Chapter 49 (1/2)

Movement caught Randidly’s eye, and he saw, for the first time, two cats streaking across the wasteland together. He supposed they had to breed somehow, so it wasn’t surprising. It was honestly more surprising that he hadn’t seen it before.

Monsters did breed. That’s why some of the Classers had captured some Wolverines and Lizards and were starting a farm for meat. They even apparently accepted domestication well enough, as long as someone with a level over 10 was there, or equivalent strength. They had some intuition about who could kill them.

But, the two together made his hunting more dangerous, but also doubly as efficient.

They hadn’t appeared to have noticed him, so Randidly crept forward, hiding in the shady side of a large crack in the earth. As he moved into position, he received a level in Sneak, which made him chuckle; it certainly had been awhile since he used this skill.

As they came hurtling past, a Wall of Thorns sprang up, which the first one plowed right into, setting off a series of long yowls. Spearing Roots rushed up, silencing it quickly.

The other dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the thorns, and was caught in the back leg by a Spearing Roots. Already the next Spearing Roots was rushing towards its hobbled form, but this cat did something that Randidly had never seen before.

It swayed its upper body, receiving some scratches, but largely dodging the attack. Then, also contrary to form, it leapt away, streaking back from whence it came, leaving a trail of blood.

Strange, usually they would attack him on sight, regardless of their injuries.

Randidly collected the body of the first cat and squinted at the fleeing one. Shrugging, he decided to follow it. Although it would be increasingly dangerous if it returned to a den or warren of the things, it would also speed up his hunting quite a bit.

A smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, Randidly loped silently after it.

****

Dozer, Donny, and Decklan glanced fearfully at each other, and then down at the stack of papers in front of them. The immaculately scaled and designed forms were soggy and wet from coffee.

When the man who wanted to grow coffee had arrived, he had sweetened the deal by offering some of his already roasted beans. Naturally, those bribes slowly percolated up the chain of command until they arrived at Donny.

Only 16 years of age and not such a coffee drinker, he had turned to Decklan and Dozer for their expertise on the subject. All and all, the two had assured him it was an excellent strain.

Unfortunately, they had knocked over the pot, spilling all of the remaining coffee.

Unfortunately, the sheets they were supposed to rank all the classers with had been ruined.

“I mean… What can he really do…? I’m the village chieftain….” Donny said uncertainly.

“Good, you take the blame. “ Decklan said, crossing himself.

“He distributes the food…” Dozer mumbled. “He controls who gets weapons from the shop with SP, rather than having to save up gold themselves… Wood that comes up from the NCCs? He controls that. You wanted to start to build a house, didn’t you, Donny…?”

The three considered the issue solemnly, picturing Daniel’s pudgy face contorted in fury. It was honestly difficult to imagine. It really couldn’t be that bad, right…?

“Well…” Dozer said uncertainly. “He did mention that all he really needed was a 1-10 ranking… we could just….”

“Rank everyone? Today?” Decklan snapped.

But then Donny, blinked, then laughed.

“Yes! That’s exactly what we do. With the most efficient method for determining strength!”

The other two looked at him. He smiled widely and spread his hands. “With a Tournament!”

The three of them straightened, their worried looks turning into flinty, evaluative ones.

“A tournament…” Decklan said calmly, making a knife dance across this hands.

“A tournament.” Dozer agreed, his chest heaving, his eyes bright.

“I’ll go tell the squads, and grab Sam. I’m sure we can assemble a stadium or something by the time we get to the top 16. People who lose in the preliminaries need to build.” Donny said, picturing himself being crowned champion.

“Ah.” Dozer said, blinking. “Will the… Ghosthound be participating…?”

They mulled this question over for several seconds.