'Wake up! Wake up damnit!' Brian said to an unconscious Milo.
'Wh-what? What happened?' Milo said after waking up.
'You passed out after that thing slammed you to the ground. Are you doing ok?' Brian said.
'My whole body hurts. I can't get up on my feet. Definitely broke a few bones there.' Milo said in a business-like tone then in a frustrated voice yelled to himself 'Damnit! I am still weak!'
'You can beat yourself up over this later. Miss Alvana went after Kayeri. I might be injured but I am still going to go and try to help. You can stay here with my friend if you are too injured to move.' Brian said while pointing at Dylan who was hiding in a corner.
'You said that the chief was on it. I suppose that means our job is over.'
'Speak for yourself. I still intend to go.'
'Don't bother. We would just get in the way. Especially in our state.'
'Don't you have any pride. We are up against a strong enemy. So until it's dead or we are, we can't stop.'
'Calm down, mate. The chief has it under control.'
'How do you know that?'
'You do know that she was a member of the Silk Battalion,right?.'
For a moment only the sound of rain could be heard.
'You are joking!' Dylan said as he overheard the words.
'Damn! So you really didn't know. It's true. The legendary hunting party responsible for killing anything that was too dangerous for ordinary soldiers once
Included among their ranks our chief.'
The two of them just stood there stunned. Milo just looked on and said.
'It's a shame you know. I wish I could have gone. I really wanted to bear witness to the first confirmed kill of a Kayeri.'
Aria was looking cautiously at Kayeri. Its arm that she had just cut off was completely inert in her hand but the wound that she had left was steaming intensely. Also she wasn't completely sure but it seemed more agitated for some reason.
The Kayeri lunged at Aria and closed the distance in one second. It threw a punch at her which she dodged narrowly but that wasn't the end. The Kayeri used its remaining arm to balance itself briefly and used both its legs to kick her into the forest.
She had blocked the attack but it was still very powerful. She had dropped the dismembered arm of the Kayeri and it hadn't failed to notice. It beelined to pick it up.
'MUKU! MIKA!'
Mika tackled the Kayeri, throwing it off its trajectory, while Muku grabbed the arm and brought it to Aria. She took it from his jaws and stared at it for a few seconds. Realization dawned as the cogs in her head started turning.
She threw the arm back towards Muku and said.
'Eat up.'
The large dire wolf swallowed the arm in one go. The previous owner of the arm didn't take very kindly to this as it threw off the other giant wolf and charged towards Aria in a blind rage.
She could have stood her ground and fought it but she had a better plan. She retreated further into the deep jungle and allowed it to follow her.
By moving the battlefield deeper into the jungle, they had moved further away from the fire which made it harder to see but it was close to getting put out anyway. More importantly, going into the forest meant that they would be under the cover of the trees and she had a hunch that this wouldn't be preferred by her opponent.
The Kayeri slowed down its charge for a second. It had caught on to what was happening but it was too late by now.
'Muku! Mika! Attack!'
The pair of wolves jumped onto the Kayeri. Their attack pattern was more coordinated now. One would attack and retreat before the Kayeri could recover while the other waited for its turn at a distance. The main focus was to maintain a safe distance and keep it off balance. Her goal: keep it away from the clearing.
Aria said to herself, 'Findings about Kayeri based on observation. First of all, the creature's aggression and physical strength increased dramatically with an increase in rain according to Dylan. From this and other reports it can be concluded that Kayeri's power is dependent on the amount of rainfall falling on its body.'
By pushing the Kayeri under the thick canopy of the forest, the amount of rain falling on its body was reduced. This resulted in a decrease in movement and regeneration speed. Thus, affirming her hypothesis.
'Mika!' Aria yelled.
Mika somehow perfectly understood what Aria wanted and ripped off Kayeri's other arm with her teeth.
'Eat up.' Aria said and the wolf ate up the newly severed arm.
The pair of stumps where its arms were was steaming furiously. But it was not regenerating fast enough.
'Secondly, completely severed parts of its body take longer to regenerate. It prefers reattaching severed body parts instead of regrowing them from scratch.' Aria said.
She tightened her grip on her dagger. Her wolves weren't just attacking to keep it busy. They were breaking its bones and softening it up for what was next. Aria's turn had come. She ran forward and slashed its belly open.
'Lastly, The creature called Kayeri is as aggressive as reports have claimed. As such, I, as the chief of Solstun, am categorizing it as a creature that should be eliminated on sight.'
