Desolate Agreement

The fist looming over Gen's head fell to the side as Orion and the rest turned to face the creature.

HISSSSS

The snake tail hissed as its tongue flicked back and forth. That's how the found him, the snake. Snakes could smell blood easily, courtesy of its tongue being able to bring in chemicals from the air. And well, blood smelled a lot like iron.

And here Gen had thought that they just happened to chance upon him.

His hiding spot was good and his diversion tactic had worked. That little bit of information brought him some calm.

But that didn't take away from the fact that he was till bleeding out.

The creature then completely moved into view. It orange fur shone brightly in the light peeking through the trees.

An ape. That's what it was. A massive ape. The red ape arms from the chimera Waking, looked like the arms of a child on comparison to this creature's arms.

Gen quickly put it together that the thuds he'd been hearing were all from this creature attacking the soldiers. And looking at the corpse to the right, it absolutely wrecked them. 

"Stop! Stay away from them."

And just to further prove his thoughts, a fully transformed soldier ran at it on all fours. Moving side to side, yellow electricity emanating from him as he moved. The ability looked extremely dangerous and it just increased in speed as he got closer to the ape.

"Children back off, this beast is very dangerous. It has taken out a lot of the others. Leave the injured, he will most likely die here. Our main mission is to ensure your safety." Another soldier said, arriving next to them. 

He then followed the other soldier running behind him, gaining a metallic sheen as he ran,

And as he reached the orange ape, a line of yellow electricity crackled behind the first soldier and he kept going in an effort to tackle the creature.

BANG

THUD

The ape moved its arm, backhanding the incoming projectile and sent the soldier flying into the trees and out of sight.

It then raised its other arm and brought it down onto the second soldier. The soldier was instantly flattened, his body left actively compressed. Like a bottle that had been crushed. His Waking had prevented him from exploding and becoming roadkill but it left him in a worse situation, since he was still alive after taking the hit. But now he was permanently stuck in that state and would instantly die if he undid his transformation, his bones and body were disfigured and were only still functioning because of the metal like properties he had replicated. Undoing the transformation would make it so that his brittle bones would return, piercing through his own body or just shattering inside himself.

Regardless, the soldier had chanced upon a fate worse than death.

Both Orion and the other girl stood staring the creature completely frozen. Jeana on the other hand backed up a few steps.

"What...… is this...….. creature?

"Weak...… human. Boy lightning stronger."

…

…..

Since the creature arrived, the only thing it had brought along with it was shock. Everything the creature did shocked the spectators further.

The scale girl eked out, "It.. speaks?" And stumbled back a few steps in fear.

Orion stood tall and faced the beast but the shock and disbelief was evidently displayed on his face. Nothing could hide that. It just wasn't possible. 

They had never been put in a situation like this before. They grew up in a sheltered environment, coddled their whole life. The only scary thing that they would have witnessed was the dark creature that could pull out Wakings, but chances were that they did not really come face to face with it. They could have been medically put to sleep before hand.

Gen, despite being just as shocked could come to accept the situation he was in a lot easier than the rest.

The creature raised its arm. Pointing at the soldiers and then at the three in front, "You break agreement. You fights animals only. No killing humans here. No big man killing animals also. This third time."

It walked to the three, arms swaying back and forth and then walked past them.

"Agreement broken. No come here again. If come, kill. Go tell."

The creature pushed the three roughly in the opposite direction the one they had come from. And they did exactly that. Orion turned back to face the creature stopping his run but scale girl and Jeana pulled at his arms in fear, causing him to turn and run back with them.

Now it stood face to face with a dying Gen. It then observed him, using its hands to lift his and check his wounds.

"Heal. Come?"

Gen blinked in confusion, thinking that the blood loss led to him hallucinating. There was no way a creature was asking him if he wanted to be healed.

"Come?" It asked again.

Gen nodded understanding but still delirious. A chance at survival. Though miniscule, he would be a fool to not take it even if the circumstances were a bit too fairy tale like. And then his eyes glowed white. His Waking had finally activated. It wanted him to absorb the creature. But he couldn't keep his consciousness intact. 

