Chapter 46: Packing Up

It has been a few days since the heart to heart he had with his father, and Van was jumping branch to branch scouting the area for something to hunt. He was told by his father, as a part of his training, to find something, animal or monster and bring it back as proof that he can hunt for himself.

Using his aura to enhance his body and mind, he kept an eye open for anything that might grab his attention. But as high up as he was, the forest and the trees were so large that there were still several layers above him. With breaks in the canopy allowing light through being a rarity. Like the camp, he and his father were staying at.

Thankfully, the glowing forest, his vampire-like eyes, and his aura enhancing his eyesight, still allowed him to find his way around the forest without a problem. Yet… he still could not find anything to hunt. He thought about asking Lyn for some help, she seemed to always know what was going on around them. But decided against it, feeling that he should learn for himself how to find things.

Pausing on one of the branches, he sat down, deciding to take a different approach to search for prey. Going crossed-legged, he closed his eyes while still trying to sense his surroundings for danger and focused on expanding that feeling outward in the hopes of finding another living organism.

It was within a literal few seconds of doing such an action that he had to jump away as a part of the trunk of the tree that he was using the branch of, suddenly moved straight at him in a powerful strike straight at his head.

Jumping to the other end of the branch, heart beating quickly, eyes wide. Van tried to comprehend what was trying to attack. Forcing his aura to spike and flow through his body, he enhanced his eyes and mind and felt time slow as he got a better look at the thing that almost offed him.

It was a snake, a snake made completely out of bark, in fact, even seeing it for what it was, it was hard to differentiate it from the branch that it was lying on. It did not hiss in annoyance at not being able to get him on the first try, instead, it moved about the branch in a strange pattern that also made it look like it wasn’t moving. So well camouflaged was it with the branch, that even staring right at it was difficult to know what it was going to do next.

Realizing that just standing around and staring at it will make him lose the initiative, he pulled out his sword. A type of saber that was given to him by his father since they arrived in the forest, and the weapon Van was most proficient in, and prepared his battle stance, keeping his body low and ready to move at a moment's notice.

No sooner had he pulled the sword out than the snake attacked again. Literally striking his saber the second he pulled it out and set his stance. Almost instinctively Van knew not to take the attack and instead used his blade and angled the strike as he slid away to the side.

The snake was far larger than he first realized. Its head was larger than his own. Its power made Van’s arm feel a little numb, though not by much, he could still strike with it if he wanted to. But the blow did make him realize that even if he put everything into his next move, it still probably wouldn’t be enough to do any real damage to the snake. It didn't just look like it was made of bark, its scales were like literal segments of hard bark. He could probably cut it, but not deeply enough to do any real harm to the snake.

So instead of taking it head-on, jumped back a little to create space and lifted his left hand to conjure a fireball. He was a little hesitant to use fire magic in a forest, but he trusted he had enough skill in his magic to not accidentally burn anything he didn’t want to.

With a sudden strike to where he last saw the snake’s head. The fireball exploded into a conflagration of flames around the general area where it landed. Bathing the place, and hopefully the snake, with fire.

This time the snake hissed in both pain and anger. But contrary to his belief, it did not move whatsoever. After the fires died down a few seconds later, it still did not move. Suspicious he fired another fireball. And not only did it not move, it did not make a sound.

Confused, Van stared at the slightly burnt chunk of the branch where the upper half of the snake was for several hard minutes. Wondering if it was truly that easy or if he just got lucky.

“I can’t be that easy… can it? That things scales were as hard if not harder than bark. I felt it when it clashed with my sword and I slid the blade from its mouth to across a part of its torso when I deflected it. A measly fireball was enough to do in such a powerful beast? Or am I just that strong?” Van relaxed a little, putting some of his mana in his eyes to check and see if the snake had any mana left of its own. His ability to check mana had a short-range, but he should be close enough to the snake to see if it had any. The reason why he didn’t do it before to check his surroundings was because it took some time and concentration for him. He still had to train a little more with it to become proficient.

As his mana sight extended and brought the snake's corpse into range. He had to limbo backward as a flurry of wood-like spikes shot right where his head and torso were a split second before. Rolling with it, he did a backward flip… and ended up in the air. Freaking out he did a series of little jumps on some branches to get back up on the main branch he was before.

The second he was back on the branch, the snake attacked ferociously. Wide-eyed and in panic, Van had to dance around the edges of the branch while blocking every attack with his sword. His aura enhancing his speed and eyesight enough to keep up with the snake's speed and help him determine where the next strike will land, allowing him to block it.

