Radiance Ch. 107

"Well now that is useful, so between the two of you, we should be able to smell these fuckers out because I know Visa's species of Claw has a very good nose and eyes," Seven said.

"I think we can do this," Visa said.

"Alright first light tomorrow we'll set off, these fuckers like to strike at night and they are very likely to come back tonight to check out our new defences so they can possibly plan themselves a way to circumvent them, so we're gonna let them, then when their resting up during the day tomorrow you two are going to bloodhound the fuck out of this and we're gonna follow them back to their camp and we're going to show them what it's like to get hit when their asleep," Seven said.

"We's teaches them not to pick on free good humans!" Thundertail said happily slapping her massive tail on the ground making it boom.

"Exactly, so get a good rest tonight ladies for tomorrow we're going hunting," Seven said.

There was one other part to Seven's plan that he failed to disclose to the girls as in order to execute it he was going to need to be free of distractions, infact he'd gotten the idea while he'd been watching a little desert spider spinning a web in the corner of one of the ceiling beams of his and Visa's room in the fake saloon, in a way it had reminded him of Malakai and the thing he would do where he'd lay trip wires of web in order to catch out any tails as they tripped one these trip wires, therefore alerting him to their presence.

So once Visa was sound asleep Seven used his abilities to gently pry her arms open and to substitute his pillow into her arms leaving her snuggling face into his pseudo-chest and heading up to the top of the belfry where the sentry was alarmed to see him fly in through one of the windows though Seven managed to clamp the man's mouth shut before he could cry out.

"Don't mind me I'm just here to do some fishing," he said with a sly smile which made the man look at him in puzzlement before shrugging it off, Seven was sure that to them he was the eccentric guy with crazy powers who loved and lived with Claws so they probably brushed anything he did off at this point.

So seating himself in the centre of the belfry well out of sight from any side or window Seven closed his eyes and began to envision an army of little Malakais spinning an invisible web all around the outer perimeter of the town.

It was quite a challenge to both build and maintain these invisible threads all around the town let alone to place himself at the centre of them so that he could even feel the lightest of breezes stirring them but then after only two hours of holding his composure it paid off and he got a snag.

He'd imagined the threads as taught as silk but as light as air that could be passed clean through by any solid object that touched them so that they didn't not feel them or in any way realise that they'd tripped a trip wire.

So when the first observer came close they had no idea that they'd passed through Seven's web and that he was aware of their presence, nor were their three friends.

Seven tracked their progress around the outer perimeter as they walked the wall but never touched or interacted with it, no just as Seven had predicted this was simply a fact-finding mission so they could probe the defences and look for weaknesses so come the next night they'd know exactly where to strike or if they found blind spots, enter.

After the little scout team was done they left in exactly the same place they'd entered from and unbeknownst to them Seven was already marking their exit point with a little rock totem that he was building as to know that when dawn came he and the girls would have a solid starting point.

Once he was done he got up and thanked the still-confused sentry for not disturbing him before heading back to bed and reinserting himself back into the still clueless Visa's arms.

In the morning once they had some breakfast the trio were ready to head out and after a little visit to the morgue where the body of the Shadow was still awaiting burial or in the case of this town cremation for the girls to get a scent trace off his clothing, Seven led them out to where he'd marked a trail last night.

"Smell is strong here!" Thundertail said taking a deep lungful near the ground.

"Yeah, I agree how the hell did you know that this was the point they'd come from?" Visa demanded obviously sensing that Seven had been up to something.

"Let's just say Malakai is not the only one who can spin a mean web," Seven said with a smug little smile that was hidden by his helmet making Visa snort as she knew that he'd done something and by the look in her golden eyes he was going to get questioned mercilessly later, maybe he'd show off his new web spinning skills by affixing her tail tip to her horns?

Like a pair of oversized hunting dogs both Visa and Thundertail both constantly cast about following the scent trail left by their little visitors last night, the group had seemingly stuck to rocky ground to ensure they left next to no visible trail or footprints which in Seven's humble opinion was excellent tradecraft but it didn't stop the two Claws zeroing them in with their powerful noses.

Though Seven found himself surprised and somewhat impressed by the distance the little team had covered in order to reach them as they'd been tracking for a couple of hours when they arrived at what appeared to be some kind of cave system that led into the side of a large rocky cliff.

"They's in there smell is really strong here, me's counts at least twenty maybe more," Thundertail said quietly pointing to the large cave mouth that kinda looked like a fang-filled mouth yawing from the side of the cliff what with all the spiky rock outcrops sticking out of the edges of it.

"Yeah, this is their scout camp alright," Seven said nodding his head and Visa glanced at him from where she was lying next to him on the grassy bank over looking at the small valley leading down to the cave.

"What makes you so sure I mean the smell is strong sure but they could have passed through here," she said curiously.

"If that was the case then why bother to set traps?" Seven said pointing to some rocks around the mouth and when Visa focused her eyes where he pointed she saw what he indicated as landmines.

"What is disc thing?" Thundertail asked indicating she'd seen what he'd pointed out as well.

"A landmine, a very dangerous human booby trap, you step on it and it explodes under you either maiming or killing you and given these guys love of grenades we can't be sure of even what type they are," Seven said.

"So how we're get in there without them knowing?" Thundertail asked trying to puzzle it out in her mind's eye.

"We don't," Visa said and both Thundertail and Seven both looked at her prompting her to continue.

