Soul of a Human

The irregular rescue party traveled at maximum speed, meaning in a half-run, mainly to preserve stamina. It would be idiotic to rush to help and then be unable to do so due to fatigue. Still, everyone felt the pressure to rush, not wanting to come too late to help.

Drop clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he didn't know how to get to his team faster.

°You know we could be faster.° The human offered.

°Yes, I know, but leaving the others behind would be stupid.° Mor replied.

°I know. I hadn't the usual method in mind. Just moving faster is something for combat situations. However, I have another method in mind, in particular, lengthening your stride. It isn't suitable for agility, but speed should be comparable to our usual high magic sprint.° The human explained.

After a bit of back and forth, Mor adapted the human explained longer strides, more jumping than running. This, of course, didn't escape the two scouts' notice, but while Drop just put it down to some strange Soul-thing and did not care as long as Mor didn't slow them down, Elly thought for a second then mirrored it. After a few of those long strides, the girl noticed that there were specific points where most strength was required, one at the push-off point and the next on the landing, and understood what Mor had planned, even before the boy raised his voice to explain it.

Elly suddenly picked up pace, covering more and more distance with every stride as she slowly tried out her enhancement limits for this new form of movement. Drop stumbled for a moment in surprise, then Mor called out to the girl.

"Elly, come back!"

The girl slithered to a stop and looked back, raising her arms like she wanted to say, "What are you waiting for?" However, after a short moment, she returned, leading Mor to congratulate her for her quick wits, as he could guess she had noticed his new idea. This means only Jorgen needed to get his explanation. However, the Ice-kin boy then brought up the question of what to do with Drop, as the veteran hunter couldn't use this fancy pants' new technique. This problem was quickly rectified by Jorgen taking the scout with him in a piggyback ride, and while the party now moved far quicker, Drop started complaining at the indignity.

"I'm no fucking kid!" The scout complained.

"Shut up, or I will drop you and leave you behind," Jorgen grumbled. Drop's fidgeting made running very uncomfortable and also wreaked havoc on his concentration.

Because of the Scout, Jorgen had almost fumbled two landings, and only Mor's attentive reaction, bolstering Jorgen, had let them evade breaking with their nose. Elly was following close behind, as she was both the rear guard and had less power than the two boys.

Still, this mode of traveling was very effective and efficient. While it was more risky because of the foliage, it let them cut the travel time by half. Half an hour after leaving the village, they reached the spot where Drop had been ordered to leave his team behind. However, there was no sign of them, apart from a few signs of battle and a few splotches of blood. To Elly and Drop's relief, as the two scouts were sifting through the leads, there wasn't enough to warrant a death, so it seemed the team had retreated to a more defensible position with the monstrosity hard on their heels.

°Ah. What the fuck are we hunting anyway?° The human asked.

°A monstrosity.° Mor answered like it was self-evident. However, after a long, quiet pause, where the human cursed not having a body of their own, Mor understood.

"Drop." The Soul-kin said. "What are we hunting?"

This seemingly innocent question led to a second where everyone shared a moment in stunned silence.

"Didn't I tell you?" The old scout asked, and all three youngsters shook their heads. "Ah."

"It's something I have never seen before." The scout said while still going over the tracks, trying to figure out where his comrades had gone. "What I saw of it showed me a bipedal thing with a long tail, strong jaw, very long and sharp claws, and a strange fur coat."

"Elly, look here." He interrupted his explanation to teach the young scout some real-life tracking. Then, after this interruption, he continued.

"I only saw it for a split second, though. It seemingly stalked us for a while, then jumped us. The only reason it didn't outright kill us was that we were aware of such a possibility. Thank you for your magic crash course," the hunter continued.

"How?" Elly asked.

"I'm getting to that point." Drop replied. "This strange fur coat somehow made it less visible, not like camouflage but stronger. It would have gotten me first if I wasn't aware of such things. It was almost like it had singled me out. However, I could quickly take cover behind Fortress, and he took the first hit on his shield. Then it all went to shit, as this thing vanished and only made itself noticeable when it attacked. Cutter then ordered me to run and report our findings. I should have stayed."

The kids listened carefully. Mor and his human companion started discussing counter strategies right away, but these mostly boiled down to stop its invisibility somehow. While brainstorming, the human came up with a name for it. This means that after Mor told it to the rest of the group, the official designation for this strange monstrosity would be an illusory raptor. Drop wanted to call it Sneaker, but the young future hunters liked the longer name more because it explained this thing's abilities more. Also, this raptor word sounded better and had a more aggressive feel to it.

Still, they started to follow the tracks, and the further they went, the more careful they got, watching out for every shaking leaf or out-of-place blade of grass, trying to spot the ambush predator before it got the drop on the small group. Call it luck or something else, but they reached a clearing, where the tracks seemingly ended, and a strange picture showed itself. A door, right in front of some stones.

°Tha fuck.° The human commented, and Mor had no witty reply. Instead, he shared the sentiment.

However, before he could ask something stupid, like why there was a door, Elly almost charged out of their hiding spot, if not for Drop, who pushed the girl back down into cover, his eyes fixed on the "door". On second look, the rectangular shape was misleading, revealing that the door was a shield and not any. It was Gorn's shield, raising the probability that the hunter and his group were still alive behind it. The question was, why were they still sitting there instead of retreating to the village?

This specific mystery was quickly explained when the shield moved a bit, opening up to a still-hidden cave entrance. Something previously unseen jumped up from the middle of the clearing and charged the blockade, trying to rip it away from the guardian.

But before it could do so, the one behind the shield pulled it back against the rocks, leaving no good point of attack. The still, almost invisible monstrosity let out a shout in seeming annoyance, then hobbled back to its resting place and laid down again. It was completely invisible while it lay there unmoving, making Elly shudder when she realized she would have run into its trap if Drop hadn't stopped her.