The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 123

Chapter 123: First Assignment 4: Seperated.
“Something’s coming, and it’s moving really fast” Clara reported as she watched the creature approaching through the eyes of her falcon.

“In which direction and how long before it gets here?” Owen asked.

“West—and judging by its speed, we’ve only got a couple of minutes before it gets here,” Clara said, pointing in the direction of the approaching primal.

“I see,” Owen nodded before continuing, “that means you guys have a few—”

Before he could finish, Clara abruptly cut in.

“I think I can take it down from here,” she said, her eyes still locked onto the approaching target through her falcon’s vision.

Without waiting for Owen’s reply, she summoned her rifle, swiftly adjusting the scope.

As she synced her vision with her falcon’s, the approaching primal became crystal clear despite the dense foliage obstructing normal sight.

The trees no longer mattered—she could see it as if it were right in front of her.

Steadying her breath, Clara allowed her shadow ferret to activate [Phantom Shot] before she slowly put her finger on the trigger.

The forest, the wind, the background noises, everything else seemed to disappear as she focused on looking at the approaching primal through the scope of her sniper.

Her finger squeezed the trigger, and with a bang, the bullet left the barrel, vanishing into the dense forest.

The team silently waited for the result of the shot when Clara suddenly turned to them and said,

“It’s down.”

Through her falcon’s eyes, she watched as the primal collapsed mid-sprint, she had watched the bullet phase through its head, only to solidify inside its skull a split second later, tearing through its brain before it even had the chance to react.

“Well that was anticlimactic,” Owen commented as he let out a yawn “anyway, good job Clara, that just saved us from wasting energy.”

“Shouldn’t this area have increased primal activity?” Reid questioned “why was that primal only attacking alone.”

This caused the team to pause and contemplate. According to the only information they received on the assignment, this forest should be crawling with primals.

The fact that only one had rushed to attack, even with the noise produced by the hovercraft that dropped them off, didn’t sit right with Reid.

“Maybe they moved further into the forest?” Marcus said.

“No, Reid is right, something definitely is wrong,” Owen muttered, scanning their surroundings. “If the primals were as active as the report said, we should’ve been swarmed by now.”

As if on cue, multiple low growls rumbled through the dense foliage, coming from every direction around them.

Clara’s eyes widened as she looked through her falcon’s vision, realizing the growls weren’t coming from just one source—but from multiple creatures, closing in fast.

Worst of all, her falcon hadn’t even spotted their approach. It felt as if they just popped out of thin air.

Her breath hitched, this wasn’t normal ‘how did they get this close without my falcon detecting them?’

“Guys,” Clara said, her voice was a bit tense “we’ve got a problem.”

“How many and how far are they?” Owen directly asked. The growls alone made it clear what the ‘problem’ was.

“At least a dozen” Clara answered “and they’re already too close.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a primal lunged from the one of the trees.

It seemed a bit smaller but it moved like a blur, it hopped from tree to tree before launching itself forward. Its claws extended toward Clara’s throat.

She barely had time to react.

But Reid did.

With a command, Rusty quickly activated [Pause], causing the primal to freeze mid-leap, as it was suspended in time.

Reid’s expression remained cold as he drew his blade. In one swift motion, he slashed through the immobilized creature.

A heartbeat later, [Pause] wore off.

The primal hit the ground in two clean halves, black blood steaming as it seeped into the dirt.

“That was too close,” Lisa muttered with a frown “are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Clara exhaled, forcing her heartbeat to steady.

A second later and that creature’s claw would have torn through her throat.

Mist, that originated from seemingly nowhere, started covering the forest, obscuring their vision.

Within moments, it swallowed the landscape and trees, turning their surroundings into a haze that made it impossible for any of them to see through.

“Don’t let your guard down,” Owen warned, as the mist fully engulfed the forest. “I don’t think this is an ordinary—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

The realization hit him like a cold wave—his teammates were gone.

