Chapter 11- Carelessness

August tried to descend the black tree as fast as possible, feeling as though if he left then alone, his precious Aura molds would disappear.

In truth however, he didn't have even the slightest clue about how long he could leave a corpse, for all he knew, there was no time limit. So in reality, he was rushing for no actual reason. 

'Just what the hell am I doing?"

August barely managed to finish the thought when he lost his footing, falling from a lower branch and hitting the ground with a loud thud.

August paled and looked at the white lion,  which stared back at him curiously–  or at least it looked curious, it could very well have been interest in a new delicacy. 

He had been trying to avoid making loud noises ever since the bear incident, he especially did not want to take his chance with a beast as powerful and nimble as the feline on the ground below. 

Some of the monsters of the forest possessed an incredible sense of smell, and were able to track their prey from even miles away. Other beasts relied on different senses, but they were all still equally gifted trackers. 

August did not know which the white lion was,  and he had tried desperately not to find out,  because the moment he was in the beast's sight,  he would be hunted to what would surely be his demise. 

Or so he thought. 

After a few seconds of staring back and forth,  the white lion simply returned to the meal it was eating. 

'What? It isn't going to attack?'

August had managed to deal with the bear— even projecting false confidence as he sent it to it's doom, but that was just barely. 

And even then his heart still pounded in his ears for the following few minutes, even now his body still trembled. It seemed he wouldn't have been able to escape his cowardice with a single kill, though it did ignite a spark of confidence. 

Looking at the white lion and searching for a reason, anything to justify the monster's actions, he realized it made reasonable sense. The beast was not currently starved, and it was powerful enough to know August posed no danger–  at least, he hoped so. Simply put, he was in no danger. 

For the moment at least. 

Though he was incredibly relieved the white lion did not see him as a danger, he also knew that when the beast became hungry once more, he would be it's prey.

August scurried back up the tree to collect more and more berries. He no longer felt the burning urge to immediately collect the orbs that would be generated by the corpses. 

In fact, August now felt extremely stupid. 

Just why the hell had he allowed himself to do something so risky? And just why the hell had he done it so carelessly? 

Had he not just made that same mistake and almost died for it?

He spat at himself internally and turned his attention back to the task at hand. 

In the time since he and Alia had been gone, the tree had ample time to produce more than enough to feed them for an extended period of time. 

'Or just me' August thought. 

Until now he had mostly tried to keep her out of his thoughts, or at least leave her as nothing but a passing one. Though the harder he tried the more frequently she popped up. 

There were many speculative reasons why, among which being the fact that the last time he saw her, she was being crushed under a giant hoof. He also turned tail and left her there. 

If he had another chance, he would certainly never make that choice again. 

He had only known the red haired girl for a short few days, for most people, not even enough to properly call her a friend.  

August however, had never had any friends. 

Not because he was weird or an outcast, plenty of people had attempted to talk to him. He just couldn't reciprocate due to his lack of trust. 

August couldn't place trust in people, people were survivalist creatures who would turn their back on you at any given moment. 

Yet she hadn't, he had proven his own theory,  but ironically, a person who was almost a stranger provided evidence of the contrary. 

He knew she was kind, that much had been obvious, but it was not until after running that August truly understood the extent of that kindness. 

Looking back on it all, her behavior in particular. He finally realized that the plan had succeeded. 

Alia told August that she wanted him to cover her from far back, but she had never made him so much as practice his aim, or get comfortable firing his swords. 

He thought it was simply because the hulking rhinoceros was an impossible to miss target. But looking at it from his current view, it really wasn't. 

Had Alia intended to have him run from the start? 

No, regardless of how kind a human being was, or how good of an actor they were. August simply couldn't fathom a person feigning such confidence in the face of their own impending doom. 

Even he had only been able to project falsehoods for a few moments, to do it for days on end, knowing that every waking moment brought you closer to your last. He didn't believe that a human could do something like that. 

That left August with only one reasonable explanation. 

She had not intended to lose, but planned to let him escape if she did. That would explain why she had allowed herself to be the distraction, but also not explain his lack of practice. 

Unless she genuinely believed he couldn't help. 

August had decided to push his fear aside to survive for the coming future, but that was only after his encounter with the bear, almost three days after they had clashed with the armored behemoth.

It was easy to see why she wouldn't have wanted him assisting her, people who are afraid make mistakes, costly ones at that. 

August was left alone in the black tree to face the facts, he had been useless. 

Before he could explore his feelings, the tree shook and thunderous steps rocketed into the ground. The resounding explosive sounds forced August to hold on for his life once more, or face a fatal fall this time.

Looking out into the distance, he saw a familiar, hulking behemoth, charging full speed ahead towards the black tree. 

The armored rhinoceros had returned to it's hunting ground once again, prepared to eliminate any intruders.

And the white lion seemed to be one such intruder. 

The white feline roared, it had long since finished consuming what it desired of the fallen bear, remaining under the tree for what seemed to be rest and comfort. 

The mutated feline had sprung from the perch where it sat— a protruding root of the black tree. 

Suddenly it's paws, mane and teeth lit ablaze with blue fire, and it dashed to meet the rhinoceros that barreled through the flattened greenery to cleanse this section of forest of what seemed to now be the only beast willing to clash with it. 

Two apex predators were about to collide, and destiny had chosen August to bear witness to the victor.