Chapter 2: Just Another Day in Paradise.
The blade glanced off metal making a shower of sparks as Tik eleth struck to the bad blood's side, he roared in frustration and swung one of his large arms in a wide arc which connected with her side, the blow sent Tik eleth sprawling backwards into the mud of the forest floor with a heavy thud, the impact caused her mandibles to snap together sending a flash of pain through her face like a flash of light, immediately her highly honed instincts told her to roll to one side and she chose left.
Just as she completed the roll there was a sticky sounding thud from behind her, glancing back she saw the male had driven his large spear into the ground where only milliseconds ago she'd occupied, he roared in frustration again, Tik eleth knew that as poor an excuse for a male as he was she was not going to be able to match him for strength, she was going to have to rely on her wits and her speed to win this one.
Quickly she rolled again this time using the momentum to spring up onto her feet and immediately dashed right, she could see his plasma casters swiveling to acquire her now rapidly moving form, one was swiveling left while the other was going right and if she carried this course they would trap her in the middle, changing track she slid into a swift but rather graceful swing, now moving towards the surprised male who was turning to face her having just freed his spear staff from the mud, as she sprinted she dipped low at just the right time causing the twin fizzing plasma bolts to sail right over her back, on her high speed approach she noticed a potential opening and swung for it with her blades, one glanced harmlessly off his armor but the other connected sending a jet of glowing blood onto the muddy forest floor.
The male roared in pain as Tik eleth's blade sliced effortlessly through the flesh of his right leg, he struggled to remain balanced as the wound weakened his right leg, sensing a second opening emerging in his shaky balance Tik eleth again changed direction from her circular sprint and again charged right at the male, this time he saw her coming and swiped at her with his now fully extended wrist blades, but as he saw his blades about to connect with the side of her head she disappeared in front of his eyes, but before his brain was able to process this a sharp pain shot the entire length of his left arm causing it to fall limply to his side, glancing down in confusion he saw the entire right side of his armor was now painted with glowing blood, his glowing blood,
Somehow she'd not only managed to duck below his blow but had sliced through the tendons directly under his arm in the weak spot of his arm pit with one of those daggers.
Tik eleth spun on her heels to face the male, the entire left side of his body was near enough crippled from the two precision blows that she'd delivered, his arm hung limply at his side and his leg was coiled up as he was balancing on his toes placing his weight on his other foot, "Shadow claw WHORE!! I will drown you in your own blood! , I will fuck your skull as I polish it to hang on my wall!!" he roared at her,
Tik eleth simply clicked her mandibles in annoyance at him, but her confidence nearly cost her greatly as in the last second she noticed that his plasma casters had locked onto her.
Diving forwards throwing herself to the ground she felt the heat of one of the bolts as it screamed past her head, the other one was a bit lower somehow the male had anticipated her dive direction and the bolt slammed into the top of her shoulder sending a searing pain through her left side, the impact broke her dive and sent her flying backwards slamming her into the trunk of a rather large tree with a sense jarring thud, Tik eleth's head sagged as it swam with a whirlpool of pain, frustration and also a little fear.
Giving herself a mental slap she forced herself to roll away from the tree trunk, once again her instincts proved spot on as milliseconds later it was impacted by two plasma bolts in exactly the spot where she'd been sat.
Quickly pushing herself into a second roll she was able to regain her footing and started moving again, she dared not look down at the wound that her shoulder had received, she knew it was bad as not many took a direct hit from a plasma caster and lived to tell the tale, so the fact that it had just clipped her shoulder was a blessing and if she could still move then she could still fight, using the adrenaline rush that the pain and the fear had brought on Tik eleth sprinted towards the male, she needed to close the gap so that he couldn't use those fucking plasma casters, and so that her daggers would be effective.
Moving around to the male's crippled side she pivoted in at full speed, he roared at the top his lungs as he saw her coming and whirled his spear staff at her trying to catch her legs with its razor sharp edges, with high speed precision Tik eleth dodged over it and in the instant she did she spotted an opening, the male whirled the staff at her again in another sweeping arc and as he did Tik eleth dove over it into a forward roll popping up right next to the male, his surprise was evident even though she couldn't see his face through the hunting mask, with all her speed and strength Tik eleth plunged the long jagged blade of her dagger straight through the gap in between his chest armor and the hunting mask.
