RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 171

“Calm down,” said Balthazar.

“I am calm. What to do?” asked Robert in a barely audible whisper.

“Is it looking at you?”

“It is but looks confused. Probably, never seen a combat suit before.”

“What is the state of the Nandi?”

“It doesn’t have the usual appearance. It is in a light green color instead of the usual black.”

“So, it has just molted its skin. It would be weaker.”

“Yes. There are also about few dead beasts beside it. They seem to be the food for its babies,” said Robert.

“It is probably not much interested and more concerned for its cubs. Its shedding is also probably any unexpected. It might have already been at its molting time, lost some skin in a fight and decided to molt the rest of the skin before attacking others,” said Balthazar. It was common for animals to not stop in middle of molting as the hanging skin would disrupt their balance in fights and would be a hindrance.

“I guessed that,” said Robert slightly irritated.

“Is the Nandi between you and the cave?”

“No. I am actually between the Nandi and the cave.”

“So, escaping is a no go,” said Balthazar as he came out of the cave. “You run to the sides or towards the cave, it will follow you. If you run towards it, it might take it as aggression, if it had never seen humans before.”

“F.u.c.k! What am I supposed to do? Should I signal for help from Lucius? This thing could be 12 feet tall if it stood up,” said Robert in a frightened voice.

“Don’t worry. Move slowly backwards towards my direction away from it. Check the map and don’t end up leaning against a tree and end up cornering yourself,” said Balthazar.

“Wouldn’t it suspect that I wanted to go for its cave?”

“Ya, it might. I am suggesting the least risky one for you, cousin. It can outrun you if you move in any direction and will most probably attach you. It would be far too concerned about the juviniles. The best way is to attack it together. So, it will speed up at some time. You need to throw something at it and run towards me after that.”

“Will it be all right?” asked Robert worried about the trial. With his combat suit, he wasn’t really worried for his life, but the trial mattered a lot to him.

“Don’t fret. I will attack it at the proper time. Even, if we fail to kill him, it would be injured badly and will escape to the cave for support. I doubt that it knows about the death of its mate?”

“You sure it is dead? It might just be tired and laid down after the birth,” asked Robert as he began to move away from the beast in front of him.

“I am sure. I put a hole through its head just to confirm. It’s a habit of mine,” said Balthazar. “Slowly move toward me. I am out of the cave.”

“If it catches up to me fast?”

“Then inform me. I have will make a loud noise here to get its attention. It would hardly care about you, once it fears for its mate and cubs.”

“OK,” said Robert as he continued to move. In a minute, he yelled. “Bel, the damn beast is after me.”

“Stick to the plan. If it comes too close throw something at it. Keep you blade handy in one hand. It will be much vulnerable after its molting,” said Balthazar as he moved towards the cave. He had already used his crossbow and the spare string of the bow to make a trap at the caves entrance as a backup and was sure that he could take down the Nandi.

He soon saw that his cousin and also that the Nandi was right behind him and would be on him in a couple of seconds. So, he decided that he needed to change his plans and ran towards the cave while firing a round of his gun at the cave entrance.

“Run to the side cousin,” he informed through the microphone. Robert also realized his cousin’s intention and jumped to the side to get out of the way of the pursuing Nandi. The Nandi following Robert heard the loud noise produced by the gun shot and it stopped pursuing Robert whom it was about to successfully pounce on.

The bear like beast started galloping towards the cave concerned for its mate and cubs. Balthazar was at the entrance waiting for it to step into the trap. Robert stayed down for a couple of seconds and started to look at the Nandi and decided to follow it from a distance in case his cousin needed his help.

As it came within a couple of feet nearer to the entrance, it slowed down a bit to check for intruders when an arrow whizzed from the top of a tree aimed at its hindquarters. It had already noticed Robert following it from behind and as the arrow came from another direction, it felt that the entrance was the best direction to move into and jumped into the entrance to avoid the arrow.

A loud roar immediately followed by a thudding sound came after it entered the cave shocking Robert. He started to run towards the cave as he heard heavy breathing and grunting noises of his cousin through their comms.

“Bel, are you alright?” he shouted as he pulled out both his blades and sprinted towards the cave.

“Ya. I am alright, help me with this thing,” came the voice of his brother followed by heaving noises. Robert entered the cave and found his brother on the floor with the Nandi atop him. It had one of its blades through its eye and the other one through its ears. It was clear that it was killed by two quick strokes, but Balthazar ended up falling under its weight.

“You injured?” asked Robert worried as he saw his brother under the Nandi.

“No! Just being crushed. Pull out the blades out of its head and pull up the damn beast!” said Balthazar angrily. He had been struggling to push out the Nandi off him. He had actually expected to take out the beast in one hit to the eye, but the beast was much more resilient and larger than he expected. Even after, it got a blade through it eye, it jumped at him. Luckily, he already had removed the case from its back which he used to block and evade its paws, moving closer to it to deliver another blow to the head.

But he still ended up being trapped beneath its dead body which would have crushed him if not for the combat suit and the backpack case which was beside him and bore the brunt of its weight. Even with the combat suit reducing the effect of the beast’s weight on him, he felt a lot of pressure on him. Together then managed to get him from beneath the big body of the beast which finally relieved the pressure of its weight and allowed him to talk freely.

“I thought that you were exaggerating when told it was 12 feet,” said Balthazar as he observed the corpse of the beast.

