Book 5, chapter 12

Zee may have been a little too optimistic when they started putting out advertisements for a healer. At first she thought people would jump at the opportunity to join their team, especially since they were going on an expedition sanctioned by the emperor. She had been mistaken. All it took was a brief explanation of who their team was and where they were going, and the prospective healer would back out. There was a whole branch of the academy dedicated to combat healers, and yet they hadn't found one.

Zee doubted meeting Elvot's friend would amount to anything, but she might as well meet him. No one else was signing up to be their healer. Still, even if they were desperate, letting an inexperienced pill popper on their team was a bad idea.

An extra person on their team who didn't know what they were doing would be dead weight. In the heat of combat, it could cause one of the team to die in order to save them when the healer did something stupid.

She would have to test them, and see how they did.

Not wanting to keep her guest waiting she ran down the hallways, and into Fiers' empty training hall. Only one person waited, a bronze skinned human leaning on the leftmost wall with a steel capped staff beside him.

He was tall and lanky, with stubble on his chin, and a mess of long black hair.

As she got closer, she got a sense of his aura, and grimaced. The mans aura was stained with the stench of pill toxins, and worst of all, monster fragments.

It was far worse than Malden's or Allison's had been. They had only used pills, while this man was clearly using both pills and monster fragments. Being close to him was unsettling. 

"Are you Elvots friend," Zee asked in greeting. She tried and probably failed to hide her initial thoughts. 

He offered a hand. "Yes, I'm Taylor Mulnac," 

She shook his hand, noting his strong grip and the well-developed calluses. "Good to meet you Taylor, I'm Zee of clan Viotti. You wouldn't happen to know Hespa Mulnac," Zee asked curiously.

"Yes, he is my cousin. We are not close, but we have a cordial relationship," Taylor replied. He spoke in a refined tone, his cadence pleasant to the ear.

"I don't mean to be so forward, but why do you even want to join our team? You are of house Mulnac, surely you do not need to put your life in danger," Zee asked.

Taylor frowned, his expression thoughtful.

"You may not know this, but the cost of beast shards is exorbitantly expensive. My family is unwilling to spend the mountains of Ether crystals necessary to raise me to D grade. As someone who will not inherit, I don't hold enough value to the family," Taylor replied. He didn't look resentful at that fact, just resigned. 

Zee raised an eyebrow. 

"So, you want to join us on the expedition to make enough money to buy the beast shards yourself," Zee asked curiously. 

Taylors controlled expression faltered for a moment. "That is one option. Preferably I would like to rid myself of the toxins in my body. Once I do that, I want to rank up to D grade the normal way." Taylor took a deep breath, anger flickering in his eyes, "I am sick and tired of everyone turning up their noses at me. The looks of revulsion when people think I'm not looking, the outright dismissal of my peers, the whispers behind my back, it's humiliating… I work hard, I train every single day, and yet no one cares. All they see is the stains on my aura," Taylor said unhappily.

Zee listened to his rant, and almost felt bad for him. She might be more sympathetic but he was complaining about having too much money and spending it on ranking up. That was just like a tally wart addict who spent fortunes to buy the drug, and then complain about losing their hair and teeth.

At least she could sympathize with these drug users because they were addicts. People like Taylor were in their predicament because they wanted power, and didn't want to work for it.

"What sort of class do you have, and what can it offer," Zee asked, getting straight to business. 

Noting her lack of sympathy, Taylor's expression turned to one of dejection, which was quickly hidden by one of determination. 

"I'm a blood witch. I mostly specialize in barriers and blood based healing. I can rob the enemies of their life force, and use it to heal, create shields, or attack," Taylor said.

"Do you need blood, or can you conjure it," Zee asked.

"Fresh blood is much more efficient, but I can conjure blood with my skills," Taylor said.

Zee nodded. It was a bit unconventional but that was fine.

"Show me one of your barriers, I want to see how durable they are," Zee said.

Taylor grasped the lacquered haft of his fighting staff leaning on the wall and gestured.

Thirty feet away, a dome of sanguine energy appeared. It was mostly transparent, but it was coloured the dark red of blood. Zee could sense the infusion of at-least one insight in the barrier. 

Given the coppery sense it gave off, the insight was undoubtedly blood related.

