Supreme Hunter

They had been walking through the woods for at least an hour.

None of them spoke. Not even a word.

They crashed and stomped through the forest. Alex snapped so many twigs, it was almost like he was doing it on purpose. Eveline didn't even bother to lift her feet most of the time. A trail of scuff marks in the dirt followed behind her every step. Tom and Red were even worse. They went out of their way to kick rocks and snap branches.

Even a blind man could follow their trail.

They knew better. They had been trained by Sendra. Not to mention all of the knowledge that Alex had gained over the years.

But they didn't care. They needed an outlet. They needed to process all of this shame, anger and fear, but they didn't know how. It was still too fresh.

"You know you could have killed them right?" The question stopped Alex in his tracks.

Slowly his head turned to the large pangolin that sat on his shoulder, staring into his eyes with a questioning gaze.

There was no blame in her gaze, just an honest need to understand.

"What do you mean?" His voice rang out, shattering the pregnant silence. There was a hint of anger in his voice, but it remained under control.

"You had them terrified. If you would have started attacking, they would have ran. Then you could have killed them all." She was sure she was right. After all, she saw the way the lackeys had looked at him.

Alex's gaze intensified. "You are wrong." The others were listening to him speak with interest. But they couldn't fully understand. Since they could only hear half of the conversation.

"I could have killed Kevin." As he admitted this, a look of disgust and rejection flashed in his eyes for a moment.

"But what then? Can you be sure I could kill them all, leaving no evidence? Even so, someone told them where we were and what we were up to. That person would know, or at least have an idea. Can you be sure that Mason or anyone else would not come for us?" Alex asked, his volume raising higher and higher.

"You are just scared! You just want to keep your hands clean! Do you honestly think that you can grow in this world without blood on your hands!" Eluril yelled back in his mind.

Alex slowly nodded.

"You are right. I don't want to kill. I revile the thought." His voice was now emotionless and hollow.

"You are also right about living in this world. One day, I may be forced to kill a human." His voice now carried a sorrowful resignation.

"But it will not be over a simple book! And it will not be to sooth my wounded pride, or at the expense of my friends safety! Can you be sure that none of the others would be hurt in the resulting chaos?" His voice was now raw with emotion. Anger, sorrow, resignation, disdain, hate, and fear all swirling together creating an emotion with no name.

"I know! Okay! I know!" Tears slowly fell from her eyes. "I just can't stand the thought that they would threaten you! I want them to pay!" This shout of frustration was as much for Alex as it was for her self.

Alex reached out and grabbed Eluril off of his shoulder.

He hugged her close and comforted her as she cried.

"What are you saying Alex?" Alex turned to look at his friends. Each held their hands clasped at their sides. Knuckles white and arms shaking in anger. It was Tom who had spoken just then.

"Are you telling me that you think you could take them all? All by your self?" Tom asked. He was clenching his teeth so hard, blood leaked from his gums. "Not just that. NO. Not just that. You also say that you didn't out of fear for us?" Tom took two steps up to Alex.

Tom swung a vicious haymaker, it slammed into the left side of Alex's jaw.

"F.u.c.k! What the hell is your skull made of?" Tom held his now red and swelling fist.

Red and Eveline were just as angry, but they had no idea what to do in this situation.

Tom knelt down and held his right wrist. "Don't you ever treat me like that again. Ever!" Tom hissed through his clenched teeth, as he looked up at Alex's stunned face.

"I get it you don't want to put us through needless danger. But are you so, god damn, thick headed that you can't understand how I feel?" Tom spoke barely above a whisper. "I am not some god damned baby that you need to protect. I am not your kid. I, sure as hell, am not your lover. So don't you ever use my safety as your excuse."

Tom stood back up, his pride would not let him do anything else. Next to him stood both Red and Eveline. The three stood in angry silence together as they looked at Alex.

After a moment Alex nodded his understanding to his friends.

"I got it guys." A self deprecating grin hung on Alex's face.

"Good." Eveline responded. "Now I have another question. What in the hell was that pressure I felt?"

Another pregnant silence descended over them.

It seemed to go on and on for minutes.

Just as Red wanted to say something to give Alex a way out of explaining, Alex responded.

"That... Will be a long discussion." Alex admitted.

"Well" Eveline said, looking around them into the empty woods. "Looks like we have time. Since you guys yelling has alerted every animal nearby to our presence."

So, Alex took a few minutes to explain what he knew. Which was not much.

He described the feeling, how he progressed, how it was different from mana, how it effected his enchanting, he told them everything. They were stunned.

"Wait... You mean to tell me, that we can train just like our spirit companions? Only we do it by distorting mana to suit our bodies?" Red asked, more than a little confused.

"It is not distorting. It is more like stealing, if I am honest." Alex was being coached by Eluril, he really didn't understand the difference completely yet.

"What do you mean stealing? From who?" Eveline asked. Her eyes were shining with d.e.s.i.r.e ever since she heard about how qi effected enchantments.

"Well, mana naturally circulates through the universe. By cultivating, you take energy from your surroundings and change it until it matches you perfectly. Honestly, it happens automatically." Alex was having a hard time finding the words.

"Anyway, once you make it yours, it wont be apart of the natural system anymore. Even after you use it and it leaves your body. Eluril says that it could take thousands of years for qi to convert back into natural mana again, and return to the natural cycle. If it ever does."

"So, can we learn how to cultivate too?" Red asked, a slight hope crept into his voice.

Alex once again looked to Eluril. "They can, and they can't" She said.

"They can technically cultivate. But their spirit contracted animal doesn't have a natural method of cultivation. As such, Penny, Sylph, and Teresa can not." Alex relayed her words verbatim this time.

"Why would Sylph affect my ability to cultivate?" Tom asked Eluril.

"She says that the contract takes mana from Sylph and sends it into you, through your soul. This will pollute your cultivation and limit your path." Alex's robotic tone made it clear he was repeating Eluril's words. "Basically, I think she means you can cultivate similar to me, but you will have a limit to how high of a level you can reach."

"Who gives a damn about that? This would allow us to get stronger now, rather than wait to rank up." Tom was nearly hopping at this point.

"There is one other problem. I told you what happened to me, and how I have cultivated up to this point, but I have no idea what I am doing. You could end up doing something completely different then me and we would have no idea what the consequences would be." Alex was being honest. Even Eluril could only guess at how humans cultivated.

Tom looked back at the others, who nodded in agreement. "Help us to cultivate. Better to have eight minds on a problem than just two."

Alex looked up into the sky and took a deep breath. "Fine... We will help you guys. But first he need to get one more hide."