7 7. Vengeance
A man wearing light armor could be seen running away from a five-meter-tall pissed-off bird.
Pure rage was visible in the three remaining eyes of the great austrapede, rage from this insolent pest trespassing in its territory, and both occasions injuring it. Not forgetting the instinctual need to kill the human. It clearly remembered Liam.
'It's catching up…Fast… As I supposed.', Liam remarked, a part of his mind worried and terrified about the insanity of what he was doing while another part enjoyed the flow of pure adrenalin that was flowing through his bloodstream.
Deep footprint marks were left behind by each of the human's steps, the wind whipped against his face, and his spring between each step increased as his ears picked up the rapidly approaching great austrapede. It was faster than the first time, or it wanted to kill him even more.
Weaving in the tall grass he jumped over a small six-legged tapir-like creature, it was a Tapirus. Small, docile even to humans, slow herbivorous creatures, they were the perfect prey and by Liam's experience their meat tasted like a strange and unique mix of chicken and venison.
A dozen seconds later the Tapirus squealed in fright as the clawed feet of the great austrapede missed its head by a hair's breadth. Ignoring the six-legged tapir the great austrapede pursued Liam, occasionally emitting a sharp and shrill sound that was only amplified by the crest on its head.
The pursuit continued for a quarter of an hour, time was meaningless to Liam. Only taking deep regular breaths, ignoring the slight ache in his legs running and dodging the occasional hit mattered, anything else was but a useless distraction. Not like his adrenalin-fueled brain could have cared about much more either way.
Rapidly approaching the pitfall trap he remarked he was going to have to jump it diagonally thanks to the wood pall he placed as marks, meaning a longer jump.
The hair on his neck stood up as a swipe of the great asutrapede claw barely missed his neck, shredding a big chunk out of the hide protection for the neck and he felt pain as the claw nicked a part of his skin drawing a bit of blood. A few more centimeters and his head would have flown.
This spurred him to run with even more vigor, right before he walked on the pit's roof composed of branches, leaves, grass and a bit of clay he pushed as much force as he could and jumped.
The feeling of being airborne was short-lived, landing on the other side his feet dug deep into the dry soil leaving a trail and a small cloud of dust and leaves.
Catching his breath he looked behind and a large borderline maniacal smile found its way on his roguishly handsome face as the great austrapede was one foot above the pitfall.
*SQUAWK?!*
A surprised squawk escaped from its beak as it was taken aback falling metaphorically and literally into a human trick one more and final time. Falling forward, its momentum stopped any possible attempts of escape.
The thin camouflaged roof broke apart revealing the 6 meters (19ft7) of air below. Gravity took effect and the great austrapede fell, its speed and weight made it land hard on the compacted ground. Leaving a large cloud of dust that was immediately blown by the wind.
Its left knee was bent the wrong way, the skin shifting in its shape as the great austrape desperately tried to stand up. Repeatedly failing. Pain, incomprehension, panic, and fear extinguished the rage it had a second before.
In an instant their place switched, it was tricked again but this time it was the last. Liam was surprised by how well the bird was after such a fall. It only had visible from the outside a dislocated articulation, one that crippled it. A death sentence in the wild.
But compared to… For example, for an animal of the same overall bulk as a giraffe, the result after such a high fall with such speed and force would have been way worse and bloodier than just a dislocated knee, tears in muscles, and tendons. It proved how terrifyingly resilient the giant bird was.
Yet it was enough, the trap worked, he never thought once it would have killed it either. It wasn't made with that intention in mind, otherwise, it would have been deeper with bronze and wooden spikes at the bottom.
A wave of relief flooded his mind at the realization he had successes doing this impossibly reckless plan without much of an injury but a small gash in the back of his head and some scraps in his bare feet.
It worked, he did it, but he didn't cheer yet, you mustn't sell the pelt of the bear before killing it. The great austtapede while wounded was perfectly able to defend itself and kill him if he messed up.
And no small part of him enjoyed the show, this creature had tormented his mind for what felt like an eternity and caused him physical trauma that only increased the first point. The soft orange hue of his specimen implant glowed brighter in response to his emotions.
This feeling however was ignored as Liam wasted no time and didn't want to risk anything, desperation is a double-edged sword that led down to dangerous prospects.
He took out a 2.3 meter (7ft5) long spear entirely made out of bronze, a spear a lone regular human wouldn't even be able to wield effectively but it was perfectly adapted for someone like him.
With a grip strong enough to break bones on his spear he took on a throwing stance similar to a javelin thrower, muscle flexing. His eyes locked onto the head of the great austrapede, it was heavily moving around forcing him to orient himself as to even if he missed the spear would hit one of the breathing holes, operculum, around the base of its neck.
Grunting he threw the spear, driving as much force and power as he could. His hate for the beast only added to it. The air whistled as the bronze spear left his hand and flew through the air faster than normal human eyes could perceive.
