Oblivion's Throne-Chapter 95: The Hunt

The dropship trembled as it broke through the upper atmosphere, the hull shuddering under the sudden shift in pressure.

A slow breath left Orion's lips, but the air felt heavier than it should.

It had been happening more frequently—this hypersensitivity to his environment, the way his perception stretched beyond what it once was.

Across from him, Varun sat strapped in, arms crossed, watching him without speaking. His usual nonchalance was absent, replaced by a quiet intensity.

Outside, the clouds peeled apart, revealing the dark forests stretching beneath endlessly under the glow of the descending suns.

A sense of familiarity stirred within him.

Orion's mind drifted back—two days ago. The screens lining the walls, displaying readouts of his genetic profile. A digital screening of his body rotated in place, overlaid with fluctuating data streams.

Varun's expression was unreadable. He tapped a few commands, and a series of numbers highlighted themselves on the screen.

Muscle Density: 415% above baseline.

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Bone Reinforcement Index: 313% above baseline.

Orion inhaled sharply.

"You've surpassed Ren," Varun murmured at last, his voice quieter than usual.

Orion blinked. "What?"

Varun turned to him, arms folding. "Your sister's peak physical parameters. You've exceeded them. This shouldn't have been possible at your age."

Breaking her records from two years ago was one thing, but exceeding her enhanced body parameters without going through the same process with the academy's enhancement was another.

"Is it because of the mutation?" he asked, voice steady despite the unease creeping into his gut.

Varun exhaled through his nose, rubbing his jaw. "Most probably," he admitted. "The Hybrid Enhancement type is unpredictable. You're adapting at a rate beyond normal human parameters."

Orion glanced back at the HUD. His genetic sequence flickered in shifting hues, vast portions still unreadable, fragmented. Alien DNA: 0.00089% Integrated. Higher than before. Unknown Genome Fragment: 0.00014%. Still dormant.

"That percentage keeps growing," he muttered.

Varun studied him. "Do you feel anything ... different?"

A rough jolt brought him back to the present. The ship lurched as it entered a landing sequence, the engines roaring beneath them. Varun unstrapped himself first, rising fluidly. His gaze flickered toward Orion. "Ready?"

Orion released the armrests. He hadn't noticed it before, but now that the thought had formed, he couldn't shake it.

Varun led the way as the dropship's rear hatch hissed open. A rush of humid air flooded inside, carrying the scent of damp earth and distant ozone. It smelled familiar.

His boots met the ground with a dull thud. The forest loomed before him, dark and sprawling, the undergrowth shifting with unseen life.

Something prickled against the edge of his mind.

It clicked.

He had been here before.

Varun watched him closely. "Four months ago, you barely made it out of this forest alive."

Orion's breath hitched. The realization settled in his bones.

The wilderness where he had nearly died.

The place where his body had first started to change.

Varun moved to the dropship without saying a word. The dropship's engines roared, its artificial thrusters kicking up dust and debris as it lifted off, leaving Orion alone in the wilderness.

Orion took a breath, filling his lungs with the familiar air.

Step one: shelter.

He moved swiftly, scanning the terrain.

After an hour of exploration, he found what he was looking for: a rock formation with an overhang, providing natural cover. The entrance to a narrow cavern lay partially hidden behind layers of twisted roots, meaning it would be difficult for larger predators to access.

Orion crouched, examining the space. It was dry, stable, and provided visibility in all directions. Good. He swept the area for signs of beasts —nothing recent. A few claw marks on the rocks suggested that something had once nested here, but it was long gone.

With shelter secured, he turned to his next priority.

No matter how strong he was, he still needed calories.

He moved through the underbrush with practiced silence, scanning for signs of smaller prey. The ecosystem was violent—everything here fought to survive, meaning most creatures were armored, fast, or both.

Finally, he spotted his target.

A spine-backed quadruped, roughly the size of a wolf, was foraging near a shallow ravine. Its forelimbs ended in hooked claws, perfect for digging through the soil. A row of chitinous spines ran down its back, twitching like antennae, likely acting as sensory receptors.

Orion assessed the situation. The creature was alert, but not expecting an ambush from above. He adjusted his breathing, feeling the coiled tension in his tendons.

He lunged.

The burst of acceleration was unnatural, sending him forward in a controlled arc. The creature barely had time to react before his Wraith's side blade slammed into the base of its skull, severing its connection to the spine.

It collapsed without a sound.

Orion exhaled, quickly extracting the usable parts for sustenance. He noted the chemical scent of its blood, slightly acidic, meaning it most likely had natural toxins in its diet. He wouldn't risk consuming anything without first checking for toxins. As for how he would do that by letting another animal consume it's meat before he did so.

The suns dipped lower as he made his way back to his shelter, securing his kill.

With food secured and the first kill under his belt, he turned to his real objective—hunting a good predator that he could integrate with the Pythia System.

A gouge in the rock, deep and deliberate, as if something with unnatural strength had carved through solid stone. The edges were too clean for weathering. This was fresh. And most probably this creature used tools.

He knelt, running his fingers over the marks. This thing wasn't just strong—it had intelligence. Unlike the more reckless predators he had encountered, this creature knew how to shape its environment to its advantage.

That made it dangerous.

That also made it worth hunting.

He followed the trail with, keeping his body low and his senses sharp. The forest had grown eerily silent.

The first glimpse of his target came when he reached the edge of a narrow gorge. The Xenocrux Lurker was moving just below, its bulk partially hidden beneath layers of burrowed rock.

It was a monstrous thing, its hide pale and ridged with armor plating, thick muscles beneath the surface like. Its bone-hinged jaw flexed open, revealing a secondary proboscis, twitching with sensory cilia. This was how it hunted—detecting the faintest movements in the air, feeling the shifts in pressure before striking with absolute precision.

Orion remained completely still, letting his body adjust to the tension in his surroundings. If he moved too soon, the Lurker would detect the microcurrents in the air displacement.

If he wanted to take something from this creature, he had to do more than just kill it.

He had to understand it.

He remained crouched in the underbrush, watching its movements. The way it tensed and released its musculature in bursts, its subtle shifts before each lunge—the signs of a highly evolved ambush predator.

Then, he noticed something else.

The musculature along its hind legs—it wasn't just for strength. It was designed for explosive multi-directional bursts, allowing it to move unpredictably in any direction.

Orion felt the pieces clicking into place.

His pulse remained steady as he reached for his weapon, eyes locked onto the Lurker's form.

Then, he launched himself forward—straight into the hunt.