Chapter 7
"Well that was quite a revelation; I wonder how are the locals are taking it?"
"From what I can pick out Kammy; most of them are too stunned to react, and the rest just seem to be picking up on the atmosphere and getting into a partying mood."
"That's good to hear Lena; for a few moments there I was worried things were going to turn ugly."
"…So, aside from being really, really cute; just what exactly is Gaston?"
"He's a feyline Mai; so basically, a species of cat that's just as smart as a human."
"Makes sense Rise."
"You're taking this awfully well Kammy."
"Given that we hunt man eating eldritch abominations for a living Lena; do you really think a talking cat is gonna faze me? Besides, he isn't giving off any yoki, so I don't see any reason to perceive him as any kind of a threat."
"Fair point Kammy; and…well I have to confess I'm with Mai now that I take a closer look at him; I want to give him a hug."
"Heh, I guess he's the sort of guy who gets all the-."
"Oi, that's a shot too cheap even for you Kammy."
"Oh my, what are you thinking Rise? Someone really does need to get their mind out of the gutter."
"At least save it until the party's properly kicked off; crude humour tends to work better when observed through the bottom of a bottle."
A waiter arrives at their table and serves their food. The table creaks slightly once all the portions are in place.
"Thankyou! Now, that, is a lot of food."
"I'm pretty sure we can manage Lena."
"You gonna be okay Mai?...uh, are you drooling?"
"Oh, sorry!"
"Heh, you're starting a look a little bit feral there Mai; so, let's not delay any longer; bon appetite!"
The four of them get stuck in; all of them end up giving their entire attention to the meal, resulting in the conversations consisting of little more than "pass the apple sauce". Sometime later all four of them have clean plates.
"That…was…delicious…"
"Might've been a bit too greedy Rise; I'm not sure if I can move."
"I feel a hell of a lot better though Lena; how about the rest of you?"
"I have to admit Mai; that most definitely hit the spot. I reckon once this settles we'll all be feeling properly recharged."
"It's a shame we don't get to relax like this more often. I know our physiologies allow us to keep functioning without rest considerably better than normal humans; but times like this help me remember that regardless of how the organisation might think of us; we're not machines; and we're still human at heart."
"Couldn't have put it better myself Kammy."
"How pushed are we for time Rise?"
"Right now, we've got clear schedules Mai; we've heard nothing from any of the handlers."
"That's a pleasant surprise, I though Rubel would've shown up by now."
"As it turns out he's be reassigned; Undine's currently resting at the lodge, and she gave us an update when she arrived. We're not completely sure who we'll get instead, but Ermita's supposed to be the closest to Pieta right now."
"Ermita…he's normally assigned to Gallatea isn't he?"
"Yeah, have you met him before Mai?"
"I've never actually talked to him, but I've seen him a few times back at headquarters."
"…probably no coincidence Mai; your yoki's very unusual, so the chances are you'll have caught Gallatea's attention, since she's the current eye of the organisation."
"Is that good Lena?"
"Hmm, it's probably not a bad thing per se; much as Gallatea tends to operate alone now, I've worked alongside her in the past, and she seems to be a good person at heart. That was before either of us had made the single digits mind; but I doubt she'll have changed significantly since then."
"Well, let's hope time has made her more rather than less inclined to be an independent thinker. Should we encounter her; I think it might be best if we keep quiet about our dealings with The Flag."
"I don't think she'd be too concerned herself Rise."
"She's the third ranked warrior now though Lena; and as such I'll bet she's one of the most closely monitored of all of us. She might not have the luxury of turning a blind eye."
"I…suppose you're right."
"Look, I'm not casting aspersions on her character; frankly I don't know her well enough to make any kind of comment in that regard; but for the time being at least I think we'll need to play it somewhat safe."
"How well do you think they'll respond to our new uniforms then Rise?"
"I doubt they'll even notice Kammy; I've been wearing customised sets for years, and if anyone's had a problem with it, they certainly haven't informed me."
"Let's hope that continues to be the case; and now that I think about it…doesn't it seem odd that we aren't provided with any real effective armour by the organisation?"
"Interesting point Lena; one I've considered myself quite a few times over the years as well."
"Have you come to any conclusions Rise?"
"Yeah Lena, armour would be helpful for dealing with regular Yoma; especially if we were outnumbered; but even the best regular armour produced in this land can't withstand a direct attack from even the weaker awakened beings out there."
"So, why did you modify your uniform in the first place then Rise?"
"Notice that I used the terms regular armour and direct attack Kammy. My custom uniforms work rather differently to conventional armour; I'll save the details for later though, since I'll be having to discuss them with Mickel anyway."
