Steviedude12: Thanks for the compliment. Glad to know my work is good enough to inspire people. =) Just wait, the fic isn't even really started up yet. I can't WAIT to get to the actual hunting and what not... But you know, that's one of the necessities of writing. You need to feed your readers little plot hints occasionally. You can sometimes drop a big one, but make sure you don't do it very often. Well, I look forward to reading your work soon. Have fun with it. =)
KingRathalos: Ha ha ha I don't know why you're apologizing. Lol I'm just saying it's not my favorite armor. I know it's a VERY popular armor set, though. My favorite is my Clust Gunning set because of the skills I gave it. ;)
Lazarus: Thanks. =) Detail is always one thing I've tried to focus on since it's extremely important in my opinion. Don't worry, this is now my main fic I'm focusing on. It'll have plenty of chapters coming in the next year.
I got lazy XD: Ha ha thanks for the compliment. Yes, I play. My name is Recon on it. So PM me whenever you want to play. I look forward to meeting up with a reader. =)
I feel bad I haven't kept up with updating this story. So let's just start.
Last Chapter: Gerald is reunited with Mindy, his old hunting partner. Gerald's team is thrown into a paint ball battle with Mindy's team for their second day of training. Jared and Amber, one of Mindy's students and daughter, become friends. Derek, Amber's older brother and also one of Mindy's students, and Jared have a little showdown, leaving Derek bitter and wanting revenge. It's now dinner time and Amber and Jared are discussing what's yet to come.
Thrill of the Hunt
Chapter 4: The Name's Trasmus
Jared - Age 16
Amber - Age 16
Emma - Age 16
Ellen - Age 17
Milo - Age 18
Derek - Age 18
Jared bit into the stale bread ration provided by the Loc Lac Guild. Old bread crackers, carrots that hadn't been washed at all and water that tasted as if it had been used to wash the dishes from the last meal.
"What's up with our dinner?" Amber asked as she cringed just by looking at it. "That felyne said it was going to be a feast! I'm going to have a word with him..." she said sternly as she stood to find the small sand colored cat.
"Don't," Jared said, grabbing her arm. "It's supposed to be like this... We're still in training. It'll get better later on," he explained.
"Ugh, fine... But seriously, this is terrible," she said as she sat back down.
Jared had to agree. They wanted them to eat this crap yet expected them to achieve something no hunter had ever done? He shrugged it off and bit down on the dry orange carrot.
Amber took a drink of the water and coughed slightly. "Note to self... Train myself to get rid of the gag reflex..."
Jared chuckled at her and kept fighting the reflex himself.
"Hey..." a familiar voice said at the end of the table.
Jared and Amber focused their attention towards Derek, standing there with his plate and wooden cup. Some red pain still clung to his short black hair where Jared had shot him repeatedly in each round.
"Oh, hey," Jared said cautiously. "What's up?"
Amber just looked at him with her jaw slightly dropped and her right eyebrow raised.
"I wanted to apologize for earlier..." Derek said, not looking either of them in the eye. He couldn't bear to do that. "May I?" he asked, motioning to the seat next to Amber.
"Derek, just-" Amber started.
"Please do," Jared told him with a friendly smile. Amber and Derek both looked at him in disbelief. "What? He can sit, it's not like either of us have a gun right now. Every thing's calm," he told Amber.
"Ugh, fine," Amber said, crossing her arms. "Just don't cause any trouble."
Jared looked back to Derek. "You were saying?"
"Oh, um..." he started. "I'm really sorry about earlier. I don't know what quite got into me, I guess I'm still learning that all of us hunters are on the same side in the end," Derek finished.
"It's fine," Jared assured him. "How's your head?"
Amber laughed a little as the sticky red substance matted his hair down and some spikes went off in different directions. Derek chuckled. "I think it's going to be in style to have hair like this someday."
Jared laughed at his remark. "Be sure to let me know when it does."
"Will do," Derek said happily as he grabbed a carrot.
Amber tried to stop him. "Don't do that!"
Too late. Already in his mouth. "Dear aptonoth! Where's the cat? I'm gonna kill him!" Derek yelled as he ran off.
Amber and Jared just turned to each other and burst out laughing.
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Jared walked back to the Colosseum alone. Mindy had grabbed Derek and Amber and took off to prepare for the rest of the evening's training. Amber told Jared they'd see each other later on in the night, though.
'Wonder what she meant...' he thought as he descended the winding staircase that led to the Colosseum's stone bleachers. Gerald, Milo and Ellen were waiting for them.
