Chapter 11：The Lurking Presence

The Ape charged at Danny and swung its fist towards his head hoping to kill him. Danny leaned towards the ape and dodged under the apes arm and slashed at its ribs as he went past. Seeing that his strategy was working before Danny kept on dodging the ape and would eventually kill it with a thousand cuts.

The ape was furious and began to loose reason because it was unable to hit the human that had intruded on its home. It swung its arms about hoping to hit Danny and win the fight, but to no avail as Danny was able to easily dodge all the attempts. Seeing an opportunity, when the ape fell forward due to its flailing arms he jumped on the apes back and prepared to stab his sword into the apes back hitting its heart from the other side.

In the middle of his action the tree again attacked using the shock waves causing Danny again spit blood. He knew the tree would keep attacking periodically, and this would cause Danny injuries to worsen, so he needed to leave soon. He wanted to finish the fight with the ape, but the tree would eventually lead to severe injuries if he stayed, so he decided to quickly take the spirit plant and leave the vicinity of the tree and go heal his wounds at his base.

Danny punched the hilt of his sword into the back of the apes head and pushed off its body and ran towards the quaking aspen to get the Strength alamy. He quickly scuttled up the tree and grabbed the Strength Alamy. He pulled out a box from his bag and placed it inside so it wouldn't get damaged then closed it. He was preparing to jump down when he felt danger from his back, so he quickly rolled off the branch just missing the fist of the ape that shattered the tree branch.

Danny hit the floor running and began to weave through the forest on his way back to his base. He knew the ape was injured more than he was, so it would not be able to catch up to him and eventually back off. This was the first time he felt the thrill of the hunt, finally being able to fight something that challenged him. He was euphoric and was happy he got to come to these training grounds.

Once he reached his cave he climbed up his ladder and went into his bedroom. He pulled out a healing potion from his pack and drank it as he sat down. It felt like warm current of water washed over his body and mended his injuries. He moaned because it felt so good and started to think up a plan to catch what has been following him. He didn't think it was human because a human wouldn't come and just eat his food and not steal his supplies.

He decided to use some food as bait and make a trap with rope to catch it. Once he finished healing in about an hour he started to set up the trap. He place the food on the rack like before to dry it out, but put a net above the trap, so that it would fall when the meat has been eaten. Danny reinforced the net by tying knots on it and even tested it himself and saw that it was very sturdy and would be hard to tear apart without a sharp tool.

He went to sleep when the trap was set, because last time his food was eaten when he was also in his tent. He needed to regain his energy after the battle he had with the ape. He already ate lunch when he was on the hunt, but didn't eat dinner because he was so tired. The sun was going to set in about two hours, so he would not be able to anything else today anyways, so he went to sleep.

In the middle of the night he heard a loud crashing sound and quickly got out of bed to see what he had caught. When he walked up to the net there was nothing in it. He was really confused this time because the animal shouldn't have set off the trap without being caught. He heard hissing coming from the trap when he was about to pick it up and was startled.

There was nothing in there, but he can hear it hissing. Maybe this fierce beast had invisibility powers? Danny picked up a piece of jerky and threw it by the net and saw the net move as the animal inside tried to eat it. He decided he wanted this fierce beast as his companion so he pulled out a contract and dropped his blood on it to start it. The contract would not force an animal to be your pet, only allow both parties to be able to talk telepathically. He told the beast he couldn't see "Drop your blood on this so I can understand you. I decided we can be friends if you like". He pulled the Strength Alamy out of his bag and said "I will give you many spirit plants and you will become stronger than you ever could alone if you follow me."

He saw the snake start to appear in the air and it hissed at him. It put its tail into its mouth and bit down so it started to bleed and dripped its blood on the contract. These contracts were very expensive and Henry only had one of them because when he was younger he wanted to contract a beast he met when he was in the forest, but when he left and came back someone had already killed it. He furious and wiped out the whole clan who did it, but he never was able to use the contract, so he gave it to Danny.

Once the contract is signed you can communicate with your Spirit beast companion through telepathy. These contracts were made by ability users who are able to input others abilities into paper through rituals. They are most commonly called inscription masters and they are sought after by all powers throughout the world. Well all human powers in the world. Only North and South America still have human's ruling them. The rest of the continents have been overrun by fierce beasts and the higher rank bests have split it up into territories. It is now called No mans land and the World Government prohibited going to any of the other continents.