Chapter 20 - Communication

Albeit he wasn't placing too much hope after all the scouting he had done, Aziel still decided to approach the tribe's grounds.

Taking a deep breath, he suddenly stepped out of the nearby undergrowth, emerging in front of the group of bipedal creatures.

Yet, before he could even utter a word, the first thing he was greeted with was the sharp end of the wooden stick pointed at his chest.

A rather rough-looking male, with several claw marks adorning his body, blocked his path. It hollered at him, that was his means of expressing his will to scare the strange invader away.

Frowning at the rather brutish, rather offensive gesture, Aziel didn't respond at first, though his gaze gradually shifted from a frown into that of rising anger.

Noticing the commotion at their territory, another of these cavemen soon came up to block Aziel and point the sharpened edge of his spear at him alongside with a menacing gaze.

His instincts flaring up, it took Aziel a great deal of presence not to kill and absorb both of them instantly.

Doing his absolute best, he gritted his teeth, swallowed a gulp of saliva and suppressed his urge to kill, and instead decided to raise both of his hands in the air, to show that he meant no harm. That he approached them with peaceful means.

Thinking back to the memories of the hunter he absorbed just before, he swallowed the utter shame that began to rise in his heart and opened his mouth to speak in their sort of dialect.

Slowly lowering his right hand, he pointed at his chest, whilst forming an oval shape with his mouth, and began to roar a series of animalistic sounds.

He was basically trying to convey to them that he was harmless, and was without a tribe of his own.

Looking at the outsider, the two males acting as guards were growing confused. Their primitive minds weren't capable of understanding such complex thoughts.

For several minutes, they stared at Aziel whilst a series of emotions played through their haze-covered gazes. Not coming to any conclusion even after such a long and rather awkward silence, Aziel was quickly losing his patience.

His eyes were flickering with all the suppressed annoyance and anger, his hands were slowly balled up into tightly held fists.

As the minutes passed, the event began to draw more and more attention from the surrounding tribesmen and women.

A third male walking up joined in on the commotion and like his two brethren, proceeded to aim his weapon at Aziel. His cold, menacing gaze, carried nothing but hostility as he gazed at his rather unique-looking figure.

He grunted something that was barely comprehensive, yet its meaning was still rather clear.

He wanted to know where did HE come from, and what did he want with them. Though they seemed to at least understand that he wasn't your average beast, they didn't really amount it to too much.

The trio of cavemen kept on observing the standing and silent Aziel. As there was no reaction, no response to their 'questioning', their anger-mixed-anxiety grew more and more. They all pushed on the pointed spearhead closer to Aziel's neck, trying to either scare him away or if lucky, hunt this exotic predator down.

This action made Aziel's instincts flare up violently. In response, his arms suddenly flashed, reaching out he grabbed two of the three, pointed weapons in the next moment.

"That's it. I'll do this the other way then I guess." He grunted, muttering under his breath, pulling on both grabbed spears, tearing it out from its wielder's grasps in the next moment. At the same time, he raised his chin and as an attempt in using it as a sort of makeshift hammer, he used some force to nod and crushed the tip upon impact.

His sudden reaction by disarming the trio entirely scared the primitive Neanderthals. With widened, frightful eyes, they all jumped, backing away from the strange, unknown opponent.

Snapping both his hands that each held one of their weapons, both wooden spears splintered away to smaller pieces; he throw the remains down on the ground around him.

A hungry glint flashed across his squinted gaze as Aziel slowly walked forward, approaching the shocked and frightened trio with each step.

Meanwhile, all the noise have alerted the rest of the camp, violent roars, and howls replaced the previous tranquility. The women and children rushed to the protective depths of their caves, leaving only the males of the group to gather up and approach the unknown predator.

Looking at them from the corner of his eyes, Aziel's anger only rose higher. These barbaric… primordial… primates were looking at him as if he was a mindless beast, something less than them?!

They were looking down at him? How dare they!

