[AN: Towards the end of the chapter, I do talk about gutting the pigs. I don't think it really counts as mature content, but do tell me if I need to edit it in some form.]

Early the next morning, before the sun even began to shine, the camp began to stir. Everyone started to quietly get up, they did not want to disturb the sleeping wild life since it would make the hunt harder. Hansen woke the boys up and made them get ready to head out.

The group did not tear down camp yet. Instead, they started pulling out collapsed spears from long bags a few of the mercenaries had carried. These spears might be weaker than full one piece spears, but they would do the job of impaling the pigs just fine.

As everyone else was going about their various tasks, Hansen started to tell the boys what was going to be expected of them: “There will be a small group that will make a lot of noise to scare the pigs in our direction. Many of the others will have spears at the ready to impale any pigs that run towards us. Your job... will be to kill any pigs that remain alive after being impaled!”

The boys were attentively listening to Hansen. They were unsure what to think about this job they were given. It was certainly not as glorious as other types of hunting. They had also never really killed anything before. How would the hunt really look, compared to what was in their imagination. What would it look like to see something dying?

Hansen then asked: “Have any of you killed anything larger than an insect or a spider before?”

Adam tentatively raised his hand a little. He had killed that one ghoul. Looking at Adam, Hansen asked him: “Do you remember how you killed that ghoul?”

Adam shook his head. “It was all too fast. It was mostly luck, really.”

“So in the end, Adam, you are the same as the others. This will be the first time that you will intentionally kill another living creature! I don't expect any of you to ruthlessly and efficiently kill a pig, since this is your first time. You never know how you will react to death and killing until it is finally in front of you!”

“The job you all have been assigned might not be glamorous, but it is important for your future. Regardless of if it is an animal or a person, if you choose to become a mercenary or join the army, you will have to kill something! Take a good look as the pigs die and think, is this really the road you wish to travel?”

The boys were left to think and brood. Soon they would be faced with killing pigs. Hunt was a fancy word that was placed on top of killing. No matter whether it was human or an animal, death was the end. The boys each had their own thoughts about what death meant to them. Soon they would be seeing death firsthand.

The Silver Saviors soon started to head out, with the boys in tow. A small group of scouts ranged ahead, armed with clackers. These clackers were hand held wooden mechanical devices that emitted loud noise when wound. The Silver Saviors did not want to spend a lot of money to keep dogs, so they used these devices instead. It created sufficient noise to spook the pigs and make them run, just like dogs would do for them. The clackers were less efficient, though, since they couldn't actively hound the pigs.

The group made their way through the forest as quietly as they could. Eventually, they stopped in a clearing that was close to where the small herd of pigs was located. It was still far enough away that the pigs wouldn't hear them, but still close enough to easily hound the pigs their way.

The Silver Saviors set themselves up in an orderly fashion. There was a row of spear men to the front, with at least a meter between them. Behind the spear men were Hansen, the boys, and a few others who would help kill any pigs that survive being impaled. They all quietly waited for the scout group to start doing their job.

Adam spread his elemental sight out around the group. The small herd was too far for Adam to see, but there was plenty of other wildlife that had started to wake up. Adam passed the time by watching small birds and animals starting to flit about the trees.

The sun had just started to peak it's way into the sky when faint and distant clicks were heard. Adam and the other boys started to tense up in trepidation. Even some of the professional mercenaries tensed in excitement, they had been getting restless from the long wait. No matter who it was, though, they all had the same though: “The hunt has started!”

The spear men readied their spears as the others drew their swords. Even the boys slowly and carefully drew their swords out and got ready to receive the pigs. After drawing his own sword, Adam concentrated his sight in the direction of those faint clicks. He still could not spread his sight far enough to see the herd of pigs, yet. As the clicking sounds came closer, they became louder and deeper, becoming more of a clacking sound.

Thirty seconds passed since the hunt had started, even though it felt like a longer time to the boys. Adam was finally able to see as close to twenty pigs entered the range of his sight. Adam perked up as he paid attention to everything that was happening.

When the pigs first entered his sight, they were so far that he could only tell their general size. As they quickly came closer, he was able to clearly make out the pigs and the scouts throwing clackers towards the flanks of the herd to keep them all going towards the clearing. Adam noticed that there were large pigs and small ones.... soon a horrifying thought came to mind.

If they were hunting the entire herd, wouldn't they be slaughtering entire families?! The smaller pigs were clearly the children of the larger pigs. The pigs were wildly running from those strange noises coming from all around. The only way for them to escape the sounds was to the front, where none of those sounds were coming from. It would not be long before they would meet the spears that the Silver Saviors were holding.

Adam could even begin to see the fear that their souls were emitting! Without any time to loose, Adam quickly went up to Hansen and quietly asked in a pleading voice: “We aren't going to kill the young ones too, will we?”

Hansen tensed a little. They would indeed try to kill the entire herd. Killing the young ones would also test the mettle of any of the boys. Though, Hansen had not expected someone to bring this up before they had killed the pigs. At this point, Adam could try to get in the way to stop the hunt, if he felt strongly enough to not kill the young pigs.

