We stuck around to ensure Veera’s safety and found the woman we let go from before, together with the others. Looks like she’s making sure they understand not to leak the secret. My interest in the Siberian tiger led me to my next objective as we made our way to the outpost gates separating ourselves from the crowd of people.

“Ready?” I removed the rucksack and handed it over to Eris to put on. I crouched down once she finished adjusting and tightening the straps.

“Ready!” Eris laughed after hopping onto my back, grabbing on tightly.

There was no time to waste on the commute and the explosion happened such a long time ago that part of me thought everything was over. It had been almost three hours and my hope for a round two with the tiger felt very unlikely to occur.

I charged full speed ahead, startling Eris and forcing her grip tighter around my neck. At this pace we would arrive; what took us hours in the morning, was now less than thirty minutes.

My footsteps landed on snow, signifying our entry into the snow biome as I figured out the location the explosions took place. I headed in that direction, and what made little sense, was the snowstorm I expected to run into was no longer around. Not only were there no monsters around but the snowstorm that kept others out vanished.

I turned my head to Eris and she returned the same puzzled look. Things were too quiet to the point of being creepy.

“Don’t let your guard down. Be ready for anything, Eris.” She nodded as I continued up the mountain onto a ridgeline that led to the explosion site.

Traveling through the snow slowed down our pace, making sure not to slip going uphill. There was commotion up ahead and it seemed they haven’t vacated the area yet. I didn’t want to suddenly barge in on the military and made sure not to attract any attention by spying on them from behind cover.

It provided a perfect view of them and their whole setup. It looked like we got here when the military was wrapping things up. There was a bunch of machinery I’d never seen before. All I could guess was, they were weapons of some sort. There was an area sectioned off for dead bodies. Fallen soldiers that died in combat against the countless monsters.

The ground was torn up and riddled with various-sized craters colored with blood splatter displacing the scene. There was another pile with beasts that were harvested and tossed aside. I wondered where they stored all the materials but shortly found my answer. My eyes followed a group of soldiers tossing a beast into a pile next to a cube-like object. All the monster parts carried over to the cube vanished. The cube acted like their bigger version of a storage ring.

There weren’t any signs or remains of the Siberian tiger, hopefully it managed to survive.

“Freeze! Turn around slowly!” A soldier armed with a medium-sized firearm that looked alien to me aimed the barrel directly at us. He was positioned downhill on my flank. I rose from my crouching position with my head forward, looking over at the soldiers around the cube. The moment I stood up every soldier down below turned their attention to us.

It was a mistake to forget about possible perimeter patrols, but my main concern was how they all knew my location suddenly? The soldier didn’t exactly speak loud enough for everyone to hear.

Many thoughts rushed through my head by the time the soldier repeated himself as I turned to face him with my hands up. Eris was still being carried on my back with her arms wrapped over my shoulders.

“I heard the explosion and came over.” I figured they wouldn’t take me into custody or hold it against me since there were many hunters around that could go where they pleased.

“I have orders to apprehend anyone in the perimeter. Please follow me and don’t resist.”

Best to follow suit and see where this went as I placed Eris onto the ground and followed the soldier. We walked past many people and stopped in front of an impromptu tent. One of the escorts went inside, shortly coming back out to have me enter.

I walked in and the person standing on the other side of a table spoke up. “Under the Hunter Associations agreement, I need you to answer a few questions. Please take a-.” I sat on the chair he motioned to and looked up to meet his eyes.

“What are two kids doing way out here! Who allowed the two of you to join their group? It’s illegal to have underaged civilians join a group to hunt monsters!”

“Who are you calling a kid! I’ve been monster hunting out here with no problems. You’re the ones getting in my way!” The captain belittled me and I figured to just go along with it.

“Enough nonsense! As long as you can tell us anything about this monster. We will make sure you get back safely to the outpost.” The captain tossed a metallic disk across the tabletop. A humming noise initiated with blue lights creating an image above the disk.

The military had developed a portable version of holographic devices. I’ve only ever seen massive ones in cities like Avalon as advertisements and banners.

Presented was a holographic image of the Siberian tiger we ran into earlier. It was, however, more wounded compared to before which made me wonder what kind of crazy battle it had with the military. “Whoa! That’s amazing! Can I keep it, mister?” As I reached out my hand, the captain retrieved the disk to prevent my desire to grab hold of the disk. “I’ve had enough. First Sergeant let this child be on his way.” He waved to the nearby soldier. “I’ll trade you for it, mister! I’ve got two silver on me, take it or leave it!” I shouted as the soldier pushed both of us outside.

<>

Back in the captain’s tent the holographic device that had already shut off reinitiated with a figure’s face. “Captain Yaris!” The figure commanded.

“General Natus” The captain lowered his head and knelt to one knee, remaining in silence.

“Don’t you find it strange two teenagers can survive out here? They might know the location of the Aurisavem. I’m patching through to one of your trackers, to have them investigate those two.”

“Yes, Sir.” The captain replied and seconds later the holographic image faded with a receding buzz.