Chapter 242: To hunt a god.

With regards to tracking the old god, if the creature actually was one, Elred was right. They didn’t need Seren’s advice. The hunters had never had an easier time to follow the pray. Maybe it was a flea-type insect, or maybe not – either way it did move by jumping. It’s humongous size had left a line of craters on the way, and now some were filled with water and had turned into ponds.The old god’s ability to jump clearly wasn’t proportional to it’s size. The craters it left behind were around hundred yards wide, but the distance between them were three hundred yards at most. Also, it looked like after every five to six jumps it had to rest.

Hunters were fired up even after they had followed the thing for twelve days. On the way they had to fight waves of all kinds of insects. Apparently, after it was awakened from slumber, the old god was set on feasting to its fullest and traveled from one insect nest to the next, destroying everything on its way.

When hunters arrived to a place of former feast, on few occasions the insects had recovered and the humans had to go through quite a few battles to pass the area. Unsurprisingly no one complained – they had come here to gather sparks, and everyone got plenty, even Lee.

While watching each other’s backs, he and Nevin kept farming kills and equally split their earnings. Lee was the only one who didn’t care about sparks, but had to keep up the pretense. Moreover – he found the hunting fun, especially since his weapon was the same hatchet he got after the arrival.

Seren and his group followed the rest, taking part in hunt only when they were directly attacked. The main group got used to the arrogant youths being around, and since the five didn’t compete for the sparks, the rest didn’t pay them any heed.

On the thirteenth day the hunters arrived to a chasm, over hundred yards deep and twenty yards wide.

The old god had easily hopped over it, but the group had to stop. Turns out the chasm marked the border between two hunting regions.

Normally they never trespassed the border, in fact, usually no one even came this far. There was plethora of sparks to farm closer to the camp.

This time, though, after a short discussion, it was decided to follow the old god. The opportunity was too unique and there was no one who didn’t want to take part in killing the humongous creature. Besides, it would’ve been counterproductive to turn back now – judging by the remains of the insects the old god left behind, it was clear that the hunters were at most a day behind.

***

"Oh my god!" Lee gasped two days later when the group arrived at a rocky mountainous area, and sighted the old god for the first time.

"It’s not yours!" Nevin tried to joke, "This god belongs to the group!"

"How do you even kill something like this?" Lee pondered out loud.

At first they didn’t even notice it. All the hunters felt was the shaking of earth that was accompanied by the sound of falling and breaking rocks. The group was surrounded with gray-colored rocky mountains that mostly looked the same, until one of them moved.

The old god was currently humping a mountain that served as a nest for swarms of wasp-like flying insects. Compared to it’s colossal body, the wasps were no larger than grains of sand, and the buzzing cloud that surrounded the old god resembled a swirling sandstorm. Wasps kept attacking it, knocking at the old god’s shell, while the creature feasted on the body of their queen.

Lee wasn’t the only one left speechless by the sight. It was hard to not get shocked seeing something like this, but the experienced Vaerin was the first who recovered.

"Plan number four!" His shout woke everyone up from stupor, "The groups number two and three attack the right side, attracting the insect’s attention, while the first group will neutralize it’s left hind leg. Go!"

On the way hunters had prepared plans for multiple scenarios and Vaerin picked the one he thought was the most appropriate for the occasion.

Lee didn’t particularly like any, though. A creature of this size could easily stomp him to death and he was long set on putting his own safety first. And if Lee could think of it, the people who had spent their lives hunting could as well.

That didn’t mean they weren’t going to try to kill the thing. Two groups, both from the right side, charged at the old god while it was busy with the meal. The roars of humans were easily suppressed by the buzzing of the wasp swarm above, and the gigantic insect didn’t even notice when the elemental skills of the hunters hit his side. The diversion turned out to be a failure, but only because it was unnecessary.

The group number one consisted of the strongest wind and fire element attackers. When their focused strikes hit the old god’s left hind leg, they nearly severed it at the joint.

Vaerin’s idea wasn’t bad at all. He used the natural characteristics of wind and fire, that allowed the two elements amplify each other. The collective attack cut like a huge knife, dull because of the target’s size, but scorching hot, incinerating the spot it hit and disabling the extremity for good.

The thick carapace the leg was covered with melted like wax, and the smell of burned chitin filled the air. The leg still clung to the body, twitching, but everyone in the first group knew they had made sure the old god would not be able to escape.

The groups two and three clearly heard the skills hitting the old god on the opposite side, but for a couple of breaths nothing happened.

It appeared that the attack didn’t register in the gigantic flea’s brain. Either it thought it was invincible or maybe it’s nervous system functioned differently from regular insects. It only noticed it had been attacked when it’s body lost balance and it swayed to the left, interrupting the creature’s meal.

Even then it seemed confused, but when it realized it was crippled, and the couple of hundred tiny creatures below were to blame, the hell broke loose. Contrary to expectations, it didn’t scream or roar. The only sound it created was the deafening boom when a blast of compressed fire detonated around it.

Hunters had already retreated to a safe distance, but still felt the scorching heat slam in their faces. To Lee it felt like the old god had employed his signature Flame Armor skill, except it was thousands of times more intense and deadly.

Humans were fine, but the wasps above were not. Their wings got incinerated in an instant, and the heaviest hail in the history of Skalara, in the form of half-dead bull-sized insects, showered down on the hunters.

If it were the only danger, there wouldn’t have been any human casualties. The problem was that the old god began to move around with short jolts, periodically releasing the blasts of fire, similar to the first one.

Apparently it was its go-to skill when dealing with little pests, and while it wasn’t particularly effective against intelligent beings, in combo with the falling wasps it turned out to be deadly.

The hunters were relatively close to each other, and while avoiding the flames, few failed to escape the wasps. But then the worst part followed. After the bull-sized insects fell to the ground, they began to chaotically attack anything and anyone in vicinity. Blasts of fire not only scorched their wings, they had gone blind, and probably mad from pain.

Hunters scattered, escaping for their lives, but in the chaos many were crushed by the falling bodies or even stung by the spear-like tail-ends of the wasps. Lee and Nevin were lucky, and picked a direction that allowed them to escape safely. They hid behind a couple of larger rocks and only had to finish few wasps that landed nearby to make sure they stayed dead.

The chaos continued for thirty or so breaths. The damage that the old god’s fire skill caused was huge, but at the same time the consumption of the elemental energy was proportional. It couldn’t go on like this forever, and soon stopped, as if evaluating the situation.

The first hunter group gathered up again, preparing for the next attack, but were caught off-guard when the colossal flea changed its tactics, actually verifying it’s status as the old god.