Hunting [Tutor]

[Michi]

OC: Just like the last time, only with Rangers. Rangers are allowed to barge in if they wish to participate in the thread. This lesson will be on stealth.

The other day a one Nakahara Kisho murdered an unknown man in cold blood, binding their soul to a weapon he forged in the Hall of Hammers. There were numerous witnesses, people that knew what happened but it was not directly in front of them... there were so many others. It was not their responsibility. What would have been done about it anyways? Soul sealing required souls. Power required sacrifice. Knowledge also required sacrifice, sometimes hers and sometimes others. Today it would be someone else. She was taking her pup out and teaching him how to hunt.

That is what took them to the Ranger Order. Michi would explain the Order, there was always a lesson. "The Ranger Order was the most ancient Order, Rangers come from the neolithic era, long before the advent of written word. In the beginning Sunanites were nomadic as food, shelter and water were lacking and the beasts of the realm were dangerous and hungered. The Rangers were the proud hunters of early Sunan society, the strongest, fastest and bravest young men and women would join the ranks of Rangers at an early age. It was a part of their rite of passage to battle a Sandworm and bring back a chunk of its armored hide as proof of the encounter. Great honor was bestowed upon these providers from even the earliest of times as they were given rights to the first portions of food and drink and often the first choice in women. Their dignity was taken from them shortly after Primus called all ranks and paths of man to arms, while they fought valiantly against the Gods and provided rations to the army of man, society forever changed when humanity became an agrarian society. The sedentary lifestyle of modern man diminished society's value on the Ranger Order, but the Ranger Order never hesitated in their duty. While humanity became increasingly reliant on technology, the Rangers kept to the old ways and maintained their uncanny tracking skill as well as their remarkable ability to traverse the diamond maelstrom and later the wicked sands. While the Ranger Order has been forgotten by society at large, their traditions lived on." They excelled in areas that were beyond her and of course Riku as well. Feral instinct was something everyone possessed, Riku more than most but in her opinion the boy could do better (No offense! This is an IC opinion!) Still, she needed to teach the boy how to hunt.

So that is what she did. She would let the boy pick a biome and then she would prepare.

---

The Desert Biome

It would seem almost redundant to have a desert biome well... within a desert. However, this biome is probably the most important one for the rangers to experience as it is akin to their home terrain. This area is controlled so people are not placed in harm's way during training and it is not unusual for Rangers to collect (or request a collection of) Sandworm eggs as well as other dangerous Wind Country carnivores that they allow to roam freely here just to add a potential chance of misfortune for those training here.

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Grasslands

A large field covered with waist-high grass. This type of terrain can be found along the coastline of Wind Country where the climate is more temperate. The biome is speckled with the rare, occasional tree and lazy sloping hills. This is considered the calmest and possibly safest biome but the most challenging for a stealth user and hence a preferred setting for such. The lack of variants in terrain and the limited hiding places (being mostly the high grass) stealthy Rangers relish the challenge this biome offers.

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The Forest

An area of dense foliage, this is a place where one can easily hide. The darkness from the tree canopy and the thick brush underfoot make vision and travel difficult. This is an excellent place for combat training against surprise attacks, ambushes or against a stealthy opponent. Mastering the art of finding and surviving is paramount for a Ranger. Foreign wildlife can also be found here -- birds, small animals, some large carnivorous game as well as worthy opponents. It is rumored that the Rangers capture some mercenaries, nukeins and other petty criminals and set them loose in here so that they have something to hunt. It is just a rumor however, you will have to ask a real Ranger if you wish to know the truth.

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Tundra

A frozen wasteland that might remind some of Kirigakure. This is a place of perpetual cold, the area is nothing but rocks and ice and the elements alone are enough to risk one's life. Survival skills are put to the real test here as nature itself is your true enemy. With limited resources and a world in and of itself that attempts to reject all life, those that train in here are truly putting their lives in their hands. It is important to consider supplies and a method to seek and obtain assistance if you venture into here. The difficult terrain has taken a great numbers of lives in the past and just might take yours.

---

Water<i></i>

The rarest and most precious resource in Wind Country and it can be found here in abundance. It is said that this water was obtained from the Undersea beneath the Toraono Dojo. This is a large body of water that is approximately 100 feet deep and one mile in diameter. Some fight on the water, underneath, others test their stamina attempting to see how long they can hold their breath and still others just like to hang out near their own personal giant pool.