Not waiting for permission, she drew her sword and vanished.

Zee appeared right next to the barrier in a puff of mist, her sword falling with a ruthless swing. 

Spirit echo coursed along the blade, compressed to a razor's edge. 

 The attack was strong enough to cut through an un-enhanced steel breastplate like it wasn't there. Her sword lodged into the barrier, the cracking sound echoing around the training hall. 

Deep cracks spread through Taylor's barrier but it held. Zee backed away, noting Taylor's relieved smile. An enemy, or monster wouldn't give up after just one attack. Time to see if he could handle a little pressure.

She threw a small person-shaped suit of armor at the barrier. Dern swelled in size as he arced through the air, growing to well over seven feet tall, his glaive held above him in a two handed grip. 

The air cracked as Dern hit the barrier with enough force to cut a cart in half. 

Already abused, the barrier buckled, and was ripped apart, but not before another barrier formed inside the first.

The inner barrier cracked, but it stopped Dern's glaive. Nodding, she sheathed her sword, and recalled Dern.

"That was quick thinking," Zee said, impressed by his reaction speed. If someone was inside the barrier, they would have been fine.

Looking only a little rattled, Taylor nodded. "What was that skill you used," Taylor asked.

"Oh, that was just Dern, he is my spirit companion," Zee said offhandedly.

"I see…" He shifted nervously," anything else you want to test," Taylor asked.

Zee shook her head. "That's enough for now. Are you free tomorrow? The rest of my team and I are all meeting up. If you would like, you can come. I'm not making any promises that you will get on the team, but if you impress them, that could be possible," Zee said.

"Alright, where and when are you meeting up," Taylor asked. 

"Come to district one, estate number three. Everyone should be there around sunrise," Zee said. 

As a member of house Mulnac, Taylor had been raised to always watch himself when around those of a higher rank and station. 

In the Lorocan empire, power meant status. 

Hespa had warned him to be respectful when dealing with Zee, and he was glad he listened.

The rumors about her carrying a black token were still only speculation, but Taylor believed it to be true. Zee had no respect, or deference towards his noble title. She was either crazy, or of high nobility. 

Given she was staying in one of the best mansions of district one, and treated him as equal, she must be of a high station. There was no way she was a low ranking member of the Viotti clan. If she was a direct descendant of Julian, then that would change a lot.

Taylor was excited and nervous. He hadn't lied about his motives, but he had left a few things out.

The head of house Mulnac wanted him to get close to Zee, and gain her favor. Befriending her would be advantageous to his house. 

His father wanted him to court her, but was leery of doing that. Sources said that she was already in a relationship with a man named Bastion. The man had been sponsored into the academy by the head of clan Viotti, but had gotten into trouble since his arrival.

Zee was a much more recent arrival, but was already making waves. There was even some speculation that she was Julian's granddaughter, the one who was responsible for starting the war with the blood gorgers. 

How someone not even in peak E grade could do that was beyond him. More valuable, was the fact that Zee and her team were somehow invited on the expedition with the imperial descendants. 

If he could figure out why, that would be some valuable information that could side house Mulnac in future dealings.

****

The capital city of Lorocos was safe from random monster attacks, or the occasional swarm. The border towns were not so safe. The twin sun valleys where the city was located had an extremely dense energy. It was an excellent environment for cultivators but it was also beneficial to monsters. 

Such an energy rich environment made the monsters that lived in the valleys grow and mature at a startling rate.

That was a huge problem for the border towns. Monsters were constantly encroaching on settled territory. It was a pain, but also extremely lucrative for the monster hunters that were hired to go clear the monsters out when they were causing trouble. Depending on how much trouble certain monsters were causing, a bounty would be put on their heads.

Anyone with enough power or stupidity could go claim the bounty. There were established clans of course. Clans that vetted their members, and would only send members on missions they could handle. Some people didn't see the need to join one such clan.

More than one overconfident idiot had been eaten by beast kings. Zee had always wanted to do some adventuring. It was a simple yet dangerous life. Take contracts, kill some monsters that were a threat, and make some money.

The prospect of saving people from monsters was a lot more attractive than fighting in wars. Therefore, she was excited about her first official monster hunting mission.

