Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 68 - Bargain

They each chose a contract. That way, even if one turned out to be a bust, they could practice their new abilities on the other. Neither looked like they would pose a massive problem for either of them, but it would allow them some much-needed time to experiment. As long as no problems arose, they planned on it only taking a few days.

First, Mason had taken out a contract to investigate and kill an unknown Monster who had been terrorising a farm just south of Sparksford. The only details in the contract were that the Monster attacked only at night, nobody had actually seen it, and every time it attacked, paw prints and dead animals were the only signs it left behind.

They had chosen this contract to do first as it had the potential to be the one that took the longest. If they couldn’t find a way to track the Monster, then they’d be stuck waiting around for it to attack. The only problem with that is that it attacked most nights but not every night, meaning that, at worst, they could be there for a few days. In an ideal world, Mason’s Basic Monster tracking Hunter skill would be enough for them to find whatever it was.

Chatting with the farmhands who worked in the fields just confirmed what the contract already said. The Monster was thought to have some sort of stealth ability; it struck only at night and usually attacked only a single animal each time.

They were shown one of the paw prints the creature left behind. If this were Earth, he would say it came from a large dog or cat, but here, it could be any number of things with similar paws.

His Basic Monster Tracking ability gave them the vague direction the monster had gone and the vague sense that it had been a while ago.

After scouting out the area for a while, they found nothing, but on their trek back, Mayry stopped and stared at something.

She stood there stock still until Mason asked, “Do you see something?”

It took a few more seconds for her to reply, “No… maybe? There is a faint trace of magic, but it’s old.” She got closer and bent down to pick something up.

Mason got closer and saw her hand was empty.

“Err, did you find something?”

“Yes….” She replied, not volunteering any extra information.

He put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly and said, “Mayry, you know there’s nothing in your hand, right?”

She turned away from staring at her hand and glared at him, “It’s invisible, dumbass; hold out your hand.”

Mason felt something fall into it; rubbing it against his fingers, it felt like fur. “Well, I guess that explains why nobody ever sees the Monster when it attacks.”

*****

It was late evening, and Mason and Mayry were taking turns keeping watch for Monster. One would stay awake while the other slept in the Trunk. It was far easier for Mayry as she had magic sight, but she insisted he would know if the creature attacked, as it would probably try to maul him before he noticed.

Mason wasn’t happy about the current situation. He felt like they should be out hunting down the ‘Others’, not on a stake out waiting for a monster that may or may not attack. Taking out the contracts had been his idea, but he had really just wanted something he and Mayry fight; he wasn’t a fan of all this waiting around.

It was only a half-hour into his watch, but he was already feeling very… very… sleepy….

A terrified mooing sound woke him. He looked up and saw an annoyed Mayry looking down at him.

“Fell asleep, huh?” She asked.

“No, I was just resting my eyes,” he replied defiantly.

Standing up and stretching, he looked over at the noise that had woken him. In the misty night, he could see a vague outline of a big creature over by the cow field. He tried to Identify it but failed as he was either not close enough or couldn’t see the creature well enough for the ability to work.

He held out his hand to Mayry; she took it without question. Mason Teleported them both closer to the Monster, who was now chowing down on a cow. They were hiding behind stacks of hay a few metres away from the creature. He still couldn’t see it, but the blood splatters let him see the creature’s outline well enough for his Identify skill to work.

Monster—Level 53 Cat Sith—The Cat Sith is a stealthy and mysterious creature known for its sleek black fur and piercing yellow eyes. It is whispered that it may be of the Fae.

Okay, if the Fae did exist, then he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to fuck with this thing. A lot of the stories he had read about the Fae painted them as trickster fairy creatures like Tinkerbell, but there were also the other stories, older ones, that showed them as beautiful, proud beings that were very powerful and very easily offended.

“Mayry,” Mason whispered, “I’m not so sure we should do this.”

“What? Why not?!” She demanded, “We’ve been waiting here all night, and now that it’s here, you want to back out?”

“Its description says the creature might be of the Fae!” Mason whispered back, urgency evident in his tone.

