The next chapter is up!

WARNING: This chapter contains sequences of fighting, violence, and gore.

Enjoy :)

Raelyn was currently wading through the shallowest part of the pond for what had to be the fifth time.

When she caught a large shadow quickly pass overhead. Her gaze shot up to the sky above her and she saw what appeared to be a fairly large ship gliding over the canopy.

By the looks of it, it had to be another hunter's ship.

Which made her a little nervous. She didn't really want to think about running into another yautja while here. Despite the fact that Bhu'ja claimed they wouldn't bother her.

But that's only if she were unarmed. Which at this time, she wasn't.

And with how low they were, they had to be landing somewhere. Which meant she will have to head out soon and get back to the ship. Because in here mind, it be very dangerous to be out here while other hunters were about.

With that, she left the water and climbed back up the boulder to grab her things.

Luckily, she already still had her weapons on her as she grabbed her sneakers and pulled them on. Then she grabbed her food bag, shouldered it, and carefully made her way back down to the ground.

Before she went into the woods, Raelyn slipped her mask back on. If she were to spot anyone or anything on the way back, she wanted to be ready.

The young woman started to jog through the woods, she wanted to get back as quickly as she could.

But as she ran for the next few minutes, she realized nothing looked familiar to her. And she must've somehow got turned around. And as she continued, she started to panic.

The ship was cloaked, so she wouldn't be able to spot it anywhere through the foliage.

Raelyn finally stopped in a clearing and tried to calm her racing heart. She found herself quite lost and it was getting harder not to freak out.

She still was frantically looking around trying to look for anything that seemed familiar but was having no luck.

Then a thought suddenly hit her.

'My mask! Bhu'ja said there's a setting on here that would allow me to see a cloaked individual or object like the ship!' Raelyn remembered.

She lifted her left wrist and started tapping a couple buttons to switch the vision mode in her mask to the right setting.

Raelyn turned in a circle, slowly and started to scan the woods for the large hidden ship among the dense foliage. For a few moments there, she didn't have any luck.

Until she spotted it in the distance to her right.

By the looks of it, it was pretty far too. She had to be well over two-hundred meters away from it. She didn't know she had gone that far past it. And in obviously the wrong direction.

But she should've known in foliage this dense, it was bound to happen, and she should've paid better attention to her surroundings on the way to the waterfalls from the ship.

Raelyn let out a sigh of relief and started heading towards it.

The heat was getting to her a little, and jogging through it before trying to get to the lost ship made her pretty tired and winded due to the heat and humidity.

She must've been walking for a few minutes now. Before a sound to her left and above her made her freeze in her tracks.

It wasn't the snarl or growl of a large beast. No, it was an all too familiar clicking sound, quite distinct to that of the yautja. And it was too close for comfort.

And as much as she wanted to believe it was Bhu'ja, she knew it wasn't.

He wouldn't be silently clicking at her. He would've said something to her if it was him. It had to be one of the hunters aboard the ship that passed over her a little while ago.

Her fight or flight instincts started to kick in. And in that moment, Raelyn made a dash for it.

A small part of her knew it be pointless. The yautja could easily outrun her. But she didn't want to stand around like a sitting duck either.

She quickly looked behind her and up into the trees where she heard branches moving as they jumped through the trees. Her mask was still on the cloaked setting, so she can easily make out to her dismay, not one but two hunters on her tail!

Raelyn's eyes widened as they saw her quickly gaining on her. And as she ran, she made the mistake of not looking in front of her enough, because she was a little too fixed on the ones chasing her.

And next thing she knew, her foot collided with a sturdy branch on the ground, and it tripped her up, making her fly a good couple feet forward.

She landed hard on her stomach with a pained grunt as the wind was knocked out of her.

The young woman laid there for only a few seconds before slowly pulling herself up from the ground. But as she got to her hands and knees, there was a soft thump as something or someone now in front of her.

Raelyn looked up with a sinking feeling in her gut and saw one of the hunters in front of her.

"What's this? Clearly not a yautja, but an ooman." He said, in his native tongue.

But she knew what he was saying, due to the translator incorporated into her mask. She also had a translator on here wrist comp.

"How did it get out here? And where did she get this armor and weapons?" Came another voice right behind her.

"Please, I don't want any trouble. Just...let me leave." She said, as she slowly stood up.

Raelyn also changed the vision setting in her mask to get a better look at them. She switched it back to human vision.

When she did, a feeling of dread hit her. The one in front of her was wearing beat up looking armor. And where his symbols used to be on his mask, were all etched off. He also seemed to be mostly absent of his status rings and she could still see some indentations of where most of them used to be.

'Oh god, not another bad blood!' Her mind yelled.

