Dogmatic Dungeon Dominion

"You awoke… how young?" Penn asked pensively. Nathan looked at Penn with an unnerving smile — it lacked all emotions. 

"Ah, I guess you haven't heard all the rumors about me yet," Nathan replied flatly, shrugging. "My grandmother was the first person to awaken. I'm sure even you in the military have heard about the first Hunter, who was just a ranger trying to track the source of the monsters."

"What are you—"

"Guide me," Nathan stared at him, and he replied in a flat tone with a stern face.

"What?" Penn paused, momentarily confused.

"We planned for you to guide me during the monster waves. You have yet to do so, so I had to come to you."

"How am I supposed to get to you to provide any guiding or support when you're surrounded by monsters and trying to get the highest kill count?!" Penn replied with a sarcastic tone.

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Nathan shrugged. "Do it."

"From over here?" Penn asked, confused while looking at the monster's stunned and unfocused face, which separated the two.

"I don't see why not?" Nathan replied. "You're high-ranked enough to spatial guide."

"You told me that since you're such a high-ranked hunter, I have to contact guide you!" Penn spat, dumbfounded. Nathan shifted his face away from Penn.

"Ah, that," was all he replied. Penn's mouth sputtered in search of a reply before he gave up with a sigh, closing his eyes to focus on reaching out to Nathan's energy.

Nathan gave a subtle gasp, but Penn didn't open his eyes, trying not to let himself get distracted. More concentration and effort had to be put into spatial guiding—since it was based on feeling instead of science.

"Stop hiding your energy, Nathan," Penn said with an annoyed tone. Nathan chuckled, but something felt off. Wrong. Penn gasped, feeling his breath sucked away as darkness overtook him. "Wait… s-stop…"

"Do it right, Guide," Nathan replied, his tone harsh. What was happening? Penn was filled with confusion and a sense of loss, and the control of guiding was taken from him. Suddenly, he was reminded of when the staff talked about an esper who could reverse guide. Was this what they were talking about? It felt horrible. Nausea overtook him, and he fell to his knees.

"N-Nathan… please—" Penn stuttered through shallow breaths. A frustrated sigh came from the side, and he heard a small thud as something landed next to him.

"Fine, stop complaining," Nathan said as he pulled Penn up next to him. Penn gasped as his eyes shot open, taking large, deep breaths to calm himself.

"Don't..." Penn looked up at Nathan, eyes half-lidded, his face pale and clammy. "Don't ever do that again."

"..." Nathan just stared at him, his eyes completely black. Black? What was wrong with his eyes?

"Why are they like that?" Penn whispered aloud, unknowingly.

"Quickly. Continue," Nathan looked down at him coldly. Penn nodded, feeling anxious and unnerved. He reached out and took Nathan's hand, nervously closing his eyes as he again focused on guiding. The feeling was better than last time.

Penn didn't dive into deep guiding since they were outside in an active zone filled with enemies. This time, he only did it for several minutes—every so often hearing Nathan fire off a few shots as he worked on getting the more aggressive unniebits that attempted to climb the stunned dominus.

"That should be enough until the next round," Nathan said suddenly, in a softer tone than previous. Penn opened his eyes and looked up at him. Nathan looked back with a slight frown, but his eyes were closer to their original cool brown than the black from moments earlier. Penn sighed and let go of his hand.

"Do you… need more guiding?" Penn asked in a worried tone.

"Hush now, baby guide," Nathan chuckled. "We have things to kill."

"Baby?!" Penn scoffed, flabbergasted. He lifted his knife, which gleamed with a subtle red tinge as if debating throwing it at his Hunter. But the reminder that this man was S-ranked sobered him quickly. Instead, he shifted his attention back to the dominus and continued bringing down its health while Nathan finished off the first wave.

Nathan jumped from the top of each den, pointing his sword and firing a short burst of Force energy at each unniebit that launched at him. The more Penn witnessed Nathan's abilities, the more he realized why Nathan suggested Force for his next learned skill. He looked down at his own hands, flexing them open and shut with a frown.

"Back to work," he mumbled to himself as he turned to look at the now-rousing boss monster. The dominus started to move once again, the stun slowly wearing off as the mob wave approached its end.

Its wounded roars began to climb in volume as it stepped forward, sending Penn swaying as he attempted to grab on for dear life. Its wounds started to ooze with every move from the exposed gashes.

