23 First Mission Pt. 3

Several hours later, John was standing lookout as Mike and Steven finished gathering herbs. They were further away from the school at this point than he'd ever been before. It'd take them at least 3 hours at a normal pace, 2 if they sprinted the whole way, to return. Ever since leaving the first ambush sight, they'd taken out nearly 100 rabbits, with at least 10 of them being Rank 9 and one being Rank 8.

That'd been one hell of a fight, with the Rank 8 rabbit somehow noticing Mike's presence and dodging the attack before screeching. If Steven hadn't had the ability to increase gravity and slow the rabbit down it might have done some serious damage. In that case, John had stayed on lookout while Steven slowed the rabbit down and Snakey snuck up on it. Snakey's venom had evolved as it got stronger, and a single bite was enough to knock the rabbit out. After which it was simple for Steven to snap it's neck. Even then, it'd been scary for a moment there and since then they'd decided to stick to lower tier monsters until they had more experience.

As John was remembering the details of his first hunt with a smile, Snakey sent a warning to him. It was more of a feeling than a word. It felt like danger and pain, and John turned to see a black shape flying through the trees with Snakey in his mouth. Without thinking, John took out his gun and shot catching the others off guard.

"What the?!?!" Mike hissed, but John didn't care he'd already started running.

Thanks to his training and John's decision to keep armor piercing rounds in the chamber after the first run in with the Water Monkey, the shot had caught the monster in the leg and it'd dropped Snakey in it's pain. Running up to her, John picked her up and examined her closely. "Nothing serious." John said with a sigh of relief before looking around for whatever had attacked.

All he could find was a little blood and some fur that'd fallen out when he'd shot it. Picking it up, he examined it for a moment before paling and looking up.

At this point, Mike and Steven had finished their work on the herbs and seeing Snakey passed out around John's shoulder Steven asked, "What's wrong."

"Monster attack. Probably cat family, stronger than Snakey and proficient in moving through the trees quickly." John said as he threw the fur away and stood with a solemn look on his face. "We need to go, now. Keep an eye on the tree's and be ready for an attack at any time."

"Got it." Mike said, pulling out his phone and checking the map. "If we're going for fastest return time we go this way." He said, hitting a button that laid out an emergency return route while sending out a SOS. It was unlikely that anyone would see and respond to it, but who knew.

Mike put the phone away and they all started running. They did their best to maintain stealth, but moved far faster than normal as they flew through the forest. It didn't take long for the first monster to notice them, Steven running past Mike to slam his fist into the head of a charging bull with a crunching noise. Taking out the monster retrieval bag, they threw the bull in and kept moving without stopping.

Glancing back, John saw a black blur as it ran across a clearing and leaped into the trees following them from behind. "Behind us in the trees. Looks like a Panther, definitely at least a 7th Ranked Monster, looks like it's at the 4th level body refining at the least as well. Bleeding from it's right back leg, doesn't seem to be slowed by the injury."

"Fuck!" Mike growled in anger, "What the hell is that doing here? The wards should've kept anything above the third level of body refining away this close to the school."

"Wards don't always work during a monster wave, they aren't scared off by the usual things." Steven said with a solemn look on his face. "Pick up the pace, we're going to have to fight our way out."

The jog quickly turned into a sprint as they all ran at full speed. It wasn't long before Mike started to lag behind a bit, and John quickly put away his pistol before picking him up and continuing to run. "Be ready to fire!" John said over Mike's complaints, "You haven't started cultivating yet, I can run like this for hours now that I've broken through. We need you to kill that thing."

"Motherfucking, cock-sucking bitch, GET DOWN HERE!" Mike screamed at the black blur, pissed off that he couldn't even run fast enough to keep up. However, he calmed down quickly realizing that if he didn't have to run he could try to get a bead on whatever was following them with his rifle. "I'm going to make my goddamned rifle next week even if I don't get to sleep until it's finished!" He continued to yell in anger.

"Stop yelling!" Steven said, "All you're doing is attracting more of the bastards!"

"And hurting my ears." John said with a laugh as he leaped over a log and kicked it backwards after he landed sending it flying towards the black blur and slowing it down slightly.

"Shit, does reaching the first level of Body Refining really make you that much stronger?" Mike asked in disgust.

"Yeah, it doubles your strength at least. More depending on the type of technique you choose." Steven said as right arm suddenly expanded and he slammed his fist into a tree making it crash to the ground and sending several monkeys flying in anger.

An hour later, Snakey had been keeping watch from John's shoulder and she noticed the blur was about to attack. Panicked, she jumped off John's shoulder as she sent panicked message and shot a fireball at the black blur as it dropped down from the tree at John and Mike.

With a yell, John dove to the side while throwing Mike away and rolling to pull out his gun. It was too late, the monster swiped his claws slamming into Mike with a crunching noise while it drew blood. Pulling the trigger, John aimed at the monster but missed.

"This isn't going to work." Mike wheezed from the ground as blood dripped from his side and he coughed up a little blood.

"We have no choice now, we've attracted too many monsters we have to keep going!" Steven yelled as he ripped another monkey in half and threw it into a crowd of rabbits who'd been attracted by the noise.

Picking Mike back up, John took off while Snakey continued to shoot fireballs every time the Panther drew near.

"Can't you put it under an illusion or something?" Mike asked as he kept trying to get a clear shot on the Panther despite his injuries. It was obvious that the monster had a lot of experience hunting down sharpshooters, it kept dodging behind trees and moving from side to side even as it advanced towards them missing up his aim. That scared Mike more than anything because that meant it'd succeeded in killing rifleman several times in order to gain the experience to avoid the shots.

"No, that thing is at least at the 4th level of Body Refining. The only reason we haven't died yet is Steven's ability to mess with gravity!" John yelled.

*CRACK* John winced as Mike took a shot and he heard a yowling noise from behind them.

"Hit it!" Mike yelled in exultation before paling as he coughed up some more blood and saw the monster still standing, "Shit, it's glowing now."

"What color?" John asked, unwilling to take the time to turn and look.

"Black, it's glowing black and picking up speed at an insane rate." Mike said.

"UP!" John yelled, throwing Mike towards a tree branch, "In the tree's now!"

Steven didn't waste time to ask why, just jumped up as Mike tried to hold onto the tree branch despite his injuries until John jumped up as well and managed to stabilize Mike's perch.

"What's going on?" Steven asked, breathing heavily due to the exertion of sprinting and fighting for the last hour while carrying a bag full of monster carcasses.

Before John could explain, a gust of wind blew past them and blades of darkness shot by as the Panther flew by them at an uncontrollable speed.

"What the?!?!" Mike yelled in astonishment.

"Shoot it!" John yelled, pulling out his gun. "After using that ability it'll be slowed down for a while."

Without wasting anymore time, Mike started shooting as fast as he could while John, Steven, and Snakey leaped from the tree and sprinted towards the Panther as fast as they could. Apparently, Mike's shot had gotten lucky and hit a artery because it was gushing blood and wobbling even as it tried to turn and growl at them. Suddenly, it fell to the ground as a round hit it on the side of it's chest and slammed towards it's heart. Only it's armored rib cage saving it.

Finally in range, John took aim and shot at it's open mouth figuring that was the most vulnerable spot. Even then, it wasn't until Steven climbed a tree and leaped off it, increasing gravity 5 times and slamming both his feat into the neck of the monster that it stopped breathing.

Grabbing his ribs in pain as blood continued to seep through his fingers, Mike hobbled up to the two as they stuffed it into the monster bag. Without saying anything, John picked Mike up again and started running towards the school as fast as he could.