A glass screen would separate them from each of the five. The terrain obvious. "Today I am going to teach you how to hunt," she announced as she gestured towards each of the biomes. "This is where new Rangers learn and practiced Rangers train," she would continue to explain. Hunt what? Well, she had already found the 'bad man', he was restrained and only mildly injured. She had captured him hours ago. She was going to set him loose in the biome of the boy's choice. A game of tag with a bit more violence. "What terrain do you wish to explore and track in?"

 

[Kyuuji]

Today, Riku had been planning to finally tell Michi about his status as a Fang Marked. Well, he called it planning, but to tell the truth, he still hadn’t the slightest clue as to how he would go about telling her. He was still kind of scared about her potential reaction, but from the lack of negative reaction from the two shinobi that had witnessed his transformation, Riku had gained some hope that maybe, just maybe, something bad wouldn’t happen if Riku told Michi his secret.

He listened intently as Michi explained what today’s lesson would be, and furthermore explained the history of Ranger Order. Rangers sounded pretty cool, in his opinion, but a part of him felt discomforted by the notion of Rangers, recalling that his ancestors had fought against them. Riku was one of those beasts that they had hunted.

Riku considered each of the biomes. He didn’t think he would do well in the grasslands, he wasn’t really one for stealth, and the tundra just didn’t interest him. He hadn’t a clue how he’d do with the water biome, so he figured not that one either. That left the forests and the desert. The idea of many hiding places appealed to him, and Riku liked the idea of that. The desert called to the most primal part of him, though, and would have a more practical application for the future.

“Desert,” He decided.

When Michi said that they’d be hunting, he reasonably assumed they would be hunting animals. He was glad that Isamu was by his side today, since the small canine would be helpful in tracking. On the other hand, he could always transform and track down they prey himself, and that would cover telling Michi about that too. It was something to consider.

 

[Michi]

OC: Sorry for the delay, I have been kept occupied.

IC:

The Ranger Order was a fascinating order that Michi knew would appeal to Rikuto, the predatory nature of an Order that hunted and attempted to dominate nature through their strength rather than their cleverness or ingenuity. Of course the Order never appealed to one such as her, but as an Oracle she had come to understand a great many things. She never thought she would live to see the day the Orders would be revitalized since so much was destroyed during the Ishii regime. The Ranger Order had much to teach someone so young as Rikuto. How to hunt, how to track and how others hide not only so that he might find them but so that he might be able to emulate them if he needed to hide also. She was prioritizing teaching the boy the means to survive.

He chose the desert, the most familiar territory. He seemed to prefer regions that were familiar, opting out of the more exotic options before him. It was something interesting to note. She nodded to acknowledge his choice and opened the door. "Explore your new surroundings, you will recognize your target," Michi claimed as she gestured towards the passageway. The heat from the desert was hot, dry and familiar. It was the same environment both of them had grown accustomed to. She would wait for Rikuto to enter the biome before she would close the door behind him. When the door sealed it would look strange, a perfect desert expanse that appeared to be unlived in until one reached the wall of the Ranger structure. It simply reflected to desert and his image, less a fine barely there seam of the door. The desert would be quiet, eerily so but the sound would not last long. These grounds were intended to be hunting grounds, in the distance he would hear it. This... chuckle? A strange chattering laugh that was not human, but the source was unseen. Not the target Michi had intended, she was inside the office pulling Nakahara Kisho from his hiding place. A bound and moderately injured man who could fight and run had he been free that she intended to cut loose and let the boy chase down for practice.

Sadly, plans rarely go as intended. The laughter grew louder and there was more than one voice. Was it two? Three?

It was not his intended target, not that the boy would know that. Not that the Oracle would be aware that the space was already stocked with a target to practice partaking in the hunt.

!

We are going to learn about stealth. When something is in stealth, you would roll an Awareness Check when they enter stealth. When you attack a target that is in stealth you roll an Awareness Check to see if you can hit a target that is already in stealth. If you hit something that is in stealth, they would be removed from stealth and would have to re-enter stealth. There are ways to improve your chances of hitting a stealthed target such as using AOE attacks, certain jutsus, certain abilities and certain augments in your weapon. There are 3 targets here.

 

[Kyuuji]

Michi didn’t comment on his choice, simply nodding in acknowledgement and then informing him that whatever his target was, he would know it when he saw it. He wasn’t so sure about that, but if Michi said so, it must be true. Cautiously, Riku entered the biome, Isamu beside him. He was startled when the door closed behind him. He had expected Michi to be with him for this, for advice if nothing else. But then again, Michi did like it when he did things on his own without help, so maybe this was more of that. His grayish blue gaze scanned the open terrain.

