Shaman Sniper Ch 3 – "Wild at Heart"

By – Skandranon

Summary – One practice of real world shaman is shapeshifting, where you behave like an animal to take on its spirit and strength. Adapt it to a fantasy world, and you get this.

When I hunt in the training center, I don't take any magics or Guardian Forces. Just my gunblade and some healing potions. T-rexaurs don't act as much of a challenge anymore, and grats are so pitiful I sometimes don't even bother to kill them.

So there I was, unjunctioned, no magic, only one elixer, and my left leg was aching a bit. And there was Irvine, in a similar predicament, but had just run out of ammo. We had decided that when he finished off the rounds, we would go to lunch. My stomach thoroughly agreed with this idea.

How a behemoth got into the Training Center, I have no idea.

It was between us and the way out, and it had definitely spotted us. There was no chance of us taking this thing down without GFs or backup, but the closest emergency radio was also on the other side of the beast.

My plan was for us to split up and hide in the trees, hope it would get bored and chase larger game. I whispered this to Irvine, not taking my eyes off the monster. It didn't look angry, threatened, or hungry, just curious. So maybe we wouldn't die just yet.

I didn't get a response. Irvine wasn't there anymore.

Thinking he'd made a run for it like I'd suggested, I bolted for the foliage, ignoring the pain in my leg as best I could.

I made it halfway before the behemoth decided I was good target practice.

I woke up to a splitting headache, a burning sensation in my shoulders, and a lack of feeling in my legs. Taking stock, I realized I was at the foot of a tree, partially hidden by a leafy bush.

My gunblade was wedged pretty deeply in the bark, probably from impact. My shoulder was dislocated, my leg broken, and my elixar smashed. Stupidest thing I ever heard of, putting valuable healing medicine in glass containers. But the behemoth was gone, and I couldn't hear it moving nearby. Something that big, if it moves, you hear it.

Later on, we figured it out. The Garden was parked in Esthar, which is territory for plenty of behemoths. And if one of them decided it wanted into the Training Center, then by Hyne it was coming into the Training Center, impact hull be damned.

Irvine was nowhere to be seen. I only hoped he'd gotten out of it better than I had.

Using the Revolver as a crutch, I stumbled through the center towards the way out. Any grat that dared to get in my way would be a meaty pulp by the time I finished. I was in a very grumpy mood.

Concussions will do that to you.

This was the point where I realized that if a behemoth could get into the center, then maybe smaller, but still dangerous creatures could get in too. Because as soon as I cleared the trees, I found myself standing next to a torama.

Make that five toramas.

Only the one closest had spotted me, but any moment now it would growl and alert the others, and in my condition, I was hardly even an annoyance. I held still, weapons clutched in a death grip, praying it would consider me not worth the effort.

Oddly enough, it did. It rose, padded over to the others, and starting barking orders. The toramas all climbed to their paws and charged… off into the forest directly away from me.

The last one, the one that had spotted me, paused behind the others and glanced back. It gazed at me for the longest second, then did what I had feared. It turned around and came back.

But it stopped ten feet short, lay down, and just…watched me. I stood there for maybe thirty minutes, holding a staring contest with this thing. It didn't show any intentions of wanting to eat me, but then again, it didn't show any intentions of leaving either.

Finally I tried moving, slowly shuffling at an angle to the torama, trying to get to a clearer escape route. Its eyes followed me, but it didn't respond.

I backed up, trying to feel with my feet where I was going, not daring to expose my back to the beast. It just might change it's mind.

Then I heard a very distinct hissing sound behind me. Oh Hyne, not a grat. Not now.

Before I could decide which enemy to face, the torama was up and bounding towards me, claws unsheathed, teeth bared. I shifted my weight off the Revolver and brought it to bear, ready to defend myself.

The torama neatly sidestepped me and tackled the grat.

It took me a moment to figure out what was happening. It had the thing's throat – or what counted as one – ripped out faster than the monster could respond.

But it didn't eat the grat. It sat down next to it, about ten feet away from me, and just watched me.

Now it was between me and my exit, and I knew its game. For some reason, it was playing cat and mouse with me. Emotional torture. Like hell if I was letting a dumb animal torture me.

"Now look here beast. You're between me and my way out. Anything that gets in my way is going to get cut down, and that includes you. So move!"

I swear, the thing laughed at me.

Side note, grats travel in packs. Two more were closing in, one on my left, one behind me. Grats are very stupid creatures that will attack anything, so they weren't frightened away by the torama.

Again the torama lunged towards me, snarling. I wasn't sure if it was going for the grat, but I wasn't taking any chances. I shifted my weight again and held my blade at the ready.

The torama did pass me by in favor of the local wildlife, but I gave in a nasty slash across it's left forepaw. It hissed at me something fierce, but kept after the grat. Once it took it down, it went after the other, completely ignoring the one creature that had given it damage.

Weirdest monster behavior I ever did see.

Well, no. I did see an Imp try to dance once.

The torama chased its prey into the bushes, and it didn't reemerge. After waiting a few minutes, I decided to take the opportunety and hobbled my way for the exit. I made it without anymore fuss, but I kept hearing the sound of dying grats in the bushes.

I called the infirmary, and Kadowaki came down to tend me. A large teem of SeeD came just after, to search the Training Center for Irvine.

It didn't take them long. He strolled up just as they arrived. He had dirt on his coat and sticks in his ponytail, but otherwised he looked fine. "You alright, Squall?"

"Peachy." Kadowaki had just informed me that I couldn't sleep for twenty four hours due to my concussion. I could feel my leg again. I didn't want to anymore. "You?"

He waved a hand vaguely in a gesture that was probably Galbadian for 'you know how it is.' But across the back of his hand was a huge gash, bleeding heavily.

"How'd you get that?"

He blinked, and flipped his hand over to check the damage. "Oh, just fighting what I came across. It's not as bad as it looks. A pretty clean cut." He accepted some gauze from the asst. nurse and started wrapping the wound.

"Fight any torama? The ones I came across were acting strange."

He chuckled. It almost sounded like a purr. "Can't say I did. Mostly fought grats. Rest well, Squall. I'll check on you later." And he strolled out, chucking his empty ammo rounds in the trash bin.