They didn't speak of it as hunting others. It was simply gathering resources to level the playing field.
Pluto walked ahead, his steps duller than before. He wasn't paying attention to new wave of mist that approached, or the forest the mist nested. He looked at the heat that quietly brimmed behind it. The forest wasn't just wet leaves and branches anymore, it now had gradients of heat veined into them. Pluto couldn't see it well, every heat pattern was blurry and could just had been as a result of temperature change. But given, there were quite a few he was sure of. Pockets of lingering warmth cast by people who rested there too long. Thermal footprints that refused to dissipate, armed by the heat beneath the soil.
The eel flowed freely along his veins, growing greater communes with its host. It wasn't stronger, it was just more awake. It felt more like an actual being than a hue with motion senses. Still, its reality was still in its inception.
Mira followed slightly behind, creating marking on the ground out of boredom. In her hand was a silk piece of wood, trimmed to prefect balance by her new "reaction". The memory of her sharpening the wood with flickers of light played through her mind. They had encountered a few luggage-bag sized predators, and neither of them had the proper tools to fend them off. That was the case until she forced shaped a piece of wood into a blade. Same properties, same wood, different purpose.
It was a great boon for the team, but ultimately disheartening for Pluto. Not that he wasn't happy with her progress, but he felt that compared to her, he was lacking. He was quite useful in reconnaissance and directions, but as far as flashy powers went, he wasn't even mentionable.
"We don't rush," Mira said. "We isolate."
Pluto nodded confidently. "And we don't react, we act."
They weren't hunting beasts or humans, they were hunting convenience. Heat signatures that moved fearful, that moved without company, that hesitated. Anything could check these boxes, but for the most part, they would be humans, and Mira wasn't a fan of that idea.
Shortly after, Pluto felt warmth. Thin and vertical, located to their left. It was human, and a starved one. They were crouched beside a patch of dead grass, watching something.
Pluto focused a little more, watching how heat travelled inside the person which he had identified to be a man. The information he got was little and could be summarised in five words: there was a blind spot.
"So?" Mira whispered, already understanding.
"Distracted youth, stalking something, he has a chipped stone blade or something that doesn't conduct heat well."
Mira peeked through mist and vine, catching a brief glimpse. She glanced at Pluto. This was no longer about desperation, it was about choice. And they chose not to remain stagnant.
Pluto moved first, nimbly stepping into the man's blind spot, closing distance lightning fast. The eel twitched, aligning along his ribs. He understood now that the eel didn't just point direction, it guided his movements too.
He struck gracelessly, shoving his hand at the man's throat. The stone blade slipped from his reach before he could strike back, clattering away on the muck floor. Mira stepped in before he could regain balance, driving her log like a warhammer into his abdomen. She shaped the log again, but not to be razor sharp, but bluntly accurate.
It pierced with a gurgling sound.
The man made a brief sound before he collapsed. More of shock than of pain. He had barely gotten a glimpse of his attackers before his life was snuffed out.
Pluto held him until he stopped moving. He was a young man with a vulgar face, trimmed beard and dull eyes.
Silence accompanied guilty that flooded their minds. They didn't dare look at each other, fearing that they would break at that sight. Still, it was no time to back down.
Pluto grimaced as he sunk his hand into the open abdomen and groped around for the battle seed. He found it a further down than he expected, having to stain himself with blood and guts before claiming his prize.
The moment his fingers wrapped around it, something shifted.
Not violently, just a tiny adjustment in perception. He inhaled deeply. The eel loosened at that moment, breathing the same air of mysterious origins.
Mira felt it too. Not the eel, but Pluto. The air slowing down around him, the aura she could not explain.
"How do you feel?"
"More defined. Maybe the seeds were never about growing the power within a person, but about unshackling the chains that bound it."
They stood longer, trying to understand something. Gain was present no doubt, but it was... slight.
Heat signatures didn't clarify, neither did his ability to persive them expand. He just seemed to know the name better.
He didn't speak of what it meant, they just moved on.
***
Far from them, two figures moved with caution through root and vine.
They were the remaining members of the trio, or the new duo.
They were still trying to find the body of their teammate, and after the culprit who killed him. The woman walked ahead, tight faced. She was no longer keen on exacting vengeance on anyone, she just wanted growth.
The man however, scanned the surroundings with gear tight focus. He looked at leaves, the ones that wind couldn't break into the shape it was, at blood that left a metallic smell strong enough to suggest it was recent.
"He's close," Ronan muttered.
The woman shook her head. "No. That could be anyone's blood. We'd be chasing geese if we followed it."
Just then an echo cracked through the mist.
They dropped low instantly. Through the brush, they saw him. Middle aged, exhausted, and limping from a wound.
The woman's eyes turned cold. She raised her hand and a ripple passed through the air. Distortion bounced off surfaces like echoed, dragging motion instantly.
The man didn't have time to understand before he met his end. It was bittersweet. ' At least he didn't get to suffer' she said, comforting herself.
She pulled the seed from his body. Her breathing steadied as she held it. "It's more effective," she murmured.
"Yes." They both knew that, but the consequences were still a mystery.
***
Pluto stopped unannounced, abrupt in his handling. Two heat signatures pulsed ahead.
Together. Same niche. Same hunting stance.
Pluto narrowed his frame of view. The signatures were familiar. "The trio," he said quietly.
Mira's grip tightened around her log. "Together?". Pluto nodded in response.
Pluto studied the patterns more indepthly. They weren't too close. But they were active. And they had just killed.
He could feel the gloom around them. The unfulfilled hopes and dreams that bathed them as they moved away.
Mira stepped closer to him, almost hoping to see as he did. "Do we return to the owl?"
Pluto shook. "Not yet. The hunt isn't over."
They found another target easily. Older woman. Moving slowly and in the open. She wasn't injured, but not alert either. Pluto followed her for thirty minutes, unsure whether to attack or let her go. He chose the latter.
Apart from coming to better terms with moral compromise, he also found it easier to maintain clarity as he prolonged the use of his ability. Distance caused focus, but when he anchored onto the guidance of the eel, he saw things better.
The attack was short and uneventful. They struck faster and hesitated less. The arithmetic was being to make sense. Or they had forced it to.
They took the seed. And this time, Mira didn't flinch when blood splashed. She shrugged it off.
They stepped away from the body without a word of side glance, all to ensure that they could keep their sanity after this was over. Two seeds rested in Pluto's bloody hands.
"Wait," Mira said observing them. "Absorb one."
His hesitation was brief. He obliged. He wrapped his hand around it and pressed against it. The world buzzed for a moment around him. And when it stopped, he saw details in sharper resolution.
The eel did not grow. But its outline became more realistic.
His breath deepened again. Heat's dance became less erratic, and he could track what was supposed to be a guess earlier.
"Well?"
"Same as before, just clearer."
She absorbed the other seed, and felt the shaping force within her light up at the edges. It wasn't tamed yet, but not so wild anymore.
They stood in flowing mist and growing darkness, stronger than ever. Imperceptibly, but it was progression nonetheless.
They still help one seed. But it wasn't for growth, it was for payment. A tribute for knowledge. A gift for information. The owl's currency.
And somewhere above, perched in the canopy of ancient trees, the owl watched with amusement.
It was aware.
But it would wait.