Chapter 26

There was a soft crunch of twigs and leaves under her feet as Martha continued to push through the morning dew of the forest. It's been more than a week since she's been on the hunt for the elusive creature. While she tried not to keep track of the time she's been away, it was starting to bother her. Her mind came back to the task at hand as Martha heard the sound of rushing water from a creek. Her eyes scanned the beautiful area for a moment and allowed the air to fill her lungs. After placing her backpack down, she knelt next to the water and placed her dirty hands in the running water before drinking from it.

Her mother always told her to be careful of drinking water straight from a river or creek because of all the dangerous little things inside it. Or to at least boil the water before drinking it. Her words filled her head and caused her to hesitate. A long sigh left her mouth as she didn't want to disobey her mother, but she was too tired to really care at the moment.

As she took sips of the water, she began to rethink how to tackle tracking this creature better. So far, she's been looking through the whole forest area, but so far, not a shred of a clue. She knew they existed, but she was more annoyed at how much harder she had to search for it. Even with her tracking skills, she didn't find anything so far.

"They don't want to be found unless they want you to. And they're childish about it." Elizebeth told Martha when she was given the task. "You know it's a sick weird game to them."

A sigh left Martha's mouth as she realized she would probably have to go home empty-handed and come back with her mother. She then rolled her pants legs, removed the bandages from her feet, then placed them in the water for a moment to relieve some of the stress off of them. She let out a small, yep, realizing how cold the water was on her feet, and getting a small shiver ran up her body. She tried to relax a little with a small yawn as she knew the journey back would be a pain to do. Then the thought of telling Elizebeth she failed made her frown and look down for a moment. She knew her mother wouldn't think any differently of her, but she couldn't help feeling like she failed her.

As she closed her eyes to let the cold water clean her feet, she got this uncomfortable feeling. It felt as if she was being watched. Slowly she began to reach for her bag, trying not to raise suspicion on herself. Once her fingers touched her small hatchet, and she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise along with a twitch in her ear, Martha immediately grabbed it for a split second and launched it at the peeping figure. There was a loud thump as the hatchet buried itself deep within a tree, followed by the sound of rustling and twigs snapping of something running away.

Martha immediately jumped into action as she went to receive her weapon from the tree. She came to a dead stop as she spotted two suspicious things. She first noticed that her hatchet managed to hit something because of a small amount of blood and hair on the blade and tree. She then noticed a footprint in the mud. She knelt low to the mud and began to examine the print. It appeared to be human-like on a much larger, scale almost like a big foot. Martha then pulled the hair from the ax and smelt it. This caused her to pull away as it smelled awful as it was a mixture of a very musty human and skunk.

"It was here. And it was playing games with me." Martha's mind immediately put it together as a low growl left her mouth. She was annoyed with the fact it was watching her for who knows how long. As if this had been a giant goose hunt. Her grip on the hatchet tightened as her eyes flashed green.

"Fine," Martha whispered in a low growl as her eyes burned an emerald green. "I'll play this."

Later that night.

A 9ft (or 2.7 m) muscular ape-like creature covered with darkish red fur made its way back to its hut. It was made out of broken tree branches, twigs, mud, and leaves perfectly hidden among the trees. It was deep within the heart of the forest, outside of the reach of any man and their machines.

A deep grunt left its mouth as it carried a whole deer over its shoulder. Its arm slightly began to throb from where that human had thrown its weapon at. That creature's aim was surprisingly close and could have been messy if it didn't leave. They were hoping that human would have given up and left by now, so they could spread the word back to their family and kin that they could carry on. But it was persistent.

As it reached its home, it placed the dear on the ground and quickly got to work, reigniting its fire for the night. The cold was pushing in closer than they had thought earlier. As the creature began to light its fire and the fire began to grow, a single female figure could be seen crouched on a branch above the creature. Her deep green eyes began to pierce through the back of the creature's head as she silently watched it.

The creature quickly turned around to look at whatever was looking at it, but it was gone. It let out a deep anger grunt before letting out its monstrous roar. The roar caused any creature within a certain radius to avoid this area, stay out of its territory. The area grew silent as everything got its message. It looked around before shaking its head as it thought it was those damn owls again. With a satisfied whistle, it began to look over towards its food for the night.

The sound of a twig snapping caused the creature to stop and turn its attention to where it came from. Its eyes went wide as it saw a small spinning metal object came towards it. It quickly fell back, allowing the object to fly past him and embed itself deep within a tree. To the creature's utter shock and surprise, it was the weapon the human had thrown at it earlier. Another twig broke to its left and made its eyes look towards it to see the human from earlier with all her supplies.

