Bab 26: Recklessness
The race to the crag ended up being easier than Rackshar had predicted. He assumed the Elder Athonex was either so old it was senile, or it had a mental disease of some kind, since at no point did it change up its strategy no matter how many times it failed.
It would fire a sapling at Rackshar every few seconds while it continued to pursue him. It was so predictable that Rackshar only had to use an explosion to dodge the second shot. After that, he didn't need the help to evade every single attack it threw at him.
Rackshar was worried that the Elder Athonex would out pace him easily with its huge body and long legs, but thick trees of the forest kept it from moving too fast. It would try to avoid hitting the trees as it moved, causing it to zig zag slightly as it pursued him.
When there was no way for its legs to go around the trees, the Elder Athonex would knock them over with its brute force. This would further slow down its pursuit and also caused its aim with its spikes to falter. It was trying to navigate through the forest and shoot something that was the size of an ant, from its perspective. This led to Rackshar's journey to the crag to be fairly simple.
When he was almost to the crag he raced up to a tree and tore its base apart with an explosion.
'4 left.' he thought, calculating his limited resources.
As the tree began to fall toward the crag, Rackshar scrambled up its trunk, taking advantage of its increasing angle to use a mix of climbing and running. Rackshar steadied himself when the tree crashed against the face of the crag and as it began to slide to the side he jumped and landed 20 meters up the 50-meter craig.
Once he solidified his grip, he threw himself to the side, grabbing on to a small ledge jutting out from the rock face. Rock shards sprayed his face causing several cuts as a sapling pierced the rock face just to his left.
Despite the blood running into his eyes, a smile light up Rackshar's face. He quickly swung back over to the stake sticking out of the crag and used it to jump a few meters up, catching himself on the rocky cliff.
Despite seeing this the Elder Athonex continued it barrage, allowing Rackshar to repeat his climbing method all the way to the top.
As Rackshar reached the top, he stood on the edge and laughed while looking down to taunt his climbing partner.
"HAHAHAH! Thanks, you stupid turtle! I couldn't have done it withou..."
Rackshar's words were cut short as he dropped to the rocky surface, another tree ballista sailing over him.
"Damn turtle." he muttered getting to his feet and walking away from the edge to avoid more attacks.
Rackshar sat down and began to wipe the blood off his face, and he began prodding his ribs to see if any of them were loose, since he couldn't feel any pain.
The groaning sounds of the Athonex's drifted through the air further annoying him as he continued his barbaric attempts at first aid.
"Shut up! Or, better yet, go away!" He shouted for no real purpose, since the athonex couldn't understand him.
When the groans did in fact stop Rackshar stopped what he was doing and craned his head to the side, trying to hear better.
"That couldn't have worked." He said under his breath, as he got up to check the situation.
Walking up to the edge Rackshar took in the scene below and couldn't help laughing out loud, eliciting another spike from below.
Even as he rolled away from the edge a smile never left his face. Since the Elder athonex couldn't climb the crag it had sent 5 of its children to climb up. Since they were much lighter and the crag was quite rocky, their Creeping Vines cores would allow them to ascend.
"Couldn't find them for 3 days and now they are crawling to me to be killed. Finally, my luck has returned." Rackshar said as he pulled the knife from his belt.
He positioned himself right above one of the athonexs and waited for it reach the top. Just as its head cleared the ledge Rackshar quickly rammed the knife into its eye and gave it a sharp twist.
The light quickly left the one remaining eye of the athonex as it lost control of its vines and plummeted back down to the forest below.
"No!" Rackshar cried, scrambling to catch it as it fell. He watched it hit the ground, his hand still outstretched, as if he could raise it back up if he just held it there a little longer. He pulled his arm back, sighing deeply. He hadn't thought that all the way through.
"What a waste." he said, knowing that those cores were beyond his reach, falling directly under the now even more enraged Elder athonex.
Rackshar quickly turned and ran to the next athonex that had just appeared above the ledge.
Learning from his mistakes, Rackshar allowed this one to finish getting on the crag before attacking it. That turned out to be an equally bad mistake.
Once it got its front two legs onto the top instead of pulling itself the rest of the way up, the athonex swung around, pivoting its body on its front two legs. This surprised Rackshar who was standing directly in front of it.
Its shell smashed into his abdomen, further damaging his ribs, and sending him sprawling several meters away.
Pulling himself to his feet, Rackshar muddy face shone with a dangerous light. During this day he had been sent tumbling to the ground more times than he could count. He had tripped on roots, stumbled on rocks and shrubs and been forced to roll around to dodge his enemy's attacks. Worst of all, he had now even taken a direct hit that had disrupted his plans.
Rackshars rage blinded him even more than the greed that had made him allow the athonex to get into a position to attack him.
With a roar of fury, he charged at the advancing athonex. As the expected barrage of spikes came flying at him Rackshar used the same trick he performed to kill his first athonex.
The explosion launched at the ground sent him soaring over the spikes and he once again landed on the athonex's shell. The poor beast didn't even have a chance to grunt before its head disappeared in a cloud of gore.
Rackshar felt sated, bathing in the blood of an enemy that had so humiliated him. He relished that feeling as he lifted up his head to the sky, while the increasing rain began to wash the carnage from his face.
Unfortunately, that feeling was quickly disappeared when his instincts sent alarms ringing in his brain and he quickly rolled to the side...again.
As Rackshar righted himself he saw that his little moment had allowed the remaining athonexs to finish their climb. He was now faced with three snarling faces spread out over a dozen meters. Every single one of which was looking at the body of their fallen kin with red tinted eyes.
"Dammit." Rackshar muttered.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
ShadowOfEmbers
ShadowOfEmbers Merry Christmas!
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