“Ya, it is a huge one and very heavy,” said Robert still checking his cousin’s condition. He already had the sensors of his suit monitoring Balthazar’s vitals and condition.

“Big haul for our first beast,” said Balthazar looking at the corpse as he took his blades. “You go and get the skin shed by this beast. I will handle the things here,” said Balthazar as he started to pull the backpack case which was also beneath the Nandi.

“Ya, there were also a few canines that it was hauling back to the cave. I will get them all here,” said Robert as he went out of the cave.

Balthazar pulled out his cave and made way into the interior of the cave to the place where he found the cubs. His first priority was the cubs. There were a lot more valuable than the dead ones and could make good pets. He wanted to know if they could be raised at the mansion. He found the Nandi to be extremely ferocious and strong and it would be good if they could tame them, but he doubted it to be possible. Still, raising from birth in captivity would still be better, if they knew its feeding habits and other requirements in its growth.

He went there and went to the cubs and the corpse of their mother to examine them properly. Three of the cubs were lying beside their mother while a fourth one was halfway out and dead. The three seemed and were breathing. So he carefully moved them closer to the mother out of instinct.

“I didn’t even know the name of these beasts till today,” thought Balthazar as he realized that it was a futile venture to try and tame them without knowing anything about their biology. He quickly called for the drone as only those guys would have some way to get information to keep them safe.

He checked around in the other parts of the cave and found a small nest like structure made off dried grass and leaves. He put the three remaining cubs in them and brought them out to the entrance of the cave along with the carcass of their mother.

The drone also reached the place and Robert also got the shedded skin and the bodies of the small canines that the Nandi was carrying in its teeth. Balthazar quickly opened up the case and put the three cubs along with the nest, the shedded skin and a couple of those canines as they might be food for the cubs. As the male Nandi hunted the canines for them, he felt there is a very good chance of them eating these animals. He was supposed to put in a record of their collections in which he put in a note about his intentions for taming the three cubs and quickly sent the drone back.

“You could have filled it up with more of the dead Nandi’s,” said Robert.

“I just wanted the drone to transport the cubs safely to the others. It would be a waste if they died. It is great opportunity which I don’t want to lose.”

“I am just worried about the consideration of those judges. You heard Lucius inform us that the council selected really strict judges for us, right?” asked Robert.

“I did. I noticed a lot of things about this trial too. For example, the combat suits kind of provide gravity compensation. Those are even found in the military and Lucius told that these the latest in the exploratory suits. So, clearly some of the features are locked,” said Balthazar.

“What do you mean?”

“The suits are sturdy made of very good materials, but that is all. Even our sensors aren’t up to date. Military suits have better features than the ones that I could see here. You didn’t realize these things because you haven’t had this experience before or even observed one before.”

“Why would they do that? Do we need to complain about this to Richard or someone?”

“No. They probably know it already. This is meant to be a survival training. Our previous generations had probably had it much worse. They have these things controlled so that we would be able to survive and adapt to hard situations. They are probably already monitoring us and know what we are talking about. The trial was probably never about the amount of stuff we sent back,” said Balthazar.

“Ok. Let me correct that. I think it is not only about collecting the items on the list. We also need to be able to make proper decisions and prioritizing things. I have been wondering about it for quite some time now and that is the reason I tried this out. We will know about it soon enough.”

“Let me get this straight. You are experimenting with the judges about the motive of this trial?” asked Robert in an irritated tone. He didn’t like it at all that his cousin was jeopardizing his chances of getting appointed as an elder.

“Ya. If I am wrong, I will be the only one who gets lower grade and we still had a good haul. Sending the two Nandi’s afterwards is bound to have us cleared at the very least. I am not cared about the grade. Only, you are. I just took this so that I could participate in the competition for that elder post,” explained Balthazar. “Just don’t worry, I called the drone and I was the one who was responsible for putting stuff in and sending it back. It will all be on me.”

“Fine. I guess it is not too bad to try it out.”

After a couple of minutes, they found the drone returning with a message for Balthazar. “Please, use the code ‘xufnidkid454kd’ in the notebox of your HUD to unlock advanced mapping and sensory features of the exploratory suit. We will consider taking the cubs to the Blyth mansion for growing them under controlled conditions,” said the notice from the drone.

“See. This is good right?” asked Balthazar as he typed the code. “I would rather have the gravity compensation effect provided by the suit though. It makes this easier,” he thought.

“Why didn’t they give it to me?” asked Robert.

“You probably need to take some initiative.” gloated Balthazar.

“Initiative? You just thought that it was a good idea to have those cubs as pets,” said Robert.

“Ok. It is not about initiative. It is more about making a good decision, I think. You also have a good chance of getting upgrades,” said Balthazar. “Why don’t you go ahead and send the remaining stuff using the drone. I will go and check my new upgrades and also see if we can get a few more of those smaller beasts that the Nandi was hunting.”

“They are brux coyotes. Live in large numbers here. They are easy prey and useless. Why don’t we just cut up the Nandi and try its meat. We can try to cook it,” said Robert.

“Ok. Nandi is a rare animal and thus its meat would be probably be a delicacy. I would rather have it cooked by professionals and eat it later,” said Balthazar as started to move out. “We also need to get some wood to cook it, else we need to eat raw meat.”

“Wood? I don’t know the slightest thing about these woods. Where the hell are we going to get the proper wood. We don’t even know which wood to use,” said Robert. Even though he had not actually had experience in forests, he had gone to woods for camping with his friend during his college. He knew a bit about cooking.