Ch1: The Hunting

“Could you move any slower!?”

“I’m sorry, who’s the idiot who signed us up for an eight star job?”

A vine crashed between the two, smashing through thick tree branches like twigs. It had missed the woman by inches, causing her to tumble to the side. Another vine rose, causing a looming shadow over her. She was ready for this one, kicking off a nearby trunk to avoid it as it barreled straight past where she had been. She gulped as she stared at it buried deep in the ground. Behind it, a sick gurgling sound resounded through the forest, the owner of the vines closing in on them. She groaned, praying to the sky momentarily with her eyes.

The vine raised yet again over her when her companion, a man in full armor, jumped infront of her. As the vine crashed down, he swung upwards at it, grunting as he threw himself into the slash. The vine glanced off of the blade, a shallow cut left behind. Still, the vine withdrew for the moment. She could swear she saw a vapor coming from it as it disappeared back into the foliage. The man panted as he turned to his companion. He had a smirk on his face. She did not.

“This b*****d’s tough”, he said.

“A eight-star bill generally means that. Did you read it at all?”

“Shut it, Jade. ‘Sides, didn’t think you’d want something boring for your first hunt! I’m going to show you the fun side to being a hunter.”

Jade rolled her eyes. “Oh joy,” she said flatly. ”On a different note, Xeon, do you think they’d take me back at my old guild? You know, if this thing doesn’t kill us in the next five seconds.”

With fate having been tempted, the branches above them separated, the gurgling sound peaking as the giant monster jumped at the two.  The creature was plant based, the main body a pitcher with a large circular maw. At the base of it branched off six vines each as thick as an arm, though much more powerful. Between them were large flowers. The creature was massive, and it was currently not Jade’s favorite thing in the world.

As it tried to body slam them, Jade dived for the hundredth time out of its way, some Gaian curses drowned out by the crash. At this point, she swore it was targeting her specifically. Granted, between an armored knight and an unarmored knife fighter, it was an easy choice. A hit from a beast like that, and.... well, Jade didn’t want to think about it. Getting to her feet, again, she scanned for what was inevitable; yet another vine trying to squash her in some creative way.

Xeon, thankfully, had gotten the thing’s attention, and was swinging like a madman at its barrage. She had to admit, as reckless as he could be, he was pretty skilled. Each blow he blocked looked painful; she could feel the ground shake at each impact.

Jade sighed, she was so going to regret this within the next five minutes.

With the creature occupied, she quickly approached from behind it, keeping herself concealed by the plant’s shadow. She moved silently over the forest floor, avoiding each twig she could. This thing’s sight couldn’t be too much different from a person’s, or at least she told herself that. Against any normal human, she was confident she’d strike as if from the shadows. This plant thing though was weird, and the universe seemed determined to spite her today. Maybe the sneak attack would work? It didn’t.

The creature easily sent two tendrils her way. Jade cursed much more audible this time. The first was easily dodged. The second she thought she’d dodged just as it easily. It ‘lightly’ tapped her, sending her sprawling several feet back. The creature then sent both tendrils crashing at her at once, before a soft thud cut it off, leaving it screaming in pain, the creature turning around to Xeon once again. Jade clearly saw the javelin in its back.

“I love his metalcraft magic sometimes.”

It left its back exposed again as it fully concentrated on Xeon. She could deal with this. As she got to her feet to again rush it, Xeon yelled from the other side of it.

“Jade, get away from it, now!”

Jade hesitantly complied, not seeing any tendrils even pointed her way. Xeon was an idiot, but he seemed to know something. She leaped out of the way, and not a second too soon. A cloud of spores erupted from the creature's maw, billowing like smoke before falling and blanketing the forest floor of the entire area. The creature stayed oddly still afterwards, regaining itself. A series of thuds followed as Xeon rewarded its stationary state. Jade took the chance to jump from branch to branch. In this forest, it was pretty easy, the branches sometimes almost seemed like roads. She managed to stay above the cloud, and landed by Xeon. He was a bit busy hurling javelin after javelin at the creature, finally spending his last one. Jade looked at him in disbelief.“How did you know it was going to do that? Was it in the Matakee’s bill description?”

“It was gathering mana, it was doing something.”

Jade forehead creased. She hadn’t seen anything different from normal. The only ‘mist’ she’d seen was from that things vines after getting cut.  Which meant this creature, the Matakee, was adept to using mana, like a mage. Great, a giant mindless beast could use magic, something else to kill them with. She glanced back down at it, hoping the myriad of javelins had killed it. It was at least motionless. Watching it for a moment, Jade gave a sigh of relief, it was finally over. When the cloud dissipated, they could collect its proof, get the hell away from the hunting grounds, and call it a day.

A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention though, as she watched the Matakee stir to life.

“Seriously?”

