He could see glimpses of their movements in the forest, and they seemed to be circling the clearing, but to his surprise, they weren't charging him.
"What are they up to? Are they being cautious because of the gun? But how would they know about it? Unless-" John paused for a moment. He looked back at the bodies of the beasts he had been studying moments before. "Could it be?"
John had wondered why nothing got to him after a week of being unconscious. He had started to give in to the idea of luck, but this new theory made a bit more sense to him.
"Could the sun be the reason they're not coming at me? Does it make them like this?" John looked back at the bodies that had now become little more than dry, furry figures.
John waited from his position for about 30 minutes, but they didn't come. At that point, he decided to get ready for the upcoming battle. Even if they weren't attacking now, having been around for so long probably meant that they had their minds set on him for good. He first grabbed whatever metal rods and panels he could find from the wreckage and planted them into the ground around the perimeter of the ship as stakes. He didn't know if they would work but it was better than nothing. It was only a matter of time before they came out of the forest for him and there was no escaping this battle.
"If my sun theory is correct, they won't come at me for a couple of more hours. Let's see if I can help myself in the meantime."
John grabbed his rifle and went up to the top of the ship. Starting into the distance he tried to keep track of some of the beasts' movements and took half-blind shots into the forest when he felt he might hit something. Almost every round he shot missed their target, but every so often he would hear a yelp as the few lucky shots found their targets.
When there were only about 10 minutes left of sunlight left in the sky, John stopped shooting. He took those last couple of minutes to meditate, the beasts seemed to have decided something similar as the gurgles that had filled the entire area for hours settled down as the sun began to go down. For the next couple of minutes, there was a contest of silence. John stood completely immobile, building focus for the fight to come. The feeling of the dozens of pairs of eyes on him with killing intent filled his body with a static-like sensation as the adrenaline began coursing through his body.
With the last trickles of sunlight, numerous Shadows began approaching out from the forest. The gurgling noises once again began filling the area, but this time they were a deeper tone. As he took a good look at what was coming out John felt his heart drop. First, five Gurgle beasts came from different points around him, looking at them gave him a sense of both awe and fear. They were all roughly 15 feet tall at shoulder height, with their shoulders adding another foot or two. These were giant beasts, if one was to measure them from end to end they were all at least 20 feet long without messing their tail. As John took note of these titans, many smaller gurgle beasts began reaching out of the forest's cover. Most were as small as the ones he had previously encountered, and a handful of others that were about half as tall as the primary 5 that first appeared.
"The ones I killed were just cubs, I thought as much but what's up with the sizes of the adults?" John aimed his rifle at one of the giant gurgle beasts, "Fuck it, we ball." and fired at the largest one.
When the round hit the beast's head, it swung back from the force. John's momentary smile turned sour as the beast didn't fall. Instead, it slowly turned its head back toward him and gave him a death stare. The spot where John had shot it was glowing blue from the energy blast, but unlike before there was no hole this time, and no blood. With a screeching gurgle, the largest beast seemed to signal its comrades. They began approaching slowly at first but slowly gained speed until they were going at a full sprint toward John.
John saw the large wave of Gurgle beasts rushing at him and retook aim, "If the big ones can take shots easily, then I'll focus on the smaller guys first."
For a little under a minute as the Gurgle beasts rushed at him from the edges of the forest, John fired round after round toward the smaller beasts trying to thin out their numbers before they arrived. He lost count after about 30, he had taken out roughly half of the smaller beasts. It was going to have to be good enough for now, he wanted to keep going but the larger beasts were fast and were getting increasingly closer.
Before he could do any more planning, one of them lunged up toward John. In response, John slid under the beast which was in midair, and shot its belly as he fell off the ship's roof.
'I can't really keep the high ground with beasts that can simply jump up to my location like that, but the ground isn't a much better option. Damn it, what do I do?' John was in danger and he knew it, the large beast he just shot didn't seem to get injured by the energy blast. He looked around the area quickly looking for options as his chest began beating ever faster from the adrenaline.
