BANG!... BANG!
The sounds of powerful explosions tyrannically rang loud with each powerful step against the land.
This seemingly never-ending sea of brown-crimson bladed grass never seemed too perverse.
Life and organisms were vacant with the exception of the monotone grass, how many thousands of kilometers had he treaded in the past few hours?
With an annoyed sigh, Rue paced his steps, he felt exasperated by it all.
Lunging forward, Rue drove his feet into the ground before launching himself several hundred feet into the air.
Elevated within the air, Rue had several seconds of weightlessness to spare—before inevitably succumbing to gravity's pull.
Even with such a miniscule time, it was more than enough for a being within the Fourth Destination. Such an ostensibly negligible amount of time could be acquainted with how minutes feel for an average joe.
As such, it was more than satisfactory amount of time to complete a simple scouting of the surrounding grandeur.
With his bird's eye view, Rue examined the circumference of his gait.
Pursing his mouth, he—was met with what was expected.
There was nothing, but that constant monotonic red.
Feeling the urge to gouge his eyes out from annoyance, Rue sighed.
Crash….
Bang!
Meeting the ground initiated a resounding explosion— torrenting the surrounding kilometer or so to a storm of powerful gusts of air mixed with rubble.
Lifting his body from the ground, Rue brushed off any rubble that had clung to his worn prison garments.
His striped attire's surface was mostly stained with a deep reddish brown, with the additional blemishes coming from mold, or the decay from his torn flesh.
This was not without saying—the pants of his commissioned jumpsuit and his undergarments alike had long since torn off.
Essentially, he was a walking exhibitionist in the wild, a sin to many, or just in general a weird perverted act that freaks tended to do—and the irony was not wasted on him given he was an inquisitor for a Goddess, let me say that again, a Goddess. But fortunately, there was no one to bear witness to his family jewels and flaunted limp shaft.
Stealing a glance over his shoulder, Rue grimaced as he viewed the large trail of destruction left from his wake.
Scratching his head, Rue stifled a much needed groan from his pent annoyance.
"From one damn prison to another," he uttered, his expression crest-fallen.
Still bore within his hands were his two brandished makeshift bone blades.
Little of his flesh was still clad to his strewn Radias & Ulna. The speed and whiplash were responsible for this.
"Tch." Clicking his tongue, Rue stretched his large figure. Touching his knees and providing his arms with a few swings did little to ease the accumulated protests of lactic acid within his legs.
Damn he was sore!
Massaging the tender muscles of his temporary raptor-like legs, Rue stretched a few more times before returning from his short-lived intermission, and back to his journey.
Frankly, his body detested this action. It wanted to rest, but Rue objected to this. The time for rest was a luxury he couldn't spare at the current moment.
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~~From a distance watch a large figure, they're eyes married with glee~~
It stood simply about 2.5 meters in height, and its expression was feral. It was famished.
Its surroundings shimmered dimly with the will of the light—consciously, the beast refracted the light around it.
This gave it an inherent invisibility as it stalked its prey. Such an ability with a beast was unfounded and odd—since beasts tended to lack cognitive abilities to develop such a complex technique, or at least that is the stereotype ostracized.
For common beasts or those who simply lack Will, then yes this would be true. But it was also false.
Will for beasts and humans were principally diverse, A beast seeks strength and mates, while a humans tended to follow through with what they feel is right. Humans have the advantage of having been spawned with intelligence. Compared to beasts who spend their early Destinations following their instinct.
When you observe beasts at a higher Destination, then this notion is quickly disproved.
Nature follows this simple trend, it was always an arms race between adversaries.
The stronger thrived, while the weaker adapted, further honing their inherent abilities to conquer their natural suppressors. It forced for the perfect environment, one that allowed for a neutral equilibrium of power.
Without the necessity of searching for foes to temper their Will with, then a beast would become weak without that essential life experience.
Life—and—death battles sanctioned this.
The concept of Darwin's theory of predator and prey existed for sure, but its meaning vastly differed with adapted beings.
