Desolate Revenge

I walked back with my clean but wet clothes slung over my shoulder. I took a longer route this time. Again, no animal prints. The cait really just left. Nice.

RUSSSLTEE

SQUAAACKKK

SQUAACK

SHSHSHS

I turned to the source of the sounds. Creatures I hadn't seen since my entrance into the jungle, birds. They were flying above me and flew right past me. They seemed to be in a hurry. I couldn't identify the type of bird since they were too high up and the sun worked to cover most of their figure.

So, they stayed farther into the jungle? Interesting. And where are they flying to? Ah, they were probably running from something. Probably a strong creature.

I walked back to my territory.

And there it was, the cait just waiting at the edge of the moat. Poised to try and jump. Calmly I walked closer to it. Dropping my bag of wet clothes and the bag I had been carrying with me.

FIIIIIIII whistled gaining its attention. I turned toward me and snarled. The fur on its side was burnt a little an evidence of our previous encounter.

It slowly moved to the side, I did the same. I could kill it easily but I wasn't going to let it out of my sight. A face to face situation left more options to take. 

The cait jerked forward and stopped. I was shocked, was it?.... No... it was using tactics. It was trying to make me flinch or make a move. It probably was confident in dodging my lightning, that was concerning but not too worrying. I knew the creatures were smart but this amount of intellect was surprising.

ROOAAAR

I turned around as another cait came flying at me, its jaws narrowly missing my neck as I jumped backward.

The other cait jumped at me. I slid into a position where the both of them were directly infront of me. My eyes glowed a bright bluish-white signifying my ability. The two animals flinched at the sudden bright light.

The new cait had two tails. A female. The stronger one of the species. They were smart for sure. They used the male as bait. That was a straightforward trap. There were no footprints because they travelled through the trees in silence. These two were smart enough to resemble humans, something I hadn't seen in the mooselk and the encounter with the wolven ended too fast for me to assess it thinking capacity. These adapted to situations fast and were able to work out solutions.

I wasn't against mindless beasts, so I had to fight in that way. 

They weren't in front of me for long as they both moved in opposite directions going to my side. They were trying to split my focus enough for the other to get a hold on my jugular. I looked at my surroundings, a couple of options instantly popped up to me. I walked bak to my wet bag of clothes, now the two creature right behind me. I faced them and pulled the biggest wet cloth I had.

They did the same thing and went to my sides. I looked toward the female and dashed at it. It wasn't just a physical movement, I had my Waking supporting it, that meant I was fast, faster than the other creature which lept at my previous location.

I wrapped the wet cloth around the female's face and sent a powerful shock, its claws swiping at me blindly but just out of reach. I kept shocking it till it stopped moving. Or I would have done so, if the male didn't attack me again. I backed off. The male pulled the cloth off the female and stood in front of it protectively.

I felt searing pain. 

Claws grabbed at my side. There weren't two. There were three. I pushed the caws off dodged the bite coming toward my neck. The third cait roared, after drawing blood. Another male.

I wasn't so sure anymore. I could take three, but what if there were more. I couldn't discount the worry if a whole pride had pulled up.

I had to make them back off. Instantly killing one should do the trick.

I lowered my body and ran toward the female. Cait's were a matriarchal species, that meant the female was valued higher than the males. The other male proved this fact by rushing to help the female.

As I rushed toward the recovering female, the other two lept at me in an effort to protect her. I had my back toward my territory, so I was sure I wouldn't be attacked from the back again and I was not going to let the two circle around me again.

I pushed my arms forward as the Lichtenberg Figure formed. The lightning spreading like a tree rapidly growing. I fully expected to shock both of them, but they did something I never expected. The new male which was larger than the other one had blocked the incoming lightning and made a gap for the other cait to have a free shot at me.

My eyes widened as the cait had its jaws around my neck and just needed to close it.

I willed myself to turn into lightning fully and reformed a few steps in front of the cait. Transforming into lightning was still extremely tiring and the blood loss from the claw swipe left me feeling a little woozy.

I could still move however. I had only one option now, to let out all of my lightning and fully burn anything in my immediate vicinity.

BAAAANGG

As I steeled myself and prepared to run in, a sudden sound come from the side of the forest. My head instantly turning to the source of the sound. 