Matha looked at the creature with her green eyes. While her face was lacking any emotions, her eyes told a different story. She was annoyed with this childish game of his and was done playing altogether. She dropped her bow and took off her gear, placing them on the ground. Then her jacket fell on top of the backpack, followed by her shirt. Martha stood before the creature in her hunting pants and bandages around her chest to help from getting in her way of hunting with a pair of hunting gloves. She gathered her hair and tied it in a ponytail.

The creature got to its feet as it realized this human found its home and tried to hurt it. Bulking up its chest, the creature let out a deep roar showing the human girl its teeth and tried to intimidate her with its size.

Martha just stood there stone face. She wasn't scared, nor did she seem to be intimidated by its size. Even with the creature towering over her, Martha just popped her knuckles and let in a sharp breath, then exhaled slowly as she readied herself. She then took a single step forward.

Filled with utter shock and anger at the audacity of this one human, the creature charged at Martha. Since it was much bigger than her, it covered more ground within seconds. It pulled back its right arm and fully charged up its punch. It let out a roar as it released his fist, trying to punch the girl's head clean off her body.

A loud shock wave filled the air as its fist connected with the girl. A look of utter shock and disbelief filled the creature's eyes as he looked down.

His fist did connect with the girl but not her head. She had used her arm to block the incoming attack. This wasn't the part that shocked him. No. What shocked him was the fact she took the full force of the strike and didn't blink. His punch only caused her to move about an inch at most. Yet, she didn't blink and was looking him dead in the eyes. He then saw that his force hurt her but only caused her arm to be slightly bruised. It then dawned on him that this just irritated her for the most part.

Martha didn't say a word as she lifted her right fist, and the creature watched as it barely moved. It was as if she jerked her fist in a quick motion. His eyes went wide as a sudden pain set in his chest, nearly taking his breath away. This caused him to stumble back a little in disbelief at what just happened.

He released a confused moan as he felt the pain while trying to wrap his head around how she did it. He wondered if this was a mistake and tried to get his bearing and go back for another attack. He shook his head violently, trying to focus back on the girl. But when his eyes focused, he was met with the gloved fist of the girl.

Martha had lept into the air at Bigfoot and punch him square in the face with a left fist. The force behind her punch was enough to lift the creature off the ground and sent him flying backward.

As he tried to open his eyes and see what happened, his eyes went wide as he saw Martha lifted her left leg far into the air and brought it down hard enough to bury the beast's head in the ground. This caused the creature's makeshift fire to flicker as Martha's face appeared more sinister while looking down at him with her emotionless face. She then reached down into the hole where the creature's head was, grabbed a fist full of hair, and began to pull him as if he was a rag doll.

Martha placed him in the light of the fire and rolled him over onto his stomach. She grabbed the log he used as a seat and placed it a few inches above his head. She then grabbed him by the back of his head and placed his upper mouth along the hard edges of the wood. She could hear the soft moaning cries from the creature as she lined him up for a curve stump. She pressed her leg on the back of his head as she was ready herself. Yet, she didn't do it.

"Do you speak?" She demanded to know in an ice-cold monotoned voice. "Nod your head for yes and shake it for no. If you do or try anything else, you understand what will happen."

The creature silently wept as he slowly nodded its head as she commanded.

"Good. Do you know who Elizabeth Homes is?" Martha asked the scared 9-foot creature.

The creature nodded again.

"Her son is training with his own Demi-Human and will be doing his first mission soon. You will be his target. They will find you, and you will battle them. Alone. Do you understand?" Martha's cold calm voice waited to know his answer.

He heard every word she spoke and nodded his head in understanding.

"Now. Here is your real task. You are to make this feel as real as possible and a little difficult. However, you are not to harm him in any necessary way that will kill him. Only defending yourself and make it challenging. If you harm him in a way that could permanently leave a mark, close to death, or have him needing emergency help. Or in the worse case. You will not need to fear me. You will have to fear his mother and me. And I won't be as merciful as I am now. Do you understand?" Martha's cold green eyes glowed as she looked down at the pathetic creature.

A soft moan left the creature's mouth as he slowly nodded his head in agreement. He could feel the girl's leg slowly release his head and move away. He waited a few moments before trying to rise. He then felt a sharp pain run through his entire hand as he couldn't help but let out a pain-filled roar. He pulled his hand up, looking at it, and noticed that one of his fingers was gone.

"I'm taking this to remind you of what happened tonight. And for wasting my time." Martha said as she held his missing finger and her hatchet. She silently put all her stuff back on and wrote down this area on her map. All while the creature cried in pain for its missing finger. She then looked at the pathetic creature from the darkness with her green eyes. "If you do really well, you will be rewarded."

As she was about to turn away fully, she paused and looked back for a moment. "Oh. If you don't want me coming back to take all of your fingers and then some, I would keep my mouth shut about Elizabeth having a son. If I were you." She said, allowing her aura to cover the hatchet so he can see it.

"See you real soon," Martha said before leaving the creature to his own suffering.