บท 97: First contact

A male rixis by the name of the Iron Claw was currently wondering what he could do as at this moment an enemy was behind him getting ready to kill him. Now if you're wondering why iron claw was even out in the winter forest and close to being killed it was because his tribe believed a great enemy would soon come.

All prey in the forest was starting to dissipate as the population slowly went down and all that was left was blood-covered snow and savaged fur.

Already it was quite concerning as the rixis were natural hunters and even they couldn't find anything so far and this troubled them greatly.

Iron Claw went out just to catch a simple meal to eat like a small rabbit or a wild monster if it was small enough but he now was in a fight to the death.

He now had two options he could jump forward and turn around and hope to get some distance and find out who his new prey was. That would try to fight and challenge him or he could try to turn around quickly and attack the prey first and hope to end this fast.

A decision was easy and he chose the first as he didn't know how strong his unknown foe was and quickly jumped over the bush. In front of him and rolled through the snow and bolted up and turned around as fast as he could and held his spear in hand.

The first thing he saw was when looking at the beast whose razor-sharp fangs were current in the space where his arm was before he jumped. The Canine beast had dark red skin that was coarse and rough as 3 orange-slitted eyes were looking at him.

The beast's paws cushioned 3 sharp and cured claws that could slice through flesh and bone like butter as the sharp and quick exhales of the beast left steam coming out of its mouth.

Iron Claw could tell this prey would not be an easy hunt as he could see the compact and powerful muscles all over its body.

Many things can go through a hunter's mind when faced with wild animals and can all have different ways of approaching a threat. His grip tightens on his spear as he gets ready to thrust and stab his spear into the beast mostly likely the target being its eyes.

The red beast snorted and growled as saliva dripped out of its jaw as its claws dug into the ground before it began to charge at the lone jackrixis.

Iron Claw decided to doge to get a better grasp of what he was fighting and quickly realized this monster had a lot of power. In its body and jaw for fast bursts of movement and powerful bites which would do well together to kill most things in its path.

Iron Claw dodged 2 more times but even so the beast managed to catch his leg causing a wide cut on his leg that slowly dripped blood onto the snow below.

This was back and forth as the beast seemed to get more and more enraged and savage as foam started coming out of its mouth and it was hungry for blood.

Luckily for iron claw, this meant that the beast complete stop doing it and went into a full berserker state as he managed to get it to smash into some of the smaller trees and become covered in splinters.

This didn't stop the beast and just made it more enraged as it ran much faster than before and slammed into the rixis who had started to get tired.

Iron Claw got a slash to his cheek from his jaw to the corner of his eye as he used his spear to keep the large teeth from sinking into his throat.

He took a risk and took one of his hands off the spear causing the jaw to get closer to him and the beast's eyes to glare into his own. He then slammed his fist into the side of the beast multiple times until it relented and let go of its chance to bite his head off. He then swung his spear to the side and slashed at one of its eyes causing the beast the roar in pain as the eye split in two with blood gushing out of it.

Taking this opportunity he got back up and made sure he stay in the small blind spot that the most eye create though it did little because of the other 2.

Iron Claw was most surprised that the beast still wanted to fight and had not run away showing that the beast wasn't going to fight another day unless he was killed.

Possibly a chance of giving up and fleeing the beast slowly walked back as it looked at its surroundings before charging at Iron Claw giving him a small shock. As he hadn't found any creature that would try to fake him out and try to trick him into lowering his guard so he had to defend against the beast once again.

This went on for far longer than the rixis was comfortable for with the blood on his leg drying up but the new cuts on his arm and face making up for the blood loss. The beast wasn't doing any better as one of the ligaments in its leg was cut and could now only stumble using 3 legs.

Iron Claw just wanted to end this fight and go home to his tribe so he decided to use the bush he had hidden behind before and started to taunt the beast.

He slowly moved to be in front of the bush as he taunted and tried to annoy and anger the beast which worked as it roared at him. And charged as he jumped out of the way losing a toe as the beast bit it off while it jumped at him and as he tried to get out of the way.

The beast crashed into the center of the bush as it tried to get out it realized the branches and other materials caused it to be stuck. Its low energy and wounds left it with barely any strength left and this is all he needed to start stabbing the beast.

After a minute of relentless attacks, he mostly aimed for its belly where the armor and skin were the thinnest, and soon the beast was dead.

Iron Claw slumped down next to a tree his vision blurred as he swayed and a great weight came upon him as he breathed in as much air as he could.

Once he was unconscious 2 jackrixis came from the shadows of the trees and pick up their friend and took him home after watching him fight and won.

They would need to tell others about the new beast that had been slayed which could pose a challenge to the jackrixis.

They took him back home and got him some food and water and did their best to patch up his wounds and just hope he could make it through. One of the friends went back to the site but couldn't find the beast's body which seemed to have been taken.