20 Chapter 17 : Crushed.
"Damned Ish making me act like a beginner hunter."
Chris mumbled with irritation. A former Two of Spades like him was now hunting in the 48th floor to live a peaceful life away from the syndicate, but sadly he was currently lost.
He wasn't familiar with any of the Vaults present on Earth. Ish just threw him inside the mountain like vault and registered him as a novice hunter of Vardle City. He cursed Ish for putting him in this situation especially the owner of the shadow that was currently covering him.
"Can you stop following me?! Who's your owner?!"
He shouted and stomped on the ground. He was currently staring at the Odd rabbit who was following him since a few hours ago. The rabbit tilted its head and laid on its back, exposing its belly. A playful expression was present on its face.
"No! I don't want to play with you! I'm asking where your damned owner is?!"
The rabbit tilted its head once more and was now gesturing Chris to rub its belly. Chris threw his hands in the air in frustration. The Odd rabbit was considered intelligent compared to other beasts, but it couldn't understand humans.
Chris resisted the urge to harm the playful beast, It was his only guide to find an outpost. He was finding the entrance to the next floor, but he had no idea where it was. He wanted to find a settlement first so he could buy a map of the upcoming floors so he wont get lost again.
The hostile beasts found in the 48th floor were no match for Chris. He could easily decapitate them by coating his fingers with energy. Most of his bracelets were already at the Red tier, he needed to climb higher to get better ones.
"Hey you."
Chris pointed at the beast. The beast chirped in excitement it thought Chris was going to finally play with it. Chris frowned as he saw the beast wiggle around in excitement.
"Human."
Chris pointed at himself.
"Where."
Chris acted like he was looking for something. The rabbit tilted its head, it had seen this action from another hunter before.
The rabbit understood what Chris meant and it gestured to ride its back. It's cotton-like tail wagging.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Chris muttered as he slowly climbed at the back of the rabbit. He firmly grabbed on to its fur waiting for the rabbit to move.
Suddenly, It's ears perked up and started looking around its surroundings. Chris found this weird, something he couldn't see was making the rabbit anxious. Odd rabbits were usually safe against predators, judging by the rabbit's behavior something was amiss.
The rabbit quickly ran to a direction unknown to Chris. It was currently heading towards Towe's outpost. Chris' eyes widened as the rabbit started to leap the creature was faster than he expected it to be.
As they traversed the land, the rabbit was looking at a certain direction with worry. The more they closed in on Towe's outpost the more danger the rabbit felt. It felt an unfamiliar presence in the distance.
Chris noticed the behavior of the rabbit. It kept looking at a direction and a subtle shivering could be felt on its body. The rabbit wanted to avoid the direction but at the same time it wanted to visit what ever it was looking at in the distance.
He gestured the rabbit to stop. He was curious what beast was making the rabbit anxious. It might be an abnormal beast that descended down the floor. Excitement filled Chris' heart.
"Finally something to relieve my boredom."
Chris proudly declared, stretching his body as he got down the rabbit. The rabbit saw Chris slowly walk towards the danger it sensed. It quickly grabbed Chris and hugged him tightly so that he wouldn't go to the dangerous presence.
"You can keep following me if you're that worried, I'll show you how strong I am."
Chris said flexing his right arm inside the rabbit's embrace. The rabbit was looking at him with worry, It had seen many corpses of hunters before. Chris was more and more suspicious if this Odd rabbit was a different species. It was showing complex emotion a beast couldn't have.
Chris quickly got out of its embrace and gestured it to follow. The rabbit grasped at the air and hesitated, but it soon followed behind Chris. Anxiousness burning in its eyes.
Chris traveled on foot while the rabbit was slowly following him. In the distance he could see the air distort just by a little. Something was refracting the light in the far distance.
The rabbit suddenly started sniffing the air and wandered away from Chris. Chris just let it be, he was focusing his eyesight on the distortion from afar. He had 3 bracelets on each arm, 2 weapon types, 1 armor type and three spell type bracelets. All colored red except one spell type which was violet.
He activated his only violet spell bracelet. The world lost some of its color and time seemed to slow down. His eyesight could now clearly observe the distortion in the distance.
"A freshly created barrier prison spell. "
Chris muttered as he analyzed the distortion. He inferred someone was catching a beast with the spell. He wanted to investigate what kind of beast needed a cage that huge.
"It must be an Anomalous beast."