"There he is," Gerald said to his two teammates. "Where were ya at dinner, lad? Had a nice date with that new lady friend ya picked up from earlier today?" he teased.
"Huh. Didn't think you'd mind, sorry." Jared apologized as he made his way next to the old instructor.
"Nah, I don't really. Just teasin' ya," Gerald said. "Alright, Mindy, come on in."
The three teens turned their attention to the corridor to their right to see Mindy along with her three students following closely behind her. "Shall we explain the next part of the training, Gerald?"
"No, you're forgetting one thing," he told her. "Our new additions."
"Huh?" she asked curiously. "Oh!" Mindy then realized what he was talking about.
"Gerald! Mindy!" Ben's voice came from the spiral staircase.
"Was that Ben?" Ellen asked.
Gerald chuckled. "Yep."
Ben stepped down the stairs and into view of the eight friends. "You weren't thinking of starting without me were you?" he laughed. "Anyways."
Jared noticed two people behind the elderly man. Two young men who looked to have slightly nervous expressions on their faces. "Those our new recruits, Ben?" Jared asked with a smile.
"Indeed my boy!" Ben exclaimed. "Gerald, I'd like you to meet your new student."
The young man on Ben's right side walked forward and shook Gerald's hand.
"What's your name, son?" Gerald asked nicely, throwing in a smile.
"Trasmus, sir," the boy responded.
Jared's jaw dropped slightly. "Tras...?"
Trasmus peered over Gerald's shoulder and immediately bore the same expression as Jared. "Jared? Is that you?"
"Didn't think I'd see you again..." Jared gasped. The two quickly rushed forward and shared a quick, yet manly, embrace with each other. "Why are you here?"
"Came looking for you..." Trasmus said sadly. "Yukumo Village was destroyed... I'm not sure if anyone made it out in time before..."
"Before what?" Jared asked quietly.
"Amatsumagatsuchi..." Trasmus whispered.
Jared's heart sunk as he closed his eyes. "Then we better make the best of our lives here. As far as I know, Loc Lac is safe."
"I hope you're right... But enough mourning. We need to stay on topic," Trasmus said, a new fire ignited in his heart. "Who're your friends?"
"Ah. They can introduce themselves," Jared said to them.
Ellen smiled and shook Trasmus' hand kindly. "I'm Ellen," she said before pushing Milo forward, "and this is Milo." Milo and Trasmus shook hands as well, laughing.
"Nice to meet you, Ellen, Milo. I look forward to our time together," Trasmus said happily. "Sorry about Jared and I. Him and I grew up together."
"Really? I thought Jared lived here in Loc Lac his whole life..." Ellen said in a very confused tone.
"Not at all," Jared explained. "I grew up in Pokke Village with my parents and two older brothers until I was twelve. Then father decided to take everyone but me to Loc Lac to serve the Loc Lac Guild. He said I needed to learn a bit more before I set out to meet them in the city..."
"My family took Jared in since we were best friends," Trasmus continued for Jared. "Jared left when he was thirteen and a half."
"I had learned everything I could from the Elder and your family. I needed to experience things for myself. In Loc Lac," Jared told them. "I arrived at the main gates a little after I turned fourteen and rented out one of the huts down the street."
"Jared, what happened to your father and the rest of your family...?" Trasmus asked.
"Oh! Um, let's not talk about that right now... It's sort of a sensitive subject around these parts..." Ellen explained.
Trasmus looked at Jared with an eyebrow raised. Jared only nodded to his best friend. "You'll hear about it later on. I can promise you that." Trasmus shrugged and decided to turn his attention to Gerald.
"Well, since we've all seemed to get to know our new additions, let's begin explaining the new rules," Ben said as he gathered the eight students. "Gerald, Mindy, I'm going to need you two to help me with this, too."
"Have a seat, kiddies," Gerald said as him and his two companions made their way to the row of seats below the row where the students were sitting.
Ben turned to face the group and held up a small yellow orb. "Can anyone tell me what this is?" Four of the kids raised their hands. "Tyson, you tell me."
"It's a flash bomb, sir," the new addition to Mindy's team said.
"Yes," Ben chuckled. "Care to tell me how it works?"
"There's a bomb casing which holds a flashbug. There's a small button on it that if it's pressed, the other side of the button crushes the flashbug and emits a veryharsh blinding flash," Tyson explained.
"Correct. How do you use a flash bomb correctly?" Ben asked.
