Hunting Prey

From a distance a howl of predator was approaching, its movement were swift yet when it lands the ground shakes from its weight.

Howls of rage filled the air as it continued viewing his surroundings, as if he was gone made from his relentless search.

Each swipe of its great arms had snapped trees in half, all of which had the width size of a full-grown man.

Its tackles had caused any obstacle to be decimate, leaving behind only rubble of boulders and the broken remains of weaker beast.

After tearing down a large tree he finally saw his prey.

It was chasing after a man dashing away from it with an over sized war hammer, his right arm was dangling by his side like a rag doll, as he dragged his hammer out of desperation.

The figure was a cultivator named Wade; he was originally an arrogant but powerful warrior with a dark history of being a slave that had changed to being the whipping boy, to be the one doing the whipping.

Now reduced to a wounded man had him feel great anger for Stigma, with him running with his tail between his legs thoughts of torture came to him, as he shouldered his the only weapon he had made a resolve to use it to mangle his body.

Before, he believed as long as he can wield his strength while maximizing his speed, he would dominate everything in his path, now he was cursing for throwing his weapons a while ago.

His original task was to retrieve a treasure from supposed traitors and kill them, but it somehow lead him to finding a boy with potential, to him encountering an enraged beast.

Now, he is being hunted down by a beast turned savage, the number of times he smashed its head were enough to cause his hand to be covered in blisters, yet the beast was still on his assault not minding the blood dripping from it.

Just remembering his encounter with Stigma had engrave him to be a symbol of bad luck and started cursing.

After his short outburst, he collected his thoughts and looked through his options.

He decided that unless the Tiger is dead, he wont have a chance in getting his revenge.

Unless he can get away, he won't have time to prepare.

He finally had some time to recuperate when he smashed it to the bottom of a ravine, with the widen distance between them he used a martial art skill that increase his speed momentarily.

Now he was on top of a boulder, overlooking at where the Tiger was, hoping that it would stay there indefinitely.

"Shit! Because of that brat I have nothing but bad luck."

From a distance, the beast had clawed its way up then leaped to the edge then it breathed heavily, seeing such a beast jump out from the abyss made him lose confidence.

It was clearly showing it was still hunting his prey, and out for revenge.

*ROAR!*

He was already exhausted and deep in the forest, so he had no more intention in fighting it.

The beast then saw him on top of the boulder and charged at his destination.

Now the beast was rushing towards him, with its bleeding body he was more afraid in getting near it.

Looking at the current sate of the beast, it made him realize the terror the citizens of that time felt, how could they survive trying to fend themselves against a beast that ignored pain.

Then, he remembered that he still had something that could help him.

He had a variety of tools, traps, potions, and weapons yet they could not help him in his current predicament due to them taking to much time to prepare, but he still had an dangerous item in his possession.

With out much of a choice or more like out of a desperate attempt, he grabbed a green orb from his space ring, smashed it to the ground form where the Tiger will land and jumped between the crack of the boulder.

The orb was a tool used in the underworld, its main purpose was for ambush attacks which left no evidence that they were involved, but it had some form of danger to the user themselves.

If not prepared, they user will also be affected by the effects of the gas contained inside.

Not long after, howls of Heavenly started drawing closer.

When he peak in the cracks of the stones, a stamped of beasts of all sizes came toward the area.

The beast ranged from sizes such as that of vermin's to the size of burly figure of apes started to converge.

He had planned to use it as a tool to fend off against a large group as a last resort, but he didn't care anymore and he can't be nit picky on his methods as he hid, taking deep breaths he close his eyes and waited for the outcome.

*ROAR!*

And again he heard the beast rage.

He knows that if he showed himself, he will certainly be killed, so he waited for the outcome to decided his actions.

With the roars and howls of the beast died out, he went out to see the result.

He had to confirm if the beast was the one injured or of it was struggling, with the horde of beast in its way, he will have a chance to run.

When he stepped out slowly to see the aftermath, it had caused him great despair.

A mountain of corpses can be seen, all of which had been ripped to pieces, crushed underfoot or struggling to breath in their half dead state.

