323 Prey Vs Predator

Jos and Maribelle quickly explained the situation to their friends who joined them. After a discussion amongst themselves, they decided to bring Vy to meet with their Boss. 

They continued to point their weapons at her as they guided her through the Jungle and back to their Base. 

"Wait!" The one with the short brown hair exclaimed to the rest, "We can't bring her back to base!" 

"Why not?" Jos asked. 

"Ah! How can we forget, if we do, she would know where the base is!" Maribelle realised. 

"You could hold me here and call your leader, or boss to come and meet me here instead," Vy suggested. 

The children were suspicious of her, but ultimately knew her suggestion made sense. Hence, Jos and Maribelle handed Vy over to their friends as they ran back to their base. 

The other two children were older than Jos and Maribelle and they did not let their guard down either. At least one of them had their eye on Vy at all times to make sure she would not do anything to hurt them. 

As the wait went on, it was getting mundane. Vy tried multiple times to speak to the two children. However, neither of them responded to her. She let out a sigh as she took a seat down on the ground as the wait continued. 

Just then, a wild boar jumped out of the bushes and onto the path. The sudden appearance of the wild animal surprised them. It particularly excited the kids. So much so, they momentarily forgot that they were guarding Vy. 

"It's a boar!"

"Let's kill it! That's more than enough food for all of us for the next few weeks!"

They egged each other on, carefully aiming towards the boar. Vy sat there, watching them take aim with their weapons. Vy thought back to the corpses she had found previously. None of the skeletons belonged to children. It was all young adults or older. 

Just as they were about to shoot the boar, Vy noticed a shadow emerging from the bushes. She could see its long arachnid legs about to step onto the path. Vy immediately rushed forward and covered both of the children's' mouth. 

As they tried to struggle out of Vy's grasp, she convinced them to remain quiet and observe. Moments later, the spider beast emerged from behind the bushes. With one swipe, it stabbed the boar with its long sharp leg. 

The wild boar never knew what hit it. 

It squealed and convulsed for a few seconds before it stopped moving completely. The two children were scared stiff. They were this close to drawing the attention of the spider beast. 

But they were not out of the woods yet. 

Although none of them made any sound, the spider beast turned to look in their direction. It locked eyes with the three of them. Just then, there was a voice coming from behind the spider beast. 

The spider beast turned to look at its new target which was closer. Vy let go of the two children and rushed forward without much thought. At top speed, she dashed forward. 

The spider beast had moved away from the boar it had pierced. It was heading towards the children who were coming towards them. 

"Don't just stand there, run!" Vy shouted out to them as she ran as fast as she could. 

She could feel the burn in her lungs as she breathed through her mouth, gasping for bigger breaths of air as she ran. Seconds just a split second before she caught up with the spider beast, it moved out of grasp towards the other children. 

It was a group of five, four younger ones and one who was older than the rest. The four younger ones had their weapons ready to attack. Ready to protect the older kid. 

The four younger children fired their shots, Vy ducked to the side so that she would not get hit. Tiny pellets of metal flew through the air. Loud bangs were heard all around. Vy could feel the ringing in her ears. 

She ignored it as she refocused her gaze on the spider beast. The children had managed to land some shots of their target, slowing it down. They all had wide smiles on their faces, celebrating their win. 

But Vy knew the battle was not over yet. The loud sounds emitted from the shooter weapons were bound to attract more spider beasts. Sure enough, in the distance, she could hear the rustling of bushes as scuttering arachnids were converging on their location. 

"It's not over yet!" Vy exclaimed just as the maimed spider beast emitted a shriek towards the sky as blood spewed from its wounds. 

Vy lunged forward and impaled the spider beast with her sword, slicing it through till its corpse fell to the side in two pieces.

"There's more coming, run!" Vy warned them, as the two other children who were supposed to guard Vy converged with their fellow survivors. 

They were still wary of her. 

With all the hesitation and lack of trust, the spider beasts caught up to them as more appeared out of the bushes. 

"Retreat!" The oldest child shouted to the others as they made a run for it. 

Vy wanted to escape too, but seeing as the children ran, she knew she had to do something. She turned to the spider beasts with her dagger in her right hand. 

"You're not going anywhere," she smirked to the spider beasts. 

There were three in front of her, and another few more coming towards her. But Vy was not afraid, she was calm. As the first one launched itself towards her, she carefully dodged the attack by the skin of her teeth. Using her dagger, she sliced its throat. 

She swung her arm around its neck to keep it from moving. Blood spewed and gurgled from its neck wound but Vy was not taking any chances. She impaled her dagger into its head before releasing. 

The spider beast collapsed onto the ground. Its carcass twitched as a pool of blood formed around. Vy kept her dagger back in its sheath on her thigh before drawing her sword. 

She breathed through her mouth, making sure that her senses were still sharp as she faced the other two, head-on. The two children who guarded her were thankful for Vy saving their lives. 

They realised that if they had made a sound then, they would not have lived.

"We… can't just leave her alone to face them, Deci!" The girl said to her companion as she watched the rest of the children runoff. 

"But…" he looked at Vy who was fighting off the spider beasts single-handedly. 

He turned back to look at his friends and comrades who were running off into the distance. Who would not want to run to safety? 

It was human nature to do so.