The next day, after some light travelling, Cyrus was pulled aside to a makeshift table and chairs where he was made to sit along with Fauve. Fauves eternal scowl somewhat lessened in intensity, or at least that was what Cyrus chose to believe, he then began with loudly declaring
"As amazing as I am, I will be going first!" He then took out a large sack full of various bones, and a glass bottle that was seemingly empty.
"I am a Venator, we are the free bunch who go as they please wherever they please to the point where we can cross borders whenever we want really. This is almost unheard of in the Empire, where they like to be so bloody controlling of everything… but it comes at a cost and that cost is what you see here" he said as he pointed towards the various bones he displayed.
"All of these are from grade B beasts and above, of which I kept pieces of as trophies representing successful hunts." He picked up a particular piece, of which Cyrus thought looked like a large femur that had been shaved off towards one end. "This nasty thing belonged to one of the more dreadful beings I had the pleasure to fight, a dastardly devil known as a manticore. A mutation of a lion and scorpion, with the abilities of both. In melee it uses its immensely strong body and claws to tear through ordinary steel like paper and in a ranged confrontation they will often have a variety of options, from unleashing acid from its tail to shooting spikes as frighteningly fast projectiles. The manticore is classified as a grade B to A threat depending on the level of the mutation it has experienced and to its assimilation level."
After Fauve had finished and paused for dramatic effect, Cyrus could not help but ask
"Such a high threat level? With the size of this femur, I doubt it could be very big and capable of that level of destruction..."
Fauve guffawed as he told his one-day student, "Femur? Leg? Not quite Cyrus" With a wide grin he picked up the 'femur' and said "This here, is not a femur. This is one of its teeth!" He then broke into laughter at Cyrus' folly and his vast underestimation of how ghastly that which he fights regularly truly are.
"This!? A single tooth? This is as big as my arm, by Mundus!" exclaimed Cyrus within his mind, in utter disbelief.
"Shocking, right?" Asked a pleased Fauve, "The best part is that I killed this one on my own, with no help from anyone else. This is actually what got my ranking up to where it is, classified as an expert among expert, and how I got the authorization to tackle any grade B foe without any word" Fauve then paused, waiting for something.
Cyrus noticed the pause, knowing exactly what the proud man wanted, and thus asked "How did you kill this…monster… on your own?"
Having heard the question he so desired, Fauve took no time at all to begin boasting "With my wit of course. A beast is a beast after all, no matter how strong it is or how terrifying it can be they will always be limited by their intelligence. Of course, there are varying degrees of intelligence found in these creatures but even the best of them will have something that we Venators exploit and exploit readily. For this hunt I had noticed and tracked my foe for several months, always taking care to do so undetected. I wrote down any information I could glean from it, from its travelling patterns to its feeding times and even when and how it washed itself and took a shit. In particular, I noted that this manticore was in the middle of its mating season which caused it to travel from place to place in search of mates. This fellow was pitiful too, even with all his dancing left and right he did for his mating ritual he failed time and time again… which let me learn the locations of several more manticores mind you. Good paying information that is, anyways, after awhile I began to predict where the male manticore would go to engage in its courtship when he met up with the next possible mate. Eventually I got so good at it that I could get it right every time, which in a stroke of pure genius gave me an idea: screw with one of his rituals and see what happened of course!"
To which Fauve paused to give an evil laugh, "He wasn't getting any anyways, I might as well have some fu- I mean test a hypothesis, as the mages always say. So, one day I had predicted where Manti, the name I gave the pitiable fella', would take his new possible mate and planted a trap there: a bottle of fire essence that had a degrading seal, after removing the first seal the second would slowly decay until.." Fauve then gestured with his hands while mimicking the sound of an explosion with his mouth "Kaboom! Everything ends up in flames!"
He then put his hands down and continued his story with a slow burning sadistic tone,
"So Manti took his twentieth or so possible mate to the clearing I had predicted and began his ritual. Immediately I could tell something was different an hour or so in… this time the female did not have a look of disgust and revulsion on her face, a look I had learned after seeing it so many times in Manti's courtships, but actually began to be receptive to his advances. Not too long after they actually began to mate, and boy did they go at it. Disgusting really, but still pretty interesting. Anyhow, at this point I was feeling quite happy for Manti as after twenty or so failed attempts he had finally found his partner!
Of course, this was when my little gift I had planted went off and enshrouded both the manticores in flames. It only did some minor damage overall, as they are quite resilient beasts. Alas, what I did not predict was that it would send the female into some kind of sexual cannibalism of sorts and poor Manti found himself engaged in a sudden fight for his survival! Oh the horror, oh the manticority!! After a tense struggle between the two, Manti had won the day. I wept in joy, as my dear friend had survived his trial. Right after I snuck over to him and finished him off as he lay slowly dying in a pool of his own blood and guts of course. Of which on the ground was this here tooth that had gotten knocked out of him in the struggle, of which I took as my souvenir for my successful hunt with the rest being packed away to the guild to be sold to some mage with a weird fetish I guess"
By this point Cyrus' mouth had fallen open in shock and a bit of awe,
"I finally have an answer to my previous question. Cato was definitely influenced by Fauve, not the other way around."
Cyrus noticed Fauve was once again paused, as if he would not move until the proper codeword was given.
"That, was quite ingenious of you to say the least" said Cyrus rather unsteadily, still uncertain of what to make of the whole account.
Fauve, now working again after receiving praise, responded
"You are correct, yep. In fact I am heralded as the creator of this particular hunting technique, to wait for when the manticores and beasts similar in nature are at their most vulnerable. Using their own mates against them, which allows for an easy cleanup of both parties. Little tricks like these are what Venators specialize in as they allow us to easily best foes that are far stronger and faster than we are. This knowledge does not come easy though, it is all brought about the hard work of uncountable amounts of Venators that devote their entire lives to studying new ways to kill."
Fauve then picks up the glass bottle he had brought out earlier,
"Our work is even made further difficult by what is contained in this bottle: Diabolus Auctus, Devil Spores. These are small spores like what you find in fungus, that spread throughout the land and attach themselves to various animals. It attacks their brains, fighting for control over the body while also instilling in them an instinctual unquenchable thirst for the various essences that make up the world around us. If taken over fully, they will begin desecrating and consuming the land around them at an astonishing speed. Mutating themselves with all the energy they are taking in, as they eat everything from other animals to plant life to even humans, growing ever more in power as they feast. Some will eventually adapt and fight off the spore, leaving them like normal animals once more…except far bigger and stronger like the manticore I hunted. Others, are not so lucky and end up overrun by the spores until they become a breeding ground for them. Eventually the spores cause the animal to explode from the inside, releasing hundreds more spores to repeat the process. Luckily these things have a terrible hit rate, as they travel merely by random, but if left unchecked they will end up resulting in stampeding of powerful mutating creates… or Mundus forbid a horde of them, an event that could even threaten entire regions."
Fauve then hands the glass bottle to Cyrus, "To us humans these spores are of little effect. Anyone who takes a gift from Mundus is protected from them completely, just cycle a bit of your gift and the spore is wiped out easily. Still, having one in easy captivity may benefit you as a form of study. I know you mage types love researching into all sorts of perverse things, weird bunch you lot are" ended Fauve, a bit ironically.
After handing Cyrus the bottle, Fauve then spent the rest of the day going over his various trophies. Exclaiming to no end how dangerous the beast was but how easily he killed it with his superior intellect, while also dutifully teaching Cyrus the methods of which he employed to defeat each of his foes. Such knowledge, especially coming from an expert, was no doubt priceless.