Aboard Taylor's skimmer, the group was headed to a border town an hour outside of Lorocos.

They had picked up a contract through the academy's job hall.

It was fairly straightforward. All they had to do was collect twenty bog lurker corpses to thin out the monster population in a swamp next to a town. 

From what she had discovered, bog lurkers were quite dangerous. They hid in the murky waters of the swamps and ambush their prey. They could spit venom, weighed upwards of a thousand pounds, and could sprint on land.

After talking with the locals in the small town of York, Zee was excited when they ventured into the swamp. Going into the treacherous and confusing swamp without a guide was usually a bad idea but they had come prepared.

Each of them had left a homing beacon in the town of York, so they could find their way back. Whats more, they had Taylors skimmer which could fly low over the treetops.

It didn't take long before they ran into trouble. The skimmer settled down in ankle deep murky water, when Zee raised a hand.

Everyone stopped. "What is it," Allison asked.

"There is something fairly large hiding in the water just over there," Zee said pointing.

The murky water was deceptive. It was only ankle deep where she was standing, but there were random deep spots that looked identical to where she was standing. 

"Yukna, would you mind," Allison asked.

Splashing forward, Yukna tugged a fist sized object from a holster in her bandolier. 

It was metallic and covered in etchings, radiating a pressure that gave Zee the chills. It was one of Yukna's explosives, only it felt a lot more dangerous than the old ones.. 

Zee pointed."Try to land it just to the left of that clump of reeds," Zee said.

There was a soft click, and Yukna threw the grenade. It spun through the air, and lit forty feet away, splashing into the murky water. 

Nothing happened for a few seconds.

Then the water exploded upward in a geyser of mud, blood and soupy water. 

A few seconds later, the remains of a big lurker floated to the surface of the water.

"That seems like overkill," Zee said. The poor drifted to the surface, torn in half from the explosion.

Malden slapped Yukna on the back, almost making her fall face first into the muddy water," Good job Yukna, it might have only been a juvenile but it still counts," Malden said.

In the middle of the group, Taylor looked a bit queasy. Zee couldn't really blame the man.

Watching a monster get turned to a bloody soup was disgusting. But he would get used to it if he stayed on their team. 

"Alright, let's collect the remains in a spatial storage and keep going, we still have nineteen more to go," Allison said.

With Zee scouting the way with her spatial ripple skill and the skimmer, finding the monsters was pretty easy.

She could sense them hiding under the murky water if they skimmed the tops of the trees. Flying out of reach turned the bog lurkers from a huge threat into an annoyance to deal with.

A bog lurker's main form of threat was their surprise ambush. They would lie perfectly still under the water, until an unwary victim got close. With Zee detecting them long before they were in range to strike, the roles were reversed.

To make things more imbalanced, the bog lurkers didn't expect to be counter ambushed. 

The whole purpose of coming here was to test how Taylor reacted in stressful situations.

Since the monsters were being dispatched with little difficulty, his only concern was the biting insects.

Turns out, her team was way overqualified for this. 

After Yukna blew up ten of the poor monsters, they put Bastion in the front.

"Way to ruin my fun," Yukna grumbled, walking to the back of the group.

"Sorry Yuky, we want to fight them, not have you one shot every monster we come across," Allison said.

Allison gestured back at their new healer.

"Taylor, would you mind helping Bastion kill a few of these things," Allison asked.

The lanky man leaned on his metal capped staff.

"Sure, but my staff and blood skills will have trouble doing much damage to those thick scales," Taylor replied.

"That's fine. Your job isn't to hurt the monster, but instead, it's to keep Bastion from getting injured," Allison said. 

She turned on Bastion. "And you, don't kill them too quickly," Allison said.

"Sure thing boss," Bastion said, giving her a sloppy salute.

Ten minutes of skimming over the trees later, Zee pointed out their next target. This one was sunbathing on a small island.

It was long and scaley, with four legs, a long tail, and crocodilian snout. 

It stood and hissed loudly as Bastion leaped off the skimmer, splashing in the murky water. The monster wasn't happy about getting its nap disturbed. 

It wasn't even a beast king yet, and so she wasn't surprised when it charged Bastion head on. Monsters usually got smarter the more they ranked up, but this one was still an idiot.

