The hivemind is conquering for me?-Chapter 665: Hunters vs Prey II

The man I pointed to appeared shook by the amplification of my voice, but resumed his firing upon me as I retreated. My booming voice had naturally drawn the attention of the others and they had started to make their way towards me.

A moment later, the man heard the noise of the jungle violently parting behind him and as he turned around to investigate the noise, it was too late. A flash of a blue wall was all he could see before his arms were rent from his body and was battered aside, yelling out in agony.

Sapphire didn’t stop to injure the man further and didn’t target any of the fleshy bits. Being close to Apollo, she now knew what was happening and all of this was just training. Still, the bad man was definitely out of operation until his metal arms were reattached.

Hunt leader emerged from the cave entrance just in time to see Sapphire run past the entrance towards the direction of target Alpha, she then briefly turned towards where the beast came from and spotted and more importantly heard bubble shrieking in agony.

"Medic, stay behind and aid the injured. No fatal injuries from observation. Fix up whoever you can and send them after us, everyone else, after the target."

Hunt leader then channeled her Psionic abilities to war level. In an instant, glowing feathered wings sprouted from her back, her eyes turned fully golden and brimming with iridescent light and in a flash of light was adorned in a set of form fitting black and gold armour that was heavily engraved with intricate patterns and writing. Hunt leaders hair then grew back to its war length, angering her as she was in time off and liked to style it shorter. She then materialised another lance in her hand before flying up into the sky.

She observed the canopy below for a moment looking for any signs of the target, but he had made ground fast. This didn’t sit well in her current state as she used the communicator earpiece. "Hunt leader Skaja to base. Come in." As she spoke her voice seemed to echo on itself, prompting the voice on the other end to smugly ask.

"In your war gear already? My, my, Hunt leader, has my Apollo already forced your hand? Oh well, did you beat him? Put him on com for me, I want a word."

"Target Alpha is in the wind, base camp. You send us in with dodgy information and because of it, three of my team are injured and my primary scout is out of commission. Explain oversight." Skaja explained, prompting a small silence to emerge over the communicator before Valerica broke the silence.

"So he got away? I told you not to underestimate him and it looks like you did. You also should know better than anyone hunt leader, that you never get the full briefing of your targets, in your hunts and in the field. So tell me what happened and I can fill you in."

Skaja sighed, knowing base was correct, she had thought too highly of her group, this outlier had just angered her, and ruined her hairdo. "Target appeared from a cave in a suit of clearly xeno-origin armour. He then ambushed us with a flying sword and then a giant beast came to his aid and took out Bubble."

Valerica sucked on her teeth. "Shit. Sorry hun, this one was on me. I even saw the vambrace when he took his jacket off, but I am so used to it I don’t even register it anymore. Yes, Apollo has access to extra galactic equipment. The armour can also self heal so if you have damaged it, be prepared to face it at its full strength the next time you see him. His weapon is a Psionic weapon, do not underestimate that piece of knowledge. It can cut through seriously heavy armour and can be operated by Apollo without him touching it. Finally the beast. Sapphire is its name. A unique Psionic power of Apollo’s. You have permission to fully kill the beast as it can come back, but it is sturdy. Be advised however, Apollo will most likely rage upon his companions death and forgo self preservation to take you all out. Anything else you need to know Hunt leader?"

Skaja paused for a moment, looking in the direction the target had run off to, her team had already engaged in pursuit. "Yes, just answer my question. Putting him on our enemy level of classification, how would you rate the target?"

This would help Skaja more understand the level of tactics needed for dealing with this Apollo person, as she was right, Valerica calling him just dangerous had left her lax. She needed to view this man as an enemy for the duration of this hunt.

The communication turned silent again for a moment before Valerica simply declared. "Anomaly class. Though significantly weaker than a warlord class . Tread carefully, Hunt leader."

The communication then ended and Skaja frowned, that was not the type of classification she wanted, this was tricky. She could with good teamwork handle a warlord class enemy, but even if this anomaly was weaker than a warlord, they were anomaly’s for a reason. Unpredictable and quite frankly more often than not more dangerous than many classifications.

She and the team would need to bring their A game in this case and treat this like target elimination instead of a hunt. A thought that brought a smile to her face. ’This is turning out more interesting than anticipated.’

Skaja then took one final look at her medic and her injured team before flying off to join with the rest of the party to inform them of the updated battle tactics.

...

Mounted atop Sapphire, we made some distance between us and the group before I finally spoke up. "Good timing girl, If I had to take out the scout on my own, I would have been surrounded quickly and would have taken more damage."

Sapphire didn’t respond, she was focusing on keeping me steady atop her while also passing through the terrain with a passenger. I did however feel her concern for me regarding the large spear still embedded in my back. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"It’s serrated at the tip. Can’t pull it out on my own. Plus armour, it’s at an odd angle. Hey, you were hunting around here right? Do you know anywhere safe to take a break and get this out of me?"

I then felt Sapphire’s body inhale and exhale before she turned onto a different trajectory to wherever she was taking me.

...

An hour later, Valerica was walking towards Apollo’s home to inform the others of his temporary absence. As she was walking she took a quick inhale of the collar of the jacket she was wearing before smiling. She loved the feeling that the jacket was slightly too big for her, especially in the shoulders. The other clothes she stole from when she was staying at Sophia’s had lost his scent and she knew he wouldn’t take the theft of this jacket lightly so she was savouring the moment...

That was until she saw Hailey approaching from the side, most definitely heading in the same direction as she was... Hailey also spotted Valerica and more importantly the jacket she was wearing and the neutral face that was just borderline suppressing a smile turned into a frown as she approached.

"Hag."

"Ice Bitch."

They greeted each other familiarly as they began walking side by side before Valerica started. "So, it seems that my son has melted that block of ice you call a heart and you are now dating? I’d say congratulations, but I don’t trust your intentions, especially after lying and betraying his trust.

Hailey kept a neutral expression and replied. " Oh, colour me shocked, you disapprove? Who could have guessed that? Kathrine certainly doesn’t disapprove and she has more ground to stand on in this field."

Valerica snorted. "Please, Kat is probably thinking up ways to give Apollo pleasure. She only until recently has been thinking with her vagina. Her head is only coming back to reality now that its been fucked into sense by my son. She is not a valid judge of character, hence your creepy relationship."

"That’s the pot calling the kettle black don’t you think? ’Mommy.’ You adopted him and still treat him the way you do? Eww." Hailey snapped back, hitting a critical.

"Hey! Apollo and my relationship is special. We are both beings that value strength and honesty of flesh. We don’t hide our feelings from one another and to me that is beautiful. You are probably just jealous of the fact that I have felt his manhood on multiple occasions and you are still scrounging for attention from a man who only just realised you were into him because you had to tell him. He is probably just stringing you on because he feels sorry for you... I’m sorry, that was too far. Not what I said, I wish it was true, but Apollo isn’t like that. If he wants to date you that means he likes you and all I care about is him being happy. So if he is happy dating, ugh, you. Then I am happy for him."

The two walked in silence for a moment before Hailey suddenly laughed before catching herself. She then turned to Valerica who was looking at her like she was witnessing the end of days and explained.

"I just realised with us both wanting Apollo to be happy, we, for once, have something in common."