Technomancer: Genesis - 130 Hunting Grounds Part 2

Ezra was panting, he had been suppressing the rage he felt but it was slowly increasing, and so was the magic he was using to suppress it. The attacks from felbeasts had intensified and he and his father had been forced further into the grove. There was barely any light now and Reitz used his flame to light the way. It had been four hours since they last departed from the pillar.

The experience was peculiar, there were droves of felbeasts and Precantae attacking them in a coordinated manner, there were plenty of times Ezra tried to scan the periphery to the full extent of his aura but against his hypothesis, he found no mage controlling the beasts.

This baffled him and Reitz.

“This has never happened before, Felbeasts and Precantae are natural enemies, they avoid each other, but now it seems they can become coordinated,” Reitz furrowed his brows.

They had already killed sixteen Precantae but each encounter ever since the fellynx had perplexed them. Each Precantae they met had a group of felbeasts with them, this acted like a unit and even possessed basic tactics. The beasts encircled them and didn’t let them escape, each wave seemed to drive them further into the grove.

“I had experienced this before, dad, but I found out that they were being controlled by an Arcanist. I tried to scan the surroundings and see if there was anyone, but It seems that all I can detect are beasts.”

“We are in too deep now, I think we should head back. We’ve beaten the record anyway, so there is no point. Besides, I have an ominous feeling,” Reitz grit his teeth.

Ezra nodded and he followed Reitz.

As soon as they headed back there were three squads of beasts stopping them. Each Precantae had a different set of crystals on their head, the wolf Precantae had an Earth crystal, the bear Precantae had a water crystal while the bobcat had a fire crystal.

The two stopped in their tracks.

“I don’t like this,” Reitz frowned, “We need to push through this is a bad sign.”

The animals stared at them and the wolf Precantae was in the lead along with his felwolves. The other two followed suit tailing back of the wolf pack. The animals snarled as they went closer.

Reitz and Ezra tried to move to the right of the group but the Bear’s pack blocked their way.

“I have an idea, dad,” Ezra said.

“What did you have in mind? It looks like we need to force our way out,”

Ezra took out his rifle.

“This weapon can shoot further than the colt I gave you dad, I’ll use this and just cover me if they try to attack.”

Heinrich saw Ezra as he pulled out the rifle.

“Odd, what is that? Is that a weapon,” Heinrich pondered.

Ezra cocked the gun, he infused the forestock of the gun and pumped it with sufficient magic, as the felbeasts started to circle. He slid it into firing position and took aim.

BANG!

A blast resounded as a bullet ejected from the barrel. Ezra aimed at the head of the farthest felwolf. It fell as its head burst into bits.

“What? I didn’t see a thing.” Heinrich rubbed his chin, “The sound seemed to come from that weapon. That felwolf just had his head blown off? That seems to be a similar weapon to the tiny thing that Lord Hearth used. How does it work? Does one use magic on it?” Heinrich gazed at Ezra intently.

He had not been spotted by the animals it seems that the magical repressor did its job.

The animals paused. Ezra used this moment to fire again, two, three, four, wolves had their heads exploded.

The animals started to roar and rage and they charged toward Reitz and Ezra’s position at once.

Reitz activated his fire armour, and cast his dual fire blades. He dodged a pounce but stabbed a fellynx to cinders and incinerated the corpse. A felboar dashed but he kicked it and it burned to ashes. The bear opened its mouth and spewed a torrential current of water toward Reitz but he jumped to dodge the attack.

Meanwhile, Ezra was also surrounded by six felbeasts. He was aware of the entire Battlefield.

“I must get a higher vantage point,” Ezra said. Using his boots, he kicked and propelled himself twenty meters in the air. His ears popped because of the sudden change in pressure. He activated AMP and shot the six wolves that had changed their targets to his father.

Bang. Bang. Bang

He tried to load as quickly as possible and only had a 0.3-second delay for each shot. He hit all of his targets and his father killed the other three. The Precantae just stayed back while they oversaw the attack.

