Chương 28: Chaos

Near panicking, Blick had moved as fast as he could and was realizing he wouldn't get away like this. It wasn't barely a half mile into the run when he heard the scout closest to him call an order that just pissed him off. He had been sure they would want to capture him. He hadn't expected them to shoot him down. Looking down at the blonde haired young scout he decided to be worse than the annoying furry tree things he use to hunt in this very forest. They would throw small nuts and sticks at him if he got close…

well Blick was strong. Before the first arrow flew he jumped up higher in the tree he was in. Finding a large enough branch he reinforced his clawed hand and slashed with all his strength. Bursting through the branch near the trunk it cracked and started plummeting to the ground. Shouts below got increasingly louder as he dashed from one tree to another in random directions snapping off thick branches and sending them as best he could at the scouts below.

Chaos. It was absolutely insane. The fucking trees were shedding branches bigger than a man and they came down at random. The few who had clear lines to shoot ended up dodging debris from all the smaller branches snapping off when the larger ones crashed past them. After one man was crushed and another got his arm slashed open by a stray branch Trent made a choice.

"Fall back, make a wide circle, don't bunch below it, get distance!" The young scout sergeant was not trained for this and didn't know what to do. The idea became control the perimeter while the beast rained destruction in the area. This was an uneasy stalemate but the soldiers weren't far behind and the beast had just stopped moving away from camp to smash trees. They would catch up soon and with overwhelming numbers they would inevitably capture it. The beast stopped throwing down branches for almost a minute.

They had lost sight of it but nobody spotted it fleeing so they had a rough idea of where it could be. When Trent heard the call of the soldier who spotted it he knew this was going to keep getting more dangerous because the trees came alive in a worse way.

Blick froze at the retreating call, and knew they were stalling him. He also knew they didn't know where he was exactly. If they had to keep looking up, then they couldn't also watch their step. A better plan came around. Climbing to a higher position where the actual tree top as almost as thick as him he decided this was probably small enough and he smashed through it in two blows. The tree top pivoted on its base as it began to fall and he jumped to the next.

Blick had chosen to make the place a trip hazard and take off when they couldn't easily follow him from below.

It was five minutes of absolute insanity as trees fell down through the damn trees. The men were steadily backing away as the forest seemed to come after them from above. When the captain showed up he didn't even ask for a report. He could see the situation.

"Do we have the area surrounded?" The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Yes sir, it's effectively trapped, but I'm afraid if we send anyone in they will just die by accident without getting close enough to it. Captain Gerald, I got a clear sight line." Trent said making eye contact with a fearful expression. The much taller man looked down at his young scout sergeant in confusion.

"Latest report said it's not human. Care to explain? It's wearing a scouts cloak isn't it?"

"Yes sir, it's about a normal man's size but it has clawed hands, covered in short grey fur, and has these huge black eyes. It's been cutting the trees down and dropping them on us. I don't know how to get my men close without losing anyone."

"But why would it be chopping the tops of the trees off still?"

"I was kind of hoping you would know sir."

The plan had worked exactly as it should have. Blick was breathing heavily and was shaking from the effort. Standing atop the tree he last sheared down he could see a huge circle of trees. He had clear cut the top twenty or so feet of the canopy. That actually allowed him to move along the top of them much faster and without disturbing several branches at a time. Realizing it was pretty much as done as he could get it, Blick began searching for a gap in the perimeter.

Seeing a spot with the scouts spread thin he made his move. Without a care for the lives of those who had just tried to stick him full of arrows, he slowly moved into position. Two men, feet apart. He waited until they happened to be scanning opposite directions and dropped. This guy reacted in time to not be crushed but Blick reached out with a clawed hand and connected with his arm just below the shoulder. With a reinforced thrust he ripped his claws through the arm and pulled.

The disgusting noise hadn't even registered when he heard the scream from behind and spun to engage the other man. The scout had dropped his bow and was drawing his knife when Blick reached him at a full reinforced sprint. Claws pointing at the man's throat he didn't even slow down as he speared the man on his outstretched hand and tossed him aside before continuing his full speed run in the same direction. With nobody in front of him and a huge debris field behind him to slow his pursuers, he ran for all he had.

Not long after the main force began to arrive and the chaos above stopped. The forest floor was a mess with downed trees. They couldn't even see the men on the perimeter anymore because of the density of the debris. After a few minutes of quiet they heard the first screams and everyone tried their best to converge on the spot. They got to them too late. The scene was horrible. Two men about 40 feet apart.

One was nearly decapitated, while the other one was missing an arm and clearly in shock from his wide eyed stare. Blood splatters spread across the trees nearby. Trent had never seen this level of gore. Most combat he had seen was with armored men and swords. Slashes and stabs left clean cuts. These were claws. This thing ripped through these two men before they could cross the debris field. Ripped is the only word he could use to describe it.

Shredded skin dangling from meat at the end of the dying scouts shoulder. Turning to the side he threw up.

"We let it go. This thing isn't with the crater army, whatever it is we don't have the means to capture it in the jungle." Caption Gerald said. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a scroll.

"Report for the capital, forward commander Gerald Carter, new combatant, grey beast man, unknown cultivation beyond mist stage, retreating to resume mission, possible third party combat force." Closing the scroll he looked at Trent who was standing trying to spit out some gross gunk. Where would that thing have come from?

"The world just got more dangerous kid. I'd bet money there is more where that thing came from."