Chapter 344 - 343: Hunting Season
Location:Seven Peaks — Stonecroft Forward Base, Eastern Hills, Verdant Spire
Date/Time:TC1854.01.17-18
The relay crystal pulsed amber at four in the morning, and Taron was already awake.
He’d been reviewing patrol schedules at the forward base in Stonecroft — a converted granary with formation-enhanced walls and a map table that Marcus had rigged to display real-time patrol positions. Three rotating strike teams, twelve disciples each, running six-hour shifts along the eastern perimeter. Two weeks of daily patrols since the first organized hunt, and they’d killed nineteen Skulkers without losing anyone.
That streak ended with the amber pulse.
"Commander." The relay operator’s voice was tight. "Team Two reports contact near Thornfield. Four Skulkers, moving in formation. Westbound."
"Formation," Taron repeated. He set down his tea. "Describe it."
"Diamond pattern, sir. Twenty-meter spacing. Deliberate."
Skulkers didn’t move in diamond patterns. Skulkers swarmed. They flanked, they probed, they tested walls and waited for mistakes. They didn’t arrange themselves into geometric configurations that implied tactical planning.
Not until recently.
Taron reached for Stormheart. The longsword hummed against his palm — not alarm, not eagerness. Readiness. The blade had tasted void-constructs in training exercises and on two separate hunts. It understood what was coming better than most of the disciples who carried formation-enhanced steel.
"Wake Jace. Tell Team Two to track but not engage. I want eyes on them, nothing more."