CHAPTER 21 - Hunter I

"I am ready." I say as I watch into the woods in the direction of the city.

"You sure are." Jake says with an intrigued expression on his face, probably having some doubts about my motivations. Well, bad for him, I am not letting Shadow follow along, first cause he can't keep up the pace, and second… 

He will most likely won't come back.

Leaving on my own, heh, that's fine by me, perfect in fact. Alone at last, with no one to annoy me for a while apart from the monsters who will be perfect to vent my rage on.

Honestly, I am impressed by myself, but not because of anything I did. I already knew I could do well enough on my own if I so needed. 

What I am actually surprised about it's about the amount of time I managed to restrain myself from leaving that settlement in search of the people I care for. I knew and still know it was the best call to get to this point. 

I needed this strength that I now possess and even more to protect them, yet I can't stop thinking about the possibilities…

What if they are already dead?

What if they all died while waiting for me? While I was waiting in the comfort of a walled compound with other survivors that I didn't even know before?!!

I would never forgive myself. 

My family is the only thing that matters to me and has ever been. They are the only ones that always treat me well and were there for me in this cruel world. 

That is why, as I walk and slowly creep my way to the city, little by little. I can't help but pray, pray that IT won't happen. Or else…

A couple of hours pass by and I finally arrive at the entrance of the city. I could have bought a car or something, but I didn't feel like it. 

I have all the qi I want on me, now being an amount much larger than before. I start by mapping the streets. Obviously, I don't mean mapping the literal meaning, I am merely marking down the spots that may be of interest, we already acquired a few maps accurate enough.

These places can be either shops that are yet to be looted, possible locations for bases to keep an eye out for in the future, or even monsters' dens. For the moment I have only seen the first ones, shops that still have some supplies.

A good thing about it though. These shops are a lot fewer in number than they were last time I came, which means… people are alive!

Somewhere around here, there are people. However, I have no idea on how to track them so I just keep marking places as I scout ahead. 

Minutes pass and I hear them, my first prey. A group of those porcupines or hedgehogs look-alike shows themselves walking down the street on my right. Out of all of them, I cannot see any of the biggest ones and they are not even that many.

Making the most of the situation, I take a step forward, confident of my abilities. 

"Shoosh" I throw one of my knives and kill the first one of the group, one of the bigger ones, in one hit. The other members of their little pack get scared and start running again, just as I wanted, they are gonna lead me to their den.

I retrieve my knife and start following them as they flee. The little things don't even turn back and just keep running just as before, but I know better this time. They arrive at the next turn, and as they make a sharp turn I notice their change in pace and know this is the moment to do it.

I stop before showing myself, I jump at the building as high as I can and land on the cornice, a little bit more than a couple of meters high. I use my advantage in height over them to make the turn while gripping the wall tightly so as not to fall off.

There they are, a big group of over twelve of those monsters, all looking below me, waiting for their chance to jump at their clueless prey. The bigger ones, two or the biggest specimens I have seen till now, are already in a pouncing stance.

I take out my sword and prepare. I use one of my knives to throw it against a light pole on the ground where they have no line of sight. It makes a loud sound and bounces from the pole into the line of sight of the monsters, inducing them to jump at the minimum movement.

The moment they make the jump I let myself drop off my spot and then propel myself before my feet leave their footing to get as much momentum as I want. 

I descend on one of the giant beasts' heads, crushing down from above with such strength, that just by adding a little bit of strengthening on myself and the blade, I get the job done.

I smash its head so hard that I cut short its momentum and bent its skull inwards as I pierce the brain with my sword, killing it in one fell swoop.

I am sure that it would die just with the impact of the blade, but haven't I made my whole body stronger a little bit with qi, and I would end up on the ground just like the huge monster. My body is getting stronger on its own, sure, but not to that extent, at least for now.

I jump from the back of the dead hedgehog thing and take my stance against the other big one.

"Come here, who is a big boy!?" I taunt the other beast with the largest size of the pack while ignoring the smaller ones. 

The monster, probably more influenced by the death of its companion than by my words, comes charging at me after it realizes the thing bouncing on the floor, namely my knife, is not alive and looks my way.

I was planning on cutting the guy in half with all my strength to end this faster, but I decided to save strength. Not gonna lie though, the fact that the mammoth of a beast is nearly the size of an elephant plays a part in my judgment. 

It is scary to see that much weight moving so fast towards you and still decide to face it head-on. 'I am not nuts! At least not that much!'

I assure myself of both my mental health and safety as I take a safer approach. I end up kitting the guy from the other members of the pack and using the massive body of the beast to make space between me and them.

I find it easy to dodge the attacks of the largest one as they are pretty much straightforward, but I wouldn't like to face all eleven of them at the same time.

Minutes pass and the attacks I have been inflicting on the big guy are starting to take a toll on him. It starts slipping into everything on its path and crashing into buildings and cars, even taking down some light poles in its way as it chases me down.

Whenever it looks like the guy is on its last legs I deliver a fatal blow to its neck, slicing it all in one go and splitting it from the body.

