The Last Dainv-SIDE STORY 5 (Formerly chapter 8)

The Last Dainv-SIDE STORY 5 (Formerly chapter 8)

Gale's aching muscles took on another level of soreness that he didn't know was possible. The past few days were a blur.
Wake up. Eat. Dig. Carve. Nail. Set up. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
All he could remember was setting up traps the whole time. There wasn't anything else. No entertainment, not that it was even possible to have any sort of it here in the first place.
"A beast is still a beast, no matter what," he muttered. "No matter what, you ain't smarter than me. Sooner or later, you'll fall."
Each day meant more work on the traps. Snares lined hidden paths. Massive logs waited to be tripped. Larger pitfalls dotted the landscape. The closer to the camp, the more lethal the traps became, and this time, he memorized each location. Only he knew where each trap lay.
Gale tied the last knot to hold up a suspended log. The forest still looked normal. Nothing seemed to have changed. But to him, the traps were everywhere he looked. To the right, a massive snare. To the left, logs that would fall upon tripping the tripwire that came from above.
He imagined himself as a spider that went through the web of traps easily.
"Let's see you shrug any of these off, fugly," he whispered.
His traps were large, bigger than before. Last time, the traps could only take one big truck. This time, they could take at least four or maybe even five big garbage trucks. With the help of Alter and Phase Touch, he was able to create more intricate types of traps that weren't possible without them.
Phase Touch let him join vines seamlessly into tree trunks as well as allowing spikes and spears to stand up on their own by joining them with the dirt, not having to do the manual labour of shovelling. Alter would let him make things smaller to allow him to fit items into tighter spaces.
At first, he worried his traps wouldn't work on the beast. But as days passed, that didn't matter. Even with his earlier traps, it showed pain. He just had to make it bigger. And then one way or another, it would cave to his relentless assault one way or another.
"You're smart, but I'm smarter. I'm already dead to everyone anyway. I've got nothing to lose." Gale stared at the trees beyond.
Time to venture beyond his web of traps. All for revenge.
Gale crouched in the undergrowth, staying silent. His bone armour scraped against each other. One wrong jerky move, and they would clang and give away his position.
Suddenly, he spotted movement. Not the beast he wanted—something smaller, one of the normal ones he'd gotten used to.
He slipped through the underbrush, following it. The smaller beast needed to go before it triggered traps meant for the bigger one.
Gale burst from cover, spear already altered to a small form factor. The beast snapped toward him, teeth bared. He dodged its lunge, rolling under and avoiding the claws by a hair.
From his kneel, he thrust the spear and released Alter. Its shaft went into its flank near the rib cage. It drove deep into the lungs.
The beast roared and twisted, snapping the shaft of the stick.
Gale let go. No point keeping a broken stick. He grabbed another spear from his back, focused Alter, and released immediately. The spear shot into the forest beast's throat.
It tried to roar but only gurgled, then collapsed. Gale stepped back. First time killing a forest beast with no traps. Just him against it.
[Forest Beast felled.]
[Extracting Origin from prey…]
Gale closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of extraction. When he opened them, the beast lay there in a pool of blood.
He had plenty of reserves back at camp. No time to harvest this kill—he had different prey in mind.
He moved quickly through the forest, expanding Breath of the Void to maximum. The skill had grown after getting a Core Part. It was a skill that was essential in a forest where trees blocked his view.
Gale stopped to listen. The forest sounds had stopped. He crouched, pushing more essence into his passive ability.
There.
A faint tremor in the ground. Something big moved nearby.
This was it.
The beast that hunted him, nearly killed him. He took a breath.
He moved forward, following the vibrations that grew stronger with each step. Close now.
There it stood, its back to him. A chance for damage.
Gale altered his spear, aimed at the beast's neck, and released. The spear whistled through the air.
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The whistle alerted the beast. It shifted slightly. The spear hit below its shoulder, digging deep. It roared in pain.
Chaos erupted. The beast turned to chase.
Gale spun and ran. Time to test the traps.
The beast roared. Its steps shook the forest like thunder.
He kept a steady pace, patient, leading the beast through his maze of traps.
The first trap lay just ahead under leaves. He jumped over it and heard ropes snapping one by one. A net of vines shot up, lifting the beast. Not to hurt it. Just to create distance and possibly make it angry. The angrier the better, make it lose its senses.
Gale didn't look back. Every step calculated. He went left, sprinting to the next trap. Passing a marked tree, he grabbed a rope.
He watched the beast, waiting for the exact moment. When it passed a tree with an X, he yanked the rope hard. Sharpened stakes rained from the canopy, covering the clearing. Many embedded in the beast.
It roared in pain but didn't slow. Gale glanced back, seeing the bloody mess from the stakes. The beast looked more angry than hurt. All of the spears that fell on it were mere skin-deep wounds to it. Nothing critical.
He pushed harder, lungs and legs burning. The beast was too close, about to mess up his timing.
