The Ghost Shepherd

The First Expedition (part 2)

Sly saw the screens for a couple of minutes and then left without picking anything at all.  The other hunters standing around didn’t find anything strange and continued with their selections.  Everything seemed normal at first but in one of the corners of the room, there was an extremely fat individual from the Nazekiel race that found Sly's behavior peculiar.  

The fat Nazekiel was known in the bunker as Raol, the Collector. He was a devious individual just like all other members of that Race.  They had the lower body of a snake, the upper body of a humanoid pig and a face with a reptilian frame that only a mother could love.  There were many variations but none were as fat as Raol and nobody knew why, many attributed the changes to DNA enhancement but he was a mystery.

The majority of DNA and core specimens sent to the city of hope came from his crew and there were rumors that they were reuse parts taken from dead Novice Hunters that fell in battle.  They were scavengers that made a profit out of other people’s misfortune but at the same time it was a waste to have an Argonian increased in power after swallowing the cores from the alliance’s weapons

It was still unclear if they had a hand in the deaths of all those Novice Hunters but they were still in business so that meant they were amazing at fooling the system.   This fact gave them a lot of clout with other criminal organizations but they were others that believed that the reason they had never been caught was because they were actually innocent and that The Collector was a genius merchant.

Raol followed Sly with his eyes until he was out of sight and then called a little individual by his side, “Call Chameleon, I want the DNA of that guy”

The eyes of the Rat-like creature shone with light before leaving the building and signaling a very skinny individual to come over.  

Sly left the safe zone towards the closest yellow area mark on the map.  There were packs of Dracos in the area but individual Argonians were also found in fair quantity.  The wilderness had a jungle-like feeling that was extremely similar to the territory displayed by the government during his aptitude test,  the grass was pretty high and trees with big roots were everywhere, the foliage was so dense that he had to constantly cut branches and other vegetation just to see ahead.  

After many years of fighting, the animals native to the planet were almost extinct. They were caught unprepared and we're outmatched becoming the primary diet of both forces until there were no more.  The eradication of Alpha's wildlife was the main reason for the Draco burgers to become a thing. At first, it was out of necessity but then they became a staple of the planet's cuisine. 

Planet Alpha was a battleground between Argonians and the members of the alliance and since they started going at it, the balance had never been broken.  The planet was considered training grounds by both powerhouses and it was an unspoken rule that no Lord Class could take to the battlefield and that whoever advanced in strength to the peak of the commander class could leave and was considered to have earned their stripes.

The amount of spirits Sly saw were considerably more than in the city and the core absorbed them none stop, the pattern in the middle of his eyebrows was becoming more and more complete and the battlefield was the perfect place for its improvement.  The closer he got to the yellow zone, the more life like the spirits became and there were some that started to fight the absorption showing that there was still some wisdom left.  

K.C was scanning the zone constantly and transmitting the information to Sly that saw it as scrolling text in the corner of his eye.  

It was then that his first encounter with a proper spirit came to be, it came as a whisper that said, “Be...care... ful...up...ahead”

Sly looked around but didn’t see anybody.

“Be ...low... you...” 

The Spirit was floating inside the earth and only the head that was looking up was visible.  It was the spirit of a teenager like himself but it was of a different race.  It had two horns on his head and long hair tied up on a ponytail at the back.

“What is up ahead?”

“Dracos...Two”

The proximity of the spirit to Sly made the crystal start the suction and he could feel that the allure of the talking spirit was great. The spirit's face started to contort while fighting the suction as if it was in pain and the reaction made Sly shout, "STOP IT!"

He tried to control the core as if it was one of his limbs and was having some success, the suction force slowed down and the spirit was able to fight to get away but then the worst happened. 

The sound of something heavy moving his way and of tree branches breaking apart called his attention away from the spirit and to the front.

Pant …Pant… the Dracos stopped several feet away from Sly and saliva dripped out of their mouths. 

Swoosh

The distraction cost the spirit his second life as the core used that opportunity to finish what it had started. 