"...I think Mickel's still eating, so we'll have to wait a bit longer."
"I thought a guy his size would demolish a plate of food in no time Mai."
"He's pacing himself Kammy; being stuffed to the gills would probably make forge work pretty uncomfortable."
"I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer then Rise…huh? It looks like they're doing something on the stage."
"I think they're finishing off that set list Mai."
"I've got to hand it to them, that band have got a really unique sound."
"That's probably in part due to those instruments Lena; I've never seen anything like them before."
"Oh? They're putting up another board; 'Hunts! Not Long Now…'."
"I'd better make sure they don't get ahead of themselves Kammy; we still need to confirm the areas of interest and make sure they're not going to send anyone into Yoma territory."
"Well, at least not without one of us with them Rise."
"…Perhaps more than one of us to be on the safe side. If we consider what we know about who the organisation has assigned jobs to in this area; we get a picture that strongly suggests some kind of major Yoma related activity is afoot."
"Hmm, I think I see what you're getting at Lena. While myself and Mai wouldn't be considered particularly significant on account of our low ranks; you and Kammy take up the seventh and twelfth ranks respectively. On top of that Undine's ranked eleventh, and she mentioned Gallatea has some work in this area as well, and she's all the way up at the third rank."
"That's a pretty major concentration of combat ability when you put it like that Rise; it could still be a coincidence though."
"Hopefully; I know Isely's set up a stronghold somewhere in the north, and if anyone could assemble an effective Yoma army, it would be him."
"Isley…wasn't he the number one of the first generation of warriors?"
"That he was Kammy; whilst today he's the first of the abyssal ones; and I suspect the strongest as well."
"A Yoma army; thankfully such a thing hasn't been seen to date. Yoma generally aren't particularly cooperative; it's rare they form groups much larger than the one we took down earlier."
"Look on the bright side Lena; if he has been trying to set a plan in motion, the appearance of these monsters ought to be causing him problems as well."
"We can certainly hope so Mai."
"Still, given how eager The Flag seems to be in getting down to some hunting, I think we should at least give them a rough outline of where we know there's been Yoma related trouble while we're here. That way we can least give them a heads up on a few places they need to steer clear of."
Kammy gets out her map.
"I guess the best way to start is to mark down where we've all recent jobs in this area…shit…has anyone got anything I can write with?"
"I'll get us something; I'll be back in a minute Kammy."
Mai leaves the table and heads off in the direction of the forge. A few moments later she returns with a fine stick of charcoal.
"It's a bit primitive, but it should do the trick."
"Thanks Mai; now, while I've been getting jobs around pieta I've had to deal with Yoma here, here, and here…"
The four of them outline the areas where they've taken down Yoma, and from these deduce both rough areas where an encounter could be fairly likely, and the speculated locations of Yoma lairs.
"That's odd; the outpost where we fought the Barioth's well outside of the main incident areas."
"Not just that Kammy; it's an awful lot closer to Pieta as well."
"Good point Mai. So, what does that mean?"
"If I had to hazard a guess Kammy, I think that awakened being was planning on using the outpost as a hideout from which he; and his cronies; could ambush people around, and possibly even inside Pieta itself."
"Heh, it wasn't gonna end well for him even if he hadn't ended up as monster chow mind you Rise."
"Indeed Kammy; we were already well on way to carve his sorry arse in half, and since there hadn't been any news of incidents within the city limits…hang on a minute, how the hell did the organisation know exactly where to find him before he'd had the chance to strike?"
"Gallatea; she'd have picked up his yoki from miles away Lena."
"Hmm…maybe we could ask her where she's detected yoki signals if we get to meet up with her?"
"That's a pretty decent idea Mai; and now that you've mentioned it I think I might've figured out exactly why we haven't heard from any handlers yet, despite the fact that they'd be expecting a report from us."
"So, what'd you reckon Rise?"
"Gallatea can pick up any yoki signals from miles around; and not only that, she's generally able to accurately gauge the strength of the respective Yoma from them."
"By generally I take it you're referring to how some Yoma can mask their yoki to some extent."
"Well, not just that Kammy; warriors give off yoki signals as well, but those feel quite different to those of actual Yoma."
"Yeah, it's pretty hard to confuse the two…oh, now I get it; if she picked up the yoki of an aberrant monster I'll bet it'd confuse the hell out of her; that Barioth gave of a yoki signal that didn't feel anything like either a Yoma or another warrior."
