Ch7: Tired

Feee Feee

Feee

“Almost !! Umph !?”

While steering away to avoid the attacks from his pursuers, both he and the glider wound up spinning uncontrollably.

Mirak was starting to grow dizzy and had since given up dodging. He had been hit occasionally but kept trying not to lose his grip.

There was nothing else he could do. So Mirak has chosen to stop bothering with his enemies and closed his eyes.

'Sometimes I am thankful for the physics I’ve been taught'. By focusing totally on his calculations he was attempting to estimate the proper timing for his next move.

‘They are tight at my heel ’

Mirak proceeded with picking his previously stuck spike and wrapped it with the glider's damaged hide which he had retrieved previously, all whilst closing his eyes and counting down.

By using a bait, he was planning to lure his enemies and trick their senses. It was a cheap trick but Mirak thought it may work.

'I am at my limit ...'

His strength had been leaving him throughout the pursuit. He couldn't keep going the way things currently were. And that's why he had to end it as soon as possible.

He reached toward the damaged section of the glider and snapped one fractured rib; making another bait of it. With that, he felt more encouraged. He was gripping at the two wrapped sticks tightly as if they were his safety charms.

'thirty meters ... ten meters ... five hundred meters. NOW !'

Mirak didn't even need to bother with his injured arm. He had just extended it as his hand let go of one bait. The centrifugal force built up due to him spinning for a while took care of the remainder.

Fwoosh Fwoosh

Being flung so far and swiftly that two shadows chose to go after it.

Noticing the plan bearing the fruits of success he let go of the second bait. But he could only discern the difference of one body changing their course to catch up to it.

Thinking that maybe his pursuers weren't that many He was overjoyed.

“NOW !” Without wasting any additional breaths Mirak had quickly abandoned his glider a second time. Hopefully his last farewell to it. But having heard two swift whistles over his head he understood it was a mistake.

"I don't know how many they were in total but I believe I can still fare well with just two coming after me," said Mirak as he unfolded the wings under his arms.

‘I have been waiting all this time!’ two thin pieces resembling snakeskin were bearing the weight of his body and the speed of which he was dropping. Despite being prepared for the impact following his sudden decrease in speed, his arms ended up turning a weird angle. It was only with sheer muscle strength that he managed to protect his arms from angling any further and snapping.

From the time he decided to venture with his wild idea, He realized he wasn't ready for this.

He woke up from -that dream- at dusk. As the night held its own creatures, which Mirak dubiously considered, no one could take that kind of gamble. But when Mirak saw the fog his thoughts took another direction.

Nocturnals were masters of night predation because they had evolved various techniques to maneuver through the darkness. did it mean their eyes were useless? of course not! And fog would have an adverse effect on all of them.

With that logic in mind, young Mirak chose to delve in. He has chosen to take advantage of that one time opportunity of when the fog formed. And with everyone at a disadvantage, using your mind to think fast is the primary factor deciding whole will emerge as the final victor.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But in Mirak's case, he was just looking to survive.

And it seemed that regardless of how smart you are if nature decides against it even wits can't save you. With everything being dozen the size he was used to, an ordinary human like himself couldn't battle their way to survival. In the end, strength was a must. So when a bat launched itself at him in midair with no way to run or evade he had to act.

He gave his all on his right arm and bashed.

Still, it did nothing to the creature but tug its face aside. Furthermore, countless droll droplets had scattered against different parts of Mirak's exposed skin and started corroding it.

He endured the pain tantalizing his mind and bashed a second.

And a third.

"Ahhh !!" His arms were randomly hitting the creature's head while Mirak himself tried to not get bitten.

Both man and bat, entangled, were hundreds of meters off ground fighting and struggling to dominate one another.

And it didn’t last long because they have soon separated from each other. As the bat kept attempting to bite his head off Mirak had also been trying to direct them both toward a specific spot. A body of water was glowing below and illuminating the space above it where they currently were. Both were able to see each other's faces and it seemed the two were disgusted by it.

Mirak even had the calms to get offended by what had occurred just next.

When they neared the space above the lake so that the glow made it seem like it wasn't night at all the bat had tried to shake Mirak off his wings. It seemed it was ready to abandon its hunt despite all the effort it has gone through with following Mirak. As if it could easily get another prey from somewhere else.

Mirak had been furious, not about the bat's change of mind instead the reason behind his displeasure was that he had been trying to take advantage of the bat by using it to reach a lower altitude. Given that his wings were badly damaged and that it was his first try making such a thing, it was expected for it to tear up easily.

