The Ghost Shepherd

Hunting the Red Zone (part 4)

Sly was speechless, Allan’s attitude ratified his decision of joining the team and he was pretty happy.  He was so happy that he took another brain and offered it to his teammate, “Is like a warm dessert...wanna give it a try”

Allan thought about it for a second but after a quick whiff he almost puke, “I think I'll pass.  Thanks”

Sly just kept looking at the figure that left as quickly as it came and sighed.

The brains were delicious and after getting barrated by Steelforge about how real men carry alcohol, and how he was too cheap to buy her just two barrels, he decided to buy one of Ale and placed it in his space folder.  Now that he was out in the wild, he saw great merit to it since he was able to enjoy it to his heart's content. It was an awesome experience, there were a lot of firsts one after another and he was loving it.  Sly was finding himself and with his renewed trust on his team, he closed his eyes and started to see the videos of the battle.  

There was a lot of information he needed to go through, from the moment he sent the first dark energy scythe to the last shot from the plasma gun, the video kept replaying itself and K.C would occasionally comment on it or simulate the use of the new abilities.  The sequence of moves were given a passing grade by K.C but the fact that he had been using the gun he bought a little too much was a cause for concern and it was definitely something to improve upon.

The biggest problem that kept coming up over and over was the lack of quantification when looking at the two types of energies in his core.  What if he needed to use two Dark Scythes in a row? or What if he needed it a skill from the Spirit Energy line instead of what the core wanted to give him? Total control over his skills was a must so there was a long way to go; however, the most important thing was to stop using his gun unless it was a life and death situation.

Steelforge arrived in time for dinner and the smell of blood immediately hit her, she looked around and saw Sly laying by some trees and then walked over to say hello.

“How did it go?”

Sly looked up and said, “pretty good, we managed to catch seven,one and two star soldiers, but it was an intense battle, I don’t think we could have handled them just the two of us”

It was a legitimate concern that Sly had, Steelforge was big in size but he had seen the Dracos attack and if five ganged up on her she could be brought down. 

Steelforge sat beside him and took a few pieces of Ore and Herbs to show him, “Take a look at this… they are the materials for a few of the quest on the boards and they are found close to the lake by the red zone… so you don’t have to worry about me”

"What is your ranking?"

"When we leave this planet and you join our organization you'll know.  Until then, if I tell you, I'll have to kill you"

"You're kidding right?"

"Well you can also pay Blackie a fee and he can tell you but it is expensive.  You might as well just get me drunk and we can talk about it during pillow talk"

Gulp… Sly took out the Draco he had and gave it to her trying to change the topic before heading to where the group was hanging around.  

The moment Sly came close, the atmosphere got awkward since Clayton was also sitting around and everyone got quiet.  It was very silent for a couple of seconds but then Allan saved the day by asking Steelforge how her day went and offering her a small bottle of alcohol which she swallowed in one go”.

FUUUHH AHHHH

“Not bad kid, you learn quickly.  Let me see the corpses that you want me to hold”.

Everybody took the corpses out and then they disappeared just as quickly.  Anku saw a chance and started to tell the two about the upcoming days and she seemed really excited.

"Thanks to the reconnaissance that Gonzo managed to do before his blunder, we decided to move to the area with the Kellsids and hunt some before assessing our progress.  We can then decide if it is time to return to the Bunker or move towards the Red zone.  What do you guys think?"

"I think we should hunt as much as possible to make the trip worth it.  There is no point in coming out for two days if the amount of corpses per person are just 2 or three".      

The statement was a little rough around the edges but it was true nonetheless, he wanted to continue hunting with them but if the risk eward was not up to part, it would be a waste of time.

"So what do you suggest we do?"

"We should do as you say but I think we should hone our skills while moving towards the Red Zone until we have 10 dracos for each one of the members"

"That is 60 Dracos" said Alice, a little taken aback.

"Yeah we are 6 people and we killed seven today, I think if we are careful enough, it is possible"

"I can't guarantee we can keep that pace but you do have a point that returning to the Bunker is a little premature," said Allan

The reunion kept going for a little while but Sly’s request to keep watch was declined by Anku with a weird pretext like ‘I love the night sky while camping with friends so I’ll take the night watch’ the problem between Clayton and Sly was still alive and well.

The following day, the team moved across the water stream and followed Gonzo to the location that the Kellsids seemed to call their territory while Steelforge stayed with the team to see them hunt before deciding if she should continue collecting ore or stay as a babysitter.  Despite her looks she really was a softy.

The Kellsids were no match for the team that were getting more and more coordinated with each encounter.  Alice also started to assume a more active role on the scouting and luring of prey which made it safer due to the stealthier nature of arrows as opposed to the sound the guns created. 

The team was a well oiled machine and although they had managed to find only small fries who behaved almost like animals they still took care of business. The difference between the dracos fighting on the vision from the spirit and what he had seen was night and day.  The biggest challenge actually came from the freshwater slink whose high pressure water bullets were as deadly as lasers.  

The Freshwater Slinks were highly social and attacked in unison making it really hard for the team to get close.  It was at this moment Sly’s training came into play as he used the nanotrons to create disks to defend his vitals while he moved in towards them while dodging and stopping whenever possible.  Anku did the same, it was really nanotron handling 101 while Clayton didn’t need to as he just used his shield to protect himself.

The strategy divided the attention of the herd that was out in the open standing over the stream while Alice, Gonzo and Allan who picked up rocks with his skill and sent them towards his enemies were acting under the cover given by the trees. 

Whoosh … Whoosh 

Bullets were flying everywhere and Sly was trying really hard to replicate the two new abilities that created so much conflict with Clayton but he was having problems getting his anger levels to go up high enough to meet the resentment necessary for the execution of the area of effect ability which he decided to call Cursed Land.  

The Freshwater Slinks were at a clear positional disadvantage and their lower intellect hurt them in the long run.  The moment some started suffering injuries, they started to panic, making them easy prey for the team that swooped in and annihilated them.  It was a good second day for the team and the death count of Argonians under their hands was climbing at a fast rate.  

The problem came during the third day of traveling in which they spend a bunch of time moving from one place to the other without much of an encounter, this left the team with only one thing left to do and that was to move further out and into the Red Zone.  

The team traveled as a compact unit and for the first time Steelforge was also with the team.  The imaginary line was crossed and with some pointers from the Dwarf, they managed to avoid some pitfalls and continued to travel towards the lake.  The area was huge and the Argonians placed a lot of emphasis in keeping it under their influence so fights were happening everywhere and there were alot of teams risking their lives to complete those standing orders.

The groups that Sly’s team passed by acted differently out in the wilderness than the way they would inside the Bunker.  They might lend you a hand if they saw that you were in trouble but they didn’t go out of their way to say hello, they all had wary faces and many of them even fired some warning shots to keep Sly and the others away from their perimeter.  

Thanks to the directions of Steelforge, they arrived at the Red Zone without any problems and even managed to get a nice place to rest.  While the team rested, Gonzo went to inspect the surroundings and what he saw shook him to the core.