Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 99: Book 2: Chapter 16: Become The Hunted

Read chapter 99 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 2: Chapter 16: Become The Hunted Book 2: Chapter 16: Become The Hunted The rest of the team had returned at dawn, bone-tired and dirty, still laughing faintly about a near-miss with a territorial rock lizard they had stumbled upon near the village quarry, until they saw the smoke curling from the valley. The laughter died immediately. The squad crested the last ridge, and what they found silenced them all. The kobold settlement looked half-consumed. A landscape of burned huts, blackened carved totems, and blood soaking in the dirt. Warriors limped between tents in their duty to patch wounds and pile their own fallen friends and family members onto logs to be burned. Anyone could taste it, as even the air tasted different now. No longer the aroma of cooking mushrooms and meat, instead it was like the taste of scorched wood and defeat. They sat in silence, no one spoke until Allie finally stepped out of the healer's tent, her hands stained red. Cole’s expression darkened. “How bad?” Allie didn’t answer right away. She just looked at Alex, and he nodded grimly. “The Chieftain’s alive,” he said. “Barely.” Peter stepped forward, already pale. “And the others?” Alex’s eyes dropped. “All of us are okay, but the kobolds, all their Adept warriors… gone.” They gathered in the remnants of the central square. The fire pit was cold now, a ring of ash and grief. No one, not even the other kobolds wanted to light it again. Obby’s illusion body, which only Alex could see, rested on his shoulder. His weirdly proportioned body sat quietly, listening, watching. The mood was heavy, but no one left. Not even Tom-Tom, who had stopped chewing on a burnt stick long enough to sit perfectly still. “We did this,” Devon said softly. “Didn’t we?” Cole looked at him, frowning. “What? We didn’t bring the wolves.” “No,” Devon said, “but we upset the balance. When we killed those badgers. We took out an entire part of the forest’s eco system. That’s why it kept throwing the mosslings at us isn’t it? Didn’t you say the elves told you the forest only sent them after threats, Alex?” He mulled over Devon’s words. It was certainly a possibility. He had been attacked by the mossling before they eradicated the badgers, but it was also after they had already killed the Den Mother and its bodyguards. “Maybe, by killing all the badgers we... “-we removed a natural predator,” Peter finished. “That forest is a system. Everything doing its part. That balance was on a knife’s edge, and we kicked it.” The words hung there. No one denied it. Even Alex didn’t speak. Until Obby’s voice came, low and hollow through his mind. “You can retaliate. The alpha was weakened… but not dying. Something of that level, it retreats only when wounded badly enough to reconsider. If it recovers, it will return. And this time… there will be nothing left to stop it.” He knew that Obby was right. Further, Alex knew that he wanted to go after the wolf. To take that chance at a real fight, even if it was crazy. He remembered watching the wolf leave, it was slower, weaker, like it couldn’t fight at its full strength any longer. Which meant, there was a wild chance. “We can go after the wolf,” he finally said out loud. Tom-Tom made a sound that might’ve been a hiss… or a prayer. Lance tightened the strap on his gauntlet. “After that thing? Did you not see what it did last night? That’s insane.” “Wait,” Kate said suddenly. Everyone turned to her. She didn’t flinch, didn’t pace or raise her voice. She just looked at the wreckage of the kobold village, then back to the squad. “We made this mess,” she said. “Whether we meant to or not. And I’m tired of walking away when things get hard. Or having this so called-system telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. What I am or am not capable of. Aren’t you?” A pause. “We finish this. We fix it.” It surprised them, her most of all, judging by the way her lips twitched after she said it. Alex nodded slowly, baffled by the realization that it was Kate who w