Milo answered this one. "You throw it as fast as you can when you press the button, mon. But you gotta make sure the monster you're trying to stun with the flash is looking in the direction of the flash."
"Alright, thank you, Milo and Tyson," Ben said. "Gerald, you're turn."
"Why do I have to explain the easy item?" Gerald complained.
"Because he didn't think you had the capacity of using what I have to explain," Mindy taunted him.
Gerald just shot her a glare before starting. "I'm assuming you all have seen one of these before..." he said in a very bored tone as he held up a stick wrapped in a sticky substance at the top of it. "If not, I'll pray for when you go hunting..."
Ellen laughed. "It's a torch."
"Yes, I know, thank you Ellen," Gerald said sarcastically. Jared and her did a knuckle bump and laughed quietly. "I'm not going to ask you to explain it, I'm just going to explain it myself..."
Jared wouldn't let that happen. "That stuff near the top is solidified torch oil. It might be solidified, but it's still ready to be lit."
Gerald shot Jared a glare. "I said I was going to explain it!"
Jared continued cockily. "On all armors, there is a flint and stone both knuckles. They're meant mainly for lighting a torch, but they have some other uses. A torch can be lit for a maximum of fifty minutes before it becomes useless," he said as he smiled cockily.
Gerald sighed. "Next lesson: obedience, Jared. Obedience." Jared just gave a small bow in his seat. "Mindy, you finish," Gerald finishing, pouting.
"Gladly," Mindy laughed as she stepped forward. She held up a small white sphere of cloth. "Tell me what this is."
"That's the smoke bomb!" Emma exclaimed. "We used to play with them as children. Against your wishes, of course."
"And how does it work?"
"Simple," Amber said. "The cloth wrapping is highly flammable. You can just use your flints to set it to fire and throw it on the ground. The ivy inside burns incredibly fast and makes a lot of smoke."
Milo coughed to get attention. "You can also hide in the smoke from a large monster. But only if it hasn't seen you first," he explained.
"Impressive knowledge," Ben commented. "You kids are ready for your final training of the night. Follow me, please."
The group stood and followed Ben down a stone hall and down a very large flight of stairs. Jared noticed how far down they had descended.
"Sir, where are we going?" he asked Ben.
"You'll see... or not." Ben chuckled slightly. Jared raised his eyebrows at his peculiar answer.
Emma grabbed Jared's arm so he walked next to her and Amber. "Mom hinted at this a little," Emma whispered.
"What do you mean? Can't she just tell you what you're doing?" Jared asked her quietly.
"Not exactly. It's against the rules of being an instructor. She may be our mother, but she still has to follow the rules," she explained. "Tell me. Why do you think we had that lecture on those three objects?"
Jared furrowed his brow as he concentrated. Didn't really help much as the temperature was also dropping considerably. "I'm not sure... Are we... using them?" Jared asked as he started shivering.
"Of course. Why wouldn't we? Item training is the day after tomorrow," Emma said. "From what I've put together, we're going very far underground and doing the same exercise from before, only it's going to be a lot larger and very dark. Oh, and cold. You can already feel that kicking in."
Jared rubbed his arms to get a small amount of warmth but only to have it fade away three times as fast as it came. "Let's just hope we get there soon..."
"Agreed..." Emma said.
After a total of half an hour of descending, the temperature had gone from eighty degrees to twenty. The kids were all shivering considerably while the three mentors just felt a small chill. There were small oil lamps attached to the sides of the walls maybe every twenty feet, but it didn't produce very much light.
Jared noticed that they're surroundings had changed considerably, as well. The hallway from before had been nice polished marble. Now it was just a rough stone cave that had a slipper ground occasionally due to the moisture coming off the rocks from groundwater.
Ben and his two companions stopped suddenly and pulled a lantern off the wall. "Alright kids, take a look."
"Where?" Ellen asked. "There's nothing to look at down here. Just wet, hard cave. Not much to look at."
Ben laughed. "You kids are going to have fun tonight. Here. Watch. Hey! Rafael! Light the bowl!" he yelled.
It echoed. Jared's eyes widened as realization dawned on him. "A massive cavity underneath the city..." he whispered.
"What?" Amber hissed.
A massive fireball appeared far above. There was no wall in front of the group.
"Knew it..." Jared said.
The fire gave off a considerable amount of light in the cavern. It was colossal. Maybe one thousand feet high and about a mile wide. The ceiling had many large stalactites. Some with the possible length of a hundred feet.
Jared looked down and gasped. A gigantic labyrinth. The walls had to be at least thirty feet tall.
