Jack hadn’t expected to run into the honey badger once again but was quick to capitalize on the opportunity for a sneak attack. Unfortunately, having failed and subsequently struck down by the electric badger, Jack found himself back in the void.

‘I was really hoping that would work...’ he lamented.

Perhaps it was foolish to try and sneak up on a beast that had far superior senses but would he have fared much better if he had rushed it instead?

No, he would have died all the same.

‘But does that matter...?’ He mused. ‘Maybe I’ve been thinking about this all wrong...’

A plan started to slowly take shape within his mind. ‘If only I could control where I appear after I die; this could be so much easier.’ He sighed.

Thinking for a moment, he shrugged. ‘Well, it’s worth a try. Not like I have anything to lose anymore.’

Focusing his mind, he pictured the image of the honey badger with its pinkish silver fur, ‘Honestly, this has almost no chance of working. God knows how many of those fuckers are scurrying all over the forest? It’s already weird enough that I ran into the same one again. At least I assume it’s the same one considering it seemed like it recognized me. I could be wrong though...’

Jack kept picturing the honey badger’s appearance but no change came over the void and soon he was back in the forest.

Looking around, he didn’t spot any honey badgers and as far as he could tell, he was just in some random part of the forest, “Sigh, well it was worth a try.” Jack sighed helplessly.

At that moment though, he felt something light land on top of his head. Reaching up, he saw it was one of the blue leaves.

It was almost as big as his palm and glittered incandescently.

“Thanks for the gift, I guess.” Grinned Jack at the trunk of the enormous tree in front of him. In response, faint laughter echoed in his mind as leaf after leaf fell in a straight line leaving a trail.

Mouth gaping open, Jack watched this happen for a second before he took off running, following the trail of leaves, “I really hope this leads where I think it does!”

—————

Badger was so tired.

He had already used his Flux Lightning twice and he could feel how dried up his Flux reserves were. At most, he could use it once more before he’d have to run back to the Inner Area to rest and recuperate his Flux. He was hesitant to stay around the outskirts of the Core Area after one of the Kings effectively told him to ‘fuck off, you little shit!’(Rough translation) but Badger was determined to Advance today!

...He just didn’t know how.

It’s hard to admit but Badger is in no shape to fight. If he attempted to fight one of the of the top Beasts of the Inner Area right now, the best he could do is use his Flux Lightning to run away.

Badger would not be Advancing today and he knew it.

Every second he spent splayed out on the grass, brooding, only caused his anger and frustration to increase.

THAT HUMAN! IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT!

Badger screamed internally as he flailed around like a child denied a new toy. He dared not verbally express his anger in fear of the Kings’ retaliation.

Badger was so consumed in his silent tantrum that he missed the sound of something running towards him and only realized the danger when a shadow fell over his form.

Badger watched as a rock smashed into him, dazing him.

Jack didn’t relent as he raised the rock as high as he could before smashing it into the honey badger once again repeatedly.

Badger could only take the beating as grunts and groans of pain escaped his mouth. This lasted until finally the poor rock could take no more and shattered on Badger’s body.

Jack fell back on his ass, breathing heavily as his arms trembled from exertion, “Yeah....pant... try and get......pant....up from that.....pant...motherfucker...” He grinned tiredly.

Jack’s grin died in the next second as he watched Badger stumble back up drunkenly as if he had one too many drinks. He didn’t look at all like he just got tenderized by a rock.

Badger felt the world spin around as he tried to get his bearings while Jack could only stare dumbfoundedly at the honey badger.

Badger wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating Jack or not but at this point he didn’t really care. He had one hell of a headache and somebody would have to pay for it.

The human would have to do.

A well of rage erupted from Badger as his nature as a Honey Badger took over and he threw himself at Jack, a war cry erupting from him.

He promptly smashed into a tree trunk as he completely missed Jack.

Watching the honey badger fly past him, Jack awoke from his reverie as an evil smirk came to his face.

He hurriedly got up and ran towards Badger. Taking advantage of his disorientation, jack grabbed on to Badger’ tail and flung him into another tree.

Now, honey badger’s on Earth weigh around 9 - 16 Kilograms but while Badger is only slightly larger than an average male honey badger from Earth, his weight actually comes around to almost 20 Kilograms.

Jack, being an average person who has an average carry weight, was not prepared for how heavy Badger was and only ended up flinging him an extremely short distance away.

“Holy shit! How heavy are you, you little shit?!”

His arm muscles burned and he was pretty sure his back did not enjoy what just happened.

Badger, still disoriented, once again tried to launch himself at Jack.

He did not miss this time.

Jack’s vision was suddenly blocked by silverish fur as he felt clawed paws anchor into his flesh.

And then all hell broke loose, at least for Jack.

If another person was here, they’d be treated to the sight of a man running around like a headless chicken as a honey badger clawed and bit at his face.

The screams of man and badger resounded through that part of the forest.

Jack could feel Badger’s claws pierce through the flesh of his face like butter. They tore apart his eyes, turning his eye sockets into pools of blood that mixed with the rest pouring from whatever was left of his face, which was almost nothing.

Eventually, Jack’s body limply fell to the ground, embraced by death once again.

Badger crawled off his body tiredly and flopped down on his back next to him, his body heaving with heavy breaths.

A cry of victory erupting from him, Badger raised his little paws into the air and shook them with glee.

How dare that human think he can contend with a genius such as him?!

Badger, of course, had completely forgotten that he had killed this ‘human’ twice already. Well, that is until he turned his head to take a look at his slain opponent and found nothing but the lush grass swaying merrily as if to mock him. Badger didn’t know why but a foreboding feeling suddenly overcame him and his bestial instincts began to scream for him to run away as far and as quickly as possible.

The forest trees continued to sway as glittering leaves rode the wind.

Ah, poor, poor, Badger. If only it was so easy to escape Death...