SPLASSH

I was showered in something from the front. I turned in front of me and the first cait was just standing there. But its head wasn't there. Its head had exploded into a million pieces. There was a rock embedded into the ground right next to the now dead cait. The line left on the ground due to the rock indicating the force at which it was thrown at.

The other two caits looked at their dead comerade and then toward the forest and ran away at an incredible speed.

I looked toward the sound and readied myself. There was something strong coming. But it never did. I stared there for what seemed like eternity. Finally, as the darkness came, I decided to move. I picked up my clothes and bag and carried it into the territory. Then I came and carried the cait into the territory.

I cleaned my body with one of the wet cloths first and just threw it away. I wouldn't wear that ever again.

I looked at my wounds. Fortunately, it wasn't too deep. I would heal soon.

I wrapped my body with whatever bandages I had left over after thoroughly cleaning the wound.

Finally, ignoring the pain, I butchered the cait as well as possible and stored whatever seemed edible in that little fridge, into which I stuffed whatever I could. The racks inside were sitting in the back of the Jager now, I could use them for other things. But for now I needed space in the fridge for supplies like this.

I drank some of the water slowly not thinking about anything at all. The jungle seemed awfully silent today, worse than the previous days.

And then I went to bed.

But just like after my encounter with the wolven and the cait, sleep didn't come to me despite my desire.

It wasn't because I felt weak or anything just that I was unprepared and overconfident. I played right into the enemy trap. I didn't do a proper check of my surroundings before walking to face the cait waiting for me. I should've realised that something was wrong since the creature rarely came out in the open.

My survival was guaranteed even without the outside interference, I had enough belief in my own abilities. I would not be in a good situation but I would have survived.

What really bugged me and prevented me from sleeping was not the ambush but the intervention. Someone or something had decided to help me out for reasons I wasn't privy to.

Whatever shot the rock, was strong. It was probably the creature the birds were running from. Now what kind of creature it was, I had no clue. I couldn't predict the type of creature it was either.

My hands were shivering. Was I scared? After all my experiences, I felt fear? No, this wasn not fear. It was excitement. I had become a thrill seeking junkie, my wounds didn't deter me from future battles. I wanted to fight and adapt to any situation thrown at me. The ambush was no exception. I wanted to use my powers in imaginative ways, I wanted to be unstoppable. I wanted the strength and the capability to face anything that came my way. And this new creature would prove a challenge and training.

I might not be able to beat it in the first encounter but a second or third encounter would probably end up in my favor. One thing I was good at was planning and preparing. My powers were useful, these were skills that couldn't be blocked only dodged and taking them head on almost always resulted in enemies being stunned or or taking heavy damage.

So, there was nothing to fear. I could always run away. Nothing could stop me if I truly wanted to escape. The one thing I needed to do was develop a way to check my surroundings, pick out inconsistencies and never fall into traps unless willingly.

Another thing was, I hadnt brought my weapon to the fight. I just assumed nothing would happen, I made a silent promise to myself to never do that again.

I sat up.

Just thinking.

I had an idea, one I wasn't sure about, but it was possible in theory. If it worked, it could open up new avenues into the way I could possibly fight. The thrown rock proved an inspiration.

Then the alarms went off. I pulled up the footage on the displays. 

Nothing.

It stopped immediately after.

A false alarm?

That hadn't happened the entire time, so there was something here. I grabbed the improved spear and walked out. It was nighttime, but it was still bright.

Nothing.

I walked back into the Jager and looked through the footage to check if I could see anything out of the ordinary.

Then,

KNOCK KNOCK

KNOCK

I pressed the live button on the display.

Nothing. Like literally nothing. Just black. All my cameras were disabled.

My eyes widened, a little fear had crept in. My breathing sped up. The alarms hadn't worked either.

I looked through the side mirror.

Knocking on my Jager, was a large and lanky arm. That was all I could see. 

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Ayo, Manager here, things are looking up right now. So we probably get back to proper schedule next week hopefully. I'll drop another chapter this weekend. 

Okay, I'm finding creature creation fun, so I have a couple more planned, but I would appreciate it if you guys gave a couple ideas, something I could work off of. 

Anyways, Thanks guys.

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