Chapter 30

The jackal ran circles around her, so far she had only shot a few arrows, realising she could not hit it she stopped moving entirely. Even Ashborn could not understand what she was thinking.

She just stood there as the jackal grew closer. When it was about 40 metres away it stopped running around her and ran straight at her instead.

She quickly nocked an arrow and pointed at it but did not shoot. The jackal jumped from ground rising into the air as it flew straight at her.

She jumped backwards from the tree and released the arrow while mid air. The jackal had no way to dodge it while mid air. The arrow landed on it shoulder spraying blood into the air and painted the tree leaves red.

It yelped as it fell down with a bang, before it could stand up she shot another arrow while still mid air, it hit it stomach but did not do as much demage as the last one.

The last arrow was after all one of only 7 metal shaft arrows. She landed on another tree 4 metres away and nocked another arrow but the jackal had already ran.

Mind you she had brought 18 wood arrows and 7 metal ones, she had already shot 5 of the wood arrows with only two of them hitting the mark.

Counting the one on her bow she only had 13 wood arrows left and 6 metal ones. She had to made them count. She searched for the jackal and saw it a hundred metres away.

It back was turned on her and it was running away, with blood leaking from it wounds but he had to admit, this thing was really tenacious. Even after she shot it three times it was still running strong.

She chased after it, jumping from tree to tree gracefully while holding a bow with a nocked arrow. He could see the progress of their training.

For the past week they had not only trained her archery skills but acrobatics as well. Ofcourse he also participated in this training, they tied thin wires between two buildings.

She would balance herself on these wires as he threw rocks at supersonic speed at her and she would have to dodge while shooting arrows at him as well.

It was hard, extremely so, especially for her. He had two bloodlines from cats so his reflexes were impressive, he improved much faster than her on this aspect.

He followed her, moving much slower than both of them. Hours passed, it seemed the jackal was able to hide from her using the dense trees as cover.

Although she had good eyesight she couldn't see through solid objects however losing it sight was not a problem. It was bleeding and all she had to do was follow the blood trail and that what she did.

The blood trail seemed to be going in circles, infact even he could not tell where the beast was let alone her. He looked towards the horizon, the sun was setting.

Night came and the beast was nowhere to be seen. She had stopped moving, she realised the blood trail led nowhere, the jackal played her.

She climbed on top of a tall tree, the silver glow of the moon cascading down her beautiful dark skin and black braided hair. Her lean figure appeared majestic above the canopy of the dark forest.

She looked around then climbed back down, ofcourse not all the way to the ground, she stopped on a branch 5 metres above ground. He turned his head and saw it.

His ability to see in the dark was much higher than her so he saw it before she did. It was stalking her from behind, he noticed the savage rage in it eyes.

Most beasts would run after being wounded, especially predator types as wounds might hinder their ability to hunt and they could not risk that.

However it did not run, no, it came back, this was nolonger for survival, it hated her, it hated her to the core, this had become personal for it.

He waited and watched as it slowly approached her from behind. When it was 25 metres away it sprinted at her. She turned and saw it then jumped into another tree.

It followed, he watched them flicker from tree to tree like shadows,it was obviously faster but it larger size hindered it movements as it was sometimes too large to pass through the tiny spaces between branches.

While she on the other hand could dance in the trees like a monkey only her movements were much more elegant. Her light weight also meant she could balance herself on tiny branches which it couldn't.

She paused for a second as if she tripped, it saw an opportunity and jumped at her with it mouth wide open but it was trap. She pulled her bow and shot at it mouth.

However it was able to quickly move it head but that meant the arrow would land on it neck. Ofcourse the wound was not fatal, the beast was both large and durable.

And she used a wood arrow, perhaps she thought it would be enough if she shot it in the mouth which was softer than it fur and that was obviously a mistake.

She still had a lot to learn, they all did. The jackal jumped down and ran, she lost it in the dark shadows of the forest again but he could still see it.

The creature ran a kilometre away from her, it wounds had stopped bleeding even with the arrows still stuck inside it, the regeneration of these things was impressive, he had to admit.

She continued jumping from tree to tree looking for it to no avail, it seemed even more wary of her now, it movements lacked the savage confidence of a predator it had before.

He heard a sound of a twig breaking and so did she, without hesitation she shot an arrow, ofcourse he knew it wasn't the jackal she shot.

He looked closely and it was a rabbit, he had seen pictures of rabbit from Anittas books, however this rabbit stood close to 1.5 metres in height with a long horn on it head and very sharp teeth. Her arrow had killed it almost immediately.

She went to check and turned her back on her real opponent and the jackal saw this as an opportunity and ran towards her without making a sound, she was standing on a tree branch when it jumped towards her.

She did not seem to react, he opened his eyes wide and moved. Shit, I'm not gonna make it, he thought with panic as he watched the beast maw draw close to her in slow motion.