章 22: Hunting mammoths

Leo was beside himself with excitement, while everyone was looking at him funny wondering what he was excited for. He watched as the Giants lumbered across the field, pulling tufts of grasses as they went. It was this point that Leo noticed several differences from he mammoths he had known about. While he knew mammoths had two tusks, these ones had four. And while he wasn't sure how big mammoths used to be on earth, he doubted they were nearly thirty feet tall like these ones were. However he couldn't help getting excited all the same. It was one things to confront animals he never thought existed, it was another thing entirely to encounter someone he had known about but considered extinct. Noticing iris's and the others gaze, Leo embarrassingly said,

"They look like animals from my world. There they weren't called tusk Giants, but {mammoths}." And he then tried to explain how mammoths were extinct. As Leo looked at them again he couldn't help wondering, are there other monsters that are considered extinct to me, but common here? He got excited at the thought that he might even get to see dinosaurs one day. But he had a job to do, so he had to calm himself down and listen to his role. Seeing Leo had calmed down, Natalie then started explaining the plan.

"Since Leo is here and this is his first time hunting tusk Giants, I'm going to go through the usual plans from the beginning. Leo you'll be part of the drivers, your job is to drive one of the Giants to us here in the trees. We can handle one easily, but if the whole herd came we wouldn't be able to fight back. Using energy the others will sneak through and form a barrier around one to separate it. Leo, your job is to spook them since you can't use energy to cloak yourself yet. Try to get them to flee away from us, the one we surround will run here. After that we'll take care of the rest."

"Understood" Leo confirmed his role. He figured one reason he was given the task to spook the mammoths, was because his beastial intimidation was probably more effective than jumping out and yelling "BOO!". As they were preparing he noticed Iris was part of the drivers as well, so he couldn't help going up and telling her,

"I know you probably don't want me to tell you so, but please be careful." Iris was actually more concerned about Leo's well being, but she appreciated that he cared about her safety. But before she could say anything,

"Quit flirting over there you two, don't you do enough of that at home?" One of the other hunters called out. Leo and Iris couldn't help turning red at his words while the other hunters started laughing. Natalie told them to knock it off, and Iris replied,

"Thanks for worrying about me, but be sure to take care of yourself as well ok?" Leo nodded his confirmation before heading to the area that he needed to wait until he got the signal from Natalie. He would have to wait there until the other drivers were in position before making his move. While he was waiting Leo couldn't help noticing how well they were hidden with the use of energy. Even his superior senses couldn't pick them up. After roughly twenty minutes, he heard the signal from Natalie.

Leo closed his and took a deep breath. Almost as if the beast was anticipating the hunt as well, he was able to trigger the partial transformation easier this time than the two other times that day. As he picked out the one Natalie pointed out earlier, he sprinted towards it while letting out a beastly roar when he got close enough to separate it from the herd.

"RRRROOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!" Startled by the sound of a predator, as well as the smell of one; the mammoths bellowed in fear and ran the other direction. As soon as the one singled out tried to turn, the other drivers jumped up and started trying to drive the mammoth to the ambush. But Leo apparently did his job a little too well, because the mammoth was more afraid of him than the other hunters. When Leo noticed the problem, he decided to cheat and used some chi to get around the beast and start driving it as well.

When the mammoth had seen Leo there as well, it turned around and ran from this terror it never encountered before. Leo followed close behind it to ensure it didn't go off course, but as they neared the ambush he fell back to prevent going into the line of fire. Then A rain of arrows powered with chi came down onto the mammoth. But due to the thick fur, and many layers of fat and muscle to go through, none were a kill shot. Natalie had made her usual shot to the eye, but as she shot the mammoth turned its head and the arrow hit one of the tusks instead.

As they shot arrow after arrow, all they succeeded in doing was making the mammoth enraged. As Leo was trying to figure out what to do, he recalled a scene he had seen in a movie. He ran to the mammoth as he shouted out,

"Stop firing! I'm going to try something!" The hunters hearing his voice stopped firing as he ordered,and Leo powered by the transformation as well as chi, jumped to the back of the mammoth. He pulled out an arrow and readied his bow as he fought to keep his balance. As he neared the head he poured as much chi into the arrow as he could and aimed at the back of the mammoths skull. As he released his arrow, due to the amount of power Leo put into it, it pierced the back of the mammoths head. And a moment later the mammoth shuddered and collapsed. As it fell Leo was forced to jump to stable ground.

"I cant believe that actually worked. I guess you can learn from movies." He didn't notice the other hunters looking at him in awe. Leo had only made two kills as a hunter, and both had been nearly impossible for a hunter with no experience to take down. And both were taken down with a single shot from him. While they had shot many arrows into the mammoth, they were nothing more than bee stings to it. And Leo had no idea the ripples he had caused in the hunters hearts.