They had definitely bitten off more than they could chew.
Keerla and Solana had always been a good team when hunting together. Solana was a talented dryad fighter, and Keerla had proven herself skilled enough with a bow to be blessed by Artemis. Individually, they were strong, but together, they could hunt down even peak C-grades with relative ease.
That was until they encountered them. While exploring near the Grand Lake, they discovered a mound with a cave – an oddity in the jungle. However, before they could scout it, more monsters appeared.
It was the Simivita tribe, one of the most powerful tribes of social beasts on the planet. They arrived in a group of ten, and before Keerla and Solana could fully grasp the situation, a beast emerged from the mound. It was a long, lithe creature at the apex of C-grade, and Keerla instantly recognized it.
“That’s the Fortuna Ferret... I didn’t even know any of those were still here ,” she remarked upon seeing one of the rarer creatures in the Hunting Ground. It was endangered, with only a few remaining, primarily due to the high value of their fur.
Its fur was one of the few items believed to be capable of “altering fate.” Armor and accessories made from its fur seemed to make dodging attacks easier, and using the beast’s core in crafting significantly increased the chance of success.
This led to severe over-hunting, with most of these ferrets killed across the multiverse. Due to their rarity, finding multiple ferrets was difficult, making reproduction even rarer... which was why Keerla and Solana acted as they did that day.
After the Fortuna Ferret exited its mound and spotted the Simivita attackers, it went on the offensive. It was far more powerful than any of them individually, but by working together, they managed to hold off the beast temporarily. Three Simivita Shamans were casting spells in the back, and with Keerla and Solana watching, their magic manifested.
Four of their kind were heavily injured in the process, but they succeeded in stalling the Fortuna Ferret long enough. The magic created a large whirlwind below the beast, focusing all its power on moving the beast rather than dealing damage.
Screaming loudly, the Fortuna Ferret was sent airborne and launched into the distance by the combined ritual magic of three Shamans, who all looked quite tired afterward.Seeing all this, Keerla had to figure out what was going on as she snuck into the mound... and that’s where she found them. It turned out the Fortuna Ferret had been a jill with five kits hidden inside the mound, protected by their parent.
At least they had been protected... but now their mother was gone, whisked away by wind magic. Keerla had to make a decision fast as she reached out to Solana through their paired rings that allowed communication – a quite lovely wedding gift from Keerla’s parents back in the day.
“It’s kits... Fortuna Ferret kits...” she said, those words enough to convince her partner.
“Can they be moved? What do you need me to do?” Solana instantly responded, knowing the situation was dire.
Neither had to think much about what they had to do next. They were both members of the Pantheon of Life, and there was no way they could leave the kits to their fate, knowing what would happen to them.
The Simitiva were a race that could perhaps one day evolve into an enlightened species, but for now, they remained monsters. They grew by killing, naturally through absorbing energy in the environment, and most importantly for this situation, consuming things.
Simivitas were also known to be quite superstitious. They weren’t religious per-se, with some of them even known to have Blessings, but they still believed things that didn’t make sense to others. One of those was that consuming the young of powerful beasts led to the birth of more powerful children. Seeing as even the Simivita likely knew of the Fortuna Ferret’s unique abilities, perhaps they even thought eating these kits would give them luck.
To be clear, none of this was true, all that would happen if they ate the kits was that there would now be five less Fortuna Ferrets in the Hunting Grounds, with the only gains placebo at most.
“I’m not sure they can be moved, and their mother is still alive... so for now, I think the best we can do is stall,” Keerla responded after thinking for a moment.
Besides, she already knew there was no way she and Solana would be able to run efficiently while carrying the five kits that were all about the size of herself. Not while being chased by the entire Simivita tribe, they’d just pissed off. The five kits were sleeping currently, perhaps made to do so by their mother, which meant that trying to release and hope they could escape on their own was also completely out of the question.
Without thinking further, Keerla also decided to pull out her Hunting Grounds Manual and she kept it ready should things escalate. For now, she and Solana quickly agreed to try a daring strategy: diplomacy.
Walking out of the mound, Keerla was soon joined by Solana as they took up a defensive position outside of it. When they did so, some of the Simivitas that had stayed behind spotted them, and one of the ape-like creatures instantly began hollering loudly.
“Wait, we don’t want to fight!” Keerla spoke loudly while still trying to keep her voice calm in an attempt to make use of her profession that had to do with husbandry. She had a few skills that made it easier to calm beasts and monsters, and she really hoped those would work even on the Simivitas.
