Hunting or Being Hunted

"Out with it then. What do you want to talk about, man," Eric said, annoyed.

"Before I tell you about Acer, I want to tell you, sorry for working for him. I'm assuming that's why you beat the crap out of me the other week," Hurst said.

"You caught on to that did you," Eric said with a devilish smile.

Hurst huffed and said, "Yes, but I want you to know that I'm not going to be under Acer. You also have more than enough earned my respect. I am hoping to earn your respect down the road."

Eric was very surprised that he received an apology from Hurst. It made it even better for him to hear that he is no longer Acer's lackey. But was that because he showed himself stronger than him? Or was it because from seeing him in action he knows that he is more of a threat than Acer is? What would happen if someone showed up to be stronger than him, would Hurst jump ship? All these thoughts flooded Eric's mind

"That's always a work in progress, we'll get there when we get there," Eric replied.

"True. One more thing though. Acer is pissed about what happened with you and Smith."

"And?"

"He is planning on teaching you two a lesson. You might be strong when confronted, but even the strongest is weak when caught off guard."

This just created a greater resolve in his determination to get stronger.

"Let's do some training then. We'll take care of that another time." Eric said with the same devilish grin again.

Hurst knew that Carson had a plan. By the look on his face, it was going to be vindictive. He couldn't believe that only a few weeks ago the person who stood in front of him was considered to be trash and came from a trash family. Just an hour ago he was about to go hunting by himself. Has he become that powerful in such a short period or he has lost his mind?

They proceeded to head toward the woods. The woods consisted of large trees, some type of sycamore tree. Those trees filled the woods. It could have been a forestry in the old world, both Hurst and Eric didn't know.

Eric was pleased to see that there was plenty of room to move around between the trees. The trees also provided lots of shadows, something that Eric was planning to take full advantage of.

Once they arrived at the woods Eric turned to Hurst and said, "The plan is to hunt two razor claws, hopefully not at the same time, and take a break in between hunting. That we we can recover our RP to go back out. Then we will come back to this spot and set up camp. In the morning I want to do the same thing again after we eat. Then we will head back to the academy."

"You are serious about this. A first I thought this was a joke. Won't people ask if we don't show back up tonight?"

"I doubt it. A lot of trainees go to the city overnight. They'll probably assume we are doing the same thing," Eric replied.

"Ok then, Let's do this."

"I'll take the lead. With my shadow powers, it will let me move around faster and avoid any danger we come across. That should give you enough time to get ready."

They both went into the woods. They followed a trail, not knowing where it went. The trail looked like it was created by a beast or beast traveling it. Since it looked like a beast trail Eric hoped it would take them to one.

After they were about a hundred yards in, Eric would stop every twenty steps and listen to see if he could hear anything. And thanks to his night vision ability nothing could hide in the shadow from him.

It had already been an hour and no beasts. Hurst was relieved because running into a beast is considered to be suicide if you are a trainee and not a fully trained soldier. They both have been trying to move as quietly as possible so they could have a preemptive strike. That was, of course, their best course of action for success.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any beasts. Maybe we should turn back and try a different day," Hurst said, in hopes of talking Eric out of this crazy mission of his.

"No, that doesn't sound right. We ran into a razor rat on the road."

"Maybe the presence of humans scared it off."

"Really? We are nothing but lunch to those creatures."

Eric noticed that Hurst's eyes were wide open darting back and forth like he was expecting to see something. He could even see the perspiration on his brow. It reminded him of people on drugs. Especially, it reminded him of his brother. His brother, Lee, is working for a large drug family near the territory border. He always had that same look, but at least it was for a different reason.

"Let's put in some more distance and if no beast, then we will leave," Eric said, trying to make Hurst feel better.

"O thank, God."

Immediately after Hurst's words, there was a loud snap. It wasn't that loud, but trying to be quiet and someone other than themselves making a noise made it sound massive. The sound made him close his eyes.

"Why wouldn't this happen? I just convinced him to leave in just a bit," Hurst thought.

Hurst opened his eyes after he processed what happened. Both Eric and Hurst slowly turned to face the noise, while moving their hands cautiously to the hilt of their swords.

