Intelligent? Golems? Well, only so far as the artificer trusts them to be. The peak [Artificers], those at least Level 40 are rumored to be able to create thinking beings. Powerful Skills reside at those milestones, and decades of practice only add to their effects. I have even heard rumor of a [Golemancer] that claimed to have created something truly absurd, a construct able to level. Being the [Golemancer] in question, I can personally claim that particular rumor was indeed false. I shall refrain from disavowing any others in hopes you read on, hoping my expertise may answer it for you.

- Advanced Constructs and Golemancy, Unknown [Golemancer]

He kept his attention on the creature as he pocketed as many berries as he could, which was a lot. He didn't really ever forage for anything but his fingers were nimble from flitting over a keyboard his entire life. He tasted a single berry and left it at that, trying to see if he'd have any reaction. His shoulder was by and large not needed for any of his movements until now and he was careful with moving it. The benefit was that in bending down, despite his pain, he was out of sight. The berries seemed to have a strong sweet smell, so the scent of blood was masked. That was, after all, the reason he needed a water source - to wash all the blood off and clean the wound.

The creature seemed to wade undisturbed in the water. The gurgling rush of water was a clear current.

What gave Jayke pause was the fact it was like nothing he had seen, whereas two of his encounters so far were altered versions of familiar things. He assumed the spherical, moss-covered plate surrounding it was some type of protection. It waded in the water, and at first, didn't seem the type of danger that would normally prickle his neck and back. The closest thing he would've likened it to was some kind of snail, only that didn't seem entirely correct. It looked like it was built to withstand something, to survive.

Then he saw it.

The lethal beast from earlier, the one that tried to kill him. It prodded out of the opposite woods on the other side of the river. Eyeing the shelled creature, it hissed and yowled, but the shelled organism ignored it. Nearly the same size as the cat, the shelled creature didn't at all seem bothered.

The cat sniffed the air, angry eyes hunting for prey. It swept over Jayke's position and snarled, switching its attention to the shallow bank once it deemed the immediate area safe. It hadn't seen him. In moments, it had speared a transparent fish on a claw, dragged it to shore, and ripped it apart.

Pockets full of berries, his thirst was finally getting to him, but he opted to watch the interaction further. The stream might very well have been the only water source within a few miles radius. Fat good any of his training in the martial arts would do here. He didn't know to punch or counter giant animals.

The cat Jayke had already had an eyeful of. It was the other creature that caught his eye. It was like watching the famed T-rex and triceratops irritably ignore each other. Attack and defense.

Jayke knew the power and lethality of that cat firsthand. His shoulder throbbed, rooting out the possibility of climbing a tree for altitude, little that that might do against that cat, or rather a lion. It was more lion or some jungle cat, truthfully. But the immediate appearance, disregarding the environment, reminded him of a lion. And still, it ignored the aquatic shelled lumbering beast that waded in the shallow water. Neither had made any aggressive moves.

Its shell was much like a snail's. Through the shallow water, pink and purple tentacles roiled across the sandbed. The shell itself didn't seem significant, but for the size of it. A closer look might've netted more details. He stomped out the idea as soon as it came to him, the entity was an unknown.

Jayke shook his head. "You're too used to observing weird things nowadays, Jayke." He whispered, admonishingly.

Once he saw the lion move upstream he took his chances moving downstream - away from both of the large creatures. Right at the border of woods and shore, he was able to make out other enthralling wildlife, unobtrusive in his passing. He spotted a bird with four wings, more butterfly than anything. Once he caught view of a deer though strangely patterned. Most of the sightings were while they were stopped to drink.

Eventually, once he found a shaded alcove where the water pooled, he took a drink for his dry mouth.

Up to his shins, the water was cool and tugging at his pants. Reaching under a small waterfall, he cupped his hands and let the water pool into them. It was crystal clear. The fact of the matter was he'd die of thirst if he bothered to worry about purity or contaminants. Starting a fire might've been ideal if he knew how to or had a container to boil with.

Water dripped down his neck and he let out a content sigh. He sat on a rock which broke the current, letting the water drag at his legs. He could almost forget the danger. Almost.

Staring downstream, he wondered not for the first time where exactly he had ended up. Obviously, the creatures were unnatural. They were neither pre-apocalypse nor post. They intrigued him, a guilty hobby of his nowadays - strange creatures.

