The Huntsman's Arsenal [Training/Story]

It wasn’t so long since the huntsman had seen the end of the creature that had awaken from its long sleep, in the end there was no option but to slay it, maybe with luck the creature would be consumed by the Imuchakk after all it would be a shame for it to go to waste, though if not many of the wild creatures would surely pick at its corpse.

Tai would likely be fine, that Imuchakk was a tough bugger after all and wouldn’t die easily, it would be more than likely that a group of Imuchakk would investigate what statement was released by the Imuchakk female that used her body as a weapon and had been able to leave quicker than the huntsman, she was most likely cold blooded or at least believed informing was more important than recovering her battle-brother, though Vodarara still didn’t really even understand the Imuchakk, after all he was a man of the wilds and had more relation to the fauna and flora than that of humanoids.

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WC: 178

Ever since that event, the huntsman had also been afflicted by weird dreams, dreams that made no sense it was as if it was all a game but Vodarara could not understand it at all, he had battled a number of foes both humanoid and beast and had also ventured towards a building that made no sense in a frozen land, this world had changed much and become more confusing since the towers had begun rising across the world, the huntsman himself had fought inside one and observed the second one that had risen in these lands, the changes and damage they had caused was increasing with each one it seemed, the first had only caused massive storms and had made passage hard in the area around it.

The second caused a massive avalanche across the Ice Pack causing huge damage to the nests of beasts and the homes of the imuchakk, what would a third one bring what damage would it cause, they were unpredictable and it could occur at any time.

Finally the beast that awakened why did it what had caused it, why was fate so unexpectedly changing, these weird items that had begun occurring, the winter cloak he now wore with its control of the nature of light and the illusions it can cause in one’s eyes.

The crystal that he had set in a glove, that could cause crystal to be generated at the expense of energy as if it could forge such an ancient thing in a matter of moments.

Finally, the necklace he had discovered near the beasts nest, an item able to forge a weapon from ice at the will and energy of the user, why did these things come into existence for what reason, the Huntsman didn’t wish to carry such objects but he had since been forced to observe such powers, there was security in items like these though Vodarara hated the idea of using such a thing, it wasn’t your own power but something else after all.

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WC: 338

178+338

The huntsman had collected one piece of salvage from that cavern after all he had no plans to return, he didn’t often have much contact with people and he hoped that the female had at least decided not to mention a human’s involvement after all, though he wouldn’t doubt a good tracker could notice there was another humanoid their involved in addition to the types of wounds the creature had suffered, though he was sure that such damage could be mistaken to have been caused by any other user of a bow or ranged projectile.

The huntsman rather liked his isolation though it was a rather lonely existence at times, it was a life choice to be one with the wilds as he was, though he had no one to take up such a post once he died, he now had a companion in his wolf rabbit pup that for at least its life span would be by his side if it decided never to wander away.

The huntsman looked at his salvaged item, though he was sure some of the Imuchakk would refer to it as a trophy of a kill the huntsman had other ideas, he was going to make use of it for his equipment, the creatures that were faced in those caverns had hard scales and tough claws after all and he hoped he could make use of them even just slightly to improve what he had to increase his survivability and, thusly the time he could spend living as one with the wilderness.

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WC: 258

The huntsman would begin working the salvaged claw, he had retrieved, the first stages was to clean out the flesh and remove it from the creatures bone and hide to prevent it from starting to rot, though the huntsman didn’t tend to tan skins, this was different unlike the wolf hide that he wore around, this was scaled, tanning of leather tended to mean removing all the fur or half the fur, this obviously proved to be different when dealing with a creature that had scales rather than fur.

The hide would first be salted though with the cold temperature, the decay rate was already quite reduced, salting would remove moisture.

With most of the meat removed from the bones and hide salted, the huntsman made a mixture up from tannin, this was to be used to tan the hide itself to help preserve it and prevent it from decaying as quickly, though the cold of Imuchakk also assisted in that, this had caused the huntsman to avoid staying in close local to the earth heated water flow he had found in the mountains, as it increased the decay rate of his equipment.