It was more than a little disorienting, being all alone in what looked like the open desert like this. He had lived in Wind Country his whole life, but even he knew better to go too far into the desert by himself. It was dangerous. Surely, though, Michi wouldn’t throw him into too dangerous of a situation. He trusted Michi. If she thought he could do this, then surely he could, somehow. The puppy beside him sniffed the air, and then sniffed again, as if uncertain of a smell. Slowly, Riku began to venture further away from the door, reminding himself every other step that this was okay. Nothing bad was going to happen.

He was a fair distance away when he heard it. It was an inhuman noise, eerily similar to a laugh. At the noise, he froze. At first, he wondered if it was his prey, this creature making that sound. But nothing he could think of made that kind of sound, and Michi had said that it would be something that he would recognize. Isamu gave a quiet whine at his side, very much not liking the sound. Idly, he petted the dog as he tried to figure out how to adapt in this situation.

For a moment, Riku considered going back to the door, but he was hesitant to do so. He imagined telling Michi that a sound had scared him, and at that thought he resolved to stick to this. Still, it would make sense to be careful. He found a hiding spot amongst a few rocks, keeping low to the ground, and he waited to see if anything would reveal itself. Maybe he was being overly cautious, but he trusted Isamu, and if Isamu was wary, then so was he.

 

[Michi]

There were a multitude of options for the boy. To stalk the predator that cackled. To hide and hope that the danger passed him over. To flee back through the door, back to where he knew it was safe. People always had choices, even if they did not care for any of the options. The duty of an Oracle, the skill of a survivor is to consider the odds. To weigh the possibilities and determine what would give them the best chances of success, of victory, of survival and of the potential positive outcomes are there certain outcomes that are non-negotiable? Are there some things worth dying for? What has a mutually exclusive outcome and can one handle these eventualities?

Riku would choose to hide.

This site has a stealth option. Every character can enter stealth, it costs 1 AP to do so. What happens is your stealth score (you can look this up in the ultimate battle rules) would have a d20 added to it and be compared to your opponent(s) awareness roll(s). So if for example you rolled a 16 this would be added to your stealth score and if the hykals rolled a 3, a 6, and a 2 this would be added to their awareness scores. If you beat their score you successfully enter stealth.

Stealth does several things:

1. Stealth makes your actions HIDDEN. A hidden action is basically when the moderator does not say what your action was. in the mod it would simply say that your character performed a hidden action.
2. Stealth increases the damage potential and the accuracy of your attack, so you get some bonus' to your attack.
3. While in stealth you are harder to target. Your opponent has to roll an awareness check on you as they perform a BLIND SHOT and if their awareness roll is successful then they can roll an accuracy roll against your evasion and see if they can successfully hit you.

There are ways to be removed from stealth such as being hit, performing an offensive action, choosing to leave stealth. There are also several means to enhance your stealth, such as abilities, environmental modifiers and of course certain jutsus. Some players center their entire character around being a stealthy character and if you are unprepared to face a stealth-based build they would have a strict advantage in a fight.

Riku would see a trio of canine-like creatures with a slumped over carriage meander in his general direction. They were sniffing the air. They were searching for something, well someone. They were searching for Riku. Salivating, their muzzles moist and glistening they let out a strange chattering laughter that sounded even more unsettling close up. One of the creatures would be walking past the group of boulders Riku had hidden himself behind, the scent of unwashed animal would hit the boy's sensitive nose. They were certainly carnivores and they outnumbered the boy and his pup.

Did Michi really know what she was doing?

No, not at all. The presence of the small pack of hykals was an unknown variable for the Oracle. Her intention was to send the boy off in pursuit of 'a bad man.' Hunting, tracking, catching, hurting or even ultimately killing was a bitter but necessary pill to swallow. It was one the boy would learn with time, that such things were not enjoyed but were necessary. She had no way of knowing about the boy's latent bloodlust, still hidden by juvenile innocence. When she learns of it in the future or sees it with her own eyes, it would be like history repeating itself. She would blame herself ultimately for it. A part of her had always blamed Shiro for her son's violence and darkness, his monstrous nature and his sadism but he would be a non-variable here, the only constant the Oracle. It would destroy her. Of course, it would not destroy her today. Today she would be thinking that she was teaching the boy how to hunt and that his instinct was a safe thing, something to cultivate not suppress.

