"So, you still want to go to Balaton?" she inquired, my gaze shifting to my stew, uncertainty evident in my expression.
"I'm not sure," I replied, contemplating.
"You know, somewhere out there might hold more extraordinary monsters than Goliath." Her soft voice carried a hint of fear. "So... Balaton or Versailles?" She asked unexpectedly.
"Versailles..."
"It's on the other side of Europe," she reminded me, and a twinge of worry crossed my mind.
"But if there are humans... they know how to fight those things. They might have shelters, a community."
"They have Tamers."
"What's that?"
"Not what, who," her voice shifted from relaxed to a mix of sadness and wrath, her eyes revealing the depth of her emotions.
"They are -special- humans who were born before our era. They possess abilities that can detect and effectively combat those monsters outside. Years ago, Versailles recruited all Tamers in an attempt to train them as soldiers who would lead us back to the world as it was before. Unfortunately, as you can see, the world remains the same, and other settlements lost their protectors due to foolish propaganda."
An urge welled up within me, compelling me to inquire more about these Tamers. Just as I was about to speak, she silenced me with a finger on my lips.
"Rub this on your skin," she whispered, pressing a small flask containing some strange gel into my hands. Her gaze was stern. "Do it, or we are dead." Swiftly, she reached for her headgear, covering her face as she applied the gel to her palms. The bluish substance emitted a sweet yet putrid scent, reminiscent of rotting fruit mixed with the odor of wax.
"What is..." She muted my voice once again and directed me towards the doors to look outside. Three grons were moving across the bridge, sniffing the air as if tracking something or someone. One of them turned its head toward the tram, but upon catching a whiff of the herbs, it wrinkled its nostrils and moved on. Karen maintained a low profile until the trio disappeared at the other end of the bridge.
"They were looking for you," she scolded me immediately.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know they could track like this or act as a pack."
"Where are you from, boy? How the heck did you manage to stay alive for this long? That's basic knowledge," she continued, the pressure building up on me. It was enough to make me feel like I had awakened two centuries later, only to be confronted by a woman giving me hell.
"Shut up! How would I know?!" My voice transformed from shaky to a soft growl. Karen froze. I wasn't sure if it was because of the revelation that I was what she called a Tamer or the fact that I had exploded. She turned pale just as my foot was halfway out of the tram.
"Are you crazy!" she whispered and pulled me back in. "They are still around, you idiot! If they heard us, you better pray that smell will keep them away from the tram."
My mouth hung half-open as the desire to confront her surged within me, anger boiling over. I wanted to shout and unleash my frustration. Part of me yearned to grab my bike, resting on the tram's exterior, and speed away from this unpredictable woman. Yet, the reality was stark – without her, I would undoubtedly meet my demise, especially now as the trio made their way back toward the tram. Their claws scraped over the metallic surface, echoing a sinister rhythm as they sniffed and sought the source of the disturbance.
Karen's piercing eyes commanded my attention, and she signaled with her hand for me to stay low. Following her lead with a soft nod, I dropped to all fours and then lay prone on my belly, mirroring her posture.
"Stay quiet," her lips conveyed the message, but no sound escaped her mouth. The smallest of the three entered the tram, scrutinizing its surroundings. It was directly above me, and I could discern its distinctive scent. Its leg claws hovered right in front of my eyes, bearing fragments of skin. The creature's shallow yet resonant inhales reverberated in my ears as it breathed directly above me.
Karen rose slowly, silently drawing a knife from her belt. With swift precision, she lunged at the gron, stabbing it repeatedly on the side of its neck.
The gron staggered in a macabre dance as Karen rode it, its mouth gaping open in a silent plea for help. However, no sound emerged except for a gushing shriek as blood flooded the creature's throat. With a resounding thud, the beast collapsed right beside me, and Karen tossed a gun in my direction.
"I hope you know how to shoot," she remarked, peering out from the doors and taking aim at the larger one. I was frozen, grappling with the disbelief that such a small person could dispatch a creature in such a manner.
"Nathaniel! There's no time. I need you to at least shoot towards them! I can't kill both."
Panic began to overwhelm me, and it seemed unstoppable.
"Nathaniel!" she yelled, snapping me back to reality. She was already shooting at the one that was further away from us. Karen held her position in front of the tram and I joined next to her with a handgun she left on the counter. In movies, it appeared easy to shoot and hold a gun steady, but for someone who had never handled one before, the kickback sent my hand flying upward. In shock, I pulled the trigger again.
"Damn it, Nathan! Shoot at them, not the sky!"
"I'm trying!" My hand trembled as I continued firing, the hunting rifle in Karen's hands delivering precise shots one after another into her target. Despite my struggles to hit the gron, by the fifth shot, I started to feel a change. The small explosions in the barrel became less intimidating, and even though my accuracy remained questionable, my hand didn't flinch as much anymore.
Few bullets hit the target and then empty clicks echoed in my gun. While my gron was only bruised Karen's seemed to have a hard time to walk, it was limping and approaching us at a slower pace than the other one.
"We have to kill your's first, while mine makes way to us." she told me and threw me knife long as my forearm.
"Cut through its tendons on arms and I'll go for its neck." That was all explanation I got before a small girl ran out from the relatively safe tram onto open space on the bridge.
"I can't let her go alone... but I've never killed anything," a voice echoed in my head. "This is a matter of survival...kill or be killed." With that realization, I rushed after Karen to assist her in the fight against the beast. It swung its claw toward where Karen's head had been. Swiftly sliding under, she dodged the attack and, with her knife, cut the tendon on the gron's ankle. The beast fell to its knee, emitting a loud shriek. A flock of birds perched on a tree on the other side of the bridge scattered in fear.
Seizing the opportunity, the gron turned its back to me, and I rushed toward it with adrenaline coursing through my veins. My knife pierced through the soft skin on its shoulder, driving deep to the hilt. With all my strength, I pulled, attempting to cut through its back.
To my surprise, when the blade met the blade-bone, I managed to overturn the entire beast onto its back—a creature larger than me by a good half meter.
"So, you indeed are a Tamer." Karen leaped on top of the shocked beast and slit its throat, causing golden blood to flow out. I released my grip on the knife and watched as the gron convulsively shook on the ground.
"Do you think you'll be able to pin down that one as well?" Karen asked, gesturing towards the last gron, which was now not far away.
My confidence plummeted. This gron was sizable, standing at around 2 and a half meters, growling as it faced us, revealing a back row of intimidating needles. Its claw matched the size of the knife buried in the gron next to us. The soft, glowy texture on its complex eye heightened its menacing appearance. I knew exactly where it was focused—on us. My hands balled into fists, and Karen stood beside me, almost growling in response to the gron's threat.
"Let's kill him, and we'll go to Versailles together."