Aziel's rage flared up, he could no longer hold himself back. His experiences from his past life, the horrors of their religious zealots and holy knights scorching, raiding their territories their cities, killing and abusing their people… Those cold, emotionless eyes were suddenly the only thing Aziel could see once again.

Scarlet Red replaced all the colors of the world as the bloodlust, crazed wrath overtook all of his senses, causing Aziel to unleash his bestial side once more.

His body swelled as his body fully transformed, shifting into his full-sized demi-human dermal armored battle form. A large more than a meter-long thick tail sprung out from his back kicking off a sizable cloud of dust as it fell down to the ground.

His facial expression twisted, contorted into that of a crazed madman, Aziel roared at the sky before he lounged himself forward, swiping his terrifying claws at the trio of terrified guards.

All of the tribe members hurriedly rushed and picked up their weapons and surrounded Aziel. They all had an angry yet worried look on their faces as they gazed at a beast they have never seen before.

Seeing how easily this towering, musclebound giant killed one of their own left a lasting impression on them.

Standing above the now mutilated corpses of the three male hunters, drenched in their blood and some bits of their gore, Aziel stood still, heaving heavily, causing his chest to lift up and down as he tried his best to calm down.

He really didn't want to kill off the only form of intelligent life he has come in contact with after countless years of solitude.

Taking a sigh, and collecting himself, he slowly transformed back into his normal shape. Sighing, he once again lifted his arms and tried his best to look honest and apologetic.

Howling and roaring, Aziel proposed to the group of humanoids once more his intentions. Though this time, trying to convey that he didn't come to cause harm, but wanted to be peaceful, looked pretty questionable…

In response to his words, none of them lowered their weapons and kept on pointing it at the neck-line of Aziel, despite his proposal. Though at the very least none of them pushed forward, but remained in their place.

'Some progress… I guess?'

Strangely, after his show of carnage, these creatures seemed to slightly respect or if nothing else, fear a bit more of him. Their aggressive, violent nature didn't act up, none of them attacked Aziel this time around.

Eventually, one of the individuals holding his spear, took a hesitant step forward, looking at Aziel as if he wanted to speak.

Holding his weapon aimed at Aziel with his right hand, the man opened his left palm and hit the center of his chest while howling something that felt less aggressive than before.

Listening and inspecting his actions, whilst also comparing them to the memories he had gained from before, Aziel could roughly translate it in his mind.

'Me… Important?' Aziel muttered inwardly, deciphering as best he could. It wasn't as if there was any definite reference he could relate to, he was mostly going by instinct. 'You… big? No… bad? Why… come? What… want?' He sighed as he slowly translated the greeting or maybe warning message. 'What was I actually hoping? These are barely more than the beasts… Still… it's better than being alone…'

As the man finished 'speaking', Aziel nodded, slouched his shoulders to not look so guarded, and slowly reached to his own chest. With his right hand, he gently placed it on top, and whilst uttering a similar cacophony of howls and beast-like imitations of roars, he replied.

'Me… strong… I… you… hunt?' He muttered mentally, hoping that his message went across.

When Aziel said this, the individual backed away and went to the rest of the tribe. It sounded as if they were discussing the agreement on whether they would let Aziel into the tribe to help them hunt.

Eventually, the discussion came to an end, and the same individual came back.

His eyes, though still carried some hostility, it were much calmer than before. Also, he no longer held onto his spear as he returned.

Stepping forward, he looked at Aziel from top to bottom, before resuming his shouting session whilst pointing towards the trees.

'You… go… Hunt… Bring… Food?' Aziel translated in his head. 'Do they want me to prove myself that I'm capable of aiding them? Or are they hoping to merely use me as a tool? Hmm… Interesting… Guess I'll bite for now, and see where this all goes.'

Nodding his head in agreement, Aziel turned around and was about to walk outside of the tribe's borders.

However, after only taking a step, he stopped in his tracks and turned back at the frontal speaker primate. Trying his best to look friendly, he smiled, that was barely more than the menacing, vicious grin of a hungry predator, and pointed at the small mound of the blood-covered, gutted trio of dead cavemen lying at his feet.

'Do… you… need them?'