Sharp

I was planning to test the prince's attitude in theology debates, but we might as well rip the bandage off here and now. I stepped forward, “Welcome to our team. I believe I know you all, and Val has also met you, so we can get right down to the details. We normally operate on an equal share, with a keep-what-you-find arrangement. If there is a dispute, we settle it by casting lots, or dice, or some other random method.”

“Our leader normally distributes discoveries,” Chuki said.

“So you want me to decide?” I said with a smile, knowing full well that she didn’t mean me. “Val and I have already decided, and we will go with the method I said. If your cultural prejudices are going to interfere with working under me in this team, now is your only opportunity to switch teams,” I said, indicating the supervisor.

“Do you work under him?” Chuki asked Val.

“He has a name. I work with Theo,” Val said, “and have done so very successfully for a while. We co-lead, and that is based on respect and competence. If you can’t take directions from Theo, then switch teams now.”

I decided to encourage them to switch, so I pulled out a carrot and crunched down on it. Keon smirked as if this was fun. Jabari stood neutrally and showed no direction either way. Chuki was plainly not happy. Obviously, the decision was Zesiro’s.

“We are here to learn,” he said.

Chuki stepped back, and I continued, “We picked a good first contract that should be fun for the bonds. Well, my bonds and Jabari and Keaon’s bonds, anyway. I don’t know what your familiar does, Zesiro.”

I noticed Chuki stiffened slightly when I left off the Prince title. Zesiro said, “What do you know about my familiar?”

“Is it some big secret? I know it can detect stealth, and that is why you found me in the astral space. Val probably doesn’t know you had one, but both of us are likely to damage it if it surprises us,” I was not going to have secrets.

“Mzimu is good at detecting stealth, and is very hard to detect. It is one of my hidden abilities for my own protection.”

“You are telling me you didn’t tell your team in the astral about your familiar? That was a stupid risk. If I can sense it, bronze rank senses should be able to.” That was not necessarily the case, as my enhanced senses are probably better than low bronze now. I also didn’t let them know Jabari had talked about it either. Maybe that was before they decided they were keeping it a secret. I don’t know. I don’t care.

Neither wife liked me telling Zesiro he was stupid. “It was a risk, but not a large one,” he said.

“Does it just detect stealth?” Val asked.

“At Iron rank, yes.”

“So that means it would be a good scout, but you withheld it from your team because you are scared somebody is out for your hide,” I didn’t mince my words or tone, indicating what I thought of his cowardice.

That was too much for Chuki, and she made to attack me, but Zesiro held her back. “He knows nothing.”

“Doesn't matter,” she replied.

Val had my back, but I wondered what Zesiro would do. Keon and Jabari were tense but not moving.

“Yes, it does matter,” Zesiro said. He looked at me, “There have been two attempts on my life since arriving here. It is a very reasonable layer of protection. Mzimu was scouting and reporting all threats to me, but low bronze senses could not detect them, which makes me curious how you could.”

“These attempts, were they personal or political?” I asked. I didn’t actually doubt the attempts were made, although they must have been outside the academy.

“Neither. I believe they are related to my role as an Oracle, that I am on the right path, and that someone wants me to stop.”

I looked at Jabari and Keon, “Is that true, or is his skill skewing his perception?”

Chuki lunged for me, stopping at the point of Val’s sword. The room had emptied, but the silver-rank supervisor, Syndra, was still there, “What is the problem here?”

“Chuki is going to have problems working with me,” I said.

“Why is that?” she asked.

Chuki visibly got herself under control and stepped back. “He has cast doubt on my husband's character,” she said, “Twice.”

“Yet your husband is fully capable of defending himself if he feels like it,” I said, “You cannot control yourself.”

“Let me put it this way,” said Supervisor Syndra, “You either work this out, or you all drop this course and take it another semester. All the other teams are gone.”

“Chuki will not attack a team member again, “ Zesiro said. Chuki nodded reluctantly at this command from her prince/husband.

“You manipulated this grouping,” I said to Zesiro. “Why? She doesn’t trust me, and I don’t trust you.”

“I need this to work,” he said

“Well, I don’t. I have plenty of other courses I can take,” I said.

