Chapter 56: You work while I watch
Roderic was busy handling a wild boar with his sword when he heard the whistle.
"That bastard. I told him not to go far." Roderic was very annoyed because he knew for sure where the whistle came from. The whistles of each of them had a small distance tracking feature. The whistle had an indicator to point out the location of the other whistle that had been blown. It was for each of them.
Like Roderic, the other two were made aware and they also heard the noise. They hurriedly left their search and went to save Aric, and it didn’t take more than two minutes to arrive. When they did, they found Aric at the top of a thick branch looking at the cave that was many meters away through the thick bushes and foliage.
"Aric..." Lyria shouted, but before she could speak another word, Aric put a finger to his mouth. This made the other two, who had almost arrived on time, straighten up. His one indication was enough to understand that the huge cave he was keeping a watchful eye on had some kind of secrets.
Aric descended softly, knowing the group would demand some answers.
"Sorry... I had to call you. I came here and saw a huge Eclipsian Hyena enter that cave. I didn’t see any other hyenas nearby, so I presume this is where the hyena is hiding or the previous ones were protecting..." Aric explained what he had seen as vividly as he could from the images he had received before.
This made the whole group of three alert.
"Lyria, get closer and then tell me the situation. Aric, you have done well, but now you need to step back," Elowen said. This time, it was easy to see that she took over the command. She also directed what needed to be done before they confronted what they thought was an Acolyte.
In normal situations, it would have been suicide, but they came with the mindset that they might have to face an Acolyte-grade Eclipsian Hyena. The Acolyte grades were pretty rare in this part of the city as the mana concentration was very poor.
Thus, before taking up the same mission again, they had taken every kind of precaution and all the required ammunition to take down an Acolyte-grade animal.
In fact, when they decided to take this mission, they had very little hope of encountering an Acolyte-grade Eclipsian Hyena because they were animals that roamed in groups. Having such an animal alone was like praying for rain in a desert. When they took down the hyenas before, they thought they had overestimated and over-calculated their experience.
But miraculously, it turned out the way they wanted it to. They even found the hyena inside a cave. They couldn’t ask for a better ambush position than this. Hearing the command, Aric didn’t hesitate at all and decided to step back a few steps.