Chapter 11

Jaka 4

The Hunters

Morning had come and they had been moving for over an hour when they finally came to the crest of a ridge and stopped. They were overlooking a clearing, littered with bones and rotting meat, definitely a predator's den. As they observed a smallish beast, definitely a Diomos based on Hammerlocks description, scamper out and start tugging on a strip of dark meat hanging off one of the corpses. As it tugged two more moved out to join it when all three heads snapped up, the strip of meat dangling from the mouth of the one, before they all took off running.

Out of a cave they hadn't been able to get a look into due to its angle from their ridge, came a truly massive frame, easily topping seven meters at the shoulder, not counting the spikes that protruded even higher. Its head had sixteen eyes under a rack of antlers that spread over six meters, their tines pointing forward, and what appeared to be a number of smaller horns growing just behind them that transitioned into the irregular row of spikes down its back. It's hands and feet looked like they had been dipped in rubies, in stark contrast to the greyish green of the rest, with dark stripes on the flanks. The sides of its neck rolled unnaturally, or natural for it, but wrong for what Jinx was used to, as it smacked its mouth.

It opened its triple jointed mouth in a great yawn, the rows and rows of teeth flexing and quivering.

Jinx pulled back from the ridge and muttered "If that vaulty beast had mouths like that on its tentacles, I wouldn't be sleeping to this day." before she turned to Hammerlock who was staring at the beast enraptured "That would be the Emperor I take it?"

"Without a doubt. What a magnificent specimen, I can't wait to mount it on my wall."

"So how we doing this?"

Hammerlock looked at her with a slightly puzzled look.

She sighed before continuing "Well it's your hunt, so it's your call. You're going to be taking it down. How do you want to do this and what do you want me to do?"

"Yes, quite right. Thank you, not many young hunters have that kind of respect for the hunt, not many older ones anymore come to think of it"

"Well one method" Hammerlock continued slowly "which is unfortunately the best, would be to distract it. And then while it's occupied with that, I shoot it until it falls."

"Let me guess what it's gonna be distracted by." Jinx grumbled "So do I slather myself in sauce?"

"No no of course not, but how fast are you on your feet?"

A few minutes later

Jinx had left her rifle behind, along with her bag since they would just slow her down and get in the way. She was crouched at the edge of the clearing waiting for the signal. From where she was she could see the blackened, decaying viscera still attached to the skeletons littering the place. The air was buzzing with the sound of flies and other carrion insects, and the smell, well that was something hunters never talked about in their stories, and it was awful. It was so bad she could taste it. To distract herself from it she watched as Hammerlock moved into place and then gave her a hand sign to start when ready.

Sighing she whispered a hunter's prayer "May your hand be steady, and your aim be true, and above all else, go for the eyes boo."

Hammerlock fired, hitting the beast just behind its front arm causing a small spurt of blood. It roared in surprised pain but failed to fall. Its head whipped around looking for what had caused it such pain with red eyes glaring.

Jinx proceeded with the plan as she whipped a rock at the beasts' head before tearing out of the underbrush at full speed. Hearing it bounce off the side of the Diomos's head, which was followed by an earthshaking roar of surprised anger, she figured nothing before had the audacity nor the stupidity to throw anything, let alone a rock at its head. Glancing over her shoulder she saw that the plan was indeed working, oh shit it was working. And she sped up as the beast took its first great lumbering step after her.

As it roared, she got a good clean look into its mouth. The teeth quivering in rage, its long tongue whipped out, ropes of saliva flying, she could even see that it was covered in spiny barbs. Then things took a nightmarish turn as the tongue split into three and each one seemed to unfurl, the central part splitting as they matched up with each of the jaws forming into three separate heads. She turned back to the front deciding that was not something she wanted to see any closer.

As she ran she heard shots being fired off and screams of pain that seemed to be getting closer each time. She kept one eye over her shoulder to gauge the distance. To her horror it was getting closer at an unexpectedly quick pace. Pushing every last bit of speed she could into her legs she ran straight for a large tree at the edge of the clearing, a tree with large roots that arched out of the ground.

As the beast got closer and closer she realized that just barely she wasn't going to make it. Lungs burning, she pushed on and just when she was debating turning and shooting it herself and the beast opened its mouth to bite, Hammerlock drove another bullet into the soft wound behind its arm causing it to stumble ever so slightly. Taking advantage of the momentary stumble Jinx dove into a slide going under one of the roots, catching it with her left hand to turn herself she slid around the tree before popping back up and running on.

