PreCursive
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Chapter 41 - The Hunted
🕑 Added 2023-07-30 21:32:58 +0000 UTCI slowly drifted back to consciousness, laying on my left side facing a tree.
Honestly, this was a surprise to me.
As I gradually became more aware of my surroundings, I tried to move. I immediately stopped due to the flair of pain. I couldn’t stop a small whimper from escaping my lips. Slowly, I tried to puzzle out where the pain was coming from by shifting around a little, still laying down. From what I could tell, my back didn’t feel great, but it wasn’t killing me as much as I would have expected. You know, from the way I had been flung around and all.
Wait, fuck.
I sat bolt upright, disregarding the agony my movement caused in a haze of sudden panic-fueled adrenaline. I didn’t care about the pain, I had to know if I was about to die. Twisting around urgently, I wildly scanned the clearing that I remembered fighting the plant monster in.
Nothing.
In fact, the clearing was empty. The monster was gone. Where before the clearing was festooned with branching red vines that culminated in some kind of Venus fly-trap, snake monster, now there was nothing. The vines had disappeared with the monster.
Letting out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding, I scooted backward to lean against the tree I had woken up in front of. Did I kill it, I wondered? I remembered flashes of my fight with the monster vaguely. I knew that I had managed to plunge my dagger into its head before the monster flung me across the clearing in a panic, knocking me out. The creature had seemed like it was rooted to the forest floor, so it was unlikely to have just picked itself up and moved.
I guess there was an easy way to tell. I squinted at the center of the clearing, where the monster had been rooted. After a second, I was able to make out a brief glimpse of rainbow light, in between the blades of grass. Letting my head fall back against the trunk of the tree with a thunk, I let out a slight sigh of relief. That was the monster core, I’m guessing. Which meant that damn monster was dead.
Which presented another problem. While I had no illusions about leading an immobile monster back to Magnus, that had still been the first high-level monster I had found in this part of the forest. And I had nearly died. Hell, it had knocked me out, and I had no idea how long for. There was no way for me to check the time, and with the way the sun was obscured in this part of the forest, I couldn’t even check the sun’s position. For all I know, I had been out so long that Magnus could be issuing my collar’s kill order any second now. I tried not to think about it.
And I was probably injured, as well. I hadn’t forgotten about that flare of pain that had stopped me in my tracks earlier. Slowly, I tried to feel out where the pain was coming from by tensing my muscles one by one and moving around slightly. I stopped once I reached my left arm. You know, the one that Magnus had broken earlier.
Shit, of course. Azarus had told me that he hadn’t been able to completely heal me with what he had on hand. The bone must have still been weak, and either the slam against the tree or the fall must have hurt it. Tracing my left bicep and carefully feeling it out, it didn’t feel completely broken again. It wasn't fractured, but it was definitely tender, I determined with a wince and a hiss of pain. All right, I had to do something about that.
Sitting up with a groan of effort, I painstakingly tried to pull my shirt off over my head. Ignoring the sweat, dirt, and blood caked into it, I tied the long sleeves together, ignoring the pain as best I could from moving my left arm. I looped the tied sleeves over my head, and then carefully threaded my arm through the bottom of the shirt so my hand hung out the neck. Carefully standing up, I tested out my makeshift sling. I discovered that it was a little loose, but it was the best I could do. At the very least, it was supporting my arm. Sort of.
I was knocked out of my inspection by the crack of a twig, somewhere beyond the tree line across the clearing. I froze, trying to listen more carefully. It came again, closer this time.
Something was approaching the clearing. And the only thing in this forest were monsters.
Feeling another surge of adrenaline, I looked around frantically. I couldn’t find my knife. Whether I had dropped it after the fight, or when I had gotten thrown, I had to conclude it was gone. I had no time to look for it. I had to hide before whatever was coming this way found me with my pants down. I frantically scurried around behind the tree I had woken up in front of and leaned back against it. I was trembling, and almost hyperventilating. I raised my right hand and clamped it over my mouth, to muffle the sound of my breathing.
Behind me, I heard the crack of a branch as whatever was coming finally entered the clearing. Thump, thump, thump, I heard, as the beast ponderously made its way further into the clearing. Whatever it was, it sounded big. I heard some snuffling noises as if the creature was trying to find a scent. I had to know. I had to know what kind of monster was lingering in the clearing behind me. Screwing up my courage, I risked a quick peak around the tree. I was dumbfounded at what I saw.
It…kind of looked like a bear? But if a bear had been impregnated by a rabbit, and then birthed some kind of unholy abomination baby. The absurdity of the monster's appearance cut through my panic briefly, giving me the courage to take a closer look at it.
