Chapter Seven: The First Hunt!
Three fairly tall metallic humanoids surrounded Autumn. She was clearly outmatched the three robots all held large guns in their hands, their eyes flashing green.
“Target found” replied one of the robots.
“Must eliminate” replied another one. Then all three robots pointed their long guns toward Autumn.
“So look’s like I’m fighting three Warren286 this time. This simulator never ceases to amaze me” said Autumn with a sly smile across her face. She then extracted her long glowing claws. “Disrupt should work perfectly”
All three robots then fired their guns green laser beams all heading straight toward Autumn. Autumn using her quick reflexes ducked under the beams and charged straight for the androids.
“Ha!” she yelled. Suddenly another two clones of Autumn emerged running along side her. Each one heading straight for a separate robot. “Die!” all three shouted at once, following through with a very nice clean slashing motion each. The three robots then dematerialized into binary code. The battle simulator vanished along with her clones. Autumn turned around and saw Will with a smile across his face and Hank was standing next to him clapping his face also cheery looking.
Autumn walked toward the two professional hunters. “It seems Will has trained you well dear, I’m useless with claws. I prefer my gun and a good knife” said Hank.
“She’s a quick leaner that’s for sure, her best medicine is when she is in the battle herself, wouldn’t you agree…?” Will asked Autumn.
“You bet, I need my blood running that’s for sure” she replied retracting her claws.
“You have a true hunter’s spirit” said Hank putting his hand on Autumn’s shoulder “By looking at you fight the simulator robots. I’d say you’d be ready for your first hunt” Hank told her.
Autumn then looked at Will, he was after all her trainer.
“How about we tackle a mission tomorrow then?” he asked.
Autumn’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Really?” she asked.
“Sure thing kiddo”
“YES!!!” she shouted. The whole room seemed to echo her loud excited voice. Suddenly several other hunters peered in through the door to see what all the yelling was about.
“Whoops…my bad” said Autumn embarrassed. Will and Hank both laughed at her.
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Back at Hank’s house, Will, Hank and Isa were all sitting at the table having dinner it was a fairly cool night. The fresh desert air welcomed itself in through the open windows. Several fireflies could be seen outside flying around giving off their illuminate colours.
“Autumn, your dinner will be getting cold it took me ages to cook this stuff for you please come and eat” shouted Isa from the table.
“I swear she never eats” replied Hank who was chomping down on what appeared to be an empty plastic bottle.
“You got that right, I don’t think I’ve seen her eat since we first met her to be honest” said Will cutting up a thick piece of steak.
Autumn was in another room in the house she was forcefully punching into a red boxing bag. She threw in a left hit it sent the bag soaring back it nearly touched the ceiling it then came swinging down with great force Autumn then threw her right fist into it sending it back. Her knuckles were red she was hitting it hard and wasn’t wearing any gloves. She was gritting her teeth, sweat completely soaked the front of her singlet from her neck down. She was huffing, her chest throwing itself from her body with each breath. Her heart was beating equally fast. “Come on!” she told herself. The bag came back down heading for her again. “HA!!!!” she yelled. WHACK!! She smashed the bag back into the air making a fairly loud noise on contact. Her knuckles were now getting busted up from her punching so hard.
Will appeared in the doorway with his arms folded leaning against the doorframe. Autumn turned to look at him. He seemed concerned for her.
“Why are you pushing yourself?” he asked.
“I…I have to be ready” she threw back at him catching her breath.
Will’s eyes then trailed up. But Autumn never noticed, she was spacing out a little bit. Then…SMACK!! The boxing bag came back with just as much force as she sent it up with knocking her over. She hit the ground.
“Ooh” she exclaimed holding her head.
“I can’t have you wearing yourself out you have to be well for tomorrow okay” said Will leaning down toward her stretching his hand out. Autumn then raised her hand and grabbed Will’s. Will then pulled her to her feet. He looked at her hand it was all red and inflamed looking her shiny blood was seeping through very small splits in the skin on her knuckles, she made while punching into the bag.
“If you smash your hands up you won’t be able to effectively use your claws tomorrow” Will told her.
“I…I just want to be ready” she said looking away.
“Don’t worry I’ll be there with you I’ve done hundreds of hunt’s we’ll be fine besides I’m not going to choose a hunt that you wouldn’t be able to handle we’ll start off on easy street for now and as you get better I can move up with you okay” he told her.
“Sure thing” Autumn’s voice sounded a little happier.
“Now go wash your hands up and eat your steak. If you’re not at that table in one minute I’m eating it myself.”
“You wish…” said Autumn playfully shoving Will aside. “You won’t reach that table fast enough” she said running out of the room laughing.
“That’s what you think” said Will trying to outrun her there also laughing.