And not to mention the magic.

He dipped his hand into the water, keeping perfectly dry. A forcefield kept the water from ever coming in contact with his skin, the current broke around his hand like a rock sticking out of the water. The mental effort was taxing him. So far, all he had managed to figure out was how to create them. The durability, shape, and size were beyond his conscious effort. Let alone turning the field concave and into a convenient cup.

The forest was quiet, only filled with the gurgling stream and birdsong above.

He spotted those horned rabbits again but left them to their own. Instead, having been a few hours undisturbed, he decided the red berries were safe. A mouthful went in and staved off his hunger.

Try as he might, he was unable to grasp the essence of [Code Magic]. Unlike, [Protective Magic] he wasn't dealing with something tangible, in the magical sense that was. He chalked it up to inexperience. Even creating barriers was difficult for him.

Despite it all, he couldn't help sporting a grin. He allowed himself to awe at the magic shimmering field surrounding his hand. It was transparent and barely visible, but the grey-blue color was present once you focused on it. The small disturbances of air whipped his hair slightly as he outstretched his palms. An orb was beyond him, flat surfaces it seemed were his current limit.

He groaned. The pain in his shoulder hadn't abided. While normally this pain wouldn't indicate any real danger as he could just imbibe the medical solution that ran through the whole compound, the danger it presented now was very much real.

Gingerly, he dipped down. His left side was caked with blood running down his back. The cool water quickly became cold once he fully submerged. The sensation was both shock, chill, and pain. He swept at the caked blood with his free hand, understanding he'd never clean it to perfection. A trail of red went downstream.

As clean as he was getting, he exited the river stream.

Distant howls sounded as he dripped wetly. Yipping and barking from somewhere deep in the forest. Ominous. The sounds stopped as soon as they began. He paused cautiously, moving slower after the initial unease. Some type of hound might be disadvantageous considering his injury, even cleaned he must've smelled of old blood.

He wrung out his ripped shirt and tied it around the wound as best he could. The sun kept him warm. It was fairly hot when he stood out in the sun. Though he hesitated to do that too freely.

A bit of walking further down the stream and eventually he spotted something of a trail. He tracked it for a few miles, realizing he was descending the mountain at a decline.

More howls. Only this time, they were closer and more urgent. His heart raced when he heard their quarry. The yipping snarling yowl of the lion, pain, and desperation. Anger. Rage. It encompassed the entire forest, dominating the moment in which it presided.

Jayke turned, then hesitated. He muttered under his breath, ever curious. "It's just gathering data, Jayke. Completely reasonable." He looked down at his hand in reassurance, seeing the blue-grey field there. Then he went after the hunt.

The trees seemed to get thicker and taller as he followed the hunting howls. By now, he had come up with his own assumptions, some pack of animals in the forest were hunting down that beast of a lion. It was dumb, reckless, and stupid, but he needed to see. To get his bearings, no matter the cost. He'd go insane if he didn't. He didn't know where he was, or what anything was right now. Then they stopped and the forest was silent.

He slowed, listening.

The first creature ripped at his legs before he could even understand what had happened. His head whipped to follow but he only caught the skittering legs of the thing. It was burned red-

He threw a shield in front of him. It held as something impacted it. It was a dog. Only it's tail was held up high and alert. And it was a scorpion's tail. And its feet were hooved. It barked at him and bounded away, not before trying to rip apart the field with its drooling jaws. Jayke blinked.

On instinct, he swung his hand backward. A good hit if a little awkward against a moving target. Pack hunters. Another one hit a forcefield he created behind him preemptively. He kept them at diagonals relative to him as best he could. His back moved away from them when they tried to position themselves. Red fur, burned like fire, flashed among the greenery. The pack was moving.

He pressed his back against a thick tree. They'd cornered him fast. He frowned, mind firing with strategy. So long as he maximized distance, he'd be fine. His gaze tried tracking every one of the darting dogs. They used their hooves to spring from the trunks and reposition, prodding his defense.

He waited for a beat. One of them overextended.

Then chaos. He conjured barriers in a flurry. The forest exploded with the sound of barking and yipping. It was a nightmare. Pained whines erupted in response to heavy impacts on invisible objects. When one shattered another took its place, angling away when they could. He groaned, pressed back into rough bark his wound had opened again. It was like his mind was bleeding too, having broken so many barriers. The pain was indescribable. The scorpion-dogs chuffed at the smell of blood, laughing.

