Beast In The Woods

The Hunter Hunts

The Hunter stood over the two incapacitated villains as they were tied up by Mandalay and Tiger. The Hunter was sniffing the air back and forth as he tried to decide where to go first. Two tendrils absent-mindedly stretched out and took a blade from the sword and a chunk of something from the other villain's tool. He ignored what the others were saying as he guessed at least fourteen unknown entities near his pack or around them. He also caught the scent of something sweet that caused his nose to twitch.

"At least fourteen, including those two." The Hunter said out loud.

Everyone in the cleaning quieted, and Mandalay was first to speak in a panic. "Kota! Kota is at his camp! Izuku-" She shouted out, but he was already gone after hearing the first word out of her mouth.

"Iida, run back to the camp and alert the others there we are under attack!" Tiger ordered.

Iida nodded and sprinted off at full speed. Mandalay turned to Kouda after sending a message to the student to retreat to the campsite. "Talk to as many critters to help however you can." Kouda nodded and shouted out to the forest for their help. Only one small squirrel came out, and it looked more skittish than normal. After Kouda spoke to it for a moment, Mandalay spoke with a frown. "What's wrong?"

Kouda turned to her. "They're all scared to leave their homes. I think it's Izuku." He said hesitantly.

The Hunter sprinted on all fours to where he knew where Kota was. He could smell the cub in his peaceful spot with another bloodstained smell. He doubled his speed and focused on his prey. He had to trust his pack to be strong enough to take care of themselves for the time being. The Hunter broke out of the trees and found Kota backing away from a large blond man raising his fist to strike the young boy.

With a roar of challenge, the Hunter launched himself off a tree with enough force to shatter the bark. The Hunter collided with the man and rolled on the ground with him until they came to a stop. He aimed his clawed fingers at the villain's neck, but he was thrown off by hundreds of muscle strands emerging from his body. The Hunter landed on his clawed feet and was crouched down with his tail whipping at the air in anger.

"You! How Lady Luck decided to bless me this day! You're on the list, but first, let's see how strong you really are?!" The blond muscular villain shouted.

Kota stood in terror behind a beast and the monster who took away his parents. "Kota, run. I will find you." He flinched at the dozen voices that came from the beast. He didn't hesitate and turned to run.

"Get back here, brat!" The villain shouted after Kota as he began to run as fast as he could.

The Hunter intercepted the villain from leaping over him to get to the small child. With a roar of anger, he caught Muscular and began to claw at his chest as the Hunter's tail whipped around and slashed where he could. Muscular punched down to get rid of the beast but he was faster and crawled around to his back. The ground shook as they landed in a heap but the Hunter recovered faster. The beast leaped back onto Muscular back and tore at the thick layers of muscle. His spear-tipped tail cut deeply into the flesh but no real damage was done. Muscular struggled to get him off his back until he got ahold of his tail.

The Hunter jammed his hands deep into Muscular's back as he was jerked to the side by his tail. He had the tail stabbed at the hand and he managed to show real blood. This spurred the Hunter on and used his now-freed tail to stab at the limbs. Muscular dropped to one knee from one particular spear to the leg. More and more blood came from the multiplying wounds until Muscular grew in rage and threw himself backward with all the speed he could to smash the Hunter between the wall of flesh and the cliff wall.

The Hunter felt his spine break at the impact and he quickly repaired it before Muscular turned around grabbed at him and began punching repeatedly at the Hunter. The small mountain began to crumble around them from each impact but the Hunter didn't give up. He used a tendril to stab at Muscular's neck.