Satisfied that the creature had left, Alex closed his eyes and continued to focus on his water sensory skill.
'Practice, practice, practice, you'd think I had an obsession.'
The incident with the demon bear had probably taken a little over an hour from start to finish, Alex noted that the shadows had started deepening, indicating it had just passed midday. The heat had now intensified further, and Alex felt his mud suit quickly beginning to dry out.
As he continued waiting, Alex was greeted by a new arrival. Cautiously approaching the lake was what could only be described as a boar, covered from snout to tail in what looked like brown fur laced with streaks of green - presumably to help it camouflage in the underbrush. The boar probably weighed in at around 200 pounds, with blindingly white tusks, coming in at around 20cm.
The boar approached the lake, cautiously glancing around, and taking a deep sniff of the air. It then directed its attention to Alex's tree, and stared at him, making eye contact.
"Good day to you, Mr or Miss Pig. It seems you've located my hiding spot."
The boar slowly approached the base of the tree Alex was in, and took another long sniff. It then proceeded to butt its head up against the base of the tree and began trying to shake it. Alex calmly watched the boar, as it dug up swathes of dirt with its hooves, its muscles straining as it ground its head against the tree.
Alex however, had chosen a moderately large tree, and the boar's attempts to dislodge him ended after 5 minutes, as the boar returned to the lake, dejected.
"Sucker. You're lucky I don't have a nice big rock to drop on your head."
He then returned to his practice and began contemplating.
'Is everything here a predator?'
'This thing at least seems to know fear.'
After drinking from the pond, the boar returned to his tree, and sat down, waiting.
"I'll have you know you're wasting both our time."
He returned to his practice, for another 30 minutes before he opened his eyes to glance down at the boar.
"It seems you really want to fight, huh."
Alex contemplated his options, fighting it was a bad choice, as he still didn't have a great gauge on its strength, though he was reasonably confident the demon bear remained in a league of its own. The bear's overwhelming confidence and nonchalance betrayed its strength.
To make matters worse, even if Alex won, he had no confidence in his ability to transport the corpse back to the clearing.
'I'd need a wheelbarrow for captain bacon over here.'
'That or 20 points in strength.'
'I'll just hurt it enough to act as a deterrent.'
Readying his spear, he aimed at the boar's haunches, he only wanted to cause pain, and scare the boar away, and he only had one opportunity, so he picked a big target. Alex then proceeded to launch his strongest spear throw, and watched as the spear embedded itself in the boar's flank.
The wound wasn't particularly deep or damaging, as the boar quickly ran off, having decided he wasn't worth the effort. As the boar ran off, the spear dislodged and fell to the ground.
Waiting 10 minutes to make sure the coast was clear, Alex began descending from his perch, where he then ran to the lake to replace his mud. He suspected part of the reason he'd been found out was that much of the mud had dried and flaked off, exposing his scent.
Retrieving his spear, he returned to his spot on the branches, and returned to his practice. After waiting for what seemed like another half an hour, another creature appeared from the brush. This creature was pretty much a 1:1 with a small deer, having antlers, hooves and a tail. Alex estimated that it might be 60-70 pounds.
'Finally an herbivore.'
The deer glanced around cautiously, and Alex began weighing his options.
'I came here for bait, but that deer could feed me for a full week, easily.
Even if I'm unsure of its exact strength, I mostly anticipate it acting defensively. Just because it might be incredibly strong doesn't overwrite the instincts of a prey animal.'
As Alex was deliberating on whether or not to hunt the deer, it had spent its time scanning its surroundings, then decided the coast was clear and that it was safe to drink. His greed overtaking him, Alex slowly readied his spear.
Fortunately for Alex, the spot the deer had chosen to drink was probably no more than 4 meters away from him, and despite his lack of practice throwing spears, Alex was quite confident he could hit the deer. His height advantage would further add to his throwing power.
Alex had decided when the creature would be at its most vulnerable would be when its head was down, and it was just beginning to drink. There the deer's limited focus would be on the water it was drinking, though that wouldn't last long.
Alex waited until he saw the neck muscles of the deer contract, gulping down its first sip of water, he then proceeded to hurl his spear with his full strength.
The good news was that the deer had failed to notice the spear, his plan had worked. The bad news was that his aim sucked, and he'd failed to hit anything vital, simply hitting the deer's shoulder, whereby the spear dislodged once again. The deer then proceeded to take off running, leaving Alex cursing and slowly climbing down the tree.
Hitting the forest floor, Alex walked over and retrieved his spear. Pausing to think for a second, he noted the direction the deer had run. Had it headed deeper further east, Alex wouldn't have pursued, as further into the forest indicated both predators, and a further walk with his spoils.
'I think I'm done for the day, so I'm going this way regardless.'
He began to run after the deer, maintaining a fast jog - he'd spent quite a bit on his endurance stat after all. While he was somewhat concerned he'd alert predators, he was also headed west, away from the highest concentration of danger.
On his way out, he remembered to grab his clothes, making a quick detour before returning to the trail.
Alex did his best to track the deer, following the small amounts of blood that would get left on underbrush, as well as keeping track of things like broken branches. Fortunately the animal was wounded and somewhat frantic, making it easier to track.