“The fuck is a Fae?”

“The Fae? The Fair Folk, no? Okay, well, there are a lot of stories on Earth about The Fae! If we mess with them now, they’ll steal our firstborn child or something!” Mason said, trying to emphasise his point.

Mayry was silent for a moment. Mason looked at her and saw that her eyes had gone wide. Mason whipped his head around, looking for whatever danger she had seen, but he saw no incoming attack.

“Wh- what?” he asked confused.

“Nothing… haha, Just… our firstborn child? You think of things like that?” She asked.

Mason’s face turned pink, “Yeah, no, well, I mean, it was just an example, but… but can we focus on the giant invisible cat and come back to this later?”

Looking back up at the now Cat Sith, she nodded.

“Well, we can’t just leave it here. What happens when it runs out of cows and starts attacking people?”

That was a good point; he would feel horrible if he left it here and it started killing the farm worker, but what could he do? His only real options were to kill it and risk pissing off some fairies or leave it alone for it to start killing the locals. A very lose-lose situation.

If it was a fae creature, then maybe it could talk. Perhaps it could be reasoned with?

“I think I’m going to try and talk to it,” Mason said, his voice filled with uncertainty.

“Mason. It’s a giant fucking cat. It’s going to eat you.” Mayry said frantically, trying to dissuade him.

“If it is of the Fae, then it will probably have at least some sapiance. If it isn’t and it attacks me, I’ll just kill it, and our first kid can just be a write-off.” He joked but hurriedly teleported closer to the Cat Sith when he saw the glare on Mayrys face.

Now that he was only a few feet away, he could see that the creature’s invisibility was not as perfect as his own ability. He could see it shimmer slightly in the moonlight.

The creature’s actual size was quite intimidating. It was nothing compared to the Basilisk or even the Crack Hen, but something about it that resembled a cat freaked him out. Growing up on Earth, the scariest thing he had even the slightest possibility of running into was something like a lion or tiger… or bear, but that wasn’t relevant. The fear he felt from the creature in front of him seemed deeply ingrained in his psyche.

Scared or not, Mason took a breath and said, “Hi.” The giant cat froze still as stone for a moment before it went right back to devouring the cow.

Okay, well, that didn’t work. Err… “Meow?” he tried.

Again, the cat’s outline froze. This time, it turned to look at him. Its stealth ability turned off, and it appeared. Its fur was as black as the night that surrounded it. Its yellow eyes were fixed on Mason with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance. Long claws protruded from its massive paws, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

As Mason looked into its eyes, he heard a deep, rumbling voice in his head. “Human. Did you just meow at me?”

Mason wasn’t sure how to reply mentally, so he just spoke out loud. “Well, yeah,” It had mostly been a result of letting his intrusive thoughts win, one he felt a bit embarrassed by now. “I did, yeah, but in my defence, I said ‘hi’ first. You didn’t react. I wasn’t sure if you could speak.”

It lowered its head so its eyes were level with his. It narrowed them at him. “What do you want?”

“Well, my friend and I are here on a hunter contract-“ Before he could finish his sentence, the Cat Sith disappeared again, this time without the slightest shimmer. Mason shouted, not knowing whether it was really gone or not, “We aren’t going to hurt you! I don’t want any problems with fae!”

There was a pause, and then just the cat’s head appeared, seemingly floating in mid-air. “You know of the Fae?” It asked in his head; the projection of the voice was accompanied by a sense of amusement and surprise.

"I do!" Mason said. “So you are of the Fae?"

The Cat Monster rematerialised fully, its form imposing in the moonlight. "I am. If you hunters do decide to attack me, it won’t end well for you. Your friends got in a lucky strike. They weren’t so lucky a second time."

"Friends?" Mason's heart quickened, a sense of unease creeping over him.

"Other Hunters who came and attacked. They injured me, and they paid the price."

"They injured you? Are you okay now? I can heal you." Mason offered, concern etched into his voice.