Now getting a little angry through all that panic he was feeling, Van decided to hold his ground and lean forward with a foot placed back. Waiting for the perfect time when the snake attacked in the right angle. A few more blows and the opening revealed itself. Using everything he had he thrust upward and into the snake's mouth, aiming for where its brain would be, using up most of his aura in the process. But it was finished, using the rest of mana, he sent a wave of fire mana up his blade to explode at the tip, which was firmly lodged into the snakehead.

With a surprising CRACK! A puff of smoke rushed out of the head of the snake and Van felt the mana of the snake slowly flow out of its body. Slowly taking his blade out, he was surprised to see that its head was still mostly intact, but it was definitely dead.

With a sigh of relief, he fell to the ground to catch his breath. “That… Was Some Fucking Bullshit Right There! I can’t believe I almost died to you!” he thought, glaring at the corpse of the snake. This reminded him, painfully so, that just because he couldn’t find them, didn’t mean they couldn’t find him.

Taking a quick breather, he pulled out his vespera bangle and had it suck out the remaining mana and essence. With that done he willed the corpse of the snake into his soul realm and got up to leave. “At least I’m finished with my hunt. Can’t wait to get back to camp and relax.”

Using what little of his aura he had left, Van started the long trek back to camp. The thoughts of a nice comfy bedroll and some hot stew to help soothe his tired mind and body egging him forward.

An hour later he was back at camp and plopped himself down, tired from expending all that energy to get back.

“Someone looks tired. How did your hunt go? Find anything?” Alv asked, a little amused by how tired his son was. Thinking he probably just ran around until he tired himself out.

A little annoyed because he felt like he had an idea of what his father was thinking, he summoned the corpse of the snake and dropped it down between them. Taking some joy in watching his father’s eyes go wide.

“This… this is a barkskin snake. These are very dangerous…” whatever amusement he had quickly vanished and was replaced with worry. “Are you okay! Were you bit! What happened!” These and more questions were bombarded onto Van, who was now a little annoyed again by his fussing father and how he was now hovering all over him.

“I’m fine,” Van said tiredly. And then began to explain what happened and how he fought the snake and survived. His father listened with rapt attention to every detail. When he was finished, it was his father’s turn to sigh.

“That snake was no joke, they are very rare, but also very dangerous. They can hide themselves so well, that even some veterans will have a hard time finding them. Not to mention their ability to play dead and their cunning nature, on top of their very hard skin. In fact, they have two layers of scale, an inner one, and an outer one. The outer one being very hard, with the inner one being soft but a little spongy. Because of this combination, blows and cuts have a very hard time going deep. It was smart of you to try to burn it, but you probably weren’t powerful enough to do any lasting damage anyway with such attacks. As much as I hate to say it, taking the risk you did was probably the smartest idea.” Alv said, concern still on his face.

“I thought I had already taken care of all the dangerous beasts around here… I didn’t think you would go so far from camp to hunt…” Alv lamented.

“Taken care of all the beasts?” Van asked.

Alv nodded. “I have some good control over my aura, just flare it up a bit with some will and intention, letting your killing intent be known, and most animals and beasts will flee from your area. It's normal to do so if you can since most adventuring parties don’t want to have to deal with small fries constantly bothering them. Though I thought I made sure to only project it to scare the bigger threats, I didn't mean to scare all the smaller ones…” Alv said, now also a little confused as to why there were so few normal animals and beasts around.

Then as if a light bulb lit up in his head. “It could be because we are a few hours away from a blood thorn… most weak creatures would keep a wide berth of such a place, on top of that we did kill a death wolf near here as well… the smell of a death wolf, especially one that has died, would linger in the air and scare many weak creatures as well. Perhaps these two in combination, plus an unknown threat that scared off the bigger and more dangerous creatures,” pointing at himself. “clued the normal ones that they should stay away?”

Now looking a little sheepish. “Sorry… I meant to keep the weaker beasts around for you to train on…”

Van sighed. “It's not your fault, you couldn’t have known that all this would happen. And if anything, I learned a lot from this. And a lot more to learn.”

Alv nodded. “As much as I hate to say this, you were very lucky to get off as easy as you did. I’ll be upping your training. Expect sore muscles tomorrow.” he finished with a small grin.

Van groaned. “Seriously? I just had a life and death battle!”

“Which is why I’m doing it. I know you understand…” Alv said, continuing with his smile.

“Can it at least wait tomorrow?” Van asked, pleading a little.

Alv nodded. “Sure… I’ll even put some extra effort in tonight's stew, so eat well for tomorrow. You're going to need it.”

With that, Van just laid there until dinner time, catching his breath, and quietly gathering back his mana and aura reserves. Eating his father's stew, which was always surprisingly good, he went to sleep and rested till morning.

