After cursing and venting for a minute, he eventually calms down and takes a closer look at the surroundings.
He identifies another set of footprints a bit away from where the wolf was in the bushes, lots of scratch marks around the hole from where the blade got pierced into the earth, a lot of deep foot prints around those and a trail of the beast in the direction of the deer like animal.
[So, it smelled another easier prey as it was waiting but not being able to eat me made it cranky. So, it decided to pull out the blade to steal it from me for some petty revenge before proceeding to the other prey.]
[May be not necessarily in that order but those events did happen.]
The wolf is clearly faster than he can move with the additional weight of the suit and even without the additional burden, he's just a normal person who wouldn't even be able to outrun a simple wolf. Let alone this one. He's got a headache coming.
[More freaking problems! On top of not knowing where I'm even at, my damn suit is nothing but a burden with critical power reserves, No basic survival tools apart from the lighter & the blade and now I have a semi intelligent, vengeful beast of a wolf behind my ass. Great! The only way to explore peacefully and move about is to kill it unless I'm over stating things and it doesn't bother with me if I stay away from it?]
[I sure hope I was just over thinking it. Alright I have breakfast but I'm getting very thirsty now. I don't hear any water nearby, but the land is still a bit wet from the drizzle last night. With most of the greenery so high up, I guess my only option without a direct water source is fruit]
Hence, he decides to put off the wolf matter for later and moves out in a new direction in search of some form of water.
As he is slowly but quietly making his way through the trees, his surrounding woods become denser with the trees slightly thinner and more normal sized. They are still too tall with thick canopy at the top. The reduced visibility and increased hiding spots make him more cautious in case he runs into something dangerous here.
After a few minutes, he notices the sounds of some animals up in the trees. The first he's seeing something that isn't some bird but since the tree canopies are so high up, he barely is able to see what it is even. They are some sort of monkeys from the looks of it with something clinging onto their backs, probably it's babies. They are quickly jumping between trees to move about.
[It makes sense that I didn't spot them the day before considering that those areas I've been have been slightly bigger trees, more spaced apart. Now, why would monkeys move about trees so early in the morning and they don't seem to be running away from anything, just moving about in a familiar fashion.]
A big grin plasters across his face once he realizes what it actually means
[Hehehe I think they're going to their food location. I hope it isn't any nuts. I really need fruit now.]
After following after them on the ground for a while, barely keeping up, finally the monkeys gather at a spot and move up into the canopy, out of his sight. On the ground there, there is are a lot of fruits of some kind. Some dried up, some are nothing but nuts but there are a few that look relatively fresh and ripe. Even as he observes, some half eaten and some nearly full fruits fall from the canopy, probably due to the monkeys he followed here.
There are also, tons of animal tracks all over the place, probably left by those that scavenge here just like he is doing now. He picks up one not completely damaged one that is relatively ripe and bites into it after wiping away the dirt on the surface, being careful not to bite into any places half eaten already. He even spots some rabbit quite a distance away from between the dense woods but decides against hunting it since it isn't really necessary with all this free fruit. After sending a few more fruits into his stomach,
'Burp'
[Well, that was a nice second half to my breakfast and a good source of water. Let's collect some fruit for later at my sleeping place and since I'm not gonna be getting away from here anytime soon and a lack of any solid support if I have to eventually fight something like last night, I should prioritize the rest of the day to make a small platform and may be some roof over me.]
He took all the fruits he could carry in a makeshift bowl like container from leaves, He returned to the sleep area, bound it up using more leaves and thin wines he found in the underbrush and hung it to the only support he made the previous day. Then he got to work chopping with the blade in his left hand and collecting straightish sticks and bound them in layers to make up for the strength. Eventually after half a day, he manages to fix a platform on the side of the tree trunk in a V shape before starting on the roof.
The Sun was only starting to set by the time he's made one barely to his satisfaction.
[Damn that was tiring! All that work and even with the use of such an advanced combat blade, I didn't even manage a walled shelter nor a roof that covers the whole area of the platform but I'm very happy with how big the platform turned out which is more imp to me for now. I'll finish it up by making a simple torch since that tree sap I found seem to be slightly flammable.]
After about half an hour, he made a couple torches that he could light up when needed and had them put below the roof part on the platform.
He was already very drained from a full day of work whilst carrying around a heavy suit. He considered taking off the suit but decided against it since he had no way to defend against bugs, Mosquitoes and other insects. After quickly gathering a pile of useless leaves and other soft-ish things for a 'bed', he lied down and ate some more fruit he got, saving some for the breakfast.
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He was very tired and fell asleep quite early even before the sun set completely.
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Unfortunately, the nice and quiet sleep he had been hoping for was disturbed suddenly when he heard the now familiar thuds of something trying to run up against his tree whilst snarling and growling at him in the middle of the night.
'Thud'
...
'Thud'
...
