Ryder was seeing it all. The green trees, rustling under the wind, shining under the sun. And, the black world, of dancing colors. His eyes shifted in all directions, scanning for any change, in either of the white or black worlds. His legs tensed, bolted through the forest, and his claws, chipping away the wood off the trees.
He noticed a giant tree on his way, and leapt at it, effortlessly clawing his way to the top. He swung himself, and caught a branch at the top. Though it wouldn’t hold long, Ryder got a view from the top.
In the black world, with wriggling colors blotched all over. He noticed a single place fuming with one large speck of pink.
The branch was about to break, as Ryder noted the direction, and swung himself. The branch broke, but he clawed onto the tree before him – dragging himself down. Then, he jumped back to the ground, and looked up at the tree which he just was in.
Estimating the direction he was looking at, he confirmed the direction, and ran towards it. With Ryder’s speed, the distance wasn’t long, but he didn’t run all in. If he were to get into another scuffle, it would be stupid to lose because of stamina.
As Ryder was several feet away, he could sense its presence. The presence was big enough, not to go unnoticed. Ryder wasn’t positive about being able to hide his presence, but he didn’t want to make him obvious either.
He walked his way through these several meters. Hiding behind the trees, and observing all around. But he could sense nothing, except for the source, which was a small lake, amidst the cluster of trees.
Ryder wasn’t sure why the lake was so speckless, but he didn’t want to step out in what could be a blatant trap. He climbed the tree before him, and waited, keeping his eyes in all directions.
<i>Can there be beings which can hide their presences? Honestly, that purple truck, was stupid as fuck. I got lucky. </i>
Ryder relaxed, and crouched himself on a branch, sneakily looking around.
<i>If that moron could locate me, have the beings here located me already? I’m officially dead, if that is true. Especially if it’s a group, I have no chance. Should I just leave?</i><i>
</i><i>
</i><i>But then again… fuck it, I don’t wanna go back.</i>
Just then, Ryder caught a color twitching and moving forward towards the lake. It was a deer, slowly and gracefully walking. Ryder, squinted his eyes, and adjusted his posture to look at it.
He followed its movement, as it was sauntering its way to the lake. Idling here and there – perhaps it wasn’t too thirsty. But roughly, around a ten or so feet from the lake, it leapt forward.
As soon as it leapt forward, a speck of white light flashed in Ryder’s black world. The deer transformed midair into a humanoid creature, with six arms. Four of them were spider appendages – a pair from back in the shoulder, and a pair from the lower back. The third pair was just regular human hands.
It swiftly dashed forward, but an arrow, somewhere from the far left zoomed towards it. Again, it was laced with a white energy, twitching through it. The spider monster rolled away, creating a significant distance, but the arrow exploded the ground as it hit.
The spider turned left, and brandished his hand in the air, as a white-flash twitched in the black world. It had shot a stick of web back, as it rushed towards the lake. But then, as if sensing something, it suddenly halted and backed off. In the black world, Ryder could sense a heavy color twitching inside the water now. Much heavier than the spider.
Out of the water, a large paw appeared, striking the ground. The spider had moved away, but it staggered as the mud splattered everywhere. Amidst the mess, a lion-faced monster appeared from the inside. It leapt out, to land a strike at the spider. It’s thick arms, almost half the size of the spider.
Ryder decided to focus on gauging the party''s strength and number. Right now, in his black world, the colors had appeared all around him. Apparently, one of them was perched in the tree just beside his. Other than that, three more appeared to be on his left, and similarly four others to his right. He looked down, and mud had splattered all around. But the spider was doing a good job, dodging.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
<i>If one guy could do the job, why are there eight others? Were they expecting a wholeass team or sth? </i>
Ryder got up, balancing himself over the branch, and quietly clawed to the trunk. He kept an eye, and the monster beside him wasn’t moving.
<i>They must be alert then. But why haven’t they not caught on to my color yet? Do they not have such powers? If not, then… Can I take this guy down and run back?But if I run, there’s no guarantee till where they’d chase me. </i>
He noticed again, that in the black world, no color actually moved.
<i>If they are in a formation, waiting for a team, then the best thing would be to make a gamble right now. If another couple of fucks appeared, they’ll kill me for being here. But what if I fight this guy beside me, and throw these colors off. The other fucks appear and they mess these up. I can run away then. Perfect!</i>
Ryder locked his eyes, at the speck of red, twitching on the tree. He pushed down with his leg, at the branch he was standing, and it didn’t crack. He shook his nails, dug into the trunk robustly. Then he moved to the far end of the branch, and dashed two steps, as he tensed his muscles and pushed back. His hand snapping off the trunk, as he launched towards the other tree.
