Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Beefcake? What does this name mean in your world?" Beefcake asked.

"It's a name that showcases your strength and martial prowess, along with your immense size." Drew answered.

"I see, I find this name acceptable. Am I to understand that you agree to the terms of the proposed contract?"

"Yes, with two minor stipulations. You neither harm, or knowingly allow to come to harm, myself, the members of my family, and my friends living here, and my mother also has access to all the Earth entertainment your race is pirating."

"I believe those are both acceptable. I will return to my superiors and inform them of this outcome, I expect that I shall return with a data extraction team shortly."

"Great. Now, I think we should all get some rest, because we're going to need to hunt tomorrow morning and get some levels." Drew said.

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Beefcake returned through the summoning portal and quickly arrived back confirming that his superiors had accepted the stipulations to the counter-proposal. What quickly followed was four short demons wearing glasses that followed Drew around like flies chasing shit. He taught the little critters to use the PC, how to search for entertainment, the powers of google and all the wonders of humanity. What he definitely didn't do was lead them down the rabbit hole of the dark web. No, definitely not. That would have been a horrible idea.

After setting the little critters up with the power of the interwebs, Drew organized the supplies for the planned hunt early in the morning. He was planning to have two hunting teams. Drew would be going with Mark as backup, and everyone else would be going together as a large group. The reasoning was simple. He wanted to work with Mark to get his first couple of levels, and then let Mark practice his melee skills. It'd been a while since he last spent alone time with his friend, and a hunting trip seemed like a fun time.

As for the other group, Drew believed it would be beneficial for them to learn how to work together as a team. Despite the fact that everyone would be using firearms at first, well everyone except Miranda and his mom. Miranda could smoke any critters with her smite spell, and Beefcake was more than capable of keeping the group safe. Freya would also be joining Amber, but she'd have to make some kills herself the old fashioned way, as she didn't have opposable thumbs for firearms. Freya would be stuck earning her own experience as she wasn't considered a pet, whereas both Drew and his mom would share experience from any kills their minions made.

He laid out several rifles for the large group, and two for his group, along with ammo, magazines, and backup sidearms. Ear protection was also set in each grouping. Luckily, everyone had ended up choosing races with some form of dark vision so lighting wasn't necessary, but he did include two-way radios to be split between the groups for communication in case of an emergency. Would an emergency actually happen? No, definitely not. But it was still good to be prepared just in case.

With everything finished, and Drew's sweet new camo clothes lined up, it was time to hit the sack and get some rest before they were up bright and early before sunrise. He didn't need as much rest anymore, but the rest of them still did until they had some levels under their belts.

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Everyone was up and moving at 3:00a.m. and heading in opposite directions on the property. There were several forested areas nearby, and there was a good chance of finding deer and hogs around this time of day. Coyotes could still be around, but they'd likely be returning to where they slept during the day. Amber had gone hunting with Drew several times, so he felt confident having her lead the other group while he and Mark went their own way.

Drew had his minion follow them as they reached the first part of the forested area they were heading to. Mark had been hunting only one time, and hadn't managed to bag a kill yet, so the goal today was to help him achieve that. What followed was several hours of frustration as Drew had yet to find anything of value. Or anything at all really. That happened in hunting sometimes, you didn't always bag an animal. The sun was starting to rise as the guys broke through the woods they'd been walking through to find themselves staring at some incredibly bad news.

He had frozen his momentum, and held his arm out to the side to prevent Mark from making any further noise. Directly in front of them stood a large herd of wild boar. They hadn't noticed him yet, but there wasn't a lot of time. When hogs were involved, you did not want to be on the ground if given the choice. He turned his head to make eye contact with his friend, only to see his blood drain from his face. Good. He clearly understood the severity of the situation and was taking it seriously.

Drew didn't hesitate, he pulled his semi-automatic ar-15 chambered in 300 black out from his spatial inventory. He really didn't want to have to rely on using corruption against animals, but this was a pretty dangerous situation. He'd refrain himself unless they turned aggressive. He saw Mark remove his rifle as well, and they began to line up shots as they crouched down to increase the stability and accuracy of their rifles.

His minion stood off to his side, and Drew was prepared to unleash it as soon as the first shots were fired. The herd itself consisted of eight extremely large adults, twelve young adults, and around twenty piglets. He wasn't going to take any chances. He planned on dumping as many rounds down field as possible, and he'd previously warned his friend to do the same should a situation like this happen.

He held up his right hand, 3 fingers shown on it, and slowly retracted each one until they were rolled in his fist. The shots rang out, mostly Mark's, as Drew was using a suppressed firearm, but his still put out a good whine, and a loud crack. He was using supersonic rounds for the pigs, as he didn't have enough suppressors to hand out. Supersonic had much more energy, and in this situation, damage was king over stealth.

Drew sent his minion into the chaos as panicked squeals reverberated in the clearing. The first shots dropped 2 of the large adults, but the guys were continuing to put lead down range.

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

Brass was flying from both rifle's ejection ports. The hogs finally realized they were under attack, and unluckily for the guys, the hogs reacted aggressively as they began to charge. Drew's minion plowed into a young adult and started to rip and tear at it's throat, attempting to pull it down. Unfortunately, the minion just didn't weight enough, nor was it strong enough to pull the boar to the ground. But the minion continued to harry the animals and kept it too panicked to join it's family in charging the guys.