She kept slicing into its torso. From a distance it looked like she was just attacking in a vicious furry. But her attacks were deliberate and efficiently targeted. She was cutting up its internal organs like a butcher and picking them up with her spare hand to fling them away from Kayeri's body. All while hot steam clouded her vision and cuts made earlier regenerated.
It was a struggle but due to the cover of the trees, the rain was less intense here slowing its regeneration. So in due time, its stomach, heart, lungs, intestines, kidneys and everything else else had been ripped out. The Kayeri had collapsed to the ground wheezing. It was trying to breathe but its lungs were no longer inside its body. It would take a long time before it recovered enough to move.
Aria sighed and said,'This would have been much easier if Halbart was here.'
The Kayeri's body had turned into a steaming blob that was trying to crawl towards Aria.
'You know, I should really be thanking you.' Aria said to Kayeri as her wolves sneaked up behind it.
'I haven't been able to feed these two very well recently.' Aria said, 'Bon appetite.'
The wolves jumped on to its steaming body and started eating it ravenously. It was a bloody scene that was thankfully hidden from the eyes of the bystanders as the flames died out. In the darkness the wolves ate it faster than it could regenerate until not even a drop of its blood remained.
After the feeding frenzy ended, Aria went back to find Sofia. Viti's calls made it pretty easy to find them. It was now extremely dark without the fire but manageable.
'What's the situation.' Aria asked.
'Not good. Millie is pretty badly injured and I can't administer any medicine to help her in these conditions' Sofia said.
Aria thought for a second and said 'Put Millie on top of Muku. We have to meet back up with Milo's group.'
The giant wolf was already lying patiently next to Millie. Sofia did exactly as she was told. She had to be careful so as to not hurt Millie while moving her. Once Millie had been secured on her, Aria gave the signal for them to start moving.
Back in the clearing Brian was getting restless.
'Are you sure that they are alright?' He asked impatiently.
'Yes. Now sit back down, you're injured too.' Milo said.
'I can't sit still anymore. I am going.' Brian said.
'Don't go! Who's going to protect us if you go.' Dylan said
'He's right, you know. Like it or not you're the only one who's in any state to fight In case we need it.' Milo said.
Brian grudgingly sat back down. He had been trying to go after the Kayeri for some time but each time Milo talked him out of it with logical arguments. The fact was that they couldn't do much other than sit and wait for the others to find them.
Their group was currently taking shelter from the rain under some trees. Thanks to Milo's firefly light, visibility wasn't a problem for them.
'So mate, why did you two come to Solstun?' Milo asked, wanting to change the topic.
'Obviously to get strong.' Dylan said.
'You don't say. And what about you?' Milo said.
Brian avoided eye contact and murmured 'I have my reasons.'
Not very talkative Milo noted but before he could say anything a noise came from the forest. He looked up and saw Viti come flying towards him. The bird must have spotted the light around them from the skies.
After landing next to Milo, Viti started chirping. Following the noise, Aria's group emerged from the forest.
'Its them!' Dylan yelled.
Behind Aria was Muku who was carrying Millie on his back, following closely was Sofia, Clara and in the rear was Mika.
'Wait! Where did that boy go?' Sofia asked.
'I think he left a while ago. He had vanished by the time Aria came back.' Clara said. She had been unusually quiet on the whole trek back.
'What do we do about him? We can't just leave him.' Sofia said.
'Its fine. He is probably just hiding in the forest nearby. My wolves have been sensing his presence the whole way.'Aria said.
Dylan was relieved to see the group coming back.
'Thank god! You are back. I was so worried about you guys. Any later and I would have gone looking for you guys myself!' Dylan said
'What a big liar' Milo and Brian both thought silently.
'Yeah, yeah, whatever! Sofia, can you treat her here?' Aria said impatiently.
'I can stabilize her here, I think. I will need some cover from the rain and some time.' Sofia said.
'Take your time.' Aria said.
Sofia moved under the cover of a thick tree with her patient. Aria had Dylan and Clara set up a makeshift tent with some sticks and leaves for extra cover.
In this shelter from the rain under the firefly light, Sofia started preparing a mixture of medicine. The concoction she made was mostly blood coagulant to stop Millie's internal bleeding, some sedatives and an assortment of other things to help her recovery.
She took out a large metal syringe. Using a small match that Sofia borrowed from Milo, she sterilised the end of the syringe before putting it in. After she was done giving the medicine, she rubbed antibiotic oil on the injection spot before redoing the bandages.
