The trees continued their labyrinthine nature, each turn looking exactly like the last one, with the only difference being the spike feeder’s presence. Wherever the beast had touched had trunks with chunks removed— in fact, some trees were even knocked down altogether, roots lying upon the dirt floor. I had pulled out my skinning knife, for all the good that would do against a spike feeder of that size, frantically running as far as my legs would take me.

My only advantage was that I was smaller than the beast. I didn’t require as much room as it did to maneuverer amidst the sea of trees. I could take much more rapid turns, doubling back as it flung from branch to branch. It was great for stalling, but that lead me into areas it had already devastated, meaning it could jump in for another attack. I had to try and navigate safely through the deforestation it left behind in tandem with dodging its tail gouging the ground . Each time it swung on by its spikes carved up the earth with giant furrows.

With each passby, my room to navigate on the ground became weaker, and with each leap from the treetops, more and more trees were felled. It was turning this part of the forest into a desolate region, only matched in appearance with its own form. I couldn’t let it trap me out in the open, as that was all but guaranteed death. It was time to run as far as I could, towards the cluster of small activity my electroreception had noticed. If I was lucky, that would be in the direction of civilization, and it would be too cautious to attack me out in the open. Alternatively, it would be other creatures of the forest that I could displace its attention onto.

The spike feeder shrieked behind me, displeased that I had so narrowly avoided the battlefield it had constructed. Its gray mottled skin scraped against the treetops as it flung itself towards me, cleaving through swathes of greenery. It cared not for the slight gouges of flesh cut out from errant sharp branches, only for the hopes to capture me.

My breathing was frantic, each gasp seeking to draw as much air into my body as I could. I needed to endure until the point where I wasn’t worth hunting anymore, if that was even a thing. There was so much information the guards hoarded, refusing to share with anyone else. If I died here… I didn’t even want to think about that possibility.

I continued sprinting through the trees, diving around their winding branches dangling against the ground, cut off limbs sacrificed under the duress of not acquiring sufficient light. Any moment now… any second I would burst out where the other beings were present in front of me, the collective shuffling of bodies.

A little ray of light shone through the canopy, shining upon a surprise to my eyes— a pool of water deep in the woods. I would have craved to drink deeply from the pool, as I was running lower on my stored water, but in this instance, it was likely safer for me to dive into the water to try and hide from the spike feeder, if not try to attack it from a position of power.

“Sorry fish,” I muttered, diving into the pool. I opened my eyes beneath the water, availing of my double cones, but to my horror I saw that the pool was much more shallow than the one in the village. The assorted fish huddled at the bottom, only a few feet from my own limbs. Shit. Shit shit shit.

My only hope was hiding in the pool until the spike feeder left… if it didn’t notice me enter the pool. If it noticed me, it could just smash me with its tail or fling debris in the water.

I focused deep within the water, holding my breath, hoping to erase my presence. To outlast the beast. I could not breath, but I counted my heartbeats, their noise thudding in my ear. One… five… not a sound from outside the water, the fish still swimming around the bottom of the pond in empty circles. Seven… ten… my lungs were not yet screaming for air but the memory of the surface clung to my body, requesting that I quit this game of endurance. Thirteen… seventeen… the air I had stockpiled was stale and fading fast. Twenty… why was there no movement? My electroreception was detecting nothing outside. Was the beast waiting? I could spare one breath…

I swam slowly to the surface, my paws efficiently passing through the water, digging to the sky in small measured motions. I let my lips pierce through, the air cold against my exposed skin, body tensed to pull back and recoil into the depths. But nothing happened, no motion present at all. Even more strangely, it sounded like… the birds had returned.

I peeked my eyes above the water, and saw the corpse of the spike feeder crumpled upon the ground, its head caved in from behind. “What,” I sputtered, crawling out of the water. The beads of liquid clung to my skin, surface tension keeping them from bursting. “How?”

“Oh, so you were alive then. Great. Good. Fine. You alright?” A body peeled off against one of the ashen trees ringing the pond, skin and attire reverting from the guise of the tree to the flesh colored tones and leather cuirass.

“Did you kill that spike feeder?” I managed to say, coughing ever so slightly. “How?”

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“You provided quite the big target. Noticeable target. Obvious target. That meant as long as I followed you, there would be a moment for me to take the initiative and strike it down. I suppose I could thank you for that. Good job.” The man was lanky, yet the muscles that showed against his tight clothes were taut and well defined. His exposed skin showed a few scars, no doubt the remnants of past fights with other spike feeders. I didn’t even know how I didn’t notice him all this time.

“You were tracking it?” I had taken off my outer garments, not caring if the man was watching. They needed to dry off of my body, not on it. It had to be done so that I didn’t persist and freeze. The sun breaching through the canopy would be my warmth, the subtle beams to highlight myself as I hoped for the water to evaporate from my skin.

