The Ruin deer looked at Eze, a weariness tinted with killing intent beamed from its eyes. The smile in Eze's lips made it even more infuriating...
Eze didn't say a word, not like it could understand him or anything. Instead, he lifted his bow, which then ejected two blades on its limbs, unhinging it's string as it became a dual bladed spear.
"Let us end this hunt..." Eze said, beginning his fight with a C-Class Evo-Beast.
The Evo-Beast In turn bellowed in rage. It set it's head down, baring it's antlers towards Eze, before sending itself charging towards him. But what could have been a very fast charge turned out to be a lunge that though fast, was easy to dodge. Eze jumped to the side and swung his spear, slashing it on the side of the Ruin-Deer. The only thing was...
He did very little damage to it... Leaving a line of blood. To him, his Ogbunigwe had hit solid iron, which created sparks as they collided.
But Eze wasn't perturbed. In fact, he anticipated such a result. The current Ogbunigwe his mother built was made mostly of mundane material. He had upgraded it to be interchangeable between a bow and a spear, giving him options in long and short range combat. In the end though, most mundane metals that hadn't been tampered with QC's or any alien element were limited in doing damage to most Evo-Beasts. This was unlike his arrows which were made from Upgraded materials that could pierce most Evo-Beast hides with ease, or his dagger also.
The Ruin-Deer turned it's head to its left, swinging it's antlers towards were Eze stood, who instantly dodged away. The horn almost grazed his stomach, causing a bead of sweat to fall from his forehead. He thanked his stars for the concoction of poisons he'd loaded the Ruin-Deer. Without it, with the class and grade difference, that random swing could have skewered him.
'I just need to tire it a little, then I'll strike' Eze thought as he dodged another head swing, this time using it's antlers as a spring board to send himself into the air. He flew about ten feet, performing a flip whilst the spear in his hand turned into a bow. He spun again, nocking an arrow and drawing the bow string to its maximum tensile limit.
Just as gravity was to pull him down, he aimed his bow, channeled Quather for a brief second, and then fired.
SWISSSHH!!!
The arrow cut through the air, landing right on the back of the Ruin-Deer, piercing its skin and sinking in.
BREEEEHHH!!!
It's cry shook the whole forest, causing birds around the area to fly in fear. Eze then applied Quather to his limbs and increased his body weight. He shot down like a rocket, instantly returning the bow to it's spear form. Whilst the beast was in pain, he rammed his spear with his falling force, into the right eye of the Ruin-Deer, effectively blinding it. Red and grey blood gushed out like a torrent, splurting in Eze's face, dying him in blood.
'No matter how strong your skin was, your eyes would always be a weak point' he thought to himself as he smiled. The Ruin-Deer bellowed, swinging it's head to throw the human on its face.
It succeeded in doing so, but Eze flipped his body over, gliding on its back and going for the arrow embedded on its spine. He pulled a canister with a needle on its end, resembling a large injection, pulled the arrow with his right and slamming the needle into the wound with its left.
'That should do it...' he grinned. The mixture on poisons in its body was now all but fatal.
The first poison he'd fed the Ruin-Deer was more of a weakening agent for the immune system. Most Evo-Beasts were immune to normal poisons, so Eze concocted a mixture of poisons made from fluids of Evo-Beasts his sister had given him, making an soup that could be taken orally and weaken the immune system of an Evo-Beast. In short, the first poison could nullify the flow of Quather in an Evo-Beasts body.
The second poison he'd shot at the Evo-Beast was made up of a plethora of poisons and mixtures meant not to kill, but to slow the thought process of anything it's injected into, and then weakening their respiratory and slowing blood flow...
While the last one... Was a fluid from a flower call Purintha which had been stained with Quather. This was very rare to find, but he was lucky his mum planted a large supply in their home.
The Purintha was mostly used as a enhancing agent for healing and regeneration potions, mostly as a supplement. But what Eze realized was that...
'When fused with other poisons, it had the effect of enhancing their effects too.'
So right as Eze jumped off the Ruin-Deer, he knew it was only matter of time before his prey would fall.
And so, he bought time. Slowly attacking and chipping away at his opponent, not in the least bothered by it's death struggles.
'Patience is a Hunter's greatest Ally's
After 5 minutes of constantly thrashing around in a desperate act of attacking, the Ruin-Deer began to slow down visibly.
At first faster than Eze for him to barely attack, to not been able to move fast enough to threaten Eze. It soon noticed it's vision becoming blurry.
It's heart slowed
It's breathing heavy
It gasped for breath, and soon, was straining for air.
It's remaining eye bulged out of its socket, it's strained to see with it.
It went on one knee, then it fell to its side.
A voice that it couldn't understand spoke to its lying body.
"You were a good first hunt... May your wisdom nourish my mind"
And then a searing hot pain invaded its head, putting it permanently to sleep.
And so, the Ruin-Deer died, a pitiful death.
Eze bowed to the Evo-Beast and sighed. Sometimes he empathized with his prey, due to the disadvantage of intelligence. But he shook himself and remembered his mother's teachings.
'You can empathize all you want. Once you start hunting B-Class and above, you'd find out that some hunts can turn on its head. The hunter can become prey, so do not pity prey, it is food for the body and nourishment to the mind's
He took his knife, stabbed it into its head and began to carve its skull. Now that it was dead, the natural defenses of Quather would dissipate, making carving it's flesh easier.
Just as he was to reach for its brain, Eze froze.
He sniffed twice, his eyes contracting. Without warning, he threw his knife at a spot in the trees where shadows had gathered.
The knife stuck itself into the tree, hitting nothing.
'I could've sworn...' he thought before sniffing again. This time the scent was gone.
Eze didn't waste time. Whatever or whoever was stalking just now had compromised his hunt. He instantly pulled out the brain from the cranium, chewed and swallowed it. Pulling out his knife, he cut out it's antlers from their bases, before eviscerating it's chest to pull out it's core.
'Thats all I can take' he thought. With his abilities of skinning, he'd literally taken the most important parts in less than a minute, before dashing into the trees, running as far as possible away from the site.
Just a few minutes after he left, a shadow moved from where the knife had been placed.
Out of it, a female figure walked out and looked at the aftermath of the battle, shock and concern in her eyes.
She was clad in a black battle suit, a mask that covered her nose down and two daggers strapped at her hips.
Suddenly, a buzz sound came from her ear.
"OP- Hela, what's your status? Did you find the target?"
She jolted from her thoughts and replied with a calm voice.
"Positive, but the target has already been neutralized, I'll need assistance in minor skinning"
"No need, if the core isn't in it, it's not worth... Did you see the hunting party that took it down?"
"Well..." She thought of what to say. How could she explain that a D-Class hunter could solo a C-Class Evo-Beast alone. If it was her she could understand. But then again, she remembered the person that was second on the record list.
'Could it be him?' she thought to herself, lost in her imagination.
"OP- Hela, do you copy?..."
"Yes... Sorry I was thinking"
"It isn't the time to think, evacuate from their and meet the team at point D immediately "
"Yes sir" she answered before putting what happened here at the back of her mind. For now, she needed to focus on her own battles.
She melded into the shadows and vanished from sight.
A minute later, Eze appeared from the branches of a tree. He'd been hiding himself and suppressing his aura and Quather as he watched what unfolded just now.
"You wan spoil my work?" He thought, smiling. He'd known that someone was watching as he fought, and in fact he knew the smell all to well. So he'd put on a show as if he'd just noticed.
He wanted to know whether she came to steal his hunt or not. And it seemed she didn't.
"It is well... I'll take the pelt too then." And so Eze went on skinning his prey, as quickly as possible.