Ryder could see the red color move. When it got into his sight, it looked exactly like the spider down there. Ryder flew down, and caught it with one of its appendages, and pulled him with the force. Ryder wasn’t able to land on the tree, so he pulled the spider along with him. Manhandling the spider, he latched his claws to the trunk of the tree near him, dragging down. He threw the spider, as it fell down. It dug its limbs in the mud, to stabilize.
Ryder loaded his claws, jumping down, ready to strike, when his senses alerted him of the more presences nearby. Both of them turned their heads to look at the group of humanoid monsters walking towards the lake. They had a tiger-headed leader, resting a broad sword on his shoulders.
<i>His color matches that lionhead. Fuck… Ryder, think! Think!</i><i>
</i><i>
</i>Ryder landed and rolled to a stand. The other colors behind him, all came out. The lionhead appeared from the other side, crunching on the spider’s head.
“Oy!” The lionhead shouted, “Baby’s here after all huh? What’s the numbers? You scared, cat?”
It flung the half-head of the spider, towards the tiger, “Yar boy’s are too weak. Might as well feed them to dricks.”
And then, it turned to its group, where Ryder was standing as an imposter. It laughed, and they all started laughing.
<i>Think, think, think, fuck!</i>
The tiger swung its sword out of its shoulders, down to the ground. Then dragging the sword through the mud, it moved to the spider’s half-crunched head. It looked down at it, and then up at the heartily laughing lionhead. It crouched, and picked up the head, just looking at it.
It dug a part of the sword in the mud, and then it put the head back on the ground, as it looked up at the lion.
“My boy, faced whatever,” it pointed at the lion, “Yar shitass will be facing all that too.”
The tiger’s team tensed up, scrunching their faces, and flexing their weapons. The laughter in the lion''s team died too, and both the teams prepared for a clash. When abruptly a laughter echoed through, as all the humanoids, instantly turned their faces.
“Sshahaszz! Sshahahaaass!” Ryder laughed, jolting his whole body. Heaving his chest, almost gasping for breath from the laughter, he staggered forward towards the middle. To his far left, lionhead was glaring at him, and to his front, there was the tiger and its team. Behind him, was the lion’s squad.
“Stupidss! Ss-you guyss are funny.”
Ryder looked at the lion, and then towards the tiger. He moved forward, now standing in the middle of them all. His arms crossed.
“Both-hs s-you, why are-ss ss-you h-e-ere?” He said, as he was striving to control his tongue. Half his tongue was rolling, and the other could only slide like a snake’s. Both half, were doing different functions, so his tongue was rolling and sliding, at the same time.
The tiger and the lion just watched him for a moment, not removing their gazes. But then, the lion moved forward, “Yo! What’s this crazy fu–”
Ryder brandished his palm in the air, towards the lion. His other hand, casually resting in his pocket. The lion paused midway, just glaring at him.
“D-s-on’t s-come forward s-if ss-you don’t wanna die.” Ryder said.
<i>Yeah, I meant I don’t wanna die. </i>
The tiger pulled its sword out of the ground, as it said, “Yar who? Did ya come from the tower?”
<i>What the fuck is the tower now, bro?</i><i>
</i><i>
</i>“S-idiot, I’m s-from the tower’s-s s-faction.” He replied, now getting a better hang of his tongue.
“Wait!” A winged monster, shouted from the tiger’s group, “Boss!” It turned towards the tiger, “This prick ya no prick.”
“Huh?” The tiger turned towards it, “bark more, ya idiot. Ya know somethin?”
A pale-faced, and tailed monster shouted from the lion’s team, “Ya don’t mean the black claw, do yo birdie?”
The bird shouted back, “yo!”
The lion shouted from the right, “Y''all, who’s this black claw shit?”
“Boss,” The tailed monster replied, “It’s a richass from the tower’s faction.” The tailed monster, looked at Ryder, gulping, “He killed the fucking blue dragon in the west.”
<i>The fuck are these idiots! Don’t laugh, don’t! </i>
Ryder interrupted, and spoke in between, “S-I didn’t kill s-it. S-I ss-slaughtered.”
<i>I can live another day! </i>