"Follow and try not to get lost." Ben said. "We're going down."
"D-Down there?" Milo gulped.
Ben smiled cruelly. "Where else?" he taunted as he stepped onto a wooden platform, his friends following.
The platform shuddered a bit when they were all on. "You sure this thing is safe?" Trasmus asked.
"No," Gerald said. "I've always hated coming down here..." Amber and Jared looked at each other, exchanging a worried look.
Ben pulled a lever on the side of the platform. It shook for a moment before descending.
"Don't even ask how this thing is suspended. Just be glad you can't see it," Mindy told them.
When the group reached the bottom, they arrived at one of the corners of the giant maze. It had an opening. And it dawned on the kids: they were going in.
"Alright greenies, listen up," Gerald said gruffly. "You're now all on the same side. But only temporarily."
"There's three other teams of eight all placed at the corners of this thing. Your task is to head in there and make it to the middle. Not an easy feat, trust me," Ben told them.
Mindy's turn to explain. "You're not trying to take out the other teams this time. Making it to the middle and hitting our team's gong will signal that you've made it. It will be the red one."
"Question," Jared said. "If we do somehow happen to take out all the other teams, does that count as a win as well?"
"No, you still have to run to the middle. Although the same rules apply. You will be unable to participate in the round any further if you have been shot by someone of an opposing side," Ben said. "You think you kids got it?"
"Yes sir," they all said together.
"Now here's the thing..." Mindy said. "That giant fire isn't going to be lit during this."
"How are we supposed to see, then?" Derek asked.
"This," Gerald said as he held up an unlit torch. "There will be torch posts set up along the way that you can light with this or you can just carry this the entire time if you want."
"You are to stick with one other member of your team, also," Ben said. "Now, along with your torch, you'll each be given five flash bombs, ten smoke bombs, and ninety nine red paint shots for a Light Bowgun."
"Alright, easy enough," Jared said. "Let's get going."
"Not so fast."
"Huh?" Jared said curiously as he turned to Gerald.
"You're not going to be given them at the start," he said.
Ellen raised an eyebrow. "You just said we would be given them. So make up your mind, please?"
Gerald chuckled. "You're going to have to find the Bowguns, flashes and smokes inside the maze. If you find them first, there yours to keep."
"Great... Nice way to taunt us..." Tyson muttered.
"Alright, we can handle that. Send us in," Ellen said.
"Fine, fine. Go grab a pack and a torch. The match starts in one minute. That's when the light goes out," Mindy told the anxious teens. "Oh, and don't forget to figure out your partner."
Trasmus and Jared looked right at each other and made a silent, mutual decision they'd have each other's backs in the stone labyrinth. They walked over to the pile of items and each grabbed one of the brown packs containing their ninety nine paint shots and torches.
"Hey," Amber said as she grabbed Jared's arm. "I want you to be careful. I overheard my mom say there were some twists in this maze that they weren't supposed to mention."
"I will. Meet you in the middle.," Jared assured her with a smile. "Let's go Trassy."
"Do not call me that..." Trasmus said as him and his best friend walked off into the darkness. "Light one of the torches."
Jared took one of the two torches from the pack and held the end near Trasmus' knuckles which he struck together, creating a spark and lighting the torch which gave off a fair amount of light. Jared looked around the group and noticed they had all done the same.
He turned to the opening in the corner. "Let's go."
The group walked off, splitting into their partnerships as new hallways presented themselves as they progressed into the maze. The massive fire high above them was sealed off with a cover, cutting off the oxygen and killing the fire.
Everything was pitch black except for the sixteen lights from the torches wandering blindly in the stone puzzle. Trasmus and Jared couldn't see more than fifteen feet in front of them.
"What's that smell?" Trasmus whispered to his partner as they quietly trudged on. "It smells of rotting flesh and blood that's been sitting for a month..."
Jared sniffed the air. He smelled it, too, but decided to shrug it off. "I'm sure it's just the cavern. This place is pretty old, you know," he said. "Amber said something, though..."
"Amber?"
"She's a friend of mine. Daughter and student of Mindy," Jared explained. "Anyways. She said that there were some twists in this exercise that the instructors weren't allowed to mention."
"What do you mean?" Trasmus asked curiously as they turned a corner.
"I'm not sure. That's all she could say before we left."
Trasmus sighed. "Great... Well, let's just concentrate on finding the heart of this thing."
"Agreed."
"So. You and Ryder, huh?" Emma asked her sister teasingly.
