be low, but that was solved by simply slicing through it. As the two cleared the forest of Fae, Sheri had made her way to the caves for direct recon.

There was a wonderful smell beginning to waft into the forest, and it made her stomach rumble as she neared the cave’s entrance. As she walked along, Sheri was doing everything possible not to leave a trail, but it was a little hard to do in the woods. As she gradually came closer, she could see a line of fire pits with something large cooking over the top.

‘I thought that they were cooking chicken, but it must be pork.. Only wild hogs are that big.. Wait, hogs aren’t shaped...Oh...may the Gods have mercy..’

As the once pleasant smell filled her nostrils, Sheri got close enough to see what the Fae were roasting. Adult humans were on the massive picks being rotated over the fires by Goblins. She had heard faint screams a hour or so ago, but she’d thought that it was Draco and Benzo killing things in the forest.

As she looked at the charred flesh, she couldn’t hold back the bile rocketing up and out. As Sheri puked profusely from the horrible sight, Marco asked what was happening. He and the rest had heard her vomit over the communicator, and were bombarding her with questions.

As she tried to catch her breath, Sheri muttered; “It’s people.. The smell is people..”

“What?! There’s no way humans smell that good. Are you sure?” Benzo asked as he huffed with his efforts.

Right as Sheri went to answer, something slammed into her side, knocked her over, and pinned her against the ground. As stars blurred her vision, Sheri forced herself to focus enough to see her attacker..