It would be a number of days before he removed the hide and bone from the chemical mixture as he did the final cleaning removing any remaining fleshy membrane from the hide, before it would be again introduced to the tannin.

The process would take at the quickest a month or two but even the huntsman couldn't be sure exactly how long it would take it was not a creature he had tanned before.

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WC: 269

Once the animals arm had been cured and tanned, the next part would be to make proper use of it, with its shape and size, the huntsman had the focus of turning it into a arm and hand guard.

It would cover from his elbow to his hand, though it would have been ideal to cover the whole arm, the huntsman believed it would cause restricted movement due to the shape of the creatures body further deforming, which corrections would be hard and time intensive to do, to make the arm into an effective armguard and clawed weapon.

To help with the maintaining of warmth in the harsh climate the Huntsman worked on having enough area to wear the gauntlet over his current clothing and equipment, inside the creatures skin itself however he would line it with fur this was to aid with the containing of warmth, though the hand and claw itself was not as thickly covered, after all the huntsman needed some ability of movement in his fingers to grasp his bow as well as feeling if he was to be manipulating any object.

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WC: 186

The huntsman had to consider that at some points that he couldn’t always fight with a bow it was why he had crafted himself from his salvaged assets from the gifts, his prey had left behind, such as the claw that would help protect him and act as a melee weapon, much like the claws of a wolf to rend and shred the flesh of another creature, to his blade that he tended to drip in poisons to increase its effectiveness, it wasn’t always that you wanted to kill an opponent but it a battle of life and death, it wasn’t always simple to land an instantly killing blow or a blow that would put the target out of the fight, so fighting with the use of toxins to restrict the predator or prey’s tactics allowed him to avoid as much damage as possible.

After all each wound can cause you issues in the long run, the time to heal, the extra energy you exert when your body is healing and the increased level of scent you leave behind, creatures smell weakness in anything that shows even subtle signs and that is what scavengers like himself take advantage of, after all less harm will come to you from another that can barely fight to protect themselves, that was the land of beasts.

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WC: 222

1451/2000

The final creation that he had to work on would be another sneaky weapon, though as per say it couldn’t really be called a weapon, it was just making use of the other equipment he used, the equipment he used to climb the ice steps like his crampons and ice picks all the way to the many knives and hand axes that he carried for skinning, carving of meat to the collection of branches, twigs and stone, flints and teeth that he used to make his arrow heads.

Everything in the end had many uses to a wilder of the wilderness like himself and a true one made use of every use an item had, if it could keep you alive and catch your enemy by surprise it was of use, it was a similar idea to the bomblets that Vodarara used, something that was small and might not catch the eye in till it was too late.

These could thusly fit the role of being addition ranged weaponry though they would only be able to have a slight effectiveness at close to medium ranges, when you might be able to lose them off at an enemy before they get the chance to think and react to what is happening.

The huntsman would spend his time sharpening his tools further or making slight adjustments to raise their possibility at being combat effective, though he had to take care to avoid increasing their weight to much, ideally Vodarara preferred to travel light after all the more weight you carry the quicker your stamina drained through moving over harsher terrain through the snows of Imuchakk, to survive you had to be strategic and not become too greedy, exploit the openings but don’t take things for granted.

The survive you had to become Beast, To live you had to be Beast, though it was likely that a being such as himself had already left humanity behind.

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WC: 323

1774/2000

Vodarara had other journeys and paths, he had yet to travel, though he didn’t truly serve anyone but the wilderness, he had found himself pulled into the society of those whom were adapted to this land, the towering Imuchakk, he however did not hold any ill will towards them, rather he found them to be more like a family, though he did not indulge in such a thing, it was interesting enough to observe there society, he had sacrificed himself to isolation long ago, in pursuit of embracing the wilds but he was somewhat glad that the people of this land did not see wealth as that of those of the other lands, the Imuchakk had lives that revolved around them as a people.