The massive frame of the Diomos prevented it from turning as fast, forcing it to lumber around the tree, letting out another earth shaking roar. But now Jinx was in her groove. As the beast got close, she dropped into another slide, changing directions as she went, throwing it off momentarily each time. But as she got used to the timing, so was the beast, and she quickly realized that it wouldn't be falling for it much longer.

"Hurry it up!" She shouted as loud as she could, though it came out as a loud wheeze more than anything at that point. Hammerlock finished reloading and didn't respond, only aimed and shot the beast again as Jinx dove around another clump of trees.

The great head of the Diomos was streaked with blood trailing down from its ruined eye sockets, he had managed to hit more than half, and its side was running enough blood down it to leave trails in the dirt, but the beast had become enraged and was moving with even more force, although that made it slower to react and change directions. But when it just smashed through a tree rather than going around it managed to throw Jinx along with the splintered detritus.

Landing hard, she managed to roll with it, but the impact had knocked her hard and she knew immediately that she would be nowhere near as fast on her feet. She let out a deep breath, she was going to have to go suicidal to survive this.

Turning she saw the Emperor glaring at her, it could sense that she wouldn't be running as much and that it would soon feast upon this annoying little creature that had caused it so much pain. They eyed each other up, the beast seeming to be wondering what this little bite would be doing next. It quickly grew impatient and lined up and charged. Jinx stood her ground while twisting her neck to the side to crack it, thinking how much better it would be if it would actually make the cracking sound. As the beast neared the ground shaking intensified till Jinx could feel her teeth rattling in her skull. Just as it opened its mouth to bite, she took off sprinting straight at it and at the last second dropped into a slide going through the gap in its lower jaws before dashing past its back leg and jumping over its tail.

The beast spun around and stopped to stare at her allowing Hammerlock to line up a clean shot into the wound under its arm and fire. It roared in agony as one of its lower heads twisted around to fix a one-eyed glare in that direction. It scanned around trying to locate where the pain was coming from as the other two heads opened up at Jinx with screams of rage. She looked at it while slowly leaning down to pick up another rock. The beast hissed as it started forward slowly, whether due to exhaustion, blood loss or just to menace her she didn't know but she tossed the rock up so it could see it before catching it and whipping it at its head, specifically the large upper one. To her horror its tongue whipped up and smacked the rock aside as its heads tilted at her in an almost mocking way. It was still moving towards her angling its body to try and fence her in, but Jinx was calm because she could see Hammerlock had finished reloading again and was lining up his shots as she kept the beast distracted.

He drove three more shots into it in rapid succession before it slowly fell to its knees and then with a crash that shook leaves from trees a mile away, fell over.

Jinx took a few steps back before doubling over with her hands on her knees to gasp for breath, her eyes though never left the Diomos, a lesson learned over many years of hunting, never trust your prey is down until you've made sure it's dead.

Hammerlock came sliding down the slope cursing the plants and rocks as he went before emerging in the clearing.

"Splendid show, truly marvelous hunt, if I dare say myself."

"What. Took. You. So. Long?" Jinx wheezed out as she took in great gulps of the stagnant and
putrid air.

"Well I was doing the best I could, especially since I didn't want to miss and hit you by mistake."

"Appreciated."

Hammerlock nodded in acknowledgment and turned to the beast "One moment. Sorry old boy." he said to the Emperor and shot it again point blank, when it didn't twitch or make a noise, they both visibly relaxed.

Hammerlock handed Jinx her bag and rifle and she quickly unhooked a canteen and took a small sip followed by a great chug. Sighing she screwed the lid back on before shouldering the pack and gripping her rifle, turned to look at the downed beast. Its eyes had a glassiness to them that she associated with the dead. It's great tongues were sprawled out in the dirt. But its massive horned rack spread three meters on each side of its upper skull the tips of the horns dyed with the blood of the multitude of things that had been gored upon them over the years. Really nothing in the universe looked quite like a downed prey.

Hammerlock was also staring at the beast, though his expression was more enraptured. The distant growl of another predator, most likely a smaller Red Footed Diomos brought them back to the present and caused Hammerlock to say "We should get this ready for transport back to the town, then, onward your prey awaits. But first I must get a commemorative photo. What ho, what a glorious day for a hunt."