It totally destroyed his hope that the beast would simply forget him if he didn't bother it again. Not that it was a big hope to begin with. Since this wasn't as surprising as the first time, he was much calmer. He lit up on of the torches and positioned it so that it lights up the ground better and moved to a pile of relatively thicker sticks that were left over from the construction.
[I sure am glad to have saved these. I knew they would have some use!]
He chose a couple of them that were the most straight with a good length and started sharpening one end of it with the blade from his left arm he had left over. Once he is done with the two of them, he moved over to look at what the beast is doing.
After once again understanding that there is nothing it can do for now, it had once again taken up a position near a bush trying to hide in a shadow. With emphasis on the word trying since its eyes are clearly reflecting light from the torch which, thankfully is much brighter than the small flame from the lighter he had access to.
He knew that he may not be lucky again to have a stupid Deer just walk close by to distract the beast away like the previous encounter. Once he weighed the two makeshift spear/javelins, he takes one of them tight in his right hand and takes up a position near the edge of the platform.
He's not had any meaningful practice with a javelin throw before so, it was important to take his time to avoid wasting them. After carefully aiming and gathering his strength, he throws the javelin as hard as he can towards the beast.
'Shooo......'
[Okay that hit! Nice!]
The beast flinches from the pain but quickly shakes off the javelin even though one of its shoulder seems to be a little hurt but not too much.
With a frown, he settles down near the edge to concentrate on seeing what kind of damage the beast actually took.
[It is clearly hurt but the spear didn't seem to stick. There's also no blood or any apparent piercing wound. I think the pointy end didn't hit the thing straight on, if it did hit at all. But I think the CG of the spear was moving in roughly in the direction I threw it. I see. I know what it needs]
He ignores the growling and snarling beast to return to the blade he set aside. he makes some grooves and ties some leaves to the rear end of the remaining spear, in as symmetrical a patter as possible to push the center of drag behind further.
Once satisfied with the result in a few minutes, he takes aim again. This time the beast immediately hides itself behind the bushes making it hard to aim at the first sight of the 'stick that hurt it' before.
A frow on his face, he must reconsider his course of actions.
[Well, of course a smarter than average doggie would obviously have the basic instincts covered. I need to flush it out of cover to do this.]
Looking at the things he has to use, after looking at the spare torch and the remaining, more crooked sticks, he was reluctant to part with the torch so, he grabs some of the sticks and starts throwing them roughly at the bush but due to the bush being in the way, they don't properly carry the momentum to the one hiding behind it. After wasting half the pile without any result to show for, he stops the fruitless tactic. Eventually, with a sigh, he moves to pick up the torch.
Making some adjustments, mostly to make it more throwable without falling apart, he lights it up using the fire from the other torch that's dying slowly now. After a deep breath, he carefully tries to locate where behind the bush the wolf is hiding, trying to make use of as much of his senses as he can to improve his odds, he takes position with the one spear he has in his right hand while also holding the torch in his left hand, aiming for the bush.
With a heave, he throws the torch to a spot on the bushes. Once it hits a stem of the bush, the fire dramatically burst out due to all the burning components spreading out and a very startled black furred wolf runs away from it and into his line of sight. Finally, after the two encounters with the beast, he gets a clear view of it in the bright fires of both his torch and the bush, now catching fire.
It's huge! bigger than he estimated from its prints. He always thought it was being stupid when it tried to jump up using the tree as support up to his location about 8 meters off the ground. But now he knows that's not nearly as unlikely as he had believed it.
But even as he is marveling at its size, he doesn't waste too much time to gather his strength again and throws the last spear at full force. This time, in the bright view of the flames, he can see that the spear is much more straight with the pointy end pointing in the right direction. It struck the beast on its abdomen to its left as it stares at the bush on fire that startled it. It tried to twist out of the way at the last moment after probably hearing the whistling sound but this time the sharp end stuck deep into the abdomen but not enough to take it out immediately, considering the size of the beast.
'Awooooooooo....'
The now hurt beast stars howling in pain, louder than it has ever done before and takes off as it tries clawing the spear that is now sticking out of it's side into the darkness.
He finally got a good gauge of the size of the animal by comparing it to the 'spear' now embedded into its side. His stunned expression from that only relaxes after the bush had fully caught fire and is burning fiercely. This time he is brave enough and the ground bright enough that he dares to climb down the platform he's on. with the only blade he has halfway embedded into its slot on his left hand, like a fixed sword on his hand. He collects the few sticks away from the bush and not yet burnt. thankfully, the best stick for a spear candidate he threw first is safely, away from the fire.
Once done, he turns towards the direction the beast ran away, leaving behind clear tracks to follow. He briefly considers chasing it to finish it off but decides against it now. The darkness is only an advantage to the Wolf and he's better off waiting till dawn to chase after it. He starts his way back up to the platform to wait it out.
The fire finally dies down after about 40 minutes once all the excess tree sap he put in the torch is burnt out. It's already sunrise and is starting to brighten up. He quickly finishes the few fruits he had saved for breakfast and sets out to finish the beast and recover his blade from its lair once done.
-To be Continued