Chapter 64: Survival (2)
s.h.i.t. Why did I forget about them? This was a forest. This was my freaking territory. I grew up making places like this as my playground. Suddenly, I found my momentary confidence because of this realization. I knew the rules of the forest. I knew how things work here. I immediately followed towards the deer"s direction. I was still cautious but more confident about my actions. Due to the technical trainings and artificial environments brought by the real-life simulator of t.i.tan Academy, I almost forgot where I came from. My origin. What it really felt like outdoors; when inside the real jungle, the behavior of the animals, the flow of the air, even the texture of the trees and the consistency of the forest ground. They may have added things around like traps, mine bombs, those kinds of deadly s.h.i.ts. But this was still a forest. And every living creature in the forest was connected to something else. It"s the rule of an ecosystem.
My face glazed when I found out that my suspicion was right. Just ahead of me, I saw the deer stopped by the river set in the middle of the forest. I sighed of relief upon seeing the dazzling clear water under the sun. I continued to run until suddenly my legs stopped out of danger reflex. Blinking, I carefully inspected the little red light by the ground which was almost at the tip of my shoes. I was rooted on my spot. It suddenly blinked until the rest gradually revealed themselves on my path. I seemed to have activated something.
f.u.c.k. Mine bombs? I quickly jumped away. No. I know didn"t step on anything. Movement activated?
I was in the middle of panicky dodging away from the bombs when I noticed another thing. I whipped my head to the side, instinctually evading the incoming dagger that tore my direction. I was shocked with how fast things had suddenly happened. Where did that come from? Looking around, I suddenly found myself gazing upwards. s.h.i.t. Another dagger came flying to me. I got a glimpse of a woman squatting on one of the branches while holding nearly half a dozen daggers. Where did she get those? I ran away from her. I knew she would follow me. She"s one of the members of Dione.
As I fled, I tried to feel her ability. She was very quick even while moving around branches. It"s definitely a skill a.s.sociated with her ability. I ducked when I felt another dagger coming close behind me. Then I heard her cursed out. Stupid, I"m a seer.
I finally faced her when I realized what she"s capable of. Did she have the density control? Was that why I can"t almost hear her every steps through the branches just because she can control her every actions? She can control every impact of her body weight. Heck, she"s almost flying!
She also stopped when she saw me suddenly facing her. This would be hard for me. I can predict the direction of the dagger when it flew towards me but her every actions would not be easy to guess since she can remove the impact of her movements. I needed physical pressure to know someone"s next move. And she has none.
Slowly, she smiled. She played the dagger in his hands. She didn"t look like attacking anytime soon, she was also studying me as I studied her movements. I couldn"t help but notice the items she was carrying. Did she exchange some of her points?
“Well, well, what do we have here?” she asked while smirking. “Hmm, let me guess. A primary defense?” as she suddenly laughed. “Ah, how about a deceiver?” I didn"t know if she"s intentionally giving incorrect guesses but then her face suddenly went serious. “Whatever it is, it doesn"t matter because your points will eventually be mine.”
She stood up from the same branch. There was no noise from her movements from up there. She"s almost floating a few inches from the branch itself. Weak point. I need her weak point. I knew simply dodging wasn"t enough. I needed to be more on offense. But how? I don"t have anything—suddenly, I was shocked when I remembered—the mine bombs. The f.u.c.king mine bombs. I pulled back and quickly ran right back into their direction. As I expected she followed me.
“Running again?” I heard her say while laughing. “Do you have nothing to do but run away from me?”
f.u.c.k you.
She continued jumping on the tree branches as she followed me. But I still have to make her go down to the ground. I"ve no idea if she knew about the bombs that"s why she"s staying above but I still have to try it. I stopped running when I felt the threat a little centimeter away from my foot. We"re here. In the garden of freaking mine bombs.
I peeked behind me. They"re still not blasting away. I was right; they needed pressure to fully activate. These types of bombs, when stepped on, you must not leave or else they will blow up. I wasn"t sure if it"s because of my enhanced senses that"s why I can see the tiny lights covered with dry leaves and soil. But whatever the reason was, the other person didn"t notice them.
She furrowed her forehead. “Tired?” she asked with a vicious grin.
I also returned her a smile. “Tired being a monkey?”
She was caught in that insult. Insults seemed never part of her daily life. Actually, she"s a beauty and probably someone rich. She"s from Dione, after all, one of the richest cities in the district. She gritted her teeth.
Come on, get mad. And the get down here!
“Stupid,” she said. “Do you even know what group I came from?”
“I don"t care. We are all equals in this arena, flying monkey.”
“What the f.u.c.k did you say?” Typical rich kid.
Suddenly, she pulled a dagger from the bag behind her. She aimed the weapons towards my direction but I quickly dodged it. I noticed that there was a slightly increased in the pressure on her actions. But that wasn"t enough. I have to make her step the ground.
“Come on!” I suddenly shouted, challenging her. I retreated and silently focused to avoid stepping on the next red light behind me. “Afraid to get dirty, rich kid?”
The anger on her face grew stronger. “Don"t you ever call me names—”
In a swift, almost sudden move, she came down flying towards me. She didn"t bother to control the weight of her body and she was too fast, as well. She appeared in front of me, so sudden that I almost cursed out loud, quickly backing away due to surprise. I did a quick turn to avoid her and the bombs but she got a hold of my shoulder and I felt the pointed tip of the dagger on my side. s.h.i.t.
“Got you.”
We"re almost face to face while the bomb light was just at the edge of my shoe. One wrong move and we"ll both die. I can"t die yet. I stopped her other hand to send the dagger away from my body when she finally stepped on the ground, willing to fight. That"s it. I slightly turned her in the direction of the bomb but she was stubborn. So I kicked her side which bowed her crouching as I added another elbow attack. She now missed her dagger which I immediately picked up and stabbed towards her direction. She back-stepped as she tried evading my attack but she stepped on to something.
s.h.i.t. The bomb.
I promptly jumped away when I saw the light blinking rapidly. The woman looked at me but did not leave her position. I don"t know why on that final moment I had second thought against doing this to her. But I had to save myself.
“Come on!” I shouted again when turned for the last time. “Kill me!”
When I saw her move, I dived to the cover of a tree, leaned on it, covered my ear, and shut my eyes. It almost deafened me, the power of that explosion. The earth trembled dangerously and the wind surged violently as it pa.s.sed by both of the tree"s sides. A few flying debris grazed the long sleeves I was wearing. Then, I felt her body as it collapsed to the ground.
It was a few minutes before I was able to stand up in my place. Everything seemed to settle down very slowly. The dust and the uproar in the jungle made by the explosion had cleared out. However, I noticed a thing moving on my wrist. I looked down and saw as the number changed. From 30, it became 52.
I wanted to celebrate but I just can"t do it. I cursed this b.l.o.o.d.y game.