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The next day Will and Autumn made their way back to the Guild. “Follow me I want you to meet someone” said Will as the two walked inside. Autumn obediently followed Will to the service desk. Suddenly a young woman who looked to be around the same age as Will could be seen fiddling with some paper work. She lifted her head; she was wearing glasses and had long swaying black hair. She smiled showing a mouth of beautiful shiny white teeth.
“Good Morning William” she said.
“Hi Sarah” he replied smiling. “I want to introduce you to someone”
“Is that so” she said.
Will then stepped aside and Autumn walked toward the counter. “Um, hello” she said in shy voice.
“You must be Autumn, I was the one who approved your paper work” Sarah told her in a happy voice. “If William has faith in you so do I. You know William here was the one who saved me from a Fanbite attack one time” she told Autumn.
“Fanbite?” responded Autumn really confused.
“Oh, very nasty insects” she replied. “So what can I do for you two on this bright sunny morning” she asked.
“Well Autumn and I would like to accept a hunt. Something easy just to get Autumn the feel of the battle field you know, she’s still a rookie at the moment” Will told her.
“Lets see then” Sarah left the desk and walked over to the notice board the other two followed her. Sarah was wearing a maroon dress she had a white long sleeve shirt on underneath and was also wearing high-heeled shoes. She scanned the notice board. Then raised her hand and pulled a thumbtack out of the Locusta hunt, Autumn noticed this few days before next to the dragon hunt. “How does this one look to you?” she said handing Will the notice. “It’s only a few kilometres out of town too so you could both walk and the messeta is quite good considering it’s only one monster and because the Locutsa is a weaker variant of the Fanbite, it seems the most suitable choice wouldn’t you agree?”
“You’re absolutely right, I say we do it!” said Will getting fired up. His blue eyes then connecting with Sarah’s also big blue eyes. The two stared at each other and seemed to both go into some kind of mushy love trance.
“Lets go get our weapons then Will” said Autumn impatiently.
Will never replied he was to busy starring at Sarah and she was staring back at him. Suddenly a set of fingers pinched Will by the ear and began dragging him away from Sarah.
“Oww, hey, hey!” Will stammered out.
“We’re going hunting remember” said Autumn dragging him into the weapons room.
“Sarah!!!” Shouted Will grabbing onto the doorframe. His hand then let go as Autumn continued to pull him further into the room.
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“Okay, Monomates” said Will.
“Check” replied Autumn ticking things off on a list of paper.
“Sword”
“Check”
“Flame Gun”
“Check”
”Claws”
“Check, I’m wearing them” she told him.
“Okay then that should be it now just put on this light chest armour” Will then handed Autumn a light armour she pulled it over her singlet. It wasn’t heavy at all but it felt quite hard when she tapped it with her fingers. It was the perfect defence still allowing the body to do combat at its full potential.
“Lets go then, follow me” Will said.
The two continued to walk through the town. Then they reached the boarder it was guarded by some men. Will held up a wallet with some kind of Hunter’s pass thing in it. One of the guards lent closer to read it.
“She’s with me too” replied Will referring to Autumn who was following behind him carrying a bag of Monomates.
Then both men moved aside without saying a word letting both hunter’s pass by.
The two hunters started making their way through the desert. The wind was howling so they had to yell at each other to talk even though they were only around a meter apart.
“Those guards seemed kind of strict didn’t they!” shouted Autumn.
“Yeah they have to be, not just for the monsters but thieves as well. Being the capital city it has a lot of valuables that could easily be stolen!” he yelled back.
“I see!” she shouted to him.
The two could see a small village just up ahead. Suddenly the wind died down so they didn’t have to push themselves into it any longer to proceed.
“Just a quick piece of useful information. Motavia has more monsters on it than any other planet in Algol that can kill you” said Will.
“Uh, gee I feel so much safer now” said Autumn looking around scanning the deserted area.
“Come on the Locusta should be nearby. The Villagers have been relocated for the past few days. So we shouldn’t have to worry about any one else being in danger. We’ll just get in and get the job done. Understand?”
“I understand!” replied Autumn extracting her claws.
The two proceeded into the empty town with caution. Will had his sword out ready for a powerful swing. The flame gun was in the bag on his back along with the Monomates Autumn handed to him a little earlier before entering the village.
“Keep your eyes peeled and stay on your toes kiddo”
“I will, don’t worry” Autumn sounded a little nervous. She wasn’t going to be fighting a virtual enemy this time. There was the possibility both of them could be hurt or even worse…killed.
“Rraakkk!!!”
“Did you here that” said Autumn straightening herself up a bit. She sounded a little scared.
“You bet I did and it isn’t that far away either” Will actually had a lot of confidence in his voice. This wasn’t the first time he hunted a Locusta and he said he hunted dark beings as well which were much more dangerous.
“Autumn duck!!!” Will shouted he had an intense look on his face.