I stop for a second to both catch my breath and see what the other guys of their pack are up to. The smaller ones left for the protection of the stronger ones the moment they saw it was dangerous, so maybe they will all do the same now?

Having no idea of their plans, and somewhat interested in getting an answer, I give them some seconds, yet they don't even wait that long. They all start running in the same direction the moment they understand their predicament, fleeing as fast as they can.

For a second I think about giving chase, but I stop myself before I get myself killed. I got no information about their species and following the rule of looking for protection, they are running to get help from a bigger fish.

'Yeah, not doing that.' I did not just get stronger enough to take care of those enormous things to start rushing head first at a stronger opponent and get my ass handed to me anyways. At least not for a good reason, and I think that following some monsters that already have no intention to fight is a useless one right now.

Maybe if those guys had the chance to get me some good raw materials for equipment, but that's not the case. I will be taking the corpses of the bigger ones though. It won't be easy, but I will manage. There must be a truck or something around here.

Well, it seems like I will keep exploring for now. I have tried to look for ways of moving the spoils from the battle, but I have no way of bringing them back to base. Sadly, I will be leaving them there for now.

I don't have high hopes either that I will be back anytime soon from them before they become a pile of bones.

Whatever, I need to keep going.

I move forward, going deeper into the city while looking for any hints on survivors or my family. I am still far away from the center, but now I can rapidly get from one place to another if I only care about the trip itself and not the consequences.

I follow the stealthy way as I move on. I am just leaving behind the periphery when I hear the sounds of battle nearby. 

I rush to the sounds without revealing myself. 

To my surprise, they are humans. At least on one side of the fight. About thirty people are trying to fend off two of the armored felines. I have no idea how they got into this situation, yet they are losing badly.

I can already see from my hiding spot that there are at least two corpses on the ground and a few of the people fighting are badly injured. I quickly made a sweep over them with my eyes to see if I can get any information, yet nothing. 

Most I can get out from their appearances is that they are survivors just as someone would expect and that they are scared for their lives. 

Seeing that, I have it easy to choose what to do. 'Is there even a choice to make?'

This is pretty much free experience to get from battle against a new enemy of which I already got some information, which in most cases it's already too much to ask for. I get the monster's raw materials, and even better, I get to know a new group of survivors that will either decide to join our base or make another somewhere.

This is what I would like to call a win-win situation. I don't really care about the impression I make on them that much, I mean, sure it's a good way to make them have a better opinion of me by starting off on the right foot, but I am fine whichever way honestly. 

For now, I don't plan on being in charge of different groups as it would be an annoyance, so I will keep myself some good distance from their plans. 

That being said, it's time to act! I need to help them before they are all eaten by those two armored panthers. 

They are not really panthers, but they for sure look the same if you strip them of their armored hide, so that's what I will be calling them. What they really are is deadly.

I wait for the right chance… And go! 

I jump with great strength and it doesn't take more than a few seconds to arrive on the back of one of the monsters. They both were circling the humans which were grouped into a group trying to leave no blindspot in an attempt to live. 

Sadly the panther on the other side of the circle of humans spots me and roars at me to alert its companion. I deliver a strong blow to its side, yet the monster still manages to somehow slip out of range of my attack. 

The one that I attack leaves the group of humans alone and focuses on me while its teammate keeps them from running while we fight. 'This isn't a bad outcome.'

I have grown a lot in strength these past days, but I am not confident about getting out alive against two of them when I haven't even tested the real endurance of these guys' armor.

I take a peek at the group on the side that is being kept on track by the other monster, and even while going against a lone panther, they have no chance, it is that kind of enemy you just can't overcome with numbers. In the end being only a race of time before who comes out on top, me or the panther I am currently facing.

I prepare myself for the feline's next attack as I get my shield infused with qi. The guy dashes at me with surprisingly great speed even though it is armored. I dodge it to save strength and then try to get a good hit on its back as it turns around.

Unfortunately, it's able to outspeed me and leave my range before I get to its back and I only manage to brush its tails. I can't nearly think about my next plan as it launches itself at me, claws first.

I feel confident on the defense, and wanting to try out the durability of my metal shield infused with qi, I bash its paws with the shield, trying to parry both of them at the same time. I can't help but widen my eyes in delight and surprise as I see my counterattack not only stop both claws but break them in the process. 

The shield bash had so much power that it smashed all the sharp nails of the front legs and knocked the panther a couple of meters.

The monster gets back up again, but it can't stop itself from growling at me as it whimpers in pain. Both its paws bleeding and making it limp a little bit, but nothing crazy, clearly battle-ready for much more. 

'Is their back the only place they got armored?' I can't think of another explanation about how easily it was for me to break its claws.

I take another look at the other enemy to make sure it's not coming to help and there it is, still circling the group. 

*Growl* 

The panther in front of me growls in anger and all its pain seems to change into fury as it starts to circle me too, trying to pounce on me at the first show of weakness.