Alex also lost the trail several times, and had to backtrack his steps to keep on the trail. After around a half hour, he felt he was getting quite warm on the deer's trail. He'd touch the deer's blood every time he felt it, trying to get a sense of how much it dried, how warm it was, and how much smell it was still giving off. This latest patch of blood was pungent with the smell of copper - he was close.
Alex did note however, that the amount of blood on the trail had substantially decreased. Where previously there was some on the ground, and some on the bushes, now there were only small splotches on ferns around shoulder level.
'Is it healing?'
Alex continued chasing, only to come to a small clearing up ahead. He peeked his head out of the nearby underbrush, trying to stay out of sight, where he noted the deer calmly grazing, its shoulder almost completely healed. Alex's eyes widened with shock, this deer may be significantly stronger than he'd initially bargained on.
'Is everything in this place some freak of nature?'
Alex decided to be cautious, and to begin retreating. He didn't want to provoke a head on conflict unless he absolutely needed to, herbivore or not.
With his attention laser focused on the deer however, Alex forgot to watch his footing, and he was met with the sound of a crunch, as he stepped on a dried branch.
'Ruh roh.'
The deer then swung its head around to where he was, making eye contact with him. Instead of exhibiting the typical deer in the headlights behaviour he was expecting, instead he was greeted by the behaviour of a seasoned fighter. The deer, having decided that it had enough of Alex, started running towards him.
'This is not prey animal mentality.'
'What is going on here?'
Alex readied his spear, and managed to bring it between him and the deer, ready to stab it with the pointy end. The deer on the other hand, seemed to have other ideas, slamming its antlers into the side of the spear, deflecting the point enough that he lost control as it continued to rush at Alex.
With few options he managed to swing the spear shaft around, getting it between him and the deer. The impact was shockingly heavy, Alex taking several steps back, almost slamming into the tree behind him.
'Lot of horsepower for such a small deer.'
The deer promptly backed off, putting some distance between itself and Alex, where it began circling him. Despite it only having been a few seconds since their first exchange, the deer charged again, rapidly closing the distance. His hands numb and aching from the prior impact, he barely managed to bring the spear shaft up again, desperately trying to block the incoming attack.
The deer crashed against his spear shaft with a load crack, and promptly knocked Alex on his back, trampling him as it continued its charge. He took multiple blows to his body, one of which hit the back of his skull, causing his world to shake. His only saving grace was that he managed to keep hold of his spear.
The deer circled, and not losing any of its speed, charged at him again. Alex didn't even have time to get off the ground, only having time to get up one one knee. Head spinning Alex managed to get his spear between himself and the deer, this time keeping it very low to the ground. His hands aching and numb from the prior impacts Alex could barely hold the spear.
'Damn hands, respond.'
'There's no way I'm strong enough to stop this charge.'
Alex panicked, his adrenaline shooting through the roof.
'I'm going to get trampled to death by a tiny ass deer.'
His mind racing, Alex came to a split second decision. As the deer closed the distance for its third charge, Alex managed to bring the speartip up, putting it between himself and the deer. As the deer once again swung its antlers at the spear tip to deflect it from its path, Alex smiled.
'Predictable.'
Using what strength he could muster, he pulled the spear out of the reach of the deer, dodging its attempted deflection, and drove the opposite end of the spear against the dirt behind him, where it caught on a root. Unable to change its course from the spear in its path, the deer impaled itself on the spear, its own momentum driving the point deep into its chest.
By Alex's estimation, the deer had driven itself a full foot down the length of the spear, coating it in red, and bringing the deer face to face with Alex. The deer seemed to stare at Alex in defiance, unblinking - Alex was just out of reach of the deer, and it seemed to know.
"Am I initiated into the fight club now?"
The deer's only response was to collapse on the ground as it shut its eyes glazed over, dead.
'Holy hell, that deer was strong.'
'Who decided it was okay to feed Bambi spinach?'
'Spinach and a solid dose of anabolics.'
Alex collapsed on the ground, feeling his injuries. He'd taken a solid hit to his obliques, his shoulder and his head, though the head wound seemed the worst of them.
'Probably a minor concussion.'
Alex got up and examined the now dead deer.
'Should probably let it bleed dry.'
Grabbing the carcass, Alex flipped it upside down letting gravity do its job. Walking over to a nearby tree, he hung the carcass by its back legs, using some vines to tie it in place. Alex waited for around 15 minutes, letting his head clear, using his time to watch for predators.
After this, he took the deer down, and gutted the deer, leaving his choice organs. Throwing the carcass over his shoulder, he did his best to clean the intestines.
'I'm supposed to be able to use these for bowstring right? That would be super handy.'
'They need cleaning badly though.'
Alex glanced down at his appearance. He'd covered himself from head to toe in mud, his clothes covered in caked blood from the fight with the murder chicken yesterday, the fight with the deer had worsened things, and the blood from the deer had absolutely drenched his torso. In short, he looked like an absolute disaster.
'Actually I give up. I'll just clean the intestines when I get back. What's a little more blood and guts?'
'Guess I'm going for the murder hobo look.'
'Murder chicken, meet murder hobo Alex.'
Alex then proceeded to wrap the intestines around his neck like a smelly scarf. Grabbing the deer he tossed it over his shoulder. He then proceeded to start jogging back to the village, fortunately, the deer had fled in the direction of the village, reducing the trip to 20 minutes.