The Unwanted Tamer

This phase of the fight started rather slowly. Stephanie was their main distraction, since her bullets were their only actual method of damage at that time. Fergus was still firing arrows, but only the arrows that were augmented by his skills pierced the monster's bark. That was also part of the issue because he only had two skills that augmented his damage capabilities, Gale Arrow and Gust Blade. These were also his most mana intensive skills, they required conscious use of his mana and could be charged to increase their effects.

Griff was stuck focusing on the monster's movements, since his only real ranged attack was Mana Shot which only had a range of fifty feet. He rarely used the skill so he hadn't been able to increase its range or improve it much. He decided to work on it more after this fight. The skill wasn't very useful because of this, as they tried to stay about a hundred feet away from the monster to keep out of its massive attack range.

The biggest issue with this fight was that they couldn't get close to the monster. This heavily limited their attacking capabilities. Some of them could attack from that range but most couldn't. Fergus could augment his arrows and thus had the range but couldn't do much damage. Stephanie's regular bullets could thankfully damage it due to their sheer velocity. Both, however, required their weapons for their ranged damage. Malachite, Liv, and Antonio were the sole exceptions in regards to their skills. They'd practiced with them enough to increase their range due to their understanding of the skills.

This left Shadow who wasn't able to block any of the monster's projectiles without being injured and Griff who was left being the tactician of the party. He couldn't assist in damage dealing without risking injury or even death. Shadow couldn't either because all of the monster's attacks were magical, so even if she was incorporeal, she would get hit. They were in a conundrum; they needed to get close in order to deal any reasonable amount of damage but couldn't do so without risking major injuries.

Griff was thinking about what moves they could possibly make while watching the monster closely. He had multiple formations, tactics, and possible scenarios playing through his head as he noticed the monster shift. It crouched using its front two legs and pushed its front half upwards, off the ground. It raised up to be almost perpendicular to the ground before it started to fall back down. Griff had a foreboding feeling when it reached its apex and yelled through their link.

"Run to the left!"

No one hesitated, trusting Griff's instincts and started sprinting as fast as they could to the left. Stephanie was the slowest and was holding up the rear of the group. They'd made it about fifty feet when the monster's front half slammed into the ground, creating a wave of earth that was sent radiating outwards in a wedge in front of it. They hadn't been able to completely exit its area of effect and were tossed skywards. The only one that was able to react was Fergus who had jumped just before it reached them and been able to keep himself from going airborne.

Everyone else wasn't so lucky, however, and were sent nearly thirty feet into the air. They were flailing around in the air when Griff noticed the monster fire the wooden chunks at them. He quickly called this out and everyone guarded themselves in any way they could. Stephanie grew her buckler and covered herself and Antonio who'd crawled over to her at some point. Shadow braced herself and was pulled towards Malachite using his telekinesis. Griff activated his Horror's Guard, causing the Sinewweaver's breastplate to form, and his Verdant Gauntlets as he blocked his vulnerable points.

One wood chunk, that was nearly the size of her torso, hit Stephanie's shield propelling her backwards and slamming her into a tree hard enough to break through it. She sailed on for a short distance before rolling and laying on her back. Griff was struck in a couple places, none of which pierced through to a vital point. He did have multiple small wooden chunks sticking out of his legs, arms and one that had pierced through his breastplate and into his abdomen. Fergus was able to dodge the one stray chunk that had gone towards him by dropping to the ground. Shadow was pulled out of the way of one by Malachite's telekinesis, while Malachite had one scrape across his shell and armor. They had all been sent backwards a decent distance from the force of the projectiles, but Stephanie had been the only sent flying.

Everyone else landed and rolled back to their feet, but Griff quickly turned to check on Stephanie. He saw her raise her hand and give a shaky thumbs up before dropping it back down. Then he heard her speak through their link.

"Ouch. I'm alright. Just give me a couple seconds."

"Can't really promise anything." Griff replied as he turned back towards the monster.

He saw it moving towards them and realized it had gotten closer while they had been airborne. He turned and sprinted away from it, trying to exit it's range. Only he was a second too late. He felt the ground shift and jumped as a large root shot towards him. He panicked and activated his Counter skill as he tried to keep the root from piercing his chest. His skill activated, much to his surprise, but not in the way he'd expected. Instead of stopping the root's momentum, it transferred it into him, causing him to shoot into the air at high velocity. He ended up going high enough that he could barely see his party due to the distance.

