Ajax didn't understand properly what was happening, but he could see that he has no way out of the situation other than fighting with the beast.
He had no idea about what the man wants, but from the looks of it he already knew about Ajax's identity.
"You know who I am? How?" asked Ajax in a low voice, wanting to check whether the man actually knew or if he also just made a guess like those dead kidnappers.
"The general, Krev informed me of it after sending me to get you back," said the man which surprised Ajax even more.
"Even having a confirmation from the general that he was a prince, this man doesn't fear his actions," he realized.
"I thought the general had plans for me, so why is this man so reckless," thought Ajax
"How long have you known that I was abducted?" asked Ajax.
"I have been following those two idiots from before they entered your room. They were just bait. You were never in danger," said the man. "It was only after they caught you that I was informed of your identity."
"So, you continued your mission so as to catch them. Now, that you have them, why this game?" said Ajax even more confused.
"Well, for starters, as I told you before, the beast after break through is more valuable. If you kill it, fine, you can have the spoils. Else, I can't do much to it till it leaves the fort. But there are others, who can kill or tame it," said the man.
Ajax wanted to punch the man's nose. All he did was explain the consequences of his decision, but not one time did he tell why Ajax was involved in the game. He could have done any or those on his own.
"Still, why involve me?"
"Just like the beast, you are under test," said the man. "Your experience on the way to the fort taught you a few things. I managed to find your tails in the market. We were monitoring you at that time. It impressed the general. It has been told to me by the general that you managed to kill two assassins even after you lost your core. I want to see if you can kill a weakened beast."
"You can first capture it and then you can arrange a good fight," suggested Ajax trying to postpone it.
"The golden eater is a royal beast which are really proud. If we try to capture it forcefully, it will immediately try explode its core," said the man.
"You are lying," said Ajax. "The speed at which you took down the spider, it would be quite easy for you to do the same with the rat."
"Heh, you caught me there," sniggered the man.
"Fine, I saw recording of your fight with others. You don't fight like any other of your age, much matured like you are used to killing humans. You have those instincts and you are better suited for killing humans, which is best suited for a special team like us among the border guards. So, I want you," he said pointing to Ajax.
Seeing the man pointing at him and say I want, suddenly made him remember of the "I want you posters" that were prevalent in 20th century and was seen in lots of movies. It almost made him laugh.
"So, that's your recruitment pitch?" asked Ajax sniggering sounding almost exactly like the man as he shook his head and hands acting giddy. "And this is your test?"
"Hey, you already showed your talent against humans, but you also need to do show me if you can handle the beasts."
"Is this how you usually select members for your team?"
"Of course, no. We usually take in veterans and variants with well-known talents like that shadow attributed kid along with you, but why lose such a good chance?"
"So, if I fail?"
"You continue with the border guard like everyone else, you will be safe. Maybe if you prove yourself later, I might take you into my team."
"So, I can say no?"
"I don't understand. Usually, people try their best to get recruited among us. What is wrong with you?" asked the man.
"Who are you?"
"I am Syam Blatt," said the man shaking Ajax's hand.
"He is asking about the team, boss. You didn't even say who we are but are asking him to join us," came a loud voice from outside.
"Oh! my bad. I always forget," said Syam slapping his forehead. "I am the captain of one of the hunter team H121 of the border guard. Hunter teams are specialized teams, not posted at a single fort for a long time. We usually travel. We are provided a lot more freedom compared to others. What we do is"
"I heard enough," said Ajax lifting his hand. "Willing to join for the chance of moving around and not stuck to a fort."
He took the two knives given to him and checked them before taking the pill to heal himself. As it dissolved in his mouth and went inside, he started to feel an itch at the place on his arm where he suffered the cut along with slight pains on other parts of his body. He knew that it was the pill working its effect. In a couple of seconds, the bleeding stemmed and even his skin mended like he wasn't even hurt.
"This isn't cheap," said Ajax. As a prince, he had quite frequently used such pills but he knew that a pill that could heal this fast wasn't easily available. Only ones above 90% purity could do that.
"Oh! we get the best of the supplies; you know about 70% pure. But you healed much faster than we expected. I mean all I expected was it to stem the bleeding, not something as efficient as what happened," said Syam. "You seem to have some type of bloodline."
"Another thing that I don't understand," thought Ajax. Just the idea of bloodline which he didn't know anything about tired him.
"Ok, now that you are fine, just be careful with the weapons, golden eaters do eat metal so keep it away from its mouth. It can bit through those blades."
"I will try my best to impress you," said Ajax making slight bow with a flourish.
"You mocking me? kid?"
Ajax just shrugged his shoulders.
"Fine, since I put you in such a situation on your first day, I will let this be," said Syam waving his hand as he went out of the barrier.
"Hey, how long will it take to break through?" asked Ajax.
"A minute or two left," came Syam's voice from outside the barrier.
Hearing him, Ajax relaxed a bit while he thought about how to approach the fight. He was quite used to fighting humanoids and was very experienced in it, but not such beasts. Sure, he did have to occasionally fight dogs and some other guard animals in his past life, but those were much smaller and most of the time he just tranquilized them with a gun.
