Mikel didn't like the idea of going to the Wild Zone again, with all his trauma still there.
He still had dreams of his friend's last moments, the fear, the smell of blood that haunted him still to this day. Victoria saw through the trauma, yet she was nonchalant.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say she didn't care.
To her, trauma had so little significance that it was almost laughable.
"I've just learned the basics of manaflow."
"...Which is more than enough to be able to kill a C-grade Nether Creature."
The eyes started to shake on Mikel, his sights lost and trying to find something to stare at. It was right at the moment, where Victoria simply grabbed his chin, and forced his sight to meet eye to eye with hers.
The blue eye started to glow, and it was majestic as much as it was frightening. Within the Nether Witch's grasp, it felt like Mikel was stuck, unable to move. He couldn't say no to those cold, disconcerting stare/
"Fine." Mikel silently proclaimed after gulping.
"Good." Victoria let out the faintest smile that Mikel could barely see. "We go now."
***
The Wild Zone was a leftover of what used to be a civilisation, a reminder that people used to live there, and also a reminder of the fact that they lost.
The broken down buildings and ruins, the cables that no longer connect to anything, the bones of the nameless, the endless sand.
Since the gate opened and the Nether creatures came, humanity had to retreat - slowly but surely - as the land they stood on became smaller and smaller.
Still, when there is a will there was a way, as the gates opened a certain 'spark' happened throughout the world, creating what humanity now called hunters that can defeat these Nether Creatures that were threatening them.
It sounded heroic and nice, but the reality was never that fancy, as the survival rate for most hunters was extremely low.
"This is a zone for C-grades, fight utilising the manaflow you have learned. No cheating."
"But, I-"
"No excuses either."
"...Could I at least hold a sword? Or…"
"If you still have to carry a sword after all that training we have done, then you may as well die here."
Victoria did not hold back with her sarcastic insult, and Mikel, despite being frustrated, didn't argue back.
"Fine, have it your way." He retaliated.
From the horizon there slowly was a shadow approaching, and immediately Mikel and Victoria both knew that it was a Nether creature.
The body of a hippo, but with the mouth full of sharp teeth like a shark would have, body full armoured in black with the hints of red between the scales. The fangs were quite huge as if they were from a jaguar, and all those features accumulated into a C-grade creature with a hardened skin.
"Normally they come in groups." Mikel remarked.
"Hence why that monster is in a C-grade zone. It's probably relegated from the pack and thus cannot survive the denser areas. An easy catch." Victoria replied. "Come on. Show me what you've got."
Mikel reluctantly stepped forward, and looked at the creature in its eyes, it looking back.
He thought briefly on how similar they were, not fitting into a group and thus having to wander around into the wild until their eventual death. He felt brief pity, before shaking his head and deciding to stand his ground.
'Sorry, lil bud.' He thought to himself. 'I have to kill you to move on.'
They say no matter how cornered a beast is, eventually they'll pounce as a last resort. This was definitely the case for this creature, charging at Mikel because it instinctively realised it was life and death.
[Summon: Chain]
Mikel chanted.
[Type: Scorpion]
With great speed, a chain came out of his palm as if it was shooting out of an alternate dimension, with the 'tip' of the chain being a sharp steel, resembling a knife.
The monster was surprisingly agile, and jumped to the air before opening his mouth to fall on Mikel.
Once the chain was in his hands, he knew exactly what he needed to do. All he had to do from that point was to utilise the gift he already had.
He started spinning the chain as fast as he could, then took a big step back with his right foot, and after putting power from his base to his wrist he threw the knife tip of the chain.
Pshh…
And it was just that simple.
Like a solid spear the chain simply pierced into the creature's existence, and he simply got the notification:
[C-Grade creature killed: 5 credits acquired!]
"Not bad." Victoria didn't want to show it, but she was secretly proud of this C-grade hunter.
"Manaflow, huh." Mikel didn't realise that it was this easy, and sure enough, Victoria didn't want to make it easy either.
"Come," She pointed towards the horizon with her chin. "Let's go deeper, into the B-zone."
As a C-grade hunter, there was only one thing on Mikel's mind.
"She's got to be kidding, right?"
As if she had read right through Mikel's hesitation, she pressed him on.
"Come on now, are you that much of a coward?"
"Being careful is not cowardice."
"It is if you literally have the most powerful being right next to you."
Victoria looked smug, full of herself and bragging about her own existence. Mikel hated that, but deep inside he knew she was right.
There was practically no danger in any Wild Zone - even in deeper zones- as long as someone like Victoria was escorting.
The problem was how tight the idea made him feel in his heart.
Training and real life situations were completely different. Even as a C-grade, back when Flint was still alive, their training would go well, and they'd be stacked up in theory about how to kill certain beasts and would spar together to test their skill at being hunters.
But that didn't stop one of them being killed with the body ripped apart and screaming.
The reality check of the Wild Zone is the one that makes the most optimistic hunters retire; living or dead. Mikel already had his, and the sheer thought of having to go back out in field after losing his best friend seemed sudden.
Suddenly, Mikel's face was grasped by soft, pale hands, the cheeks gently touched in the palm of the Nether Witch. The blue eyes started shining, streams of mana sparking around it, but the look was so gentle that one may mistake her as a guardian spirit in a fairy tale.
But the words were cold.
"Do you want to know the problem with Ceebees and other C-gradies?" Victoria opened her mouth, her face rather close to Mikel, the voice almost a seductive whisper. "They're too scared."
"These Nether Creatures, they don't care about death. They serve a specific purpose of colonisation, to kill the living, and they don't mind their demise. It's almost like they're part of a hive mind that adheres to a greater 'purpose'; no matter how screwed up that is."
Victoria started patting Mikel's head, the tone still cold, the paradoxical nature between her gentle actions and cold words causing a conflict inside him - his heart pumping fast.
"Every hunter that survived long enough to be a veteran has the mindset of a suicidal maniac. They put their lives on the line for their craft, and succeed in them. But you, you're going to let yourself be trapped inside that little hiccup?"
"A hiccup?" Mikel didn't let that word get past him. "My childhood friend has died"
"Didn't he become a hunter knowing full well what he was getting into?"
"Well-"
Then nothing. Mikel didn't have anything to say, and Victoria knew it. She moved her head to place her mouth right next to his right ear. She had him exactly where she wanted him to be.
"What else are you going to do with your life? Where are you going to get money? Being a hunter is expensive, you must have some debts under your name. You spent time and money to bring in effort in order to what, give up on the only thing you're probably okay-ish at? What use is there to you otherwise? And I also think…"
Victoria touched her cheeks against Mikel's. He froze up.
"Your friend…your poor friend. Don't you think he deserves retribution? Your friend fought the creature even though they could be stronger than him. What about you?"
The word retribution stuck to Mikel.
With the heartbeat moving fast, butterflies in his stomach, that word hit harder than if she spoke it normally. At that moment, Mikel was like a bug in a honey trap. He knew subconsciously he may be nothing more than a plaything, but couldn't really put into words anything to say back to her.
After all, to Mikel, she wasn't exactly wrong.
He was in debt. He had nothing to do. He would eventually have to work for manual labour, but even then it probably wouldn't be easy to stay in his apartment. He had nowhere to go, no place to turn to, and most importantly, he deeply wanted some sort of closure for Flint.
"So, I'll say it again." Victoria proclaimed with command.
"Let's go deeper into the Wild Zone."