Ferithan scowled at the damp fallen Ceiba flowers all around his hiding place. The Ceiba trees scattered a lot of its flowers onto the forest floor attracting insects with its stench. Humans however cannot stand its foul odour.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind away from the smell and onto the task at hand. He needs to react quickly to the signal from the cliff that serves as a vantage point for his sister who is acting as their spotter. She made a whole plan centered on her observation that the monsters cannot detect them by scent when they are around the flowers.
He opened his eyes and waited for the signal. He needs to get to the hunter sprawled unconscious in the middle of an open field with raptors biting on her armor. Thankfully the Rhenoplos "Armored Teddy" set has a full face mask keeping the raptor's teeth far away from her face which is usually exposed on most of the other armor sets out there. why in the world are female versions of armor sets like that? I've always wondered why they need to show either their tummy or their legs. This particular set looks like a joke but still performs more of an armor than the lingerie armor blacksmiths seems to keep making for women. I think the blacksmiths are just all perverts....
Ferithan shook his head along with the silly observations from his head as he saw an arrow fly out beyond the fields far to his right. He braced himself for the explosion he knew would be coming from the barrel bombs he piled a long ways far from the fields. He also said his mental goodbye to the kutku bracers, helm and armor he left there as a scent bait.
The raptors turned their heads to the direction of the explosion and started to call out to other raptors around the area. They then head towards the direction of the explosion. It will take them a few minutes to get there, a few minutes to realize there is nobody there, then a few minutes to come back to their bait. A bait they set for the rest of the human hunters.
Ferithan did not head out though and stayed still even after the raptors have gone. He still awaits the signal. It is not the raptors they are worried about. Not even the Kutkus they were hunting. They can easily dispatch a pack of raptors or multiple kutkus. That is the reason they were contracted for this quest. They are very efficient at hunting them.
No they are worried for something much larger.
As Ferithan survey the skies, a huge shadow flew by towards the explosion. Something quick, red and angry. His instincts made him duck and stiffen against such a foe. He swallowed the lump on his throat as he saw the flash of a mirror from his sister at the vantage point a few seconds later and he dashed out of hiding towards the bait. As he ran he chugged down his last power juice and gave a silent prayer.
After a dozen paces or so he heard raptor calls near the clearing to the right.
They are coming back. They left guards! How can they be so smart!?!
He scooped and picked up the Rhenoplos armored woman as well as her sword and shield and slung them onto his right shoulder. The extra weight should have slowed him down badly but removing his helm, armor and bracers allowed him much more mobility than what he normally would have.
The drug burns on his throat and stomach keeping him quite alert and ready. His body is on edge, pushing at every jog trying to get to the cliffs before the huge monster shows up.
The raptors eventually caught up, hungry and unburdened, they assailed the running hunter with teeth and claws. Ferithan could hardly defend himself while running. With a dagger in one hand he entered the "hunter's high". They dubbed it demonization, which is by all intents and purpose, pretty accurate.
His lungs burned with fumes much hotter than the power juice and his muscled tensed as if operating on a hair trigger.
He slashed on the oncoming bite slicing open a swath of skin and scale on both the raptor's upper and lower lip. That raptor fell back kicking and clawing the ground, cursing perhaps if they ever could.
He kept up his pace unabated by his maneuver, he jumped towards the right as an arrow flew through where his face was. It hit the raptor behind him on it's forehead between the eyes as it was about to take a nasty chomp. As if a crimson flower bloomed as it crashed to the ground never to open its eyes again.
Ferithan kept running and dispatched another raptor by jumping forward while making a single spin extending his dagger out and opening a gash on yet another raptor's neck.
Once he cleared the field and entered the forest, he found the pile of ceiba flowers prepared for them by his sister and dunked the unconscious hunter in. He then scowled and rubbed some flowers onto him as well making a well disgusted face.
After a couple more minutes of continuous running he heard a very loud roar. He flinched despite the distance from the source knowing in his guts how the roar rivals the monster perfectly. He shook his head and continued towards the cliff.
Ah, he finally found out that the bait has been rescued and his "hunters", the raptors, have been dispatched. It will take him a while before he realizes how we dropped out of his radar. Good.
He kept his legs moving despite the strain and fatigue. A normal monster should lose their scent... but the one following them is double the size of one deemed normal...
maybe it also have twice the size of a nose...
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