A jet of bright green blood sprayed from the massive wound in the male's neck as Tik eleth tore the blade from his neck, dropping his spear the male grabbed at his mortally wounded throat with his working hand as jets of blood sprayed between his massive fingers, he spun in a full circle like a lazy drunk trying to find his footing before falling to his knees in the mud.
Rising to her full height of 6ft 10 inches Tik eleth turned to face the stricken male who was now on his knees, to her amazement he began to laugh,
"You may have bested me Shadow Claw whore but my brothers will come and one way or another they will end you!, you'll never leave this planet except maybe with your head mounted to a fucking wall!" he spat through gurgling breaths,
Tik eleth looked at the stricken male with triumph in her eyes, slowly she approached him with her dagger held to her side now determined to cut his head from his body,
"My name is Tik eleth of the Shadow Clan, daughter of Mak tesha, for four seasons you and the festering bile that you call clan have kept me here in this cess pool you call a preserve, for four seasons you have hunted me like prey and for four seasons I have bested the pauks that you have sent against me, but now with your death I will finally be free of you, I will leave this place and once I find my brothers and sisters we will hunt the bile you call clan down and exterminate your filth from the stars" she said in a calm voice,
the male chuckled again through gurgled coughs each spraying more blood from his neck,
"Oh? And how is my death going to help you do that whore?" he asked sounding quite amused, but she could tell he was fading rather quickly,
"Simple I'm taking your drop ship" she replied with a defiant smile, now his chuckles turned into a full on roar of laugher, Tik eleth's brow furrowed in anger and confusion, here he was dying in the mud like coward and he was laughing?
"That's what you think whore, you'll never leave this place, never!" he bellowed and with that the last of his strength faded and his hand dropped from his throat, swiftly followed by his head which now sagged forwards onto his chest.
Looking at the dead bad blood male Tik eleth couldn't help but wonder what he'd meant by that, but as it turned out she didn't have to wait long or an answer, the computer on his wrist blade started issuing a shrill beeping noise and she knew exactly what that meant, instantly she turned on her heals and started sprinting full tilt into the forest as fast as her legs would carry her, she had barely enough time to dive into the cover of a rock hollow before a crashing boom echoed through the trees behind her and blue light and heat washed over her.
Coughing violently Tik eleth poked her head up out of the hollow that saved her life from the self-destruct blast, her movement sent a small cloud of ash into the air around her as she looked around, "Should have seen that coming" she scolded herself as she climbed out of the hollow dusting herself off, as she hit her left shoulder a jolt of pain reminded her of the injury there, now daring to look at it she saw that the plasma bolt had drilled a neat hole through the very top of her shoulder and burned all the tissue surrounding it, but fortunately it had also cauterized it so bleeding wouldn't be an issue for her, but it was going to leave one hell of a scar there, not that she minded, battle scars were marks of honor for her clan, reminders of foes bested and battles won to be worn with honor.
Just as she finished inspecting the damage to her shoulder she heard a distant sound that sounded like a thunderclap, flinching she turned and looked off in the direction of the noise, instantly she saw a huge column of smoke and fire rising out of the canopy, for a second she was confused as to what had caused it, but then what the bad blood had said rang in her head and she instantly realized what it was, "PAUK!" she roared at the top of her now enraged voice in the direction of the now smoking remains of the bad blood's drop ship, it seems that his wrist computer had been linked to his ship's computer, so when his life signs ended and the computer detonated erasing him from existence his ship and therefore her only way off this blasted rock had gone the same way, up in a cloud of pauking smoke.
Knowing full well that Yaujta self-destruct systems leave no trace behind Tik eleth decided it would be a giant waste of her time to search the area for anything useful as it would have been vaporized, she figured it might be worth looking for the bodies of his two dead hunting partners as they might have something useful on them, she couldn't remember hearing any other self-destructs going off after they fell into her traps, so slowly she limped off in the direction she'd come to reach this place.
Retracing her steps through the rainforest she eventually came to where the second bad blood hunter had fallen into her spike pit, his mangled body lay at an odd twisted angle with four huge wooden spikes impaling him through the chest and legs.
