CH466 Shell Hunting

***

"My babies are always hungry."

Alex stared at Kavakan for a moment—then burst into hearty laughter.

"Very well," he said. "Can I leave the big one to you, then?"

"Leave it to me." Kavakan thumped his chest confidently.

Alex nodded before turning to Silver and Havel.

"What about you two? Are you up for the challenge?" he asked.

Havel shrugged casually, but the hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed katana betrayed his excitement.

"I'll need the steel arrows," Silver muttered.

She turned and swapped quivers with a Crossbowman carrying her spare ammunition, then looked back at Alex and nodded once.

Alex was about to give the order when another thought struck him.

His gaze shifted to Fen, who was currently nestled in Zora's bosom.

"Hey, Fen," Alex said casually. "Don't they look like quality cooking ingredients?"

Fen locked his gaze onto the Desert Crabs for a long moment.

Bark~!

Fen nodded.

Cooking the crabs wouldn't be easy given their anatomy, but Chef Fen welcomed the challenge.

Alex smiled.

The moment Zora saw that smile, she knew a scheme was brewing.

"Do you know the difference between a world-class chef and an ordinary, forgettable one?" Alex asked solemnly.

Fen tilted his head.

"A world-class chef knows how to source his own ingredients. A true world-class chef must be able to hunt for his ingredients when needed," Alex said, as though imparting the greatest secret in existence.

"Do you want to become a world-class chef?"

Bark!

"Then go hunt your ingredients yourself!" Alex pointed theatrically at the crabs.

Bark!

Fen leapt out of Zora's embrace, morphing back into his direwolf form the instant his paws hit the ground.

Bark! (I am ready!)

"Good." Alex smiled.

Zora shot him a reproachful glare but said nothing.

The rest of the expedition party struggled to suppress their amusement.

As for the elven party, they stared in disbelief—none of them had expected Alex to have such a joking side.

Alex turned back to his three chosen combatants.

"Kavakan, the Crystal Scorpion is yours. Havel, take out the five small fry. Fen will provide control support. Silver, do as you wish."

He motioned for the others to pull back slightly.

"Have fun."

Fen, Havel, Kavakan, and Silver locked their eyes on their prey.

"I'm going first!"

Kavakan shot forward, taking a wide arcing path toward the rear of the formation where the Crystal Scorpion had retreated, its glossy carapace shifting through the ground as if it were searching for something.

"Can I get a lift?" Havel asked.

Fen gave him a brief look before nodding.

Havel hopped onto Fen's back, and the direwolf made a beeline for the cluster of arthropods.

Silver, meanwhile, advanced calmly, already nocking one of her specialised steel arrows—longer, heavier, and far denser than her usual arrows.

The Desert Crabs and Armoured Scorpions had notoriously poor eyesight. Instead of sight, they relied on vibrations transmitted through the ground to locate threats.

As such, Fen—deliberately loud and fast—was the first to be detected.

Clack—clack!!

Two Armoured Scorpions snapped their massive claws together and surged forward to intercept him, while the three Desert Crabs fanned out, attempting to encircle their target.

But Fen was far too cunning to charge them head-on.

[Frost Breath]!

A torrent of icy mist blasted forth from his maw.

The scorpions themselves remained unharmed, but their legs instantly iced over, freezing them in place and robbing them of mobility.

Havel leapt from Fen's back mid-charge, twisting in the air before bringing his sword down toward the crab on the left—while Fen lunged at the crab on the right with raking claws.

At the last moment, Havel sensed something wrong.

He instinctively rotated his grip, striking with the flat of his blade instead of the edge.

Clank!!

Sparks burst outward as the blade struck the crab's carapace.

The impact sent a tremor through Havel's arms, while Fen felt the shock reverberate up his limbs as well.

Man and beast both recoiled slightly, staring at the crabs with renewed seriousness.

While Fen and Havel failed to bring down the Desert Crabs, their assault wasn't without purpose.

It drew the attention of the entire group.

That opening was all Kavakan needed.

Slipping in from behind, the weretiger brought his axe down in a powerful arc toward the Crystal Scorpion.

Clank!!

The axe struck true—yet the scorpion didn't even flinch.

"Tch—damn!" Kavakan growled.

His arm trembled violently from the impact.

From his wrist to his elbow, numbness spread almost instantly.

"That's one tough skin…"

However, before Kavakan could even finish appreciating the scorpion's defence, its stinger lashed forward.

He barely managed to twist aside as the stinger pierced through the space where his chest had been a moment earlier and slammed into the ground behind him.

The corroded earth offered no resistance.

The stinger plunged in like a hot knife through butter, leaving behind a one-metre-deep hole as the ground hissed and bubbled violently.

Kavakan rolled away immediately, opening distance between himself and the Crystal Scorpion.

'I can't let that thing even graze me,' the grim realisation settled in.

'One hit… and I'm dead.'

The rest of the expedition party—and the elven group—had repositioned themselves at a safe vantage point to observe the unfolding battles.

Seeing the unfavourable situation of Alex's followers, Naena and Aylora exchanged a glance before turning to Yerion.

"Say something…" Aylora whispered urgently.

Yerion hesitated, then shook his head—but still stepped forward toward Alex.

"Sir Alex," he said carefully, "we might be able to assist your people if you would allow us."

"Thank you for the offer," Alex replied calmly, "but my people can handle these beasts."

He continued evenly,

"If these were different creatures of similar strength, I might have accepted your help. But with how skewed their strengths and weaknesses are, those four are more than enough."

"But—"

"Those attacks were only probes," Alex cut him off, his tone firm but confident.

"Now watch. This is where the hunt actually begins."

He tilted his chin toward Silver, who had just arrived within range of Fen and Havel.

Silver moved into position with practiced calm.

Fen and Havel had drawn the full attention of the Desert Crabs and Armoured Scorpions, engaging them so thoroughly that none noticed her arrival.

'If their shells can deflect Havel's blade and Fen's claws,' Silver assessed coolly, 'then they'll withstand my arrows as well.'

'Unless...'

She nocked a steel arrow and loosed it.

Havel sensed Silver's presence the instant she arrived.

He adjusted his movements, subtly guiding the crab he was engaging into her line of fire.

A sudden glint flashed toward him.

Every instinct screamed for him to dodge—but he forced himself to hold position.

The steel arrow whistled past his face by a hair's breadth and struck the crab a few metres behind him instead.

Without waiting to confirm the hit, Havel surged forward.

'As expected.'

Silver's arrow had buried itself cleanly at the base of the crab's eyestalk—right into the nerve cluster hidden within the socket.

The crab spasmed violently, then froze mid-step, its massive body locked in place.

Havel arrived in the next instant.

He drove his blade diagonally upward into the creature's soft underbelly, just behind its mouthparts.

The Desert Crab collapsed, lifeless.

From their vantage point, a proud smile tugged at Alex's lips.

***

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