In a forest near a waterfall, the serene and peaceful environment was rudely awakened by the sound of hooves and the uprooting of shrubs in the way.
Four antelope like Evo-Beasts ran across the bank of the river, stopping at the waterfalls edge, overlooking a massive drop of over 1000 feet.
Each of the Evo-Beasts looked like very much like earths deers, but they differ drastically from them. These deers had silver white immaculate fur, black eyes and and long horns, prominent in the male, who seemed bigger than the others.
It the females soon began to graze on the alien fauna close to the water fall, whilst the male sat guard, chewing it's cud. Suddenly, it's ear pricked as it listen carefully to its surroundings.
It turned it's head, looking for anything out of place that wasn't there when it got here. Noticing nothing, it went back to relaxing whilst chewing it's cud. What It had missed though was that about thirty metres in the direction it looked, a small insect like droid was quietly sitted there's waiting on a tree, camouflaged by it's blue leaves... About a mile away, Eze was sitting in a tree.
He had taken off his jacket, leaving only his sleeveless shirt and a pair of black jeans... On this tree branch were a change of clothes and his weapon box laying next to him.
"It's almost time again..." He muttered to himself. He'd waited, followed and studied his quarry for about three days straight, checking for patterns in their moving and grazing .
Yes, Eze had technically been here in this world for three days. After spending a few hours in his first day, he found out three things.
Firstly, the time zone differed from earth. It was on ratio of 1min earth to 1hour new world. So what seemed like 72 hours of waiting was in actual fact, 72 short minutes; less than 2 hours.
The second, the AI system also had a transponder system that allowed communication with the security operatives manning the gate...
The third... The exact location was really far. About 121km away from his current position. At least he wouldn't be coming in contact with any other ascendants anytime soon. And he hoped he wouldn't.
Now he had followed this Ruin-Deer for the past 3 days, making sure to watch for patterns feeding habits and movement. At least now he had a rough understanding of how this small herd moved.
He hadn't dared to stalk too close to them though, as he noticed the Alpha was a C-Class 2nd grade Evo-Beast. It's Quather sense would encompass a radius of about 1km around it... It was then Eze realized how strong his sense of smell actually was.
Normal ascendants could sense about 500m away from themselves if they channeled their Quather hard enough to a particular point at the D-Class. He on the other hand could smell as far as 2km if he channeled his power through his nose. So in a sense, he was able to keep track of the male whilst keeping a reasonable distance from it.
Just then, the male stirred. Eze smiled and grabbed his jacket, quickly put it on and jumped down the tree quietly. He walked towards the river leading downstream to where the herd rested, holding a metallic canister in hand.
Due to his constant monitoring, he noticed that the male always let the females eat first, but immediately would take a drink of water after exactly 30 minutes of them grazing.
Most Quather beasts were as smart as regular animals. They did everything they did not by choice, but by instinct. These actions end up becoming routines, making them predictable and easier to read than actual humans or higher level Evo-Beasts.
Eze put his free hand in the water, feeling the currents.
"Right.... About... Now!" He exclaimed, before turning the contents of the red canister into the water.
The contents were transparent imas it dissolved into the river, flowing downstream, almost impossible to see. The ruin deer in Eze's camera vision then slowly walked to the river edge and bent it's nose to take a drink. It first took a sniff, before lapping a few times...
This was the tricky part. Eze had done his calculations on the river flow speed and the habits of the Ruin-Deer thoroughly these last three days. He'd even basically understood it's grazing and drinking patterns down to the T. For the past three hours prior to this, he'd sent pieces of wood along the river, calculating how fast the water moved over 5 miles.
But the problem came if the Ruin-Deer sussed him out. Ruin-Deers were known for their acute senses when it came to danger on their lives, which made them hard to catch. That's why most of them never walked in a herd larger than 5-6 of them: it made escaping easier for them.
Just then, the deer seemed to relax at it took large mouthfuls of water, unbeknownst to it that it had inadvertently ingested and unknown liquid into its body.
It soon stopped drinking a few seconds later, before returning to rest.
"Now, we wait" Eze said, as he jumped back on the tree branch and grabbed his weapon box. He pulled out the Ogbunigwe, strung it instantly, before taking a mini arrow. He took another canister, this one grey, and injected the mini arrow into the lid. The fluids were sucked into the arrow head, filling the liquid compartment on it.
Then, Eze enlarged the arrow by clicking it casually, before he nocked and aimed at the Ruin-Deer directly. With over a mile the distance, Eze was confident of hitting the Ruin-Deer.