Luckily for her, it seemingly did, as the apes did calm a bit at her words. They were far from actually calm, though, as Keerla tried to speak again. “We saw your fight and wanted to come help... but those kits in there aren’t worth fighting for, not for you. We do need them, so maybe we can talk about that?”
As she spoke, Keerla also tried to estimate how many Simivitas they were dealing with and their chances should a fight begin. When they were first spotted, she already saw one run way, likely to get help, but if the ten that had originally fought the Fortuna Ferret was all the tribe had in this immediate area, it should be possible to-
“Chieftain say want!” one of the Simivitas yelled, having seemingly learned some words. The others turned to it and hollered a bit angrily at giving out information like that... but Keerla was very grateful as she didn’t hesitate to activate the emergency signal of the Hunting Grounds manual.
If a Chieftain was coming, this wasn’t something she and Solana could handle by themselves. Moreover, a Chieftain being around meant that they risked something even worse appearing.
“Do you think help will come?” Solana asked cautiously.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“It’s doubtful,” Keerla answered honestly. “Even if help does arrive, we would need it to be a full first-rate party if we want to put up a fight. Anything else.... yeah. I think our best hope is for the Fortuna Ferret to return and hopefully, with its help, we stand a chance.”
“If it comes down to it-“
“We’ll escape,” Keerla agreed. While they both felt a duty to protect the kits, they still valued their lives more and wouldn’t throw them away. They had to at least try, though.
Keerla and Solana stared down the apes for a while as no one made any moves or did anything. With every passing second, the elf and dryad hoped help would arrive, but unluckily, the Chieftain was the first to make his appearance.
[Grand Simivita Chieftain – lvl 349]
All of the Simivitas were already toward peak C-grade, but the Chieftain was truly at the peak and decently more powerful than the others. Even if Keerla and Solana had to face him alone, it would be an incredibly difficult fight they had no way of assuring they would win. If they also factored in the other Simivitas, things looked very bad.
The newly arrived Chieftain also sized up the elf and dryad as he spoke far more eloquently than the ape from earlier, which only made matters worse. The necklace of skulls also didn’t leave much to the imagination when it came to his level of diplomacy.
“You dare block my path?” he asked with a deep voice as if he found the situation funny.
Keerla still had to try as she spoke up. “We wish to propose a trade if the Chieftain is interested. The lives of the kits for-“
“Trade? I don’t think you would be willing to trade what I want,” he smiled, flashing his sharp teeth.
A bit of sweat ran down Keerla’s back as she asked something she knew she wouldn’t like the answer to: “What does the Chieftain want?”
“Your skulls!” the Chieftain yelled, having enjoyed taunting them.
Solana didn’t hesitate to throw down a seed to summon a temporary protective barrier around the mound to keep the kits safe as she and Keerla both attacked, trying to take down the Chieftain in a quick surprise attack while he was still overconfident.
It... didn’t work out. They were outmatched, and it didn’t look like help would arrive, at least not until a spark of hope appeared. Keerla was busy trying to help Solana as the Chieftain attacked her when suddenly an attack arrived from above...
Only to hit a tree instead of anything they were fighting.
Keerla stared up to where the attack had come from right as it arrived and used Identify as she saw a humanoid form.
[Human – lvl 307]
Instantly, disappointment washed over her. Then, she felt a sense of regret and responsibility. A level 307 human had no place being there, but if he was, chances were he was quite talented for his level. For her to drag him into something like this... no.
“Are you insane!? Run! Get out of here while you still can!” she yelled to him, projecting her voice telepathically.
If she and Solana had to flee, he would likely be slower and thus left behind, meaning that-
Right then, Keerla finally spotted something... all she had seen earlier was an arrow hit a tree, but as splinters flew through the air, she noticed something else mixed in with them. Blood and gore flew into the air, which was also when Keerla realized something else.
That arrow had broken apart a tree. A tree in the Hunting Grounds jungle, a place in which the trees were notoriously durable.
Keerla took another moment as she felt the aura of the human wash over her... and finally, she realized that her gut reaction had been utterly idiotic as she tried to correct herself.
--
Jake was naturally taken aback at being yelled at for killing an ape about to sneak attack the high elf and dryad. It was a bit rude, but it did make Jake wonder if he’d fucked up somehow and read the situation wrong, but right as such thoughts entered his mind, he heard the same elf speak again.