Then, his momentum stopped, and gravity took ahold of him once again. This didn't bother him for a moment, until he noticed the rapidly approaching problem. The ground. He started yelling at Malachite to slow him with his telekinesis, but the turtle had run out of mana. This only caused his panic to worsen, and he began to scream. Luckily for him, the monster had moved, and he hit its canopy, slowing his decent. Then he unceremoniously slammed into the monster's back, with a loud thud and the sound of shattering wood. This was when he got a broke his shoulder, right arm, cracked his pelvis and got a concussion.

This led to everyone else panicking, knowing Griff had just gotten seriously injured. Luckily, they heard a groan through the link and breathed a momentary sigh of relief. The monster had a large crack running almost straight down the center of its body from the impact. This caused it to change. It wasn't a visual change at first, but it immediately stopped moving towards the rest of the party. After a few moments of inactivity, it pushed itself upwards again, only instead of dropping back down, it stayed upright. Then it began walking, on its two legs as its arms grew to drag on the ground beside it.

Griff was luckily caught in the branches around him so he didn't move, as the rest of Fauna began running away from it, only they couldn't outrun it. It's stride was too long and fast for them, reaching them in a few steps. One of its elongated arms whipped around towards them, ripping the ground up as it swung. The party tried to dodge but couldn't and Stephanie took the brunt of the attack with her shield. Her shield shattered, and her arm shattered along with it before she slammed into the rest of the party. Everyone felt a few of their ribs and a couple other bones break as well. Fergus' right femur broke and he dislocated his hip. Gaia's bonds felt their shell, carapace, and core crack slightly. They were then sent flying in a large arc, only to be caught midair by something.

They didn't know what caught them, but they were each grabbed by something before being set on the ground. They only noticed they'd been caught because they'd been flying through the air one moment and being set on the ground the next. Everyone was caught individually before being set on the ground. Then, they saw something they nearly couldn't believe, a small dot was falling from the sky. When Fergus focused on it, he realized it was person, but he couldn't discern who it was. Within moments of the person's appearance, they reached the monster. Fauna expected another loud thud and breaking wood but heard something different.

They heard an earth-shattering crack and something else. They heard someone laughing, or rather cackling. A moment after the sound, they saw the Shattered Arboreal break completely in half and its two halves fall towards the ground. Most of Fauna had been around half a mile away from the monster, due to the sheer strength of the attack. They felt the ground shake as the monster's two halves hit the ground, toppling many trees.

They were dumbfounded by the situation. They'd just been saved and the monster was killed. They were in their surprised stupor when Griff suddenly appeared with a massive healing potion in his hands. He quickly began using it to heal everyone. He crawled to Fergus who set his shoulder and arm before he drank a bit of the potion. He felt the bones fuse back together and moved slowly to each person when he could move. He made sure each person took a bit of the potion to heal as he worked. He helped Fergus first, since he was the closest, by setting his bone then popped his hip back into the socket. After that was Stephanie, who'd broken many more bones, but Fergus helped Griff set them before healing, making sure they'd heal correctly. Griff then moved through everyone else healing everyone as best he could with the potion and his healing shots. Antonio had helped him heal everyone, after being healed himself, speeding up the process.

Once they were healed, they sat for a moment catching their breath. It wasn't until a few minutes later that they remembered something very important, they'd left Gaia in the forest. Just as they were scrambling to their feet they saw someone appear from behind some trees carrying Gaia. The person laid her down and motioned towards what was left of the healing potion. Fergus grabbed it and tried making her drink it. She coughed it up, so he helped her drink it.

They saw her wounds heal at an incredible rate. The only bad part was that they couldn't fix her scapula since shards were missing. They noticed a large nearly two-inch-long shard piercing out of her skin and removed it, along with a small chunk of flesh that came with it, since it would only hinder her recovery. This caused the wound to close around the shattered scapula and only mend the parts of the bone close to each other. She would always have that hole in her bone, but she'd be alright much sooner.

