The Primal Hunter

Sultan stood in the old ruins of what had once been Ambermill as he looked at the departing former citizens. Four large barges able to accommodate every person had been brought from the Fort and would help transport them all back to the settlement.

He had been asked by Miranda to go to Ambermill together with a crew of others to handle the situation. She had heard slavery was going on, and people had been forced into contracts, so she wanted someone with knowledge of slave contracts to go and hopefully help annul those already signed as well as track down potential leads. The first one he had gladly done, but the second job was a bit more… complicated.

“I did tell that idiot this was too close to Haven,” Sultan smirked as he shook his head. He had known about the operations going on in Ambermill for quite a while but had naturally kept quiet. It wasn’t anything that affected him, and he had already left the entire slave-trading scene for good. That didn’t mean others had, though.

As he stood there alone, a person slowly became visible as he exited the shadow of a nearby house. “Libra took it too far, attempting to take advantage of the gap in the market left by Haven and Sanctdomo, both cracking down on slavery. I do agree it was wise to take him down a peg.”

The shadowy figure soon became fully visible. He wore a dark cloak and was enveloped by shadow magic Sultan naturally recognized.

“I am surprised the Court of Shadows didn’t try to defend one of their clients,” Sultan said with a teasing smile.

“We are by giving him the advice to not fuck with this area and hiding all evidence of Libra’s involvement in this shithole,” the assassin sneered. “The other constellations have already requested an emergency meeting. Have you been informed?”

Sultan nodded. “Naturally.”

“Great, then my job here is done. Now for my pay,” the assassin turned instigator of town destruction said with a smile.

Returning his smile, Sultan transferred the sum as per the contract for a job well done.

If Carmen had been there, she would have recognized the cloaked man as the same police officer that had brought her to the town hall. The same man who had coincidentally chosen a house right outside the motel Carmen was staying in as a great place to round up potential slaves and the person who had “screened” Carmen as being part of the slums.

Sultan had predicted Carmen to raise a ruckus, but it had become a bigger issue than expected, more or less leading to the end of the entire town of Ambermill. It wasn’t really a big deal, though, as with the biggest asset of the town destroyed – the mill – it held no value anymore.

However, more importantly… he managed to toss out a competitor from his very own backyard and, if things went well, possibly get rid of him entirely in the near future.

“Pleasure doing business with you as always,” the assassin said as he slowly faded back into the shadows, his presence disappearing entirely.

Sultan summoned his small black book and circled a name in it as he nodded. With his work done, he summoned his ship to travel back to Haven – after a little detour and a covert meeting, of course.

“Do you seriously just do that every time?” Carmen asked Jake as the two were running leisurely through the plains. They had already returned to Haven, teleported a few times, and were now running from a small-ish Pylon city with a teleporter in it. It was the settlement closest to the port city, and thus they had to run the rest of the way.

The problem was that Carmen kept giving Jake grief over Miranda’s response. When they returned to Haven, Jake, Sylphie, Miranda, and Carmen had met up briefly for them to exchange greetings and for Jake and Carmen to explain the situation in Ambermill more in-depth.

Carmen found it hilarious how little Miranda seemed to actually care or be surprised. Miranda had then made it worse by telling her about all the times Jake had forgotten things, been late or nearly late to events, and how he just kept doing unpredictable stuff. Case-in-point when they went and said hello to Rick because Carmen really wanted to know if they were just pulling her leg when they talked about the “troll gardener.”

What was so weird about a troll gardener?

“Ree?” Sylphie asked with a confused screech, coming in with the clutch assist.

“As Sylphie said, I wasn’t the one who did anything this time. You did,” Jake shot back.

“She did not say that.”

“Ree!” Sylphie huffed.

Carmen looked at the bird. “Touche. How the hell do you even understand Sylphie? Like, I can get general intent and stuff, but not anything even halfway complex.”

when I went to college. Damn those unrelated electives,”

college was for all my friends, I could believe that was an actual thing,” Carmen scoffed. “But seriously, how? We both got that language translation skill, but I don’t think it translates anything that

guesswork and just intuition as well as reading the intent as you said,” Jake shrugged. “It helps when you spend a lot of time around the other person. Sylphie

sharply at Jake. “What kind

about. Beast tamers – which Valhal had plenty of – used contracts or forced bonds to pretty much enslave beasts to use them in armies. Not that some

Union Oath, and it wasn’t even me

wings and circled around the two running humans a few

Carmen sighed in

come as a bit of a surprise, but Carmen had not surpassed him in level as he had thought. She was level 153, seven levels below himself, and

far ahead, and she had pursued improving other aspects of herself, such as forging her fists through weird rituals and magic – something she still did. She said that she had to take a few hours every week and submerge her hands in

them, and she sometimes sped ahead and then laid down on the ground pretending to be asleep until they caught up. All juvenile

the fastest of the bunch. Her sprinting speed had always been extreme, but even her normal flying speed now exceeded Jake’s by a large margin, and while

could use One Step Mile, as Carmen didn’t have any long-distance movement skills to travel with. Flying up in the air also wouldn’t be faster for either of

bit as they always ran with a tailwind and a

to one of the areas marked with orange and

do you have a full key for that Seat of the Exalted Prima thing and the system event?” Jake asked Carmen as they took

a key…” she said and seemed oddly

on. “Had

members of his party died, and he was in shit condition. He would have no chance to get three fragments by himself, and I had easily gotten my key, so I thought I would just hand

didn’t you focus on getting another

shook her head. “It just isn’t that important to me,

an eyebrow as he looked at

she just scoffed. “Why do you even

collecting one or four more fragments. It seems we are going for four, so it may get

about getting a

will. Why are you afraid of the system event?” Jake

fucking afraid. I

for whatever rewards

fucked up my life already and how I could have been

bid before he just shrugged. “You like punching

said, almost

bow, but I like my bow, so that event can fuck right off. I will instead just use what

way to end up stuck at early C-grade if you

opposite. You know Valdemar, right?” Jake

I am just assuming you are purposefully being an asshole,” Carmen said,

sorry. Anyway, Valdemar was, well, just a dude who liked swinging his axe and apparently didn’t think too much about stuff, but he still ended up reaching godhood in a time where it

lead countless battles and dictated the rise and fall of entire intergalactic empires. He was a hero who

likes to swing an axe isn’t mutually exclusive,”

trying to start a fight

a blank stare for a few moments. Jake wondered what was going

“What happened?” Jake asked.

said you were right on

Jake just said triumphantly. “So just do whatever feels

– spoke to her again as she stood there with a blank stare. Jake saw a faint hint of gold in Carmen’s eyes and noticed how she was pretty much in a trance. Like she wasn’t really