Bhu'ja told her that etched out symbols and tresses voided of status beads were the first implications that you were dealing with a bad blood.

Raelyn also recalls seeing the same thing on her captors. Most of their masks had etched out symbols and they too were missing the status rings in their odd hair.

"And why should we do that?" The one in front of her said.

Then he paused, slowly looking her up and down, and it made her very uncomfortable.

"You didn't steal it. Someone made you this armor." He deduced.

"And whoever did, is most likely still around here somewhere." The one still standing behind her said.

"Please, just let me leave." She repeated, getting more nervous by the minute.

They could smell her fear, and it made them cackle.

"Perhaps, we prefer to keep you. It didn't pass our knowledge that you're a female." The one in front of her purred.

His words made her freeze up again. And she didn't like how he said it.

"Still, I don't think we could use her for bait or a lure. She looks to small and scrawny." Came the one behind her.

"Doesn't mean she can't have other uses." The one in front of her replied.

He made a move towards her.

Raelyn snapped out of her stupor long enough to seem him closing in on her. And once he was close enough, she kicked out at him hard, nailing him in the gut.

He stepped back in surprise and grunted in discomfort. Then she pulled out one of the small throwing knives she remembered packing. She quickly whirled around and stabbed the one behind her on top of his thigh.

He roared in surprise and pain.

She then saw the sturdy branch she tripped over on the ground and quickly grabbed it. She then twisted back around and slammed it into the first bad blood that was standing before her.

Raelyn swung it like a baseball bat and nailed him across the face with it.

Then she darted out of there like a bat out of hell. She heard them roar in outrage behind her as she tried her very best to put distance between them and her.

Unfortunately, she wasn't running for very long when she heard a swooshing sound off to her left where something was deployed. Then the next thing she knew, something wrapped around her ankles and the lower part of her calves.

She lost her footing as her lower limbs became bound and she fell to the ground once more.

That's when she heard movement off to her left steadily approaching her position. The young woman looked up and noted there was a third yautja. She knew it wasn't one of the other two because, his coloring was different from theirs. He also looked a bit bigger and burlier than the other two.

He placed his foot over the top of the back of her thighs, making her groan in discomfort. Then he reached down and pulled her weapons off of her armor and tossed them aside.

Afterwards, he flipped her onto her back and reached down for her mask.

Raelyn tried to stop him. But he growled and grabbed both her tiny wrists in one of his big meaty hands. Then he reached over with his free hand and pulled her mask off of her face.

That too was placed aside somewhere with her weapons.

Then he roughly hauled her up to her feet. She heard and saw the other two running up to catch up with them and that's when the third one snapped his attention to the shorter two bad bloods.

"You pauking idiots. Are you that dumb that you let this little ooman get the better of you? And you have the nerve to call yourself warriors?" He growled.

Without her mask on and unable to tap the buttons on her wrist comp, she had no idea what was being said. But judging by the tone of his voice, he kind of sound annoyed or was maybe even taunting them.

"She reeked of fear. Because of this, we didn't expect the little bitch to pull anything." The one she stabbed in the leg barked.

The one holding her snorted, "That's your own damn fault you fools."

The one still holding her, then turned his attention to her. He wasn't an idiot; he too could see the armor and mask was custom made for this small ooman female.

"Ooman where hunter?" He asked her, in broken English.

Her eyes widened, "What?"

He growled impatiently.

"Where one you here with?" He snapped.

"I...I don't know where he is." She whimpered.

The leader grabbed her neck and jaw painfully and gave it a small squeeze, making her yelp.

"Don't lie!" He barked.

"I'm not! He left a while ago!" She all but yelled.

"Must be out hunting somewhere. What shall we do with her?" The one she hit with a branch asked.

The leader paused and looked down at her.

He picked up his free hand and ran it over her soft hair, pinching a few delicate strands between his fingers. It has been a long time since either of them has had a female. Though none of them ever had an ooman one before.

His hand left her hair and started to slowly skim down her side.

Raelyn tensed up, not liking his wandering hand. The other bad bloods seemed to be getting excited as well. They too were thinking its been too long since they satisfied themselves with a female.

The leader's hand paused over her armor. He went to the fastenings on the side and started to pull it off of her.

"No! Let me go!" She blurted and started to squirm in his grip.

The started to cackle at her small outburst.

"What wrong, ooman? Don't want play? Hunter not play with you?" He cackled.

"LET ME GO!" She yelled louder.

Her eyes widened and she gasped when she felt his free hand try to make its way beneath her loincloth skirt.

Suddenly, there was a small, wet sounding explosion in front of her. And she felt a warm spray of neon green blood hit her. That's when everyone noticed a large gaping hole in the third bad blood's abdomen.

