154 - zzz

The more Li Yun meditated, the more his senses returned.

From afar, loud screeches and hollas of creatures could be heard. Li Yun opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the noises. There were swinging creatures swinging around the tree less than a kilometer away. They were not aware of his presence, but he didn't want to face the monkeys. Even from afar, it looked like they were the size of a giant gorilla, and they were slowly making their way toward his area.

He checked his phone once more, 6am. The forest remained dark, and Li Yun wondered if sunlight existed.

He climbed slowly down the tree. With his senses on alert, his movement sounded too loud to his ears. Every scape of his body sliding down the trunk, his heart pumping against his chest, and even his breathing sounded loud. As he lowered down the tree, he tried to control every vibration he was making. His feet lightly tapped onto the ground, but the crinkled sound of the leaves was driving him insane.

Although having hyper-sensitive hearing was distracting, it was aiding his movement. He thought about enhancing his hearing as his next priority. His body turned away from any the auspicious sounds, such as a roar or screeching, and prowled slowly on the forest floor.

Moving into the unknown expanse of the woods, he suddenly found himself in a rather unusual area. He was avoiding odd sounds, but too little noise was also concerning. It was too quiet for a biome known for rich animal life.

"Why am I thinking this is even real?" Li Yun asked himself, still half in disbelief. Did logic apply to wherever he was?

"Zzz zzz."

His feet paused as he heard a strange noise. As soon as he stood still, the noise stopped. He took two steps.

"Zz."

The noise stopped whenever he stopped moving.

"Is it stalking me?" He thought.

He took out his scalpel kit; there were two scalpels and a scissor inside. His acupuncture kit was useless in this scenario. Acupuncture needles had never little mass, and could barely penetrate the skin without the potential of breaking apart. He didn't have supernatural powers to use it as a weapon.

"Zzz."

Judging by the sound of the creature, it was getting closer to Li Yun without much effort or even noise.

"A snake?" Li Yun decided to confront it. The pace of the snake seemed like it was faster than him, there was no use in running away.

Li Yun pulled onto a nearby vine and wrapped it around his fist. He then took a decent size branch, scored an opening, and inserted the scalpel, with the blade facing the front. The club weapon felt sturdy, but the scalpel was likely to break apart on the first strike.

He took out a jar of modified blowfish poison, and dabbled it on the blade. The poison could easily paralyze a person. He wasn't sure how effective it would be on the beast, but it was his only chance of survival.

With everything ready, he walked close to whatever was making the close. His footsteps made too much noise, but he couldn't help it, he wasn't a hunter or trained assassin, and the maced branch was heavy. He tried to balance with his weapon, slowly getting the hang of the weight.

"Zzz, zzz," the creature was approaching faster, and much more aware that the prey was heading toward its direction.

Li Yun spotted a giant lizard. He paused and sighed in relief. It wasn't as big as he thought, probably around the size of a first grader. The lizard turned toward him, and suddenly flapped out its wing spanning 2 meters long.

"Holy sh**!"

The lizard lifted into the air and charged toward him, snapping the limbs of the nearby trees with its razor-like wings. It steered out of the way to avoid some of the bigger trees, but it didn't slow down completely.

Li Yun quickly surveyed the area and ran behind the biggest tree he could find. He calmed his heart rate down and readied himself for an attack. He wasn't sure about lizard anatomy, but he better aim at the stomach or eyes. The only part he needed to avoid was the wings, as they looked like the sharpest part of the creature.

With his body completely hidden, he closed his eyes and concentrated to locate the creature with his ears. As soon as the creature was close to the tree, it slowed down and landed on the ground.

All of the sudden, a rock launched toward it. The creature quickly covered its face with the wings, blocking the pebble. When it moved its wings away, it did not expect a sharp scissor to fly through its defense. The mark on its face was swallow, as though it was just a little sting.

It angered the lizard beast, whose wings flapped in frustration, causing an unusual torrent of wind blades. Li Yun hid back fully behind the tree, grabbing onto it for his dear life as the force of the flap caused a torrent of air blowing away the bushes that weren't rooted properly to the ground.

As soon as it stopped, Li Yun quickly moved around to attack. No matter what creature it was, it needed time to survey and think about its next attack. Li Yun wasn't going to let it have the opportunity. Using his sense of hearing as a positioning aid, he gathered his courage to strike first. The creature, tired out by the attack and the lingering poison entering its system, bent its wings to block.

Boof!

Li Yun backed away quickly, barely avoiding being cut by the wings.

"F**!" There was a clean-cut on his sleeves, and his arm was bleeding with blood dripping down to the club that was smashed into pieces after colliding into the lizard's head.

Luckily, he was in better shape than the flying lizard, who had a scalpel embedded in its eye after Li Yun's attack. The blunt attack had rendered it briefly unconscious as the poison slowly seeped in. Not letting go of the opportunity, Li Yun grabbed a giant boulder and smashed it into its head. The creature lay motionlessly on the ground.

Li Yun gave himself ten seconds to breathe after verifying it was dead. Then, he examined the corpse. He felt its circulatory system, but unlike a regular lizard, it had four chambers. If there was more time, he would like to dissect it, but the forest had already sensed its death and was moving again.

He took out the gauze from inside his backpack, and wrapped it around his arm to keep it from bleeding. He quickly searched the forest floor to pick up his scalpels and to create another weapon. After a few minutes, he was ready with another scalpel embedded club.

"7am," Li Yun looked at the phone. A message should be sent to Rouxi by now. "Rouxi…"

Gripping onto his club, he trekked the forest cautiously.