Penn pulled his hunting knife from his hip and threw himself to the back of the dominus' neck, stabbing continuously. His hands quickly became wet, making it hard for him to hold on. He slid down the stiff, metallic back until he hit the ground—tucking and rolling out of the way.

The guide's heart pounded loudly against his chest cavity as he threw himself forward as fast as possible. The last few unniebits of the round were scattered, and all their attention was drawn to him upon his landing. His eyes found Nathan, and he sprinted as fast as possible when he saw him point his sword his way.

"Crap, that crazy bastard!" Penn yelled at himself. He had somehow already forgotten the type of person Nathan was in battle with. As one of the monsters leaped forward to nip at his ankles, it exploded next to Penn, sending dirt and pebbles spewing into his face.

Penn flinched and stumbled, almost tripping over his feet as he ran forward - shots continuing to hit both creatures and dirt around him as if bullets were raining down upon him. The sound of the rabid thuds of their rabbit-like paws slowly decreased behind him, but he continued to run - because now a larger thud was heard behind him - one that shook the ground.

"Guide, my ass," Penn mumbled to himself under his breath in frustration. He yelled over his shoulder, hoping Nathan would hear him, "I'd better be getting a bonus for this!"

Nathan's laugh echoed behind him over the chaos. Penn made the mistake of looking behind him. The dominus fell forward, off its hind legs, and down on all fours. It was preparing to leap.

Penn's blood ran cold for the second time that day. Having a two- or three-story poisonous horned rabbit monster jumping in chase after you was pure nightmare fuel. One leap from that thing would overtake Penn in a moment.

"Nathan!" Penn called out in a panicked voice as the dominus pounced and soared towards him.

Suddenly, a unniebit flew from the side, colliding with his right side and sending him flying. Penn spun onto a spot of grass, miraculously landing on top of the creature that hit him. He jumped up and spotted Nathan, who was running full speed at the boss. He was crazy enough to use his Force to send a charging monster flying at Penn and knocking him out of the boss' path.

The guide barely had time to breathe as the boss made a wide turn back towards him. Nathan lunged, sword raised above his head with both hands, and crashed down. His blade sunk into the dominus's side before he yanked it out and continued his relentless attacks.

Penn didn't think much of Nathan being an S-ranked when he fought before—just slashing and shooting energy shots didn't seem worthy of the rank. But he finally started to see a glimpse.

Around Nathan, thousands of tiny red sparks light up, like an LED drone forming a sphere. Then the orbs moved, firing off at high speeds like endless bullets from a machine gun.

When it wasn't making much progress through the dominus' tough fur, the lights moved around his sword into the shape of a javelin, piercing forward and digging into the monster - blood sprayed out like a sprinkler.

The giant beast staggered, movements slowing to a snail's pace from being worn down as Nathan filled the sky with his Force energy. It was literally a moving weapon away from his body. This wasn't what he had described to Penn, so either it came with his high rank—or related to his own abilities and skills.

Penn attempted to get close, but the monster reared in agony, swinging its front claw at lightning speed. He didn't even have time to react, only thinking to himself how stupid he was to charge inward. A sharp pain exploded from his back as the claw struck him. He flew incredibly fast, twisting in the air before slamming into the ground, knocking the breath from his lungs.

"Penn!" Nathan called out in surprise, using his Force with a higher strength than what he had been using previously—sending the boss flying off to the side of the crater. Penn shuddered and struggled to stand up. Thankfully, the chest gear Nathan had thrown at him before coming had saved him—but it crumbled off his body, and the durability maxed out.

"Damn," he mumbled as he looked himself over. Overall, he was fine, but he would definitely be heavily bruised tomorrow. And this was supposed to be a dungeon for newbies. Was it because he wasn't an actual esper? He sighed in frustration.

"You still good?" Nathan called with a strained voice, not even looking back at him. Penn looked over and chewed his inner cheek in thought before heading back toward the dominus.

"No worries, I'm nowhere near finished."

***

"Pardon? Unniebit?" asked the association's evaluator, who wanted an update on Penn's first excursion. "What's that?"

"That rabbit with fur as hard as steel?" Penn replied, sounding more like a question.

"Oh, you mean the jackalopes?" the Hunter replied, confirming.

"Pardon? Jackalopes?" Penn responded, feeling more confused. "Not unniebits?"

"Not sure who told you they were called something so stupid - but they are just called jackalopes…" the Hunter replied, looking down at Penn and clicking his tongue. Penn, at a loss for words, whipped his head to look at Nathan - who stood off to the side, giving a broad, knowing smile.

This bastard…