Hansen could lie to him for now, but he had long ago promised himself not to lie, especially to this boy. Hansen grabbed Adam by the shoulders and looked him in the eye. “We will be killing the entire herd! These pigs are descendants from domesticated pigs that managed to escape. Pigs normally don't live in this forest. But, after humans settled here, pigs have escaped into the wild and live freely. They eat everything in their path, making it so that it is much harder for the other animals of the forest to survive. If we leave the pigs to grow rampant and devour everything, think off all the other animals.... think of all the other young animals that will starve to death because you couldn't kill these pigs here!”

Hansen tried to give Adam a reason to kill. Everything he said was the truth, too. If these pigs were left alone, the ecology of the forest would be dreadfully impacted. This is why the Silver Saviors are hunting them. Not simply because they are a little more dangerous prey and pay more per head, but because Hessler city would give out contracts to kill and contain the wild pig population in order to maintain the balance that the forest's ecology had.

Adam was at a loss. If he was a normal boy without his elemental sight, he would not be so deeply impacted by killing a young pig. However, he could see the souls of these pigs. While they were weaker than the souls that humans have, they still had them. He could see their terror and Adam felt bad. They were hounding these families and were going to kill them all! These pigs had to be feeling the same as those who had encountered ghouls that night at Fort Erich. Terrified and wanting to live.

Before Adam could form any type of resolve, the pigs had already stamped into the clearing. These terrified pigs were confused to see this large group of people before them. Before they could move in another direction, the spear men came forward, stabbing at the pigs. Between the momentum of the pigs moving forward and the spear men greeting them, most of the pigs were easily skewered. Some pigs instantly fell, dead, others started to squeal in agony.

Hansen quickly shouted at the other boys, who had not heard the conversation between Adam and himself: “Move forward and finish them off! Keep your swords low as you move so you don't hit anyone!”

Hansen then turned to Adam and asked sternly: “What will you do?”

Adam looked towards where the others were going. He felt that if he didn't join them, he might be pulled apart from them. He didn't want that! As the other boys approached the impaled pigs that were still squirming, their faces started to turn white. There was plenty of blood lying around and it was their first time staring at death like this. They themselves would have to deal death onto some of these pigs.

The Silver Saviors had intentionally left some pigs for the boys. This was the whole reason why they were here after all. They expectantly watched the boys. They all understood what they were thinking. Everyone here had been through similar experiences when they first killed something. Death may be every where and easily talked about, but killing is actually harder than it sounds.

Adam watched as the other boys approached the pigs that were left for them. They were pinned down by spears, so it would be easy to kill the pigs. They were all hesitant at first, but under the urging of the Silver Saviors, they each stabbed their swords into the pigs. Blood splattered out onto their new swords, with a few flecks even reaching their hands. Franklin was the first to start retching.

Adam was horrified as he watched. It wasn't the thick smell of the viscous blood that caught his attention, but what he saw happen to the pig's soul. It seeped out of the pigs body with it's blood. The soul seemed to be shrieking in agony and sorrow. All the spirit essence began to dissipate away until only a tiny spark remained. Even that too faded away.

Adam had always wondered what happened to one's soul when they died, now he knew. He had always hoped that the soul would be able to go somewhere, like one of the spirit planes, and live a life of bliss. He didn't want his sister or his father to be truly dead and gone. Perhaps one day, as a spiritualist, he could rediscover them. But now he knew that the soul simply dispersed. The essence of the entire soul rejoined the rest of the world without any of it remaining together. Death was a true end.

Unaware of what Adam was thinking, Hansen quickly moved Adam forward to the last living pig. Looking at this pig, that started to crazily squeal, Adam could easily imagine what it was thinking: “Why why why?! Why do you have to kill us?!”

Adam was visibly shaking. He suddenly dropped his fathers sword, turned around, and ran! He screamed out in his mind: “This is not what I wanted!”

As he ran, Adam put his hands over his ears to hide that terrible squealing. It wasn't enough, though. Quickly he hear one last squeal before it all quieted down as Adam kept running.

Adam ran for who knows how long before he stopped. He crouched down by a tree sobbing. Was that really what happened to his father and sister? He had wanted to live a carefree life with his family and friends. Before now, he had not considered animals on a similar level to humans, as though the did not have a soul. They clearly had souls, though! Adam wanted to live and let live, but the world was clearly against him in this opinion.

It wasn't long before Hansen found Adam. Hansen was unsure of what to do. He was rather bad at comforting others. He started out simply with: “Adam....”

Adam then started on his own, with a sobbing voice: “Why? Why do we have to kill others? I saw the souls of those pigs bleed out! Is that what happened to Dad and Emilia? I...I don't want to kill anything!”

Hansen had a brief apologetic look on his face, before it turned stern. This was an important moment for Adam. Adam could choose to not continue with the Silver Saviors and never learn to kill, but this could be bad for him later in his life. He had to make sure this was what Adam wanted.