The creature wobbled as it began to face the two again. Xeon rushed to try to form a weapon. Jade noted his sword was missing, it’d probably become the first javelin. A screeching sound emitted from his hands as energy started to form in the shape of a sword, slowly turning to metal. Not fast enough however, a vine shot at him, punching him straight in the chest. It almost looked like he teleported away from it, he was there one minute, and gone the next. Jade’s hope in a new magic from him disappeared as she heard a crashing sound in the distance. It was no magic, just the creature hitting him really, really hard. Anyone else, Jade would be convinced they were dead. Xeon? He was difficult to kill. She knew, she’d tried.

That however, left Jade with a different problem. Xeon was out. Jade wasn’t going to be able to handle this creature on her own, so- how fast could she get out of there?

She looked down at the Matakee, which now seemed more energetic than ever, bouncing up and down on its vines. If it had a face, it would be gloating over the hit it just got off, finally. She swore she saw it drooling.

A feeling of dread set in as Jade began to realize it what the drool meant. It had mostly been targeting her at the beginning for a good reason. It was hungry. She wasn’t wearing armor, Xeon was. To this thing, Xeon was a tin can. She, however…

The creature moved with a speed that belied its massive frame. Smashing its vines down against the earth, it flew like an arrow. There was no way on earth she was outrunning this thing.

Jade frantically scanned around her. She found a hollow cavity of a tree, just as tall as she was, and a few feet deep. Closing her eye, she prayed as she dove for it. She was so sure she was dead, that thing was way too fast for a monster of that size. Well, at least she’d get to slap Xeon when he got to hell too.

Her thoughts of a warm fire were stopped by a mighty rattle around her. She felt the safety of wood, shocked to be among the living.

Considering she was now alive, she slowly opened her eyes, and almost immediately regretted it. She stared straight down the maw of the creature inches in front of her face, a wall of muscle around the circular mouth, lined with razor teeth. What kind of plant was this? It hadn’t even tried killing her first, it was hungry now.

Jade, in panic, started stabbing at the mouth with her glass knives. At the first stab, the Matakee writhed in pain, and Jade realized it was stuck in the hole. Its mouth was just the size to fit inside, but had gotten stuck.

The only movement it could do was bite, and bite it did, every time the blade came close. How was it doing that? Jade gently moved the blade to the side, away from it, and it still bit. She facepalmed. This thing responded to movement, it couldn’t see or hear. That’s why her sneak attack didn’t do anything. Probably felt small vibrations. Still, it was stuck, she couldn’t let an opportunity like this go.

She started stabbing it more viciously, hoping against hope she’d manage to kill it where Xeon’s javelins failed. It was a dumb thought, but the mouth seemed much more sensitive than the rest of its body which was as hard as wood. It cut like flesh, only being stopped by the occasional tooth.

It continued chewing at every swing, finally catching her blade in one attempt. Jade only just managed to pull her arm out the way in time as the wall of muscle constricted around the blade, pulling it into its mouth. It then cried in pain. Jade wasn’t sure if she was impressed it had caught it, or dumbfounded the creature would mindlessly eat glass. Hey, Jade thought, Xeon had found an intellectual equal.

Jade took a moment to see her damage, and assess her situation. First impression? Not good, she was stuck inches behind the mouth of an eight star creature with no way out. This was her first hunt, a star represented how many experienced hunters it should take per monster, the odds weren’t good.  On second thought, at least it was stuck, and couldn’t do any damage from there, right? Xeon could easily come up from behind it, and shred it. His metal-make magic did tend to come in handy from time to time. But that depended on him actually waking up, that last blow looked like it would hurt in the morning.

Jade’s analysis was cut short as the mouth in front of her started convulsing. She prepared her left dagger in case of an attack, wondering what on earth it was doing. It was just out of reach to actually bite her, and its vines were also stuck behind it. A gurgling sound erupted, then the creature wretched, and drenching her. Jade blinked in disbelief for a second, it slowly registering. It had spat at her!

“You have got to be kidding me!” A rain of cuts landed on the maw as Jade lost control, shredding the mouth. The creature continued biting at the blade, wincing at every cut, but Jade managed to pull back repeatedly, landing more and more cuts on it. They were deep, it had to give out at some point

After a long flurry, she slumped back against the wall of wood, panting. On one inhale, a bit of its spit touched her tongue. With teary eyes, she gagged, spitting it out. There was no way she was going to choke to death after what she’d just gone through though. With still blurry eyes, Jade admired her handiwork, the maw was shredded, that creature had to be near dead. It had stopped moving. She looked closely for blood, or maybe sap, but couldn’t see anything. Did this creature not bleed!? Instead, a fine colorful mist rose from the wounds, the same as from earlier. In areas it was thickest, the muscles shuddered, before they began to expand, covering the cuts, and healing.

Jade uttered her umpteenth curse as she leaned against the tree. Of course this thing could heal, what else did she expect? Something normal? An eight star creature. Why on earth had Xeon chosen that one? Had he read that bill at all? It definitely explained why it wasn’t dead despite the damage the two had inflicted so far.

A wet wall pressed itself against her stomach, and Jade looked down to see the creatures mouth now literally resting against her. Jade’s eyes widened, horror filling her face. What just happened? That creature was inches away a few seconds ago!

