After waiting a couple minutes, Braxton activated his comlink. He said "Vixen, you ready to surface?"
"Yeah. Let's do this." Vixen replied.
They both surfaced. The scary sight of the charging animals had been terrifying. It paled against the sight of the beast feasting on Braxton's kills. There were two large cats. Each had six legs, two in the back and four up front. The were bright red, almost sparkling like rubies. Their backs were three to four feet high and were eight feet long. They didn't have have tails. Their mouths and faces were covered with blood. They had fangs like saber tooth cats. They had goatee like beards hanging from their chins that were dripping blood. The pair were consuming the thousand pound animal at an alarming rate. In just a few minutes they had eaten half of it.
Braxton summoned his assault rifle and replaced the crystal as silently as he could. When he closed the cover, it clicked. Both cats turned to look at him. Vixen summoned a grenade pulled the pin and tossed it near the cats. It fell a little short but landed behind the dead body.
BOOM!
The cat on the right side of the bull was peppered. It flopped on the ground and started rolling around. It's cries of pain and agony pieced the air. The other cat attacked. It raced for Braxton. He squeezed the trigger and held it down. It had no recoil and quickly expended all the energy into the cat.
The cat seemed unaffected by the damage clearly inflicted. It quickly closed the distance between them. Braxton didn't have time to fiddle around with reloading. He returned the weapon to storage and pulled his 9mms. Vixen summoned her .50 cal Desert Eagles. Both started shooting as fast as they could. The cat launched itself at Braxton from ten feet away.
The 9mm rounds bounced off the beast's hide. The .50 cal rounds were blowing holes into the huge cat. Braxton activated his Burrow skill again and fell into the ground. The cat turned to Vixen. She turned and ran. The cat gave chase. She had no hope in out running the cat, it wasn't her intention. "You're clear!" She shouted into her comlink.
Braxton surfaced again. Then summoned his railgun. He didn't need to aim the cat was that close. Vixen slipped under the ground herself. As soon as she was clear, Braxton fired into the cat's rib cage area. The impact of the shot lifted the cat and threw it ten feet away. The cat flailed a short while but didn't get back up. "You're clear." Braxton replied as he walked over to the other cat.
The first cat was still crying. Braxton pointed the railgun at its head and pulled the trigger. That ended its suffering. "What the hell should we call these things?" Braxton said looking over the cat.
"I don't know. That was pretty crazy." Vixen said as she dusted herself off.
Braxton reload the railgun. Then summoned his Regal laser rifle and put an expended blue energy cell in it. "If we see something else. Let's take it out long range." Braxton said.
The short battle had sapped both their energy. They drain the blood from both kills and cooked the meat left over from the bull. The site became their camp for two next two days. They cut up and feed the cats to their mounts. They made beef jerky form the cow like animal. They didn't find any blood left in it at all. It was like the cats had sucked it completely dry before feasting on its meat.
"Let's call them Feral Vampire Felines." Braxton said as they mounted up to move on again.
"How about Vampire Hellcats?" Vixen responded.
"That will work I suppose. Did you notice the energy weapon had no effect on it? It also seemed like it had some armor. My 9mm bounced off it like nothing. I need to upgrade my pistols for sure." Braxton was still interested in these cats. The battle had been different than others he had in the past. The cats were so powerful trying to go toe to toe with them would've been suicidal.
"They may be immune to energy weapons. I haven't seen it before but it could be possible. Do you think we should put a note in our creature kill logs?" Vixen asked.
"We should. We'd do well to remember it's possible for future fights too." Braxton replied.
The next morning they encountered another cliff. The landscape beyond it dropped a hundred yards give or take a little. There was some sort of settlement far on the horizon. It had to be ten to twelve miles away. Whatever it was, the place covered miles. They couldn't see anything from where they were that would indicate why such a large community would be there.
They followed the cliff face south for a mile before finding a path that descended into the valley below. They passed though the root forests and many passive species of animals. Knowing the colors of aggressive animals saved a lot of time.
"Vampire Hellcat blood consumed, strength increase +1, dexterity increased +1, skill thick skin leveled up, level increased to 8." Alpha chimed in his head.
"Alpha review stats." Braxton ordered.
