Sitting in the dim light of an oil lantern, Clay worked on fixing his armor after the attack with the bear. It was late at night, as he tried to get the string with a shaky hand into the needle before finally giving up and leaning against his chair and letting his head fall back.
He didn’t have a braid, so his shoulder long hair glided over his shoulder and freely dangled in the air, while he observed the old wooden support above him. He was in the cellar where he had built his small workshop for all the leather work and other tinkering he did for his equipment.
It seemed like he was spending more and more time down here, and if it was to just think. It was something like his personal space. Before all of this happened, before the world went to shit, he rarely left his room at all. He didn’t quite know why, he just liked to be by himself.
Sitting there, he thought back to the fight and what he should have done differently. This time he survived by a stroke of luck, but what about the next time? The bear was of course a very strong awakened beast, but there was no telling what else strange beast he had to fight in the future.
Alone the creatures living under the pond, where something Clay didn’t know how to face. He lacked information, but he also knew that with all the different mutations, it would be hard to gather information before a fight. There was no time to analyze the situation and as experience has proven was running away not a reliable strategy.
Then how should he fight in the future? He was still quite restless after just barely clinging to his life. There had to be a way for him to reliably fight unknown enemies. He already found out that his strength laid in the enhancement of his body, and trained vigorously at his inner control of essence.
There was steady improvement regarding his senses and overall control over his body, but there was one thing that held him back: self-preservation. Why did he choose to flee when encountering the dire wolves for the first time?
Was it truly because of a lack of information like he told himself, or wasn’t it something entirely different? Deep down, he knew that he fled because of fear, because of his instinct to survive and live. To keep the well-being of his body.
This instinct was something every animal had, and even after mutating, the beasts also had this instinct. Otherwise, the dire wolves wouldn’t have fled, or other beasts wouldn’t avoid his marked territory. They do this because their instincts, their self-preservation, is telling them that it would lead to harm or even death.
It’s a powerful instinct to protect your body from damage, it ensures your survival, but in Clay’s current situation it does the opposite. Animals can tell if you are afraid and the moment you run they will chase, this too is dedicated by their instincts. As soon as Clay ran, he was practically screaming that he was prey.
Worst of all, stopped him this self-preservation from fully utilizing the one advantage he had: his regeneration. From the few unavoidable life and death battles he had, he knew that his regeneration was more than abnormal. He easily survived what would have killed others a dozen times over.
It seemed like it didn’t matter what injury he suffered, as it would only stop his tracks for a few seconds, at most. He got a hole the size of a fist through his stomach and stood after a few seconds like nothing happened.
Clay was pretty sure he always had a very strong self-preservation instinct, even before he had to fight for his survival. He always avoided every kind of pain, and alone the thought of possible injuries prevented him from doing a lot of things. It was maybe even the reason why he preferred to stay inside than go out.
He knew that away from the safety of his room was a higher possibility of injuries. Together with his hate for loud sounds, he avoided most crowds of humans and with it most of society. This whole apocalypse forced him to confront every of these aspects.
With the enhancement of his ears, the problem got only worse, but he needed it if he wanted to hear other beasts. His self-preservation stopped him from doing anything that could hurt himself, but with his regeneration, he has to take risks to even have a chance of surviving.
The one thing that differentiates humans from animals, is that they are able to manipulate their own instincts. When an animal struggles to make a decision, then only because two of its instincts are fighting.
For example, struggled the dire wolves with the instinct of preserving their own lives and helping their kin, in the end won self-preservation over kinship and they escaped. A human on the other hand can act in complete opposite ways of their instincts.
Extreme sports are a good example for this. Doing something like free climbing on a cliff without any safety measures, is extremely dangerous and goes against any form of self-preservation and yet some people did it anyway just for the sake of having fun or getting a kick.
Being able to go against the own instincts is what makes human appear irrational. Clay had to utilize this ability if he wanted to survive. Only after ignoring his own self-preservation and fighting the dire wolves without taking injuries into account was he not only able to win, but also scare them.
Overcoming his own fear and instead utilizing it against other beasts was the only way he saw himself surviving in this harsh wilderness. It went against anything he had done his whole life, but he didn’t know how else he would fight beasts that outclass him in any other way.
***
The following days, Clay rarely left the basement, only when he had to eat or needed more materials. Otherwise, he spent all of his time on a project he had been working on since the beginning of winter. Due to the bear, he didn’t have as much time as he would have liked, so he was stressing to put the finally touches on this project.