He barely made a sound, as he dropped to the ground and didn't get back up.

The one holding her tossed her aside. And he and his comrade looked around, snarling. They also unsheathed their weapons during this time and were scanning for the new threat.

That's when a cloaked figure dropped down a few yards away in front of them.

They let their cloaking melt away to reveal themselves. And Raelyn nearly cried in relief when she saw it was Bhu'ja.

He flung out his arms and let out a loud menacing roar towards the two bad bloods. They too responded and let out their own challenging roars at him. The two began to approach him.

They noted his armor and symbols and knew him to be an Arbitrator.

"Well, who'd have thought an Arbitrator would take an ooman pet." The leader taunted him.

"A pet? If he took the time to make her armor, clearly, she's more than a pet. Probably more like a fuck buddy." The second one lewdly replied.

Bhu'ja narrowed his eyes and growled.

The two bad bloods began to circle him. They wanted to team up on him and catch him off guard.

But as they moved, it seemed odd to them that this Arbitrator had yet to budge. Normally, when one was circling you, the other would follow their movements.

But this pale yautja was calm as cucumber, as he stood there, barely moving.

Pale? Light markings? This Arbitrator seemed eerily familiar. Bad bloods will sometimes take note of what Arbitrators are out there hunting them. Though it was usually the most notorious ones that they knew by name.

"You seem familiar? What name do you go by, Arbitrator?" The leader spat the word Arbitrator like it was a curse.

"I don't give my name to fuck ups and cowards that turn their backs on everything we stand for." Bhu'ja growled.

As always, the young Arbitrator hated small talk among his enemies. Why do they always have to fucking talk so much?

The second bad blood paused his in his movements. Something that didn't go unnoticed by the leader. He also thought he got a small whiff of fear coming off of his comrade.

The leader started to throw his friend a questioning look, but still didn't let his guard down completely around the Arbitrator.

"Borg, this is no ordinary Arbitrator. I recognize him now. He took out numerous warriors from the Exiled Clans. And they all talked about him." The second one said.

Then the bad blood turned his attention to the Arbitrator in question.

"You are Bhu'ja of the Jungle Hunter Clan, aren't you?" He questioned, with some hesitation in his voice.

The leader snapped his attention to the Arbitrator, with a growl. He too has heard that name.

This was the same bastard that killed two of his good friends in the past. They went out for a raid on one of the other neighboring worlds a few years prior. And they never returned.

Others there claimed they saw them slain by a pale colored yautja. He killed them and took their skulls.

The leader bad blood became enraged. He extended his ki'cti-pa and poised it towards Bhu'ja. His friend saw this and gave him an incredulous look.

"What are you doing!? We need to get out of here!" His second in command snapped.

"S'yuit-de! This bastard killed two of our good friends! And you want to run!? He killed Prient'de and Oc'djy!" The leader snapped.

While the second bad blood was still worried, that worry was overcome by anger. And he couldn't help but snarl when he heard this was their friends' killer.

He pushed his fear aside then and there and unsheathed his wrist blades.

A dark smile crept up on Bhu'ja's face.

"And you two will be joining them very soon." He told them, in a low, eerie tone.

The other two let out a roar and they both charged at him from either side.

Once they were upon him, with lightning speed, Bhu'ja pulled out his sword and unsheathed his wrist blades. He quickly countered the leader with a clash of his sword against the bad blood's combi stick.

While his wrist blades clashed with the second bad blood's own wrist blades.

The leader snarled and pulled back his weapon to thrust it forward and stab the young Arbitrator. But Bhu'ja saw this and quickly stepped out of the way. And the second bad blood narrowly missed being stabbed instead.

The two pulled back and turned to face their enemy.

Bhu'ja twirled his sword in his left hand as he gazed at the two. They were not exactly novices from what he could see. As he watched their movements and waited for them to make another move.

It seemed like no one made a move for a while.

Then the lead bad blood finally grew impatient and made a move towards Bhu'ja with his combi stick extended to full length. He came in swinging the combi stick and the young Arbitrator parried each blow with his sword.

Raelyn watched everything from the safety of a nearby small boulder.

Sparks flew almost each time the metallic weapons clashed with one another. And the more Bhu'ja parried and danced around, the more agitated the bad blood got because he couldn't land a hit.

When the second bad blood saw this, he finally made a move to join in the attack once more.

Both of them were forcing blows with their weapons trying to land fatal hits on the pale yautja. And while they managed to make maybe a couple small shallow cuts, they hit nothing vital or serious.

The young woman couldn't believe what she was seeing. This was the first time she'd ever seen him fully engaged with others. And she could clearly see his excellent skills shine through as he fought them both off like a professional.