It bit again, and Jade pulled her stomach in, the creatures circular mouth only managing to grab some cloth, biting off part of her dress. The bite inched it forwards, just a little bit more. Jade was literally pressed against the back of the hollow, she didn’t have any more space to give.“Damnit Xeon!”

It wasn’t even worth stabbing it again, the creature would just heal with whatever that mist was, and it would just excite it to bite more. In her position, she wasn’t even sure she could get a good blow in on it. Jade frantically tried to think of a plan. Her glass blade was useless. Hell, it was in more pain eating it than it did being stabbed by it. Wait….

Jade closed her eyes, though she refused to stop sucking in her stomach, being rather fond of her organs. She just had to feed it something it didn’t like. Maybe a lot of something it didn’t like. Xeon has metalcraft magic, which she had to admit, was often more useful, but Jade’s own magic did have its uses.

Feeling the flow of mana around her, Jade started to concentrate it into her right arm, a glow started to admit as magic visibly flowed towards it. A small ball of energy formed in her unarmed palm, and she opened her eyes again. The creature opened its mouth again, trying for another bite.

“If you’re hungry, eat glass!” Jade slammed her right arm down its throat. Predictably, the creature bit down on the voluntary meal, and Jade cried at the pain as powerful teeth dug into her arm. It wasn’t so much they were sharp as it was the wall of muscle pressed down hard. It felt like her arm was being torn off. It probably was.

Jade managed to collect herself to release the magic from her palm. An explosion of glass erupted in the creature’s stomach, and it let go of Jades arm suddenly. Jade dropped her left knife, and grabbed her right arm with her left, yanking it back. Jade made sure not to look at it…. Or think about it, a healer would patch her up in no time. And this bounty had better damn well pay for it.

The creature squirmed in pain, and Jade her several thumps against the tree, it was now trying to pull itself out with its vines. It seemed like too much pain, even for it. The sight of its maw slowly moving away from her was more than welcome.

After a second or two more of struggling, the creature slumped. Mist started pouring out of the creature's maw like smoke, causing Jade to tense up again. With the amount of glass she’d thrown into its stomach, it had better not heal from that. She waited for a minute, and then two, before finally letting go of the breath she’d been holding.

Jade slumped down to her knees in relief. Her eyes were still blurry though, she guessed that it was exhaustion. She definitely was tired. She’d just fought for her life, was covered in spit, and her arm. She didn’t want to think about it, it had stopped throbbing, probably a bad sign. She was more than done.

After another minute passed, Jade realized a new dilemma. How was she going to get out of the hole? She could try cutting her way out, but, on the off chance the creature came back to life, she didn’t want to risk it. She was probably too weak to do it anyways. She wanted to curse one last time before she heard a voice from outside the tree.

“Damn? Did Jade manage to kill this thing by herself? Seemed I missed all the fun. Hey, Jade, where are you!? You a’ight?”

Jade wasn’t sure if she was pissed or happy Xeon had finally come stumbling back. “Oh, I’m great, just nearly got eaten by a plant-thing, I’m drenched, and nearly had my arm bitten off. Oh, and the creature is blocking my way out. How about you?”

“I’m just going to pretend you just said great.”

The familiar screech of Xeon’s magic was at least a bit comforting. He was probably forming a sword. It took Xeon a few minutes of slicing before he finally managed to pull the huge creature out the way. It took a great amount of restraint for Jade not to snark every second of it. She flinched at the sunlight as she came stumbling out of the hollow. She was now feeling dizzy too, her eyes still blurry. Xeon stood outside, looking smug, though Jade could guess he was probably kicking himself. Looking at his armor, she saw a large dent where he had been hit. It looked like they both needed a healer. He likewise looked at her, and winced at her arm. Jade didn’t know much about Xeon, but if he was flinching, it had to be bad. Just what she needed, a high healer’s bill.

She finally looked at her arm. She was used to blood, but….she wretched on the ground. The situation didn’t stop him messing with her.“So, how was your first hunt?”

Jade glared up at him.

“You really want me to answer that?”

Jade waddled to the creature. If they were going to get paid, they needed to at least collect the proof of the hunt, the Matakee’s flower, at its base. Jade swiped at it, before she lost sensation in her legs, toppling over.

“Jade? Are you alright?”

“Not sure. Didn’t think I was that tired,” Jade’s eyelids were extremely heavy, she didn’t know why.

Xeon knelt over her, scanning her over. His face looked worried. She had to admit, someone as tough as him doting? It was almost cute. The worry in his face grew. He’d obviously realized something he didn’t like.

“That thing soaked you, right? It probably doused you in poison. It did just spew a poison cloud everywhere.”

Jade’s eyes rolled. This was going to be good. She’d worked with poisons enough to know they made everything worse.

“Great. Ugh, was that in the bill’s description of the monster?”

“Uh….”

“Did you actually not read it?”

Jade started to chuckle, though it was so weak, it came out as a series of rasps. He hadn’t actually read it, of course he hadn’t. Xeon said something to it, but Jade wasn’t quiet sure what. Everything was blurry.

Author's Note

Eh, it's my first time.