Kai smiled, his hand shooting up. "Easy, friend," he said calmly. "I was too scared to show myself."
As he stood up, Kai saw a young woman with dark eyes and a slim figure perched upon a thick branch of a tree and looking down at him. The moment she saw him, Kai noticed her tensed shoulders relax. "Come out in the open," she said, her tone demanding, "and show me your Items."
"Now, that's an absurd request, my friend," Kai said, smiling. "Are you sure you want to make a commotion here?"
An eerie silence lingered between them, as both parties seemed to be wary about the dark jungle. The woman then climbed down and approached him. Kai followed the gesture and stepped out of the bush.
"How did you find me?" Kai asked as the woman eyed the swords on his waist.
She said nothing but looked over his head. Kai lifted his head and raised his eyebrows. High above in the darkness, he saw two eyes. And then, little by little, the thing to whom these eyes belonged came down. It was a green spider-like creature, with red mandibles and a horn on its head.
Kai recognized it. Spinarak, he recalled the name. An arachnid Pokemon.
The Pokemon was hanging with an almost invisible thread of web attached to some branch lost in the darkness. It landed on the tree trunk near them and rattled its mandibles.
Suddenly, both Candidates sensed a vibration. Their Tablets were shaking, but neither tried to look away from the other.
"Well, I have always been a curious one," Kai whispered, and took out the Tablet from his backpack, ignoring the shocked expression on the woman's face.
Isn't he afraid that I would attack him? She thought.
Kai put his thumb on its back and the Tablet came alive. His eyes landed on the Messages icon, and the little red 1 written on its top. "We got a message," he told her. "I think you too got the same."
"What are you?!" she wondered aloud.
"Haha!" Kai laughed. "I have more trust in humanity. We have just landed on the island. What's the point of killing each other? I am Red, by the way."
The woman gaped at him and then shook her head. "Spinarak," she commanded the Pokemon, "follow the plan. Call me Spider."
The Pokemon grunted a reply through its mandibles and crawled up, vanishing up into the canopying trees.
Kai waited for her to take out the Tablet and then opened the message. It was from Tablet 47.
After confirming that she too had gotten the message from the same Candidate, Kai opened it.
…
-[
If you want to know about the species and what we are facing, then come to the location marked on the map.
Time Limit: 11:00 am
]-
…
The word Map was highlighted.
Kai tapped on it, and the Map application opened by itself. Aside from the blue dot, marking his presence, now he could see a yellow dot as well. A green line was running from the blue to yellow, showing the distance.
170 km, Kai thought. It's getting interesting.
"What an obvious way to lure Candidates?" Spider scoffed. "Like someone would fall for it. Humph!"
"Well, I am going," Kai commented, once again shocking the woman. "I do trust in humanity, of course. Would you like to come with me? I am quite a skilled in-fighter."
Kai pointed at the swords, and Spider narrowed her eyes. With one move, he had struck the disadvantage of having a Pokemon like Spinarak.
She sighed and nodded. "I will take the lead," she declared.
Kai nodded.
*
*
04:00 am
They had covered a considerable distance in the last three hours.
Kai kept walking under the orders of the woman as if he had nothing to worry about. But the hair on his neck was standing up now and then. The hidden foreign element was nearing them with every next hour, it seemed to him.
Any moment now, Kai thought, repeating to himself. Come on. What are you waiting for?!
The woman suddenly raised her hand, and Kai stopped. She stepped back towards him, keeping herself out of Kai's reach. "Spinarak found something," she whispered. "Follow me."
They came to a clearing nearby a puddle. On the other side of the puddle was Spinarak, and the Pokemon's eyes were planted on the thing in the middle of the puddle.
It was a brown, filthy capsule, and from top to bottom it was covered in wrinkles.
"What the hell is it?" the woman murmured, walking along the puddle's perimeter.
Kai chuckled, the tips of his finger throbbing, as his instinct warned him not to approach the thing. "It looks like my balls in winter," he japed. "Try to scratch it."
Suddenly, the capsule squirmed, and its top opened up like a flower. Both Kai and the woman jumped backward.
What happened next made Kai widen his eyes.
Squelch!
Invisible blades pierced the woman's chest, lifted her, and flung her away. The Pokemon fired purple-colored needles at the invisible thing, but they just went past, sizzling the thin air. And then, another spider-like thing broke out of the capsule and lunged at the Pokemon.
Spinarak's mandibles rattled as it backed away, but the thing was faster than it. It wrapped itself to its mouth, and Kai saw a snake-like tail coiling around the 1 ft tall Pokemon like a grip of death.
Kai observed everything with dead eyes and impressive calmness. His hands went to the swords at his waist, and the steel screeched against the leather as he took them out.
The hunt had begun. But who was the hunter, and who was the prey? Only time would tell. One thing was sure, Kai reflected.
The Attribute, Perception, was almost useless against these things.
Kai had nothing to rely on to know about any of the two species.
But he had the knowledge and experience. Whatever was chasing him had shown all characteristics of a hunter to him, making him conclude he was dealing with a Yautja and not Xenomorph. Such knowledge wouldn't have made a difference to most of the Candidates, but Kai was different.
He knew nothing about the Yautjas, but he knew almost everything about being a hunter.
This hunter was unsure about Kai, he had concluded. It would remain in hiding until it had gauged his strength. So when Kai saw the woman, Spider, he knew that in her lay an opportunity. With her, the two made a group. There was strength in the group, but there was also the concept of weak and strong in it as well.
A hunter would always take out the weak prey first, Kai had learned. Not because of any cowardice, but it was in their nature to eliminate the substandard individuals.
And, so it happened.
It is invisible, Kai told himself, holding Afro's Tachi in his right hand and Murasame in his left. That's one thing more than I knew about it.
Kai's Instincts roared and a smile crept up on his face as he… closed his eyes.
***************
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