Technomancer: Genesis - 128 The Hunt Begins

The party woke up before sunrise. They already planned the week before, Irriton was quite near Bren nevertheless they brought supplies enough for a week. The total party consisted of thirty people twenty knights five serfs and Ezra’s retinue plus Reitz. They arrived after around after four hours of travel. The five serfs brought the supply wagons and tended the horses and overall maintenance duties.

“Looks like they’ve arrived, Heinrich,” Ulric whispered they were hidden on the tops of trees. Looking down below they had already planned the intelligence operation once they got wind of the activity, they went to Irriton as soon as the banquet ended the previous day.

“We may finally get a glimpse of the weapon in actual combat,” Heinrich said as his eyes filled with glee.

“If we could get the actual weapon that would be marvellous,” Ulric replied in anticipation.

“Well, you know the plan, right?”

“Do you think this is worth the magic crystals and cores we paid?”

“Well let’s hope so”

Ezra brought his Aura Powered Rocket Boots and his newly redesigned Flamethrower Gloves. He also brought his aura powered firearm, he didn’t know what to call it yet. The prior pistol types he made Arran create was harder to control than the boots so he opted for a different type of weapon. He missed the timings of the explosion when using the pistol magical firearm, it failed to mimic the power and accuracy of the colt.

What he did was designed another gun. It had some features of a shotgun where he would condense his magic and pour it to an Aerellium coated vacuum chamber, using a sliding mechanism that would load it, then manually load the air infused into another chamber coated with Pyritanium, while the mechanism made it so that it would load the next bullet after this process.

The overall design resembled a cross between a rifle and a shotgun with the magazine loaded underneath but could not fire automatically. He needed a larger space for this, but the added rifling also helped the accuracy of the bullet. The downside was Ezra had to manually do this because he needed to time it with his magic. If he could already do it on impulse, maybe someday, he could make it into an automatic rifle of sorts but for now, he was stuck with the design.

As they neared Irriton he felt distinct sensation. He knew this feeling well, the very same experience when he came to Irriton the first time. It was faint but it was still there. A boiling rage in his gut, it was like he wanted to attack the nearest enemy. For the meantime he could still keep it at bay, it was odd that he had this experience so he asked his father.

“Dad,” Ezra spoke as their horses trotted farther into the grove.

“Hm?”

“I have a peculiar feeling in my gut, it’s like I want to attack something, Deimos told me before it was a form of night beast rage. I don’t really understand it.”

“Really? That is odd, we can return if you can’t handle it. I’ve never heard of anyone being influenced by night beast rage,” Reitz look worried.

“No, I can manage, it’s more like an itch,” Ezra affirmed.

“Okay, then just tell me if you don’t feel all too well okay?

“Of course, dad,” Ezra then decided to change the topic.

“How do we do this anyway, what are the rules for the actual hunt,” Ezra asked as he looked at his father’s face, “Do we have a quota or something?”

“Traditionally, one Precantae kill was enough,” Reitz smiled, “But somewhere down the line the rules changed, there were two things each father-son tandem went for, it was to surpass the records of the previous. One was the number of Precantae they killed, and the other was how farther into Irriton grove they could go. I and my father killed 14 Precantae and we went within a mile of the core,” Reitz boldly declared.

“Oh, I see, looks like we have, quite a record to beat, I remember when I went here the Chimeraan we encountered was a pretty tough nut to crack, It was very resilient and quite intelligent”

“Yeah, you told me that story, Rycharde said that without your help they wouldn’t have probably taken the thing down, it was odd that there was a Chimeraan in that area though,”

“I think there was an Arcanist controlling it from the shadows or at least led it there to prey on us,” Ezra replied.

They were now in the outer edges of the grove, and Ezra’s heart beat fast as he forcibly tried to overcome the itching fury. It was damper than what he had experienced during his first entry into the grove.

Meanwhile, Ulric and Heinrich situated themselves where they could not be detected by the party.

“It really looks like they are going to attempt to go to the core,” Heinrich observed.

“That’s insane, that’s practically suicide unless Legio Imperia were to personally do a clearing operation on Irrition that would be an impossible task to fulfil,” Ulric replied while looking at the party.

As Reitz, Ezra and party went deeper and deeper the canopy became thicker, light barely touched the ground anymore.

There was a certain melancholy mixed with the anger that he felt as both he and his father’s horse trotted. Mixed feelings came emerging as he remembered Evan. He didn’t show it to anyone, however, it seemed that Rycharde could sense it as Ezra caught a glimpse of him looking worried.

Anger, nostalgia, and sorrow, the negative feelings resonated in his heart and it was tough keeping them at bay. He tried to close his eyes for the moment and just feel the wind. The horses kept trotting and they arrived at a familiar spot. There was a pillar in the perimeter and stones that marked the diameter.

He found relief here the rage immediately disappeared, and yet this sudden uplifting clarity on his senses made the sorrow worsen. Reitz suddenly noticed Ezra’s movements. Everyone halted, and dismounted, from here they planned to go on foot. Rycharde and Evered stared at Ezra and couldn’t help but empathize with him. Evan was their comrade too, but it seemed to Ezra he was someone much more.

Ezra inhaled deep breaths as he basked in the feeling. A tear fell from his eye as this happened. Caspian and Hearth stared at Ezra who was now kneeling and facing the pillar. Reitz had a vague feeling of what was happening but didn’t truly understand the situation.

“Are you alright Ez,” Reitz strode closer and knelt beside him.

“Yes, dad, I’m just reminiscing how stupid I was,” Ezra wiped his tears.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, son,” Reitz replied.

“We can stay a bit longer if you want,” Reitz said with a calm face.

“No need,” Ezra sniffed, “I think we can go now,” he stood up.

“Very well,” Reitz said, he didn’t pay any more attention to the incident and decided to let Ezra handle it himself, he had been taught that somethings can only be solved by one’s self.

“The plan is, the knights and your retinue will stay here to guard the serfs and the supplies,”

“What, just us? Why?” Ezra blurted out with a bewildered look.

“Well, this isn’t going to be the Blackfyre Hunt if it involved our vassals would it?” Reitz smirked.

“From here we will go in the inner district,” Reitz pointed west.

“I haven’t been there,” Ezra nodded.

“Yes, because there will be more beasts attacking from there, that’s where the core is. It’s a mystery why there are so much Precantae in that area. With you with me I think we can find out,” Reitz told Ezra.

“Well, that does sound interesting,” Ezra smiled, “I’ll prepare my weapons then.”

Reitz nodded, “Sure, we’ll go once you have finished.”

Ezra prepared a few magazines, some food, a compass, his shotgun-rifle hybrid and magic crystals. They were the last option weapons in his point of view,

“I’m done,”

“Looks like, the Blackfyre Coming of Age Hunt has now officially started,” Reitz smiled at his son as they both stepped out of the circle.