It was big, obviously. It had the floppy ears of a rabbit, but the general body type of a bear. Its back legs were larger, more heavily muscled, and curled inwards more like a rabbit, though. It didn’t hop around, but it was kind of skipping. The snout reminded me of a mix of both creatures, being longer than a bears, but wider than a rabbit’s. It had the floppy ears as well.
The creature was snuffling around in the center of the clearing, clearly looking for something. It must have found whatever it was looking for, as with a grunt it buried its head in the grass. It came up holding the monster core of the plant creature in between its very sharp-looking fangs.
Despite myself, I felt a flare of indignation rise up. What the fuck, monster? That was mine, goddamnit. I killed that plant-snake fair and square. I could do nothing but watch as the bear-rabbit gulped the monster core down without crunching into it in one motion. The creature straightened up briefly as a shiver went through its form, before relaxing. It seemed to let out a pant of almost satisfaction afterward.
I pulled back from looking around the tree to lean back against it. All right, all right. What now? I still needed to lead a monster back to Magnus, and there was a viable target behind me. But how the fuck was I supposed to do that? I didn’t have a weapon anymore to defend myself, and I was injured again. Was I just supposed to pull my pants down and slap my ass at it? Taunt that huge bastard all the way through the forest? I let out a small, silent breath of frustration.
I looked around to see if I could get any inspiration, before furrowing my brow in confusion.
The forest looked different.
Oh, it was still dark and foreboding, with the pseudo day-for-night filter over everything. The trees were still tall and cramped together. But the thorns seemed if not gone, then at least vastly less dense. Maybe the monster I had killed had been the source of most of the thorns I had seen? It actually seemed possible to navigate without getting shredded now. I felt a surge of hope at the thought. Maybe I didn’t have to fight the rabbit-bear at all. If I had a straight shot back to the clearing, then all I had to do was outrun this monster. It would be hard, but it theoretically seemed possible.
I was broken out of my thoughts by the sound of the monster starting to scent around again behind me. Well, if I was going to do this, I had to get an eye on the monster. Peeking back around the tree, I was just in time to see the creature pick up something else from the forest floor.
My knife.
Which it ate as well.
I must have made a sound of some sort, as the monster immediately turned in my direction. I didn’t react in time to pull my head back around the side of the tree. Human green met monster red. We just stared at each other for a second, before I slowly pulled back from around the tree. My heart was pounding in my chest.
When I heard a roar behind me, I bolted. I pushed off from the tree I was hiding behind and took off into the forest. Good thing too, as I began to hear the monster chase after me with a huge thumping gait, crashing through the underbrush. I ran harder, panting.
I didn’t want to look back behind me as I ran, but I heard the crashing stop briefly behind me and I had to. I didn’t stop running myself, though. I wasn’t an idiot. What I saw nearly gave a heart attack, though. The monster had lowered into a crouch while staring at me, laser-focused. In a snapshot, I saw its enormous back legs bulge grotesquely. Seconds afterward, it launched itself at me like a missile in an inhumanly fast lunge.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head as it nearly flew at me, far faster than it was running. Desperately, I lunged out the way of its flight path. I didn’t see it, but I heard the woosh of air as it shot past me and barreled right into a tree with an enormous crashing noise. I just picked myself back up and tried to reorient myself as best I could in the direction of the clearing, to the best of my memory. The monster must have picked itself up because I heard it start to chase me again.
Okay, so it could sort of jump like a rabbit, I thought to myself in between panicked breaths. Yeah, that made sense. Hearing it pause again behind me, I reflexively dived again. This time, I got to watch as the monster struck a tree. I picked myself up again and started running again.
It could apparently lunge pretty often as well. The cycle repeated itself times three more times as I tried to create distance between myself and the monster. It wasn’t working out very well, as every time I tried, the monster just ate up that distance in a lunge. It wasn’t extremely difficult to dodge, as it never tried to change its attack pattern, almost like it was a machine. The problem was, I was starting to get tired from the constant dodging. The running wasn’t bad, but the constant lunging was. I wasn’t sure if I could keep it up for long, considering I wasn’t even out of the high-level zone of the forest.
I had to change things up.
The next time the bear-rabbit did its lunge and crashed into a tree, I took my chance while it was briefly stunned. I made a break for a nearby tall tree and scrambled up it. Even though it seemed part bear, I hoped this huge bastard wasn’t able to climb easily. Once I reached a high branch, I looked down. The monster had recovered by that point and was staring up at me balefully. It paced back and forth in front of the tree briefly before suddenly charging at it. The impact shook the entire tree, but it held up just fine. In fact, looking down, it had only managed to strip some bark. Otherwise, the tree was fine.
I let out a shaky sigh of relief when that was all that the monster did. It didn’t start trying to climb the tree. It did, however, keep repeating its assault. I winced every time.
Well, all right. I was up a tree now. Great.
Now what?
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