The Gazerbeast was right where they had left it.

The surrounding trees were no doubt felled in a fit of blinded rage by the beast.

Its claws tore apart a particularly large trunk, working in unison with its sword-like teeth to reduce it to little more than sawdust.

The man gulped heavily.

He hated the plan they had come up with.

It was risky and relied way too much on his control over the glowing cube than he would have liked.

But doubting himself now was useless.

Either they succeeded and the boy would take him to his tribe as agreed, or the beast would get a nice, double-sized meal.

Feeding wild animals was good for the environment, after all.

He straightened his back and looked at his feet where the cube lay.

This was a stupid fucking plan.

He had screwed up the moment he let it slip that he needed the boy.

Since then, Kai had him under control and could even persuade him to join his heart hunt.

The man sighed heavily and stepped out of the dim shadow.

He placed his hands around his mouth and shouted.

“Hey, sprinkle-eyes.”

The creature's head shot around to face him.

“You're ugly,” he exclaimed, turned and ran.

Despite not understanding what he’d said, the thing broke into a furious howl and chased after him, carnage in its mind.

Kai hung in a tree about a hundred yards away from the stranger.

As he heard the loud shout followed by a growl, he took a deep breath and prepared himself for battle.

He had spent the last four years training his body and practicing the motions needed to prove himself worthy of a heart, just like his mother and his late father.

Another growl echoed through the forest.

It had begun.

Kai forced himself to take slow, deliberate breaths to calm his racing heart.

If everything went right, this would be the last time he had to face such a test.

His entire body was tense, his muscles twitching.

They wanted action, looked forward to it, while all his mind wanted was to be done with it.

In the next few minutes, his life would change, for better or worse.

He would either succeed or not survive to see another dusk.

He wouldn’t run from this encounter to try another time.

Not again. He refused to be a burden to his family any longer.

He heard footsteps closing in, accompanied by exhausted and somewhat pathetic-sounding wheezes.

At first they were to his right, then beneath his feet, then to his left, always accompanied by the wild trampling and growls.

Despite his slowed down breathing, Kais heart hammered in his chest like a smiths hammer the anvil.

His palms were cold and sweaty.

The tension inside him reached its zenit as he heard the man's voice.

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“Flash!”

As he heard the man shout their signal, Kai closed his eyes and buried them in the crook of his left arm.

He utilized the short moment of absolute blindness to thank his mother, sister,

and all the others who had sacrificed their food, water, and time to bring him this far.

From today onwards, he would repay them, not just by carrying some luggage or cooking food,

but by hunting and protecting his tribe, just like his father and grandmother had done, and just like his sister and mother were still doing every day.

The top and bottom of his field of view illuminated as an angry growl assaulted his ears.

He couldn't help but smile.

his was it, the best chance he was going to get.

He grabbed his dagger with the other hand and waited a moment until the immense light had passed before staring at the scene below.

The Gazerbeast thrashed around in blind rage, its giant eyes staring into nothingness.

Excitement rushed through Kai.

With practiced ease, he jumped out of the tree and plunged blade-first into the creature's neck.

Careful not to touch the liquid death covering its face, Kai drove the dagger into its back utilizing his entire weight to thrust it down.

He pressed his knees against the beasts sides and grabbed its fur with his other hand, not a moment too early.

Agitated by the six inches of steel in its back, the creature threw its body around, unleashing a deafening scream.

Kai leaned down, pressing his bare chest against the fur, already feeling some of the warm blood spurting onto him.

With each jolt, his body was thrown around, but he clung onto the its back like a burdock.

Utilizing the dagger to hold himself in place, he slowly carved a nasty red line over the creatures back.

Realizing its attacker wouldn't let himself be shaken off that easily, the creature threw its head back, spraying black death all over its own behind.

Kais reflexes were fast and he managed to avoid most of the onslaught by plunging down the beast's side but some of the sizzling black liquid hit Kai's shoulder.

Instantly his skin corroded and began to dissolve.

Tears filled his eyes, but he gritted his teeth.

This is nothing, he told himself.

Aurora would heal wounds like these with little efford once he had returned.

What was more important was the beast.

With every breathe he took and every motion he made the pain from his left shoulder tried to shove itself into his consciousness to drown out every thought if he let it.

But he didn’t.

He forced himself up, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side.

A loud growl came from the creature, and the boy readied himself for another onslaught.

Instead, the beast jerked its head to the side, causing thick drops of black liquid to fall to the ground, turning it into a patchwork of yellow and black.

With every moment that passed and every move the creature made, it lost more and more blood, the crimson liquid painting red veins on its otherwise orange and black flaps.

To Kai's surprise, he heard a loud shout from the other side, followed by a thud and another outcry.

Something would go wrong.

The man suspected it the instant the boy had laid out his plan, yet he had kept his mouth shut.

He rubbed his eyes, which had endured a little to much of the immense light the cube had just produced, just to blink and see his suspicions manifest between a miriade of dancing colours and shapes.

Turning around he saw the boy on the creatures back.

For just a second he dared to hope for a flawless victory but then the creature threw his head back and the boy stumbled to the ground.

Fuck, the man commented in his own mind, not even pondering whether he should involve himself further.

If Kai died, he was at square one again, without guide or direction inside a forrest that housed creatures such as the one turning towards the boy.

The man stopped, turned around, and took aim.

In his hands, the glowing cube was now quickly heating up.

He needed it hot so the cube made itself just that.

By now the man had gained a grasped on how the whole thing worked.

He couldn’t tell it to do something, but if he already perceived it as such, the cube was happy to oblige.

He thought that the cube should be in his hand, and it came flying.

He thought of it as a weapon, and it began to heat up.

Just a day prior he had struggled to get the thing to do anything because he had forced his own rules onto it.

It shouldn’t be able to fly, shouldn’t be able to shine or so on, but if he forced himself to cast his doubts away, if he let the cube serve, it did.

He threw the it with all the strength he could muster, which wasn’t much, yet the glowing light flew and slammed against the creature's eye.

It screamed as the cube burned its way into the jelly orb, the water inside evaporating into a thin steam.

Bullseye, he though as the beasts head turned so its remaining eye could gaze upon him.

With a flurry of quick steps he brought a tree between the creature and himself and called the cube to return.

A loud growl later it did, floating back to him glazed with transparent goo.

The creature raged and started to sprint towards him.

The man stumbled backward as the creature's maw enveloped the trunk before him and snapped it apart as if it were a mere cracker, casting the whole tree aside with a flick of his head.

He threw the cube but in his panic the only thing he hit was the creatures snout, causing liquid death to rain all over the ground.

With a scream full of outrage the thing piled up and the man already saw himself gone, but to his suprise, the creature jerked around once more, revealing the boy stabbing at its side.

How or when he had retrived his weapong, the man didn't know, but what he did was that they had to bring it to an end.

He send the cube along the creautes back causing it to smear the black liquid it was drechened with all over it.

The Gazesbeast screamed and raged but after a few heartbeats it fell over.

It's libs were still twitching, but the man cared little for it.

"Kai?" he shouted, triump and worry mixing in his voice.

Without really thinking about it he send the cube to levitate a few feet over their head, shining its light over the slowly darkening scene.