"Ah, that would explain why Ermita isn't his usual punctual self then; I'll bet he's probably figuring out what the hell to do now that Gallatea's doubtless informed him there's now a mystery element that possesses yoki out there."
Meanwhile, in Katrina's lab…
Katrina inspects a jar of red liquid, presumably blood, labelled 'Mai'. She uses a syringe to withdraw some, and places droplets on a number of glass slides, before reacting them with a variety of chemicals and observing the results under some kind of elaborate magnifying apparatus.
"…Well shit…what in the name of unholy fuck did they do to you Mai? I knew the organisation was up to some pretty dark shenanigans, but if these results are correct then…I need to have a word with Rise."
Katrina rushes out of the lab and makes her way up to the main hall.
"Hey Katrina, good to see you…whoa! What's the matter? You look proper spooked."
"I think I might've made a seriously creepy discovery Manny; is Rise still about?"
"Yeah, she's over there with Kammy, Lena and Mai."
"Thanks; oh, and could I get a blood sample off you?"
"Um, yeah; should I be expecting trouble?"
"…Not immediately, but…look, could you find Saul and Leona? If they could give me a blood sample each as well it would help."
"I'm on it..."
Manny sticks his head around the corner of one of the doors behind the and loudly shouts.
"Hey! Boss! Katrina's in full science mode and needs our help…"
Meanwhile Katrina makes her way over to Kammy, Lena, Mai and Rise.
"Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt you but…I know this is going to sound a bit crazy, but please could the four of you come down to my lab?"
"Sorry, but who are you?"
"Oh, I guess this the first time I've met all of you…"
"Heya Katrina; well, you already know me and Mai so; Kammy, Lena, this is Katrina; Katrina, meet Kammy and Lena."
"Well, you seem pretty interesting; care to explain what's going on, and why you seem to be so flustered?"
"It's…not going to be very easy to explain Kammy, to be honest with you…but, Mai, you know that check-up I gave you earlier?"
"Huh, you seemed pretty happy about it at the time; what's the matter?"
"Well, I ran a few extra tests on your blood sample to be on the safe side…and…well…"
"I think I can see where this is going; you couldn't make head nor tail of the sample results, and you want to take samples from the rest of us to see if something's up."
"That; sums up most of it Rise."
"Well, a blood sample's no great hassle; and to be fair you already seem like a better doctor than those quacks back at HQ."
"So, you're okay with this Kammy?"
"Can't see it being a problem Lena; besides, since when have any of those bastards shown anything even resembling concern for our well-being?"
"You make a good point Kammy; and if there's reason to be concerned for Mai's health then in all fairness I feel we should go along with this."
"Phew…that's a relief."
"Any chance of explaining just what's going on then, Katrina?"
"I'll tell when we're in the lab. If the wrong person overhears we could have trouble."
Katrina and the four warriors make their way to the lab. When they get there Leona, Manny and Saul are already present, and Manny's in the finishing stages of taking blood samples.
"Thanks, sorry to spring this on all of you."
Katrina grabs a spare syringe from wall rack and quickly takes a sample of her own blood.
"Okay, I think I might've discovered something in Mai's bloodstream that really shouldn't be there; but to be on the safe side I'm going to need to run comparisons with blood from the rest of us. The samples from Kammy, Lena and Rise will be used for direct comparison, with the rest acting as control samples."
"I'm pretty sure all of us warriors of the organisation are gonna have pretty weird blood samples Katrina..."
"Weird and unknown is one thing Kammy, but what I think I found…look, I need to be certain before I make any conclusions."
"Okay, I get the picture."
Katrina takes blood samples from the remaining warriors. Once all the samples have been assembled she seems to transform into a small whirlwind of activity, and it doesn't take her long to get through the tests.
"Huff…huff…okay…I'm done."
Saul quickly pulls up chair for Katrina.
"Careful, you look like you're gonna pass out. So, what exactly is it that's got you in a tizzy then?"
"Right…okay, I cross matched all the samples with each other in order to test for particular markers and chemicals consistent with human racial groups and…err…don't take this the wrong way…monsters and yoma."
"No offence taken; so, what did you find then?"
"Thanks for being understanding Lena; well, your sample was fairly straightforward. I saw most of the expected human markers, and a few somewhat unexpected; you're of Wyverian decent, so I guess we share a distant ancestor since I'm Wyverian."
"I guess that explains why I ended up with pointed ears."
"In terms of the non-human markers, most of what I found coincided with what I believe to be standard yoma results, although some unknown exotic materials showed up; which I think can be accounted for due to the yoma tissue infusion reacting slightly differently to Wyverian blood."
"So far so good, what about me then?"