Seeing from how high he was dropping he knew he won't go unscathed despite it being water instead of ground.

'It seems it all came to an end'

While being ready to embrace the impact Mirak was contemplating what had happened so far. He couldn't believe what he had done. Like someone on their death throes, he had been walking on a thin rope where it was more likely for him to lose his life than survive, luckily for him and because he hadn't given up all worked out well on the end. His plan had been thrown all over and it showed many flaws but his decisiveness was able to fill these gaps.

When it was just meters above the water and seeing that he wasn't falling straight down he tried to assume a cannonball position in order to protect his vitals.

Therefore he cannonballed.

*splash*

After emerging on his back, he resumed being deep in thoughts. His body was aching all over. Be it muscle tiredness or his arms and legs' bones not being well, he relaxed and let his body resume it repairing. It was a long process and if he wasn't already wet from the water he would have been sweating from nervousness.

'Who knew when another thing oversized might pop up?'

When his body was a little healed he didn't try to move less it disturbed his bones coming together. He was somehow a lot calmer.

"I think I will be alright for a while. If I remember right when I was underneath I couldn't see any lifeforms. the lake water is usually clear and I could see a lot.. of nothing."

“I don't know if it is exclusive to this world but do trees usually grow out from within deep water?" now that he was thinking about it many tall trees were towering above him. And they seemed to be growing firmly from the bottom of the lake.

After getting a proper bath and taking his fill of water he tried to swim and look around.

“Other than the towering trees and the lack of lifeforms -which is I'm totally on favor of- there seems to be another pressing matter “

He watched his surroundings.

The water underneath was glowing unusually. It was what helped him spot it. At that time he didn't think much about it and tried to grasp at that last hope it gave him. But now that he thought about it it was unusual.

It gave him a good view of the foggy night, so when he was checking whether the group of bats was gone for good he was sure they were.

He felt relieved that no other creature could be spotted lurking around. Yet when Mirak decided to leave the vicinity of the lake and was on shallow water he couldn’t help but raise his guard out of nervousness.

Squeeze

His feet sank on the soft sand. when he walked a bit further into the forest he saw that the grass was tall, evidence that creatures hadn't come here for quite a while

“I think I lucked out by finding this place huh” Miraktried to lay down on the cushion of wet grass but caught himself just before starting to enjoy it.

“Come to think of it, it would be better to inspect the area around before I rest “

It helped him that the lake was glowing. Which provided him ample amount of lighting. It didn’t take him much time until he found something and crouched to see what it was.

“There is really some feint sign of animal activity. They come here in a horde. Two weeks? No, I think it’s fairly older than that, I cannot be sure. If not for the grass I wouldn't have been able to tell ”

Something suddenly caught Mirak's attention. He climbed one of the trees and started to search for a pattern on those previous traces on the ground.

‘There are two kinds of tracks. The first showing the usual habit of arriving at the lake, not in a hurry, but what about the other traces? the ones of them leaving? no ... it seemed they were running from something..’

He tried to measure the stride and the straddle. "It didn’t seem a fight broke out but probably as if they were fleeing from something.”

Mirak turned his head toward the lake, the weird feeling of unease has resurfaced again and he couldn’t help but scrutinize at the nearby waters.

Somehow, he started rethinking whether he would really spend this night here.

“Sigh ... it’s not the first time that I have chosen to stay in a place looming with danger”

crunch

He jumped down then turned his head to look at the dark depth of the forest. Shaking his head Mirak turned around and proceeded toward the lake.

“I prefer an unknown than an already acknowledged danger that I recognize having no chances against” Mirak felt like he had swallowed a bitter pill. How else when everything seems to hide an awful surprise for him.

“Ah!” In a sudden jump and then a roll, one that lasted long enough until Mirak submerged himself within the waters which he was in fear of just seconds ago.

Rising abruptly with a shivering body. Mirak looked traumatized by the hole that almost tripped him. when he remembered that kind of mucus oozing of it He thought that he shouldn't sleep at all.

Slouching toward one of the trees was a dark face Mirak.

“Insects ... and giant at that !?” While Curbing the distrusting thought he ended up stretching his hand toward the nearest tree without even checking it. With the thought that he would sleep on atop it for the night.

Squish

"............"

He ended up bathing multiple times and relocating on the other side of the lake.