In nature, an Eagle stalks a Snake, before inevitably sniping it with its naturally superior traits. That's how the tale goes with its dumb bland bearings. But in Terminus or Altheria, that story is inherently flawed.
Within this world, the story would go similar to this—albeit more abridged. The Eagle stalks the Snake. After a prolonged amount, of time exploiting the snake's natural weaknesses the snake would naturally fall under a pressure that would allow itself and eventually its species to gradually adapt around their inherent flaws, creating weapons or instinctive techniques under pressure. With the adaptations, kin born with these adaptations would be able to fight toe-to-toe against their once feared oppressors. Then the roles of predator and prey would flip.
It's a cycle. The weak learn to overwhelm the strong, the weak become the strong, then those who were once strong learn to adapt to the new quirks after their own suppression.
The beast slowly neared its chosen prey. It had been several years since its last meal, so prospects of losing sight of this prey were not on the drawing table—the beast decided to go all in on red.
Narrowing its eyes the bird-like creature rolled out its tongue from its beak.
Thick, viscous white streams of liquid began to froth from its mouth, some of the white substance happened to fall onto the ground—sizzling the vegetation into liquid.
Its eyes—now black and green—replaced the original ethereal orange that had pigmented the ten eyes scattered around its skull. Each of the beast's pupils shrank to that of pin-points as it hummingly laser pointed its target.
Its actions were similar to how modern-day homing missiles or how motion-tracking cameras trace their targets.
Confident in its stealth, the bird positioned itself further.
And further—further—and some more.
Each inch was daring. Even with its confidence, the beast wasn't arrogant. It knew of many frightening beasts that had the ability to see through its concealment.
Many of its kin had died in such a pitiful manner.
Mustering the amassed white liquid within its mouth into a more condensed semi-solid,
The bird-like beast aimed several degrees above its target before—
Expelling from its beak like a ballistic,
Patoo!
With its auxiliary being sent at a speed of roughly a hundred kilometers per second, the beast rushed forward with reckless abandon due to its slender ostrich-like legs.
Its sharp beak was aimed towards its prey's nape.
CLASH!
…
…
…
BANG!
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Rum was nice. It soothed the soul—or so that amber elixir seemingly did.
Other than the obvious negative of it being a depressant, it wasn't all that bad—these would be the words of an addict.
Simply, people drank it to drown themselves from their harsh realities to hide from the problems they themselves put themselves in. Debt, divorce, wealth, education… etc.
Rue himself was an alcoholic, but as if the world wanted to mock him, he no longer felt his ambrosia when he drank.
With his paced sprint across the landscape, Rue, several minutes after resuming, began to feel a distinctive sensation creep up along his spine.
His ears rang, and his body braced itself.
His body entered a flight-or-fight mode.
Without his input, his body—honed after countless times of near-death—chose the prior.
Gnashing his teeth, Rue clenched every muscle fiber within his upper body, jolting his body into an aggressive backbend.
FWOOM!
Pop!... Sizzle~
A circular blur of white whizzed past overhead.
Making contact with the ground, the white substance widened its surface area into that of a plane before snapping shut as it made contact with the grass.
Fixing his gait, Rue immediately twisted his body's weight along the ball of his foot, flanking himself.
This all happened within 1.3 seconds.
Seeing his attacker, Rue brought his bone-blades in front of his body, crossing them into an 'X' shape.
CLASH!
Meeting the weapon of his foe, Rue was pushed several feet back, this was due to the sheer amount of G-force held behind the attack.
With his feet dug into the ground, Rue buckled his legs before lunging himself backwards.
He was within unknown lands, and recklessly rushing headfirst into a battle he knew nothing about was stupid.
This was not about pride, it was survival.
Distancing himself several tens of feet from his attacker, Rue was finally able to get a proper look at the bastard.
It looked like a bird?
And a weird one at that.
Bracing himself for further clash, Rue began to circle around the bird-like creature noting every movement it made.
But the beast was no fool. Seeing as its prey had defended itself from its attacks, it weighed its chances of winning.
They weren't good.