If his plans worked out.
One minute
Two minutes
Five minutes
Twenty minutes
Eze was still perched on the trees not even moving a muscle.
Thirty minutes
One hour
Two hours
Eze hadn't budged, almost like a statue. His breathing seemed to seize and the only way to know he was alive was the rhythmic beating of his heart in his chest.
Three hours
Night had fallen, and the Ruin-Deer and it's herd lay down to rest and sleep. But even then, Eze did not release the arrow, still opting to wait.
Three hours thirty two minutes.
The Ruin-Deer, now asleep, suddenly the deer's ear twitched. Eze could see everything in camera, and at that point.
He waited
'not yet'
'definitely not yet' he thought, making sure not to leak out any form of killing intent as he held his bow. Then another twitch again, this time, much more violent. On the third twitch about thirty minutes later...
Twhuu!!!
In that instant, Eze poured all his Quather into his right hand and let it flow into the arrow, before letting it loose.
The arrow flew in such a straight precise line, it almost became a stream of light. It didn't make a sound where it flew, and covered the entire distance between Eze and the Deer. But once it got into 30 metres of the deer, it almost unrealistically aroused from its sleep and tilted its head sideways.
The arrow embedded itself into its shoulder, entirely missing its jugular where it was originally going for. It's actions immediately awakened the females, who bellowed in fright so loud, the whole forest could hear it.
They soon took to their hooves, running down the hill of the water fall with such ease as a mountain goat.
Eze instantly grabbed his weapon box, strapped on his shoulder with one hand, and then jumped...
He put Quather in his leg muscles, launching himself into the night sky, like a phantom, he moved with such speed he would have been mistaken for a shadow.
'Now the real work begins, chasing prey'
He dashed towards where the herd were in less than 2 minutes, but most of their tracks were long gone. But Eze wasn't perturbed by this, heck this would make his job easier. He walked towards where the male was sitted throughout their stay and began to sniff the air. Then he sniffed down the hill and although the river water smell almost drown his senses their close to the water fall, he was able to still follow the scent of the Ruin-Deer herd.
He back pedalled at first, before running off the edge, diving straight down towards the waterfall below in a fabulous eagle dive. He resurfaced after a few seconds, his clothes soaked.
'Good thing these are wash and wears he thought to himself. He then found the hooves of the Ruin-Deer going into the forest ahead of him, away from the river bend. Eze began to slowly trot, following his sense of smell and the physical evidence in form of the hooves. He made sure to be careful of other wildlife that could stop him momentarily, avoid some very strong Evo-Beasts that had their residence in this dense forest.
He tracked for over one hour, before he noticed the hooves begin to separate.
'As I expected, they really do abandon the females in time of crisis ' Eze thought as remembered the information his mother compiled about this creatures habits from his mother's journals.
Ruin-Deer are not very social creatures per se. Let's just say, they can be humanlike when it comes to stabbing a friend or family in the back in order to survive...
This was exactly what happened as he saw the dispersing hooves.
"But what they don't know, it's that I have a nose" Eze sniffed again, slowly opening his sinuses, and channeling the Males smell from memory. He looked at a path just west of him and nodded. He then went into that direction, his bow drawn.
***
In a large expanse of trees and rocks, the forest gave way to mountains and hill. This particular area was writhe with wildlife of Evo-Beasts and plants which seemed to cling to the mountain base, giving it a lush blue colouration. The blue sun rose from the east, painting this mountain with a tapestry of beauty.
Just trotting from the forest, the male Ruin-Deer slowly trotted out from within. It was almost daybreak and yet, it's danger senses tingling, telling it that a predator was following it. It's white fur now stained with blood, flesh and mucus draining out from the wound of the arrow that was still embedded on it.
At first, it had thought it'd escaped its pursuer, it even used the divide the herd strategy to startle and throw off its predator. But it seemed to not be able to cut off this tail.
The poison on the other hand, had virtually weakened it. It almost couldn't even run as it wearily found a tree nearby. It used its body to rub the tree, removing the arrow stuck in its skin below the fur.
Black blood and pus oozed out of its wound, giving a foul smell that poured out. It then found a spot to lay down for a time, slowly circulating it's Quather instinctively as a way to heal the wound.
But then, a tree branch snapped. It turned it's head to look at what was behind it.
And behind it was no other than Eze, who looked weary of tracking and following this Evo-Beast. But in the end he smiles
"Got ya!"