Avoiding the claws was more stressful than difficult. Keeping in mind that the creature was herding it around, edging her way in a looping circle to keep from being boxed in by the others. My present conundrum however was that she was weaponless. I was faster, more flexible, and stronger than I ever was before. Even glancing blows that I accepted to divert a strike and right my footing merely leant me a moment, a splash against my shroud deflecting an otherwise powerful blow. The creature was massive, armored, had plenty of weapons to bring to bear against me.
My first thought was to draw on the waters, drown it….But it was a crab, and I was uncertain if that would work. Another thought I had as I managed to sway around the massive claw-snap, was to pull the water from the creature, but it was still taking concentration just to keep away from it’s blows, and I could spare none to feel the water inside it. So I tried punching it, and well, a spinning backhand as I twisted away from the smaller arm’s many-grasping claws along it’s shell simply…nudged it. I kept up my dance, a palm-strike, a stomping kick on one of it’s leg joints. The last nearly threatened to topple it atop me, and I hissed, feeling the scrape of it’s other pointed legs now rising to address me as a threat.
I was breathing heavily, but not exhausted yet. The sheer fact of the matter was that…Well, I couldn’t hurt it with nothing to exert more force, and… My eyes lit up, and I started to scoot my dance back towards where I’d dropped my bag….And the rocks I’d used to smash open the coconut.
It took me longer than I would’ve liked, dodging, dancing, dipping, and weaving my way past the frenzied blows of the many-clawed arm, punctuated by the SWOOSHSNAP of the larger claw. I was surprised other crabs had not followed up on the commotion yet, but from the snatched glances I had gathered, I was slowly realizing that this crab was the largest one around. Well maybe this meant that the others would leave me alone when… “WoAH!” I shook my head, nearly stumbling over my bag in my distraction. A shuffle of water, sand and feet, the swaying gyrations keeping me out of the path of a pair of claws. I was in the shallows again, and once more in a fight for my life, the cycles of life it seemed. Kicking the bag into my hands, I idly tossed the bag of fruits, a bag of dried meats, and my waterskin into the boat I’d arrived in. A low sway over the whooshing claws, heavy rocks loaded into my bag. A step back, to grab a few more, a light leap to land atop the larger claw. I stepped forward onto it’s joint, then kicked off to gain distance as it’s free claws lunged towards me.
Wrapping the strap around one hand, turning to wrap it around my torso, I grunted as it impacted my chest. The heavy rocks being a decidedly unpleasant feeling against what I had thought might be able to cushion the impact. It seemed I had more to learn about my new body yet. A spinning backstep, like I’d done many a time with this beast, showing my back to the enemy in a sure sign of disrespect, but now, the unwound bag humming and the strap straining as it whirled out from me in an arc, my arm extending to lengthen the path the improvised weapon would take, building speed and momentum. WhIRRRrSLAMCRACK! The hum of fabric cutting through the air, only to come to a skidding halt as a few handfuls of stones in a cotton satchel becomes a deadly weapon. This time the crab SCREAMS. An awful noise punctured the mid-day, sending creatures skittering in all directions. I clutched my hands to my ears, even as the bag thumped to the ground at my feet. I could see it, a sure crack in the shell of the creature.
Once I found a way to wound the creature, the fight turned from a deadly dance of survival to a surefire execution. The pained cries of the large creature at first drew attention from the other crabs. Soon after I severed it’s larger claw from multiple impacts of my improvised meteor hammer and a particularly dangerous attempt to grab, twist and RIP it’s claw off the other crabs fled in terror. It seemed they had a modicum of threat recognition in their tiny little brains. With it’s own arm as a new weapon to use against it, I had soon bludgeoned the creature to death. Afterwards I settled myself onto the sands to catch my breath.
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One bonus of the fight beyond the removal of the current largest threat, was the fact that I had a meal now. Fire was not something I could normally conjure, but with the husky shreds of the coconut and leaves and a tree felled by the crabs, I improvised. Through the force of wood on wood smoke curled, and I carefully nurtured the tiny blaze. I did not particularly care to harvest the whole crab, and neither did I have the tools to do so, or a way to store them. So with the decadence of bounty, I simply cooked the claw I had torn from the creature’s body. I wrapped it in oversized leaves, settling it into the sands near the fire to warm and steam.
Scavengers were already poking and prodding at the nearby carcass as I snacked on the giant crab’s meat, humming in delight. Rich, sweet, full of strange flavors, and most of all, I could taste chi inside it. Strange forces must be at play wherever I was if even the beasts were rudimentary cultivators. Maybe that’s what allowed them to grow so large and so strong. I furrowed my brow as I regarded the deeper jungle, I would need to take care of what other kinds of creatures I met.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I meditated on the energies being pulled from the basket of my stomach, to the vessel of my soul. The creature had been aligned with water like myself, but also had other energies, strange ones that I could not fully interpret. It hadn’t been cultivating a shroud, so either it was not capable, or had not yet grown to that strength. From the way the other beasts were dipping into it’s grisly remains, it’s not like it would never have had the chance to seize a Kill.
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My snack finished, my tummy and vessel once more filled, I steeled myself for the trek into the woods. I kept a few rocks in my bag, as well as a hollowed out claw and the supplies I’d been gifted before. The heat on the beach mostly emanated from the sun, but with the spray of the salt water, and the breeze off the ocean it had been mostly pleasant. Now though, I could feel the humidity rising as I took my first steps into the treeline. Heat trapped under the foliage overhead, nourishing life and mingling with the water to leave it feeling almost as if I was swimming through the air itself.
The humidity itself was strangely not bothersome however, and I felt it rolling over my shroud, simply water on more water. Thinking on the idea, I concentrated now, walking cautiously, gathering more water to my shroud. Condensing the water in the air, suffusing it with my own chi, and letting it layer atop me. Soon I could feel the extra weight of the water upon me, my vessel strangely sore, and a mental tiredness atop the tiny extra loss of physical stamina with the extra weight atop my body. I hadn’t fully managed to incorporate the mass into my shroud, to layer it with chi. Instead it laid atop me like an extra layer of armor, a sheet of water offering a modicum of protection. I would need to practice more to truly strengthen my innate shroud.
The greenery was often dappled with sunlight, and though I could hear birdsong and the chittering of small creatures and insects, every step I took brought a sphere of quietness around me. Leaving only the creaking of trees and the swaying of wind as the beasts of the area stilled in the presence of a strange new threat. The crabs had given me a wide berth since the start, and I assumed that they had renewed their positions on the beach, fighting for territory once more.
After an hour of wandering through high grass and dotted trees, I elected to shimmy up a tree, as I had once before, clambering up it with gripping thighs and powerful fingers. I nearly lost my purchase however as a vine of green hissed and lunged at me, nearly sinking inch-long fangs into my arm. Only a quick surrendering to gravity and a splash of my shroud kept it away. I had to dig my nails into the bark once more however as I tumbled, no nearby branches offering support or safety.
From a little ways below though, I started to really pay attention now to the hanging vines, struggling to make out which of the ones had struck out at me. The treetops were a danger of their own it seemed, the branches at the top of the forest festooned with dangling vines, brightly colored leaves and flowers… Untold dangers that I was unsure I could face. The ambush could have easily left me with poison in my veins I knew nothing about, but the lesson learned was valuable….I needed to know more, I needed to learn about my new environment. In order to do that however, I would need to either cautiously document every single thing I came across, or find someone who already knew.
I elected for the latter, one hand out to notch trees with a rock, the other clinging to my bag, as I hurried into the forest. I was hoping to find civilization before the sunset and whatever came with it, found me.