Cutlass Sharpened (30 page)

Each night though he found Renee’s voice the
motivation to keep advancing. She no longer was spiteful as that
first night’s telling off. She merely wanted updates and to train
in abilities that had yet to show promise. In this, she was not
surprised. Sometimes she’d pause to take care of an issue and pick
up again. And each night he’d sleep in a tree further and further
away from the one he desired.

Often, remains of a dead animal or two would
be left, helping to keep track.

In the fierce tracking Oliver passed what
looked like ancient ruins, but could not be sure with nature moving
on and retaking what belonged to it. Whatever draw it had to his
curious nature, Oliver’s prey took priority. Sometimes he’d even
see speeding orbs like the medical scanner cross the sky. The
drones were working tirelessly, many going ahead of him as Renee
put one in front of him and said she found him and would be his
eyes to inform if his nose couldn’t indicate properly.

Twenty two days and one village compound
later, after crashing into Zerika, Oliver caught the freshest scent
yet. The village was prepared for his arrival and gave him the
basic needs of a shower and full night’s sleep. He made it clear he
was going alone, but experienced Hunters had been called who had
decades hunting A an S-Rank Beasts. Only the full assembly of
Elders backed him up, wanting to see how he’d deal. If Oliver was
killed, a Hunter squad would be sent promptly to finish it off with
maximum force.

The Fire Wyrm had indeed been hunting for
Inferno Fruit. The volatile juices gave it its name.

Oliver stalked through the night, under thick
clouds that blocked much of the moonlight cast by the three
orbiting moons of the jungle planet. It was too dark for any human
to see without aid, but to Oliver the forest was bright, but
colored in dark blues and grays. Already his mask was on, crawling
under a fallen tree. He made not a sound, going to the packed
plantation filled with fruit. The close scent had his body going
hot like imagining Renee naked. He kept swallowing copious amounts
of saliva as its smell made him so hungry and he hadn’t eaten
anything since the Piranha and three brains from Moles. He was
starving physically as well as to put an end to the game of
chase.

He paused, hearing something up ahead. In his
ear he heard Renee say “Two hundred twelve meters. Hold still, it’s
looking your way.”

He said “Shut up, Red. Nag me later.”

“
Oh you’re going to regret
that.” She vowed with certainty. “Still. Do me a favor. If you get
killed, come back to me so I can kill you again.” The line
died.

He moved again as a very soft crunching sound
resumed. The snap of limbs told of fruit being pulled from the
hanging clusters.

Oliver stood and peeked around the side of a
tree.

Fire Worms were odd serpents. They had a long
body, but down either length were hundreds of fins that also served
as wings to let it fly. Below its narrow jaw were a set of grabbing
mandibles. Its why there was no tracks. Its ability to fly didn’t
leave tracks on the ground. In fact it covers its own tracks and
all others with rapid wing beats. It’s coloring was black as the
night it hunted in. From snout to the tip of its tail that wound
around the tree was around ten to eleven meters in length. Large
nocturnal eyes were busily focused on yanking fruit to sate it’s
insatiable hunger. When it struggled and rustled the leafy branches
he moved another tree closer, stalking in its blind spot with the
cutlass out and hidden behind his flowing cape to conceal its
sparkling light.

Distance closed one tree at a time.

Suddenly at a hundred meters Oliver must have
realized the Fire Warm was sensitive to vibrations. They traveled
from boot, to the ground, though roots, up the trunk and into the
coiled Beast.

It abruptly let go and snaked its head
Oliver’s way and flicked a long, forked, Fire Fruit glowing tongue
out to taste the air. It opened its maw to show it was also
illuminated, but half meter long fangs dropped down as it hissed.
The sound was impossibly loud and too late did Oliver dodge as a
wall of sound destroyed the tree he behind. Oliver was thrown like
a ragdoll. If not for the concussive sound capable of finishing
prey off, the following wall of fire would do the trick.

Night turned to day as Oliver yelled in pain,
crashing into the trunk of a tree and was deflected aside. Fire
followed him and before he could move, the hot liquid spray covered
his entire body. His armor again changed, turning to a shimmering
silver, reflecting all the radiating heat from his body.