"He did say it is a juvenile beast and the way it got riled up and pounced at me to lose its eye, it is definitely not experienced much," thought Ajax as he remembered the golden eater's behavior.
"But I doubt it will still be like that after injuring its eye. So, I must think of some way to kill it that it doesn't expect, but it is bound to have a blind side as its eye didn't heal," he thought as he started to formulate a plan.
Soon, the white cocoon of mana around the beast started to fade. Seeing it, Ajax took the knives, crouched and quickly made his way to beast. As he neared, he made sure to approach it from its left side so that it couldn't see him.
"Foolish human," squeaked the beast. "I can smell you."
As it said that Ajax immediately knew that he had to move, he moved his left hand upwards and then threw it towards the beasts right eye. As the beast suddenly saw the blade of the knife coming towards its only proper eye, the beast first felt a bit a fear remembering the pain when it lost one. But immediately after that, it felt anger and then lunged forward with its head to bite the hand holding the blade.
But all it felt was biting the air. Immediately afterwards, the pain in its left eye that reduced a bit after its breakthrough, spiked as it felt the other blade moving into its eye again.
It was then it realized that it had been tricked again. It immediately jumped backwards and took a few quick steps back till it could see Ajax. The knife was stuck in its left eye as it ran back. It tried to scratch at the knife in an attempt to pull it but noticed that it only bled more and felt more pain. So, it let the knife be stuck in its eye.
"How old are you?" asked Ajax as he picked up the knife that he threw near its eye to distract it which allowed him to plunge the other knife into its already hurt eye.
"You must be quite young and inexperienced to just try to bite me again seeing that you injured your eye once due to the same mistake," continued Ajax.
"Don't you learn from your mistakes? Don't you think about similar tricks that can be used against you after you are hurt once?"
"We are noble beasts that don't resort to such tricks, human," it squeaked in a shrill voice that clearly showed that it was in pain. "We fight fairly and directly. And we always win in a fair fight."
"We are fighting fair right now. To be frank, you are much stronger and at a higher level of cultivation than me, but still you are crying and loosing," said Ajax.
"I won't be fooled again human. I know you are trying to anger me with your words."
"You have already been angry with me and you been fooled twice," said Ajax as he held the knife in his hand forward and rushed towards the beast.
With the beast already been injured twice in the same eye, he was sure that it would be on guard and it couldn't be tricked to attack again. So, he knew he had to try something different other than making it angry enough to rush towards him. Thus, he decided to rush toward the beast instead.
Seeing the sudden change of the human, the beast was immediately confused and then the fear began to creep in.
"Keep away, trickster," squeaked the beast as it moved back. A second later it hit the wall with its back and couldn't move back anymore. It immediately moved so that its left side would face the wall and Ajax would be towards it's right so that he wouldn't be able to attack its blind left side.
This was exactly what Ajax was looking for. He already knew that when surprised or suddenly hurt the beasts go to response was to retreat. He ran as fast as he could toward its head. When he was a meter away, he landed on his knees as he let his momentum carry him forward sliding towards it while he kept his arm ready and taut ready to strike with all his force.
As he reached it, he moved the knife forward in a piercing motion and the beast only wanted to keep its other eye safe and swiped its fore limb at the weapon. To the beast, the two knives were the only two things that can hurt it. One knife was stuck in its head and hence, its main priority was to get rid of the other which was with Ajax.
It expected to be a bit hurt or it least a small cut, but only saw the knife flying away after it hit its claw. It felt relieved seeing the knife fly away. Without the weapons, it was confident that it would win the bet and it would be allowed to leave.
At the same time, as soon as fore leg knocked off the knife and it landed on the ground, it felt Ajax hands holding that limb down on the ground with his hands.
As it turned its good eye from the flying knife to see what Ajax was doing, it found his feet moving towards its head. It was clear to it that Ajax was trying to kick its head using its own limb as support.
"Human, your leg can't hur.. ", it started to squeak as Ajax managed to kick its head back. It didn't care and was confident as its head was pushed back bumping against the wall with loud clunk.
Suddenly it felt a deep piercing pain it in its head as it started to feel dizzy and began to lose its consciousness.
"Of course, I can't hurt you with my kick, but I can push your head hard enough so that the knife stuck in your left eye is push deeper by the wall deep enough to pierce your brain and kill you," said Ajax as he moved away from the rat.
"You. You, I will kill," squeaked the beast at a lower voice as it tried to attack him in a last desperate attempt before it died, but it was able to see that Ajax was already out of its reach.
As the blood began to leak more and more, it was finding it harder and harder for it to move. It tried its best to reach Ajax but fell down dead.
"IT IS DEAD!", yelled Ajax as he couldn't see the Syam.
"Ya. I can see. Good kill," came Syam voice as the barrier was removed and he walked in.
"Expected you to be in a near death state," he said. "But you managed it without suffering a scratch."