They held onto the shard for Gaia instead of disposing of it, not really sure why. They then looked towards the figure standing nearby, wondering who it was. The figure, after a few more moments of staring, began to chuckle. This was when they recognized the voice.

"Zelios?" Stephanie asked.

"It took you long enough!" He said as he started laughing even harder.

"How long were you watching us fight?!" Stephanie yelled.

"I only showed up when Mr. Griffon started flying like his namesake. Then grabbed you guys when you went flying as well." He replied through his mirth.

Stephanie's temper calmed down after hearing this. He'd only shown up at the end, so they couldn't be that mad at him not finishing it before anyone got hurt. "Fine." She replied as her temper cooled.

"What happened, though?" Zelios asked after his laughter had died down.

"We've been dealing with a near constant onslaught of weaker monsters pretty much since you left last night. Then this thing appeared around when you said you should be returning so we had Gaia and Malachite lead it away while we finished off the rest of the attacking monsters. Then when we cleared the attacking monsters, we left the teachers to defend while we came to help Gaia and Malachite." Griff explained.

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"Is she going to be okay? The wounds she transferred from Malachite were pretty bad, and she's lost a lot of blood." Fergus asked.

"She'll be alright. The potion healed up the worst of it, but we should still get her back to healer just in case. Let's head back to the camp and pack up. We need to end the camp now. I found something in the woods that needs to be reported. I'll send a message to the League to have some healers and more hunters sent out to help. We'll probably meet them when we set up camp tonight. You guys did a remarkable job. Now we need to return. Can you guys carry her?" Zelios asked.

"Yeah. Malachite can. We'll follow you." Griff replied.

"Let's go."

They had Stephanie climb onto Malachite's back and laid Gaia on her lap. They then took off towards the camp. It took them about twenty minutes since they couldn't sprint, and Fergus had to help Griff walk due to the concussion. When they arrived, they found the teachers preparing to break down camp. Byron was the first to notice them and ran towards them.

"Zelios! Fauna! I'm glad you're all back! Is everything alright? We were just starting to break down camp and start heading back to the capital, since we hadn't seen or heard from you guys." He stated.

"Ah, good. I was just about to suggest we do exactly that. I found something and we need to head back, now. I've already sent a request for some healers and hunters to be dispatched. They should meet us tonight around sunset. Also, I'll be taking one of the defending spots until we meet up with the reinforcements. I'll need you to lead the group." Zelios replied.

"What? Why? Did something happen?" Byron asked before seeing Gaia unconscious in Stephanie's arms. "Oh, I see. Understood. Will she be alright?"

"Yep. She had part of my potion. We just need to get moving as quickly as possible. Let's say, about fifteen minutes?"

"Yes sir." Byron replied as he turned and yelled. "We have fifteen minutes. We'll be moving at that point. Pack everything, anything that's not, will be left behind."

There was a mad scramble for the next fifteen minutes while the students and teachers ran to break down camp and pack everything. Griff and Fergus packed all of Fauna's stuff while Stephanie slept on Malachite's back. She'd been the one, besides Gaia, to have the worst injuries. The healing potion also caused a toll on the body, it took a lot of energy to heal as quickly as it did, so everyone was exhausted. Fergus and Griff weren't nearly as injured but were just tired. Gaia's bonds were in a similar state. They were all tired, but none had been injured as badly as the two currently asleep.

The camp was mostly packed by the time fifteen minutes had passed. The only things not packed were unimportant and were left behind. They were moving once Byron called for it, they started out at a quick pace. Everyone was still fired up from the battle, and Zelios' statement made everyone move quickly. A few hours after they started moving, the group slowed a bit. They didn't stop for lunch, instead opting to eat as they walked. No one was sure if or when another onslaught could occur, so they wanted to keep moving.

They only stopped around mid afternoon for the students to rest. Even this was a short stop since everyone was on edge from the situation. Luckily, nothing occurred before they met up with the reinforcements Zelios had called. There were a dozen hunters and three healers that met them just before sunset. The excursion group had moved quickly due to everyone being on edge, so they'd arrived earlier than anticipated. The reinforcements were waiting for them when they reached the campsite.