"In your case Kammy I was able to positively identify everything in the sample; all of your human markers are standard, and the yoma portion contained nothing particularly unusual; although one interesting difference is the composition of your blood suggests a somewhat lower prevalence of yoma tissues compared to Lena."
"That's not terribly surprising."
"Now, onto your result Rise…"
"I think I should point out I was an early experimental warrior, so the results might be a bit weird."
"Yeah, that's putting it lightly. While about three quarters of the sample has roughly the same sort of markers as Kammy's; the rest…well…it's unknown."
"Heh, that's probably for the best."
Mai notices a faint look of distress on Rise's face and gives her a hug, before turning to address Katrina.
"So, was there anything odd about my blood then?"
"…Yes. I was able to positively identify the expected human markers, along with some Wyverian markers as well…but…most of the yoma markers are absent."
"Huh? That doesn't make any sense! I would've thought with my yoki…"
"Hold on, I hadn't finished. While the yoma content of your blood is much lower than that of your fellow warriors…the human content's lower as well, and the rest…is elder dragon blood."
Saul and Manny are clearly stunned by this news, but Leona keeps a straight face before interrupting.
"What sort of elder dragon? Could you determine-"
"Dire Miralis."
Mai starts to look very nervous.
"Uh? What's going on? Could someone tell me…"
"Sorry Mai. I didn't mean to upset you; and don't worry, nobody here is gonna think ill of you because of what we've found…"
Leona glares at the still stunned Manny and Saul.
"Isn't that right gentlemen?"
"Uh; yes boss!"
"Thank you."
"So, would you mind explaining what the hell is going on Leona?"
"Let's just say Mai's inadvertently uncovered a solid lead on a serious crime that took place in my homeland Rise; and given us probable leads on a few more."
"Before you go into detail Leona; please could tell me exactly what this Dire Miralis creature is? I couldn't help but notice you all react to that."
"Fair enough Mai. Dire Miralis is an elder dragon; and one of the most powerful at that. To date there's only been a single successful hunt of one; and it could hardly be called a hunt. A Dire Miralis attacked the port of Tanzia, and through the combined efforts of nearly a hundred hunters, a merchant ship, and the entirety of the weapon resources of the port it was brought down; but not without causing catastrophic damage to the port, all ships harboured there, and considerable casualties amongst the hunters themselves."
Saul pats Mai on the head.
"Sorry if me and Manny looked a bit freaked; we got caught up in the incident. I'm proud to say we both managed to do more than our fair of damage in the battle, but we both took a pretty severe beating."
"Well, to put it bluntly, a Dire Miralis is a colossal creature; stood upright it would be taller than even the tallest buildings in this land. After it was brought down we made use of the materials from its body to rebuild the port; it's carapace and bones were turned into buildings, and its blood was used to fire the forges. Unfortunately, at some point during the reconstruction its heart was stolen; and whoever took it had no qualms with murdering the guards in the process. No trace of the heart had been found since the incident until today; your blood results pretty much confirm that a piece of the heart of a Dire Miralis has become part of your body."
"Um, what does it mean for me then?"
"To be frank Mai, we don't know; nobodies ever seen anything like this before."
Rise reassuring places her hand on Mai's shoulder.
"I don't think you've got anything to worry about Mai; even when you've gone all out I've been able to tell your yoki hasn't been in any danger of going out of control."
Saul procures Katrina's monster encyclopaedia and quickly finds the chapter covering Dire Miralis, before passing the book to Mai.
"Here, this might be able to answer a few questions for you."
"Actually, can we borrow this? The Barioth gave us a few nasty surprises, so if there's any way we can be better prepared for our next monster encounter we'd like to know."
"Yeah, that's fine Mai; I keep a couple of spares to be on safe side since; well, quite a few of the bottles around the lab contain liquids that aren't very kind to anything you spill them on."
Mai quickly reads through the somewhat sparse information regarding Dire Miralis while everyone else continues the discussion.
"So then Leona, what are you going to do now?"
"Other than report my findings to the hunters guild there isn't much I can do at the moment. Investigating the organisation directly is pretty much out; the possibility of them having a hand in the original crime is nigh on zero, so the only things I'd really be looking for would be exactly who supplied them with the heart, and how much of it is in their possession."
"Why is latter important?"
"From what we've been able to ascertain from our studies of the tissues of Dire Miralis, the heart has an extremely powerful regenerative function. It was, for all intents and purposes, still alive after it had been removed from the rest of the body; and we suspect under the right conditions the rest of the body could regrow from it."
