"I don't want to give it back!" Marvaine cutely insisted as he held the small rifle tighter in his arms. "I won't leave my sisters behind!"
"Good boy. I will stay close to you, so don't worry about anything."
A short moment passed as the children roughly understood how to handle their child-sized rifles.
They all received varying degrees of weapon training, so they did not need a lot of time to know how to aim or fire a bullet.
The weapons were deliberately stripped down in order to make them as low-tech as possible.
They lacked a lot of advanced functions that came with a lot of complexity.
Of course, Ves made sure to retain the feature that automatically blocked the rifles from firing if their muzzles happened to point towards any friendlies!
Ves clapped his hands.
"Before I let you go, I need to tell you two more things. First, if possible, I do not want you to kill your prey the normal way. Do you remember the Destroyer of Worlds and how she embedded an enormous cat onto her projectiles? I want you to try this out with your own companion spirits."
That caused his three children to look confused.
"How?"
Ves smiled and retrieved a bullet from one of the pocket's of his adventurer's coat. "It is not as difficult as you think, my dear. Do you see this bullet? I especially ordered it to be made out of a hyper metal. This makes it a lot easier to attach your companion spirit to it. The bullet material will make it easy for the two to stay together."
"Mrow."
He demonstrated this by sending out Blinky and having him enter the bullet.
"You can do that?!"
"Yes. This is not an exclusive ability of the Destroyer of Worlds. Anyone with a companion spirit can do the same. The real problem is range. Your companion spirit will only stay inside the bullet until it flies outside of your maximum boundary. This is why I insist that you move as close to your prey as possible before you aim and fire your weapon. Try your best to get within 50 meters or so. That should be close enough for your empowered bullets to produce the greatest effect."
"50 meters is too close, papa. Won't those exobeasts run away? Also, how can I find them in this forest?"
"I am sure you can manage. Your outfits come with moderate camouflaging functions, so you won't be as conspicuous as you think. As for tracking down your prey, you can use your companion spirits to scout ahead. Don't keep them in your heads. Make use of all of your advantages. However, if that is not enough, our cats can lend you a hand."
Ves transmitted a silent command.
A few seconds later, a pair of very different cats dashed out of the forest and stopped in front of the Larkinsons!
"Meow!"
"Miaow!"
Clixie came back without carrying anything between her teeth. Her cat-sized breathing mask made it difficult for her to bite onto anything.
Lucky on the other hand triumphantly returned with a furry brown mammal between his teeth!
The gem cat had already slit the creature's throat, but dark brown blood still spilled out of the wound.
"Eeewww!"
"What a poor beast."
"Why did you kill it, Lucky?!"
"Meow meow meow!"
Ves reached down and plucked the beast carcass from Lucky's teeth.
"I know this critter looks cute and all, but do not let that stop you from doing what is necessary to survive in this dangerous dwarf galaxy. I won't ask you to wantonly kill other lives, but you should at least show that you will not freeze and refuse to do what is necessary if your lives are ever under threat. Sometimes, you can only count on yourselves to save your life."
After a few more words of encouragement, he sent his children out into the forest.
They stayed fairly close together, though made sure not to press against each other.
Their smart clothing had automatically dimmed so that they blended better in the darkened forest environment.
Their weapons also became a bit less conspicuous.
With their companion spirits scouting the way ahead, the children weren't going in blind.
They soon paused as they spotted a six-legged mammal with an abnormally long snout and six eyes on his head.
"Mrow."
Ves used Blinky to signal for Aurelia to take the first shot.
His oldest daughter raised her darkened pink rifle and took aim. Mana had entered the chamber and attached herself to the hyper bullet.
Seconds passed by as Aurelia continued to aim at the creature in the distance.
"Mrow..."
After a few more reminders from Blinky, Aurelia overcame her unease and pulled the trigger.
"Mew!"
The round carrying Mana soared into the distance and missed the six-legged exobeast by a wide margin!
Though the rifle was not too loud, the discharge was still loud enough to spook the exobeast and scare it away!
"It's okay." Ves said as he softly patted his daughter's shoulder. "There are plenty of chances for you to try again. You'll get one next time."
He had noticed that Aurelia's aim should have been fine. The problem was that she jerked her weapon to the side from the moment she pulled the trigger.
Hopefully, she would get rid of that habit by the time their hunting trip was over.