Clearing the path

Job Details:

Bone Bucks (x3):

It had already been a few days since Ani, Niu, and Liqin had started following the Little Stone tribe. Their movements had followed north of where they originally found them. At first, their movements started to take them west, but that was only to follow a river towards the grazing grounds they were at now. From their distance, Ani was able to figure out that their tribe was indeed under the control of one of the plains warlords, but was under the foot of an even larger tyrant. Ani had figured if she was able to take out the leader of this tribe and earn the respect of the people it would be an easier step towards taking out the bigger boss.  However, neither were her goal at the time as both paths were cut off at the moment.

While they were able to gather the info that they needed it wasn't long before their recon party had noticed that the land between them and where they wished to ambush was filled with dangerous wildlife. There were deer with bony plating that grew over their body, making them more durable and more lethal. While they could always just fly straight from their hiding spot in the forest Ani preferred to be able to get to the edge where she knew they'd be traveling by soon enough. However, even with these wild beasts, Ani preferred to have a plan rather than rushing into to clear out these animals in the off chance they gave away their position or something worse.

"Make sure to eat up, we're gonna need the energy today," Ani spoke as she moved a pan off the fire the sizzling of the eggs and boar belly snapping her men's attention more than her words were at the moment.

From his spot on a log across from Ani, the young Liqin had to stop himself from drooling over breakfast before he could respond properly. "Oh, uh sorry yeah I'll definitely get my fill."

Niu sighed to himself a bit as he took his own plate and his son's from the commander before he started his miniature lecture. "She's trying to make sure we're ready, are you, or is your brain stuck on food?"

"No, I'm just hungry we spent most of the day yesterday hunting for this boar after all." Liqun defended himself as he quickly started to scarf down the thin slices of pork belly that were laid out on his plate. "This is great commander! I didn't know you could cook so well."

As Ani was eating her own food she chuckled swallowing her food, It was one of the few times she had cooked since going blind, she mostly had to rely on her senses to smell when things were ready and she often had to expose her hands to test temperature. With her own food being her priority she had already eaten three of the six eggs she had made for herself before moving onto a thicker cut of pork belly. After eating a decent amount of food did she acknowledge her soldier's statement. "Well, I'm used to living like this, while I'm still not used to cooking blind and especially not alone, I do still know how to make tasty food with what I've got."

Niu had nothing much to say about the meal but nevertheless he enjoyed it as he took his time to savor the food. Once he was done he got another piece of leftover boar before moving to clean up after himself. His son had chosen to spend his after mealtime resting as Liqin had already thrown himself to his back to look at the sky leisurely. With plenty of time to go about their day, Ani wasn't bothered by either of their lack of informing her if they were ready to go.

Unsure of what they were actually doing at the moment Ani whistled before soon walking to the responding chirps she heard soon enough. Dragot was at the edge of the camp and upon seeing her blind tamer would walk up and nuzzle her face against hers. "Hey girl, you ready to go on a hunt?" Even before Ani had finished asking her beast was responding with pleased chirps.

It was a good enough answer for Ani as she would feel along her beast's saddle before grabbing ahold of the reins. However, instead of mounting her beast Ani had unbuckled a part of the rein before buckling it to a special attachment on her belt. Having leashed her beast to her it was more for her sake rather than the beasts as it would help her through the woods without them separating. Another main reason she was staying leashed rather than mounted was so she could take point, Ani was working on training herself to be able to build a mental map with her senses and she would practice by throwing herself into danger. Dragot would work as backup sight and help where it was needed such as artillery or medical support.

Once the three of them were ready and the wyverns were positioned behind them for support the group had turned their focus towards the denser part of the forest where they had last seen the clash of bucks. There was only three of them from the info they had gathered, but the three of them were strong enough to keep parts of the forest clear of predators as well as convince the nomads it was more trouble than it was worth to go after them. With this in mind they were going to take their time so they could attempt to catch them off guard.

"Alright you know the deal, I'm gonna try to find them first but if you are able to spot one before me let me know." Ani readied her lance by her side as she made sure her hair was pulled away from her ears and her nose was clear. With a deep breath, Ani gave the signal to advance with a soft bird whistle.

It seemed like they were marching for hours as they combed their way through the forest looking for signs of Bone Bucks. However, it hadn't actually been more than one hour as Ani had just made time feel longer as she took small steps and feeling out where she went. Not only was her careful movement dragging time out, but she had been panning her head while taking deep breaths to try and pick up whatever she could with her ears or nose.

When it seemed like that not only was their blind commander not going to find any Bone Bucks but neither were suddenly Ani had heard a faint scraping noise. Turning her head in the direction of the noise and following it Dragot was also soon to follow afterward. As she got closer Ani had slowly become sure that it was indeed the sounds of bucks fighting. When she was close enough she felt along until she found a good tree to hide behind. Hoping she was out of sight she soon waited for her men to be close enough to brief her on the situation.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Liqin had left his father's side to give a report to his commander. "There's two of them fighting, we aren't sure where the third is but if we take them out it'll be easier if we find the missing one."

With a soft nod, Ani had followed where her men had been telling her to go. With the sounds of the antler clashing closing then ever she couldn't wait to see if she would be able to figure out where they were correctly. Holding her lance close to her chest Ani let it fill with Magoi as suddenly a meteor formed around the tip of her weapon before she turned from behind the tree and thrust firing it off at one of the bone bucks. However, due to her lack of vision, it had missed the head or heart as the meteor crashed into its leg instead of a head breaking it off and sending shrapnel into the leg as it collapsed from the pain.

The second buck was about to charge Ani when it instead saw Niu rushing him with his blade at his side ready for a wide swing strike. The buck attacked before he could get close and stood up kicking his chest with his hooves. Taken aback by this sudden stomp Liqin had quickly moved in. Liqin cleaved the buck cutting it into two as he quickly raised his blade and brought it down with all his force.

"So where is the third one then?" Niu had asked with a slight gasp as he had begun to look around waiting for the last one to appear before them and cause just as much havoc as the last.

However, before any of them could answer Ani's ears twitched as she turned her body around towards what she heard.  With a deep breath, she could smell the musk of the buck's having gotten denser. Against the ground, she could feel the rumbling of heavy movement. Even if she wasn't right about it she felt herself moving in the direction ready for what was to come for her.   Wilding rushing out of the forest a bone buck went through a calcium rush as it charged towards the already wounded Niu. As if by instinct Ani jumped towards the direction her senses were telling her to. Flipping herself through the air Ani moved like a flying axe with her heel as the blade as she kept her leg straight out. Having guessed the right direction her heel crashed into the side of the buck as she quickly turned her body to slam her other foot into it to break its ribs and puncture its heart.

After a few moments, they had realized they had finished clearing out the bucks they had found and Ani even double-checked as she kept her ears peeled to see if she could hear more charging out. Once they were clear the slightly tired Niu finally spoke his mind. "Well, mission accomplished, let's get back to camp."

As they left Ani smiled to herself with a small laugh with her amusement to herself. All the while the wyverns behind them watched, wondering if there had truly been a point for them. However, this was soon removed from their minds when they were given the bucks to eat.

WC: 1,713/1,500

Magoi: 230/240
Stamina: 395/395

Combat Details: Liqin used cleave to kill one of the bone bucks, Ani killed one Bone Buck using the function of Ku, another Bone buck was killed with two basic kicks to the side.

Item's brought:

Beasts:

Glass Soldiers: