Chapter 9
Ayisha!!!
Walking down that path for a while, Damien noticed some big footprints in the damp soil. "This must be them."
He was certain. He trailed the footprints to the foot of a large oak tree. He looked around and up ahead whether or not he would get another clue. "This can't be the end of the road. The cannibal must have found another route. If the footprints stop here... that means two things." He looked up the path and shook his head. "I don't think a cannibal is wise enough to mask his own footprints. Giving by what I saw, I don't think they are quite smart."
He raised his head and saw the shape of a hand on a branch, highlighted in a stain of blood on the branch. "This must be it." Suddenly, he heard weird noise made in throttles and helped himself towards the direction. As he ran, he was reaching for his revolver. One thing he was damn sure of was that the noise weren't coming from the ladies. He saw a small cave and hid behind a tree. The noise wasn't coming from inside the cave. It was coming from a side. He took a risk and advanced. Then he saw clearly. Three cannibals seated on the cold earth, naked. He had no idea what they were doing. "Hey, dickwads!!!"
He called at them and at once they turned to him. They began to make a creepy noise, as they stood up and began to crawl-jump towards him. Damien didn't waste time, he shot the first one who was gaining momentum, and then second one. The third cannibal seeing what had happened, suddenly bowed before Drake, hitting his head ruthlessly against the fallen twigs. 1 Damien took that as a trick and shot him. He walked to the corpses and retrieved the red balls of gold around their necks.
(Ping! Ping! Ping! Killed three predators and gained 2400 points.] (Ping! Ping! Ping! Obtained three balls of red gold and gained 3000 points.)
Damien smiled at his achievement. He tucked the smile in at once. He remembered that he only had three bullets left. He was goddamn sure that there were still many of the cannibals out there.
He would need more than bullets to get rid of all of them. He would have to find what the cannibals love, what smell attract them, then create traps. But to create effective traps, he would have to exchange points for the LORD OF THE HUNTS skill. Not to forget, he had to get
to the proficient level of the CAPENTER skill too!
A sudden realization knocked at his sense of reasoning!
"Wait! Does it mean that the last cannibal was worshipping me and not pulling a trick."
He was quick to disagree, shaking his head.
"That's not possible. Aside from Ayisha, nobody respects me, let alone worship. Who knows, maybe Ayisha is only around because she's gaining something. What if it was the other way round, would she still be loyal." He stopped talking for a while. "Wait... Ayisha! How's she doing."
He saved the balls of red gold in the system store; Earlier that day, he had thought of a safe place to save the gold away from other's reach. If he saved it somewhere physical, someone might eventually find it. There was no guarantee otherwise. Point in time, he was scrolling the system and suddenly discovered that the system has a spacious store to keep things. That was were all the tools for exchange skills were kept too.
At the moment, he was running in the direction of the safehouse. He felt uneasy as soon as Ayisha crossed his mind. He didn't know why. He kept running.
But again he thought of it the soothing way. He hadn't left that particular geographic area because of a reason. It was because of the whistle he gave to her that prevented him from wandering off deep into the forest.
So that whenever she blew air into the whistle he could hear her call. But he didn't hear it. There was nothing to be worried about. Plus he remembered giving her an ax.
Yet as much as he thought of it, the more he was anxious. Therefore increasing his pace and speed.
"Ayisha!"
He called on top of his voice as he approached the safehouse. He ran inside. There was no trace of her. His brain went on a fritz.
"Where did she go?"
He gulped, walking back to the door. He noticed what he missed. There was an ax by the door, and a blanket covering the ax halfway. "Nothing bad didn't happen to her."
He tried to stay positive, rumpling his hair. Then he noticed footprints which led to the door of the safehouse. He knew what that meant.
"Oh, goodness! Please be safe."
With gun in his hand, he began to follow the footprints. He figured out that raving and fidgeting would only affect his sense of judgement, cloud his reasoning, making him unable to think properly. Plus, he remembered what his grandfather would tell him, "That point in time when you are so scared, is the time you should be less scared."
Now he understood. He regulated his breathing pace and followed the footprints thoughtfully. At a point, he lost the prints. But then he noticed that it must have been the winds which had blown dried leaves on the path, therefore masking the path. He tried as much as possible to be positive. The worst thing that could happen to her was very scary to think about. He would rather not think about it. He would rather not have a brain that think about it.
He searched for a hour and couldn't find a trace. Was that how long he had been gone from her? He was beginning to feel terrible now. He couldn't help hold back the scary thoughts anymore. He was beginning to see them though blurred out by his positive mind. Could she had been eating by the cannibal. "No, never!!!!!
He yelled on top of his voice. He was tired now, but he couldn't stop searching. For the first time, he felt like the system was useless. How couldn't he be able to use it to find a missing person? But then anothe way to think of it was that perhaps he was yet to unlock the skill yet, let alone exchange points for it. "Help!!"
He heard a breaking voice suddenly. He hurried at once in the direction, muttering,
Then he bursted out into an enclosed place in forest. That place seemed like an isolated spot, up ahead was the village of the cannibals.
Drake knew that whatever he would do must be well thought. He was so glad that he finally found the hideout of the cannibals, but then he remembered why he was there. 1 A cannibal with his back to Damien was fondling the breasts of the naked Ayisha.
Damien wanted to scream, but he would only be foolish! Using the gun would alert the whole village. By then, not only Ayisha would be in danger but himself. He flipped the system window out and brought a hammer from the stored tools. He began to creep on the cannibal. Ayisha suddenly noticed him, but he shone his eyes desperately, making weird movements with his face to keep her shut. She was smart.
He was very close to the cannibal now. He raised the Hammer. Bringing it down, the cannibal turned at once. But Damien was swift, he'd landed two fierce blows of the hammer head in the cannibal's face. Nose broke, face flooded.
Yet the cannibal, throttled Damien with his last breath. Ayisha ran to his aid and bit the cannibal in the back. That was all she could do.
Turning slightly to react to Ayisha's act, little did the cannibal know that Damien would take an advantage. Damien beat the cannibal's head into pulp. After all was done, Ayisha hurried to him to hug him, weeping.
"Damien... I knew you would come for me. What took you so long..."
"Quiet. It's not safe here. Let's leave quietly."
He pointed in the direction of the village. She covered her mouth and nodded. He led her out of there.
[Ping! Killed an Elder predator and gained 1500 points.)
"An elder?"
Damien thought out loud. Ayisha looked up at him, "Huh?"
"Oh, never mind. It's nothing."
With his arm around her waist, he led her to the safehouse.
NO WONDER, THAT BASTARD WAS EXCEPTIONALLY STRONG. He thought.