“What did your Goddess say?” he asked.

“That I could choose to work with you or not as I preferred. I choose not to.”

He did not like hearing that.

“Theo, can I have a private word,” Val asked.

We moved away, and Val said, “I really want to complete this course this semester, as the arena teams are next year.”

“It doesn’t irk you that he manipulated all this?” I asked.

“This is minor political manoeuvring, and I am used to worse than this. I can handle them and their political manoeuvres if you will let me. If I may say so, you are too straightforward for this type of fight.”

I looked at her, “I am not sure.”

“Do you trust that they won’t attack us again?”

I nodded reluctantly.

“Then you let me handle it. You deal with the monsters. I will deal with the politics,” Val said.

I thought about it. “You are sure?”

“Absolutely. You will never do anything you don’t want to anyway, and to be quite frank, this is baby politics. Deal?” She held out her hand to shake.

“OK,” I shook her hand, “But you may have just made me do something I didn’t want to.”

“Not really. You can work with them without getting entangled.”

“Yeah, I suppose I can. I will also bear in mind you are no baby politician.”

Val grinned, “And you are a fast learner.”

“You organise them, and I guess Supervisor Syndra will come with us. I will wait in the skimmer.”

It was a silent trip out of the city.

When we arrived, I said, “I am going to scout the area.”

Keon said, “Talib can do that,” and his Hunting Hawk landed on his shoulder.

“Yes, and feel free to do that, but don’t spook the Roos. I need to scout and see for myself. If we can’t find somewhere to corral them, we will be chasing them all day and then some. It is not going to be easy to find somewhere here,” I said, looking at the rolling farmland. It was mainly crops, and there was evidence of Roo's destruction of crops. There were fences between the paddocks, but the Roos just jumped them.

Roos were about chest height on me, had strong hind legs for jumping, and hopped everywhere. They had smaller arms, which they used for hitting and grabbing, but the main danger was the powerful hind legs and the claws they had.

I looked at Jabari, “Where is your bond?”

She looked at Keon, who opened a portal, and Nkwe stepped out. Nkwe had grown. He was the size of a small horse and a powerfully built Sabertooth tiger.

“Yeah, he won’t fit in a Skimmer. Your portal is Mid Iron?” I asked Keon.

He nodded, “I can take four iron-rank people now, and the range is getting longer for each level. Nkwe counts as an Iron rank.”

Val asked, “What happens when we get out of range from the city?”

“We stop mid-way, and I portal him in. Then we re-portal, or he runs alongside,” Keon said.

“He can go a fair way at mid-skimmer speed, but there is no point in him getting to a fight tired,” Jabari said.

Val nodded.

“May I come scout with you?” Jabari asked me.

She was a hunter and definitely had stealth skills.

“You had better leave Nkwe behind.”

She nodded, and we took off at an angle from where I thought the Roos were. I saw Talib fly overhead, and Kai took off in three different directions.

Jabari was faster than me. She had a Skill called Free Runner from her Swift Essence. I was quieter at speed, but when we slowed down, she had the Stalk Skill, which suppressed her presence, including the noise. She was definitely a dedicated hunter, and that was her entire focus. My focus had been spread away from direct hunting.

When we were scouting away from the Roos, I asked her about her Essence and skills.

“I have the Hunt, Swift, Blood and Predatory Essences. I have a lot of movement skills from Swift including a teleport. Blood gives me Bleeding skills, self-healing skills, and also a healing others skill. My perception skill is the Trackers Nose from the Hunt Essence, and Aura is a speed boost from the Swift Essence. The rest are fighting, except for the Hunters Harvest, where I can harvest from monster bodies before they turn to rainbow smoke.”

“Hunters Harvest is where you have to skin and cut out parts?”

She nodded. “A lot goes up in smoke, but as the skill levels increase, it gives me more time to harvest. Your storage would be handy for me.”

“There will be some space, but I use a lot for equipment.”

She nodded.

The gullies where the streams wind through the farms we generally bush rather than crops, and some were steeper that might be able to be used to corral the Roos.

“How will you stop them jumping up the other side or just going up or down the gully?” Jabari asked.

