Time-Smith - Chapter 4: Hunter - Part 1 (Patreon)

It was early in the morning, a full day after gaining access to his skills. Evan felt ready and ecstatic.

Heading into the dense forest, Evan carried his trusted bow slung over his shoulder, and a quiver full of arrows at his side. The sun just started to rise, bathing the foliage around him in a jade glow.

The forest, with its ancient soul, stirred with anticipation as Evan delved deeper into its depths. It observed the lone humans steps with timeless curiosity. The towering trees leaned in, eager to catch a glimpse of the unfolding events this latest interloper would bring; their branches reached out like curious fingers. The rustling leaves whispered among themselves, their soft murmurs carrying an air of excitement and intrigue along the winds.

Each step Evan took deeper into the woods sent a satisfying crunch beneath his boots as the fallen leaves and twigs protested his intrusion.

Evan's eyes scanned the surroundings with acute focus, searching for any signs of movement or disturbance. Or prey.

Hunting was his passion; he relished the challenge of tracking and taking down elusive targets. The forest had always been Evan's sanctuary, a place where he felt truly alive. A delicate balance existed here, a dance between hunter and hunted.

Ever since he was a child, he had snuck out to the forest to watch the hunters work. Before that one time his parents found him a bloody and injured mess and forbade him from leaving the city. Years of trust-building had ensued for them to allow him to leave once more, and even more years for them to let him go this far. But it was more than worth it.

As Evan observed the tree line, a gentle breeze, like a mischievous messenger, caressed his cheek, nudging him forward on his path of discovery. It whispered secrets into his ears: tales of forgotten wonders and hidden realms that lay just beyond the veil of perception. The forest revelled in the unknown, thrived on the unfolding of events, and the interplay of fate and choice. As Evan strolled closer to the forest, another leaf brushed past his cheek, likely whispering some ancient woodland secret. Pity he didn't speak leaf.

Evan found himself taking a step forward, stopping when he heard rustling in the bushes behind him. He crouched, turned around, drew his bow, and nocked an arrow—a swift set of movements he practiced daily—now ready to spring free his intent.

He was surprised to see two familiar faces greeting him with wide grins. They were his childhood friends, a boy named Marcus and a girl named Lucia. Marcus had a boisterous personality, always cracking jokes and making light of any situation. He had a lanky frame and a mess of curly hair that seemed to have a life of its own. Lucia, on the other hand, was quieter and more reserved. She had a small frame and short, cropped hair that framed her heart-shaped face.

"Careful with those arrows, Evan," Lucia warned, watching him aim. "We don’t want another squirrel incident." Despite being in the presence of more magical and mythical creatures, Evan just couldn’t shake the feeling that the squirrels were watching them. And plotting something. They would always steal his rations from right under his nose, somehow. And his perfectly aimed arrows never seemed to hit them. And they usually hit everything. He was pretty sure that the forest's seemingly innocent squirrels were higher than imps in some hell's hierarchy. "You know, Lucia, these squirrels might seem harmless, but I've come to suspect that they're the true masterminds behind all the chaos in this forest. Don't let their innocent appearance fool you. They're like tiny furry overlords."

"Gods, enough about squirrels already! Evan, we heard you were heading out to hunt and we couldn't let you go alone," Marcus exclaimed, slapping Evan on the back. "I brought my new skills, [Density Control] and [Gardening], and Lucia has [Iron Grip] and [Ambidexterity]."

Evan was intrigued and asked them to explain how their skills worked. As they walked deeper into the forest, Marcus explained that his [Density Control] allowed him to manipulate his own weight and mass, making him stronger and harder to move. Lucia's [Iron Grip] allowed her to hold on to objects with immense strength, while her [Ambidexterity] enabled her to use both hands with equal skill and precision.

"You brought [Gardening] to a hunt, Marcus?" Evan asked, half exasperated and half amused. Marcus shrugged, "You never know when you'll need to grow a tree mid-fight!"
Evan pondered for a moment, realizing they were currently in the depths of a dense forest. "But we're in a forest," he pointed out.

Marcus grinned mischievously. "Exactly," he replied.

As Evan mulled over Marcus' response, an intriguing thought crossed his mind. A big impractical weapon? or... instant camouflage? Dang, that's pretty smart actually... Evan then gave Marcus a strange, appreciating look, silently acknowledging the unexpected ingenuity.

Evan grinned at his friends, happy for the company. "Fine by me. Let's go get some game."