“Wait! Sorry, I misjudged, and-“
“Do you want help?” Jake cut her off as he’d already nocked another arrow.
“Yes!”
And that was all Jake needed to know. With his Pulse of Perception, he’d naturally put some things together. The sleeping beasts within the mound all looked a bit young and not exactly creatures fit for combat, making him guess they were newborns or at least very young children.
Now – and this may be Jake’s bias speaking – but his guess was that the elf and dryad were both trying to protect these younglings, while the big scary ape with a skull necklace was the bad guy who wanted to do something bad to these little ones. Of course, he could be entirely wrong, and the elf and dryad had actually kidnapped the pets of the innocent Chieftain with plans of eating them, but Jake was willing to bet he had things the right way around.
Taking aim, he released another Arcane Powershot aimed at Terramaster. The ape reacted quickly as it tried to summon defenses and save itself, but Jake got a nice assist from the dryad, who threw a wooden dagger toward his target, temporarily delaying it just enough for Jake to send another monster tumbling to the ground. Sadly, seeing as he no longer had the benefits of Sneak Attack and a fully charged Arcane Powershot, this one survived even if it remained badly injured.
Jake didn’t have much time to evaluate the damage he’d done as he had to keep shooting to help the dryad and elf, who were both getting heavily pressured. The dryad was using her twin swords to fight a Spearmaster and two other melee-oriented Simivitas while the Chieftain was going for the elf, who could only try to survive.
Meanwhile, casters were in the back, making matters more difficult for the two women. Unluckily for these casters, they had a Jake to contend with now as he released a constant barrage of arrows down upon the battlefield.
This was one part he’d missed about Nevermore... having allies to take aggro and just being allowed to stand still shooting arrows for maximum damage output could be nice at times, even if the novelty did wear off relatively quickly if things got too easy.
That wasn’t a problem in this case, though, as his tanks were far from capable of handling the pressure on them. Even with Jake’s help, the elf found herself pushed back repeatedly by the Chieftain, who seemed to enjoy the battle a bit too much.
Jake decided to change target as he sent several arrows after the Simivita leader, but the ape responded well. He turned toward the incoming attack and raised a hand as a spectral shield with a greenish hue appeared, successfully blocking Jake’s arrow.
“I’ll finish you off later, human, so wait your turn! ” he yelled confidently. Seeing the attitude of this Chieftain, Jake suddenly got an idea and yelled back.
“Trying to use all your underlings to tire me out, huh?” Jake said in a taunting voice.
The Chieftain took the bait hook, line, and sinker as he momentarily stopped pursuing the elf and turned toward Jake. “Nonsense. Human, your taunts are useless, your efforts those of a desperate weakling.”
Jake realized he had the guy just where he wanted him, making him smile. “Funny, I consider you the weak one here.”
“A human using wings to imitate birds because he dares not face his foes on the ground daring to speak of weakness is laughable,” the Chieftain said, shaking his head.
“He’s trying to bait you into a melee fight. He knows you’re a danger to him with your current positioning, but if he can get you on the ground, he-“ the elf helpfully tried to inform Jake.
“I’m fully aware,” he responded telepathically as he also spoke once more.
“It was just convenient,” Jake said.
“Then prove your power, human,” the Chieftain said with a grin. “Face me in a duel like a man. On the ground, without using that silly stick of yours.”
“Why would I do something that dumb?” Jake asked, acting as if he was about to nock another arrow.
“If you win, my tribe shall return and leave this place... and if I win, I get your skull,” the Chieftain proposed, definitely fully aware that what he offered wasn’t really worth anything. If the Chieftain lost, he would likely be dead or incapacitated, in which case Jake and the two women would have the advantage. Meanwhile, if Jake was killed, the elf and dryad would likely be screwed or at least have to flee.
“You know what? I don’t need a bow to kill you,” Jake said as he dismissed his bow as he’d promised and began flying downwards. “I’ll show you who the real weakling is here.”
The Chieftain grinned widely. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Why would you-“ the elf tried to question Jake before stopping herself. “Never mind... we’ll follow your lead.”
Good call, Jake thought to himself as he slowly approached the ground to face the Chieftain, who thought he was taking advantage of Jake’s ego. Meanwhile, Jake had just been aiming for a way to ensure everyone survived. He wasn’t confident in keeping both the dryad and elf alive while providing ranged support, not against this many apes.
It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that Jake thought having a little melee duel after this much archery practice could be a fun side-quest distraction. Definitely not a factor at all.