The spikes were totally covered in green glowing blood where they'd impaled him and he'd slid right down them to the bottom, it looked like he'd died so quick had hadn't been able to activate any of his safety measures. A smile crossed Tik eleth's mandibles as she saw his full weapon pack totally intact right next to him on the ground , it was going to be an awkward climb with her shoulder in this current state but the reward would be worth it, this was the first time she'd managed to take one of these pauks out leaving their remains behind, they usually set their self-destructs in advance and tied them into their life signs like their hunt leader had, but the two that fell into the traps must have been young bloods that went rogue on their trials and fell in with this bad blood clan, their lack of experience was obvious to any blooded hunter given that they'd fallen so easily into these rudimentary traps.
So carefully she looked for hand and foot holds in the ground vines to aid her descent into the pit she'd dug, so also used her formidable claws on both her hands and feet digging them into the soft earth of the pit wall to gain extra grip, gingerly picked her way down to the bottom.
She managed it with very little problem, the worst of it came from her wounded shoulder causing extreme pain every time she put too much weight on it, but finally she reached the bottom and hugged the wall, now she had to be very careful of these spikes as she'd laced them with a particularly nasty poison made from some of the local plants that she'd discovered just after becoming stranded here. Carefully she picked her way over to the body of the fallen bad blood, his weapon pack had become dislodged from his body on impact with the spikes and was on the floor right next to her left foot, slowly kneeling down she used her good hand to retrieve it and pull it to her, the weight on it indicated that he was travelling light which was unusual for a bad blood, they usually vastly overcompensated in the firepower department, but at this point only having her twin daggers to rely on any extra weapon was a massive boon.
Opening the dark metal satchel Tik eleth looked inside hopefully, fishing around inside there appeared to be two chakt-ra discs, a couple of explosive trip mines and a short sword.
Tik eleth scoffed at this, "What kind of hunter keeps their weapons in a bag when chasing their prey?" she said aloud looking at the body of the fallen bad blood with disgust at his total lack of not only skill but respect for his prey.
Taking the weapons from the bag she clipped them to the remains of her armor, it had taken a serious beating over the last four seasons on this planet, if it wasn't from the local beasts it was from the cursed bad bloods, she wore a dark grey chest piece that stopped just above her midriff, it had her clan emblem engraved into right shoulder which was just as well as the left shoulder now had a neat hole drilled through it along with her shoulder, though she was glad to have it as without its protection the plasma bolt would have blown her shoulder and arm clean off.
Tik eleth clipped the sword to her back directly behind her head for ease of retrieval, all Yaujta weapons had magnetic clips on them to allow them to be connected to hunting or battle armor easily, the two chakt-ra she clipped to the belt of her battle skirt on her right hip.
Now the bag was empty but she decided to keep it to help her carry anything else she might retrieve from these bad blood pauks. Turning her attention to body of the fallen bad blood Tik eleth began to pat him down, she didn't want to risk pulling him free of the spikes incase his weight caused her to lose her balance around all these deadly spikes, there were three things that she was looking for and much to her absolute delight she found all three totally intact, firstly she found at the base of his spine, was the medical kit that all Yaujta hunters carried into a hunt.
Taking the silver colored tube she opened it up, inside were a collection of basic medical tools that were predominantly used for saving the user's life, but in the right hands could be used to heal most wounds.
Taking two small vials from the case she looked at them, one contained a silver metallic liquid that looked like mercury and the other a red liquid, next she took a small fan shaped mixing dish and opened it out.
Cracking the tops of the vials open she mixed the two liquids into a muddy pink paste, then she took a small silver spatula and scooped the paste onto it, next came the really shit part, she jammed the mixture into the hole that the plasma caster had drilled through her shoulder.
"PAUK!" Tik eleth roared at the top of her lungs with her mandibles flared as the intense pain ripped through her shoulder, but this mixture was fast acting and in only seconds the pain faded and she heard the hissing fizzing noise of the mixture sealing the wound in her shoulder, it would take a few days before the wound was completely healed but this stuff would do to plug the wound up and speed things up in the meantime.