"Ah; that could have some really quite nasty consequences. Do you think the organisation knows about-."
Mai interrupts.
"I don't think the organisation has it. If the rest of the heart was there we'd have probably felt something akin to a yoki signature from it."
"What makes you think that Mai?"
"Katrina's pretty much shown my body contains only trace amounts of yoma flesh, yet I've got some of the most immense yoki reserves ever seen in a warrior. This shouldn't make any sense, but, if we consider that we now know, yoma flesh can bond with both humans and monsters; so, I think what's happened in my case is that the yoma flesh acts a bridge, allowing me to tap into the power held in the heart fragment. That would also explain why my yoki signature has always seemed strange to everyone else."
"Hey, I think that also explains why your yoki still feels stable when you should be pushing yourself past your limit; there just isn't enough yoma tissue to allow you to awaken."
"While that might be the case Lena; I still highly doubt going all out is a risk-free process. The body of a warrior does have clear limits, and since Mai's showed no signs of advanced regenerative traits; the dangers posed by going past her limits won't be awakening, but burning out her central nervous system."
"What makes you think that Rise?"
"When you said your body was tingling all over after you nailed the Barioth Mai; that's the sort of sensation you can get if you sustain damage to a nerve pathway."
"It's never taken any more than a couple of days to recover though."
"…You seem to be forgetting that when it comes to injuries, the margin between something we can recover fully from, and something that's outright fatal is really quite narrow for us Mai."
"Fair point Lena; I'll be more careful in future."
"Oh, and when it comes to dealing with the organisation's management, it's probably gonna be best for all of us if you feign ignorance."
"Just what I was thinking Saul."
"Incidentally Rise, you wouldn't mind telling me about what happened when you took out that Barioth? Saul's given me the rough gist of the end of fight, but he only caught the closing stages."
"No problems Leona…"
Rise fishes a set of notes out of clothes which she hands to Lena.
"…you'll find most of the details of how I put my custom uniforms together on these. I'll bet Mickel's finished his dinner by now, so you might as well get started on the armour while I chat with Leona."
"Sounds good; if we need anything clarified we'll give you a shout."
"I wouldn't worry; Mickel'll probably figure out some improvements on his own; and I probably won't be long here."
Meanwhile, about twenty or so miles south of Pieta, on the main highway…
Gallatea and Ermita arrive at what appears to have been a pub. The buildings now half destroyed, with one whole side completely demolished; along with much of the interior having been reduced to sawdust and gravel. Numerous large patches of blood spatter are visible here and there, and on closer inspection body parts can be identified amongst the rubble.
"Hmm…any thoughts Gallatea?"
"Were in not for the lack of any fire damage, my first assumption would've been that this is the aftermath of a moonshining accident; and given that material from the wrecked parts of the structure is inside the shell of the building rather than scattered around, I do believe whatever force caused this came from outside rather than within."
Ermita inspects some of the body parts; he picks out a piece flesh with a distinctive purple hue to it.
"You mentioned the yoki trace vanished about an hour ago; so, what do you make of this?"
"Well, that's yoma flesh alright; and since the yoki signature went cold, we can safely assume it's deceased. We could try to find more bits of it if you want, but I don't think there was anything particularly special about it, so I don't think it'd serve any useful purpose."
Ermita examines more of carnage.
"Interesting; whatever happened here not only severely damaged the building, but also appears to have explosively eviscerated everyone inside. Just take a look up there."
Ermita points to the ceiling; part of a severed leg is embedded in the planks.
"I'm not sure how many people were in here, but for all the blood splatter, there's not much to speak of by the way of solid remains; and the lack of any kind of yoki spike completely rules out this being the work of another yoma. I don't think the one I detected had anything to do with the actual incident here either; it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"…most perplexing; the lack of remains suggest they've been consumed, but it's only been about an hour, and that's not sufficient time for the scavengers to move in. Now that I think about it I didn't notice any animal life within a mile of here."
Gallatea notices something in the pub grounds and makes her way over to investigate.
"I think this might have something to do with that Ermita."
The two of the them examine the find; it's a huge, deep footprint in the soft earth.
"The shape would suggest this was made by something reptilian, but the size and depression indicate something far larger and heavier than any known reptile; or any creature other than perhaps an awakened being for that matter."
"If it was an awakened being I'd have been able to detect it; whatever made this didn't possess any yoki. I suspect headquarters will be interested to hear about this."
"Perhaps we should investigate further before reporting; I have heard rumours of strange goings on in this area have been propagating for at least the past year. If we head to Pieta we could perhaps uncover information capable of shedding a little more light on this mystery.