Block, defend. Punch. Kick. Elbow. Their stingers shattered barriers outright when they got a perpendicular angle. But Jayke did well to angle and direct their momentums. His kicks were heavy once the creatures were safely caught out by the forcefields. The force of his kicks broke bones, ribs, and in some cases, the chitin covered plating of their scorpion tails. It an immensely awkward usage of what he'd learned in training. The strict form and discipline went out the window when trying to track the moving targets with the bottom of his foot. Or his knuckles.

His hand lashed out at a dog that had broken a larger barrier. The thing bit at his hand only to break its teeth on the smaller, concentrated shield surrounding his hand. His other hand blocked its tail and his leg came up in a devastating knee to the torso. He dropped the whining creature as its friends moved to cover it.

One of them was whimpering close to Jayke, too close for any of the pack to help it. It died by way of a violent stomp. The entire pack cringed, barking loudly at the sight.

Yellow eyes seemed to glower with hate. They nursed their wounds. Jayke stared wide-eyed and aware, adrenaline pumping. His stance was reactive, waiting. A few stalked to his left and right, but Jayke's eyes followed them warily. They hesitated, moving closer to their pack upon seeing his awareness.

He realized their postures. They were angry, defensive. Wary and defensive. They weren't attacking him, really. Right now, they were eyeing him.

He took a step forward. The low growl that came in response seemed to emanate from all the dogs as once.

"What are you hiding?" Jayke whispered, curious. He breathed hard, sucking in air. It was like they were protecting something. Not their young, surely, they were hunting something. They wouldn't be near their den.

His eyes tracked their movements. Then he focused on something slumped over, unmoving save for breathing. It was the lion. His old acquaintance. He had heard them hunting it and now it was here, defeated. Unmoving. Venomed.

The yellow-eyed dogs growled again. Barking aggressively at his gaze, claiming the lion as theirs.

There was little satisfaction to be gained from living in the apocalypse. Because, when everything was gone, what truly was the point of living? For Jayke, the pleasure of living his day to day came in one form; doing as he pleased unrestrained. From taking risks he deemed appropriate for the things he wanted to do. It was liberating. He was a man with nothing to lose, and with that, in a sense, he was wild. Free.

And for whatever reason, he found he liked the lion, at least, he could admire its story. A loner at the top outnumbered by scorpion-dogs. A short one, admittedly. It didn't seem fair. It sounded too much like him.

Jayke prided himself on an objective mind, one usually driven by logic. Perhaps the most pride though came from that 'usually', however.

He charged.

Barriers formed, and the glittering dust of tell-tale broken fields showered the forest for moments. Bodies flew across the underbrush, redirected in their charge. Sudden changes in momentum broke bones and ruptured internal organs. Chitin crashed against hard bark, cracking under blunt trauma.

Pain wracked his body, then went away - numbed by paralytic venom. Punctures, undeniable damage to his legs. His arms were worn down, tired. His fists and feet ached with fractures. He kept his body moving by force of will. Jayke Cipher wasn't a man shy to kill, not anymore. A fist broke on a dog's head, breaking his fingers along with its consciousness. When a dog was caught out of position, alone and isolated, it died.

The last pair of yellow-eyes were filled with desperation. The type that begged for salvation, even in the face of their doom. Jayke had learned the harsh truth of the world in the past year. People died, animals died, and there was nothing to stop the nature of that cycle. It was inevitable.

Jayke only brought it sooner.

And suddenly, he was staring at a number of dead scorpion-dog hybrids. An entire pack of them, more than he remembered seeing at any given moment. He wobbled, realizing what anything they hunted would've had to go through. His hand found a nearby tree trunk, propping himself up. He could barely feel the rough bark.

He glanced around, searching. The creature hadn't moved an inch, Jayke wasn't sure it could.

He limped over to the paralyzed lion. It was three times his size and still brought down by that pack of dogs. The venom in their tails was powerful, and there was no telling how much was pumped into the lion. The ground was damp with blood only he couldn't tell which belonged to who. But the lion was a large creature, it was conscious, and it noticed his gaze.

