While Boss Must and Arthur’s plan to send their would-be hostages to one of the rival families to the Zhen Clan would normally be considered a good idea, unfortunately for them, one of those families was dealing with a bit of an internal crisis at the moment
As for why they were in the middle of a crisis, we’re gonna have to turn back the clock just a bit...to a point in time a little after Zhen Hai had slapped Zhen Guo upside the head...
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"Alice! Jericho! Colt! Shout if you can hear me!," Gio called out, while mentally thinking: ’Those brats better not be dead...’ Gio placed a palm on a nearby tree, trying to get his bearings.
’I took a left, right, two rights after that and...why is my memory so hazy right now?’
Gio had followed the trail of upturned earth that Colt’s dragged body left behind him when he was kidnapped as best as he could, but unfortunately for him, the trail went cold, or more literally, the earth started to level out at some point.
Gio had assumed the trail would end inside of a cave or in the side of a mountain, instead, he was now stranded in the middle of a forest of dense trees, a thick, choking mist blocking his-
"Wait a minute...woods?"
Gio looked about his surroundings and finally realized that something was clearly wrong.
The Wolfe Family had been situated near the Wasting Sands for years, and they knew that the nearest forested area was about two weeks by wagon ride away from Stone Claw City and in the exact opposite direction of the Jade Forest, and subsequently the Jade Lake. Additionally, the tree he was resting his hands on was a fucking pine tree.
"Shit, shit, shit! This is an illusion!," Gio shouted in realization.
As soon as those words left his lips and the realization came upon him, the forest around him began to quiver and shake like a picture on paper until shattering into pieces like a glass panel.
"What? What is that thing?!"
With the illusion now shattered, Gio could see the culprit for his confusion...it wasn’t what he was expecting in the slightest.
"Some kind of...octopus spider...pot?"
The creature before him didn’t look like any aether beast he had ever seen before in or out of a wandering ruin.
It looked like one of those claypots merchants would use to store oil or grains in, but coming out of clearly broken sides were long fleshy tentacles propping the whole thing up like a spider. Gio could make out a ring of eyes around the pot’s lip like the eyes of a scallop. On top of all of that however, he noticed that same weird feeling he had when Colt got grabbed, i.e., the extreme lack of an aether presence.
’Did this thing eat Colt?,: Gio thought to himself as he stared at the octopot. Surprisingly, the octopot hadn’t run away despite having it’s illusion broken. It looked like it was waiting for Gio to make the first move.
During his tracking of Colt earlier, he had attempted to find him via the latter’s aether circulation, but Gio couldn’t detect anything. For whatever reason, it felt as if that weird tentacle was blocking any and all aether flow like a dam against water. This fact both scared and excited Gio.
’This thing is definitely related to the Archive. That’s the only way to explain the lack of aether coming off of this thing,’ Gio assured himself. ’Now all I have to do is catch it...or maybe...’
In a pouch hanging off Gio’s back was a whole mess of throwing darts, of which several were tracker types. If he could land one of them in this weird creature, he’ll be able to follow it back to it’s lair.
’This is just too easy.’
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=He’s trying tracker darts? For realsies?=
=Only the ones with the "live actors". I don’t see the appeal in ones made with moving drawings as it were. Too much singing. I do like the moving sculpture ones though.=
=That said, did you get this design from the archive about the eagle girl or the one about the color coordinated "teenagers".=
=Ah...the live actors for that one were kinda weak.=
=Yeah...oh shit, is he seriously doing the whole slow motion thing?=
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Gio stared down the octopot as he slowly moved his hand behind his back and reached into his back pouch. He didn’t want to suddenly spook it and have it run away on him...not without tagging his ass first at least.
About halfway into the pouch, the octopot suddenly stood straighter and looked as if it was gonna bolt, causing Gio to freeze up a bit.
’Don’t freak out on me yet. Not yet...’
Luckily for Gio, stopping mid movement was the right call. The octopot thing began to relax once more.
In one swift motion, Gio nailed the octopot with a tracker darts right in it’s center of mass, embedding it deep within it’s clay-like flesh.
The octopot understandably freaked the hell out and ran as fast as it’s tentacles legs could take it, which was surprisingly fast.
"That...is incredibly unsettling to watch, what the hell," Gio commented as he tried to hold back a gag. Most of the creatures he fought had bones or an exoskeleton, or at least if it boneless it was a slime. Seeing boneless limbs move was unsettling.
Gio didn’t immediately give chase after the pot, instead, he waited until it was out of sight and checked if his tracker worked, which it did.
’Excellent, now to follow this thing back to it’s nest...’
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=And so the chase begins. Are you gonna lead him directly into the trap, or...=
=Spikes at the bottom?=
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A few hours later and elsewhere in the Jade Forest, a group of young Acolytes heard the screams of a man who sounded as if he was subjected to pure terror.
"Huh...you guys curious about who’s screams are those?"
"Nah. Probably someone who overestimated their abilities."
"Yeah...hey Colt, mind passing me some jerky?"
"Sure thing, Alice. You want some, Jericho?"
As these young Acolytes chatted while bringing back a freshly killed aether beast, one couldn’t help but wonder how they would react if they knew the one the screaming was none other than their master who was looking for them.