Part 7 (4)

"Over there! Two soldiers coming straight to our position, running frantically." shouted an imperial warrior who had been charged by the interim henchman Baba to keep watch over the area.

All gazes were thereupon directed to the running men. And as the latter got closer to the troop, their face became visible and the watcher identified them.

"That's two of the three volunteers that were sent to the forbidden mountain." He said as the ground trembled accompanied by terrifying howls.

The two volunteers were sprinting toward the river and the newborn Monster wasn't stopping its manhunt either.

It had had enough of the provocative and mocking behavior of the commando and was determined to teach the two men in uniform a lesson.

At three hundred steps away from their comrades, the two volunteers slowed down their race and started to move backward while looking straight at the newborn Monster, inviting it to come forward.

"Over here, little bird of ill omen!" They were saying to the villain which as well reduced its pace.

The giant bird moved when the two volunteers moved and halted when they halted. A mind game hence began and lasted for long minutes.

The Commander of the imperial forces Babida was watching attentively how his envoys were luring the beast to the river.

However, the commando had neither remarked that a bridge had been built nor had been told about it since the Commander in Chief Babida never unveiled to them this part of the war scheme before their departure to the cursed hill.

So the two volunteers were wrongly attracting the giant bird straight to the coast without knowing how they would make it fall into the water and drown.

Babida saw the mistake and instructed his henchman Baba to quickly send an imperial warrior back up their comrades and while continuing to lure the villain, explain to the volunteers the new strategy.

Immediately, the interim aide-de-camp applied the order of the Commander in chief.

A brave imperial soldier randomly chosen by the henchman Baba ran to the position of the volunteers and told them to direct the wild animal to the bridge on the left side of the coast behind them, which they began to do.

The giant bird as the lumberjack had told his men was a criminal creature. Nevertheless, it wasn't silly.

The villain found it strange that as soon as the third imperial warrior came up to the commando, they changed the direction they were asking it to come to.

So the newborn Monster completely stopped moving and observed them nastily.

It began to be wary and suspicious that something shady was going on.

The lumberjack and his men who were lurking in the bushes were baffled by the animal's attitude and thought the plan was falling apart.

"My Commander, what to do now?" asked the interim henchman Baba.

"Wait a moment! Let me think a while!" The Commander in chief responded.

And like he had found a solution, he stood up and instructed his men to keep hiding in the grass.

He went to the position of the two volunteers and the imperial warrior who had been sent to give them new instructions regarding the new war strategy.

The lumberjack Babida hastened to the position of the two volunteers and the imperial warrior that had been tasked to communicate to them the new war scheme.

The three men saw their Commander in chief and were boosted as he stood in the middle.

The four men lined up horizontally and teased, even more, the beast which was looking at them with wicked eyes and tapping the ground with its right leg, making thus dust rise around its three-meter large body.

"Come forward, bird of ill omen!" Babida told the newborn Monster with a challenging voice as he slowly moved backward with his men.

Their bodies were inclined toward the left side of the coast.

The villain which had halted its walk resumed its progression, for there was something powerfully captivating with the leader of the squad in its front.

"Come forward, bird of ill omen!" The Commander of the imperial forces kept telling the giant bird which obeyed him like it was hypnotized.

The movement lasted for a quarter of an hour as the woodsman was making sure that the beast would follow them to the top of the arch bridge.

Finally, they reached the foot of the infrastructure under the close watch of the rest of the imperial warriors lurking in the greenery.

Babida congratulated the men by his side before commanding them to disperse and find a safe place.

With no opposition the three other men did as they were told, leaving the beast on a toe-to-toe confrontation with the logger.

Babida looked at the animal with an air of great seriousness and defied it to come after him if it had the guts to do so.

"Now, it's just you and me, bird of ill omen. I challenge you to get closer if you dare so I can send you the kingdom of your creator." The lumberjack told the beast as he began to climb the bridge.

Vexed, the giant bird accelerated its pace and ran after Babida who was sprinting as fast as he could to the other end of the bridge.

The animal tracked him down and put even more intensity into its race to the extent that the bridge commenced crumbling.

And when the villain came to the center of the infrastructure, as predicted the concrete broke under the heavy weight of the newborn Monster, causing the fallout of the latter into the water below.

The animal landed harshly and created a massive splash followed by a tsunami.

Its body was hence carried to the unexplored depths of the river.

"Hurrah! Hurrah!" shouted the interim aide-de-camp Baba as he was coming out of his hideout.

"Hurrah! Hurrah!" The henchman said even stronger and the imperial warriors as they were also leaving the bushes, repeated after him.

They looked in front of them and perceived from a distance their Commander in chief Babida stuck at the other side of the dislocated bridge.

"Commander!" The men in uniform shouted excitedly at the lumberjack who waved at them.

TO BE CONTINUED...