"Predator?!" He had to speak up to hear himself, and Garrett shifted his head behind him. Anything that could mute the world had to be dangerous.

  "Bandersnatch, it's close! They hunt in pairs! Oe, and you're done!" Garrett hand-signaled people to move to the lights, and everyoayed close, running to safety.

  "Soft spots?!" Shawn called out.

  "Don't bother with the skull, it's as strong as magisteel! Aim at the neck or the hips on the rear legs!"

  Shawn could feel his heart rate rise, and he pushed more energy from his core down to his hand, nurturing a baby fme in his grip. a tiny trickle of power made the journey while he cocked back the hammer, looking for motion. Trying to hear the sound of a predator taking slow, stalking steps.

  There was no stalking or subtlety as the primal scream from before perforated the air. Like the shriek of the mythical ba filled him with immense horror, and Telga fired off one of her illuminating globules above them, breaking the darkness of the forest with a burst of light that illuminated almost as clear as day.

  Two creatures were already loping forward and broke out into a sprint, now that they seheir prey was almost out of their grasp. Jeweled eyes glistened with malevolence, six-limbed creatures with razor-sharp talons, and a whiplike tail that zipped behind them. their maw was nothing but teeth. Deadly, serrated teeth, jutting forward from their mouth, gave it a primal, but errifying bite as they split off at the response of gunfire, and one well-aimed light spear that Telga heaved with precision. the on gnced off the shoulder of one, but found no purchase, and they dove into the underbrush, deep and undisturbed, hem.

  "Everyoo town, tight formation!" Garrett's voice still sounded distant, like a bad audio signal in a remion, and Shawn straio see where the threat was. He had to rely on his vision on this one, and he eled more power to his arm, feeding the fire that burst into a ing ball of fme, burning brighter and more violently.

  This was different from the fixed amounts he'd fired off with the fire darts. This was simir to the freezing stream he fired with the ice gestalt--a stant stream of power, c from his core th his body. It was not as intense as the burst power required for the darts, but he could feel a tiny trickle of fatigue slowly building. He hadn't fully recovered yet, but this would have to do. He sent out a surge of fme, elong the energy like he would with a pressurized fluid system, trying to flush out the creatures. Some of the underbrush was dry and caught fme. It would force the creatures to aow, or there would be a wall of fire quickly building, c the people they were stalking.

  But, it wasn't enough. There was a scream, a sudden lunging mohat grabbed one of the survivors, and dragged them bato the woods--all ihan a sed, from the opposite side he'd lit up. He k was too te when he heard a death scream--and then abruptly stopped in a ch of bone.

  "Movement right!" he screeched out, throwing out a cast of fme and expending what little stamina he had, right at where the Bandersnatch had been. The sudden inferno caused the creature to snarl, their easy kill interrupted and the intense fmes forced them bato cover, deeper in the woods and trailing embers on their fur. He extinguished the fme and grabbed the revolver with both hands, feet pnted, and took a slow breath even though his heart was beating in overdrive.

  The on bucked in his hands two times. He heard the thunk as the rounds hit the creature oreat, and it screeched in fury, the sound of rustling underbrush being overwhelmed by the crag fire.

  "Shawhat fire going!" Garrett called out, the muffled dampening on his hearing now less intehe survivors were on a full-tilt run toward stone and steel walls he could just make out, lights going up from the nearby town and the screeore Aveeran taking flight in the gloom of the evening. He ran at a breakneck pace, wishing he'd gotten a crash course--no pun intended--of flying.

  Regia fluttered into position by his back, dousing the fmes so it wouldn't turn into a forest fire. He lowered his on and nodded, all the while falling back. That muted sound was intense--she tapped his shoulder for emphasis, and he khe danger was right on top of them.

  The sed creature almost caught him off guard--he mao sm one fire bolt into the creature while Regia hit it with a bst of water, disrupting its leaping strike. The Bandersnatch smmed into the side of a tree, He swore he felt that monster's talons clip just by his feathery crest a sed prior, but it was back up on its feet, snarling and rushing their position again.

  He fired out of rea, aiming at the broad chest. Regia had grabbed her rifle and fired, hitting. The rounds didn't do enough damage as the creature shrieked and tried to luer them again. They both hopped backward, out e as deadly cws raked across the air.

  "Up and away Shawn!" Regia screamed out, using her hydro bst to knock it away, and then she used her wings t up along a tree trunk, climbing with incredible speed. with the tightness of the forest here, it was impossible to spread his wings. He eled every bit of strength he had into the leap, having the mind to holster the pistol before he did. He felt a gng strike as talons raked by his leg, boung off the armored leggings--it still felt like a red hot pain on his leg as he scrambled up the trunk, watg the creature leap up almost twice its body length and nearly got him again, but it failed to find a grip and tumbled to the ground below, where it screeched angrily.

  He couldn't fly quite yet, but his fingers and legs did find purchase in the deep grooved bark of the tree. It leaped again, treng its cws into the bark, and gaining on him.