Having completed the most important thing first, Sofia now began tightening the bandages around Millie's body that had become loose during the fight, applying some sticks for support where needed.
'How did she get so badly injured?' Brian asked
'I don't really know the details myself. I will take a full account from Sofia later.' Aria said.
Suddenly Milo, who had been too injured to move, got to his feet and went to face Aria. He kneeled down and said.
'I'm sorry for everything. This was all my fault' Milo said
Everyone was surprised by this outburst. Aria stood still and said.
'What nonsense are you talking about?'
Milo explained,'I convinced you to let me fight him. I believed that I could incapacitate it and be of help. But I overestimated myself. I couldn't contain the Kayeri and it resulted in everyone getting hurt. If I had just let you fight it from the beginning then this wouldn't have happened, chief.'
Aria looked at Milo for a second and then sighed, 'Milo, look at me and tell me who's the chief.'
'Uhh, what?'
'Just say it.'
'I mean it's you.'
'So, who is responsible for making all the decisions on this mission?'
'That would be you but…'
'No buts. I made the call to agree to your advice and let you handle the Kayeri. It was the most logical plan since we didn't know what we were up against. If we had known that it got stronger under heavier rain then we would have approached it differently but we didn't. I let you fight it because I thought it was best not to fight it myself without my wolves. So if it's anyone's fault then that's me. Now go lie on Mika's back and don't move or say anything until we get back to Solstun. That's an order.' Aria said
Milo silently obeyed her order. Inside he felt a little happy that Aria was trying to cheer him up in her own way. But that just made him more frustrated on the inside.
'Speaking of the Kayeri, how did it find us in the woods? We even went without light to make it harder to find us.' Sofia said as she finished up her work.
'Could it be the smell?' Clara said
'Not likely with this heavy rain. Even my wolves can't track very well in this much rain and they have the best nose in the whole forest.' Aria said
'Oh! What if it was because of the trinkets that it took from you girls' Dylan suggested.
'That doesn't explain anything. What would be the mechanism behind that? You can't just magically track someone using their items.' Brian said.
Dylan just shrugged and said, 'I don't know.'
Aria, still in thought, said, 'There is still so much we don't understand about the Kayeries. But if it did have such extraordinary tracking skills then it's a good thing that we killed it here. It would have been a disaster if it followed us to Solstun.'
She sighed and said,' It's still dangerous here. Let's go back to Solstun now. We will think about the Kayeri later.'
'Wait, before we start walking, all the guys should wrap bandages over their exposed skin. The bug repellent has definitely washed off by now.' Sofia said.
'I was wondering why you girls looked like mummies. Isn't it uncomfortable wearing wet bandages over your whole body?' Dylan said.
'It is definitely not a nice experience but it is better than being poisoned.' Sofia said.
'When you talk about venomous insects, you aren't referring to one of those right?' Clara said as she pointed to Dylan.
Everyone focused on what she was pointing at. There they saw a small spider that had landed on Dylan's neck.
Aria quietly whispered, 'Dylan, don't move a single muscle.'
Dylan at that moment must have misheard her and thought that she said, 'Jump as high as you can and scream like a little girl.' because that is what he did.
The spider, having been spooked by this act of calm bravery, bit down and injected enough toxins to euthanize an elephant.
Dylan immediately fell to the ground drooling and paralyzed. Sofia immediately ran towards him while cursing under her breath.
'Damnit! It's one thing after another.' she said.
'Why does every bad thing happen to him?' Clara whispered.
'This time wasn't even fully his fault. The poor bastard is just unlucky.' Brian noted.
Aria just sighed and asked Sofia, 'Can you treat him?'
'I got a good look at what bit him. It was a Yellow fanged tarantula. Those things carry a potent neurotoxin. It shouldn't do any permanent damage if treated fast enough. But…' Sofia said
'But?'
'I don't have a full dose of anti-venom.'
'How much do you have?'
'Enough where he will die in 2 hours instead of 2 minutes.'
'Good enough! Inject the anti-venom. The rest of you wrap up yourselves with bandages now if you don't want to end up like Dylan here. We will be rushing back to Solstun as fast as we can once we are ready.' Aria announced.
Everyone followed her orders. Brian needed extra bandages since he didn't wear any shirts and the injured ones like Milo and Dylan needed help from others for their bandages. Aria did her own bandages after arguing with Sofia for a few seconds about not wasting any on her. But soon enough they were ready to go back home.