Raji woke to the sound of screams coming from outside. He quickly got up from under the tree he was lying under and grabbed his spear. He then noticed something strange in his vision. A bunch of blue translucent boxes with words written in them appeared in front of him, but he couldn't make sense of them. He closed his eyes, hoping they would disappear, but when he opened them again, the boxes were still there.
He felt a sense of confusion and shock wash over him. He didn't understand what the words meant or why they appeared in the first place. He tried to shake his head, blink, or rub his eyes, but the boxes remained.
Just as he was about to investigate the strange phenomenon further, another scream broke his train of thought. He acknowledged that whatever was happening to him, it could wait. He gripped his spear tightly and rushed to see what was going on.
Raji ran towards the screams coming from the other side of the grassy plains, just before the tree line. The darkness made it difficult for him to see clearly, but he could see others of his tribe running ahead of him, also armed with their weapons. Their faces were etched with determination as they raced towards the source of the screams.
As he neared the place where he heard the screams, Raji could see Amari standing there with his spear leveled at a massive, hulking four-legged creature. The creature was about half Amari's height and looked much like a wild dog, except this creature had a thick, shaggy coat and its snout was matted with blood. Its eyes glinted fiercely in the moonlight as it growled at Amari.
Behind Amari was a man lying on his back, bleeding profusely from his ankle. The man was clutched a smaller, unmoving body tightly to his chest. Raji was not sure he wanted to know who that was, seeing how mangled and bloodied the body was.
"Surround it!" Amari shouted without taking his eyes off the beast.
Raji sprinted to Amari's right side and leveled his spear at the beast. The others also arrived and formed a circular formation around the beast, joining with Raji and Amari.
The beast crouched lower as though it was preparing to jump, all the while snarling and snapping at the spear heads that were poking closer and closer.
"Raji!" Raji heard his father's voice. He couldn't help but smile when he turned his head to see his father and uncle running towards them with their weapons.
The pounding of Raji's heartbeat calmed somewhat and he turned his head back to the beast, just in time to see it pounce at his face with its maw wide open.
His mind blanked out for a split second, then he opened up his stance and raised the head of his spear, trying to catch the beast's open mouth with it.
The beast was almost at him when he felt Amari bump into him, causing him to fall down sideways. The beast landed on the ground missing him entirely. It turned to face Raji, who was still on the ground, only to get a slash in its face from Amari's long spear.
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Amari frowned, seeing that the strike was shallow, leaving a thin scar beneath the beast's right eye, from which blood seeped slowly out.
The group formed another circle around the beast, this time, Raji left out.
A voice came just as Raji got up and tried to join the entrapment. "Stay back," his father said, having just arrived at the scene with his brother.
They joined the circle around the beast, but this time it didn't wait for an opening to strike. It pounced on one of the men with a shorter weapon, Bidemi.
Bidemi tried to push the beast back with his shield, but it latched onto the shield with its paws and dragged it down with its weight.
The beast landed with the shield just a few feet from Bidemi. Before it could launch its next attack, Fadhili, Raji's father, who was standing to Bidemi's left, took a swing to the back of the beast's neck with his Ida. The swing didn't decapitate the beast as he intended, but it did stun the beast. The chief then struck the beast's side, barely drawing blood. He switched to his spear and shouted at the men, "attack together."
All the men gathered around the beast, bashing it with their weapons: spears, swords, and wooden sticks. The beast fell on its side from the onslaught but still struggled to get back up.
Just then, Raji, who was standing a little away from the action, spotted a shadow moving in through the woods. It broke out of the woods and Raji could tell it was the same type of beast but smaller. It was heading straight at them, but those further back had their faces away, so they didn’t see the beast.
"Watch out! Another one is coming!" he shouted, his voice filled with urgency. He quickly threw spear at the new beast, but the translucent blue boxes in his vision make it impossible for him to aim properly and the spear misses its mark.
Skill Unlocked: Spear Mastery (Passive)
Spear Mastery set to level 1
Before anyone could react, Jabbar intercepted the new beast, his coutelas flashing as he expertly dodged and struck the wolf with a mixture of speed and power.
Amari, not to be outdone, joined his father, using his spear with deadly accuracy, he lands a hit on the eye of the beast, wounding it.
The men, having beat the first wolf an inch to death, gathered around Jabbar, ready to assist him in the fight against the second wolf, but as they do, a loud and menacing howl pierces the air. The men turn towards the forest, and their hearts drop when they see a pack of wolves stepping out from the shadows.
You have been stunned! Your movements and skills will be impaired for the next 30 seconds.
Raji, who had just thrown his spear and was unarmed, was frozen in fear. He wanted to run and get a weapon but he couldn't, gripped by fear as he was.
The pack of wolves was led by an imposing alpha who stood as tall as Raji, with a horn in its forehead, stared menacingly at the tribe men. But to everyone's surprise, the pack turned and left, taking the wolf Jabbar was fighting with along.
The tension finally lessened as the tribe watched the pack disappear into the forest.
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