Chris predicted that a beast that should only remain in the upper floors spawned in the 48th floor. He deactivated his bracelet and started to run towards the barrier. Anomalous beasts were rare. Its strength varied on which floor of the vault it came from multiplied by a lot.
Chris was filled with excitement. He wanted to join and have a tussle with the anomalous beast. He was sprinting at full speed in under a minute he could see the battlefield in front of him.
A smile appeared on Chris' face. He saw a tall, lumbering giant that looked eerily humanoid thrashing around with its tentacles trying to remove something from its hole like face.
Suddenly a small dust cloud appeared at the foot of the giant beast. It looked like the hunter got hit by a stray tentacle from the beast. He inferred that the hunter was the one who put up the cage to hunt this humanoid beast.
"How brave."
Chris exclaimed. The hunter removed his gaze from the thrashing beast and looked at a direction. Chris also followed where the hunter was looking at. Chris saw two hunters fighting near the corner of the barrier it was a female and a hooded figure.
"Hunters these days are greedy, only one hunter is taking the beast out while the other two are having a needless quarrel."
Chris frowned and clicked his tongue. He wanted to scold them. The hunter fighting the beast and the female looked very young compared to him, he didn't know about the hooded person though.
He found something odd as he continued to watch. The lone hunter was dealing with the beast but it looks like he couldn't even give it a scratch. He was simply just annoying the beast as if he was buying time.
"Why aren't they removing the barrier?"
He thought to himself. The more he watched the more suspicious he became that the three of them were not in a party.
THUD THUD THUD
He heard something hop towards him from behind. He didn't look behind him, he knew it was the Odd Rabbit. The rabbit gently tapped on his back to make him notice it was behind him. This made Chris look.
The rabbit was holding an herb with brown leaves. Chris immediately knew what it was holding just from seeing it. A spirit herb was currently in the hands of the rabbit and it was handing it to him.
"That's why you wandered away a while ago."
Chris muttered. He now knows why the rabbit seems to be more intelligent than a common Odd Rabbit, It had a sense for finding spirit herbs. The spirit herb strengthens beasts this rabbit must have found quite a few and ate them.
"AGGHH!"
The scream of the hooded man grabbed Chris' attention. He tore his gaze away from the rabbit and observed the nearby battlefield. The hooded man was bleeding profusely, there was a deep gash on his right side.
BWOOOOM!
A loud boom emanated quickly after the man screamed. Chris looked at where the beast should be and it was not there. The beast was now in front of the lone hunter and was trying to kill him.
"A beast that can teleport?"
Chris frowned. He didn't know any beast that could teleport. They were simply too primitive to understand the concept of teleportation. The rabbit was currently shivering uncontrollably beside him. He stroked its fur to calm it down and a thought occurred to him.
"...Unless?"
Chris' eyes widened from realization. A beast could not teleport, but a hunter's familiar could.
"Could it be?"
He gazed at the thrashing beast, it seems like the lone hunter attack its face once more since its tentacles were trying to remove something from its face. If the beast really was a familiar then the battle happening in front of him could be a murder being attempted.
The rabbit stood on its hind legs as it watched the fight with Chris. It recognized the two hunters struggling against a hooded stranger and a familiar. It noticed the barrier dissipate and quickly ran towards the two hunters.
Chris saw this and tried to grab the rabbit, but it was too fast. He quickly ran in front of it to stop it but it jumped above him and continued to run towards the battle.
"Stupid Rabbit!"
Chris cursed and ran towards the battlefield with the rabbit in front of him. He could instantly traverse the distance between him and the battlefield, but he chose not to. He wanted to see what the rabbit was planning.
FWEWEET!
While running Chris heard the hooded man whistle. The familiar that the lone hunter was attacking suddenly disappeared. Chris quickly turned his gaze towards the hooded man. The familiar was found behind the female, Its tentacles poised to strike down the oblivious hunter.
The rabbit instantly disappeared from Chris' view. A deep crater was formed where it disappeared. Chris instinctively looked at the familiar, the rabbit still nowhere to be seen.
"EDEN! NOOOOOOOOOO!"
A helpless cry of despair rang throughout the battlefield as the familiar slammed down its tentacles on the female hunter's position.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Raw fury and energy tore the ground open. Dirt and rocks were flung in the air. The amount of force it used was incomparable to the last two slams it did. Dust covered the entire area around them. Only one silhouette could be seen through the dust cloud standing.
"AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA"
Manic laughter could be heard from the hooded figure. Blood was dripping down the tentacles of the familiar.
