T/W: Blood, Gore, Foul Language

Penn groaned as he rolled out of the way in an attempt to dodge the horde of unniebits that lunged at him. Though the horde was small, only seven of them, but they were as large as a standard English bulldog. As Penn pushed himself back to standing, he hissed at a sharp pain and looked down - a few metal spikes lined his left shin. He glanced at Nathan, who stood behind him to evaluate his basic combat.

"No worries, they aren't poisonous. The boss version of them is, though."

"Boss version?" Penn asked with a breathy voice, kicking a unniebit that attempted to bite him.

"Every adverna has a boss version called dominus. They all have the same general traits, but they'll have an environmental stat buff, depending on the dungeon."

"And I'm guessing that's poison for this dungeon?" Penn replied, both hands on the combat knife as he brought down the blade through the monster's skull. Its scream filled the air with a shrill.

"Bingo," Nathan nodded, snapping his fingers. As soon as it heard the sound, a unniebit spun towards him, lunging at him with incredible speed. Nathan pulled his sword with both hands and swung it like a baseball bat, hitting the monster with the blunt side and sending it flying over thirty feet away with a large echoing cracking sound. 

"Are you playing softball with monsters?" Penn asked in complete shock, his knife missing the target's head and skimming the steel fur with a clang. He pulled out the pre-loaded one-handed crossbow at his hip and fired it as the rabbit hit the ground with a growl, teeth grinding. 

"Need to keep things spicy when you're as strong as me," Nathan replied casually, picking up a stone off the ground. He held it steady in his palm as he focused on it until it started to vibrate and glow red. When it shone like an LED, he flung his wrist back like skipping a stone on a lake. 

Penn felt the stone whip past him, flying as fast as a bullet. He snapped his head to watch as it sailed smoothly, without resistance, through the unniebit's head. The rock came out on the other side, hitting the ground with force enough to send dirt flying everywhere.

"Is that Force?" Penn asked, wiping the sweat from his brow as he moved towards Nathan, who gave a curt nod. 

"Yes. It's versatile and can be used in a variety of ways. I use it mainly to embed my weapons with it - to increase strength, durability, and speed, cutting through armor resistance, reflecting physical attacks to the attacker, and even cutting through some lower-level magic. Usually, it's to anything you directly touch, but once you level up the skill high enough, you can embed force into objects for a limited amount of time."

"Useful," Penn grunted as he spun around Nathan to stab the unniebit that pounced from the long grass. Nathan flicked his sword slightly, and the monster fell into two halves. 

"Make's slicing them less of a chore. Less effort means your stamina will last longer. It's nice to cut through them all like butter."

"Because there are so many of them?" Penn asked, loading another shot into the crossbow.

"That's right. Resources are scarce and expensive. You must be able to last as long as possible, fight and survive, and travel to the deepest part of the gate. Some will simply have cores you must destroy, while others will have a boss you need to defeat. And if you get stuck against a boss, that's a prolonged battle with no breaks."

"I'm confident in my stamina, but that kind of situation is definitely unfavorable for me since I don't have the increased constitution like other Hunters," Penn pondered aloud, and Nathan couldn't help but agree.

"True, my lovely Guide. But I like that you have combat experience and are well-built overall. That makes up for what all other Guides lack, and that's why I look forward to our partnership," Nathan commented. "Let's make our way inward more. You're doing quite well."

The rest of the way towards the mountains followed the same pattern: Penn would run into a small horde of monsters, and Nathan would stand back to 'observe' how Penn handled each situation. Nathan would intervene with some absurd and unconventional moves to fight off the last few and then move on to the next bunch. Penn was confused about whether he was being evaluated or being used to deal with the small fry until Nathan grew too bored to watch over him. 

The terrain was calm, for grass as tall as Penn's waist. It remained steady, with no drastic changes, but there were no paths through the fauna either. That was until they reached the base of the mountain. The grassy plains where the unniebits and other similar creatures had resided gave way to a rock incline, with sharp peaks of stones visible further up the climb. 

Since they entered, the weather inside the gate had been like a cool summer day with overcast skies, but as they made their way up, the air grew cold, and the wind picked up speed. The cold mountain air seemed to bite at his lungs, and the atmosphere grew heavier with each step. The air thickened with tension as a new unsettling creature confronted them.

"Serpens Caprae," Nathan replied matter-of-factly. "Poisonous flames."

Penn nodded without replying, his breath heavy from the long stretch of continuous fighting. His muscles ached, and he was covered in sweat — his clothes clinging to his body. His eyes shifted to Nathan, who had grown considerably quiet the longer they remained in the gate. Penn felt unnerved by how Nathan went from kindly explaining everything to him to giving short and curt answers while choosing to stay silent the rest of the time. Sometimes, he would interject when he joined the fight, simply stating he was 'keeping things intersecting.' 