He rushed away from the ship toward one of the other large Gurgle beasts, and just before it bit down on him, he rolled to the side. Quickly grabbed one of the metal bars that he had stuck to the ground as a stake, he looked back at the Gurgle beast that was now going in for a swipe with its claw, and swung the bar as hard as he could against it. The Gurgle beast let out a screech of pain and recoiled back as the 5-foot jagged bar plunged into its paw, "Yeah I know, it doesn't feel that great does it?" As the beast pulled its paw away from John, it pulled him to the side a foot or so from the sheer weight difference. As the bar finally left the beast's paw, it backed up a few feet for a second. Before John could attack again, the one that had first jumped at him was currently in the process of jumping off the ship's roof and landing right beside him.
Dodging the pounce, John ran the metal bar into the beast's stomach. The beast looked down at him and gave a deep gurgle. Some parts of its body seemed to pulse a blue color for a moment running from the tail to the mouth.
"What the-?"
Before he could get the words out, a splurt of the beast's blood came out from the beast's stomach, falling right on John. He was now covered in blood, some even falling into his mouth which he quickly spat out in disgust.
In hopes of not getting surrounded, John kept moving and dodging just as much as he shot the smaller beasts and slashed the large ones in hopes of not having them pile on top of him. As much as he tried, there was no way of fully dodging every attack coming from the Gurgle beasts. He kept getting cut and grazed by their claws, and barely managed to dodge a couple of bite attacks from the larger beasts.
The fight went on for about an hour. He managed to kill all of the smaller beasts, as well as the beast that he stabbed in the stomach at the beginning of the fight. He tried shooting the larger ones in different spots on their bodies but none seemed to take any effect besides pushing them back a little. He was now facing off against the last four larger beasts.
The bleeding beasts all seemed to be put off by their predicament, whether it was the fact that their friends were dead, the pain of their own injuries, the strange bloody and glowing creature in front of them that seemed to be going on a rabid rampage, or a combination of all three, no one would be able to understand the reason.
"I'm so hot, it feels like I'm on the verge of a heat stroke. What's going on?... Who cares?"
He noticed the changes in his state around halfway through the fight, but he figured that it was due to his injuries. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes and veins had gained a faint blue glow. He held two sharp rods as sabers as he rushed the beasts, his laughter competing with the beasts' shrieks of pain. Every time one of the beasts swatted john 10-15 feet away with their claws, John stood back up as if nothing had happened and once again rushed his prey once again. These titan-like beasts also seemed to have gone into a rage-induced trance as they attacked John regardless of their own injuries. Until there were just John and the largest beast remaining.
They had a momentary standoff in the middle of the field, two beasts preparing for their final attack of life or death before once again pouncing toward each other. At this point, the veins in John's face glowed brightly, "They tried getting rid of me because they thought I would one day become a monster, even though they were the ones that turned me into one long ago. I just wanted to move on, but they couldn't even let their favorite playtoy rest. I'll show them, I'll get off this damn planet and show them what a real monster looks like! I'll show them the monster they created as I watch their souls leave their bodies and drag them to hell with my own hands!" John's manic laughter once again filled the area as he slashed the beast in front of him. With one last attack, The beast wrapped its maw over John's torso and bit down, causing blood to gush out of him. John plunged the rods into the beast's eyes without a thought to spare for his wounds.
They both stood in place as if someone had paused time. No sound, no movement.
And in a moment, the beast's jaw unclenched as it fell limp on top of John. With his prey dead and his entire body bleeding, John felt the strength leave his body as the 19-foot-tall Gurgle beast's body fell on top of him and dropped him to the floor.
A faint laughter came from him as he stared into the stars above, "Just wait, you'll get what you deserve and then some."
With those words out into the universe, his world once again faded into darkness.