Chapter 36 – EVO
***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***
***Astra***
Nothing! I was beginning to get slightly frustrated after upending the third backpack and finding the contents to be utterly generic survival gear without a hint at the owner or even the supplier. Normally, I would have expected to unearth some insignia that identified the strata these people came from. Have you found anything?
Magnus shook his head while he spread out a pile of items in front of him. Their gear is set up very similarly to ours, but there is nothing in the sense of personal items.
How frustrating, I mused and decided to give voice to my confusion. The clan hands out standardized equipment to new hunters and the setup of our mysterious hunting groups gear copies the list. This means these people shouldve been newbies. Experienced hunters add their own touch to their equipment in accordance with their mutations. On the other hand, if they were inexperienced, then what were they doing down here in the Belly with just three people? I shook my head. Only trained and tested groups should be coming down here or those with powerful skills. In any case, there should be some hints at who manufactured the items.
I took one of the cooking sets and pointed at the scratched spot where someone had removed a craftsman’s mark. They went so far as to obfuscate the origins of their gear.
Magnus threw away the torn remains of the backpack he had searched. Maybe you are on the wrong foot, so to speak. What other possibilities are there than an ordinary hunting group? A group of young adventurers who got in over their head?
I pulled a face. If so, then they forgot about everything their elders should have taught them.
Poachers then! Magnus threw out another suggestion. Havent you said these hunting grounds are claimed by your family? Are there other groups who would pay some fools a hefty sum to catch them something which the Frosts would only provide at exorbitant prices? Its in the nature of people to-
I held up a hand to stop him. What you are suggesting comes a little too close to what we are seeing here. If this hunting groups trip wasnt sanctioned by the clan, then it would make sense for them to take no identifications with them.
The clan wasnt big on regulating the lives of our people, but some things had to be supervised to minimize human casualties. Some decades ago, the clans hunters young and old would go out and do as they pleased, which meant many never returned too many.
It lay in humanitys nature to take foolish risks. Unfortunately, Tirnanog wasnt a place that forgave mistakes.
Nowadays, you had to be a certified hunter to leave clan-controlled grounds. And you were only allowed to visit certain areas of the mountain. It wasnt an ideal solution, because it led to the monopoly of power my familys fortune was built upon.
So maybe there was no reason for me to complain, as Frosts primary scion. I never had to deal with the harsh regulations which prevented people beneath a certain power level from exploring dangerous hunting grounds.
On the other hand, if the likely fate of ill-prepared fortune hunters was what we found here, then regulations might be the preferable option.
For a moment, I warred internally between duty and my desire to have a fun time with my partner. Then I sighed dejectedly and looked at Magnus with a sorrowful expression. I am sorry. I intended our excursion to become a relaxed trip between the two of us, but this mess changes things.
Throwing out my hand, I gestured at the camp around us. It will likely turn out to be nothing more than an illegitimate hunting trip orchestrated by another strata, but we have to make sure to secure any evidence we can. If we desire a position of power within the clan, then we have to show we can take care of messes like this.
If we go on as planned and return in a week, all evidence will be gone. And telling the authorities about it without proof is worth just about as much as hot air. It also means we likely wont get to catch our bloodmantle. We also cant allow an entire tribe of changelings to settle down right in our hunting grounds. The Belly isnt too close to the clan, but if the changelings get a firm hold of this territory it will become a problem sooner or later.
Magnus shrugged in indifference. We already agreed on you being the leader. I follow when it comes to wilderness exploration. I wouldnt know how to navigate these caves anyway. And from what I understood, this was a gamble from the beginning. Who is to say we wont find an equal opportunity elsewhere? The only thing I dont understand is what else we could do apart from searching the belongings.
I pointed at a game trail leading deeper into the Belly. We have to find the bodies or at least some remains to make sure who these people were. Changelings normally leave behind at least some bones and certainly the armour, but there is nothing here. Which means they took the bodies elsewhere. I assume these changelings split off from some larger party and we are going to find our poachers in the bellies of some changelings.
Magnus made a face full of disgust. If we find them, I will leave it to you to search changeling guts or poop for something like dog tags.
Dog tags? I asked, not understanding the expression. Another expression from Earth? It happened sometimes with Magnus, but I had learned not to be bothered by it.
He gestured at his neck. Identifications. Military back on Earth has these necklaces with a metal pendant and your name on it. Hence, dog tags.
I understand. Fine, then lets be extra silent from now on. I went to follow the trail with my rapier drawn. We should be careful not to stumble into another group of them as we did before. If we cant avoid it and they are still in their human disguise, we rush them. They are weak while not in their natural form, so we should abuse the opportunity if possible.
Aside from that. Magnus gestured at the corpses. Do we get anything cool from eating them? Will we be able to change shape? Do they have cores? He couldnt help but smile wickedly at me. I would like to have a woman who can change her three sizes according to the mood.
I raised an eyebrow and stared at him. Sometimes, too much was too much. He could prove his attraction to me as much as he wanted to, but I still had some hang-ups about my chest. I just wasnt as large as other girls. No need to point it out!
Magnus quickly understood he had shot beyond the line of a good-natured joke and cleared his throat. Not that you arent perfect the way you are. He was quick to indicate an hourglass figure with his hands. Those hips of yours would make any guy lose his head. And that ass have I told you I am totally a bottom guy?