"Shut up!" Amber exclaimed with a whisper. "He's hiding a lot from everyone..."
"Yeah, like how you two are totally in love."
"We are not," Amber protested. "We were just having a talk to get to know each other a little earlier today."
"Derek said you two were really hitting it off," Emma continued.
"Derek's a dork," Amber said, getting a little bit of a giggle from her twin sister. "Yeah, Jared and I connected really fast, but it doesn't mean we have feelings for each other."
"But you still have to agree he's pretty cute," Emma said teasingly, sticking her tongue out.
"Okay, a little bit, yes. But that's kind of besides the point... Hey... Do you smell that?" Amber asked as she sniffed the air.
"Yeah, it's putrid... Smells like death..." Emma said shakily. She was honestly a bit scared to be down here.
A high-pitched scream suddenly echoed around the massive cave.
"Sounds like someone decided to put out their torch," Gerald chuckled to Mindy.
"Glad it's no one from our group. They all went in with torches blazing," she said.
"Did you hear that?" Trasmus whispered as him and Jared didn't move a muscle.
"Who didn't?" Jared hissed. "Whatever it is, it's on the other side of the maze."
"It?" Trasmus raised an eyebrow as they began to inch forward with extreme caution. "What make's you think there's only one?"
"Because a scream that loud means it must have been something pretty big and nasty..." Jared reasoned. "Check around this corner."
"Fine..." Trasmus replied reluctantly. "Wait... Put out the torch. It can probably find us a lot easier with these torches."
Jared shrugged and swung the torch pretty fast, causing the fire to go out. "The only problem is, now we can't see until our night vision is functional."
"Oh, we'll be fine. We just gotta hang tight for a bit," Trasmus said. He heard a noise behind him, causing the young man to raise his eyebrow. "Yo, Jared. You get enough to eat or what? You're stomach almost sounded like... a... giggi..." Trasmus' eyes widened in realization at what was going on as he whirled around in what would be Jared's direction. "Jared! Where are you?"
Trasmus whipped out his own torch and quickly lit it to see Jared's face being attacked by a giggi. The blood sucking leech was latched around Jared's left cheek while Jared was trying to claw the fly wyvern off. "Help!" Jared managed to yell in his shock to his partner.
"This might burn a bit!" Trasmus shouted to Jared as he swung the torch at the end of the giggi's gray body. A few embers came off and landed on Jared's arms, causing him to yell out in pain. The giggi loosened it's powerful mouth and fell onto the ground, hissing at the torch.
Jared fell back against a wall and quickly lit his own torch. "What the heck is that thing?" Jared began rubbing his sleeve against his slightly bloody cheek.
Trasmus slammed the end of his torch into the giggi's body, burning it to death. The smell of burning flesh quickly filled their nostrils. Trasmus stood up once the giggi was a charred corpse. "That," he sighed as he wiped some sweat off his forehead. "Was a giggi... Nasty little fly wyverns that get their nutrients from the animals' blood they feed off of..."
"Ugh, my cheek is stinging... These things got any venom in them?" Jared asked as he tried to sooth the pain.
"Yeah," Trasmus answered as he bent down to help his friend. "But they can't spit it while they're attached to a body. Just be glad this wasn't an adult giggi... How long was it attached to you?"
"I dunno," Jared said as he winced. "Maybe six seconds?"
"Alright, well that's a considerable amount of blood loss..." Trasmus said in a worried tone. "You could probably die..."
Jared looked at him in pure shock and horror. "What?"
Trasmus laughed. "I'm kidding. You're going to be fine."
"I hate you, you know that?"
"I know. Just like old times," Trasmus chuckled as he helped Jared up. "Come on, let's hurry and get to this gong so we can get you treated."
"Alright... We leave our torches lit from now on..." Jared said seriously as they turned the corner. "Where'd you learn about giggi?"
"Yukumo Village. A couple got into one of the caves in the farm and made a nest. They killed a few felynes..." Trasmus said sadly. "The chief decided gave everyone a few lessons on every monster out there. That's partially why I was picked to be in this team: provide intel on quests and monsters. You guys do know a lot about the weapons and equipment, but Ben said you could use a tiny bit of help on the knowledge of monsters."
"That would be wise," Jared winced. "Hey, what's that light up ahead?"
Sure enough, a small flickering light could be seen down the long stone walkway.
"Not sure. Gives me the creeps though..." Trasmus strained his vision to see if he could see if it was another pair using their torch.