Bound and mildly beaten, nothing a few bandages and a few days rest could not remedy was Journeyman Nakahara Kisho. Owner of three soul-blades that she knew of, two of them housed a soul. The last one, a needlessly ornate piece was unfilled. It would satisfy her need in a few months time. It would take her several minutes to recover him, she did not want to startle the apprentice. She unbound his feet but not his hands before she pulled him to his feet. He had a slight limp, perhaps he did suffer a sprain after all. It was a non-issue for her, it would merely let the boy think he was even more skillful when the man was easier to chase down. The point was justifying the hunt, not feeling responsible or guilty for. "As your kind would love to say -- thank fate for the fact that I have a child to teach," she announced as tugged the cursing man down the hall. He attempted to shove into her with his shoulder, grab hold of her with his still bound wrists but mobile hands but she had the advantage of mobility and prior to that of course the element of surprise. in a fair fight against him, she would have lost but far too many men have a bad habit of keeping their windows open on hot desert night. Groggy and reacting rather than creating the scenario, resistance was minimal but she did have several large bruises and a deep gash hidden beneath her layers of clothes. It was how she hid a lot of things.

She did not believe in fate or luck and if it was not for what she had seen Jashin do she would not have believed in Jashin either. Everything, well almost everything, was accounted for. She would open the door to Riku's biome and push the man inside. His frame too large for her to see the circling hykals that had all but finally converged on Riku's location. The man would stumble in. She expected him to stand there dumbfounded for a few moments, the boy to recognize him as that man and as his target to chase. With his hands bound he would still put up a bit of a fight, Riku would likely not get out of this encounter uninjured but she expected him to be able to ultimately subdue the man. She doubted the boy was a capable killer, at least not yet, but he would learn the necessary basis.

There was one difference: there was hykals present. Their yellow eyes would turn their attention towards the visible, not so well hidden target.

 

[Kyuuji]

At first, Riku thought that maybe he had overreacted to the noise. Which was fine, it was better to overreact than to not react at all with some things, such as dangerous desert landscapes. That was what he first thought, but he didn’t immediately leave his hiding place. Which was lucky for him, since moments later it was revealed that his decision to search for a hiding spot was a wise one indeed. There were three of them, Hykals, he was pretty sure they were, and while they were smaller than dune wolves were, both the puppy and the boy were many times smaller still. He watched as one of them sniffed around, way too close to him, and he hoped that he would not be spotted. He wished he could make a run for it, but he wasn’t sure whether he’d be fast enough. The most that he could do was see if they would move on. Those were his logical thoughts.

There were many significantly less logical thoughts, full of panic. Because Hykals were super dangerous. They were creatures that no person wanted to run into, and especially not a group of them. Alone, they were scary, but more than one was even scarier. There were horror stories that Riku had heard about Hykals. He had never thought that he would ever encounter one, and he had prayed that he never would when he was first told the stories. All his prayers were for naught, it seemed. Because there were three of them, right here, not even a couple feet away from him. They could tear him and Isamu apart in seconds, he was sure. He prayed for Michi to arrive soon, surely she wouldn’t just abandon him to this. He was sure Michi would be here soon. She had to.

All Riku could do was remain quiet and wait. He hoped for the best and feared for the worst, but it was all up in the air as to what would happen. If Michi got here before the Hykals found him, if she came here at all… Everything depended on Michi. And Riku believed in her, he really did, but a part of him was afraid of abandonment. All Riku could do was remain quiet and wait.

 

[Michi]

The bound man was thrust into the biome, he would stumble into the desert environment shouting an obscenity at Michi before the door slammed closed behind him. He was shut into the desert biome, he muttered as he walked further into the desert. His reasoning was that he would find a means to unbind his wrists and then vacate the Tracking Grounds, likely hunt the woman down and... well, lets not think about that. The man, unlike Rikuto was not hiding, the hykals would have immediately taken notice of the interloper. The decision between continuing to seek a hidden possible meal versus the exposed target was an easy one for the predators to make.

They converged on the more obvious target. Bared yellow teeth would snap at his leg, the man would stumble back and kick at the most aggressive hykal. The canine lets out a whine as it is knocked back several feet but the other two were able to flank him from either side, The other bit into his thigh, tearing at his flesh. The other reached higher, cutting into the flesh of his back. He would attempt to whirl around and fling the hykal off his back, his wrists still bound he let out a near inhuman roar. The hykal was launched off his back and it hit the ground hard, but not before it made the man bleed. His muzzle red with the Journeyman's blood, his back was slick and wet from his wounds.

Michi had no idea there was a pack of hykals roaming about the biome until she finally looked inside. It was then that she saw it, through the thick plate of glass the served as a mirror on the other side she would see the Journeyman defending himself from the trio. She had expected to see Riku chase the man down and try to punch him a few times before he tired out and wanted to go home. She did not have high expectations, the boy was just a kid. This was not the image she intended to have to boy see. Her heart hastened at the thought that what if they had already found Riku.