Green-yellow eyes stared at him, fully aware, even as its body moved not an inch. They were wide, fearful, helpless. But not given up. Its fur once upon a time might've been dark green, only now it was nearly black with blood. He stared back at it. He must've caught the pack right as the lion succumbed to the venom.

"Look at us. Both of us just waiting to die. Alone." Jayke grunted, taking a painful seat on a thick root not three feet from the creature's face. Perhaps he had gone slightly mad as his posture was unconcerned and insouciant. "I'd help you if I could." He smiled regretfully, he felt lightheaded.

He gave the lion an unconcerned look and rested his head, meditating on his body.

He had broken fingers, his calves were bleeding. Most of his lower half had taken some type of wound. He was certain a stinger had caught him in the leg once or twice in passing. He couldn't even stand anymore. His legs had gone numb long ago. The venom pumped through him and he could feel it coursing through his veins like icy fire, slowing everything with a numbing burn. He wasn't sure if it was lethal or not yet.

He groaned, pulling a few berries out of his miraculously undamaged pockets. "Might as well enjoy." He took a mouthful of the berries, they were juicier than he remembered. He could've left to his [Safehaven] he knew, but he stared at the lion. And, simply, couldn't be bothered to. So he sat.

Maybe it was about time he died.

The lion whined and the sound came out garbled, pained, and uncontrolled.

Jayke scooted over, surprised his legs could even function at this point and held a handful of berries to the lion. Its tongue came out weakly, but with dexterity and coarseness, and snatched the fruit from his hand. He moved back to his seat, enjoying the sunshine as it hit him, only slightly marred by the sound of the paralyzed gargling lion choking down berries.

Cargo pants were a necessity for moving about the compound, one simply needed a lot of things. So he had six large pockets on the front, and two large pockets on the back of his pants. He had two more filled with berries, which translated to two or three handfuls each.

He enjoyed the red berries, closing his eyes to focus on the taste, finding them both sweet and juicy. They were satisfying in a way that was hard to describe. It was like the sunshine didn't even have to be present for him to feel it at that moment. He was thankful the venom numbed his pain, even his shoulder's pain had been masked.

He came to awareness sometime later, eyes still closed.

He opened them. Green-yellow eyes greeted him. The lion was upright, still caked in blood. Its pearly white teeth were hidden behind its maw. The same colored claws were retracted, only paws were showing now, and it was watching him.

It was monstrous. Its eyes screamed lethality, despite its state. Every feature of its was sharp and deadly, even the narrow eyes and the pupils themselves. Had it been merely a few feet behind any of the forestry, he'd have had a hard time finding its figure. Only now that it had sat up did the difference in size become acutely apparent. Its resting position was taller than Jayke's sitting position, eye-level wise.

It stared down at him.

Neutral.

Jayke stared back and it bared its fangs. Maybe there was a challenge in the gesture because Jayke smiled back, both fierce and unyielding. It hissed at him, and he felt the death on its breath.

"How?" He mumbled, adjusting himself with odd ease.

Then he rolled his shoulder, he rolled it too easily.

The sweet juicy taste of the red berries was still fresh on his tongue. He wasn't feeling any pain. He stared at his juice-stained hands. His pants were torn in places, but the material was very durable, better than denim. They were originally tan-brown but juice and blood painted them dull red. He had two more pockets full of them.

"The berries?" Jayke talked to himself. "Healing properties." He said to himself. The idea was outlandish, but nothing explained their states more than that.

His focus switched to the lion. It still looked worse than Jayke did. Reaching into his pocket, he scooped out another handful and held it out to the creature. It regarded him with sharp intelligence, swaying to the side and grabbing the berries with its tongue. When it finished, Jayke held out another handful leaving him with only one pocket left.

As it choked them down, Jayke stood up. It paused and stared and left him alone. Likewise, Jayke didn't glance back at the lion. If it had wanted to kill him it would've. Even now, he was sure he could defend from the lion's attack like last time. Although the strength of those past barriers came from his actual fear of dying, he was semi-confident he could replicate it.

But Jayke only began to walk. And the lion let him go.

For some reason, the whole encounter from the scorpion-dogs to the lion to the berries to the shelled tentacle creature, had him feeling somewhat optimistic. He could manage this new reality. He needed some validation, some confirmation he could do it.

Because, if he were truthful with himself, he did a terrible job at managing the last one.

"Time to figure out what the fuck to do." Jayke exhaled.