“So let me get this straight, Adam. In the future, when you have a wife and kids, if there is a murderer that is going to kill your family, are you not going to kill him since you are too afraid to see his soul disperse? But if you don't, he will kill your family and you will instead have to see your entire family's souls disperse!”

“Wha-?” This was too much for Adam to suddenly take in.

“Let me tell you, there are also things worse than death! That last pig that you were supposed to kill, it was in agony far longer than the others because you did not kill it! These pigs have to be dealt with or many other animals in this forest will die because they will eat all of the available food here! If it was not this herd of pigs we hunted, it would have been another. No matter whether you were here or not, we would have hunted these pigs, for the betterment of the entire forest. The least we can do is give them a quick and clean death. Sometimes that doesn't happen, but you certainly did not allow that pig a quick death!”

Adam paled a bit. He had been yelled at by Hansen before, but not like this. Hansen added in a little more before letting Adam think about what he has said. “No matter what, these pigs were going to die. I wanted to use their lives for something more, though. Through them, I wanted each of you to see death and experience what it means to kill, yourself. This way, you would be more prepared to take another human's life, if the time came.”

“You need to think about what it is that you want, in your life. Is this training really necessary for you? If you feel you would rather concentrate on being a spiritualist... that's fine. But make sure it is something that you want! Right now you are still a child, but you will be an adult soon enough. You will have to make your own decisions and neither I, nor your mother will be there to cover for you. Just what is it that you want to do Adam?”

Adam was then left with silence as Hansen waited for his response. Eventually Adam said: “I-I need to think about it.”

“That's fine, just don't take too long. Let's go back to camp.”

Adam nodded as he stood up, but suddenly remembered something. “What about Dad's sword?! I can't believe I just left it!”

“Don't worry, I told the others to look after it. It will be back at camp now too. This isn't the end of the day yet, though. We still need to gut the pigs and take the useful parts back to town for use. You can decide if you want to participate when we get back.”

Back at camp, Alfred and the others quickly came over to see Adam. Before Adam got back, they had thoroughly cleaned their swords and hands of blood. Not only was it good maintenance, that blood was repugnant! They really wanted to wash it all way.

Adam was grateful for their worry, but felt out of place. He was the only one who ran and he did not want to be thought of as a coward by them. He had also wanted to live up to Hansen's expectations, but it was simply too much to kill that pig.

The others then told Adam what was next. The pigs had been strung above those pits that the Silver Saviors had made the day before. The pigs were now bleeding out into those pits. After the pigs were bled dry, they would get to gutting them.

Everyone started to eat a light breakfast on the furthest side of camp from the pigs. They had started out so early, no body had the time to eat. Adam managed to get a little food down before it was time to actually gut the pigs.

Adam looked at those dead pigs. There was no longer a trace of life inside them. when they were waiting for the pigs to bleed out, Adam thought more about what he wanted. He was still unsure of himself. One thing that came to mind, though, was that Adam wanted to try gutting one of the pigs.

Adam had missed out on killing a pig and had put it in agony because of that. The Silver Saviors would be bringing useful parts of the pigs back, so it was not like they were mindlessly slaughtering the poor pigs.

Truthfully, Adam wanted to know how he would react to gutting the pig. If he continued to join the Silver Saviors, he would end up doing this kind of hunting a lot. Knowing how he would react to his would help him make his decision on whether or not he wanted to continue this.

Hansen was by Adam's side to show him how to do the job. When they approached the pigs, after they were ready to gut them, Adam was already set to vomit! The stench from all the blood being drained was very powerful and nauseating. The other boys were not in any better condition, either.

At this time, Hansen told Bruno and Clyde: “If you really want to join the army, know that the fields they battle on will have more blood than this spilled across it! The stench will be even worse than now!”

Bruno and Clyde turned a shade paler after hearing this. They couldn't even imagine such a thing. In their mind, they only saw the glory on the field of victory, not the tough slog through blood and mayhem to get there.

The other boys were directed by some of the Silver Saviors as they started the process of gutting. It wasn't too bad when they started the process of skinning. But the boys quickly got queasy towards the end, though. They were ripping it's skin off, after all.

When they finally got to the point of removing the innards, the boys all fled in random directions looking for a place to puke! The stench was something else, and the sight of the organs falling was appalling!

The Silver Saviors had a fun laugh at the sight of the running boys. They too remembered their first hunt. Everyone had varying reactions, but puking from the intense smells was quite common.

Adam and the others did not help with anything else for the rest of the time the pigs were gutted. It was simply too much for them. After the silver saviors cut out everything that would be left behind, they put them all into those pits the pigs had bled out over. Then they packed the dirt back over the top of everything.

Half of the entire group then started to break camp down, while the others got the pigs ready for departure. After covering the tips of the spears, the pigs were tied to them by their their feet and would be carried out by two men putting the spears across their shoulders.

Around noon, they finally left to go back home. Adam was far more than ready to leave. He was tired from the intense smells and the hunt. He just wanted to sleep in his comfy bed.