Kraz ran for all he was worth, breath rasping in his chest as his bare feet struggled to find purchase on the verdant undergrowth. The soft soil of the forest floor pulled at his feet, reducing his momentum. Even with drag from the shrubs and vegetation, He still kept pace, pumping his short legs, and leaping over the occasional rocks and tangling vines with gusto. 

He leaped over a tangle of vines coiled around a bush, but this time was different. He seemed to misjudge the distance as his feet snagged on the treacherous vines. Either his eyes were playing tricks on him or he was getting less competent, judging distance wrongly. 

He tripped and fell, crashing and tumbling on the forest floor and rushing head first into a nasty boulder. Flailing and twisting, he managed to avoid smashing his head into the nasty piece of rock, nearly impaling himself on the end of his spear in the process.

Tottering to his feet, he snatched his spear from the ground, shaking his head and peering at his surroundings. The fall may have muddled his sense of direction but he knew this spot. It was the agreed location for the ambush. In fact, the rock that nearly splattered his head was the landmark the tribe had agreed on. 

The blasted fools were to wait here while he baited and drew the prowler in. 

Now, they were nowhere in sight. He couldn't see them, hear them or even smell them. Seems he was left to deal with the prowler all alone. 

The problem was that the prowler was not a creature someone like him could fight alone, except he wanted to be a simple snack for the prowler. His best best was to escape, but he couldn't see the prowler that was stalking him.

Frowning, he turned his head sharply, glancing left and right, hoping to see anything out of place. Still he saw nothing, no sign of his pursuer. If the shadow prowler was stalking him, he could not see it or even hear it.

Ignoring the sharp pain in his side from the fall, he scanned his surroundings again, rattling his spear at empty space. Nothing moved unnaturally. 

He spouted threats and insults to empty air, moving his spear in a threatening manner but still, no sign of anything unusual. If the prowler was close by, it was invisible.

He couldn't see anything but he knew his pursuer was close. He hoped to force the prowler to reveal itself, but it was more crafty than that. There was no response to his taunts. The forest was silent, unnaturally silent. Not a good sign.

Apart from the rough sounds of his breathing, and thumping of blood in his head, he could hear no other sounds. No footfalls, no hooting of birds or chirping of insects, just poignant silence, as if the forest was holding its breath, waiting to witness a tragedy. 

He couldn't see the shadow prowler but he knew it was close by, stalking him. No sign of his tribe members also. If he died here, he would make sure to curse them with his dying breath. He had done his job as the scout, it was now their turn to bail him out.

He gripped his spear harder for reassurance. Panicking would not help him here. He needed to focus on what he could control and ignore the rest. He could not see the creature or hear it, but what about the scent. What he knew about the shadow prowler did not suggest it had the ability to mask its scent. 

Taking a deep breath, he took in the varied scents of the forest, concentrating on his sense of smell and ignoring the rest. The scents and smells of the forest came to him in layers. Layers within layers with, each layer having different notes to it. They all had varying intensities. 

The most obvious scent his nose picked was the fresh green aroma of leaves mixed with the earthy flavor of decaying leaves and dried twigs. 

So strong was this scent that it threatened to overwhelm his sensitive nose but he ignored it, searching for something different, something that didn't belong. Eventually, he found what he was looking for—slight notes of a nutty smell, almost like a wet cat if he could describe it.

Even more interesting, that nutty smell of wet cat was steadily getting stronger. 

A fierce grin found its way to his face as he stood alert. 

Voila! He had found the prowler by scent and it was getting closer. At least not all his senses were blind to the prowler. 

The thing about the prowler stalking him was that it had a shadow core. A rare core that allowed it to mute its footfalls and camouflage its presence. The magic of the prowler's shadow core was impressive, granting it stealth capabilities that could fool even the paranoid. Luckily for Kraz, the shadow core did not give the prowler any magical ability to hide its scent. 

Nevertheless, decoding the prowler's movement through scent alone was a tall task. The scent moved based on the whims of the wind and was unreliable. 

Worse still, if the wind was blowing away from you towards the creature you were tracking, then you would smell nothing. Luckily, the wind was blowing towards the Kraz bringing the scent of the prowler to him. Plus, he was a proficient tracker gifted with an unnaturally good sense of smell, allowing him to estimate the prowler's general direction.

Now that he had the creature's scent, he sharpened his focus, trying to pinpoint the creature's exact location from the movement of the wind and the pattern of the scent. 

The currents of the prowler's scent indicated the prowler was getting closer, approaching downwind from his location. In fact, the scent was getting stronger, dominating the green smell of trampled leaves and filling his nose with that unique nutty scent. 

He knew an attack was imminent. 

Snarling, he braced himself in anticipation, levelling his spear in the general direction he thought the prowler was approaching from. He hoped he was smelling right. 