“I will need a couple of hours to work on that. This is probably the best spot, right?” She nodded. The trees in the gully were quite tall. Roos could jump probably three times their height but were generally jumping forward rather than up. The Roos were only iron Rank, so a single strand of Sharpened Cutting Web should remove limbs. I will need several layers in case some strands break, but that was doable.

“Talib is going to hate the trees,” Jabari said.

“I planned for him and Keon to be on getting those who escape the trap.” Jabari nodded as that made sense with his Bow, and Roos would not be getting away from a hunting hawk in the open.

Jabari couldn’t really help with the Cutting Web, although she tried. She had a Tough Hide Skill, but my skill sharpened this Cutting Web. I wrapped the web around tree trunks, fastened it with Resin and then strung it between the trunks, forming a loose net through the trees that were also hard to see. The trunk had to be thick enough to hold the web for a couple of hours.

We did this upstream and downstream from the killing area, and then I also did it on the other side of the gully, but there was not as much depth there. I figured that would be where Keon would be, and he would deal with any that made it through. There wasn’t as much depth, but there were less gaps between the strands.

Jabari marked the edges of the killing zone for the other team members and then went to instruct them on what their roles were.

Keon soon turned up with his bow and said, “Ten minutes.”

I moved into position and left Ardisia in a tree near the entrance.

Ten minutes later, the sabertooth tiger gave a massive roar, which should have gotten the Roos moving. Shortly thereafter, the Roos appeared stampeding away but slightly off target. Zesiro and Val were there, banging some things together to make noise and turning the leaders. The rest followed.

Their speed slowed as they hit the trees and were ripped by Ardisia’s thorns. Ardisia had more vines now she was healthier, which was fantastic.

Then the Reapers Blessings started to roll in as the Roos started to cut themself apart on my webs. I was there as well and started working through them with my claws. There were a lot of Roos, nearer a hundred than the reported fifty. I saw Chuki in what I thought was a berserker rage tearing through them. Better them than me. I caught glimpses of the other Nkwe was obvious with his tusks stained red with blood. I was using my teeth as well. I couldn’t see out of the trees, but I did hear the hunting cry of Talib at one point

I had decided to go all out with my Tooth and Claw technique and my Rend Skill. The Roos were ideal to practice, and I really wanted to make a low impression for the pretty peacocks.

My resistant fur and new armour have kept me from major harm, although I will need to do some repairs on it. Kai was having a ball finishing off Roos, that were disabled by the webs. Ardisia had ripped a lot of Roos as they passed her, then caught some and poked them full of holes until they died.

When we ran out of Roos, I cut through the webs with my claws and went to see if any had gotten past Keon and Talib. There were bodies in the field beyond the gully. A lot were missing limbs and hadn’t gotten far. Others had arrows in. Some looked frozen, and some looked burned. I never really checked what Keons Bow's essence skills were, but the evidence of some of them was obvious. I saw Talib rise into the air from the paddock further away.

“He just got the last of them,” Keon said.

I nodded. The others were following the path I made through the webs.

“You are looking very bloody,” Keon said, “your axe is the cleanest thing about you. Did you even draw it?”

“No.” I greeted a round shield on the ground, pulled out a container of water from my Hunters Pack, and poured it over myself, washing most of the blood off. I then shook myself like a cat to get rid of the excess water.

Val, Zesiro and Chuki all watched the latter two with hints of disgust that remained unvoiced. Keon just stepped back out of range with a small grin.

“I assume Jabari is harvesting?” I asked.

Zesiro nodded, “Yes.”

“I will go and clear the remaining webs while we wait.” I headed back into the bush, flexing my claws.

My hearing was good.

“He really is a barbarian. Claw and Teeth,” Zesiro said, and I could almost hear him shudder.

“This Barbarian created a trap in two hours that enabled us to kill a herd of a hundred Roos in under fifteen minutes of fighting,” Val said. “We would have been chasing them all day and never sure we got them all otherwise. He is the smartest Adventurer I have ever met, and I have met a lot.” Val emphasised the Adventurer title.

I saw Jabari watching me from the Roo she was skinning. “It will take a while for him to adjust,” she said.

“I am happy if he doesn’t,” I replied, which made her frown.