Bhu'ja made a few shallow hits as he continued maneuver around the two.

It took another minute for them to realize that the Arbitrator was toying with them. And this only proceeded to piss them both off even more. Their attacks were becoming more rapid and a bit sloppy.

Until the second bad blood had enough, and he took aim with his shoulder cannon at Bhu'ja.

He saw the familiar red dots line up on his chest as he continued deflecting the leader's blows. And briefly saw out of the corner of his eye, the second one taking aim at him with his plasma caster off the side a few feet away.

Moments before he fired, Bhu'ja kneed the leader in the gut, making him double over. And then the Arbitrator grasped him by the shoulder with his free hand and shoved the bad blood in front of him.

Raelyn covered her mouth as she watched the bad blood leader get his head blown off by the energy blast from the other's shoulder cannon. There was a huge gory spray that shot out in all directions from the impact.

The second bad blood roared in anger once he realized what had just occurred. He went to shoot at Bhu'ja again.

But the Arbitrator was quicker. He pulled out his shuriken and threw it at the bad blood. It veered off and took out the shoulder cannon which went up in sparks as the shuriken made contact with it.

Then quicker than anyone could imagine, Bhu'ja charged at him with great speed. He retracted his wrist blades and held the sword firm with both hands and made a slashing motion up his body from his lower abdomen to his sternum just beneath the chest plates.

The bad blood howled in agony as his innards started to spill out from the devasting wound onto the ground by his feet.

Not even a few seconds later, Bhu'ja came around again and silenced the bad blood's screams as he brought the sharp blade across his throat.

Raelyn quickly looked away as the head became detached from the body and dropped to the ground, the body followed shortly after. Then she heard Bhu'ja let out another loud roar as he stood over them, victorious.

When she looked back around from the boulder, she froze when she saw him staring right at her from where he still stood. He was breathing a little heavy, but not too much.

Then he started making his way over to her.

The young woman felt like she could barely move. Was he pissed that she disobeyed his orders by leaving the safety of the ship? Or was he relieved that he got to her in time and saved her?

She slowly made her way out from behind the boulder as he got closer. And once he was a few feet away, Raelyn opened her mouth to speak.

"Bhu'ja I..."

"Just what do you think you are doing out here on your own!? This is why I told you to stay on the ship!" He practically yelled.

Raelyn couldn't help the tears that rolled down her cheeks. It was clear she fucked up big time. And he was showing her just how pissed he was by doing so.

"I'm sorry. I just...I figured I just go to the waterfalls not far from the ship. I put on some armor and brought some weapons with me just in case..."

"That's no excuse! Had I not seen the ship from above and gotten here in time, you would've been dead!" He snapped, cutting her off once more.

She closed her eyes as more tears escaped.

"Please, I'm sorry. I swear, it won't happen again." The young woman pleaded.

The angered yautja started to gradually calm down as the adrenaline started to leave him.

Here his ooman companion just went through another horrific encounter with another group of bad bloods. And instead of asking her if she is ok, he yells at her.

But he knows he did it because, he was scared for her. By the time he got there, he saw that the three of them had her in their grasp. He zoomed in with the feature on his mask and heard their words.

The horrible things they were going to do to her and then saw the leader stroke her side and her hair. Once he removed her armor and tried to shove his hand down the front of her loincloth, Bhu'ja just lost it.

He took aim and shot one of the three with his shoulder cannon. By doing so, it was to stop them from doing what they were about to do to her and let them know of his presence.

Once they tossed her aside and out of harm's way, that's when he dropped down and made himself known to them. Then bellowed out his challenge to the sick bastards that intended to harm Raelyn.

Bhu'ja made fairly quick work of them as he cut them down.

And he did it while he was still a little banged up from his battle with the un'jiwe he just hunted and killed. The creature's head was still in the woods not far from their position. He left it near a couple of trees, when he heard the bad bloods voices, and scaled one of the trees to get a better look.

That's when he found them only a few yards away with Raelyn in their grasp.

He couldn't take her tears any longer. And he leaned down, picked her small form up, and pulled her in for a hug. Bhu'ja felt her small arms wrap around his neck as she pressed the side of her tear-stained cheek into the side of his mask.

Bhu'ja started to purr to her in comfort.

"Just promise, you won't scare me like that again." He softly said.

"I promise." She whispered back.

He held her a little longer, before placing her back down on her feet.

"Come, let's grab your things, and head back to the ship. I also have another trophy I need to bring in before scavengers start picking at it." He told her.

Raelyn nodded, and they both went to gather her discarded armor, weapons, mask, and her bag.

He decided to escort her back to the ship first. Before he would go back for his trophy.

Until Next Time ;)