Super Gene Immortal Chapter 17

"You realize that this is a stupid idea, right?" Lux said as the hunting group neared the location of the Sacred-Blood creature that he was along to hunt.

 "You worry too much." Lin Beifeng said, the two of them were sat atop Lin Beifeng's mount which was a horse-like creature with six legs instead of four, "Fist Guy doesn't really hold too much hope of this hunt being successful with just us, he's trying his luck to see if we can get away with not having to share half the creature with the other leaders of Steel Armor Shelter. The creature has an obvious weakness. So, with just the five of us we will all have an equal chance of getting 2 Sacred-Blood Geno points if you can land a lucky shot."

 Lux had to admit that indeed the plan was basically to just bait the creature around and let him take pot shots at it. If it got too dangerous everyone was supposed to just retreat. This was a last-ditch effort to hunt a close by Sacred-Blood creature without investing millions of dollars into the hunt. It was worth it even if they didn't succeed because the investment was basically only time as long as no one died.

 The party of five hunters were now walking along the side of a canyon heading towards the cave where the group had found the creature last time. Entering the cave, most of the party lit torches to have enough light to see by while Lux summoned up his bow and Sacred-Blood Ruby Wasp Queen arrow. Setting the arrow and walking, ready to draw and launch the arrow at a moment's notice. Fist Guy gave the arrow a knowing and appreciative look, he could obviously tell that it was a Sacred-Blood arrow.

 The hunters all made their way through the cave, there were lines of stalagmites and stalactites one the ceilings and floors. The light of the torches catching on little crystalline fleck in the structures of the stone and casting little rainbow colors around. The cave was quite a pretty sight.

 "Alright everyone." Fist Guy said as they started making their way into the cave, "We may have cleared out the weaker creatures when we came through here last time, but that doesn't mean that new ones haven't moved in. keep your eyes peeled and head on a swivel."

 Everyone nodded in acknowledgement as Fist Guy's second in command took the lead. The guy known only as Thumb. Thumb was almost as tall as Han Sen, standing about six foot four inches, but the guy was built like a brick shithouse on top of his substantial height. Thumb had a Shield beast soul and an armor beast soul. He was obviously the party's tank. He walked forward through the cave at a measured pace making surprisingly little noise.

 Lux noticed a lot of signs of Fist Guy's gang having passed through the cave recently. There were still bloodstains here and there on the cave's floor. And as they moved deeper into the cave he saw a lot of puddles of standing water that were only a few inches deep. The footing in this place was treacherous. But Lux would have no problems navigating, but for people without the ability to see perfectly as he could, this place was dangerous to hunt in.

 Soon they reached a location where suddenly everyone started being extra quiet. Fist Guy gestured to Lux and Beifeng to slow down and remain as quiet as possible. The cave they were transitioned from a rather tight corridor to a massive cavern with huge stalactites and stalagmites, and much to Lux's delight, a strange black vine that was growing all over the place. He would put money on betting that he could get a buff out of that vine. It was too unique not to have something special about it. It had flowers, and leaves that were all completely black and it made the cave almost feel like a scene out of an Alien franchise movie.

 The group was standing at the highest point of the large cave, and Fist Guy pointed down at the creature that they were set to hunt. There, munching on the leaves of the black vine was a creature that looked an awful lot like a Pangolin, only about the size of a human. Its body was covered in crystal scales with jagged edges that jutted up into the air. Lux shook his head at the stupidity of the plan that had been devised after their first encounter with this creature. They wanted to bait it around like it was some sort of demented sonic the hedgehog and let Lux shoot arrows at in the hopes that he could slip an arrow through its impossibly tough defenses.

 "Ok, Sen." Fist Guy whispered, "We are hoping that you can get a shot in before it ever curls up and starts it rolling around. It's gonna be pissed, we will bait it out of the caves where we will have better maneuverability. We need you to hide and play the assassin. When we piss it off take your first shot the moment you have an opening."

 Lux nodded, "Give me about five minutes to position myself. I might be able to take it out in one shot if I can find a good angle for an opening strike. It's small enough that its possible."

 Fist Guy Nodded and gestured for Lux to get on with it, readying his men and Beifeng for the fight to come.

 Lux meanwhile ghosted through the cave to get a good angle, eating some of the vine, its leaves, and a couple of flowers for good measure. It tasted… just weird. Lux had no frame of reference to tell what the vine actually tasted like. Its flavor didn't fit any of the flavor types he had ever tasted in his lives.

 Aside from the weird tasting cave plant, Lux focused on the mission at hand. Finding a position where he had a clear line of sight to the creature as it continued to graze on the vine. Lux observed from his position and drew back his arrow, the bow going taught as he watched the creature. Waiting for a moment to strike.

 Lux had only had few moments to observe the creature's behavior so far. But he suddenly knew that it was about stretch up to get one of the leaves higher up on the vine. He released the arrow, pre aiming to where he knew the creature's neck would be in just a moment. And held his breath as the arrow raced across the distance.

 The Pangolin-like creature raised its head the moment Lux released the arrow, and the shot lined up even more perfectly than he had imagined it would. Slamming directly into the under side of the creature's jaw the arrow imbedded itself deeply into creature. It didn't even make a noise as it reflexively attempted to curl up into a ball and caused the arrow to drive itself even deeper into its own flesh.