Packing the kit away she clipped it to the same place the dark blood had carried it, to the rear of her hips, next up was located on his right shoulder.
Unclipping the plasma caster from its mounting on the shoulder plate of his armor she turned it over in her experienced hands inspecting it, the casing was completely intact with not even a scratch, lifting it up she quickly clipped the mounting bracket to the mount on her right shoulder and it clicked snuggly into place.
Finally she had to get the last piece, this one she was not looking forward to taking as of where it was, but to use the caster and to give herself a much needed edge she needed it. So leaning over the body carefully avoiding the spikes she reached over and pulled the bad blood's head back, carefully she removed the connecting valves and slowly pulled the hunting mask from his face before letting the head back down, next up was the wrist computer to go with it as the mask was useless without it.
Looking into the cold dead eyes of the bad blood was not pleasant, Tik eleth had killed many things over her young life as a huntress, but it was always different when the glassy eyes were one of your own species, even if he was a rather ugly bad blood scummy pauk she couldn't help but feel a small pang of guilt taking things from his corpse, she never liked desecrating the bodies of the fallen, she wasn't even one for taking trophies from sentient species, preferring to test her metal against beasts of all shapes and sizes instead, but then again in his case it was his own fault, in taking on a blooded huntress like she was prey it had cost him the ultimate price.
Checking the mask over in her hands she immediately noticed that this had not fared as well as the plasma caster, there were a variety of small dents over the smooth exterior surface, then she noticed one large one in the top right corner right where the view finder sensors were located, huffing at it she decided to try it anyway, she clipped in the valves and slowly pressed the mask to her face making sure her mandibles were retracted all the way, the mask clipped into place and immediately sprang into life, it booted up and instantly connected to the computer now mounted snugly on the dark grey vambrace she wore on her right arm. Immediately there was a problem, the dent to the sensor pack had compromised most of the masks viewing modes, the only ones that seemed to work properly were the thermal detection and the kiande amedha detection, next up she tested the tracking system and targeting, the plasma caster on her shoulder sprang into life and rose up on its mounting, then it started tracking her head movements as she turned her head left to right and back again, so at least that was working properly. After one last check of his body for anything useful Tik eleth thanked the fallen bad blood for his sacrifice and proceeded to climb back out of the pit, which was a hell of a lot harder going than climbing down had been thanks to her shoulder, but with gritted teeth an mandibles and lots of swearing she managed it.
Tik eleth slumped down on her back after her climb to catch her breath, through the canopy of the trees she stared at the sky, it was beginning to get dark and clouds were parted just enough for her to see the stars starting to emerge, over the last four seasons of being stuck on this rock she'd become very familiar with these stars, but they weren't her stars, she longed for her home for her family, she missed her bearer and her father along with her two sisters, all the squabbles of family life, her sisters arguing over who was the better huntress, or who would bear the best pups, or who was breathing the best air, then and there she vowed that one day she would see them again or she'd die trying.
Finally regaining some of her strength she rose to her feet, she decided to pay a visit to the other sprung trap to see if the second bad blood that had fallen victim to it had anything useful, before she began the long trek back to the hidden cave she'd been calling home for the last four seasons.
The walk through the forest to the second trap site was far from relaxing, this planet which was used by this particular bad blood clan as their own private hunting reserve was populated by some of the nastiest and most fearsome creatures in the known galaxy, it made even something as simple as going for a walk into a massive mission where you had to be constantly on guard or you'd end up as a snack for something a lot bigger and nastier than you.
Reaching the second sprung trap Tik eleth sighed heavily, even before she examined the body she knew that she wasn't going to be able to recover anything of use here, the trap that the bad blood had sprung was a dead-fall trap made out of a rather large log hoisted into the tree canopy set to drop once something tripped the trip wire, the impact of said log on his head had driven the bad blood into the soft muddy ground like a pauking nail, this in turn had destroyed pretty much all of the equipment that he'd been carrying with him.
She decided it simply wasn't worth the effort of pulling the rather large log off his dead body as she knew already what she would find and she could do without having to see his undoubtedly ugly face having been made even uglier by having been smashed through his head by the log, so with a heavy sigh she turned and started the rather long trek 'home'.