BOOK 2: THE TALE OF THE CHOSEN KING

CHAPTER 9 – "DEADEYE"

While they waited for the car to turn up, they decided to spend the time at the Wiz Chocobo Post. It was a good hideout, in the middle of the forest, and away from the main trading routes. They had nowhere to go for the foreseeable time, and thus they rented the caravan at the Post. The Regalia would turn up, they were sure of it. However, Prompto was the first one to voice what they were all thinking, but didn't want to say aloud.

"What if the empire has her?"

"We cannot discount the possibility," said Ignis while he served supper.

"Then we should be lookin' for her," Gladio declared.

"First we need a lead," Ignis remembered him. "We have no means of transportation, and we can't embark on a goose chase all over the region."

"We could go on chocobo," Noctis offered.

There was a muffled yelp of joy coming from Prompto, but he immediately mastered his face to look as serious and concerned as he should.

"There's the matter of the behemoth," Gladio remembered him, though the glint in his eyes made clear that he was more than ready to take on that hunt.

"We can't sit here forever," Noctis protested. "Besides, it would be more money in our pocket and more strength for us."

"I say we sleep over it and decide with the first rays of light," said Ignis.

The next morning brought no news about the car, and after a quick breakfast they talked to Wiz, the Ranch owner, about his problem.

A behemoth had taken residence at the northern forest, the Nebulawood, and fed on the surrounding farms' livestock. The chocobos, one of its natural preys, were simply terrified, and refused to leave the premises to service those who wanted to rent their services. Some hunters had tried taking care of the problem attacking it with fire, but those who got out alive were now either badly injured or crippled, and spoke of a beast too vicious to be natural.

Taking the narrow dirt road, it wound its way into a rocky formation, as if a small hill had been torn in two.

"Way too silent," Gladio warned them in a low voice. He had made them walk slowly, and kept looking everywhere as they advanced.

When they stepped between the rocks, a rumbling roar echoed ahead. They heard the unmistakable cracking of wood being torn as they saw a tree being felled at a distance. The few birds which had been chirping grew silent, and they truly fell as if they had stepped into the behemoth's territory.

They kept walking to see a detour to their right and the fallen tree. Something had torn it from the ground. Following the narrow patch led them to a narrowing. Gladio made a signal and pointed at the ground, where the behemoth's footprints were clear as day in the soft turf.

Another roar, and two trees fell in the distance. Gladio told them in a low voice that such behavior wasn't normal. Behemoths were terrible beasts, but this one relished on wanton destruction.

They kept walking along the path, which twisted and turned into a natural labyrinth, and soon a thick fog didn't let them see further than their arms' reach.

"I suppose this is where the Nebulawood take its name from," Ignis commented.

They reached a manmade wall. An old Lucian armory, said Ignis.

There was a small tunnel going through said wall which would force them to crawl through it. Readying himself, Noctis was about to enter when another roar resonated through the wood. Gladio quickly stepped before him, and made gestures to let him go first. When he was some paces inside the tunnel, he signaled Noctis to follow him.

It quickly opened to another small tunnel, if it could be called like that. A tin roof had fallen at an angle over the wall running down to their left, leaving enough space for them to crawl. Many of the metal sheets at their right were missing, and the few remaining ones were kept in place by overgrown vines.

Gladio raised his hand again and slid behind one of the metal tiles. Just in time for something to block the sunlight.

Noctis noticed the pungent stench of the beast first. Gladio pushed him against the metal, and both men held their breath.

They could hear the behemoth's breathing and growling, and the sound of branches and grass crunching under its gigantic paws. Gladio stole a glance from behind their cover, and Noctis' heart skipped a beat when he tugged at him to look too.

Noctis was already familiar with those beasts, from seeing those realistic reproductions at the museum, but observing one that close made him almost break in a cold sweat. Until he realized that its right side, the one facing them, was entirely covered in scars, the horn broken and the eye of a milky white color. The beast's jaw moved as saliva and blood dripped from its fangs, and when it lowered its head they could hear the sickening sound of crushed bones and ripped flesh.

Gladio looked at him with a small smirk and pointed to his own right eye.

"Deadeye," he murmured. "The name says it all."

Noctis refrained from saying anything about how obvious it was, lest their bickering would get them killed. The prince sensed movement behind him: Prompto and Ignis slowly and silently emerged from the tunnel. His retainer had to put his hand on the gunslinger's mouth to keep him from yelping.