The hunters had already set up a perimeter while the healers had a tent set up to see to the injured. The group entered and finally relaxed, knowing they had more hunters made everyone relax slightly. Fauna didn't hesitate and went straight to the healers tent. They were checked first since they'd been the ones to have serious injuries. The healers checked them over and found nothing off aside from the two girls. Gaia, who had lost a lot of blood, and Stephanie who was just overly exhausted from the potion's healing.

Fergus and Griff were told they were fine after a couple quick heals, and the healers even checked on Gaia's bonds. They healed each of them a small bit, fixing any issues that had occurred from the potions immediate healing. They were worried about Gaia since they'd been told there was bone damage but complimented them on their quick thinking. They'd been told that, had they not stopped the bleeding when they had, Gaia might not be alive.

Gaia and Stephanie were held there for the night due to the seriousness of their injuries and for further healing. Everyone else aside from Malachite left, he'd also been held back for the injuries he still had and because he refused to leave Gaia. No one had argued with him, they all knew he felt that Gaia's condition was his fault. They also knew he wouldn't listen to anyone but Gaia about it, so they let him stay.

They left the three with the healers, knowing they were in good hands, and went to start patrolling. Zelios stopped them a couple of dozen feet from the healer's tent and told them they had the night off. They were then ordered to go get some sleep by him as well. They were exhausted but tried to argue, failed to do so, and were shooed away. They went to an empty spot in the camp and set up their tent. They laid down in their blankets and were asleep within moments.

When Fergus awoke, he realized it was just he and Griff and that Gaia's bonds were gone. He had a sharp spike of panic before remembering Stephanie and Gaia had been held by the healers overnight. He got up knowing her bonds had likely gone to see her when they'd gotten up. He did the same when he could finally think straight and got up.

It took him a couple minutes to reach the healers tent, since he needed to find his way through the maze of tents that created the camp. When he finally did, he heard the healers talking.

"The students are mostly fine, just a bit traumatized by seeing such a strong monster. A couple had minor injuries but were otherwise unscathed." One of the men said.

"The teachers were the same, but a couple had gotten bitten or slashed. Just how many monsters attacked them for the teachers and party of hunters to be injured?" The one woman of the group asked.

"No idea. I'm just glad that whatever caused these two to be in this condition is dead. The half-dwarf should be fine after sleeping a bit longer, but the earthbound. She's gonna need more healing, especially since she lost so much blood. I'm more surprised she lived to reach us. We'll need to focus on her to replace the lost blood." The last man stated.

"The biggest issue for her, is that her bone was shattered. It won't work the same as it did before. She'll probably have constant pain from the shards not healing correctly and lose some function in her shoulder. Not to mention the scar she'll have, since it was such a serious wound." The woman said.

"I'm more surprised by the fact she has so many scars already. They're not normal for a hunter to have. They only occur from serious injuries, like this one or injuries to the spirit. What has she gone through to have as many as she does now?" Another asked.

This was when Fergus decided to walk in. He couldn't listen to anymore without wanting to cry. She'd been extremely close to death from what they'd said. That made him very worried. "She's been through a lot. Too much but knowing her, there'll be a lot more to come." He said.

"Oh. Sorry, we didn't mean to worry you or anything-" The woman started before being cut off.

"It's fine. How is she? Will they both be alright?" He asked.

"They should both be alright. Your friend here should be alright after some more rest. Your other friend will take longer. We need to heal her to let her produce more blood. For her wounds, we can't do much since they were healed by the potion. The only thing we're worried about is if any shards weren't removed before healing." The other man stated.

"Okay. Thank you for taking care of them. Can I see them both and did Gaia's bonds come here?" He asked.

"If you mean the wolf and other two insects, then yes. They should be with her now and you're free to go in. I don't know when she'll wake up though. She'll probably need until the end of the day with our healing." The woman replied.

"Thanks." Fergus stated as he walked into a sectioned off area of the tent to see Gaia and Stephanie.

He moved the curtain that was blocking the patient side of the tent and finally got a look at the two. Stephanie was asleep on a cot under a blanket. Her arms were above and he got a look at her injured arm. That was worrying in itself since her Colossal Buckler was usually in the form of a gauntlet that completely covered her arm, but it was missing. The only feature that hinted at the gauntlet was a small wooden circle where she'd originally implanted it. It looked to be slowly growing so he guessed it would heal as she did.