 [Sacred-Blood creature, Crystal Armadillo, killed. Beast soul of the Crystal Armadillo gained. Eat its flesh to gain between zero and ten Secred-Blood Geno points randomly.]

 "Well, that was super anticlimactic." Lux huffed as he stood up and headed towards the now dead creature.

 "Remind me to never piss you of again Han Sen." Fist Guy spoke up as he approached as well, "How does a guy as big as you just disappear and strike with absolutely no warning like that?"

 Lux chuckled, "It's a natural gift. Imagine if I was actually short and this sneaky, it would be unfair."

 "Still. One shot to kill a Sacred-Blood creature? I know it was a small one and you hit a weak point… But this is still quite the tail to tell." One of Fist Guy's men said, "Whoever started all those rumors about you really didn't realize what they were giving up."

 Lux shrugged, dismissing his beast souls, "Its no big deal. Without all that time hunting alone I wouldn't have gotten this good at assassination techniques. Now I guess we just bag it and head out?"

 Lux was getting an uneasy feeling. But he couldn't place where it was coming from. Something was wrong, but he didn't know what.

 "Yep!" Beifeng said cheerily. The group quickly went to work, wrapping the Armadillo's corpse in a tarp and hefting it between two people. This had been a good hunt.

 They made their way out of the cave system and froze upon exiting the cave. There, perched atop one of the only trees in the canyon where they had entered the cave was massive bird creature. It was probably nine feet from its claws to the top of its head. Its feathers were completely silver, with ruby red eyes, and beak that was like a spear. It looked like someone had decided to supersize a Kingfisher and give it a metallic luster.

 'I fucking knew that something was wrong!' Lux thought as the bird suddenly focused on the group. It was obviously unafraid and saw them as prey.

 It spread its wings as it hopped off the tree and speared towards the group like an arrow loosed from a bow. Thumb reacted instantly and brought up his shield, intercepting the attack. But it was not a good result. The bird's beak slid straight through the shield like it was a wet tissue, through Thumb's arm and straight into his chest.

 It all happened in the blink of an eye before the bird flicked its head sideways and sent Thumb's corpse flying to the side while raising its claws and raking them down on Fist Guy's other man. The guy who had been holding one end of the Sacred-Blood creature that they had just killed. The birds claws eviscerated the guy just as Lux reacted. Manifesting his Net beast soul, he tossed it over the bird as its weight fell on the guy that it was clawing at. Then he summoned up his bow and sacred-blood arrow and launched it at the bird. Fist Guy, reacted as well, summoning up a large sword and lunging at the bird. Lin Beifeng summoning a spear and driving towards the bird as well.

 Lux's Net was the deciding factor of the rapid struggle that followed. It tightened around the silver bird like a living thing. Prevented from taking to the sky and sustaining a barrage of attacks from Lux, Fist Guy, and Lin Beifeng it soon stopped struggling.

 Lux unfortunately did not get the last hit on the creature. That honor went to Lin Beifeng who shouted for joy and summoned up a silver arrow. "I got the beast soul!" He crowed.

 Seeing that the beast soul was yet another arrow, Lux wasn't really all that put off by the fact that he hadn't gotten it. He already had more than enough arrows. Fist Guy and Lux both congratulated the man who was already thinking about trading the arrow off to someone who could actually use it. He was not an archer by any means, but he could probably trade the arrow to someone who was for something that would fit his style better.

 They checked Thumb and Little Finger(the other guy that had been along) and found them both dead as dead could get. Fist Guy sighed and looked deeply troubled by this unfortunate turn of events. He didn't say anything as they gathered all of the corpses and secured them to Fist Guy's Mount. They took the men's corpses with them until they reached the forest on their way back to the shelter. There they gathered up a rather large amount of wood and made two very large funeral pyres and held a little ceremony for the departed. Fist Guy said a few words about the two men before stoically lighting the pyres and watching them burn for about an hour before the now trio headed back for the shelter.

 Because Lux's contribution had been so great, Fist Guy and Lin Beifeng both agreed that he was to keep the Crystal Armadillo's corpse, and they would split the bird evenly. Lux protested a little. But they waved off his concerns, saying that they would have probably died without his net, and that he had single handedly killed the Armadillo. Plus, Fist Guy only needed a few more points to max out his Sacred-Blood Geno points anyway. And he would probably get what he needed then hand the rest over to Lin Beifeng.

 Lux hadn't realized that Fist Guy was that close to being maxed out. The guy didn't strike him as particularly powerful. But that was probably because Lux himself was getting up there.

 "It was… good hunting with you Sen." Fist Guy said as they parted ways back in the Shelter, "I will let my guys know to make sure that they don't pester you. Although I am not sure that any of them ever participated in the whole thing that SOH started."

 Lux chuckled at the abbreviation of Son of Heavens nickname, "I honestly can't really remember if any of your guys ever did. I just haven't really interacted with a lot of people anyway. But it was good hunting you as well. If you and guys need anything, give me a holler and if I'm free I might be able to help."

 They shook hands and Lux dragged the Crystal Armadillo to his room where he proceeded to break down the corpse and start the process of turning its meat into jerky.