Unfazed by the charging monster, Bastion slammed his fist into the side of its head as it tried to bite him in half. 

The monster staggered from the force of the blow, but didn't retreat. Leaning its head back, it spit a glob of viscous brown gunk at Bastion's face. 

Bastion lurched to one side, but not before a barrier of blood snapped into place, blocking the venom.

Taylor was close behind the bastion, and had reacted in time to block it.

Bastion moved in to attack again and the barrier vanished, letting him deliver a sharp blow to the bog lurkers front leg. 

It was interesting to watch. At first, Bastion leapt out of the way of the poison attacks, but as the fight drew on, he started to get more comfortable.

Bastion weaved and dodged around the bog lurker, his fists thudding loudly into its thick scales. By now, blood leaked from cracks in the reptilian scales, forming pools of blood in the mud. 

All the while, Taylor conjured shields of blood, blocking any attack the bog lurker threw Bastion's way.

After a few minutes of futile struggle, the dimwitted monster finally realized it was in trouble.

It tried to run to safety, turning its back on Bastion. That was a mistake. He leaped up and over its back, winding up, and delivering a huge punch to the back of its head.

The blow slammed the monster's skull into the ground, cracking bone and sending water flying everywhere. Standing atop his fallen enemy's neck Bastion winced. Muddy water soaked him, and he grimaced.

"That's disgusting," Bastion said, spitting out some mud that somehow managed to get in his mouth. 

Zee appeared beside the fallen monster.

"These things can surely take a lot of blunt force trauma," Zee said, eying the dead monster curiously.. 

"No kidding. Good job on those shields, Taylor," Bastion said.

Taylor coughed, wiping a thick layer of mud from his face.

"Thanks, but I was not fast enough to avoid getting drenched in mud," Taylor replied.

"At least it's just a little mud. I have been covered in a lot worse," Bastion said. As he spoke, his hand plunged into the back of the monster's skull, and he pulled out a bloody fragment.

The corpse vanished into his spatial ring, and his boots splashed into the mud.

Allison and the others walked over. 

"Good job, you two. That was informative. We need eight more, so how about we rotate members so Taylor can get a feel for our fighting styles," Allison said.

They proceeded to do just that, though, it didn't exactly go according to plan. Malden tenderized an unfortunate bog lurker with his hammer.

Greg stuck one full of arrows before it could get to him, and Allison burned one to a crisp in a pillar of white hot fire.

Zee eyed the steaming corpse, then turned to Allison.

"You are supposed to let Taylor block an attack or two," Zee said.

Allison shrugged.

"I wanted to see if my flames were effective. It turns out they are," Allison said.

"I suppose you are right. We should show him what we can do," Zee said.

She wasn't willing to reveal any of her trump cards, like reality slash, or avatar of dominion l just yet, but why not show them what Kur Zul could do.

The next monster they found, Zee let the ghost do its thing. "Kur Zul, would you mind killing that bog lurker," Zee asked aloud.

The ghost didn't reply, though he did appear up through the water. His form was vaguely humanoid, and ethereal, looking like an intangible ghost.

The ghost raised both wispy arms and spoke aloud in a deathly whisper that echoed around the marsh.

"The goal of all life is death!" He chanted.

An ethereal bird radiating the chill of truest death flapped its wings, appearing from the ghost's outstretched hand. Flapping its wings, it closed the distance to the sunbathing bog lurker in a few seconds melting into the monster's side.

Nothing happened for several long moments. After a few seconds, its eyes shot open wide, and it started thrashing.

Its scales started melting off, oozing like butter on a hot pan, its muscles scales and even its bone melting into a steaming puddle in seconds.

Everyone on her team shared the same look on their faces as the monster died. They were all eying the ethereal ghost like he was a venomous snake hiding in their beds.

Zee couldn't blame them, the first time she saw him do that, she decided to never get on his bad side again. Allison cleared her throat to dispel the stunned silence. 

"Zee, perhaps you shouldn't do that again. The contract is to bring back monster corpses. There isn't enough left of that poor monster to fit in a jar," Allison said reproachfully.

Zee eyed the still bubbling puddle of monster bits.

"You are probably right. I guess we will have to find a few more," Zee said.