By Satoru's wit...

She only had two options:

1. Let the boy die.
2. Go after the boy.

She chose the later. She would open up the door, if the hykals rushed her she would contend with them when they tried. For the moment they were otherwise occupied. She would call out Riku's name "RIKUTO!" She did not use his full name in her panic, the tone of her voice higher and louder than it was normally. She would call out for him again. "RIKUTO!"

 

[Kyuuji]

There was a startling loud noise, a human noise. It wasn’t Michi, though, it was a man’s voice, shouting bad words. Riku had hoped for a rescue, a savior. In some ways, he got that. The Hykals indeed ceased their interest in the area surrounding him. What happened next was almost worse, though. His eyes had been following the Hykals, more concerned with keeping track of the predators than the man’s sudden presence, but when they began to move, slowly at first, into the man’s direction, he saw him, recognized him. It was that man. A shiver ran down his spine. Something here was very wrong here.

He didn’t even think about calling out to warn the man, he realized far too late. It was either think of that or focus on the sight before him. And the latter was the last thing that he wanted to do. He tried to deal with any sense except sight. His hands were shakily clutching Isamu, and he could feel the reassuring fluff under them. But he could also smell the scent of fresh human blood flesh was ripped and torn. It should have been nauseating, like the sight was. Instead, it triggered the more primal part of him, the part of him that wanted to be the one doing the ripping and tearing. Such a reaction caused horrified him even further. He didn’t want to do that, he denied, but still a part of him hungered for it.

Michi’s shouting was a welcome distraction, a resounding relief. Immediately, he ran for it with Isamu on his heels, trusting Michi enough to answer without thinking. She had came for him, he realized with relief. She hadn’t abandoned him. All he could do was hope that the Hykals weren’t distracted from their much larger prey by a boy and his puppy that would barely merit as a snack.

 

[Michi]

The man was a bad man, the sort of man that hurt others to get stronger, to make a profit or possibly to sate his curiosity. The man was a bad man, the sort of man that killed. The sort of man that only looked out for himself. There was of course irony and hypocrisy in this reasoning, even the coldest logic is still framed in the perspective of the thinker. He was in fact a bad person, the sort of person that should not be walking freely about Sunagakure or any other region of the world for that matter, but Michi was no better. She liked to think that she was better, she had good intentions, she had plans. The only issue was, the terrible things that were necessary to reach these ends.

Rikuto did not have to look to know. He could hear it, the sound of flesh tearing. The howls, the shouts, the curses and the cry. The yelp of the creatures injured as the man defended himself. The eventual snap of his restraints as he broke free. The scent of blood and fur also filled the desert air. He did not have to use his eyes to see, a perfect and terrible picture would be painted in his mind. "Rikuto!" Michi snapped, urgency in her voice. The creatures hardly noticed the boy emerge from behind the rocks and flee to the door. They had surrounded the Journeyman and they were hungry for a meal. The hot desert air seemed to almost scald the Oracle as she held the door open, the cool office air escaping into the desert biome. Rikuto would eventually rush past Michi, it would have felt as if days had passed. It was strange how in moments of terror, pain and peril time seems to nearly halt. It was a sick fact really, how people protract their suffering and their terror as naturally as they did. She would slam the door behind the apprentice, the passageway would seal air tight. Not a sound, not a wiff. At least not from there. She was not so soft-hearted that she could not watch, but rather she had a more pressing concern.

"Rikuto, why didn't you leave the biome when you saw those hykals!" That was not a question, the inflection was wrong. She was... yelling? Yes, she was yelling at him. She was not particularly tall, only five feet tall if she stood as erect as she could. She was attempting to lift the collar of his shirt, lift his arms, look at his hands. "Are you hurt? Did they bite you? I don't see anything. Are you hurt?" She asked the same question twice, an unusual fact. "Don't ever do that again," she was scolding him. "You could have died!" Her voice was cracking as she said that, her face was red and her usually calm expression was contorted into something different. Something angry? Yes. Exasperated? A bit. Terrified? Absolutely. "When you are in an overwhelming situation, one you cannot win you RUN." There was no standing there and fighting for honor or a cause in her instructions, just run.

"You are no good for nothing dead," and bad English. Perhaps Michi was having a stroke. She took a pair of deep, shaky breaths before she would attempt to take his hand. "We need to get you home, far from here."