A dense thicket ahead offered a hiding spot to recalculate.
He dove in, scratched by thorns. He held his breath while the beast's steps slowed.
The beast sniffed around. It knew this was where its prey had gone. Gale thought it might hear his heartbeat when it looked his way. It circled the thicket, searching.
He stayed still, breathing shallow. The beast stuck its claws into the thicket, missing him by centimetres.
Gale knew he couldn't hide forever. As the beast pulled back its claw, he ran, catching it off guard. The head start was enough to time the next trap.
He sprinted toward a ravine. The next trap waited on the other side. At the edge, he grabbed a vine and swung across. No pause when he landed. No time to be slow.
Behind him, the beast roared. The ravine was too wide for it to jump. It would have to go around, giving him seconds.
He caught his breath. Every chance to recover mattered. No guarantee the beast wouldn't learn after facing so many traps.
Twigs and logs snapped in the distance. The beast had crossed to the other side, creating its own path without care.
Rest over, Gale ran again. He led the beast through smaller tripwire traps that released spears, same as the one before. Pits with thick stakes, which it climbed up with a few spears lodged in its belly. Hidden nets that tangled then rained spears. It slowed it down, but no vital damage was done.
Each little bit of damage slowed and injured the beast bit by bit. This is the only way to win against something that defied logic. Some might call this cowardice, but this was how real hunters worked.
The biggest trap came into view. Most dangerous and complex of them all. If this didn't work, there were less lethal ones close to this one. He wasn't sure whether those would matter to this beast the size of 3 garbage trucks.
He entered a clearing and slowed slightly. The beast needed to be in the exact spot.
It entered the clearing. First, it looked at him, then it charged with a roar.
At the last second, Gale dove aside. He pulled a lever, and the whole clearing collapsed.
The ground under the beast gave way to a deep pitfall lined with bone spears. As it fell, vines snapped, triggering more mechanisms. Logs fell vertically into the pit. Huge boulders crashed down. The beast roared when it hit the stake-covered floor.
"That's a nasty one," Gale muttered.
For a minute, silence.
Then a groan from the pit echoed everywhere, sounding like it came from hell itself.
Gale's eyes widened. This thing had too much fight in it. His dad's lessons weren't working. This beast didn't follow any logic.
It began to climb out, pushing logs and boulders away.
Gale turned and ran deeper into his web of traps. His dad once said humans evolved by chasing prey until it got tired. Now Gale was the one running, but the concept was the same. All he could hope for was to wear the beast down.
He glanced back. The trap had done something after all. The beast now limped instead of running full out. Its roars sounded weaker, more pained. Its confidence gone.
He didn't look back again. The creature's laboured breathing carried even from a distance. The trap worked better than expected. He could now run at a steady pace, though he stayed alert. One slip still meant death.
A thought hit him. If he combined traps with his abilities, it might be enough to stop the beast.
He veered left toward a thicket of trees. He activated Distort, shifting the light a few inches right. To the beast, he'd seem to vanish.
The creature roared as it crashed into a tree, confused by the Distort.
Gale used the chance to climb a nearby tree. From above, he saw the beast's massive form. Its head swung side to side, looking for him, trying to catch his scent.
The beast moved closer to his tree. Gale knew of another trap nearby. Another net trap designed to tangle and confuse. Harmless on its own, but with Phase Touch, it could possibly hurt.
Gale jumped from branch to branch. The beast spotted him and gave chase.
He dropped to the ground with a roll. The trap was close. A few more steps, then he jumped between two trees.
As the beast passed between them, Gale pulled a rope, releasing tension.
A net dropped from above with rocks weighing it down. Gale flew back up to a branch from the counterweight. Just as the net reached the beast, he used Phase Touch on the vine he held. The effect spread through the whole net.
He released the ability when the net touched the beast, partially phasing it into its flesh. The beast roared in pain as the net wrapped around it and merged with its body.
Gale didn't waste time. He jumped to the next platform. Behind him, the beast thrashed, ripping the net away with bits of its own flesh.
The next trap wasn't meant to be used this way, but he had a new idea to slow the beast even more.
He spotted a giant boulder meant to roll onto a pitfall. Gale positioned himself nearby and waited.
The ground shook as the beast approached, its footsteps now uneven. Trees fell as it carved a path straight toward him, following his scent.
As it burst into the clearing, Gale stood his ground. The beast's jaws opened wide, ready to end the chase. When it got close enough to feel its breath, Gale ducked left, one hand on the boulder.
He used Phase Touch on the boulder. But the beast changed direction too fast.
Gale released Phase Touch, managing only to catch the beast's left hand in the boulder.
The beast roared, nearly deafening him. This one didn't sound threatening. It was tighter, more pained.
Gale slid down from the platform. He now stood in front of his camp near the waterfall. Home base now, filled with traps.

SIDE STORY 5 (Formerly chapter 8)