Jared was about to call out to see if it was anyone they knew, but his better judgement got ahold of him before he yelled. "Think we should go check it out? That's kind of where the scream came from. The one from before."
"I dunno, it's a risky move. That scream could have been a decoy to bring others there and... What's that noise?"
"What noise?" Jared cocked his head just as a glowing green ball, no bigger than your eye, flew past Jared's head and splattered into the wall next to him. Jared jumped in surprise.
"They found a gun..." Trasmus said as realization sunk in. "Jared, run! If one of us gets hit, we're out of the race!"
Jared turned just as another two shots flew between Trasmus and him, one of the shots coming close to making contact with Trasmus' ear. The two friends dove around the corner and started immediately on recovering their breath. The air was thin down here, though, and made it difficult to manage.
"Definitely not one of our team..." Trasmus panted. "Our color is red while that was clearly a green," he said, pointing at where the balls had hit the wall.
"You're really out of shape," Jared said as he looked at his best friend, who was still recovering his breath. "We ran like thirty feet," he chuckled.
"Shut up," Trasmus snapped back. "We need our own gun or at least some sort of defense. I have a feeling that way is how we get to the gongs. Too bad that hall is at least two hundred feet..."
"Here, give me a hand," Jared said, looking up at the wall. "There's something up higher on it."
Trasmus looked up and scowled. "Probably just another giggi. I wouldn't expect it to be a gun or anything up there."
"Hand me the torch."
Trasmus shrugged and handed the torch off to his companion. Jared held the torch up higher to shed some light on what was attached to the upper part of the wall. Jared raised his eyebrow, as did Trasmus.
Five small spheres resting on a ledge.
"Innnteresting... I was expecting our equipment to be at a dead end on the ground somewhere... Like in a chest or something," Jared said.
"Yeah, well, you were wrong," Trasmus told him, chuckling slightly.
"Oh shut up. Like you weren't expecting the same thing..." Jared said sarcastically.
"How the heck are we supposed to get up there, anyways?" Trasmus asked, looking up at the ledge.
"Not too high up..." Jared said to himself. "Get on my shoulders."
Trasmus looked at him with an odd expression. "You honestly think we can reach them?"
"Worth a shot," Jared shrugged. "Up you go," he said as Trasmus climbed onto his friend's shoulders.
"Let's see..." Trasmus grunted as he reached for the small spheres.
"Come on man, you're getting heavy..." Jared complained.
"If it gets to be too much, we can switch. Hold on, almost there.." Trasmus strained as he tried grasping the small orbs, his fingers slightly running along the edge of one.
"No, man, we gotta go!" Jared whispered in urgency. "Those two with the gun are coming. I hear them whispering..."
"I need more time!"
"Too bad. Jump for them," Jared hissed. "One, two," Jared and Trasmus braced. "Three!" Jared jumped a small height, where Trasmus jumped off his shoulders and knocked the five smoke bombs off the ledge.
"Catch them!" Trasmus yelled as Jared slid his pack to cushion the fall. The five spheres landed smoothly on the leather and cloth, causing a small thud to come from the impact. Trasmus landed neatly on the ground next to Jared.
"Nicely done..." the two said in unison.
"Give me one of those bombs. I have an idea..." Trasmus said deviously.
Jared shrugged and picked up the small pack and placed four of the bombs inside, but handed the last to Trasmus.
"Crouch down with me," Trasmus said as he knelt down and inched toward the corner. "I can still hear the other two. They're waiting for us..."
Jared got what his friend was meaning and knelt down beside him. "Ready?" he whispered.
"Yeah, I'll release the smoke. Then you stay low and take out the legs of them both. I'll take the gun."
Jared nodded. "One, two," they felt their muscles tighten. "Now."
Trasmus did a barrel roll and smashed the smoke bomb. A blast of air and thick, white smoke covered the hall.
"What the?" one of the exclaimed as him and his companion were immediately blinded.
Jared started sneaking towards the two pairs of legs and clenched his right hand into a fist. Jared heard two shots fire off as the one carrying the gun panicked and wasted his ammo. He chuckled and tackled one of the pairs of legs, feeling the weight they carried come stumbling down with a yell. Jared quickly knocked the wind out of his opponent by elbowing his stomach. He heard them start trying to regain the lost air. Jared took this opportunity to take two shots of red paint from his pack before seeing the other body mass fall next to him. Jared recognized that it wasn't Trasmus, immediately stole the gun and drove the stock of it into his stomach, putting him in the same position as his friend who lay next to him.
