A New Direction

Laying on the floor, motionless, in a pile of his own blood, Human Hunter heard a faint bark off in the distance.

"H-..Halt..?" he managed to spit out.

Soon enough, Halt had arrived. His trusty wolf had been searching the aircraft for something to stop the bleeding. "Woof!" he exclaimed, placing a roll of bandages next to his master.

Human Hunter managed to pull himself up into a sitting position. He took the bandages, and began to unravel them. "Thanks boy.." he said in a tired tone. "Aria.. Benson.. I'm guessing they were taken by Malent?"

Halt whimpered, signifying that his master was correct.

"Nnghh, not good." Human Hunter placed both hands upon the sand. Taking a deep breath, he pushed against it, hauling his body up so that he could walk. "As of right now, I'm nowhere near strong enough to take action. In order to save Aria and Benson, I'll need to find somewhere to improve my skills. The problem is.." Holding his side in agony, Human Hunter peered off into the distance. "I'm not sure if there's anyone from this planet stronger than I am.."

Climbing into the aircraft, Human Hunter took the wheel. Halt sat behind him this time due to his master's injury. They flew all around the desert, trying to find Aurora, but they were unsuccessful. The next day they arrived back at Aurora's temple, which was also empty.

"Halt, see if you can find anything useful around here. Healing items or something like that." Human Hunter stated. He went to the back, and laid in a spare bed.

"Aria.." Human Hunter said. He stared at the ceiling. "Benson.. I'm going to save you.. then, we can continue our mission, and kill everyone. I promised you, right? I don't break promises."

Halt frolicked into the room carrying some type of odd liquid in his mouth. Human Hunter grabbed the container that held it, removed the lid, and gave it a whiff. "Hm. Not bad." he said. "Am I supposed to drink this, or poor it on the wound?"

Halt crushed the container with his paw. Its contents poured down Human Hunter's stomach, aggressively stinging his wound.

"Err-.. guess that answers that.." he spit out.

The next morning Human Hunter woke up in a far better state than he had been previously. He could function almost normally, just feeling a bit of pain here and there. "I really need to ask Aurora, if he's alive, how he gets this stuff." he thought to himself, referring to the medicine he had used.

Looking around the place further, Human Hunter searched for clues to any sort of location he could travel to for extensive training. A place where he could increase his battle skills tremendously. After a reasonable amount of digging, he finally found that place. "Proel" he read from a worn letter. "Apparently, Aurora attempted to contact a few of the trainees from this place. Who knows why. But if I know Aurora as a person, he would only want top tier fighters. Heh.. guess that settles it then." he folded the letter and slipped it into his armor. "Halt, get in the aircraft. We're headed to join Proel."

Following yet another almost day long flight, Human Hunter and Halt arrived at the entrance of a dark and dreary looking swampland. One set in the middle of a forest.

"We'll have to walk the rest of the way, flying through all these trees wouldn't be a smart idea." Human Hunter told Halt.

Together, the duo entered the swamp. Every way they looked, they noticed something even more disgusting and grotesque than what they saw last. Algae crept up the tree trunks, and the bodies of water sizzled and bubbled. "Aria would've hated this place.." Human Hunter thought to himself. He smiled a bit under his helmet.

This moment of reflection was interrupted when someone flew out of the trees. The person slashed at Human Hunter with his two blades. Human Hunter got his own sword out just in time, but when he blocked, the strangers weapons sliced right through it.

Human Hunter watched as his own blade, which he had constructed to be several times sturdier than normal, fell to pieces. He looked up at the stranger, who had landed a few meters away from him.

The stranger wore a red cowl, combined with a red bandana across his mouth. Only his seething red eyes could be seen. The rest of his body was covered in shiny black, and light as well as dark red armor, that was worn tight against his slim figure. In his back rested the two blades he had just used, which were again, red. Blood dripped down from their tips, it had been smeared across the weapons for some reason.

"Heh heh." The stranger chuckled. "C'mon man, you can't just go roamin around our swamp like that. I mean, I know there's not a sign or anything to show it, but I live here with my friends. So can ya do me a favor and leave? Thanks."

Halt barked at the stranger, but refrained from growling. That was usually an incredibly good sign. Halt almost always growled at new people.

This caught Human Hunter's attention, and he assumed that this reaction was because Halt realized that the stranger they had been approached by was a member of Proel.

All of a sudden, the stranger appeared in front of Human Hunter, waving a hand in front of his face. "Uhh, hello? You did hear me right? Get lost already I seriously don't wanna kill you. Well-.. not right now at least, I'm kinda in the middle of something. Maneuverability training. It's where I improve how fast I can traverse around certain areas, stuff like that."

"I'm trying to locate a group called Proel. Do you know of them?" Human Hunter got straight to the point.

"Ohh yeahhh." The stranger responded. "As a matter of fact I do. Actually, you're looking at one of their top members right now!" Examining Human Hunter's body and gear, he continued. "Wanna join or somethin, or are ya trying to kill us?"

"I'm looking to join. There's a group of extra terrestrial beings who managed to capture the people I care about. In my current state, I'm unable to rescue them. I was hoping that by joining your group, I could exponentially improve my skill set in a variety of ways, gaining the power I need to get them back."

"Hm.. I guess we could see what you're all about. If you pass our tests, I'm sure Setianal would be happy to train ya straight awa-.." the stranger was then tackled to the ground by.. well.. another stranger.

"Alant! You idiottt what the hell do you think you're saying?!" he screamed, "There's not a chance in hell that Setianal would even consider letting someone that he didn't personally handpick learn the whereabouts of our base let alone train him!!"

"Ugh, get off of me Tigal!" Alant struggled to push his friend off of him. "If this guy doesn't pass the tests Setianal will just kill him anyway! Who cares if he knows where our base is!"

Tigal stood up. "Hmph, it's dangerous either way. You're walking a fine line Alant and you know it. Let's hope this doesn't piss Sentianal off too much. Even with his power, he likes to play it safe. A wise decision if you ask me."

Human Hunter stomped his foot, grabbing the attention of both Tigal and Alant. "Nngh.. I have no reason to cause you all any trouble. I just need to train for a while, and then leave."

Tigal and Alant looked at each other.

Alant removed one of the blood soaked swords from his back, spun it around, and pointed to Human Hunter. "Heh, got it buddy. We'll bring ya right on over to our base of operations, and make sure you get the improvements you need!"

Tigal scoffed, and crossed his arms. "Grr.. just try to stay away from me. I don't like newcomers, even when they are picked by our boss."

Looking at both of his newfound potential teammates, Human Hunter gave them a simple answer, as he usually gave most people. "Got it. Now let's go."