Drew swore to himself. He really, really, didn't want to do this. But he wasn't going to risk either himself or Mark getting hurt. He began to cast corruption at the animals while continuing to squeeze out shots. Thankfully, corruption didn't require any movement, otherwise continuing to fire would prove difficult, if not impossible. Mark's bolt held open as he continued trying to fire, before realizing why he wasn't feeling any recoil. He quickly dropped the spent magazine, and went to retrieve another from his inventory.

Drew's was about to run out as well. He'd love to say every shot they'd fired had hit a frenzied animal, but that wasn't even close to the truth. It was not an ideal hunting situation, far from it. It was panicked firing from Mark, and while Drew had tried to put shot placement first, he'd also hoped the sounds of guns firing would finally spook the hogs into a retreat. That isn't what happened. The large adults leading the charge plowed right into the guys.

Mark got hit first, tumbling and rag-dolling over the top of the boar who'd hit him. Drew swore to himself as he saw another adult just feet from him. Drew quickly dodged to the side of the charged boar while continuing to cast corruption on the animals he'd missed. Some of the piglets had scattered from the main group and were making a break for the trees, but Drew finishing tagging them with his spell. The rest of the 'baby' eighty pound piglets followed their elders in charging right behind. Mark was attempting to hoist himself off the ground, when a swarm of the little bastards smashed into him.

A couple also managed to hit Drew, but he only saw his health bar dip a tiny bit. He had more stats now, and while the herd was still dangerous, the babies weren't too bad unless they trampled you. Which is exactly what they did to his friend. His minion pounced onto a piglet that had been stomping all over his friend, and tore into it's neck like a pit bull shredding a couch cushion. In the chaos, the squealing had stopped as the wild boars had found the outlet for their future aggression and charged, but now corruption began to take effect, and the sound of panicked and hurting animals quickly overpowered his senses.

Drew dropped his empty mag, and replaced it with one he'd pulled from his inventory. He slammed it home and reloaded the rifle. Mark was groaning several feet away, so Drew made his way towards him while continuing to fire on the remaining hogs. Only a couple of the young adults remained, as well as a few piglets that were rolling around on the ground squealing in pain. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He quickly unloaded the rest of the rounds into what was left of the herd to put them out of their misery.

He sent the mental command to his pet to chase after and kill any fleeing hogs and dropped to Mark's side.

"Hey man, you alright?"

"Fuckkkkkk, no. No, I don't think so."

"Alright, ya gotta tell me what's wrong. Focus on my words. I'm going to bandage you up." Drew said while inspecting Mark's condition.

"Big bastard. Think he got me in the gut. Kinda hard...to breath."

"Alright, just sit tight."

Drew pulled the bandages, gauze, and alcohol from his inventory he'd slipped in last night. From his belt, he pulled the radio and brought it up to his mouth.

"Team 1, this is Drew. Mark's been hurt, I'm checking him over right now. Over."

Silence.

Mark was covered in blood, luckily most of it wasn't his, but rather it belonged to the piglet that had it's throat ripped out by his summon. However, the blood did make seeing any damage much more difficult. He brought out all the gauze and used it to begin cleaning up everything. He sat Mark up, although it seemed his friend was having difficulties moving.

"Team 2, this is Amber. We're heading back now, what's your location?"

"Team 1, I believe we're about eight to ten miles south-east of home. We're in a clearing. We ran into a herd of wild hogs. Give me a minute to check Mark over. Over."

His shirt and pants were pulled off by Drew. It looked like a tusk got him in the gut. It wasn't horrible, but it definitely was a serious wound. Drew grabbed several bunches of gauze and placed it on the wound while Mark winced in pain.

"I know it hurts buddy, but I need you to hold this in place while I check over the rest of you. Keep the pressure on it." Drew said.

Mark nodded his head slightly, his face was drenched with sweat. Drew could tell he was feeling an immense amount of pain, but this type of wound wasn't an immediate threat to his life thankfully. Drew checked over the rest of his friend. He felt around delicately, watching for any reactions. After a couple minutes, he felt fairly confident his friend was going to be fine, but he'd definitely want Miranda to take a look at his wounds. He was covered in scratches, and his ribs were bruised, one might be fractured or broken, but all in all, he wasn't in terrible shape.

"Team 1, this is Drew. Mark took a nasty wound to his gut, he's got a few bruised ribs, and one might be broken or fractured. We should be able to make it back home. We'll be moving pretty slowly, so it might take a while. Please have Miranda ready for healing. Over." Drew radioed.

"Hear that man, you'll be okay. Just sit tight for a minute and keep pressure on that okay?"

"Yeah. Hurts like a bitch, but I'll sit tight."

"Good. Oh, check your notifications too, you likely had a level up. I'm going to go clean this shit up."

There were heaps of bones all over the place. He'd killed off the pigs before they could really suffer, but the effect continued past death. Drew went around and collected everything by the time his minion made it back to him. The pet had ended up being useful, but it wasn't very strong. He'd need to start raising more undead soon, especially if beasts were going to be worse than the hogs were. Next time he went out, he wanted to have more control over things.

It was his mistake that he didn't have more people here with them. He thought he'd be strong enough to protect Mark with his spells, gun, and pet, but the sheer quantity of enemies steamrolled pasted him and ended up hurting his friend. He couldn't believe the arrogance he'd allowed himself. He needed to become stronger, he needed to plan more wisely, and he needed to think more clearly in the future.

He also needed to check his notifications when they made it home. He wasn't going to go out of his way to collect the bones of the piglets that wandered off, besides his minion either killed them, or his spell did. That last part made him a bit sad, but the combat had grown out of control fast. He thought he could handle it...

Drew took a deep breath to steady himself and clear his mind. He needed to get Mark back to the house.