Ch 72 -- b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls

We arrived at a wide area of open gra.s.sland on the west side of the city, ready to subjugate the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull herd which was grazing there.

The Guild Master had told us all about the monster known as the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull. Each Bull was about the size of a rhinoceros with a temper to match. On top of that their cattle-herd instincts of cl.u.s.tering together and facing threats like a well-drilled military formation increased their danger level compared with attempting to subjugate an individual b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull.

Fer wasn"t bothered by that kind of threat of course. For me, I just decided to stay out of his way while he dealt with them. But where were they?

"Fer, do you know where the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull herd is?"

"Yeah, I can see them, they"re not far off. Let"s get closer and then I"ll deal with them." Following Fer"s gaze I made out some small black dots off in the distance.

"If that"s the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull over there then Sui and me will wait here." Safety first, after all.

"Do that. I"ll head over there right now and I"ll contact you by telepathy when I"ve killed them all."

"Gotcha."

Fer slunk off towards the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls, staying low to hide himself from their sight in the long gra.s.s.

I lay down and hid in the long gra.s.s too. After all I wouldn"t want to spook the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls and make Fer"s job harder, would I? It"s not like I was scared of them or anything. Just playing my part.

Sui crawled out of the bag that I had placed next to my head.

"Where did Fer-ojichan go?-"

"He went off to defeat the big cow-sans." I explained.

"No fair-. Sui wants to defeat the cow-sans too-"

"Eh? There"s a lot of big really scary big cow-sans out there so just wait here with me, Sui."

"No way no way. Sui is going to help defeat the cow-sans." Saying that Sui crawled away quickly.

"Hey, come back!" Wow, she"s so fast. "Oh s.h.i.+t!" I chased after Sui through the meadow as fast as I could (crawling). Hurrying frantically (crawling), I finally came to an opening where I could catch sight of Fer. Sui was also there, jumping up and down.

"Huff, huff, finally ......" I tried to catch my breath while not attracting the attention of any stray b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls. Fer leisurely approached me where I lay concealed in the gra.s.s.

"Hey you, what are you doing?" he called in a loud voice.

What am I doing? Well, I crawled all the way here to make sure I wasn"t spotted by the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls but your shouting will bring them here...

"All the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls have been wiped out." Fer said. ...? What, have you finished already? It"s only been a few minutes...

I got up on my feet again and stretched and twisted my body. My back hurt from all that hurried crawling. As I looked out over the blood-drenched meadow before me I felt my breath catch in my throat.

…………What"s this.

A huge black cow lay in a pool of blood. There was another one over there, and another... how many more are there like this? The scenic gra.s.slands have been turned into an abattoir. A soft breeze blew sweetly across the meadow but it couldn"t distract from the horrific vision before me.

"Aruji, you"re here-. Sui knocked down a big cow-san-" Sui bounced towards me excitedly, poing poing. "Aruji, aruji, Sui and Fer-ojichan defeated all the big cow-sans. Fer-ojichan used his magic first and the wind blew and lots of big cow-sans fell down. But some big cow-sans didn"t fall down so Sui pew-pewed them and beat them good. Amazing, isn"t it?-" Sui told me in a rush while jumping around Fer and me.

So Fer probably used wind magic to deal with most of the herd and Sui killed the remaining b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls by shooting them with acid bullets.

"Umuu, Sui really helped out this time." Fer confirmed. Heh, of course she did. I looked over the field of slaughtered b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls again. The threat they posed to the strong tag-team of Fer and Sui was negligible, it turned out. I guess they all went to heaven without being able to defend themselves in any way.

So, you guys are going to be our food. Is it time to tuck all the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls in my Item Box? I took a really close look. Wow, a b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull is a really big cow. I counted them - there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, more and more and some b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls were still hidden by the long gra.s.s. I gave up and started collecting them instead, counting them as I deposited them in my Item Box. One, two, three...

I had agreed with the Guild Master that we"d wholesale half of the herd to the Guild but it might be an idea to sell them a few more than that. Each b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull really was about the size of a rhinoceros, it turned out. Thinking about how much Fer and Sui ate at a sitting it would take even them several days to eat just one b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull. Besides, eating beef all the time would get tedious so I"d be serving up other kinds of meat for variety. If we held on to the meat from even half the herd then Fer wouldn"t have to hunt any beef for a loooong time.

I hoped Fer and Sui don"t get tired of beef quickly. I"ll have to work hard there, too, serving up different recipes involving beef so they don"t get bored with the same dishes too often. While thinking about this I was busy packing away the b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bull carca.s.ses in my Item Box. I finally got all of them stored. There were 58 b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls in all. Half of that would be... 29 b.l.o.o.d.y Horn Bulls we"d keep for the meat? That"s a huge amount of beef.