The thick mist swirled eerily around him, muting all sound except his own breathing. His forged beast, still by his side, let out a low growl, its posture tense.

But there was no sign of Clara, Reid, Lisa, Marcus or Ethan. One moment, they had been right there, and the next… nothing.

“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath. This was exactly why he preferred sleeping over taking missions.

Sleeping required far less effort—and, more importantly, there was zero chance of him or his teammates getting lost in some creepy mist.

“Alright, let’s go find them and hope they’re not dead” Owen said to his forged beast, but before he could move an inch, something cut through the mist.

Reacting fast enough, Owen ducked, allowing the giant claw to pass over his head and back into the mist.

“These bastards are a lot smarter than normal primals,” Owen muttered, his eyes narrowing as he sensed the presence of whatever had just attacked him vanish into the mist.

He realized that the primals were coordinating their attacks and hiding their presence.

They were actively using strategies to hunt them down, which was unheard of—at least, not to this degree.

“Since they like mists so much, why don’t we return the favor” Owen said to his hound.

Owen’s Forged-Beast quickly understood his intent and activated [Frostbite Mist].

A chilling wave spread outward from the hound, releasing an icy mist that absorbed all the warmth in the environment around it.

The temperature dropped in an instant, and the fog that had surrounded them began to crystallize.

All the mist around him froze mid-air, suspended in eerie stillness for a brief moment before shattering into countless ice fragments.

The frozen shards scattered like dust, clearing the area and allowing Owen to see his surroundings once more.

He exhaled, watching his breath turn to vapor. “Well, that’s one way to clear the air,” he muttered before scanning the area.

The mist had completely frozen the trees, forest floor, any vegetation and more importantly, the five primals that were surrounding him.

They were all frozen mid-attack, their claws and fangs mere inches from where Owen had stood moments ago.

“Gotcha” he said with a smirk as he slowly approached the ice coffins encasing the primals.

With just a light knock, countless cracks spiderwebbed across their frozen forms before they shattered into smaller cubes of ice.

The primals’ bodies had been reduced to countless cubes of ice, scattered across the frozen ground.

“Well, that takes care of that” he muttered before looking around him again.

His team had vanished, leaving him alone in the forest. He considered searching for them, but with no clue where they had gone, he wasn’t sure where to start.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine” Owen said, before letting out a loud yawn “in the meantime, I should catch up on my missed sleep.”

Looking around, he found a tree that wasn’t front by his hound’s ability and quickly climbed it with ease.

As soon as he found a sturdy enough branch, Owen plopped down and leaned against the trunk of the tree.

Without a second thought, he closed his eyes and fell asleep—completely unfazed by the fact that he was in the middle of primal territory and his teammates were still missing.

_____________

While Owen was comfortably dozing off, Marcus and Clara found themselves together in a completely different location.

The forest they were previously in had all but disappeared, with only a few trees and huge boulders surrounding them.

“What the hell just happened?” Marcus muttered, his voice tense as he scanned their surroundings. “We were just in the forest—how did we end up here?”

“Teleportation?” Clara guessed. “It seems the mist teleported us away from the others.”

She raised her head to the sky and spotted her falcon hovering above them, it seemed to have been teleported too.

She synced their eyes again to get a better view of the environment.

The forest they had been in just moments ago was now a few miles away—but that wasn’t their biggest concern.

The real problem was the sheer number of primals closing in on them. Moving with eerie coordination as they advanced slowly.

But what unsettled her the most wasn’t the primals themselves.

It was the figure leading them.

At first glance, it appeared human—or at least something that resembled one.

It walked upright like a human and taking a closer look through her falcon’s eyes, Clara recognized the uniform it wore.

The thing lifted its head, looking directly at Clara’s falcon, sending chills down her spine at the sight.

Clara’s grip on her rifle tightened as she said, “Marcus, I think we’re in some serious trouble.”