"It was nothing." The Cat Monster turned, revealing a large gap in its black fur, swollen and green with infection. "I have been hungrier since the attack."

Mason gestured to where Mayry was still hiding, beckoning her to come over.

When she got closer, he said. “It’s okay. He isn’t going to attack us if we don’t attack first.

Mayry’s eyes were wide in amazement. She reached out and touched it. Mason was about to stop her, but the giant cat didn’t seem to mind. “You are beautiful,” she said, mesmerised by the Cat Sith. “My name is—“Mason elbowed her, cutting her off. She shot him an annoyed glare but saw him wide-eyed, staring at her and shaking his head.

It was nice knowing things that she didn’t. Usually, it was the opposite, with him being absolutely clueless. He was just glad he had stopped her.

The creature let out a rumble that Mason interpreted as a laugh. “Hah, so you do truly know of the Fae. You are wise not to share your name. You can call me Azra; it is not my name, but it will do.”

“Okay, Azra, we need you to stop attacking the cattle here; let me heal you and take you somewhere else, somewhere no hunters will bother you, and you can’t hunt all you want.”

The Cat Monster narrowed its eyes. “Heal this wound, and I can leave this place on my own. There is Magic in the cut that has anchored me to this world. I tire of this realm, heal me, and I will go.”

This was great. He probably wouldn’t be able to collect the bounty, but the Cat Sith will be gone, and he can move on to the next contract and actually fight something! He knew from stories that deals with the Fae were often not what they seemed, but this one seemed pretty straightforward. “Okay, deal.”

“Hmm. No. Not a deal. Not yet. The bargain must be equal on both sides. If you heal me and I go, I will still be in your debt. That can not be allowed. You must ask for more.”

Mason paused, considering his options. He needed to come up with something that would balance the deal. He glanced at Mayry, who looked back at him and shrugged; she had less of an idea than he did.

The only thing he could think of was his possible battle with the gods… a level 52 giant cat probably wouldn’t be that helpful, but it couldn’t hurt. Anyway, he was confident that he would get in plenty of fights between now and then and having a Fae on his side couldn’t hurt.

"I understand," Mason said, his mind racing. "In exchange for healing you and helping you to leave this place, you must aid us in battle if we ever call upon you. Is that acceptable?”

Azra's eyes narrowed as it considered the proposal. After a moment of silence, it nodded. “You may call on me once. I will come. Heal me, and let the bargain be struck."

Mason could not believe the first time he would use his healing ability was on a Giant Cat Fae creature. He thought the deal was a pretty good one. Healing didn’t cost him a thing, and he would get a badass cat, Sith Summons, to help him out. He would save it for when he needed it or at least try not to use it impulsively.

He placed his hand on the cat’s surprisingly soft fur and activated his healing ability. The cat’s muscles instantly relaxed, and healing flowed into them. As Mason’s Mana started to decrease, his side exploded in pain.

He had known that he would have to take on the pain of what he was healing, but he hadn’t realised the extent of the pain. The fact that the Cat Sith had been enduring this for who knows how long was crazy. The longer he healed, the worse the pain got; he felt his side split open, the bleeding enough that it leaked through his armour into his boots.

He let go of the cat with one of his hands and pulled a healing potion out of his inventory. He downed it and felt the potion and the wound battling for dominance inside him.

The Cat Sith seemed indifferent to his pain. It seemed to just be enjoying the sensation of being healed.

As soon as the wound on the cat was healed, he let go and stepped back, panting and falling to his knees. The pain hadn’t yet stopped, and he wondered how long it was going to last. The skill’s description said, ‘You will temporarily take on what you are healing.’ But how bloody temporarily?!

Now fully healed, the Cat Sith turned to him and bowed its head low. “Thank you, Human,” it said, raising its head and disappearing, this time for good.

Mason fell the rest of the way to the floor and lay there, willing the wound to go away. Mayry rushed over and heard her say something to him, but he couldn’t make sense of the words. After a few minutes of torment, the pain started to recede.

“Remind me to think twice before using my healing ability on mysterious infected wounds again.”