Braxton Ace age fifteen. Level 8
Strength 22
Agility 20
Vitality 22
Constitution 24
Intelligence 11
Skills: Combat Camouflage (Mirage 80%), Knifehand thrust, Skullcrusher heel stomp, Shadowstep 10 feet, Burrow 5 feet, Antitoxin level 1, Scout Vision (Moonshine Halo 70%), Thick Skin level 2, Glide level 1
Storage capacity 140
"Nice, I'm catching up in levels." Braxton informed Vixen.
"What level are you now?" Vixen asked calmly.
"Level 8 just now." He replied proudly.
"Cute, I'm at 14 now. My stats are all stuck it seems. I can't gain anything past 30. I just get skill upgrades or new skills now. That's if I get anything. I wonder if that is why the pull was stronger for me to enter the tunnel we saw under that plateau." Vixen mused.
"It might be. Maybe I should just keep the blood for myself until I catch up." He said as he drank another vial.
"Maybe I should withhold sex until you can catch me in a foot race." Vixen replied as she drank one of her own.
"It was just a thought." Braxton said noncommittally.
"The blood speeds up my sex drive. I didn't think you want to cut me off." Vixen teased.
"You know you keep getting younger right? Have you noticed?" Braxton asked seriously.
"No, what do you mean?" Vixen was very curious about this topic.
"When I first met you, you looked stressed out. After we cuddled that first night, you looked younger. Then you looked younger after we watched the ceremonies at the Moon Pool. In all you look like ten years younger than the first time we met." Braxton responded honestly.
"That sounds too good to be true. You think the blood could be a fountain of youth kinda thing too?" Vixen asked.
"I don't know. If it was there would be no way to keep woman from killing every creature on this planet." Braxton joked.
Vixen wasn't overly impressed with his comment but, she couldn't really argue against the logic. She just gave him a look. One that said, I'll punish you for that later.
They got within five miles of the city a few hours later. Scout Vision allowed Braxton to get a look at the outskirts of the city. He saw a lot of blood lizard men moving around. There were many towers in the city which could easily house snipers. Braxton knew they were within range of railguns too.
"We need to go back the way we came. We can stop outside of the canyon again but, we need to get away from here with all haste." Braxton ordered as he mounted up.
They both turned around and rode off again. The animals around them had probably given enough cover so they weren't spotted. They couldn't be overly certain. As they rode, Braxton informed her "I saw a good amount of blood lizard men. If they have railguns they could've hit us where we were."
"What is the range on them?" Vixen asked.
"At least file miles. I haven't tried anything further than that. I don't have enough data but, the scope on mine auto targets." Braxton replied.
"So it's the tools that make you a good shot not natural talent?" Vixen jested.
"Pretty much. I still have to chose targets and pull the trigger." He said with a grin.
They stopped briefly to make sure they weren't being followed. Then put a big red star on their map functions.
"How do you know when there is danger?" Braxton remembered he had wanted to ask that before the stampede.
"It's my armor skill. It's call Danger Sense. The second level of the skill provides a direction arrow." Vixen replied.
"Is there a third level?" Braxton inquired.
"There doesn't seem to be. My armor is learning an armor increase next." Vixen stated.
"Interesting. Do you have thick skin skill?" Braxton was curious what all skills he could learn.
"Mine is at level ten now. I think your 9mm wouldn't even hurt me." Vixen replied.
"Should we check?" Braxton asked sporting an evil grin.
"We can tonight. If it does hurt, the nanites should have me fixed up by morning." Vixen stated evenly.
"Do you recall where you got the intelligence upgrades from? Mine is lagging behind a lot." Braxton asked.
"Most came form humanoids but, here were a few from creatures. I got five or so from elephant's blood." Vixen listed it as an example.
"Thanks, maybe I'll have to kill some more blood lizards. I've already drank more than five but, if there is a chance for more points it better than nothing." Braxton said confidently.
"It isn't impossible to get more. The chances just decrease a lot. Since we traveled together I was getting a lot of new species bloods. That really increased my progress a lot." Vixen informed him.
"That is good to know too. I'm really glad you joined my travels. It's been good in so many different ways." Braxton replied.
"I've enjoyed it too. It was hard before. The people I was around were nice but, none of them could understand who I was or where I came from." Vixen replied.