“Yes. It was my job, you know. My work. My task. And now I’m about done here. You think you’ll be able to make it to… wherever you’re going intact?” He started to turn away without even listening for my response.

My feet were moving before I realized what I wanted to say, drawing me closer to the stranger. “What, no? I don’t even know where I am in the forest. That stupid spike feeder drew me away from the road. I was making my way to the city.”

The man turned back, eyes staring off into the distance. “I suppose I could help guide you back to the road. Are you ready to go? Ready to leave? Ready to depart?”

“No, asking me three times won’t make me ready to leave faster. How did you kill the spike feeder?”

He cocked his head, before twisting and turning, stretching out every bit of his body. Each flex of his muscles reflected a body sculpted under strict training. That alone told a story of how he could kill it, but not in the way that he did. “Why, a sneak attack. I thought you understood that. I thought it was obvious. I thought we had gone over that already.”

“No… I was submerged in the water ready to die. This one was much bigger than the one I had killed two days ago,” I muttered, feeling my rage well up inside me, warming my body faster than the sunlight was.

That answer seemed to give the man some measure of pause. “What’s your beast soul?”

“The platypus… whatever that is.”

He drew his hand to his chin, stroking at his auburn goatee. “Can’t say I’ve heard of that beast, but you may very well be right that the city might have someone that’s heard of it. You killed the spike feeder all alone? What did it look like?”

“Yeah, it had taken my friend into the village’s pond and was trying to depart with him in the water. I had dived in and awoken my second tier, and lured it in for a surprise attack. My venom killed it. It was, gray, spiky. Humanoid. Had gills.”

The man contemplated my words, remaining silent for a short bit. “Sounds like it was a common one, other than the fact that it was an aquatic variant. Common’s a bit of a misnomer, though. We rank spike feeders based on how many forces are required to take them down. You ran into a man-ranked spike feeder and killed it. This one that was chasing you was a village-rank spike feeder. The highest we’ve seen is a city-rank spike feeder, and those tend to, well, you can figure out the aftermath of seeing a city-ranked spike feeder. There’s rumors of country-ranked spike feeders, but if anyone’s seen one, they likely haven’t lived to tell the tale.”

“So I defeated the weakest kind of spike feeder?”

“That’s right. There is some variance within these ranking scales. It’s a wide classification. A man-ranked spike feeder can still overpower multiple men, especially if it’s at the higher end of power. That’s why villages have town guards. Can’t just expect a common villager to be able to take out a spike feeder.”

“Don’t I understand,” I spat. “They wouldn’t train me to join the guard even though I killed the one that had infiltrated the village. They would have preferred if I died than me joining their ranks just because I have a prey soul.” My fists were balled up by my side. It was taking everything I had to not punch one of the trees until my knuckles bled just to bleed out the rage that had seeped into me.

“You have a prey soul, eh?” The man inquired. “You know, I don’t particularly believe in that prey soul/predator soul dichotomy. I don’t think that belief carries much weight at all. In fact, I think it’s garbage.”

“You don’t say…” I muttered. “So you think I could have made it onto the town guard?”

“With enough training, anyone can be prepared to fight a spike feeder. Beast souls have hidden depths that one cannot determine just at a surface evaluation. I should know.”

My ears perked up at the claim. “So you have a prey soul then?”

He scratched his head, ruffling through his hair, seemingly abashed at the question. “I don’t know if prey soul is an accurate classification, let alone a useful metric, but yes, you could call the chameleon a prey soul.”

“So how did you kill it then?”

“One of my third tier capabilities. You’ll have to excuse me for not going further in depth. You never know who is listening.”

Third tier? That was absurd. How did a prey soul get that strong to take out what the man had classified as a village-rank spike feeder? I swallowed deeply, unsure of how to proceed, but if I didn’t ask I knew I would never be able to make the changes I wanted to see. “Can you teach me? If I could learn under you, I know I could be strong enough for the city guard.”

“Woah woah woah, kid. I barely know you. I don’t just teach random kids how to kill spike feeders. I certainly don’t have time for it right now either. I’ve got to go back to the city and relay the results of my hunt.”

“You can’t just leave me,” I pleaded. “You’re the only one I can turn to. You owe me. You used me as bait.”

He turned to me, arms crossed over his chest. “Now listen here, kid. I don’t owe you. In no way am I in debt to you. I have no obligation at all towards you. I could have killed that spike feeder without it focusing on you all the same. You made things marginally easier at best, and I was going to ensure it wouldn’t have killed you no matter what.”

“Really? You could have protected me in time if I fucked up?” I spat, closing the distance towards the man. “Don’t mess with me. It was life or death there.”

“I really do have to be getting back to the city… know what, I have an idea. It’ll cover what you’ve been asking for in a multitude of ways. We’ll set a test.”