And thus he slowly closed his eyes, fading out.

But just a moment before, he caught sight of the ape swinging down hard at the tree he was leaning on.

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BANG

The sounds of trees breaking rang through the forest.

"It is finishing the job. Gen is dead for sure." Orion said as he ran. The girls didn't and couldn't refute. It was obvious from the noise and the creature was bloodthirsty, easily killing multiple soldiers whose abilities were recognized within the family. Each one of them had gone through extreme training and two of them were just beaten and thrown around like rags in front of them, there was little hope for the others who met the creature.

Orion, Jeana and Aria ran to the drop off spot. Rushing past the trees and shrubbery. Jeana and Aria were beyond scared and frightened. The possibility of death was very real here. And they had just stared a creature that could end them in an instant and only survived because it wanted them to pass along a message.

Orion on the other hand though afraid was also ashamed. Ashamed at not being strong enough to fight or at least intimidate the creature. Ashamed at being afraid. And ashamed at not being the one to kill Gen. He had taken things from him simply because of how fun his reactions were and how happy than made him. But in his final moments, instead of crying and pleading, he had told him that he, HE was a moron?

There were a lot of things Orion could take on, but being insulted by someone? Someone who he considered to be a waste of space? That was what made him angry.

But there was something he couldn't get out of his head. Gen's proclamation about his Waking. Aria was right on all accounts when she had asked Gen, why he hadn't used his Waking. But his reply was quite unexpected and unbelievable.

The Hunter family believed that sentient Wakings were possible and hoped to one day possess one in the future but the chances of Gen getting it was close to zero. Simply because Orion had possessed that Waking when he was younger. It hadn't shown any signs of sentience then and there was no way it would show it after not having a body to reside in for years.

But what worried him more was the final words. Words that claimed that the Waking was not what he thought it was. Gen's behavior right after getting the Waking was what he wanted to see at that moment, that expression of despair. But from the start of the day, he had a smile on his face. Almost as if he was laughing at everyone else for not recognizing the greatness of his Waking. 

Maybe.

Just maybe they had overlooked the Waking.

It didn't matter now anyway.

Gen was dead. 

The creature probably thought that he couldn't be saved and mercy killed him.

Now that he thought about it the creature had stated something about an agreement. What kind of agreement was it? Well, that did not really matter since it was broken now.

The drop-off point was pretty crowded. Everyone already waiting for the family to come pick them up. After asking a couple of the other about what happened, the three found out that the ape had made almost all of them leave. It came to them at the last moment.

After a couple hours of waiting, came a whirring noise. The Racor's had come. They would all be going home. 

Almost all of them anyway.

But they were going home with information and a warning.

And the Hunter family, and any Millican organization for that matter, knew that they would never be able to step foot on the Desolate Lands ever again.

After telling the story of what happened to Aron, Orion watched, as for the first time in his life, his father's calm demeanor broke.

Loud yelling ensued.

Objects were thrown against the wall, breaking and shattering.

The loss of the agreement and access to the training grounds was a bigger thing than Orion had initially thought. Training was not the only thing that happened there.

Millica had used the training as an excuse to smuggle things through borders. No one checked Racors full of young Wakings.

They also used the training as an excuse to hunt for rare materials, plants and creatures with valuable parts.

Rare items from these expeditions could fund the family for years. And now it was all gone. Gone due to the interference of an ape.

"The agreement was with The King. And this monkey is not a king at all. What gives him the right to annul the agreement." Aron paced around angry as well as vexed at his situation. He then started making calls to other members of the family. The higher ups. The old ones.

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Maurice carried the injured and unconscious Gen to the Tiger's den. Drigger's home. Picking up things that could be used to heal or at least bandage this dying boy.

As he travelled, lightning crashed in the distance followed by heavy rumbling.

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Manager here, as said in the chapters before, I tried something with the Pov's. Let me know if you prefer this (a +1 is enough). No comments means that I will go back to default.

Also, I know I rushed Gen's story. Originally it was supposed to be around 10-15 chapters, but I couldn't make a setting that I liked, so I kinda rushed through it.

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