"We make them come to us any good hunting Claw knows that they must choose the hunting ground, not the prey, if you tackle the prey on their own terms and on their home terrain it is a risky fight and one that is not certain, so what you do is make your prey come to you, so we need to make them come out of their little hidey hole into the open where the odds will be in our favour," she explained.

Seven thought about this and he knew Visa had a very good point there, fighting those shadow-loving fucks in the depths of that cave network would be risky as all hell and it would rob them of the ability to use the Claw's greatest strengths like their size in the close confines.

"But hows we get them to come out?" Thundertail asked sounding confused.

"We don't he does," Visa said indicating Seven and suddenly he got the feeling he knew where she was going with this and he nodded his understanding.

"Better circle the place and make sure there's no back doors first and if there are we'll need to seal them up, we need to force the fuckers out of the door we'll be waiting at," he said and Visa nodded while Thundertail simply shrugged obviously just putting her trust in her new friends.

As it turned out there were three rear exits to the cave network all as equally booby-trapped as the main entrance but a few well-placed boulders later and they were all sealed off Seven also made a point of collecting all of the landmines they saw until the three of them were gathered back at the entrance.

"Alright once this kicks off it's going to go crazy real fast so you'll both need to be ready for it, they are gonna come pouring out of that place like angry ants that just got their nest pissed on," Seven said and both Claws nodded in agreement.

"I'll be down here on the left, if Thundertail goes on the right then we can hit them in the flanks before they know what's happening," Visa said drawing a diagram in the dirt with her claw tip.

Seven nodded, "I'll scatter them with some plasma fire from here which should shit them up and get them looking my way," Seven said.

"Why not just use power to squish them like yous did with nasty biting worm?" Thundertail asked.

"I'm gonna be pushing my power to the limits to get this to work in the first place and over-stretching it will cripple me so gotta keep it in the safe range as best I can," Seven said which Thundertail nodded her head in understanding.

"Still just human then?" she said with a warm smile that told Seven she wasn't having a dig at him more that she was happy to learn that even he had limits.

"Yup a different kind of human but still just human," he said and she gave him a very tooth-filled smile.

"Lucky Alpha Claw Visa is so lucky to have such a strong male at her side," she said and Visa puffed out her ample chest swells proudly.

"Don't I know it," Visa said.

"Alright let's get this show on the road shall we ladies?" Seven said to which both Claws nodded and headed down the hill to get themselves into position.

When both girls were in position Seven centred himself by taking a series of deep breaths, it was going to take split-second timing to get this to work and it was going to take a hell of a lot of power as well probably more than he had ever used before in a single go so he didn't quite know how his brain was going to react to it though one thing he knew was he was going to have the king of all headaches after this but it needed to be done, so with one final breath, he glanced up to see both Claws giving him the go signal using the little mirrors he'd brought with him for them to flash signal him.

This was going to be a one-two punch the likes of which had never been attempted by anyone before but there was always a first time for everything, so as Seven let his breath go he pitched the collected landmines through the entrance to the cave like a wrecking ball of death and no sooner had they detonated underground making the whole place shake as their explosive force passed through the rock Seven delivered his second strike.

Like a giant hammer coming down on the top of an anvil, Seven hit the top of the cliff with such force that the explosive weakened rock began to shatter and splinter in the cave mouth as the force rippled through it, almost immediately Seven felt the very familiar spikes of pain stabbing at his brain but he didn't ease off he simply kept up the pressure atop of the cliff driving the giant invisible hammer down and causing the entire thing to crack under the pressure.

It worked like a charm, the sheer level of force delivered onto the rock started a chain reaction which began to collapse the cave network hidden below it and thanks to Seven softening it up and fracturing it with the high explosives the whole process was sped up, it also forced the hidden cultists to come pouring out of the cave mouth like a stream of angry ants mere seconds before the whole thing collapsed behind them sending a plume of red dust pouring over them.

No sooner were they in the open than Seven despite the raging pain in his skull opened up on the confused figures dressed all in black as they stood coughing and choking in the basin in front of what had been the cave entrance, this instantly caused all of them to turn and to try and return fire while scattering for cover, so focused on Seven were they that not one of them saw the two angry Claws charging in from either side until it was well too late.

Visa and thundertail hit the group like a pair of scaley wrecking balls which in Thundertail's case was a very apt metaphor given that she had a large spikey morningstar on the tip of her tail which she put to very good use, sending the first group she hit flying like human-shaped bowling pins with far more holes than they'd begun the day with.

As soon as they saw the angry Claws amongst them some of the cultists tried to flee only to either be picked off by Seven or to run smack bang into Seven's final little trick, he'd erected an invisible seven-foot high ring wall all around the basin the moment Visa and Thundertail had entered the arena trapping them all in there with the two angry Claw girls and despite the raging pain in his skull he held it up until there was only one final cultist left standing, or well rather crawling backwards away from the angry Claw girls on his arse, only now did he drop it.

"Not this one girl," Seven said walking down into the basin and up behind the cultist causing them both to glance up at him and the cultist to spin around only to meet Seven's armoured fist coming the other way with enough force to snap his head around and knock him square out cold.

"Questions?" Visa asked and Seven nodded.

"Questions indeed my love, right lets get our little friend here back to town before he wakes up and makes carrying him more miserable, Thundertail if you would be so kind as to gather up their weapons and any ammo I'm pretty sure our friends in town can make use of them," she nodded and lumbered off to begin searching the scattered corpses while Seven leaned down to bind up their unconscious prisoner with some wire he'd brought for the occasion, he and his new friend were going to have a little chat when he woke up and it was gonna be debatable which of them had the worst headache when he did.