Jared quickly loaded the two paint shots into the gun. He pointed it at them and fired once into the chest of both of them.
The smoke faded and visibility was restored as Trasmus lit his torch. "That wasn't the plan..." he said.
Jared laughed and looked at his friend, handing him the gun. "Nope. Improvised when I was given a better opportunity."
"I know," Trasmus chuckled. "I liked it. You're reflexes are sharper than what Ben described."
"Let's talk about that later," Jared said. "What about these two?"
Trasmus looked at the two other hunters who were just finishing regaining the wind that was knocked out of them. "Well, since you shot them, they're out of the match. What do we do?"
"Guess we just leave them here. With the giggi," Jared said, looking the one that had the gun before. His eyes shot open in fear, causing Jared to laugh. "Dude, I'm kidding. We're going to leve you here, but we'll let you have your two torches to fend them off."
"Fair enough..." one of them said. "Nice job, by the way. We weren't expecting that at all."
Trasmus smiled at them as they shook hands and helping them up. "Thanks. But we gotta be on our way before someone else finds the gongs."
Jared tossed them their two torches as him and Trasmus progressed on down the long corridor.
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"Did you see that explosion of smoke?" Emma asked her twin sister as they stuck to the shadows of the walls not too far from where they had witnessed the smoke bomb go off.
"Of course I did," Amber replied sarcastically. "More importantly, I thought I heard Jared and his partner."
Emma nodded and the two progressed on to where the smoke was clearing. They noticed there were two people sitting against the wall with torches.
'Those can't be them, can they?' Amber thought as her and her sister ran toward the two people.
"Jared, Trasmus?" Emma asked cautiously as Amber and her approached them.
"Ah," the one on the left said. "You must be on the same team as the two young men that took us out," he chuckled.
"They took you out?" Amber asked curiously. "What do you mean?"
"We're no longer in the race. One with the red clothes stole our gun after stunning us and shot us," the guy on the right said as he pointed to his chest where the red paint was. "I gotta hand it to them, they really know what their doing."
"You should go catch up with them. One looks like he could use some help with his giggi bite. They're not too far ahead. They took a left down that freaking long hallway," his partner said.
"Thanks, and good luck," Amber said.
One of them laughed. "Girl, we're going to be fine. Just make sure you go with a torch lit," he said seriously.
"Will do," Emma answered as she gave a nod.
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"So," Trasmus said as they made their way through the gargantuan maze. "Wanna tell me about your girlfriend?"
"Erm," Jared strangled out as he coughed in surprise. "Girlfriend? What are you talking about?"
"Oh come on, don't try to hide it from your old friend, bro," Trasmus laughed as he looked at his partner. "You and that Amber girl have something going on and I wanna know what."
"Screw you," Jared snapped, causing Trasmus to chuckle.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"What's it matter to ya, anyways?" Jared questioned him.
Trasmus shrugged. "I can just tell there's something between you two."
Jared sighed and caved in. "Yeah, there kind of is. She understands me and doesn't see me as son of the Corrupt King of Hunters."
Trasmus looked at him incredulously. "Your father earned that title?"
Jared nodded.
"Sounds awesome, except for the, you know, corrupt part."
"Exactly. All because of one choice..." Jared said sadly.
"Alright, alright, let's not go into that. But back to Amber," Trasmus said kindly, bringing a small smile to Jared's face. "You're in love, aren't you?"
"No, not love. Love takes a lot to happen. But she's definitely a girl I'd like to date."
"Understandable," Trasmus nodded. "Well, after we get you looking all pretty again, let's get you and her together."
"I can do it by myself," Jared said.
"You probably could, but I kind of have a crush on her sister, too. So make it a double date," Trasmus said with a wink.
"Don't ever wink at me again, you creeper," Jared laughed.
"I'm with Jared on that one..."
The two boys jumped and spun around, Jared swinging the torch as he went. The flaming stick nearly connected with Amber's head, but she luckily dodged and grabbed Jared's wrist.
Emma and Trasmus chuckled at the show. "Jared, Amber might not look like much, but she could take you," Emma laughed.
Jared blushed and Amber released him. "Sorry," she apologized, also blushing. "Swift reflexes..."
"It's fine," Jared laughed.
"Anyways," Emma said. "If you two were planning on asking us out on a date..." she trailed off not sure what to say.
"We'd love to," Amber said with a smile, looking at Jared and Trasmus. Emma nodded in approval, smiling warmly.
"Alright, sweet," Trasmus said proudly.