They saw a razor rat staring at them with its luminous eyes. Blood dripped from its mouth like it just ripped through a previous victim. They could hear the razor rat's heavy and low growl.

Eric knew if there was a chance to defeat this beast he had to be the first to move and put the creature on the defensive. He quickly noticed the beast's shadow was going to be hard to locate its shadow because of the trees. Shadow pin isn't an option.

<Shadow Step>

<-5 RP>

<65 70>

Eric appeared next to the razor rat with his sword already raised in front of his left shoulder. He slashed down. He hit the rat, but the blade stopped going into the beast. The sword stopped just before fully going into the rat.

Eric had to pull on the saber to get it out of being stuck in the rat. Dark red blood started oozing out as the blade left. Before Eric could slash again the rat lunged at him. He flinched and put his arm up to shield him from the attack.

<New Ability Acquired>

<Shadow Wall Lvl.1>

<-5 RP>

<60 70>

A black wall with a dark purple hue came up from the shadows of the trees that covered the ground. The rat hit the wall. It looked like the rat was stuck to the wall.

Eric was amazed at having a new skill. He didn't have time to stay amazed or find out more about this ability. But he was relieved it saved him.

<Shadow Step>

<-5 RP>

<55 70>

Eric appeared on the other side of the rat. A rock the size of a boulder came flying in and hitting the razor rat on the side of its head. The rock broke on impact and the rat was knocked off balance a fell over. This could have only come from Hurst. Eric couldn't check to see, instead he didn't want to lose this opportunity.

Eric's attack is at fifteen with saber in hand. He slashed down as hard as he could. This time the part of the sword could be seen due to sinking deep into the flesh of the rat. Once again it felt like it was stuck. He pulled and wiggled the sword trying to get it out.

Before he freed the saber the rat was back up on all fours, but as if it was groggy. Suddenly it jumped and bore its bloody shark-like teeth at Eric. At this point he was scared, he didn't have his sword.

He pulled his heat-edged knife out. That brought his attack to eleven. Without a weapon, his attack is eight.

The rat lunged at Eric with a loud screeching roar.

<Shadow Manipulation Activated>

The shadows shot up and caught the rat in mid-air. It was fighting and struggling to get out.

<-3 RP>

<-3 RP>

<-3 RP>

Eric noticed his RP points were dropping faster. Faster than anything he has seen before.

"Is this a power of a beast? This is only a low-base-level beast. I was lucky last time," Eric thought.

<-3 RP>

<-3 RP>

<-3 RP>

"Hurst! Do something! I can't hold it for long!" Eric yelled out of desperation.

Hurst's hands had a faint glow to them. He fell to his knees and threw his hands down to the ground like he was trying to push it away. A slight rumble could be heard underneath the razor rat. A pillar that was pointed at the end shot up and impaled the rat.

The head and legs of the razor rat were thrashing about. A loud squawking that hurt your heart was coming from the rat with dark red blood oozing down the pillar. Eventually, it stopped and hung there on the pillar.

<Razor Rat has been defeated.>

<40 EXP has been awarded.>

<70 160 EXP>

"I wonder why this razor rat gave more EXP? Are beasts able to get stronger?" Eric thought to himself.

<Scan activated>

<Name: Razor Rat>

<Class: Low-Base-Level>

<Ability: Unknown.>

<0 40 HP>

His scan ability doesn't show him a lot of information, but he was hoping it would show him why this one gave him more EXP. It didn't though.

He turned to Hurst seeing him panting. He used a lot of RP points on that last attack. He must be exhausted, by the looks of it.

<37 70 RP>

Eric used up almost half of his RP points. If he goes into battle now, he and Hurst would most likely get killed. Hurst doesn't look like he could do another RP ability. Also, he would not have been able to kill it without his help.

Eric reached up and pulled hard on this saber to dislodge it from the rat. He placed it as well in his sheath. Using his knife, he dug into the chest of the rat. He pulled out the beast gem. He was much faster this time, knowing where it was at. He wiped off the blood and placed it into his bag.

"Let's go closer to the road and take a rest," Eric said quietly, walking toward Hurst, who was still on his knees panting.