Upon walking to the tree monster's final resting place, I examine it's corpse and come to the simple conclusion that it was nothing short of special.
In all my years as a hunter I'd never heard of a creature like it: my older brothers never told me about their existence, my father never warned about a tree monster that could shapeshift into your close family and loved ones, and my Grandpa never tried to
spook me with scary stories about them. But most damning of all, it's not in any of the Hunter guide books I've read or in any of the past cases I've used as reference study.
I just hope it's sudden arrival and the strength of the mud monster aren't related. Mud monsters are probably one of the least intimidating monsters out there, well they're supposed to be anyways. I really hope I'm just overthinking things and there's not something around causing pre-existing monsters to get stronger and new breed to get born.
That would be absurd right? Right? The moment I think that thought, the name Laika flashes in my head.
No that can't be! The only thing's I've heard about this place—Laika's abandoned Forest, are all bad bacon, bologna! It's all untrue, only superstitious people believe in them.
But there's a slight chance that some of it's true, after all, that's the reason why Johnny and I came here in the first place. We received rumors that there was a particularly strong mud monster that'd been wiping the floor with hunters. So of course, upon hearing this, Johnny wanted to check it out. No matter how much I discouraged him he remained hell bent on it.
I'm pulled far away from my thoughts by the distant sound of an explosion.
—KABOOM— What!? What the was tha- before my sentence finishes, I find my answer: several wooden monsters popping from the ground far ahead of me. Their numbers completely fill the horizon. It's impossible to know how many of them there are.
I'm not armed to go against something like that, I'd need at least a machine gun, and a buttload of ammo to fight a horde that size. But all I'm equipped with is three sets of ropes, a really large pistol whose recoil I can only handle sometimes, and 32 rounds of .50 cal ammunition.
Today might be the day I join the rest of my brothers in the afterlife. My mind wonders to the not so distant past, to a day that no longer exists: yesterday.
"Don't you dare lecture me about what I do my gun when you haven't even learnt how to use yours!"
'Yeah, yeah' I respond in a mocking tone. Johnny always gets so worked up when it comes to Rem.
'Well it's not like I can't shoot-'
"Your aim is shit."
'it's not that bad-'
"Your aim is shit."
"Why'd you even pick such a big pistol?"
"Don't tell me you thought it'd give you-"
'an edge.' "Stupid—
you're stupid"
Looking back, he was totally right. It's too big for self defense, too small for monster killing, but I don't even do the fighting anyways, so I thought it wouldn't really matter. Sigh~ at least if I die I'll be going out in style.
A chorus of bang after bang after bang barely makes a dent in the approaching wooden wall. Damn, I've only got 3 shots left. Is there a chance I can make something happen with some rope? Wait a minute—there's a mini bottle of gin in my left pocket it's not mine, my brother likes to drink.
I tie the mini bottle across the chest of the tree monster's corpse then I wait. I wait for the monsters to get close, just close enough for me to toss the body at them.
—Swoosh— swinging the corpse from the free ends of the rope, I toss it considerably far, much far than I thought I would. Three wood monsters go down just like bowling pins, and knock down a few more in the horde.
I take aim.
Steady my breath.
Then...
BANG!
I miss the bottle of gin completely. 'oh shit' barely leave my mouth before my heart drops.
'Well shit, here goes nothing' I use the last two bullets I have, and sure enough, I hit the gin. The mini bottle catches fire, igniting the corpse along with it which leads to a cataclysmic chain reaction.
The seemingly unceasing army ceases. The unaffected ones scatter haphazardly so they don't get caught in flames of the ones that are burning, while the ones on fire run towards their non-combusting brethren in an effort to stop burning. It's chaos, complete chaos. Their orderly front line collapsed immediately and unraveled every other part of their formation. I'd lies and say I was expecting it turn this way, but this is just too perfect.
'I was expecting a few burning trees to come running at me, but I guess I was lucky.' Luck doesn't even begin to describe what unfolds before me because they end up retreating back to where they came.
'Holyshit.'
I take a deep breath then fall back first on some flowers. Besides for their yellow petals and long stalks I know nothing about them.'They're not Sun flowers that's for sure.'
Sigh. I haven't met up with Johnny yet, and I've already used up all my bullets. Oh, I'm so finished. I just got to keep pushing forward, no matter what. Because that's what my big brothers would do.
If I want to receive any help, any competent help, I need to go to the nearest coalition HQ. Even though I don't fully trust them, I know they're capable.
They're the group that single handedly salvaged what was left of our collapsing society. The government couldn't do it, their contemporary's couldn't, and not even the aliens that made this place the hell hole it is today could.
'But how the hell do I get to one?'
I don't think there's a base anywhere near Laika's Forest. Well I'll cross that bridge when I get there. First, I need to get out of here.
Leaving the forest isn't that hard, you just need to keep walking untill you see creepy leafless trees. The part that's really amazing is, because of the layout of the forest, all you have to do is walk in a straight line, don't deviate, just keep walking, and eventually you'd have left the abandoned Forest.
So that's what I plan to do, but before I do that I need to get myself a weapon. I do a quick 360 of my surroundings to see what could possibly be worthy of being my weapon. It has to be strong, it's has to be sturdy, and most importantly, it has to be long, very long.
Yes! I bit ahead of me I see something that fits those criteria just perfectly. I scurry towards the charred remains of several monsters before picking up a piece of charred monster arm. I know it's an arm from because I can see a ginormous thumb sticking out from one end of the thick stick.
Ok! weapon acquired. Time to leave this shit place.