The snow was melting, the air was getting warmer and the sky clearer as spring once again began. During the transition from winter to spring, Mia had her thirteenth birthday.
Clay woke her gently from her sleep before giving her a vial of heart blood as usual. Heaving a heavy sigh, Mia wasn’t yet fully awake and with the thought of having to taste the bitter, iron tasking liquid wasn’t a good way to start the day.
Stopping her breath, her mask fell off, which Clay routinely caught. Utilizing a wooden spoon, he scratched the deep purple, tar like substance into a jar. Having cleaned the pocket under the chin of the mask, he watched, as Mia finally beat her disgust and drank the vial in one gulp.
Her expression was first one of disgust as she tried to swallow before her eyes suddenly widened with surprise. “It’s sweet?”
Laughing, Clay nodded. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner, but I just mixed some sugar into the vial. You can’t eat normal food, but a little sugar mixed into the heart blood shouldn’t have a negative impact.”
There was a big smile on her face, as Clay gave her the mask, while she savored the taste. Putting it back on he laid a hand on her shoulder and said, “Get dressed and come down into the cellar, I have a surprise for you.”
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Eagerly nodding her head, Mia quickly went to change, while Clay left the room and went to the basement, watching over the covered up present. Shortly after, Mia came down the stairs and looked with curious eyes around before she made her way over to him. He didn’t allow her often to go down here.
Putting a hand on the blanket, he asked, “Are you ready?” Seeing the eager nod, Clay couldn’t stop himself from smiling a little. Pulling the blanket with one smooth motion to the side, was a full set of firm dark brown leather armor revealed. It was unusually thick and came with a heavy coat from one of the dire wolves.
Laying against the shoulder was a spear, made from the best oak he could find, and the broken blade of the royal ant. After the fight with the bear, he retrieved it and repurposed it for a spear which fitted Mia needs. There was also a thick heater shield laying against the legs and in the table behind a crossbow.
He was really lucky to have found a crossbow which used plastic instead of metal, as that was the most important requirement of this equipment. Everything that he prepared was made completely without even a trace of metal.
Looking over this, Mia was speechless for a moment before saying, “So you did remember your promise.”
“Of course I did,” said Clay slightly offended, “I said that once you are able to form an aura shield you can accompany me on my patrols. It's just that I had to make sure that the equipment would be the best I could make and keep you safe from harms way, I made a promise remember?”
“I know it’s just…” interrupting her, Clay said, “You want to help too. I get that, Mia, but you have to understand that you are still only thirteen even if you are stronger than adults. It’s dangerous out there, and you have to promise me to keep yourself back. The shield and spear are there for a reason, I made them so that you can utilize your aura shield in the best way possible and keep away from harms way. When I’m fighting, you would help me most by shooting from the back.”
Sadly, nodding her head, she replied, “Yes, I promise.” Grabbing her head into a hug, her ruffled her hair, while she tried to futilely slip from his iron grasp. “Come on do you want to see how it fits?” Hearing this made her gloomy mood seemingly disappear as Clay helped her strap on the new armor.
***
Wandering through the forest on his usual path, Clay made little new discoveries. Since the death of the bear, he didn’t have a single battle with a beast, well he also didn’t see many beasts. Usually that would be something to be happy about, but in reality it caused him to worry.
Not only were they running dangerously low on heart blood, but it was also too calm. He hasn’t seen any dire wolves for close to a month and even if he marked his territory, he didn’t expect most beast to avoid it so diligently.
This all lead to a very bored Mia, as she didn’t have the opportunity to properly test her new equipment in battle. It seemed like they had to make a small trip further into the forest to get more heart blood.
Having made that decision, they left early in the next morning, with two fully equipped backpacks, further into the forest. Mia was now carrying a commendable amount of equipment, weighing dozens of kilo, without showing a trace of exhaustion. It was still a weird sight for Clay, as it just seemed wrong.
A thirteen years old girl shouldn’t be able to carry so much equipment, and yet here they were traveling kilometer after kilometer without her uttering a word of complaint. She grew a lot compared to the first time he had found her, and in some way it made him proud.
They currently were moving to the north-east, the direction where Clay guessed where the lair of the dire wolves was. It was the direction where he had encountered them the most, and thus guessed most likely lay their territory.
At first, it was calm like usual, but the further they went, the more he was able to spot claw marks on the trees surrounding them. It seemed like he was correct. This region was definitely frequently traversed by the dire wolves, and not long after he saw the shadow of a passing dire wolf rush through the thicket of the forest.