Her arm was almost entirely purple from bruising, with a few areas that just looked off. When he looked closer, he realized they were areas that the healers had to cut into, so they could pull out shards of her bone in order for it to actually heal. It looked really bad and obviously had been worse than any of them had thought. He was surprised that she hadn't said anything about it, but then again Gaia was the same way. The two suffered in silence in order to not worry anyone else if they could.

He was also surprised since he thought potions should completely heal injuries back to normal, aside from healing bones. He knew they would only correctly heal bones after they'd been set, but he'd thought they'd heal everything else. This wasn't the case apparently, they definitely healed wounds rapidly but appeared to have a limit. The potion they'd used was a bronze rank potion, meaning it had healed them much quicker and better than a stone rank one. This was good for the situation, but it meant their bodies couldn't keep up with the healing leading to the current situation. After the initial healing, it's recovery slowed dramatically.

This wouldn't be the case for a potion at their rank, those would just tire them out depending on the wound. They wouldn't heal really bad injuries though, so it was a trade off. Stephanie's arm was bad enough that Fergus worried if she'd be able to use it correctly even after it healed. Currently though, it didn't look like she was going to be doing much with that arm for a while, though. That made him feel even worse, because she'd been defending him and the others from the attacks and had already taken a lot of big hits. This was just the worst one, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. He turned his attention to Gaia after a few more moments of staring at Stephanie's mangled arm.

Gaia looked nearly as bad. She had a large scar where the wound had been. It was a couple inches in diameter with cracks radiating from it's edges. The stone within this area was slightly sunk in and lower than the rest and a slightly darker color. The scar was on her right side and it looked like it was barely healed. The cracks around it looked like they were from the healers having to pull bone shards out like they'd had to for Stephanie.

The other wound on her leg was completely healed but looked just as bad as when he'd first seen it. It was in her prosthetic leg which wasn't organic so the healers couldn't heal it. All healing magic could do was heal the magical tubing that pumped her blood through it, making it function as a regular leg. The wound showed jagged edges and punctures deep into it's center. It had been a deep wound and would have caused a much bigger injury if she hadn't transferred it to herself.

These were the actual wounds, the part that made him worry the most was how her skin looked. Her left side was sunken like it had been, right after she'd healed from the miasma. Her right side was looking ashen, nearly grey, from losing so much blood. She did not look like she'd be okay, which only made him worry more and regret letting her go alone. He knew there hadn't been a better option at the time, but he couldn't help regretting what had happened.

This was when he heard a commotion from the front of the tent. He ignored it after hearing Griff's voice and a couple moments later Griff was beside him checking on Stephanie. Neither one said a word, instead opting to sit in silence as they held each of the girls hands. Griff held Stephanie's, and Fergus held Gaia's as they waited for the two to wake up. They were like this for a few hours before they had to move again. They convinced the healers to set up in Malachite's hut while they travelled. The two stayed with the unconscious women until they awoke, while silently comforting each other so they wouldn't break down.

This continued until they reached the city that night. They were allowed to go back to the Baron's mansion and asked Zelios to have Freya come to them. He agreed to relay their request and left to talk to the League. Fauna went back to the mansion, surprising everyone since they were back much earlier than expected. When they saw Stephanie and Gaia just laying on Malachite's shell, everyone panicked. When they saw the two were alive, they relaxed slightly but were still very worried. Especially after seeing the state of the two.

"What happened?" The Baron demanded loudly.

Griff winced and gritted his teeth as he held his head. Fergus was helping him walk since he kept falling and could barely stay upright. Fergus was exhausted from worry and the physical exertion of helping Griff walk. That didn't even include the exhaustion from the healing. Due to this, Fergus ignored his father and helped Griff get to a room as Malachite carried Stephanie and Gaia up the stairs. They all ended up in Fergus' room as it was the second closest to the stairs and they had some servants bring another bed into the room.

Only once Stephanie and Gaia were settled in a bed, and Griff was laying down, did Fergus go down to talk to everyone. Freya had arrived a few minutes before he came down the stairs, which he was thankful for. He stepped into the dining room where he saw everyone was waiting and began his explanation for what had happened, with an exhausted sigh.