Supreme Hunter

Alex turned his back on the door and the professor behind it. 'I should have known something was fishy when Carl said there were not enough rooms.' As he thought this Alex began walking past the large compost heap in his courtyard.

Suddenly, the net sack on his left hip began to jostle back and forth. This was surprising enough that it pulled Alex's attention from the mistakes he had made today. As he looked down at the sack, a tiny light blue and silver nose poked out of the shiny blue and silver ball of scales. It sniffed around in the air for a moment. After another moment the small ball of scales' movements became even more pronounced.

"Quickly! Put me down." It was Eluril. Something had woken her.

Alex immediately removed the sack from his hip and placed it on the ground.

Eluril quickly unrolled and stood in front of the compost heap. She stood on two feet, her small claws were held in front of her c.h.e.s.t and she sniffed at the large pile of decomposing plant matter. Her wide and flat tail was longer than her body. It arched out behind her. The midday sun streamed into the courtyard and glistened off of her scales.

While Alex called them scales he was not actually sure what they were made of. Most animals had scales made of keratin, but these were most definitely some type of metal. But no metal that he knew of had this light blue color and silver like finish.

Eluril stood in front of the pile for a few more moments. She began walking around the pile, sniffing the ground as she went.

Alex was stunned, he had never seen Eluril act like this before. She would never waste any energy, so this must be very important. But he just couldn't understand what could be so worthwhile in that pile of garbage.

"Found you!" A giddy squeal erupted in Alex's mind. He quickly ran behind the pile to get a clear look at what was going on.

When he got to the other side he was stunned yet again. 'Eluril is digging?' He watched as her curved claws bit into the earth and pulled away piles.

It didn't take long before she had excavated a decent sized pit. Then, out of nowhere, she stopped digging and walked back out of the small pit. She stood on its rim and waited. For what Alex did not know, but he didn't want to bother her with pointless questions. He decided to simply wait and watch.

The main reason he decided on this course of action was in fact two fold. First, he knew better than anyone how tired Eluril always was, if something could wake her then it must be important. The second was her face right at this moment. She obviously didn't have a human face, but she was definitely smiling. Even her large sky blue eyes were smiling.

Eluril had been with Alex since he was born, and never before had he ever seen her smile like this. He could tell that whatever this was, it made her very happy. He did not want to ruin this moment for her.

After a few seconds Alex began to hear scratching sounds coming from the pit. Eluril must have heard them too. She was now hopping in place and rubbing her claws together in front of her c.h.e.s.t as she stared at the pit. The smile never left her face.

"Here they come!" As she said this a small puff of dust came up from the bottom of the pit. Followed by a mass of small brightly colored creatures. They were each the size of one of Alex's nails. They came in multiple colors, some yellows, some reds, even some blues and greens.

"Shit!" Alex said as he backed up from the pit. Of course he knew what these creatures were. They taught about them in class years ago. These were monsterified ants. No one knows what exactly causes monsterification, but it is known that it happens more regularly in areas with dense mana.

Ants like these could either end up being harmless in the best case, or voracious in the worst. Luckily these ants were still very small. They should be just below the Rank 1.

This was going to be a real pain to get rid of. It would take days or even weeks to complete, but it must be done. There is no way Alex could sleep safely with the possibility that a monster could pop up in his courtyard at any time.

He looked over at Eluril in confusion. "I know you are a Pangolin, but don't you think you are a little too happy to see ants?"

Eluril shot him a very stern glare as she practically hissed words into his mind. "Do I look like a dumb animal to you?" Her glare warning him to watch his mouth. "These ants have been feeding off of spirit herbs and mana enriched plants for years. While they are not yet monsters, they do have a large amount of energy contained inside their body." As she was saying this to Alex, her sticky tong was moving back and forth harvesting ants and bringing them back to her mouth.

Her tong was easily as long as her body, including tail. It continued harvesting ants for a few minutes. After which she asked Alex to push the dirt she had excavated back into the hole. She then used her tail to spread something over the top of the freshly upturned earth. Alex didn't know what it was or where she got it from, but no more ants came out of the soil. It was almost like the whole event had never happened.

With a large yawn Eluril stretched out her neck and back. That large smile still spread across her face. She slowly walked over to Alex. He was just about to bend over to pick her up when she began climbing his leg.

This surprised him more than anything else today. Eluril would normally curl back up into her ball after eating. This time however she climbed all the way up to his shoulder and nestled in just above his collar bone. After getting comfortable she wrapped her long tail around he left bicep and held on tightly as she fell back asleep.

Alex honestly didn't know how to feel about all of this. Part of him was very angry over this whole situation with Carl and Keller. Another, larger part, felt gratitude. Alex could not accurately express his love for this little creature. He would have given anything to make her as happy as he seen her today.

Alex decided not to dwell on the issue for now. Whether it was revenge or gratitude he would figure it out after sorting this place out and seeing the effects, if any that these ants would have on Eluril. He secretly hoped that her mention of the energy in the ants meant she would need less rest.

'Well, now that her meal is over, lets get me some food... and maybe a bed.'