And in the middle was the nightmare.

Surviving a stampede was a miracle, but destroying it was considered a feet of a beast.

With the continuous attacks of the beast, injuries accumulated and had worn him down, such an outcome was what he wanted, he had the chance to regain his lost stamina and continue from his escape.

But then he stopped.

If the beast was injured he would take his chances and kill it in its haggard state, regaining his pride and spreading his fame while taking advantage of the decimated horde.

Only to lose his resolve when he heard the deafening howl, followed by the whimper of wounded beast.

Griping his hammer with all his might followed by strengthening his resolve, he peered behind and the scene before him had caused him despair.

The beast had regained his vigor and was killing beast left and right.

Even destroying the surrounding trees.

Those who had fought back had died in vain, while those who gave up were like obstacles, a path of destruction followed behind it as it continued.

It did not discriminate, it only killed until it reached his prey.

Its mighty roar had crushed the resolve of the weak; showing no delight nor hunger from their deaths, it only showed madness.

When the beast leaped to a broken tree, it scanned its horizon, searching for its goal.

A full view of the beast had caused the rest to hide and run from fear being found by the mad beast.

It had broken canine fangs with pieces of flesh in between the rest of the molar, blood was flowing through its eyes and ears, masquerading as the beast of vengeance than a beast driven by hunger.

Its eyes were bathed a crimson hue showing a wrathful expression, tears of blood spilled out from its body as if it was crying with pain.

Clearly the beast was not feeling any pain, as it swiped its arms randomly to all objects until his arm had been broken.

Now the goal was right in front of him, he didn't need to hesitate, he would strike to kill.

***

"What the hell!"

Stigma was late due to collecting the abandoned weapons that were left behind.

But with his injuries he was convinced by Hilda to heal first, cultivate for a while then follow, while Dusk collected the weapons and killed beast from before.

Since he was aiming for Wade's space ring, so he left the cores behind for a moment, but sliced a piece of meat to feed the puppy.

With all his preparations done, he followed the trail of destruction.

Only to find remains of different beast everywhere, form a distance he heard the Tiger's vicious roar.

Looking at the distance he used 'Essence Reader' and saw where Wade was hiding.

After looking at the tiger and the beast and a broken glass container, he had guessed that Wade had done something.

"Oh, Wade is making a move to the Tiger."

"Indeed master, the Tiger is heavily wounded and exhausted, so one strong strike should end it."

It had been four hours since he had separated from Wade, so he was expecting a show to make up his lost time.

He was not looking at a last stand, but looking for an opportunity to hunt his prey.

Oh, it appears as though he decided to kill him in one strike.

Wade was charging at the beast, then speed up for a moment closing the distance in minutes.

He was still far away so he had no chance in closing the distance, he might as well bring his head inside a tiger's den[1] full of hungry wolves.

"That's right!"

He still had a chance, he ordered dusk then started sheeting Hilda and grabbed a sharp rock from the ground and charged.

The distance between Wade and the Tiger was getting close, he only had one shoot so he had to make it count.

Dusk was changing his shape to form on his legs and to his arms, aiming for the right moment he was aiming for the moment they collided.

And as he had expected, the tiger had dodges the strike and circled around Wade, the display of dodging continued until he found the position he wanted.

Taking a deep breath, he threw the rock with all his might, almost separating his arm form his shoulder.

The sound of flesh was heard, followed by a huge body dropping to the ground.

Wade was still standing dropping his War hammer and clutched his chest and saw blood.

Dazed by the sudden fall of the beast, followed by the suddenly impalement on his chest left him unable to understand what happened.

"Wh..a..t...t.h..e"

Speaking in a broken sentence, he steadied his vision and saw a boy with a rusted sword rushing at him.

He was sure he was going to die, but he won't die like a weakling.

Lifting his arm he braced himself, he was already in his trap the moment Wade found him, so he garnered his resolve to die like a warrior.

*Hah!*

Then, finally the sweet release of death finally came.

[1]Tiger's den - a place of danger.