(TLO) Chapter 103: Beyond Simply Being Brothers (Patreon)

The boar turned its head to the side. There was a contemplation in its one good eye as it wavered, unsure. It was a beast weighing its anger and need for vengeance against a challenge of its authority.

Seth stood, still as the dead. He was uncertain, bothered. If he moved, it might draw the beast’s ire. If he didn’t, it could very well charge Timi.

You think? one of his minds scowled. Look over there. Timi’s already charging it.

He spared the briefest attention to his senses and, true to form, his brother came charging from where he’d been tossed, like a walking manifestation of wrath.

You’re worrying about the wrong thing, his mind continued. Pick your safety, then play support in a fight between two actual beasts.

The boar made its decision, turned its full attention on Timi, and barreled forward. It was not as fast as his brother, but to believe it was not as strong because of this would be a level of stupidity no long lived soul mage would ever possess.

If Timi was wrath, the boar was its god.

Seth raised his rifle, free of his fear, as they collided. Timi grabbed the beast by both tusks and it shoved him back. Its charge was barely hindered.

Seth set his aim straight, and took a knee. The rifle was to huge for his size so kneeling gave him better leverage. He stayed on his knee, eye watching through the rifle’s scope, and watched Timi get pushed back. His feet skidded back across the ground so heavily that he feared for the boy’s shoe.

Timi’s action almost seemed futile if Seth hadn’t noticed the beast slowing. With a precision born of the calm of not being chased and a target almost stationery, he shot its hind leg. The limb kicked off the ground when the bullet struck it, cleared out from under it, and Timi acted.

With a power that displayed his muscles beneath his grey cassock, he turned both arms and dropped the beast on its side.

It fell with a powerful thud, raising a cloud of black dust.

Seth cocked another bullet and frowned. He got to his feet and jogged forward as Timi stepped away from the beast then kicked it. [Indomitable Dome] must’ve still been active because the boar skidded across the ground till it hit a tree. With all the noise, Seth wondered how the others had not gotten here yet?

Timi cut the distance of his travel short and met him halfway, walking backwards so that the beast struggling to stand remained in front of him. When they finally stood side by side, he turned to Seth and signed.

How’d you manage to shoot its eye?

Seth shrugged. “Good aim.”

Then why is there still one left?

Seth paused, then shrugged again. “Bad aim.”

The beast was getting back to its feet now, balancing its stumbling weight, when an idea came to Seth. It seemed a pincer attack was never going to be the answer. He was going to play support.

Without taking his eye from the almost standing beast, he asked, “Do you think you can hold it down for like three seconds?”

Timi’s lips puckered in contemplative thought. He looked a man convening with himself. After a moment long enough for the beast to stand, he looked at Seth and smirked. “Rumor has it I can pin it down for as long as you need.”

Seth cocked a brow. “What rumor?”

“The same one I always listen to.”

The arrogance, one of Seth’s mind laughed. It’s breath taking. To Seth, it added: why can’t we be that confident, eh?

Seth paused, then focused his attention inward. “Is that an accent?”

Timi spared him a side glance, attention already back on the beast. “I’m Nigerian,” he said. “I have a Nigerian accent. You know this.”

“Not you.” He returned his attention to his mind. “You.”

If he can do it, why can’t I?

“Because he’s Nigerian, and you’re not.”

“It’s looking at us,” Timi informed him. “Talk to yourself when it’s down. I take it we’re supposed to kill it?”

Seth hefted his rifle, noting Timi didn’t have his on him anywhere, and answered, “Supposed or not, we’re going to.”

“Good,” Timi said, then charged it again.

……………………………………..

Emriss watched in silent consideration from atop a tree. She sat cross legged on its highest branch in display of a balance superior even amongst Barons. From here she watched her students flail at their first sniper hunt, taking note of strengths and weaknesses.

Her hair was held up in hazardous bun and a single lock fell free of it so that it hung just beside her left eye. It had been there for a while now and she had ignored it for equally as long.

When she’d brought the seminarians here, it had always been her intention to leave them to their vices. It brought her grave discomfort to allow them struggle against a reia beast so powerful on their own simply because it was not the way she had been taught. During her training her master had stood by her through such challenges, giving her a gargantuan confidence from his simple presence, until he had gone. She had hoped she would be able to raise these children the same way. Unfortunately, this was the seminary, and they were seminarians. They would be trained in the manner the seminary saw fit.

Her core veiled properly so that the boar did not bolt at the slightest sense of a Baron authority presence, she analyzed her students.

When she’d given them leave to choose their hiding spots, they’d displayed their first knowledge of being snipers: Positioning.

At a notice, it was clear they each had much to learn. They hid like soul magi preparing an ambush. Forlorn showed his idiocy by hiding behind a fallen tree. He employed no form of camouflage and left the barrel of his rifle rested on it clear for any to see.

Jason hid behind a tree. He did not climb it. He did not find a tree large enough to hide within its groove. He simply stood behind it. Actually, it was pretty much the action of the remaining boys. Hiding behind a tree must be a collective stupidity. Then again, there was a chance they were simply being lazy.

Only Seth showed some manner of resourcefulness, climbing a tree and stealing himself into the heart of it, hidden between multiple branches. If he’d had a cassock more suitable to the terrain, his camouflage would have been nigh perfect.

Regardless, against a reia beast such as this, their hiding spots were acceptable. A soul mage worth their authority in marks would have spotted each of them immediately. Perhaps not Seth. After all, humans rarely look up as a subconscious act.

The first few shots fired off came from Jason and the effeminate one called Barnabas. Whether it was from fear or uncertainty, she did not know, but their aims were too wide to even threaten the boar. It stood where it was, uncaring of events around it.

True to his ever growing reputation, Forlorn proved himself unsuitable for the position of a sniper. His first few shots were without design. He simply saw the beast and pulled the trigger, grazing its tusk. Worse, when he realized his first shot had no impact, he did the same thing. The next was better and it struck the boar on the side. With a hide as thick as its own, only manasteel bullets would harm it.

But she had not equipped them with manasteel bullets.

She knew the moment the boar found the bullets’ point of origin. It turned in mild annoyance and, without complex thought, charged. It made a bee line for Forlorn. And yet again, the boy proved he was no sniper. Now that it was time to know when to move, he held his ground and fired off another harmless shot. She didn’t know if it was his stupidity or arrogance that made him stay.

Then Barnabas fired off a few pointless—but not useless—shots.

She’d seen enough of the both of them together to know they had a relationship of sorts that went beyond simply being brothers in the seminary.

Barnabas deferred to Forlorn reflexively. He watched the boy and acted accordingly at all times. He was akin to a girlfriend trying to impress a toxic boyfriend. It roused a sense of disgust in her every time. So it was no surprise the boy knew where Forlorn had chosen to hide. It was no surprise the fool was trying to draw the boar’s attention from the boy.

Still, in his attempt he’d uncovered one of the boar’s weaknesses. Powerful as they were, these beasts lacked balance. Attacking their legs was the fasted way to disable them. When the boar staggered and stopped, it was Forlorn’s chance to move.

He did not.