The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

When Vanessa and Kat caught up to the rest of the group, Al was nowhere to be seen. He had gone up ahead to scout, and had yet to return. They kept moving forward to catch up with him, since he tended to wait for them after scouting ahead, but they moved slower than usual. Vanessa couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, though no matter what she did, she couldn't narrow it down. It was only when they caught up to him that the feeling went away, and that left Vanessa feeling more unsettled.

Whoever or whatever was watching them must have realized it had been noticed. Vanessa hadn't really made much of a secret that she noticed. The fact that they had stayed watching so long though, and had only gone away when they caught up with Al was suspicious. It was plausible that it had just given up when they fully regrouped and took a more defensive position, but Vanessa had a suspicion there was something more going on.

She had always had trouble getting a read on Al. Sometimes, he felt like a completely self-serving sociopath, and at other times, he felt like the most selfless one in the group. She didn't think he would do anything to betray them, since it wouldn't make much sense, but she also couldn't rule it out. With their group, there was a very high chance that they would get first place, meaning that if he was betraying them, whatever he was betraying them for would be worth more than those items.

Of course, there was no guarantee that they had been betrayed at all. It could have just been a spirit beast stalking them, or a group of opportunists who had decided against an ambush. Vanessa had a hunch it was more than that though, and her hunches were generally more accurate than most's.

"What is it?" asked Al in a whisper when he saw their faces.

"Vanessa says we're being watched," said Jacob.

"Not anymore," Vanessa added. "Whoever or whatever it was, it's gone now."

"What was it?" asked Al.

"I'm not sure," said Vanessa.

"What do you think it was?" asked Jacob.

Vanessa hesitated a moment before responding.

"A person," she said. "But that's just a hunch. I really have no idea."

"That's not good," said Kat. "You think it was Bella? Spying on us to make sure we're alright."

June snorted with laughter. "Yeah, right."

"It's possible," said Kat defensively.

"Not bloody likely though."

Kat looked to Vanessa for backup, but Vanessa shook her head.

"I don't think it's Bella. It didn't feel like Bella."

"So we've got another group watching us right now then," said Jacob.

"I think it would be safe to act as if that was the case, yes," said Vanessa.

"Ah, that's mildly problematic then," said Al.

"Why?" asked Jacob.

"As near as I can tell, we are currently in the territory of a 2 star spirit beast."

"What kind? How can you tell?"

"I believe either that eldritch mountain lion, or the snake-mouthed bear thing, and I think that because…" He gestured toward a brushy tree nearby with deep scratch marks in the trunk. "Well, it's big and it's got claws, at least, and I think I saw some paw prints. Haven't seen the thing itself though."

All the others knew which two creatures he was talking about from when they had looked through the catalog at all the trophies previously.

"We should turn back," said Jenny. "So we don't get ambushed."

"If we're in the territory of either of those beasts, the trophies are valuable," said Jacob. "And it's still early. If we turn back now, it's a waste of half the day."

"You want us to hunt down a powerful monster when we know there are suspicious people watching us?" asked June. "Are you retarded?"

"Not right now," he replied. "That would be stupid. But Vanessa says they're gone now. We can wait to make sure, then hunt down this beast. Vanessa, how confident are you that they aren't watching us anymore?"

"Pretty confident?" she replied. "The sight lines aren't exactly all that long here though. They could be tracking from a short distance away."

"We can look all around. Clear a perimeter. Make sure they're not still nearby. Then we'll hunt. Sound good?"

No one responded at first. Jenny still looked apprehensive, and Vanessa wasn't too sure about the plan herself, but the others were thinking it over. Despite voicing her opposition previously, June actually seemed interested in this plan, and Kat was always going to vote for excitement over boring safety. Vanessa's biggest concern was that if they trusted her too much, and she said that their tracker was gone, and then they got ambushed anyway, that would be on her.

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"Sounds good to me," said Kat.

"If that's what you all want," said June.

"I suppose," said Al.

Jenny frowned, but didn't speak up. Everyone turned to Vanessa to hear her opinion.

"I guess," she said after a few seconds. "But I'm not infallible. I don't trust my senses completely. If they are still watching and I just don't know… Well, we might be screwed."

"I trust you," said Jacob.

I don't trust me though, thought Vanessa.

She had never been good at saying "no" though, so she reluctantly agreed to at least not turn back just yet, and the group began scouting around. They moved in groups of three, maintaining shouting distance from each other and scouting all around the vicinity. They knew roughly the direction the beast would be, so they avoided that area while searching everywhere else. After an hour and a half, they had not found anything, and Vanessa had not sensed anything, so they regrouped where they had stopped at first and began preparing for the hunt.

Vanessa still felt nervous, and she had a hunch that something was wrong. At the same time, she also didn't feel like they were in immediate danger. She thought that perhaps whoever had been following them was ransacking their camp by the oasis, but they had taken everything of value with them, so even if that was the case, they weren't losing anything. There was also the possibility that their stalkers had gone after Bella, but in that case, they had even less to worry about. Even handicapped by protecting Timmy, Vanessa couldn't imagine Bella having too much trouble with anyone from Earth, and those were the only people that could be out here. Them and the Strays.