  "Shawn, cover!" he held his body as close to the trunk as he could, digging cws in for dear life as she khe creature away. It was relentless in its pursuit, and a third tumble finally dissuaded it. He wasted no time to scramble the remaining distance.

  He saw Regia mantle up to a thick cross-limb, while more Aveeran poured in from the town, armed with gestalts glowing and rifles firing. Shawn saw Telga fire off anht globule to mark off the creature's position.

  The unfiving fire forced the moo retreat, trailing blood. He aimed the revolver once more and fired the st two rounds, hitting it in the back where they impacted in small trickles of blood. It finally succumbed to the numerous rounds, and colpsed, screeg before the screeches faded to a low, wheezing gasp.

  He doubted he got the kill on it, but it felt like immense relief, knowiaken a stand against something deadlier than himself and survived.

  Regia steadied him from his perched position, hand firmly on his shoulder, and examined him with fasation. "Damn, I think you're alright, Shawn! You might make a det Aveeraually!"

  He let out a panting ugh; now that adrenaline wasn't p his as, he felt shaky as he dug his cws into the rough textured bark. "Ah shit, that was...is it always like this here?" His heart rate still felt like a jackhammer in his chest, and his hands were shaky. No outdoors trip he'd made in his life had e close to this level of danger, willingly pursued.

  "No. They smelled the blood. We got unlucky, I think I saw the other mate of the pair take someone...chasms take them," she cursed, and heaved from exhaustion. a few embers trailed up from the ground. "Cire got to the gate, she's alright by the way, I saw her there."

  "Let me catch my breath...I'm tapped out on near-death enters for a day."

  A few mier, the massive steel-reinforced gate, easily two stories tall, was creaked open with a grinding of gears and a flywheel spinning distantly. Shawn and the others were greeted by several members of a militia, armed with more of the lever a rifles, and a few revolver-type ons–just like Regia’s. The firearm’s tech was distinct–turn of the tury, but powerful ons heless, minus the strange alchemical rounds they used

  People in white-banded uniforms atteo the wounded and ushered them to safety; most of the buildings were made of stone, and peared to be crete reinforced buildings, with occasional timber ats. The color of the wood matched the heavens-spanning trees and looked like a froed, but serviceable. He would have sworn he was witnessing a time capsule of the wild west...but on an alien world.

  A taller Aveeran stepped forward, dressed in the vest and tan-colored fatigues of the militia; he was muscur, broad-winged, and with the arkings of a golden eagle, plete with golden-colored eyes. He held a small pipe at the er of his beak, gripped tightly as he moved past his rades, and approached Telga.

  “Are you alright, Telga? What happened?!” he called out.

  “They…” Telga looked like the weight of the events caught up with her–it wasn’t the trek, the debris burning up in orbit, or the beleaguered looks on the survivor's faces. It was the sight of this man she knew and reized, that finally broke her will. Shawn saw her slump, her wings held at cockeyed angles. “We didn't stand a ce.”

  The man said nothing more, and tucked his pipe into a vest pocket, befiving Telga a reassuring hug, head bowed low. “Ah, damn it all. Is there no p this bsted jigsaw puzzle of a world that’s safe, then? Not even those orbital moons?”

  “They took losses. They bled for it,” Shawn stated quietly. The ma go of Telga, haing on his pistol, and he peered at Shawn intensely. He took a sniff of him and tilted his head. It was a little awkwardly close, but Shawn stood his ground. Maybe it was a cultural thing.

  “I don’t reize you. Are you one of Revarik’s zealots?” That telling statement was troubling, and suggested Telga had plenty to worry about.

  “Point me in the dire of that smokey-shaped bastard, so I kill him. The name’s Shawn, by the way. Of Earth. I'm a bit of a way from home, let's say. I also perform extermination of mutated murder cats.”

  "Bandersnatch," Garrett corrected.

  The man regarded this, beak ched tightly. Several tense seds went by, as the newer peered at him, examining his injuries and sooty feathers. “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because you'll listen to me, Varrick,” Telga scolded. “This young man put himself at grave risk for all of us.”

  “That a fact?” He sounded skeptical, before turning back to Shawn, a slight creasing of his beak as he smiled. “You look like shit.”

  “Yeah, you would too. I had a close call with someorying to roast me like a game hen. He didn't even have the courtesy of seasoning me beforehand,” Shawn stated ftly, gauging the rea from the newer. "Also, this forest is hel dangerous."

  Varrick gri this, reached out, and gave him a bear hug that left him short of breath. “Wele to Remaria, son, where iion is only the fourth leading cause of death!”

  “What are the top three?” he asked with a wheeze. He was rethinking the whole 'hollow boheory because Varrick was strong.

  “Predators, enviroal hazards, and belligerent Radiants," the broad shouldered warrior responded in a hearty voice.

  Shawn could feel Telga's gre b through both of them as he failed to stifle an ill-timed ugh.

  Cats sna birds. These ones are bigger and meaner...

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