At a signal from Gladio, the three friends crawled their way under the metal sheets, quickly before the behemoth finished its meal. Just when they thought they would be out of peril, Gladio grunted and ducked under a roofing piece. And not a second too late, for Noctis saw the behemoth's snout right before him and blocking the path. The beast had caught a strange scent and tried to see where it came from. Thankfully, the gap between the metal tiles was too narrow for the whole head to fit, and so the beast could not see what was inside that crawling space. It gave out a deafening roar inside the tunnel, as if vexed, and then it snorted heavily as it turned and walked away.

As the heavy footsteps faded in the distance, Noctis could steal a glance towards Gladio, who was a bit paler than usual. Even so, the man pulled himself together in a second, and motioned for them to follow him again. The prince didn't want to look back, but he could swear he heard a muffled sob from Prompto.

They came out to a clearing covered in thick mist. Somehow, the more the day advanced, the less one could see in that forest.

"It's weak on the right," said Gladio. "No eye, no horn."

"We'll stay in range until we can exploit that weakness," Ignis offered.

"As if it was that easy," thought Noctis, but they had to use any advantage they could find, however small it might seem.

They slowly advanced through the mist. The trees were more numerous the deeper they went into the forest, as if they acted as a natural barrier. They could hear the behemoth's rumbling roars in the distance.

The path led them to a metal fence which blocked the way. Beyond, the mist was still so dense they started shivering.

"We've got the beast in our sights," Gladio murmured before they climbed the fence.

"But no plan of attack," Ignis lamented. "The behemoth should be headed back to its lair, where we can catch it fully off guard."

"Yeah," Noctis pointed out. "As long as we stay on guard ourselves."

Following the beast to its lair was a risky gamble, especially knowing that those beasts were especially cautious when near it. Going all four was out of the question, so they drew lots and it would be Noctis the one to actually follow, with the others being at a distance.

He approached a boulder for cover, and heard the heavy footsteps and the rumbling purr of the beast at the other side. It was roaming the premises, making sure there was no intruder near. Taking a peek around the rock, he saw it as a vague form in the mist: the horns tailed forward and the bristly mane adorning the powerful neck. The tail could have swept a loaded truck, and it was as long as the animal itself.

Suddenly the head turned and the growl grew deeper and louder. Noctis hid behind the rock and held his breath. Seeing only the silhouette, he couldn't tell which way the behemoth was looking, but it didn't take a genius to guess it.

Sniffing and huffing, the behemoth kept his march. Just as he nearly lost the sight of the tail in the mist, Noctis slid from behind his cover and prowled his way forward, never losing sight of the beast.

He followed the animal as it traced eights all around the clearing, stopping to sniff here and there, and to listen to the sounds of the forest. Noctis was about to lose any hope, when he suddenly saw the behemoth's form tensing and jumping with cat-like grace over a rocky wall.

That was its lair.

He heard hurried steps behind him.

"That's where it is," Gladio said with the excitement of the hunter. "C'mon, let's find a gap between the rocks."

Noctis doubted it would be so convenient, but Ignis reminded him that the Nebulawood was once the location of some lucian weaponry, and that most of the rocky formations around them were the result of landslides.

They found a small gap between two boulders and squeezed themselves through it, coming to what appeared to be the ruins of the weaponry themselves. There was no roof to speak of, and tall, brick walls reached up to the equivalent of a third floor; the ground was uneven, with only small patches as clues of the concrete flooring that might have existed in the past.

The path kept going on and then turned left, then right, then left again, and at every turn they stopped and took a peek to see what might be beyond. The friend spoke in hushed tones, even when the ruins seemed empty: behemoths were cunning animals and one was never cautious enough.

What did catch their eye was the number of scattered barrels of oil left behind. Judging by their looks, they seemed to have been brought by those unfortunate hunters and left there. Ignis had an idea, and made Gladio haul two of them.

At last they arrived at what looked like a dead end. The building's walls had collapsed at their left, opening to a precipice, while at their right there was an open space with a small promontory, and beyond, part of a collapsed rock wall.

"Now what?" murmured Gladio, leaving the two oil barrels at his feet, annoyed that there were even more barrels scattered in that place.

"I have a plan," said Ignis. "If we just-"

At that moment the mist cleared, and they heard a rumbling growl: What they had mistaken by another boulder at the top of the collapsed rock was nothing more than the very behemoth they were looking for. The beast was expecting them, and waited until they were deep in his lair to attack.

The behemoth leaped to the promontory, roaring and ready for the kill. Noctis felt Ignis' hand around his arm.

"Light the barrels with magical fire once it leaps down," his retainer said hurriedly.

Without even turning to look at him, the prince took out a magic grenade from his pocket and waited while the others scattered and took positions. The beast stood in that promontory just a few seconds before leaping to lower ground, but for Noctis it seemed like an eternity. When he saw the powerful limbs tense, he readied his arm and threw the grenade just as the beast was in the air.

