Awakening the Divine Spark-Chapter 101: Arax the cook.

When the sun was about to set, the valley was riddled with corpses of the killed beasts. Now they were nothing but hills of meat – an evidence of the massacre that was performed here during the day. Countless gallons of blood were spilled, coloring the lush green grass, but the general mood of the treasure hunters was great.

From the looks of it, all of the beasts had sparks of varying quality and, even though all were the yellow ones that didn’t give as much contribution, there were a lot of them.

The haul was impressive, and the weather was pleasantly warm and humid. When all groups camped for the night, everyone was already counting their tomorrow’s achievements, praising Lunax for letting them hunt in this world.

There was only one problem, though. Attracted by the scent of blood, clouds of mosquitoes appeared en masse from the surrounding jungle, finding an exotic dish in the form of the treasure hunters.

To prevent himself from being sucked dry, the only thing Lee could come up with was to erect several bonfires around their spot. But despite thousands of mosquitoes dying in flames, there were enough left to make everyone’s lives miserable.

Except the two devils.

For some reason no mosquito fancied them, and they spent the evening busying themselves around the jungle line, looking for fruits and berries. Lee tried to warn them about the potential risks, but the two didn’t listen. They loved the large blueberries the natives of Haonia shared during the last conquest, and were looking for something similar to compensate for their average results of the hunt.

As expected, stress eating was never good. Before the midnight both got serious diarrhea and spent the rest of the night squatting at the side, making unpleasant noises and smells.

Ignoring their pleas to heal them, Lee stated that there was no cure for mental disability. Unfortunately the two couldn’t see their own fault in their predicament, and only got upset with him.

The next morning their condition was slightly better, but they still had to make an occasional run to bushes now and then. As the result, their squad was the last one to leave the valley, and it dampened the mood even further.

Since Mirax was dead, Jiraxa became their new scout and was now scaled trees, looking for the optimal route. But no matter how high she climbed, she could only see one landmark one could guide the squad to – a tall mountain somewhere to the west of the valley.

Despite the slow speed, they arrived at the foot of the mountain before noon, and were pleasantly surprised to find out there was a pack of four beasts resting there.

These were of smaller size compared to what they hunted yesterday, but with no other options, or because of their bad mood, the two brothers charged at the horned beasts that resembled mountain goats without a second thought.

Lee already decided he was not going to take an active part in this. It would’ve been delusional to think he could do something against an enraged monster in the size of an adult hippo, but Jiraxa didn’t share this sentiment.

She rushed after Thorax, hiding behind him and his enormous shield, and jumped out from time to time to strike when there was an opportunity. The idea wasn’t bad, except she hardy scratched the thick skin of the beasts. But the two brothers kept praising her effort nevertheless.

Arax was much more effective. He killed one beast during his initial attack, and technically they were now three on three. The problem was that these goat-like beasts didn’t run off, but counterattacked. They jumped away first, creating a safe distance to evaluate the danger, but then charged with incredible momentum, attempting to crush each their own target.

It was a good thing Jiraxa had now the wind spark. Even with how inexperienced she was, it helped her to evade when the beast came at her, but from then on she was forced to play cat and mouse.

Lee’s choice to stay out proved to be the correct one, because similar to her he couldn’t have done anything against the oversized goats. Contrary to Jiraxa, though, he had no chance to avoid its attacks.

Thorax also had a bad time. Either having the shield had inflated his ego, or he was trying to show off in front of Jiraxa, he attempted to block the beast that came at him. Needless to say the laws on physics prevailed – the devil flew to one side while his shield to the other, but the beast barely noticed the impact.

Lee had to give props to the tortoise shell. It remained in tact, except the scary spikes that Klavax installed were gone without leaving a mark on the beast’s horns.

Noticing his brother’s predicament, Arax rushed over to help. There was some distance between him and the beast, but half way his sword lit up in flames and he slashed at the beasts side, leaving a deep mark.

The high pitched wail didn’t fit the beast’s size but, while the sound startled the attackers, the other two beasts dashed over to save their kin. It was strange to witness such camaraderie, but Lee’s guess was that they weren’t scared of the tiny opponents nor their numbers. Or, maybe, mountain goats were innately more aggressive compared to other herbivores.

Seeing the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous, Lee got back to the jungle and squatted next to a larger tree. He quickly considered the option to leave the group here, but there was no telling if they would survive, but if they were to, the two devils might flip out on him later.

’It would be funny if these beasts didn’t have any sparks.’ Lee laughed to himself.

The other three squad members were not so amused, though.

The smell of burnt steak filled the surroundings after Arax managed to leave two more deep marks on one of the beasts, but had to roll away before delivering the killing blow, because the horns of another one would have made a mush out of him a moment later.

Thorax, without his shield, was like a toothless dog. The best thing he could do was to divert the attention of the beast that kept chasing Jiraxa by throwing large stones at it.

The situation was becoming increasingly desperate and the people were slowly running out of options, when the cavalry finally arrived. Over thirty people charged from the jungle, loudly roaring in ecstasy at the sight of three earth sparks being there for taking.

No matter how unwilling the devil brothers were, they had to fall back. The best they could do was to go over to the beast that Arax slew during the initial attack, and dig out its spark.

Meanwhile Lee watched the newcomers, not knowing what to think. There were no tactics involved and no deeper thinking. Similar to the brothers earlier, they rushed forth, splitting in three groups on the way, each picking their own target.

Unsurprisingly, the beasts managed to claim a few lives, but were quickly slain right after. One of the hunters even managed to jump on the top of the best, and insert his spear deep in the back of its skull.

Lee recognized it being Slivax.

Apparently the guy had joined forces with another larger treasure hunter group, guaranteeing his own safety and that of his squad members. From the looks of it, his choice was a smart one – they got one of the three sparks with relatively low effort and risk, at least compared to Arax’s squad.

Despite them getting another spark, Lee’s group was not in a good mood. Probably he was the only happy one – this time he didn’t even have to roast the meat! Arax’s attacks were wide and destructive, but the burnt marks they left were only charred on the surface.

Lee decided that Arax wasn’t the best cook since he didn’t use any spices, but the cooking style was unique, and even spectacular. The wounds the beasts had were ugly only on the surface, and after scrubbing the bad parts off, Lee could cut neat slices of fresh steak.

No matter how upset the brothers were with the outcome, there was nothing they could do. Arax cursed the thieves for stealing their sparks, but the crowd only laughed and left soon after.

What no one noticed was Slivax and a couple of his squad members rushing off to a different direction, while throwing looks full of hate towards the group of four that remained behind.