One had a deep laceration on the arm, rendering it unusable. Another had the same sort of wound, but on his chest. He was grappling with the Chiwe, messily attacking him. The last one might have been taken by surprise the most because the claw marks were on his back, deep and painful-looking.
The last warrior and our leader roared in rage, charging at the flying beasts. I also raised my spear, ready to fire it, but soon changed my mind. With my still imperfect skills, it was way too risky to interfere with combatants in such close melee. I was also too small to charge at the Chiwes like the rest of the warriors, so I opted for my last option, magic.
Earth wasn’t suited for the situation, so plants would be my main helping method. Since the leader and last warrior each helped one of their companions, it left one warrior to struggle in a one versus one fight with a Chiwe, the one who had lost usage of his arm. I decided to help him, seeing him get overwhelmed quickly by his frenzied opponent.
Plants! Attack this Chiwe!
Responding to my call and vast magical energy, all the plants in the vicinity grew at a fast speed, aiming for the Chiwe. The beast had incredible instincts and noticed the attack almost immediately. However, stuck in close combat with the warrior, it didn’t have the leeway to do much. It tried to swiftly fly away, but of course, the warrior didn't let it. At the price of getting his hand hurt by the sharp claws, he grabbed the beast’s leg, giving me enough time to initiate my tentacle porn attack.
In a matter of seconds, the Chiwe was bound, just like the warek had been all those years back. When it was certain that the creature couldn’t escape, we redirected our efforts toward the two other assailants.
Now having a clear numerical advantage, one warrior soon managed to pierce a second Chiwe in the heart, killing it on the spot. Seeing that the situation was turning sour, the last one escaped at full speed. The hunters sent spears its way, but it avoided them skillfully and managed to flee out of range, growling at us one last time before leaving our field of vision.
We all exhaled in respite, happy to survive the surprise assault. The wounded warriors tried to stay stoic despite the lacerations, in a very manly way, but it was clear they were hurting.
“Rest, everyone. You all fought well, especially you, Keon. You’re a very powerful shaman.”
“Thank you, warrior.”
“Can you also heal the wounded?”
“Leave it to me.”
Just like I had done for Libes, I asked a bunch of plants to come near the injured warriors before exchanging their vitality to heal them. A few minutes later, both injuries and pain were gone, allowing the whole team a moment of respite.
“Leader, it’s so useful to have an earth shaman with us.”
“That’s why I told you to learn some magic, but you never listened to me!”
“You know how hard training was. We had no energy to learn anything else.”
“That’s right. I always fell asleep immediately when I was still training.”
The warriors nodded, and Aldrui sighed helplessly. Curious, I asked him about the topic.
“No one can use magic in the team?”
He shook his head.
“Pretty much. I can use a little fire magic, it’s useful to make a fire when we go on longer expeditions.”
“And I can use some water magic. We use it to drink if there’s no river nearby.”
Only two people could use it, and on a basic level only. Their output probably wasn’t enough to make any difference in a fight, especially compared to their other skills. The truth is, it wasn’t because they were too tired, but mostly because of prejudice. Since most of the shamans in the tribe were women, there was this perception that magic was a more feminine skill, and shameful to master. In the eyes of young boys training to be warriors, they would be better spending more time on their spear and fighting skills than anything related to magic. Something they could only regret later, just like right now.
There was also no way shaman women would be integrated into hunting teams. Even women agreed on that part. Hunting was for the men, taking care of the grotto was for the women. It would be insane to dare to think any differently!
We rested for around ten minutes before cleaning up the area. It seemed there was some blessing in our misfortune since the jumping heivo had been killed by the numerous spears everyone had thrown at it before the Chiwe attacked. With this, we had killed five beasts, giving plenty of meat for the tribe, and more than our objective for this hunt.
This posed a problem, however. Just like Aldrui had said, we always needed to have two warriors unencumbered, to react quickly in case of an emergency. Since I didn’t count due to not being strong enough to carry any of these heavy creatures, taking all of them in the normal way would mean having every warrior carry a beast.
Still, it wasn’t the first time this sort of thing happened, and despite the tribesmen being simple, they had long found ways to handle these sorts of things. The solution was to attach two of these beasts to two others and drag them on the ground, while the last one would be carried normally.
This wasn’t an ideal solution because pelts and feathers would get damaged, but that would still be much better than leaving them completely. Once this was done, we started the return trip to the cave. Our leader was in the front, a spear in hand and watching around carefully, while the second free warrior was at the back, ready to handle any sneaky assault.
I was in the middle this time since the situation was riskier, our numerous prey emitting a heavy smell of blood.