The great austrapede dodged, causing the spear to miss its mark by milliliters, but still cutting through the only good eyes on the bird's left side. It continued its course by perforating the thin flap of skin of the operculum.
And like a hot knife through butter, it speared through the chest cavity shredding an air sac, a lung, the secondary heart, then the gut to get out on the other side and continue to dig in the ground for two times the spear-length. Blood spurted from both ends in abandon.
Liam from above stared at the damage he caused, slightly stupefied, his gaze transfixed on the bloody hole where he could perceive some of the organs, the rapid beating of the main heart was for him to see.
He did this. It was gruesome, extremely perturbing, sickening even yet he was about unphased as one could get, and this was the most perturbing to him.
He changed in ways he would have preferred not to, but that's life and whining would be of no use. This didn't stop him from bringing another bronze spear from his inventory.
At the same time, the great austrapede froze, its brain slowly processing what unfolded before it truly acknowledged it was going to die, the wings on its back weakly flared and it emitted an impossibly high-pitched screech amplified by its crest.
A cry it could only do once in its life, it signified its imminent and inevitable death or a great loss, in all cases the one emitting it was doing an act not dissimilar to suicide.
Tor Tsngawìk, an extremely rare event, that was how the Na'vi of the great pandorian plains called it, the last wail or cry of a tsawltsping/great austrapede and the last sound one will ever hear if too close to the epicenter.
A cry that will resonate far and wide in its territory and beyond. Filled with despair and resentment, the cries also meant it failed to protect its progeny.
Liam clutched his helmet, his spear escaped his grasp and tumbled on the ground as a silent scream of agony left his throat, falling to his knee he instinctively stored the bronze helmet and tried to muffle the sound by putting his hands against his ears.
It was ineffective, his mind felt like his head was split apart, and boiling acid was poured right into his brain, the capillary in his eyes popped one after another reddening his vision, blood trickling down his nose soon followed by his ears leaking blood.
Right after this, he could only hear a low whistle mixed with white noise, and his eardrums busted. He needed to do something, his bloodshot eyes fixated on the great austrapede suicidal cry.
A dam inside him broke, and his implant glowed brighter than it ever did. While his pain-riddled mind, fully focused on the slowly dying bird, all the frustration and tumultuous emotions he bottled up since his forceful arrival exploded and the tight hold he had for the last few weeks on his rationality slipped.
All hell broke loose, like a rabid animal he lashed out at the closest living being to him, the great austrapede, and also one of the greatest sources of his suffering. He wanted the pain to stop, it was the only thing on his mind.
"RAAAAAHH!", Liam yelled, something raw and primal then jumped from where he stood with no care for the height and latched onto the head of the bird.
Its two remaining eyes were as bloodshot as his and ready to pop at any moment with its eardrums also busted and blood leaking from every orifice, never once did the screeching stop and it was felt by Liam's body rapidly heating up.
A fist was raised in the air, then brought down onto the wide open goat-like eyes of the bird making it explode, another first followed with even more force, a crack was heard, then another and another.
Liam continued to pummel the head of the great austrapede, venting all he had kept bottled up inside in a show of extreme violence.
At some point, the screech stopped as his fist broke the skull and pummeled the brain, and the bird stopped moving, it was dead but this didn't stop the bloodied form of the human as he continued to punch and punch what was once a head, uncaring of the pain in his hands.
Yet after long minutes each punch progressively lost in aggression and force until they ultimately stopped. He was breathing heavily, catching up on stamina.
"I want to go home…", Liam said, his voice lashed with weariness and containing a certain hollowness, he was mentally drained.
His hearing was coming back as his eardrum healed but it was not enough for him to notice the tone of his voice. A headache was also present but manageable enough for him to ignore it.
Looking down at his hand he saw the skin on his knuckle partially shredded, they were swollen, bruised, and covered in his blood mixed with blood, brain matter, bones fragment, and flesh of the great austrapede. He blinked in confusion as clear droplets fell onto his wounded hands.
'I'm crying…?', he thought, chuckling at that revelation, a bittersweet feeling in his heart. He felt better, lighter in a way, it was strange. He was both sad and happy.
Standing up he hopped off the bird's head, the skull was split open, the crest shattered, and the smell of blood was thick in the air and the only thing he could smell.
He wasn't horrified by what he just did, he knows he should to a least a degree but he wasn't maybe too mentally exhausted to truly care. And letting all of his emotion go and venting everything out was… Freeing.
Now he needed to take care of the body, not wanting even amid his current state to let it go to waste. Then his gaze fell upon the claws of the bird protectively laid against its chest.
From a sort of skin pouch reminding him of what marsupials had, he saw it before but shrugged it on alien biology and didn't think much of it, apparently, he should have as a black ovoid shape mottled with blue spots was poking out of it.
