Chapter 76 Chapter 76 Your Damn Pride
So, without any warning at all, it lunged forward towards her again- this time, not to maul her with its paws. This time, it spread its mouth wide open, enlarging its powerful jaws, and exposing dreadfully large rows of sharp canine teeth.
Its open jaws was big enough to fill the circumference of her head. And it was certainly powerful enough to crack her skull in one go.
The hunter was now the hunted.
Adrenaline kicked in with a savage burst. The present-threat of death lighted every single neuron in her body, firing up her central nervous system, and gifting her a fresh surge of energy. She uprooted her feet violently and sprang forward- this time, towards the man eater.
She could have sworn she saw a flicker of delight in its eyes as she went at it. Its pink tongue drooled greedily as it opened its mouth even wider to bite down on her big head.
Once again, she waited till the last moment before dropping downwards. As she slid under the big wolf, she heard its jaw snap shut with a violent snarl. That could have very been her head.
The momentum of her run, had provided her just enough force to slid out completely from the other side. She didn't stop.
Her curls bouncing on her head, her arms swung by her side as she sprinted forward- running towards the high cleft which the wolf had jumped off from. She didn't risk a second to glance back. But behind her she knew the wolf had regrouped. All around her, she felt the vibrations of the heavy beating of the creature- galloping towards her in a haze of madness.
Four feet away.
Three.
Two.
Monica leaped high in the air with all her might. She threw her whole body upwards- launching almost eight feet off the ground- and landing on the cleft above. Again, she heard the nasty sound of its jaw snapping just inches from her feet. Her body had twisted in the air, so the red head landed on her right shoulder.
It should have hurt. But the adrenaline dulled the pain. There was no time to catch her breath. She rolled over, and promptly jumped to her feet. Looking down nine feet below, over the ledge, the massive wolf was prancing back and forth with its eyes up at her. It tried leaping, but its bulky frame didn't go more than two feet off the air.
At that point, Monica had no plan.
She was cornered completely. If the wolf decided to flank her by going around, it would eventually get to her. She was under siege- without backup, and without weapons.
Up in his tree, hidden behind a covering of leaves, and flowers, Nexus had watched the whole scene with the dedicated concentration of a thriller movie. He didn't know if this whole situation was normal. At the beginning, she had completely dominated the hunt.
The thing with the smoke had been genius.
The mini earthquake, the explosive assasinations- they were all stellar veteran moves.But at that moment, with the sudden appearance of that huge fucking demon wolf, it was more than evident that things weren't going her way.
With bated breaths, Nexus waited nervously, hoping she would call him to intervene. But the call never came. His mind turned itself inside out as he wondered why.
And then it dawned on him;
'Damn you and your pride Monica!' he cursed; 'Shit, even after all this while, you still look down on everyone else?'
The more Nexus eyed her, the more glaringly desperate her situation became. It wasn't that she didn't want to call him, it was none other than the fact that she looked down on him. She didn't think him capable of being of any help at all- not even as bait!
Nexus fumed.
He looked to the sky. Up above, the sun had set.
The only western horizon was glowing with the fading light of the receding sun, but dusk had settled- and darkness was coming fast. Heart thumping wildly, and brows sweating, Nexus' calculating eyes darted back to Monica and her wolf friend.
Fighting the beast in the darkness would be a drag. Whatever had to be done- had to be done now! If had already realized this, then surely, she had to have realized it as well.
The dull grayness that came with dusk, also came along with a crippling sense of urgency. There was now a time limit.
Under his weight, the four-inched thick branch shook gallantly as his butt slid off it. He landed on the big intersection where the two big branches rose up, and spread out from the the tree trunk.
As he jumped from branch to tree trunk, his chest pounded, beating in high percussive loops, reminding him of the state of immediacy. With no time for a slow, graceful climb, his feet kicked off the tree, pushing his body backwards, sending him right down to the earth with his tunic flapping in the wind.
Luckily, he made the leap.
From a distance of six feet, Nexus' legs came swinging through the air as he dropped from on high. The air finally gave away, and his feet finally touched down on the ground with a viciously soft- noiseless landing.
The feel of the comfortable lush soil beneath his feet brought a certain warmth. After sitting on the hard tree branch for so long, his butt muscles, thighs, and calves had stiffened. The landing had jolted them back into action.
As he rose up from the squatting position he had landed in, his entire relaxed muscles began to realign. His eyes reconnected with his new altitude, his heartbeat slowed to a more familiar rhythm, and he slowly immersed himself in the issue at hand.
His long haired head swerved sideways- west, in the direction of the action.
His stomach swirled. Nothing had changed. The wolf was still large as fuck. Below the narrow horizontal plane that shot out from the rock, it was looming in maniacal circles. The demon wolf paced back and forth with its blood-red eyes. Its bushy tail swung like a long feathered fan of some royal consort.
As for Monica- she was still there.
Standing atop the ledge in a heroine poise, looking down on the menacing wolf, she kept darting her calculating eyes back and forth- desperately searching for some kind of hidden way out.
The day suddenly darkened by a shade- lengthening the shadows, and calling in the encroaching darkness.
'You and your damn pride. . .' he cursed her under his breath; 'This shit would have been over with already. We could have fucked these wind wolves by now- ten times over! But no, you decided to play god!'
He wasn't wrong. His stride broke into a light jog, crushing the green undergrowth beneath his heavy strides. Face puffing, Nexus was feeling a lot of things- but frustration towered over every other emotions.
Bent forward, head low, shoulders moving in tandem with his lower body, and black cloak flapping behind him, Nexus' trim body streaked through the meadows like a scarecrow come alive. The vein on his forehead stood out wildly as he continued his inner monologue;