Predator

Chapter 5

Had Bane been able to see through the thick fog, he would have cursed at all the greenery around him. But as soon as he and his two companions stepped into the forest of Wormwood, they were plunged into a complete lack of vision.

Neither Tobias nor Alyson were anywhere in sight, but Bane knew they were close by. He treaded carefully, hearing the fallen leaves crunching under his fake leather boots. There were other crunches, apart from his own. This further confirmed that Alyson and Tobias were not far away.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. The sound was beginning to annoy. Bane gripped his Channels, a pair of Desert Eagles handed down generation after generation by his mother's side, silently hoping there would be no need to use it.

Cautious step after cautious step; Bane was beginning to wonder why he had yet to hit a tree. He could barely see the path before him, yet no giant root rose up to trip him, or wandering magpie stumbled along his way. A thought began to bubble into Justin Bane's mind, a thought left behind so long ago during his days at the Silent Circle Academy.

The Will o' the Wisp, or Wisp for short, was a demon entity that had no real physical shape or form. It often appeared as a thick mist or fog, sometimes even pockets of dark, nothingness. No one, not even the Elders or Masters, knew where they originated from. Theories had been made that they were created by Chaos magic, or by mere, heinous thoughts of dark wizards.

Bane did not give a rat's ass where they came from, he just wanted this particular one gone.

"It's a Wisp," he said. At the exact same time, Tobias' voice echoed his words.

"Know any spells?" asked Alyson, her voice barely audible. This was one of the demon's tricks, Bane knew. Warping and bending reality to create subtle illusions: a person might feel that he had wandered too far off into the forest, but in actual fact he was still at the town's borders, or vice versa.

"Just one," responded Tobias, a little too late, such that his reply seemed abrupt.

Bane stopped moving. To continue walking within a Wisp's body would be as good as taking a hike towards insanity. He waited...

There was a bang, followed by a halo of light. A bloodcurdling scream enamated through the forest, unheard by the people of Wormwood. As the scream died off, so did the impeding fog. Finally, Bane could see again.

Tobias was on his left, staff out. Alyson was to his right, laptop open and whirring.

"That was so not fun," groaned Alyson as she tapped a few keys.

Bane cocked an eyebrow. "Why? Because there was no connection?"

"Yep," she replied, rather predictably. "But it's back on for now. You owe me, Bane."

Bane was trying hard not to laugh. He turned to Tobias for support, only to find the elf was barely suppressing his urge to find humour. Unable go on further, both men burst out in what Alyson felt was cruel, mirthless laughter.

Rolling her eyes, Alyson said, "Let's go before you two guffaw your appendix out."

"I already had mine out," commented Tobias as they began to move again.

A sudden rustle of leaves halted them, and Bane strained his ears. There was not a breeze in the forest, and now that the Wisp was gone, it felt rather humid. The rustling was definitely out of place.

"Can you tell where it's coming from?" Bane said in a half-whisper to Tobias, whose elf ears were twice as sensitve as a human's.

"Not really, but I might be able to see our hidden friend," replied the elf quietly. "Eagle's Eyes!"

To Bane and Alyson, the forest still appeared the same: tall, moss-covered trees; patches of prickly wild grass; murky, eutrophication-stricken ponds. But to Tobias, the entire environment had changed.

His elf vision--very similar to that of a human--warped at his command. Immediately, the range of his peripheral vision tripled, and his eyes focused on tiny details not many would have noticed, like how many leaves were on the ground at his feet, and how many veins each individual leaf had. The world lost its colour, but gained so much more detail.

Turning to what he thought was the source of the sound, Tobias focused his eagle-like vision on a fruitless bush. He saw nothing at first, then, out of the blue, there was sudden movement.

Like a set of binoculars, his eyes homed in on whatever had betrayed its location. It had moved again, so swiftly that most would not have seen it, but Tobias' peripheral vision told him what it was.

He shut off the Eagle's Eyes, for he no longer required it. Their stalker had pounced. It had a sleek body, dirty yellow eyes and a shiny coat of black fur. It bared its glimmering fangs.

Bane fired without hesitating. The panther fell to the ground, unharmed. It snarled, then did something completely unexpected.

Swirls of Chaos energy began to gather around the beast's open jaws. Bane, Tobias and Alyson were too perplexed by the sight to react. The swirling vortex of energy had become a black, sparking ball. The panther released the energy orb.

It hurtled towards Alyson, who typed swiftly on Mach, her laptop. The ground below her blew open as a gigantic root lifted her up into the air. The orb blasted into the root, exploding it into bits, but with her martial arts background Alyson skilfully leapt off her destroyed perch, landing safely beside Bane.

"Crap," cursed Bane as he raised both guns. "Avalon was right: it IS Panzer Longfang."