As they walked deeper into the forest, they discussed the recent events at the testing ceremony. They had all seen the boy taken for his immortality skill, and it had shaken them. They wondered about the kind of horrors he would face, now that he had been marked as an immortal.

"It's scary how heartless those guards can be," Lucia said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I'm sure he's out by now; they're just trying to keep us safe. Plenty of people get let go,” Marcus, ever the optimist, you had to love that side of him, really.

Evan didn’t want to talk about it. For a while, he just didn't want to worry.

He listened to his friends, impressed with their skills. He then told them about his own two skills, Teleportation and minor postcognition. They yipped and whooped before going silent, remembering where they were, and congratulated him silently.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sight of a strange creature with large, glowing eyes lurking in the shadows. It was a Duskstalker, a local feline predator known for its ability to blend into the sun's god rays—radiant sunbeams that illuminate the sky as the sun dips below the horizon during twilight hours—and ambush unsuspecting prey. As the sunbeams were most strikingly visible when the contrast between light and dark was at its peak, they knew to avoid the open canopy during twilight hours.

It was a creature of pure magic. It looked like a large cat, as big as any man, with a mystic and spellbinding appearance. Its body was covered in thick fur as black as coal, yet shimmering with an iridescent sheen in the light of the setting sun. Its form was lithe and agile, with powerful muscles rippling beneath its sleek coat as it moved with effortless grace.

The Duskstalker's eyes captured their attention. They were massive, larger than any creature of its size should rightfully have, and they shone with an inner light that seemed to pierce the very soul of those who looked into them. The eyes were a brilliant shade of gold, with cat-like pupils that dilated and contracted in response to the changing light of the sun.

Its most striking feature was its mane. It was a rippling mass of fur that shifted between the colors of the dawn and dusk as the creature moved, when viewed from different angles, the mane seemed to change colors matching the hues of some distant sky, ranging from the softest pastel pinks and blues to deep, rich purples and fiery oranges.

Despite its beauty, the Duskstalker was a formidable predator. Its razor-sharp claws and powerful jaws could take down prey many times its size. Hunters who dared to venture into its territory during twilight hours, when the sun's rays illuminated the canopy in a radiant display of color, often found themselves victims to the Duskstalker's ambush tactics. They had heard tales of hunters taken down by the beast's razor-sharp claws and powerful jaws.

The beast growled and stepped towards them, and in a panic, Evan tapped into his skills, the blazing mana of [Teleportation] shifting in his core and the mana of [Postcognition] deep in his mind engulfed him. The world briefly lurched and spun, the entirety of existence shifting across his vision.

His attempts at skill activation were interrupted as the sun shifted slightly overhead and peeked through the trees, the clouds far above the canopy having moved. The sun's god rays washed over them in a large swath. And In a heartbeat, Evan, Lucia, and Markus were exposed to the beasts hunting grounds; a myriad of sun rays. They panicked.

The Duskstalker pounced.

Evan yanked his bow from his back, an arc of motion so fast it blurred. Arrow nocked, he let it fly toward the Duskstalker. The arrow soared and missed, scraping off the beast's sheening furr.

The creature vanished as it landed near them, blending into the forest's rays.

Evan's eyes darted. His limbs moved with a speed that defied logic, launching him toward where he suspected the Duskstalker would reappear.

He was right.

The Duskstalker materialized, lunging for Lucia. Evan's body blurred as he moved at unnatural speed, stunning Lucia and Markus as he appeared in the beast's path in a flurry of movement. Evan was the strongest of the three, he always had been, even before they’d unlocked their skills. But they had never seen him move that fast before.

The momentum of his movement catapulted him like a human missile. He crashed into the beast's side with his knees.

Something cracked.

The Duskstalker howled as it recoiled. It swatted Evan away in a violent movement that left streaks of his blood across the forest floor. Flesh met flesh. The impact sent a shockwave through Evan's body, his bones aching from the collision. Evan tumbled and crashed into the foliage.

The beast's eyes narrowed in his direction as it vanished once more.

Evan's hand shot out, clutching a small tree, his fingers cracking its bark as he stumbled and raised himself from the ground. Sap spurted from the wounded tree as it attempted to twist away from him with movements that would take centuries to notice.

OK, healthcheck. He thought as he rose, examining himself for injuries. Nothings broken, but…Ow, that's a nasty gash. That thing sure packs a punch. The creature had scored a light gash across his shoulder, which was now swollen, bruised, and covered in quickly coagulating blood. At least I won't be bleeding to death, he sighed a pained breath of relief and looked around for signs of the creature. Markus and Lucia joined him in the desperate search.