With a combination of luck and good aim, the grenade hit one of the barrels just as the behemoth's paws touched the ground, exploding and engulfing the beast in a ball of fire.

"Now, Prompto!" Ignis yelled.

The gunslinger fired away at the beast, which was now roaring in pain and rage, trying to extinguish the flames. In its madness, it charged forward, its remaining horn trailed forward and down. They leaped out of the way, but Gladio cleaved at its right flank, wounding it. Noctis heard his Shield giving a brief yelp as he jumped away from the burning beast, patting at the fire his jacket had caught.

Far from falling down the precipice, the behemoth skidded to a halt just at the last moment and, turning his head towards Noctis, he charged again.

"Should have jumped to the right," he thought in desperation as he saw the beast charging.

His reflexes acted, and he jumped onto the attacking horn just as the behemoth was about to gore him. The beast propelled him upwards, and he used the momentum to take out another grenade and throw it to its face. He landed safely at a distance while the behemoth reeled from the last attack. Gladio had renewed its own assault from behind while he dodged the thrashing tail, now that the fire from the barrel had died down, while Prompto fired from a safe distance and Ignis supported them with more magic fire of his own.

Despite having four hunters upon him, the behemoth seemed to have taken a special interest on Noctis, who warped to the momentary safety of a nearby high wall. The animal scratched furiously at said wall, trying to reach the prince, but Gladio jumped and landed a powerful blow to his left hindquarters, bringing its attention upon him. When the animal turned its head with a snarl, Gladio screamed and hit his chest with one fist in defiance.

The behemoth charged at him, and he was readying his greatsword and his shield with a smirk on his face. A powerful paw swatted at the warrior, but he endured the attack. Shifting his footing, he sprang to the behemoth's right, and in the same movement he rolled forward and willed away the shield. Before the beast could react, Gladio swung upwards with all his might at the ribcage, and a spray of gore followed the blade's arc.

Seeing their chance when the beast staggered from the deep wound, Ignis threw another fire grenade before cleaving at it with his lance, Prompto aimed at the head (and never missing), and Noctis warped to lodge his sword at the base of the behemoth's skull.

The roars stopped all of a sudden, and the animal seemed like it was frozen for a moment before collapsing heavily, his remaining eye rolled inside the head.

"Is it dead?" asked Prompto as the friends approached the felled beast.

"With a wound like that? You bet," Gladio said with a broad smile. Of the four of them, he was the one who enjoyed battle the most.

Noctis took his sword with both hands and pulled. He had to plant his foot on the back of the skull to have some leverage until the blade was free at last, coming out of the beast's body with a sound of metal against bone that made him grind his teeth.

They took a brief rest, looking at the enormous body. It was hard to think when they said their goodbyes at Insomnia that they would end up felling those monsters.

Prompto hummed a victory fanfare from one of the videogames they liked to play sometimes.

"Sounds like someone's in a good mood," Noctis commented with a smile.

"Basking on our hard-fought victory, I presume," Ignis said. He then added. "We could take some provisions with us from our quarry."

"Behemoth steak, woohoo!" Prompto shoot his fists upwards.

While Gladio and Ignis busied themselves with cutting the behemoth's carcass, Noctis and Prompto searched for some exit at the collapsed wall the behemoth had been standing over. There was a way, a narrow one, but once they moved the metal sheets blocking it, there was enough space for them to crawl; then they came to a natural passage which led them to the Nebulawood.

The walk back to the farm was much less tense, though they knew they couldn't tarry, for the sun was already low in the sky. Despite the late hour, however, birds sung over their heads, as if already celebrating that Deadeye was no more.

Wiz waited for them at the edge of the fence with a torchlight ready on his hand, in case night fell before the young men arrived. His weathered, earnest face broadened with a smile as he saw the four hunters walking up the dirt road from the forest, battered and tired, but satisfied for a completed job.

"You boys did it!" he exclaimed as they approached. "You took down Deadeye! The areas' safe again, an' we owe it all to you!"

"So," said Prompto. "About the chocobos…"

"Our birds're at your disposal," the old man proclaimed. "You can rent them any time you like."

"Woohoo!" the gunslinger screamed. "C'mon, Noct, let's go for a ride! Erm… tomorrow I mean," he quickly added when he saw the glances Ignis and Gladio threw at him.

Night was already upon them, and Wiz ushered them into the premises. That night the caravan was on the house, and they could use the ranch workers' showers and facilities. The old man also insisted that they dinned that night on the house too, but Ignis thanked him and argued that behemoth sirloin was best cooked right after cutting it.

They feasted that night, not without Ignis taking first one serving to the ranch for Wiz.

Things were looking better, and they felt that, whatever the empire might throw at them, they would be prepared.