Giving a glance to Mia, she nodded, so they gave chase. It didn't take long for the dire wolf to lose them, but they kept following the tracks until the surrounding sunlight suddenly dimmed. Looking further up the trees, Clay spotted something that looked similar to… strings?
No, that weren’t just strings, it was a huge web encompassing all the tree tops moving onwards. The further he looked, the thicker the web became until, there was almost no light to make out the ground.
Seeing this, he finally realized why the dire wolves stopped bothering him. It wasn’t that they got scared, but just that a bigger threat came in the way. He was at the border of a war of two apex predators fighting over hunting grounds.
Looking over his shoulder, Clay asked, “Mia say, are you scared of spiders?” Still looking baffled at the tree tops, Mia swallowed nervously before replying, “Not really, but I never saw big spidies so… I don’t know.”
“Well, you still know the plan, right?” Clay asked again for the dozen time, to the annoyance of Mia. “Of course I do. Keep the aura shield up at all times, stay back and shoot the ones at the border with my crossbow. If they come close, I block and poke them with my spear.”
Raising his one arm in defense, he said, “I’m just making sure. If your shield is about to break–”
“I know, for god’s sake!” Interrupted Mia angrily. “I know… You prepared me for a whole year for this. We sparred more times than I can count, and the last few times, you were even unable to break my aura shield. I can do this. I’m ready.”
Heaving a heavy sigh, Clay scratched his head, “I know that you are ready, but I’m still worried. We don’t know what these spiders can do, so just promise me to be careful, okay?”
Giving a serious nod, he finally let the topic rest, as they began to move on the perimeter of the webbed forest. It didn’t take them long until Clay stopped in unease, as he moved his essence into his eyes. Resisting the headache, he concentrated forwards, seeing shadows jumping from tree to tree.
It took a moment, but after a while the blur of shadows turned into the silhouette of a dire wolf as Clay concentrated to follow its movement. It was fighting something, and only after a few seconds did he realize that the other shadows wasn’t another dire wolf but a spider. In comparison, was it much smaller than the dire wolf, about half it’s height.
Its carapace was in a shimmering black resembling that of the royal ant, but much lighter in tone. There were countless spikes protruding from its body, ending in sharp tips. Between these tips was something strung which looked like bones…
No, after taking a closer look these ‘bones’ moved in the wind, so they were string. There was an attack of the dire wolf as the spider landed on the trunk of a tree, but instead of avoiding it, it put it’s back in an angle before jumping against the arm. The familiar crack resounded through the forest as the arm hit the spider perfectly on the back.
To Clay’s shock it didn’t shatter like he expected but instead was deflected by the strings on the back, as the arm of the dire wolf got thrown back. The force of the attack was strong enough to send the spider flying, but in a mere moment two strings came flying, attaching to two trunks, as the spider slowed, while the string stretched like rubber.
It was getting slower and slower until it halted in midair before the string retracted like a spring and shot the spider with surprising speed back at the dire wolf. Caught midair, it was unable to avoid and with its front leg's held in an angle the spider flew past the dire wolf, before catching itself on another string.
Following its path was a line of red, as the dire wolf abdomen was cleanly sliced open, while its intestines trailed down to the ground in a gory mess. Swallowing, Clay had a déjà vu as he remembered his second encounter with a beast.
On the first day of this catastrophe, their school was invaded by a spider which was very similar to this one, just not nearly as much mutated. He always wondered if it that was a one time accident, as he never encountered something similar afterward, but seems like they just retreated further into the forest.
Insects mutated much more rarely compared to bigger animals, like wolves, but that made every encounter with one such mutated species that much more frightening, as the ants had already proven.
He was interrupted in his thought process, as he noticed the spider directly staring back at him with all of its eight, unblinking eyes. They were still a few hundred meters apart. He didn’t avoid the eye contact, he challenged it.
There was nothing he had to fear. He could beat that spider without a problem, he made the decision to make use of fear and not succumb to it and after everything he had faced, he wouldn’t back away from some spider.
They started at each other for just a moment and with one swift motion the spider broke the eye contact and jumped back to the web covered forest, in short but powerful jumps from tree to tree until it landed on a string and used its momentum to shoot away into the darkness.
“What is it Clay?” Mia asked from the side after he suddenly stood still for seconds without saying anything. “Oh, I just saw one of our new neighbors and as lovely as they seem, I say we should avoid this web covered forest.”
With the spear resting on her shoulder, Mia walked onwards. “Good, I didn’t want to go there anyway.”