Ezra slowed his descent by using the boots’ thrusters but it was an arduous task. He tried to maintain the speed as he aimed at the Precantae.

Bang.

He shot a round, but to his surprise, it didn’t hit the beast. The wolf was fast. It had sensed that he was being targeted by Ezra, and weaved throughout the woods away from his line of fire.

“That’s weird,” Ezra mused. “Its moves are too unpredictable, even with AMP,”

“Dad, could you engage the Precantae wolf? I’ll clear all the felbeasts.” Ezra shouted.

“Aye,” Reitz affirmed.

Ezra kept on blasting his gun and provided cover for Reitz as he bobbed and dodged the spells of the Precantae.Thunderous sounds shook the forest which was now lit by the fires coming from Reitz and the Precantae.

As Ezra dropped to the ground, he had killed all the felbeasts and only the three Precantae were left. The beasts became wary and Reitz chased the Precantae wolf.

Ezra observed the ground and he was surprised that there were skid marks from the wolf’s paws, it seemed that it was using a similar technique to Hearth.

The bear and the bobcat engaged Ezra while Reitz duelled with the wolf. The wolf pounced on Reitz but he sidestepped and kicked the beast. To his surprise even though with his fire armour the kick didn’t leave a mark.

Reitz looked closely and realized that the beast was covered in a protective layer of rock where he had hit the beast. Besides being able to augment its body infusing magic in its limbs it could apparently cover itself with rock as well like rock armour. He hadn’t encountered a Precantae such as this.

‘I need to regroup with my father,’ Ezra thought.

The bobcat pounced on Ezra but he kicked the ground to dodge. But there was a torrent of water from the bear already on its way.

‘Shit,’

Ezra used his boots to propel him outside the bounds of the attacked and because of sudden demand, he didn’t properly adjust the boost and he ended up launching in an oblique way.

The bobcat quickly reacted and sped toward his location. Unfortunately, it was Ezra’s blind spot. Ezra rolled immediately and discovered that the bobcat was already two meters in the air about to land on him. The ferocity in its eyes stared at Ezra.

He instinctively angled his fist to meet the bobcat.

“MAMA!”

The fist connected to the bobcat’s head as it tried to bite off the arm. It wasn’t as explosive as the punch to the lynx but it was enough for it to obliterate the head exploding it out of its body.

“Did I hear correctly?” Heinrich raised his eyebrow, “Was that . . . mama?” Heinrich proceeded to scratch his head.

The force propelled him to the right of the bear, it was odd since it produced more recoil than it should have. The bear now opened its mouth to blast Ezra again, but this time Ezra used his boots to dodge again. He was lying down and the motion made him flip 5 times because he didn’t control it properly.

“Woah” Ezra was quite dizzy in the air, nevertheless, he pulled his gun and aimed at the bear.

BANG!

The bear successfully dodged the attack and tried to blast it again.

As it aimed, Ezra saw his opening and pointed the gun to the bear’s mouth as he stabilized himself with the boots and shot.

The bear fell dead with its mouth blown to bits, even before it could cast the spell.

Ezra fell and panted, he closed his eyes for a moment to focus on his next task and knelt.

“Where is father?” he wondered.

Reitz rushed toward Ezra with a magic crystal in tow. He had defeated the wolf.

“Are you alright, Ez?” asked Reitz who had furrowed his brows.

“I can’t use some spells you know, It might hit you, I could have disposed of the three Precantae immediately but it would just consume magic and clear a big area, we don’t exactly know how many of the things we are going to handle on our way back,”

“Yeah, No problem, dad, I killed the two, they’re back there.”

Reitz smiled and ruffled his son’s hair. He rushed back at an even faster pace as soon as he heard Ezra’s shout.

“Come, let’s go before more of those things show up, its getting dark already,”

ROAR!!

Reitz gasped.

“Shit.”

Three more Chimeraans appeared.