Surprisingly, something strange happened as he did this. 

As if in response to his actions, the prowler's scent suddenly became erratic. The scent was still strong but it was no longer coming from a particular direction. 

Disturbed, Kraz took another deep breath to assess the direction the prowler was coming from. His eyes bulged in surprise at the change he was perceiving. 

Unlike before, he felt the scent coming from everywhere around him, the prowler's scent surrounding him like a cloak. 

Kraz knew what this meant. The prowler was flanking him, hoping to blindside him. He knew the prowler's scent was coming from everywhere because the prowler was circling him, its movement scattering the scent in all directions.

The forest was still eerily quiet. 

It was weird enough fighting a creature he couldn't see or hear. Now it was displaying a shocking level of intelligence and caution. He was indeed at a serious disadvantage. A silver of panic stabbed his heart but he managed to suppress it. Fear would do him no good here. He had watched numerous animals freeze in fear as predators ambushed and attacked them. It only made them easier prey. He didn't want to become an easy prey for another creature or even be a prey at all.

Naturally, he could not totally banish the fear in his heart, but his grip on the long spear in his hands gave him some reassurance. Holding a weapon always seemed to give him an unnatural sense of calm. 

The spear's tip was obsidian not steel, but at least it was something between him and the stalking prowler. 

Instead of trembling, he let his mind settle on the creature's behavior, entering a trance-like state of concentration where he anticipated the creature's movement by putting himself in their shoes. He found this trance-like state easier to enter anytime he held a weapon.

"If I was a prowler, where would I attack my prey from," he muttered to himself. Certainly, the answer was obvious, his exposed juicy back, where his sharp spear wasn't facing. 

If he turned back now, the creature would simply choose another direction to attack from. Instead, he kept his head on a swivel and his feet light, turning left and right but anticipating an attack from his back. From previous experience, he knew the prowler couldn't maintain its camouflage and attack at the same time. 

He needed to be alert, waiting for that split second that the prowler would be revealed.

Even though the prowler was a creature of utmost stealth, its attack usually revealed it, dispensing all its illusion and camouflage. Unfortunately for most creatures the prowler hunted, they were always taken by surprise before they could react to the sudden attack. 

Imagine going about your day munching on some leaves when suddenly, a predator appears seemingly out of thin air and grabs you. That is how it was for most creatures he had seen the prowler hunt. They simply had no chance as they were always totally taken by surprise. 

However, unlike most creatures, he was anticipating an attack, which gave him a little advantage. In addition, he had taken the time to study how the prowler hunts, giving him some insight into its behavior. That is why he was prepared when the prowler's attack came.

He heard nothing and saw nothing, but his sixth sense told him something was rapidly approaching him from behind. Responding to his instinct, he spun towards his back, bringing his spear to bear against the sudden change in the air. He could not see or hear anything but he could feel the sudden change in the air. 

As if to prove his fears right, there was a distortion in the air as the camouflage illusion that made the prowler invisible began dissipating. The prowler normally lost its camouflage when attacking. 

However, its attack was usually so sudden for the creatures it hunted. All Kraz saw was a grey paw with wicked-looking claws at the end, aimed at his head. 

The fast strike gave Kraz no time to jump away, so he raised his spear above his head with both arms to intercept the prowler's claw. Attempting an attack of his own would be counterintuitive as his face would become shredded meat. He needed to get away from those claws as they looked supremely sharp and wicked. 

"Shit, " said Kraz, as the prowler's claw snapped his spear in two, splinters flying everywhere, the weight of the attack dropping him to his knees. The wooden shaft of his spear was poor defense against a creature of this tier but it gave him just enough time to shift his face away from the claw's path. 

The wooden shaft of the spear was just barely enough to reduce the momentum of the prowler's claw strike, allowing Kraz a split moment to jerk his head backwards. 

But It was close, really close. The claw missed his nose by an inch, whizzing past his face in a downward arc, impacting the ground, tearing up dirt and tree roots in its path. 

He blinked, watching in horror as the prowler's claw nearly tore up his face. Releasing a breath, he quickly got up and leaped backwards, fearing the prowler would lash out with its claw again.

However, he still kept his eyes locked on the furious prowler in front of him. He feared if he blinked, the prowler in front of him would go invisible again. With bated breath, he kept his eyes peeled on the prowler's form. 

Attacking Kraz had revealed the shadow prowler in all its glory—A feline creature with slick grey fur and mesmerizing golden eyes. It stood taller than Kraz at the shoulders and was probably twice as long as Kraz was tall. It was currently sitting on its haunches, regarding Kraz with something akin to curiosity.

Kraz had managed to evade its first strike which was impressive, but it wouldn't allow Kraz to evade it for long.