"I'm all for it, but can we please focus on this after we're done down here?" Jared asked them as he looked up at the cavern ceiling, looking for a hole. "It's hard to keep track of time down here and if you'll remember, we got down here about an hour and a half after dinner..."
"Jared's right," Emma nodded. "We need to keep moving until we win this thing."
"Want to split up or travel together?" Amber asked the group.
"I think we should stick together. Might as well, since we already found each other," Jared reasoned. He turned and kept on progressing through the labyrinth.
Emma and Trasmus kept talking throughout the maze, talking of more or less random subjects. Amber and Jared were ahead of them, taking this challenge a bit more serious. They'd been wandering for about a half hour since they'd met up with each other.
"We've already been this way," Amber sighed. "I'm telling you, we're lost."
Jared sighed at turned to her. "No, we haven't been this way. That's what they want us to think," he said cooly. "I've been keeping track our turns. Yes, the surroundings are the same, but this portion of the maze is the exact same as the one we visited about ten minutes ago, which is why you think we've been here before."
"I get it... Not really," she said sarcastically.
"Look," Jared said. "The ceiling of the cave is different. We were a few hundred yards from being underneath the giant torch. But now, we're about fifty yards away."
"So what are you thinking?" Amber asked him.
Jared smirked. "I'm thinking we're heading the way we're supposed to. I'm assuming those gongs are right under the giant torch. The architects of this maze made this copied area to throw people off," he said as he stared up at the torch.
"Ohhhh," Amber said as she understood what he was saying. "So you mean that bright room ahead are the gongs?" she asked as she pointed towards a lighter area.
Jared looked down back to where she was pointing. "Yeah, that's probably it, actually," he told her.
"Hey, guys...?" Jared heard Trasmus say in a frightened voice from behind them.
"What is it, Tras?" Amber asked, as they kept walking forward.
"We have a pretty big problem..." Trasmus said as he ran forward with Emma and got their attention. "Up there!"
Jared and Amber looked up towards the roof of the cave. It was hard to see at first, but, underneath the giant torch, there was something big...and it was moving. It hung by it's tail, which was suctioned onto the bottom of the giant torch.
"Trasmus... What is that?" Amber asked her friend in a hushed voice.
The gigginox dropped and landed on the ground in front of the four friends, separating them from their goal. It's breath stunk like rotten flesh and dried blood. It's amphibious-like skin oozed a pale slime, making it's whole body slippery and shiny.
Trasmus was shaking a bit and had a wild, scared look in his eye. "That's a gigginox... Which explains why there's tons of giggi down here..." he told her.
The gigginox let loose a coarse roar, making the whole cave echo with the frightening sound.
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Gerald and Mindy looked at each other with shocked eyes as they heard the Roar of the Nox fill their ears.
"You don't think..." Mindy trailed off.
Gerald gave her a serious look. "I do. A gigginox is down here with us and it's found food."
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Amber screamed as she watched Jared get swept away from her side and slammed into the wall. His body fell limp as it made contact with it, and a loud snap could be heard.
"Emma and Amber! Run past that nox and hit that red gong! I'll grab Jared!" Trasmus yelled as their plan was set into action.
Emma grabbed her sister's hand and skidded underneath the gigginox's wing, clearing the foul beast. They bolted for the light at the end of the hall, but stopped and waited for Trasmus and Jared.
"Hey! Ugly!" Trasmus yelled, getting the monster's attention. Trasmus pulled out his torch and threw it at the gigginox's head. Trasmus used the small chance to dash for his friend's body and charge for the two girls. "Go!" he yelled at them.
The gigginox quickly turned around and spat a purple glob at the wall behind them. A cloud of poisonous gas surrounded the hunters as they fell to the ground, gasping for breath. The death wyvern started charging for them but had it's life instantly ended when two spears from a ballista cannon were pierced into it's head.
Trasmus' vision began fading quickly and he felt himself slump over onto the ground, with Amber and Emma doing the same. He heard distant yells before feeling a few hands on his body.
Then there was black.
Yar har! So yeah... I feel terrible about not uploading this sooner... I've had not only this chapter, the next chapter, and half of the next one written, for about 4 months now... Basically, I lost a good chunk of this chapter due to my phone being buggy (I write a lot of my stuff on my phone when I have spare time) and that made me lose a lot of momentum.
Either way, I will upload the next chapter a week after this has received it's first review. I look forward to hearing from you all again.
Also, I hope this 7,798 word chapter makes you guys take it a little easier on me after not posting for about 6 months... SORRY!