Silence consumed them as they frantically searched. Lucia's eyes suddenly widened, she screamed causing the surrounding birds to take flight. "Markus, watch out!"

Golden eyes of the Duskstalker appeared some distance to their left and fixated on Markus, and Markus made the mistake of meeting its abnormally large feline gaze. To meet the gaze of the beast was to risk falling momentarily under its thrall. Transfixed by its gaze, Markus' body refused to move for a moment, but a moment was all the beast needed. It bounded towards Markus’s dazed form, its claws aimed at his neck. Lucia lunged as her arm shot out, her muscles propelled by her [Iron Grip] skill, her fingers dug into Marcus's gear as she tugged at his clothing and pulled him out of the way.

Markus felt the air displaced by slashing claws as he toppled sideways, just as the beast's claws swiped the empty space where he had stood.

He had just almost died.

The beast disappeared into the light rays, and the group moved as one into the shade.

Markus grunted, his face flushed in embarrassment and fear. "Thanks, Luci."

Evan grumbled, drawing for another arrow. "Where is it?" his fingers twitched on his bowstring.

The group still couldn’t see the creature. Only once it left the twilight dusk rays and entered the shade of the trees, would they be able to see it.

Their gazes shifted from sunray to sunray, eyes peeled for the beast's reemergence. Evan tightened his grip on the bow, eyes flitting between the closest beams of god rays filtering through the forest canopy above. Markus, beside him, spread his palms wide, ready to control his density at a moment's notice.

An air of uncertainty drifted through the forest's breeze, as it whispered the location of the beast to their unhearing ears. Lucia’s eyes were wide, her fingers twitching near her dagger. She clasped her dagger and pulled.

It shattered under her uncontrolled [Iron Grip].

The hair on the ends of Evans arm stood on end and he turned his head to the side, only to see a massive black mass of shadow and two large feline eyes that shone like polished gold bearing down on him.

Evan's muscles contracted in a split second, propelling him sideways like an arrow released from a taut bow. Air whistled past his ears. The creature’s talons met only the aged oak, ripping through the bark where Evan had stood. The tree moaned, its wood splintering into the air as if mourning its own disfigurement. Evan landed and rolled before springing to his feet.

He looked up and saw nothing but teeth and death closing around him.

In a mess of panic, he accessed his [Teleportation] skill. He sensed an unsettling tug deep within his gut. The pull tightened, as if woven from invisible threads of mana intent on dragging him to an unknown destination. His muscles tensed, his mind alight with desperate focus. He fought to keep the destination close, to remain in the fight, but it was like wrestling with a sentient tide. For a moment, it seemed as if the pull and the skill's mana had whims of their own, eluding his control. He fought it for control, and lost the battle for direction. In an instant, he found himself yanked toward that distant, unchosen place. He vanished from between the beast's jaws in a puff of displaced air and feline saliva.

Crash.

He reappeared some distance away, crashing through a nearby tree before slamming into another, coming to a stop.

Groaning, Evan twisted, palms scraping against the coarse earth as he rose to his feet. Dirt crumbled under his grip, an unsteady anchor in a forest uncertain of his survival. His lungs clawed for air. Muscles vibrated, tingling at his nerve endings. Where’s Lucia and Markus? He wondered between seconds. He looked around in a frenzy and saw them standing in the lightrays of the stalkers hunting grounds, like they had a deathwish. There they are, he thought. “Move into the shade!” he hissed as he raced to join them. They had to stay in the shade, that would be the only way they could have a chance to see the creature coming. Evan reached the pair in seconds as they moved away from the twilight. Just as a shadow appeared directly above the three of them.

The shadow growled.

Evan and Lucia leapt aside without even looking, leaving Markus to turn and gape at the creature descending on him with deadly intent.

“Oh hells!!!” Markus scrambled in panic and channeled his [Density Control]. He felt his body grow heavy, too heavy. His skills’ mana spiraled out of his control. It felt like he weighed more than a house as he found himself sinking, mired like a stone in mud. His feet sunk into the ground just below his hips as the beast pounced. He was stuck, unable to move his legs.

But he could still move his fists.

He closed his eyes and thrust his dense fist forward, connecting with the Duskstalker as it landed. A seismic thud echoed as he swung, and the impact sent the creature sliding backwards, tumbling and rolling before coming to a stop.

