5: Investment

"Just blow the damn whistle… I'm so exhausted!" Agenor grunted as he barely dodged the creature talons, " My lungs are already way past their limits…"

Colt nodded. He put his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a shiny red whistle. He took a deep breath and blew it. A sharp sound echoed in the entire vicinity of the forest.

All of sudden, the beast's ears perked up and jiggled. Something unexpected happened. The bloodlust in his eyes faded like clouds on a sunny day. He immediately turned docile and backed off. 

The scorching aura that was tormenting everyone's sanity disappeared without a trace. The beast even stopped his vicious growling. The serene tranquility followed along with the creature racing back to the foot of the huge tree and licking his own talons.

Noticing this abrupt bipolar behavior, Agenor pulled out a sling bag with several huge meatballs. The glance of those meatballs made Inca drool from his mouth. His mouth opened automatically showing his bloody teeth.

"Here, boy!" Agenor threw 10 of those giant meatballs in different directions and hissed, "go… get it!"

The very next second, the Inca spread his wings and burst forth like a super sonic missile. Giving the three of them to finally catch a short break. The bleeding woman who was watching all this felt as if someone had slapped her so hard that her brain blew into a thousand pieces.

"What the fuck just happened?" She blurted out with blood coming from her mouth, "Is this some kind of facade?"

Agenor just straight away ignored her confused glare and turned towards Colt, 

"You take the Archer! I take the woman! Sounds good?"

"Cool! Colt nodded,

He turned to Rain and said "Rain, you go the parameter! Falco and Nakiya are at the rendezvous point. Tell them we are taking these idiots to the medics. Since the two of us are leaving, you guys better keep an eye on the beast at all times. I do—"

"HEY… listen to me you bastards!" This time the injured woman shot an icy glare at Agenor, "…who the hell are you calling idiots you son of a bitch?"

"Listen woman... you better be careful before running your mouth… we are the ones who saved your life when u were crying for help like a 3 years old! Shut your trap and let me do my job!"

"YOU… don't play with me, fucker." She hissed out of sheer wrath, "This is all your fault… I heard what you guys were talking about. I know this monster belongs to one of you."

"So what? That's makes it our fault?  Don't pin this one on us. You chose to follow the beast. You tried to capture him out of your own greed. It's your fault not understanding the dangers associated with your choice. How the fuck is any of this our fault?"

"If this monster is your beast…then why haven't you put your mark on it?"

"Yeah! Like that would have stopped you. Besides, can't you see this is just an infant? Sorry I'm not in the mood for chatter and if I hear one more word coming out of your mouth…I will leave both of you here and you can shoot your curses to the Inca face-to-face, does that sound good?"

"..."

"You...."

The woman bit her lip in frustration. However, she had to shut up, even if she didn't want to. Agenor was right. Everyone is responsible for their own actions inside the glitch. Just because she got injured doesn't mean she could blame others. 

Shit always hits the fan, yet, Glitch owes nothing to the ones who get caught in it. Soon, Colt and Agenor put both of them on their backs and ran towards the mouth of the valley. After running for 10 minutes, Colt couldn't suppress his urge,

"It's been 4 months already… the kid just comes secretly just to train the Inca… he doesn't hunt and he doesn't even bother to show his face. Don't you think it's ridiculous…"

"Well that's what going underground means…"

"Anyway!" Colt asked with a laid back expression, "How long do we have to take care of the beast?"

"Why? Are you getting tired of it?"

"It's just… we haven't taken any group missions because of this babysitting crap… and there hasn't been a cash inflow. We all are living off of our joint savings. And not to mention our skills might get rusty. Four months of stagnation, that's not good, man…"

"Nothing I can do about that. Master's orders."

"I know! And this is what I don't understand… Why is the master so inclined to help a new member at the cost of shutting down all the group missions? The kid joins a single mission and the master starts treating him like vip. Isn't that favoritism? Sure, I understand the gravity of the situation but why do we have to put ourselves in his mess."

"I asked the same question, and here's what the master said word for word— I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help out any member of the team who proves his worth. If any of you were in the same position as him, I would have done the same. However, don't mistake this to be solely an act of hospitality or kindness… this is an investment."

"An investment, huh! That sounds like something the master would say… I see… but to say something like that means… "

"The kid must have done something crazy. Crazy enough to get the master's attention!"

"And what about you?" Colt asked with a straight face. He wasn't smiling anymore, "Do you also feel the same? "

"I don't know. He is one hell of an archer and has a refined close combat caliber too. The kid is impressive, no doubt about that… "

He continued, "but I'm afraid the ones who shine brightest, often burn fastest… so we'll just have to see how long it takes."

~hmpf 

Colt weaved an abrupt huff, a smirk appeared on his face. "You like the kid, don't you?"

"I have no reason to hate him. He might be a bit rude and reckless… but that's just how every other teenager is. The good thing is at least he is not pretentious and has the skills to back up his attitude… "

"Yeah! That's right!" Colt replied with an unapologetic shrug, "Anyway, I'm still not fond of this beast bodyguard business!"

Agenor sighed at Colt's declaration and smirked, 

"If that's the case then don't worry because we won't be doing this too long…"

"Eh! What do you mean?"

"Master told me that he is planning to rejoin… pretty soon!"

"Nice.. that's good.... now that's what I'm talking about… "

Agenor and Colt kept having a lighthearted conversation while the two people kept bleeding out over their shoulders. 

Fortunately, both of the hunters on their backs were passed out cold from the pain. Soon enough, they dropped them off at the closest immediate care center inside a public shelter for the first aid and returned back to the perimeters of the forest.