The next day his father was even more serious than usual about training him on how to use his aura, and more importantly, how to use his mana sight so that he can see the mana signatures around him.

“Mana sight is all well and good. But don’t forget to practice your aura sight as well. Mana sight helps you detect things with mana, but aura sight lets you detect things not only with aura but things that have large amounts of lifeforce as well.” Alv said as he was teaching Van how to properly circulate mana and aura into his eyes.

“Once you have mastered mana and aura sight, you can start on learning mana and aura sense, the ability to sense things around you using only aura and mana, without your eyes, or your other five senses. Thought that is a long way away.”

Then as if thinking of something. “We only have a few days left until we have to go home. And I already extended our trip a little longer than I wanted to. So let's make sure that we at the very least make sure that you have the ability to trust your instincts when danger is nearby and how to spot it whenever it's around. Having a good sense of what's dangerous or not, or for that matter, having the ability to sense danger, will go a long way in protecting you in the future.” Alv finished.

Afterward, Alv trained Van for the next few days, which Van was a little unhappy about since he actually wanted to explore the forest a little more. But not wanting to slack off either and prove that he can take care of himself so that he one day comes back to this forest and explore at his leisure, he took to his father's lessons and teachings with great determination.

By the time they were done, Van really felt like he needed a vacation. His father worked him to the bone, making sure he had the basics down and that his body would memorize them thoroughly.

It was while he was packing his things to leave, that a small swarm of buzzing caught his attention and he looked up to find Lyn was coming, followed by a small swarm of insects making his face blanched.

Ants, bees, butterflies, zappers, and even a few wind and flower fairies were following behind Lyn like some sort of army or regal procession. Lyn herself looked slightly bigger, carrying the makeshift spear he made for her a few weeks prior like a scepter. It had changed a bit, with added parts and a different design, more like a halberd now. She looked slightly more mature as well, with a self-important attitude, a wind fairy following her in her wake.

With a wave of her tiny hands, the large gathering of insects stopped in place and waited for her orders. Another small wind fairy then flew up to Van, puffing up its chest with a great amount of self-importance and in a tiny and cutesy voice said. “The great and powerful queen of lightning, the light of the moths, the honey of the bees, the high queen of the ants, matriarch of the blessed chosen and the ruler of the dewdrop river to the shiny leaf tree, breaker of termites and skewer of spiders and bane of wasps. Has come to greet her master!”

Lyn nodded sagely once the fairy finished and left to take her place beside the other fairies. Moving up herself and hovered in front of Van and addressed him.

“Master! I have come with a great host! In your name, we will rule this forest! Please give us your blessing, so we may take and break the last of the termite kingdoms, and drive out the threat of the wasp horde forever! We will bring a new age of peace to our lands, and prosperity for all. For the glory of Shiny Leaf! She then raised her spear and a small roar of insects buzzing and hissing with the screams of the little fairies almost blew Van away with how noisy it was.

Van was silent for a long time, not knowing what to say to all that. Mostly just staring slack-jawed until he snapped himself out of it.“Uhhh… we… are… actually leaving today…” he said, a little scared and worried about how the host of insects will react.

Dead Silence then took the insect army as Lyn and the others stared at him, then all of a sudden they and the insect horde pulled together into a large round circle with Lyn and her… advisors? Whispering together. After a few minutes, they came back.

Trying to make herself look as impressive and as regale as possible, Lyn addressed Van “Agreed! That is very true! We will all go! To the promised land! The promised land that I have promised to all my followers! That promised land! Army! March!” she then pointed forward straight at Van.

Van paled a little until he realized what she wanted him to do, so very reluctantly, he started to absorb the insects flowing towards him into his soul realm. His soul realm being more than large enough to handle a few hundred… check that… a few thousands insects…

After that was done, Lyn sent the fairies off to gather the rest of their respective queendoms and hives. What was supposed to take Van and Alv just another half hour of packing, now took them most of the day as they waited for the tens of thousands of insects to enter Van’s soul realm and make it their home. Bringing with them food, plants, rare herbs, seeds, animals, such as rabbits, foxes, deer and so much more. And after all that was done, Lyn then gave something to one of her fairy followers and pronounced her queen of the forest, to take care of whatever was left.

Once done and all the insects were gone, or at least inside him, Van turned to glare at Lyn. “when we get home… We are going to have a long… Long… talk…”

Palling a little she giggled nervously not looking him in the eye, gave a quick kiss on his check, and went inside his soul realm to help settle all the insects and fairies in.

“Well…I can certainly say… I have never seen that before…” Alv said

Van sighed and nodded. After making sure they had everything the two of them left towards home.