The beast rose and snarled, its eyes narrowed. It took a step back, retreating into the twilight, its form fragmenting into tendrils of dissipating darkness. It vanished, experience from countless hunts controlling its movements.

It would get them, eventually.

Evan scanned the woods, his eyes darting left and right. It's going to attack soon, but where from? And when? The beast was a shadow of light, a promise of death hidden between the interspersed rays.

The loud roar sounded as it reappeared some distance away, before leaping into the twilight, disappearing, reappearing and then disappearing again. Silence ensued as they searched for the creature.

It reappeared directly behind Evan.

Evan stumbled in his frantic attempt to move away. The beast jaws opened wide, milliseconds from tearing him apart. He found himself caught off balance, falling with no leverage to move and a beast the size of two horses poised to consume him.

[Teleportation] was risky, he hadn’t even come close to mastering the skill- but it was necessary.

He vanished as he tapped into the shifting sun of mana in his core, disappearing in a gust of air, displacing leaves, and snapping twigs. The beast's claw shredded the bark where he'd stood. Splinters scattered, torn through by claws that could carve through stone, and the trees of the forest leaned imperceptibly closer towards the smell of torn wood and impending death to better witness the hunt unfold.

Evan teleported, pulled by his skill into the void, and experiencing a split second, or milliseconds, of nothingness where the world looked… different. It came by and went so quickly he thought he’d imagined it.

His form reappeared, not on the ground, but in the sky, ascending rapidly, hurled into the air by his misfired skill. He soared upwards, flung, propelled by the force of his own reappearance. His eyes widened as he realized his ascent had left his friends vulnerable.

Below, Markus and Lucia were alone, their eyes meeting for a brief second. They knew they were in trouble.

Lucia pulled herself up, wincing. Markus struggled to extricate his feet, his eyes still on the spot where the Duskstalker had vanished. Both were vulnerable, their newly acquired skills inadequate shields against the lurking predator.

Evan soared higher, the ground receding below him. His friends looked smaller, their faces tinged with a blend of determination and despair. The god rays shifted, becoming a chessboard of light and shadow on the forest floor.

The beast lunged at Markus, immobilized by his uncontrollable skill. Lucia’s hands found the beast’s fur in her attempts to save him. She clenched her [Iron Grip] around the beast's fur.

A feline screech sounded through the forest as its skin tore under her grip.

The beast roared, tossing her effortlessly into a tree. Lucia spun in the air before crashing into the bark.

She gasped for air, struggling to regain her footing. She gripped a fallen branch as she rose. Her other hand clutched her side, bruised from the tree impact. Her eyes never left the beast moving slowly through the shifting patches of light that pierced the canopy.

It was stalking her now, toying with its food.

***

High above, Evan desperately loosed an arrow. The arrow flew from his bow as he fell through the sky. It hit nothing.

Evan looked down as the wind whipped around him. His friends were dots, the Duskstalker a dark smear.

He was too high. Too far to help.

They were going to die.

His bow, useless at this height, dangled from his hand. The sensation of falling upwards intensified, the forest turning into a green blur. The feeling of helplessness engulfed him, the distance between him and his friends widening with each passing second.

Evan reached the peak of his ascent. The world below was a labyrinth of darkness and fading light. His body reached its zenith, hanging for a fraction of a second before the inevitable descent.

And then he began to fall.

***

Evan's gut churned as he fell through the sky; a voice inside him screamed at his friends to run.

But they wouldn’t be able to hear him at this distance, and he didn't think he could survive the fall. His only options were to use the skill he had barely even mastered to teleport and arrest his momentum before he landed, and hope his friends survived an attack from a beast that was famous for killing experienced hunters.

Or… he could try to rewind time again.

But how did he even do it the first time? How did he move through time? He only had three skills, a skill that let him see the past, a skill that teleported him through space, and a third skill; one that had nothing to do with time or movement.

But none of them should allow him to travel through time. And as far as he knew, such a skill was virtually impossible.

So how did he do it?

The wind whipped past him as he fell. He was seconds away from becoming a bloody smear across the forest floor. Whether his friends were dead or alive, he had no idea, and soon it wouldn't matter.

As the ground drew near, Evan delved deep within himself to the reservoir of power hidden within his mind, the center point of his [Postcognition] skill. As he touched the skills mana, it burst forth, coursing through him and consuming his senses with hundreds of fragmented visions of the past.

The world went white as he hit the ground.