Chapter 37- From hunter to prey.

"GWAAAaaaKk!"

Bolting upright in panic, I frantically look around for the source of the high-pitched screech that awoke me from my slumber, only to realize that it is still in the middle of the night and there is virtually no light to speak of. Short story shorter: I can't see jack shit in the darkness.

Trying to calm my frantically beating heart, I try to silence my breathing as much as I can and begin to listen for the source of the sound to see if I can locate it better.

A few seconds of silence follows before I start being able to pick up footsteps coming from the forest floor below. At first they seem faint, barely perceptible, but I soon realize that the thing simply is far away as the footfalls get progressively heavier and louder as the thing gets closer to me.

As this thing comes ever closer I am even starting to be able to feel the vibrations that the heavy footfalls are causing.

'How damn big and heavy is this thing?!' I mentally exclaim as the thing coming ever closer is starting to really fray my nerves.

Suddenly, as the vibrations and the sound from the heavy things footfalls reach a peak, the footfalls stop and a moment of silence follows.

"Gwwaaak!? Gwaaak?" The thing screeches before once again going quiet for a long moment. "… Ggwakk!"

With a deafening boom, the tree, and consequently the tree branch and the vines attached to said branch where I currently lie, start shaking violently as the vibrations travel up through and spread out throughout the gigantic tree.

"Holy-!" I exclaim in surprise as I grab onto the vines to keep from falling down through holes in the vine net which I was sleeping on.

The vibrations continue on for another few seconds but most of the vibrations potency is lost in the first second or so as the remaining vibration almost sets the tree to a low tone hum which quickly peters out as the still and quiet night reclaims the world.

"Gwak?" Comes a squeak from down below and a moment later I start hearing the heavy footfalls once again, this time moving away from the tree I am currently in and away towards where I assume I came from as the thing seems to be following my trail, somehow. It doesn't seem to be tracking me by smell, as if that was the case, the thing would know that I am up here as the smell should be strongest where I currently am.

…? 'Is it somehow tracking me by the trail of my magic? Or is it something different which I haven't thought about? … At least whatever it is using doesn't seem to be all that effective at pinpointing my current location, or I would've been in big trouble right about now.' I muse as I listen carefully to the retreating footfalls as they get further and further away. '… Or am I just not worth the trouble and it gave up and went home? … Yeah, I dunno. At least it's going away now, and that's all I really care about at the moment.' I conclude as I let myself relax a little more as I become unable to pick up the heavy footfalls from the heavy creature anymore.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I slump back down on the vine net and look up into the complete darkness above me.

"I really need to get the hell out of this god-damned place…" I mutter tiredly to myself before I close my eyes and try to fall asleep.

Sleep does not come easily however, as I toss and turn for a long time: I don't know if it is an hour or a few hours, but the time passes excruciatingly slowly; Yet before I know it, I get shocked awake and the light burns my tired and unadjusted eyes. Wincing from the uncomfortableness, I squint my eyes and look around slowly.

"So I fell asleep somewhere along the way, huh… Damn my eyes sting." I mutter tiredly as I force my tired body up into a sitting position before I sigh and start making my way over to the tree branch proper to start stretching out the kinks from my body. "Tonight sucked like a fox. It feels like I haven't slept any at all...

What the hell was that anyway?" I muse aloud as I continue stretching my tired body.

After I finish stretching, I sit down and start breathing deeply as I meditate for a while to try and clear out some of the tiredness from my body; About half an hour later I open my eyes and stand up before I walk over to the edge of the branch to look down, just to check that there aren't any monsters lying in wait for me down there.

After a few minutes of carefully surveying the area, I take a deep breath before I walk off of the branch and start falling head first towards the forest floor some 30 meters below.

As I free fall towards the forest floor I survey the area for a place to Blink to, and as I pass the 10 meter mark from the forest floor, I prepare to execute the skill. As I reach about 5 meters above ground I disappear and reappear 40 meters away on a big boulder that lets me see a decent distance in all directions of the woodland.

"Now which way should I go…?" I ask out loud as I look around for any landmark that I may remember.

Sadly, it all looks like the same old woodland landscape to me no matter which direction I look, so I can only sigh and start walking in the direction where I sense the lowest concentration Mana is. "This is going to be one lo~ng and tiresome day, isn't it?" I mumble tiredly to myself as I walk along while keeping a constant watchful eye on my surroundings, in case any unwanted surprises come along.

--------

A few hours until my return trek, I find a stream of water where I promptly quench my thirst before refilling all of my water-skins. I decided to make a campsite a decent distance from the stream, where I can prepare my breakfast. Once I catch said breakfast, that is. Which is the next order of things: I go hunting for sustenance, be it meat or anything else.

Setting out along the stream, I make my way downstream as I keep a close eye out for anything editable.

Seconds turn into minutes and minutes turn into an hour and yet I still haven't been able to find anything which I would consider editable.

Another half hour passes before I hear a loud howl from somewhere deep within the woodland, the howl's echo continues spreading out and comes at me from a number of different directions, which leaves me utterly unable to pinpoint where the sound originated from.

As the loud howl's echo dies down, a moment of silence and stillness follows and I take in a deep breath. 'C'mon! Please!' I pray in my mind as I hold my breath.

But the silence is broken by a multitude of loud howl's echoing throughout the woodlands from all around me.

"Fuck my life!" I exclaim as I start running as I look around for an open branch or the like where I can take shelter while being able to attack from a distance. After a minute of running, I notice a large and tall boulder that stands easily 20 meters tall and promptly decide on using it as it should be quite hard to scale while also giving me the high ground.

As I continue running towards the large boulder, I start hearing footfalls coming from behind me which redoubles my efforts to hurry the hell up and get up onto the boulder.

As I cross the 50 meters mark, I immediately Blink up onto the giant boulder and start sweeping my gaze around the edges of the gigantic rock to see how many wolf's there are that I have to deal with and immediately draw back in shock as I take in the dozens upon dozens of gigantic wolf's that are rushing towards me.

"Fucking great! I go searching for food and suddenly I am the one being hunted. Fuck this god-forsaken forest and everything in it!" I exclaim in anger as I take a iai stance and do a sword draw that sends a wind-blade flying into the mass of incoming giant beasts.

While dozens die to the wind-blade, there are dozens upon dozens more that quickly take their place as they continue rushing towards me.

"If only I could use the wind-blade in quick succession…" I mutter as I begin gathering and condensing Mana to cast a chain lighting spell on the wolf pack, only to stop short and have to dodge as a particularly big wolf suddenly appears out of nowhere and lunges at me with open maw and claws poised to grab and hold me in place.

"Shi-!"

End of chapter 37