In the end, while she voiced her sense of unease, she couldn't even convince herself that they were in immediate danger, so no one else was convinced either. They marched further into the desert, following the trail of scratched trees until they came to a cave in a rocky hill.

As the fastest in the group, Kat took on the role of bait, approaching closer to the cave than anyone else dared and throwing rocks and later a lit torch inside. The rocks didn't do much at first, but as she tossed more, they started to hear growling, and when the torch went in, there was a roar. Kat ran back to the group as the sound of footsteps grew louder, and a moment later, the beast emerged.

It was the snake-jawed bear. Despite its description, it was not actually reptilian at all. Rather, it had a jaw similar to a snake's in that it went all the way back across its head, and when it opened its mouth to roar, it looked like its head was splitting in two. Beyond that though, the only thing separating it from an ordinary bear on Earth was its size. When it stood up on its hind legs to roar, it was at least twenty feet tall, and even on all four legs, it looked to be almost the size of an elephant.

Vanessa shivered slightly as it approached. It was most definitely a 2 star beast. Early 2 star, but still plenty strong. Almost more than they could handle.

As usual, June took the lead. She never seemed to feel fear. Not the same way everyone else did, at least. She pressed forward with Jacob and Jenny on either side and started stabbing at it with her spear. Al disappeared somewhere off to the right while Kat tried to get an angle to the left.

The following battle was somewhat of a war of attrition. The bear refused to move far past the mouth of the cave, so they could somewhat freely poke at it, but its hide was so thick it didn't do much. Vanessa had no trouble hitting it with arrows, but they didn't seem to do much more than enrage it. It never managed to damage them either, but that's only because the others were fighting extremely cautiously. At the slightest hint of a paw swipe or a bite, all three of the frontliners leapt back out of range. If the bear knew how to use feints, they might have been in trouble.

The closest they came to losing was when Vanessa hit the bear in the snout, angering it enough to charge forward half-blindly. The change from its more defensive style before almost got Jenny killed as she tripped as she stepped backward and ended up on her rear end as the bear came charging forward. If not for Kat flying in from the side to bump it ever so slightly off-course, Jenny very well could have died right there.

Other than that, the battle couldn't have gone much better, and though Vanessa kept an eye and an ear on her surroundings to watch for an ambush, none ever came.

The decisive moment in the battle came when June and Jacob managed to push it back just a few steps, allowing Al to jump on it from above and use gravity to help him bury his spear in the bear's shoulder joint. With its mobility weakened, it took more and more damage until it collapsed of blood loss and exhaustion. Jacob finished it off with a powerful thrust through its eye and into its brain.

Everyone else started relaxing once the fight was over, but Jacob marched into the cave behind the bear instead. Kat and June hastened to follow, and a few seconds later, Kat's voice rang out from within.

"Dude, what the hell?!"

Vanessa ran forward to see what the commotion was, and arrived at the cave just in time to see Jacob walking back out with two tiny bear cubs skewered on his spear. They didn't look much more than a month or so old, and it didn't even look like their eyes had finished opening yet.

"Jacob…" said Vanessa.

"They're not worth much, but it's better than nothing," he said.

Not much.

The had claws and teeth, but they were small and weak and not useful for any weapons, unlike the adult's parts. Their infantile fur was very soft, and could make comfortable clothing, but that was about it. It would not provide any protection or other benefits. Overall, it wasn't a worthwhile kill. However…

"Plus, they wouldn't have survived on their own," he added.

She couldn't argue with that, but she also didn't help with the dismantling of the cubs and instead joined the others in focusing their efforts on the mother.

They made it back to the oasis with their spoils close to sunset. It had taken them a bit of extra time because they wanted to get a good selection of meat from the bear so they wouldn't have to eat more reptile. While Bella didn't seem to mind, Vanessa and the others weren't big fans of lizard and snake.

Bella and Timmy weren't back yet, but that wasn't strange. They had probably found something good, and would be late in coming back. It wasn't worth worrying about Bella. Instead, they got a fire going and took a few of the choicest cuts of bear meat to roast. The sun set as they cooked, and the sky was full of stars when the meat finished cooking. The meat was perfectly cooked, courtesy of June's expertise with wilderness survival and campfire cooking, and it was all delicious, but Vanessa had a hard time enjoying it. Bella still wasn't back yet, and that was concerning.

The others' moods seemed off too, and little conversation happened as they all cultivated and prepared to sleep. When two hours had passed since midnight, they finally started to voice their concerns. There was no one in the competition who could pose a threat to Bella, but what about the Strays? Or what if one of the more powerful beasts from the outskirts had decided to move up for some reason?

Whatever the case, there was ultimately not much they could do about it. Anything that could keep Bella out this late was clearly more than they could handle. Vanessa wanted to go out to look anyway, but when she was outvoted, she was forced to relent. Instead, they entered a night of restless sleep and night's watch. Vanessa hardly slept at all until morning, and when the sun rose, she saw that it seemed no one else had either.

Bella was still not back.