Despite Nathan's nonchalant attitude throughout the adventure, the quest had been taxing on him, even with his prior military experience. This wasn't exactly someone he had faced as an everyday occurrence enough for him to be used to it. The look in Nathan's eyes also changed the closer they got to the mountaintop, darkening into an emotionless façade. 

"If you're just trying to test how long I last before I collapse from exhaustion, just tell me," Penn grunted while whipping his sweaty palm on his pants. Nathan smirked and walked over, reaching out and wiping the dirt off of Penn's brow. He stabbed his sword into the ground and leaned on the hilt like a portable chair.

"You're holding up better than I thought for a Guide," Nathan replied with a cocky tone.

"This Guide is a trained military professional," Penn replied, leaning forward with his hands on his knees while he caught his breath. Nathan's eyes lingered slowly across him.

"But in the end, you're still a Guide - not a Hunter," Nathan shrugged. 

"Show me a Guide who can deal combat in a dungeon beside myself," Penn scoffed in annoyance, frustrated with Nathan's shifting tone that felt like he was being put down. "I've got more fighting experience than any of them. Just because I'm new to the world of Hunter's doesn't mean I'm a useless newbie."

Nathan gave a lazy shake of his head before kicking a stone at full force past Penn and knocking the snake-goat monster off its hind legs. His scrutiny was evident in the way he looked at Penn, which just pissed Penn off that the person he had looked forward to working alongside as a Hunter was starting to turn into a trash human being. Was Daniel actually right about Nathan?

"This boss monster coming up will be a pain for you to solo," Nathan stated as he got up off the hilt of his sword, pulling it from the ground. "The poison will be annoying enough to deal with, but it's still pretty built - at least two to three stories tall."

"And you want me to one-man that? Is this some sort of kamikaze mission?" Penn sighed, starting to feel fed up. Nathan chuckled.

"Not at all. We're a team, you and me. I got your back."

"How generous…" Penn rolled his eyes, looking up at the steep incline. 

"The boss isn't alone," Nathan continued, passing Penn to finish off the monster with one smooth slice of his blade. "There will be waves of smaller monsters, all the ones we've faced on the way to it. Five waves, each wave starts from the lowest ranked of them to the highest."

"Am I dealing with one problem while you deal with the other?" Penn sighed, grabbing the hand Nathan held out for him to climb over a minor cliff on their ascent.

"No, we're dealing with it together. You need to get the hang of it while being in control of the situation. I'll play a role I don't usually act out and be your DPS support." Nathan lifted Penn easily with one hand, setting him down beside him. Penn paused before continuing the climb.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?" Nathan glanced back, pausing to wait for Penn to walk beside him.

"Fight those monsters like it's nothing. You play with them so easily," Penn said, looking at Nathan's sword that hung loosely in his belt. 

"It's always been like this for me," Nathan replied, eyes forward and tone flat. "It's a bore otherwise. But I'll train you well enough that it'll be easy for you too. Though it may be different comparing you to me."

"Because in the end, I'm still a Guide?" Penn sighed, frustrated. Nathan chuckled.

"No, it's all instinct ingrained in me - like my body acting in survival mode instead of it being a skill that you gain from leveling up. It's the way I've always been."

"Did you awaken in high school or college?" Penn asked, reminded how most people tend to awaken between eighteen and twenty. Nathan gave a wistful look and avoided the question.

"You've got natural combat skills from your years in the military, plus your Hunter subskills. Even without the basic superior strength and increased regeneration, you're still on par with most rank B Hunters. That should be a skill in itself," Nathan's smirk softened.

"Thank you," Penn responded awkwardly, unsure how else to reply.

"When a time comes, which it will with all these gates spawning faster, you'll face something you won't be able to avoid. It'll be then that you'll see what you're really made of."

Penn's brow furrowed, knowing Nathan only said that to encourage him, but it felt like a veiled warning - even though he knew Nathan was right. He may have fought in the army before, but nothing close to anything like this. He felt like if he continued to walk beside Nathan, it'd lead him somewhere more dangerous he'd never be able to return from.

FOOTNOTES:

Unicornis Lepus: a monster carnivore rabbit with unicorn horns and steel fur

Unniebit: Nathan’s nickname for the above

Adverna: Latin for foreign, alien, interloper, stranger

Dominus: Latin for owner, master, the lord

Serpens Caprae: a monster goat with a snake tongue and a tail of three snakes