Yet it did not cover everything as Oliver
reached down and felt the cause of the pain. A jagged piece of
wooden shrapnel speared through his armor in more than one place.
Sap in the wood mixed with blood and the fire outside did not
compare to the inside. The largest spike was buried deep in his
abdomen. He jerked it out first and his suit closed over the wound.
It did so for the remaining pieces too.

Oliver fought not to lose consciousness and
found his sword ready as the Fire Wyrm’s once black body glowing
like a Drake, began gliding over to have more prey. Oliver didn’t
need to pretend to be unable to move, that was a certainty with sap
being pumped throughout the entire bloodstream.

Unable to give up, Oliver waited till it got
up close and personal before rolling on his back in a last ditch
effort. He swiped the cutlass and it cut the Wyrm’s upper skull
away as it opened its maw to show off razor sharp teeth and
fangs.

He heard Renee screaming frantically in his
ear, but could not make anything out. The pain was too much.

Laying in a bed of fire inches away from a
worthy adversary reignited hunger over pain and he got up with
massive effort, but he ripped the Wyrm’s brain out and began eating
as if his life depended on it.

A strange feeling, more stronger than any
other Beasts’ very essence, flowed into Oliver’s body. The more
eaten, the stronger the feeling got. He absorbed it willingly,
gladly. It infused, rebuilt and fortified some profound need that
could not be explained. His vambrace condensed the body like before
as he needed the lavender’s bloody essence dripping hotly between
gloved fingers. He left no pieces of the soft delicacy. He even
licked his fingers, moaning in pleasure.

To the side, the shrunken prey was condensed,
leaving behind hundreds of liters of consumed Inferno Fruit. Still
sitting in fire, he popped the nutritious morsel in his mouth and
swallowed the bean size carcass whole.

In just a few seconds he felt less burning
coursing through his body, enough to stand, sheathed the blade and
cleaned the armor of all gore.

Just as he was stepping out of the fire there
came a humming from overhead. It was a standard shuttle, one he saw
back at the other village from another Hunter called in to deal
with the Fire Wyrm. Little wind was generated by the thrusters as
it landed and out jumped a medic. The large man had his gun at the
ready and yelled “Don’t Move!” Oliver stopped and the man pushed
the injector in his sore arm. It made a click and shot a liquid in
his arm. The hot pain from the sap cooled quicker. The man said
“That will neutralize the sap. Now get inside for surgery. You’ll
have imbedded splinters.”

Oliver followed the man to the round, metal
shuttle with landing gear legs. They went inside and the man
pressed buttons in the wall. The door shut behind Oliver as the
medic in a standard white flight suit said “You know what to do.”
to the pilot who took off immediately. There was no sensation of
moving. The man had Oliver lay on the bed that unrolled from the
wall. He willed his armor completely off as asked and laid
down.

The wounds looked worse without his armor
sealing them and adding pressure. Open, they were an angry red that
bled. The medic said “Renee Dorgen told me she has yet given you
nanites and to not result to barbaric surgery, I need your
permission to administer an above average loading dose of them.
YAAA!!!” he screamed as the vambrace snatched his injector like it
had Renee’s once before, absorbed them, figured their purpose,
refined, enhanced and introduced the nanites not just in one place.
It stabbed dozens of places for rapid spreading. Most went directly
in the deepest wounds.

“
WHAT HAPPENED?!” yelled the
Hunter pilot.

“
Don’t worry.” The medic
said much more calmly as he watched in awe as splinters started
being expelled at a rate he had never seen before. The raw, gaping
wounds seemed alive beneath, but with a narrow device he vacuum
sucked each and every shard from all over. To his further amazement
the nanites clotted the wounds so it bled no more and the angry red
tissues started turning healthy pink before his clinical eyes. “I
was warned about you. Now I see why. I’m going to add a sealant to
further heal.”

By the time a clear solution coated the
wounds the medic noticed Oliver was too tired to stay awake so
passed out.

