Ian laughed maniacally as they were dragged. He wasn’t thinking of the danger; his mind was set on having a tuna feast.

He heard the tuna bone marrow is like jelly. It melts in your mouth and has an endless aftertaste. Even when cooked, it doesn’t get stiff; it’s still in a jelly-like state.

The way he heard it described, coupled with Jaylin’s description of Source Energy infused bone marrow. He wanted to devour it.

The tuna put up a good fight.

With eight of them being level 1, it wasn’t hard to sink multiple harpoons. They were strong enough to pull together and cause the gills to rupture. They repeated the process until the tuna began to thrash and bleed out.

When it finally died, Ian put his hands together and started moving side to side with his hands out front. He moved his hand left to right with his body, then shouted, ’super tuna’.

The rest of the teams stood there, shocked, wondering why he was acting so crazy. When they finally tasted the tuna later, they all started dancing with him.

While the team was moving around, Ian, who seemed to have gone into a tuna-induced hysteria, the starving people finally caught up to them.

"What the fuck is wrong with you people? Did you see us getting ready to kill that thing? It’s ours, give it back. If you want food, go somewhere else."

The bearded man yelled, spittle flying. He pointed at them and ranted. The team paid them no mind, only hooking the tuna and getting ready to leave.

They didn’t actually plan to leave without giving them some food. They would bring them as close to the base as they could. And someone would get them food, but they needed to leave this place. There was too much blood.

The bearded man kept yelling as they ignored him and began to leave.

Jaylin gave him a hard look, "If you don’t want to die, we need to leave now. See this blood? It will attract other predators. Not just one. If you want to take the chance to deal with multiple fish, be my guest."

She didn’t believe their small group of five, in their dilapidated boat, could hold out against multiple combatants. Even they couldn’t do that.

When the five heard multiple fish would appear, they swallowed. She could practically see them calculating whether they would be able to win.

"You couldn’t win against just one. You think you can win against multiple?"

That stopped them. Dejected, they followed Jaylin and her group closely, their eyes glued to the fish. When they were far enough away, the bearded man was the first to speak.

"Give it to us."

"What do you plan to do with it?" Jaylin asked.

They looked at her as if she were stupid.

Another man scoffed, "Of course, we’re going to eat it. If you hadn’t interfered..."

"If we hadn’t interfered, you would be dead," Vincent retorted. "The only injury on it is where we hurt it. Were you going to kill it or was it going to kill you?"

The bearded man puffed out his chest, "We would definitely have killed it. Don’t underestimate our strength. You think we would be like you, needing women to help us catch our prey."

The moment Vincent stepped in, Jaylin no longer cared about the conversation. She had gone to the side and was ’poking around’ with Paige. When the two heard the statement, their heads snapped up.

How did this become about us? What’s wrong with women hunting?

Jaylin didn’t care much, but that didn’t mean Paige didn’t. Under that deer-like exterior lay the heart of a Spartan. The girl could fight and had a temper to match.

Jaylin saw the fire in her eyes. She put her hands on her cheeks and kissed her. Now wasn’t the time for them to fight. They just needed to give these people some food, and they would leave.

Paige was surprised by the kiss. She and Jaylin had been flirting with each other, but they never did anything out of the way. Her resting on Paige’s breasts was the extent of anything ’sexual’.

Now, being kissed, Paige completely forgot about being insulted and focused on Jaylin’s lips.

While Jaylin was trying to calm Paige down, the confrontation continued.

Ian scoffed, finally out of his tuna hysteria. "She’s stronger than you. If you want to test it, just take a punch. You might die."

The bickering continued until Jaylin stepped forward.

"Seems you aren’t that hungry," she said simply. The noise stopped abruptly. "Your voice is strong. You don’t need food."

She made a gesture, and everyone prepared to leave.

"Wait," a tall man called out. "Can you share some with us? There’s more than enough to feed an army."

"You can’t eat this," she said. The man’s face dropped. "I’m not saying it because I don’t want to give it to you. I’m saying it because it’s true. The meat is poisonous."

The bearded man scoffed. "If it’s poisonous, why do you want it? Do you think we’re stupid?"

"It’s poisonous. I have no reason to lie. What we originally wanted to do was exchange it for some food. But you all kept arguing."

The tall man looked at the tuna, then up at Jaylin’s eyes. She didn’t appear to be lying. Is it possible that such a large fish, none of it can be eaten?

It wasn’t just the five of them waiting for food. They hall had family and friends waiting for them.

The bearded man was about to say something, but the tall man stopped him.

"If it’s not edible, then why do you want it?" asked the tall man.

"For the bones," Jaylin answered honestly. "If you still insist on getting the tuna, I could just cut a piece for you, but that would mean you die. I’m not kidding when I say the meat is poisonous.

Decide among yourselves. I can give you the meat, or I can give you food."

The five began to deliberate when they saw Jaylin’s team wasn’t leaving.

"We’ll take the meat."

The answer disappointed Jaylin, but she gave them what they wanted. She had them remove a large chunk of the flesh.

She looked at the tall man and addressed him directly. "If you ever need a place to stay, travel east. You’ll find the way."

And with that, they left with a tuna that was missing half its body.