Tenebris' Light (Part 1 in Telestai Timeline)

Chapter 3

I shift in the grass, scanning the area for movement. My hands are fixed tightly to the gun, my eyes dance back and forth along the tree line. I've been sitting for so long I can only feel the cold stock against my temple and cheek as I stare down the glossy scope.
I'm out of the Floating District now, I'm in my casual hunting spot, the Arkast District. I've been here about an hour, nothing yet. These days the Market District's food industry is in high demand, so lots of people have been showing up in the market, which means someone will have my spot, which I can't accept. I'm gonna have to shoot something, today, hopefully in the next hour or two.
I usually hunt for deer, turkey, or moose, and because the Arkast District is part of ancient Canada, it won't be too hard.
I said earlier that security is slowing down, so I brought my PDM cannon; which is strapped handy to my right thigh.
Word is getting out about the security failures, and as it turns out, I wasn't the only one to go for the O button in the past few days.
I've been hearing that three types are getting out. Rootnac (human bear lizard hybrid), Scantacts (human crocodile hawk hybrid), and Mantacts (human bear rhino hybrid). The Mantacts are a very deadly species. I hear the Scantacts have been preying on small children and house pets like cats and dogs. They've been getting in through the Ruin District, and migrate into the Market District and into the Stalicye District. Fortunately no one lives in those districts.
The names are pretty exotic, as I'm sure you've noticed. Decades ago, when DM was everywhere, they inhabited those districts. Like humans, they have races, more like species, well actually more like sexes. Any form of DM can inhabit any living body, but there are different branches of DM. The different branches lived in the districts, and we we refer to the districts by the branches that lived there. Stalicye, Ruin, Arkast, Kaiyano, Shalicyn. The other districts are just names that the humans gave them.
Shit
I freeze, pausing my breathing. After an hour, somethings here. I just gotta stay quiet, it can't know that I'm here.
It's a buck. Seven feet tall, thirteen point, facing just away from me. The genetic mutations in deer have changed just about everything about them in the last few centuries.
I pull back the bolt, even though I know there's a bullet in the chamber. I steady myself, letting the crosshairs rest on the deer's head as it leans over to eat. I suck in a breath of air, and breathe out as my finger wraps around the trigger. I prepare to fire, until a loud 'whoosh' sound cuts through the air, and stood suddenly as the buck falls, dead.
What the fuck? I never fired. I guess I wasn't the first one to get to it. Damnit.
I breathe out, letting the energy in my body leave. I get on one knee from my prone and stand the rifle on the back of its stock. I look around, trying to see another hunter, but I don't see anyone. Bastard must've sniped that buck in a pretty good spot.
An ear ripping screech tears it's way through the forest, and I drop my stomach.
A beast steps out from behind a few trees to my left. It's got some kind of armour plates covering most of its body, grown naturally. And underneath it has black, scaly skin the glows purple. Its at least ten feet tall, roughly three times my size. It's a DM creature, but it's foreign. I've never seen anything like it. From what I'm seeing, maybe a turtle human lion hybrid?
I roll to my left into some tall grass nearby and watch its movements, its powerful fluid movements. It's hand lifts slowly, showing four claw like figures, but there's an empty socket where the index finger is missing. It howls as another purple claw seems to grow out of the socket. I shiver.
I've had my fair share of DM encounters, mostly Rootnacs and phantacs, which are bird snake hybrids. I killed a Scantact once before I came to the Floating District. I don't like thinking about those times.
The creature shivers and stares down at the buck, and my eyes follow. The buck has a stab wound in its neck, blood slowly leaking out of it.
The creature leans over to pick it up. Wait, I need that deer. What is wrong with me, I should be scared shitless, running away screaming like a little girl. But I'm not, I'm really confident. I'm gonna get that fucking deer, plus what an experience it would be.
That's one of my traits, I have overwhelming confidence, always hungry for more thrill, at whatever cost. It's not always a good thing, like now. I could easily die if I do this, but I'd rather walk away with another DM kill on my belt and keep my business than run away with nothing at all.
Okay, let's drop this ugly fucker.