It was a true balance after all, it was interesting to trade with them, the materials the huntsman had salvaged would always be put to use by someone, it would not sit and gather dust, it was a good and worthy cycle, what the Earth Mother gave, would be used and then would one day return in its cycle.

The energy and strength that flowed through these people was magnificent as well, they cared for their land and territory and they had a great respect for beasts and took many of the ones close to their strength as equal foes.

It had been a while since the Huntsman had dealt with any business with their chieftain, though he had last time cut open her tent to be able to leave a message behind, though he did repair it he did suspect he would have something coming for that eventually.

With the dragon’s rising at an end it had returned to lands to its balance, where Natives and Beasts lived in a form of balance, it was maybe a time for the huntsman to accept some new fates…

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WC: 311

2085/2000

The huntsman would continue his training in a manner of mixing both training by putting both his reactions and his stamina to its limits, he continued through night and day, training with his now growing rabbit wolf it was no longer really a pup like it used to be but It did make a good companion to train with.

Vodarara could say that he was running with beasts, making use of his balance, reactions, stamina and speed to navigate through the undergrowth, as he did so day by day he began working on improving his abilities of using his new equipment to complete what would be his daily duties in the environment that helped him maintain his survival, using his throwing weaponry to make attempts at cleaving pods of tree nuts to cause them to fall, so he could collect them on his run.

After all one could not prepare themselves if they could not still complete their general duties.

Though the Huntsman couldn't exactly train on animals at least not in the lethal sense, in addition it was impossible to practice or train with animals, after all those of the wilds could easily kill you if you let down your guard, this land and world was the world where your traits mattered and if you were to weak, the world would consume you once again.

The snow swept lands of Imuchakk, with its mountains, forests, caves and seas, all landscapes that Vodarara had made his home, since before he could even remember in truth. Though he had no family other than the now quite grown rabbit wolf in this land, he had never been one to socialise.

The rabbit wolf was starting to become adolescent and like any creature in this land, had to learn to hunt, to survive, as such the huntsman had begun what could be said to be play fighting with the animal.

Though she had always like any young animal had attempted to play fight, as an adult creature that huntsman had only played softly but now as the rabbit wolf's size had increased that wasn't exactly possible anymore, such encounters had become rather serious though it didn't become lethal.

But as the huntsman had taken the animal from its home, it was only his duty as a warden of the wilds to teach the unique animal, what its blood parents would have.

Though Vodarara was no wolf, he would wrestle the best he could against the creature but after all with the size, she had now reached her body mass was significant with his lower body mass, the huntsman had to use his attributes of agility to avoid being pinned by the animal, after all he couldn't exactly stab her like he would do, such as in the situation as many of the young pups pack members had met their end.

The huntsman made use of his gauntlet after its construction to aid him with the days and weeks of "play" that he had with the animal, using it to aid with the protection from the blows from the creatures claws and body mass, though the rabbit wolf didn't bite down completely her jaws still had significant strength.

This creature after all had become like family, it made a good body warmer at night with its fur, when the need to conserve body heat was at its highest as well as allowing for more precise hunting.

Vodarara would observe the creatures hunts, his fighting style was beast like in its self as he developed his lupine like methods of attacks, it was something he could observe and copy making use of his equipment to act as if they were claws to penetrate flesh.

Vodarara had to build his speed to make hunts though it was only the smaller animalia of the land, he worked himself to strike with more precise strikes even his knives, though he could be precise with arrows, landing precise blows to vital points to avoid ruining the hides of animals was important.

A good method of hunting, the huntsman had found was hunting the wild fowl of the ice packs, waiting silently in wait for the occasional bird to get separated from the group and with swift offensive eliminating the weaker creature, after all one had to eat and this at least allowed him to feed himself while not making meaningless kills.

The time had come for Vodarara to pursue another end however, he would doubt without physically training and battling something far more intelligent that fowl, he wouldn't be able to grow such tactics any further.

The winds were changing, the huntsman had much on his mind in of its self, there were some lose ends he had to tie, it was fate after all...