Though he hated not being right with them, TJ felt it was necessary to extend some measure of trust to the trainees who were, relutly, on the front lines and ready to kill. Rebekkah and Jordan, the two Disciples, stood in the middle of the group while TJ walked hem with his every retched out to the extreme. If anything appeared, he’d o react immediately, and his Wendigo Bde stayed in his hand, just in case. They hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards away from where he estimated the outer bounds of the safe zone, and there wasn’t anything here.

  The possibility of a spear burying itself in someone’s eye wasn’t lost on him, and TJ desperately hoped nobody would die on this inaugural hunt. They’d o kill at least teures, and TJ refused to return before they did so. Just so long as they didn’t enter a wendigo.

  When he walked under a tree, the wind whispered about something overhead. TJ didn’t look before he reacted, pushing both Rebekkah and Jordan underh him just in case. As his instincts had wohe pukwudgies had struck at the Disciples as soon as they appeared.

  “Look up!” TJ screamed as he poi four shimmering silhouettes. Farid was the first to react, both his javelins flying to pierce through the legs of a pukwudgie, sending both plummeting to the ground. The other two Acolytes shot towards the other two, one missiirely and the other lodging in the pukwudgie’s eye. The body fell without ceremony while the fourth of the overhead ambushers began to flee.

  “They’re not alone, I’m sure!” TJ shouted again, pointing at the two Zealots who were approag the felled but still living monsters. Both carried rge shields and turned wildly, looking for whatever roag. Nearly immediately, they were rewarded with the snarling attacks from three coyotes and their riders. Wordless cries of panic filled the air as the unprepared hunters were taken up in the adrenaline of battle. TJ knew he had to move, and activated his Diviransformation.

  The coyote and its rider were easy to tie up in his coils, the coyote snapping iually at him as his stone-hard scales while the rider’s spear barely cut through his skin. TJ knew he could easily dispatch both, but iook his time, keeping them from doing anything other than try to hurt him. With them tied up, quite literally, he looked to the other battlefields.

  The first thing that struck him was the sound. Every fight he’d been in so far, he’d beeher with Stanton or alone, and he’d found his ears wholly filled with the r of his rushing blood, nearly uo hear anything else. Now, though, the panicked and ued people screamed wordlessly, their fear maing in unintelligible sounds of terror. More than the sounds, though, were the sights.

  One of the two Zealots, Sarah, was holding her own. She’d sustained a si from the coyote’s rider’s spear in her right shoulder, the blood c down her arm and slig her fingers. Her face was twisted in a grimace, but she kept her shield hoisted high to keep the coyote from reag her body. The pukwudgie whose spear had reached her rone on the ground, fighting to its feet while Sarah struck wardingly at it. The other, Rod, however, screamed in fear and pain as he made tact with the enemy.

  Perhaps unprepared for the savagery of the assault, the Zealot had been knocked down by the coyote while the pukwudgie’s spear sought for his throat, head, and chest. Rod had enough presenind to roll over and keep moving, trying to avoid getting immediately killed. Fortunately, the rest of the hunters went to help the struggling man, shots ng towards the two aggressors. Farid’s javelin plunged deep into the coyote’s shoulder, the crest flying up the shaft and cutting a long gash into the creature. It stumbled back, yipping in surprised pain. The move saved Rod’s eye, the pukwudgie’s ting through the skin of his cheek instead.

  With the coyote off bance, Rod scrambled to his feet while taking a much deeper stab into his back. He screamed again in rage and fear and pain before trying to smash the edge of his shield into the pukwudgie’s face. The strike missed as the pukwudgie dodged to put its body against the coyote’s back. Rod didn’t stop, his makeshift club swinging wildly at whatever he could reach. Due to the rge javelin lodged in its shoulder, the coyote was slowed enough that the club smashed painfully into its head. The thunking sound of heavy wood against bone sounded like a gong for the sed round of battle and Jordan redoubled his efforts to kill his attackers.

  What the others didn’t seem to realise, though, was that Sarah no longer could hold the other two back safely. The coyote’s jaws found her ankle and she suppressed a scream of pain and rage as its rider’s spear pushed her shield away from her body. Then, exposed, the rider threw a rock directly into her fad Sarah went down, stunned. Pukwudgie and coyote alike were ready to exploit the opening and they lunged in for the kill.

  TJ released his two victims though they were still living as he rushed to protect the fallen woman. He didn’t o. A pair of sprays of water like from a hose shot into the faces of each attacker. They sputtered while Kaini, fear streaking her face, stretched one hand out to eae, the water flying from her palms. Though it disrupted the attacks and startled them, the two monsters were still effectively unihat was when Jordan and Rebekkah’s fist-sized stones pelted the pukwudgie. Oruck a gng blow against its shoulder while the other ed off its head. Now that all other nine hunters were engaged in the fight, TJ leapt back to the still-living coyote and rider he’d previously trapped.

  As his coils once again found their pces entangling the creatures, TJ watched as Rebekkah rushed forward and id a hand on Sarah. Nearly immediately, the felled Zealot stood up, her eyes unfocused, but she threw herself bato the fight without hesitating lohan it took for her to blink three times. Ohe hunters had truly begun w together, it wasn’t long before the pukwudgies were killed and the coyotes were hobbled. While they snarled and lunged out in threatening bites, most looked unwilling to kill the more normal-looking creatures. That was, except for Sarah.

  With her blood-coated fingers creaking around the wooden handle of her club, Sarah approached the coyote with her blood painting its maw. Then, after shoving its head roughly to the side with her shield, she dealt a deadly blow to the base of its skull. The g of bone was final, and the corpse dropped to the ground. After he gathered himself, Rod extended a hand to the others to kill the other coyote in much the same way. He seemed sick as he saw the boy y on the ground, and though she’d led these final executions, Sarah looked rather green as well.

  “There’s two more.” TJ reminded while the pukwudgie and coyote struggled and screeched for help and in terror. “You two Acolytes, you kill them.”

  The two inexperienced people were obviously immensely unfortable with his and, but after barking another, “Kill them”, they approached. Their run of the mill bows were drawn taught, all the way back. The glitterihereal arrows summoned by their Skill had TJ slightly on edge, given their ck of experience, but he figured if he kept his head back, he’d survive. It took three shots each to finally kill the twling, impotent monsters, and TJ noted from the kill notification that these creatures had ranged from level 2-4. Disregarding the success of the hunt, the air of the hunting party was somber and dark.

  “I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse,” TJ said as the eight new hunters looked unfortably at each other, “but good job. This isn’t just me saying this, but Farid agree. You’re all alive, and you’ve gained experience. Who gained a level?”

  Everyo Farid and Sarah raised a hand. “Now, you’re all healthy, at full resources. You’ve seen how much stronger you get from a single level, so I want you to realize something: The monsters are getting these same levels too.” He paused, letting his statement sink in.

  “The first coyotes I fought were level 0. How many of you say the same?” Every Acolyte a nodded in agreement. “None were level 0 here. They’ve gained levels, and they’ll keep doing it too. They’re only going to get more and more dangerous, and if you stop here, you’ll let down the people around yht now. They’ll get hurt if you decide to be selfish and go hht now. In two weeks, they’ll die if you aren’t willing to kill right now.

  “Now, we have a decision. Are we going to call it quits right now and hope we coast to safety? Or are we going to put the work in right now to make sure we survive and protect our panions and see our families?”

  He wasn’t expeg nor did he receive a cheer, but everyone, from the excited Farid to the still terrified Kaini, nodded in agreement. Before they could move on, though, Sarah spoke up.

  “That was scary. I thought I was doing ok because I have a higher level, but all it took was a sed before they tur around on me.” Her voice quivered from the adrenaline and every other emotion she was overwhelmed with. “I ’t do this alone.”

  “Yeah, we should each be assigo help one of the Zealots.” One of the Acolytes jumped in. As the rest of the group pnned and strategized how to tio hunt and be successful, TJ let a smile crack his face. More thaing them to higher levels, he’d wahem to feel a bit more fident in themselves and ready to face the Tutorial. Somehow, it seemed like they were taking those steps forward.

  —-

  The sed hunt was much less frightening than the first. Since each person had received more of an assig and, instead of a loose group of ten people, there were effectively two squads, the initial e went much more smoothly than before. That paired with only two coyote riders attag after the initial ambush allowed the huo gain not just experie fidence. Shouted ands and warnings worked together, though nobody followed them especially well. Even so, the injuries sustained were signifitly less serious than before and Rebekkah and Jordan quickly ehat nobody was in serious danger.

  TJ stood with a coyote corpse over each shoulder while looking out for anything else ing nearby. The exultation of victory and new levels had at least half of the party ready to tihe hunt, but TJ stopped them.

  “We’re doing great, and maybe we e back out after lunch. But what are our Disciples’ MP looking like?”

  “28/190.” Jordan supplied.

  “34/220.” Rebekkah echoed. Though TJ was surprised to hear the differeween them, Rebekkah did have her Occupatiardless, he kept speaking.

  “It’ll take them almost nine hours to be back at full.” He didn’t o say anything else before the rest of the hunting party hurriedly gathered together to go back to town. They talked excitedly to each other about small different victories, how this one had totally saved another, and that arrow was shot just right. TJ happily walked in the back of the group, watg the freshly minted fighters make their way back to town in victory.

  As they pushed through the bushes into the bounds of the town, the smell of freshly grilled meat filled the air and the hunters found that they were much huhan expected. Even so, they all looked at TJ befoing anywhere.

  “I’m not your dad. Go.” He shooed them off as people, many of them older than him, hurried to the firehouse. TJ leaned against a nearby tree and sighed. Was this really what he was going to do for the wo weeks?

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