Everything happened so fast and Sly's only reaction was to extend his hand like he was grabbing a weapon while his Scythe took form.  He didn’t manage to take a look at the core that had taken a black color as opposed to the usual ethereal blue, and to the changes to the circuits around the body of the weapon which made it completely black before an eerie smoke started to leave from it.

Sly stared at the two Argonians standing in front with an unprecedented focus while K.C displayed information on the enemies.

The information started with the best solution K.C came up with and it was to send his ability to the biggest Argonian and then dodging with an evasive roll to the side before finishing with an uppercut of his weapon.   

Name: Draco (Argonian Soldier - Common)

Weight: 240 lb

Height : 7.0 ft

Difficulty Rating: One Star

Special Abilities: Can increase his strength as well as the toughness of his skin. 

Close Combat Fighter that uses his claws to rip through armor and loves to eat the heart of his victims.     

Name: Draco (Argonian Soldier - Common)

Weight: 390 lb

Height : 7.9 ft

Difficulty Rating: Three Star

Special Abilities: Can increase his strength as well as the toughness of his skin. 

Close Combat Fighter that uses his claws to rip through armor and loves to eat the heart of his victims.  

The abilities were the same since they belonged to the same species but the threat of one was a lot higher than the other.  

Thumb… thumb

Both Argonians started moving to overwhelm their enemy like they had done many times in the past and Sly followed the strategy K.C gave him activating the ability that had failed to do anything hundreds of times before.  There was no reason to doubt the chip and the strategy was solid in a sense, using the ability to distract the target from the real attack coming after the evasive roll.

The energy Scythe flew with a horizontal spin towards the 3 star Draco that was coming on his right side as he stepped forward ready to do the evasive roll to the right.  The color of the energy gas from the Scythe this time was dark as night and when it hit the Argonian that didn’t even care about the ability and kept on trucking, something amazing happened.

Instead of targeting the spirit, it targeted the physical realm creating a darkness that covered the Argonian’s eyes and the rest of the gas went inside the muscle fibers damaging them, producing pain, and slowing the creatures movements.  

Sly rolled to the side very smoothly and evaded the incoming attack but the effects of the ability were quite noticeable. 

SLICE…. WHOOSH

The Scythe cut the Draco from the hip all the way to the opposite shoulder dividing him in two, blood splash all over the area and when the second Draco was looking to capitalize and pounce on Sly, he met with the barrel of a laser gun that fired a ray of energy that penetrated the Argonian through his neck leaving behind a gaping hole with burned marks around the edges.

Gasp.. Gasp…

The second Argonian fell backwards and Sly started hyperventilating, his heart rate was through the roof, his adrenalin was pumping and he couldn’t contain his desire to scream.

LET’S GOOOOO!!!!

The Spirits of the two Dracos left their bodies and instead of snarling at Sly or resenting him for killing them, they ran to a place with a lot of plants and started to roar at the place.  Sly was intrigued and looked in that direction for about a minute but he couldn’t see anything out of place so he turned his attention to the corpses. 

“Where is the Core?”

“It depends, some Argonians have it at the base of their skulls while others have it inside their hearts”

The smell of blood was pretty strong and if it was any other person looking at the mess on the floor, they would probably puke their guts out.  Sly grabbed his Scythe and using the toe, he lightly tapped on the skull of the first draco and then moved it up and down as if it was a serrated knife to open it revealing the brain. 

Close to the place the Draco’s spirits were roaring non stop, a transparent silhouette finally moved letting out the breath it had been holding for a full minute.  The silhouette was the member of Raol’s gang who was tasked with tailing Sly and if the opportunity presented itself he could move in for the kill.  He had been doing the same type of work for years and never had he been stared down by a prey like Sly had done a few seconds before.  

The assassin was sweating from the pressure he had been in but what he saw next made him nauseated.  He saw his target opened the skull of one of his kills and exposing the brain, it was pretty common among hunters looking for the core but them the blindfolded individual grabbed the brain whole and instead of looking inside for the core, he opened his mouth revealing his razor sharp teeth and dive into the brain like he was eating blackberry pie at the fair with his hands behind his back.

“What the f**k is wrong with this guy!!”