Autumn quickly followed Will’s order and ducked. SWIPE!! A large scythe like arm sliced straight above her head, she felt the force of the wind that followed through.
Autumn then ran and stood in front of Will her claws out ready for attack. The large creature it’s body was green it had an evil red eye smack bang in the middle of it’s large plated head. Two large sharp fangs sat below the creature’s eye at the end of its head. Its belly was silver in colour and seemed to be made of many layers of tough skin. Four long legs sat emerged from its long thorax. It even had a set of wings that seemed to have a lot of small lumps under them as though it was carrying something.
“So this is our target then?” asked Autumn.
“Yeah, this is a locusta, it looks like some kind of praying-mantis gone wrong” replied Will.
“You got that right” said Autumn smirking at the creature. It was quite big but nowhere near as big as the sandworm Autumn encountered.
“Rraaakkk!” the Locusta shouted it then sent out some kind of sharp spinning projectile from one of its scythes. Autumn immediately whacked it away with one of her claws.
“Nice reflexes” replied Will “Now follow my lead, I’ll take the right arm out you take the left. Once it leaves an opening slice its scythe straight off!”
“Understood” Autumn replied in a determined voice.
The two charged their separate ways. This seemed to confuse the Locusta it stepped back trying to get a good view of the hunters with its one eye.
“Haaa!” shouted Autumn. The Locusta smashed down its scythe but Autumn caught it between her claws. The monster continued to push down with force. But Autumn wouldn’t let it overpower her, she was struggling to keep its sharp arm away from her head. She then managed to throw its arm out wide, now was the time to strike. Autumn followed through with a very nice slice. Green blood sprayed all over her. The scythe then fell from the creature’s body it hit the ground with a bang.
“Ggrrraaaa” the Locusta shouted in pain.
Suddenly another loud thud noise was heard. Autumn looked over to her right and seen the other scythe on the ground. Will however was much faster to get out of the way too avoid a spray of Locusta blood.
“Stay sharp it still has fangs and it can kick hard with its legs” shouted Will from the other side of the Locusta.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine” Autumn shouted back with thick green blood dripping off her face. (“Eeewww”) she thought to herself.
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“Hmmmm” Autumn had an idea. “Hey you stupid * over here” she shouted waving her arms around madly. The Locusta immediately focused on her and began chasing her as she ran.
“What are you doing?” yelled Will.
“Just hurry an follow me!” she shouted back.
Will followed closely behind the armless Locusta as it chased Autumn.
Autumn then seemed to get the creature cornered between an empty house. She then ducked and ran between its legs and emerged out next to Will. The Locusta turned around slowly trying to figure out in its small brain how Autumn escaped it.
“Nice set up” replied Will giving Autumn a wink. As the Locusta turned its body to face the two Will threw his sword like a spear straight into the beast’s throat. More green blood sprayed out showering the house an oozy green colour.
“I’m sure you know how to finish it off”
“You got that right!” said Autumn extracting her claws. She then ran toward the monster another three clones emerged from her body. “Haaaa!!!” they all shouted as they madly began slashing at the Locusta. All you could see was a moving mass of swift strikes Autumn and her clones themselves were moving to fast to trace.
Then the Locusta split into thousands of pieces and landed on the ground in a brilliant pool of its own blood. As Autumn came back into focus her clones vanished. She was now nearly all covered in gooey green blood. But she didn’t seem to care at this point.
“Here quickly torch the suckers!” shouted Will throwing her the flame gun from his bag.
Autumn turned around and seen hundreds of infant Locustas emerge from the carcass of the bigger one. This is what the Locusta must have been carrying under its wings it was a mother and was in the village because it was looking for a place to nest all it’s children. The baby Locustas all headed straight toward Autumn. She then pulled the trigger and a huge flame emerged from the gun and toasted the tiny monsters. Blindly they continued running into the flame all dying a scorching death.
Autumn then took her finger off the trigger. All the baby Locustas lay dead long with their mother. Autumn turned to Will with a smile.
“Nice job kiddo” he said “You just completed your first hunt and you did more work than your teacher. Feeling proud?” he asked her as he picked his sword out of the corpse.
“Feeling like a shower” she replied with a bit of a laugh, also scraping the sticky green blood from her face so she could see properly.
Will then laughed at her. “Lets go get our reward money. We’ll leave the corpse as proof it’s dead the villagers can take care of this, there was no clean up on the notice anyway” Will told her.
The two then started walking out of the village making their way back to Aiedo. Autumn then looked at the sky it was a beautiful sunset sitting on the horizon of the desert. The air was now much cooler as night was beginning to fall, it gently blew onto Autumn’s face it felt comforting. Autumn looked up at the sky and thought…
(“Elisa I’m making progress. As soon as I see the first sign I’ll come running. Just hold on okay. I’ll save you…I promise!”)
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