Little did anyone know the Fire Wyrm’s
essence was still fortifying Oliver. He merely rested to
assimilate. It was the first rule of the food chain. One lives, one
dies. The dead feeds the victor, becoming more powerful as one than
either had separately.

The shuttle’s flight did not return to the
other village, but the one holding a full elder council. Oliver
awoke a little over an hour later sore all over, but strangely
better than ever before. The weirdest conflicting sensation to
date. His chest, arms and one thigh wound stung like crazy, but he
could move. He reapplied his clothes, leaving his head uncovered as
his excellent night vision picked up a huge difference around the
village.

Foremost floated the repaired Dorgenox.
Mighty and magnificent. After the violent crash, it looked whole
and undamaged as first seen in space. Someone probably ran it
through a lake to clean off the debris as no mud clung to the outer
hull. It hovered over the massive canyon with other, much smaller
and varied FTL capable ships. Before, there were only one or two
emergency shuttles, but it was clear why so many ships hovered
around the cliff dock. None though looked like a sailboat. Others
were either made of gem or metal, had an aerodynamically sleek
design and probably had nifty and nasty tricks to stay alive.

A lit landing pad was the beacon the pilot
aimed for. Beside it was a rather formidable group if Oliver ever
seen one. Three though stood aside from the main group. It was
clearly Renee, Sparky and Rose.

Darkness pushed further away, glinting the
landing lights off the hull of the shuttle. As Oliver was about to
disembark the male medic handed him a large cylinder filled
completely with a reddish-orange clear liquid that was really
thick. “You didn’t come all this way to forget about processed
Booster Oil did you?”

Oliver guessed the canister contained roughly
five liters and said “Thank you.”

“
Don’t mention it. When the
elders sent word you were heading in our direction in pursuit of a
Fire Wyrm no less, we picked and processed it. Consider saving our
hide payment enough. If not for you, we could have been attacked.
Our groves grow much closer than around here. It would have gotten
too close to our village. Take care.” The inner and outer hatches
opened with a pressurized his.

Just as soon as Oliver hit
the ground he saw stars. Before his eyes could adjust Renee had
stormed up and smacked him with all she had. “That was for telling
me to shut up
again
. Now let me take a look.” In her gloved hand was a built-in
scanner and her eyes unfocused, looking at what he could not see.
She made him hold still as she manually saw into his
body.

He was in awe of her newly highlighted beauty
after weeks of being away. Indeed she had cut her ripened
strawberry hair very short, but in a way that hugged her heart
shaped face. Her hair lay styled and very pretty. Artful. Sensual.
Fierce. He liked her hair more like this than long and curly.

A group of three hundred and seven elders and
their animalistic companions approached, being led by an
unassumingly average looking man barely standing one hundred sixty
five centimeters tall. One of the smallest Hunters Oliver ever
seen.

Closer look showed the man’s armor no longer
had a silver sheen, but was so broken in it was a seamless,
tactical black, as if scorched by countless battles. Slicked back
hair was dark as the night itself topped his head. Narrowed blue
eyes were only on Oliver and the way he moved spoke of an assured
death as he could not be defeated.

A dreaded feeling washed over Oliver and he
acted first at the moment of the intended threat. He drew his sword
and yelled as he went to cut the deceptively unassuming man in
half. The lightly tanned man grinned and, fast as a snake strike,
pulled a cackling shortsword from his hip and connected with
Oliver’s blow. Swords met and sparks flew everywhere, but with
charged weapons, Oliver’s original blade’s innate sharpness could
not cut as it would if the other object laid dormant.

Renee acted fast and in a smooth motion she
switched her injector to long range and fired a massive dose of
instant acting tranquilizer. A second after it hit his neck he
dropped like a puppet’s strings being cut. “Grandest Elder, are you
alright? I don’t know why he attacked.”

“
All is well, Child.” The
unassuming man busted out in guffaws. “Brothers and sisters, did
you see his intent? Wasn’t it inspiring?”

“
I haven’t seen anyone push
you back a step in a hundred years, Lover.” A much larger woman
draped an arm over his shoulders. Her starlight hair shone as its
braid lay over her rather flat chest. “That was some power behind
that slice. Most of us would have been flung aside.”