I looked down at myself and rolled my eyes. Alright. Stop it right there before it gets even more awkward. And to answer your question: We would likely get nothing more than an ability to change our colour for camouflage. If you take changeling as a secondary mutation, you wont receive the full shapechanging ability. You get the whole package only by taking it as a primary mutation which we already have. So its impossible for us. And creatures of this size do not have cores.
Magnus mimed fainting. So, no shape-changing superpower for us.
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We continued in silence, this time paying a lot more attention to our surroundings so we wouldnt run into another group of changelings.
It took us an hour of travel time, but we finally arrived at another, much larger clearing which was located at the Bellys edge.
This time around, we didnt stumble like children into the enemy. Thanks to my echolocation, we were forewarned and had enough time to leave the path and sneak the rest of the distance slowly through the underbrush.
A large root twenty metres away from the glade provided us with enough cover and height advantage to observe the situation without being discovered.
The ground in this glade had been trampled into a circle of dirt almost fifty metres wide and there were about twenty crude structures in the area. They looked like tents made out of leaves, but I knew better.
I thought those things arent intelligent, Magnus whispered while he peeked over the root from next to me.
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One activated a tension trap and caught a case of chest penetration when a branch with metal spikes whipped it with enough force to send the creature flying.
My partner activated his little trap when one changeling managed to get past the first three-quarters of our killing field. Magnus pulled on a piece of rope, which removed several wooden stoppers from beneath boulders hidden high in the vegetation. They had been attached to ropes and could swing freely through the area.
Most missed, but some hit their mark, inflicting as much blunt trauma as Magnus had managed to lift.
I think it should be most of them! I went down on one knee and grabbed the two interwoven cords of tripwire which centred on our chosen location like a spiders web.
Magnus kneeled next to me and placed his hands on mine. Then we nodded in affirmation at each other and channelled as much power as we could.
The tripwires easily transferred the energy directly to any changeling who was caught up in our trap. We only stopped when the wires grew too hot for us to touch, but by that point, many of the changelings had already found their demise.
Magnus picked up his spetum and casually strolled into the death zone.
A few changelings were still standing, but none of them were uninjured. When one got too close, Magnus weapon blurred and the creature fell apart in two pieces.
I followed, careful to watch his back. While he dispatched the ones coming at us, I finished off the ones on the ground. Either by touching them with my filaments to give them a final heart-stopping jolt or by stabbing their brains with my rapier.
We were almost done killing the last of the pack when something huge broke through the underbrush.
Watch-
It hit Magnus with a meaty paw and sent him flying like a toy. My partner only let out a pained grunt as he landed in some vegetation several metres away.
Magnus!
I screamed in outrage and barely managed to dodge the changeling matriarchs second swipe. How could something so huge move so fast!?
With a howl, I tried to electrocute the thing, pumping enough energy through my filaments to fry a normal changeling. But the matriarch only shrieked and acted as if I had stung it.
It rolled forward on its belly and then its head split open sideways, revealing a lampreys maw lined with countless teeth.
The snapping jaws almost got me and I quickly slashed the creature in retaliation, but my rapier only inflicted a superficial cut.
Then Magnus came sailing from above, roaring like a barbarian. His spetum pierced the matriarchs head and was rammed down all the way when my partner landed with both feet on the sideblades.
The monster bucked and twitched, revealing its belly to me.
I grasped the opening and jumped, ramming the rapier through scales and flesh while I shot out my filaments backwards. They coiled around the trunk of a large mushroom and then I pulled, giving it my best not to let go of the rapier while I pulled it back with me.
The matriarchs belly was slit open from side to side, allowing organs, guts, and other things to slip out.
It bucked again and threw Magnus off, breaking the tip of his spetum and one of the sideblades.
Both of us quickly increased our distance to the matriarch as it thrashed around, fighting against death till the end. But even a monster like it couldnt endure such grievous injuries.
With a last shudder, it stilled.
Magnus! Are you alright!? I quickly circumvented the corpse to get to my partner. I thought I lost you! Why didnt you dodge it? Ive seen you do so before!
Magnus coughed and hit the chest piece of his armour. I wanted to test this beauty in combination with a new technique of mine.
I scowled at him.
Instead of acknowledging my disapproval, he puffed out his chest, moving it around as some extremely buff bodybuilder would do with his muscles. I thought if my filaments are yet too short to use them offensively, I could use them instead as impact armour to soften a blow. It takes a little bit of concentration, but the matriarchs slap felt more like being hit by wool instead of claws.
Slowly, I let out a breath I hadnt known I had held. Warn me next time. And dont test out new abilities in real combat situations!
Sorry, but I was very certain it would work just fine. He pointed at the corpse behind me. Shouldnt we take care of this? Before, you know, it starts stinking even more.
I turned to regard the mess wed made. Before partnering up with Magnus, I wouldnt have dreamed of bringing down a giant monster like this one with just two people.
Oh, god. Magnus covered his mouth next to me and turned away. Why is it still moving?
I frowned at the huge sack which was squirming on the ground next to the matriarchs empty belly cavity.
Using a filament to cover my mouth and nose, I stepped forward and carefully used the tip of my rapier to slice the sack open.
Then I almost had to puke when the mushy contents spilled out, combined with yellowish digestive fluid.
I was even more horrified when one of the piles of half-digested flesh raised a hand.
He- help…