Second Predator Encounter:

Although even now I never hit the distance within the allocated time, it was still useful to know when to change from focusing on distance and instead focus on time in the future. Once my 'rest' days were over I once again continued with my normal workout, though I had begun to notice that as time went on I began to talk to myself more and more.

I had always been a weird kid and seemed to just randomly start talking to myself when no one was listening, apparently having nobody around and nothing to distract myself with had led to me developing an even worse habit of talking to myself, I was already aware that I was bound to start losing my mind without social interaction, I just didn't expect it to happen this quickly.

Plus, on top of talking to myself, I had begun to daydream basically all the time, mainly about a world where the war didn't start and one where I was actually enjoying my life. Still, at the very least daydreaming did not worsen my mental state, plus it also helped make the pain I felt when exercising a little more bearable.

As for food, I had actually begun to feed off mainly fruits and Suri, at the end of the day although Suri was a bug, it was very nutritious and provided the necessary nutrients needed to help maintain my lifestyle. Plus, after being cooked, eating them wasn't as bad as I had once thought it to be, then again it could just be my tongue playing tricks on me.

After considering my options I decided to make a hammer for my second weapon, as not only would it be faster to make, but it would also be easier to use as all I had to do would be to hit the threat without the need for much skill, at least when it comes to hunting animals. Although I would like to think that all humans are civilized, they are currently still in the nomadic stage, and would probably only see me as an enemy.

For the hammer, I just grabbed the biggest stone I could support using two branches (one on each side) tied together with vines. With that settled, I grabbed my spear and the newly made hammer before going into the jungle to go hunting for food. This time though, I was better prepared than ever before.

Also unlike the other times, I decided to search north in the hopes of finding Suri more easily (I had been searching south of the river before). Sadly I wasn't able to find any nearby, so I began going further north. Eventually, I once again felt a now-familiar eerie feeling, and immediately ran to the river.

While both pumas and the giant green snake produced an eerie feeling, the snake produced a more powerful eerie feeling than the puma did, so although slightly difficult, it was possible to differentiate them, and I that I had encountered a puma, meaning that there was no reason for me to climb up a tree for safety, as they traveled in a pride.

Chances were that I wouldn't be able to hold all of the back from killing me on a tree, so it was better to fight in a river, that way they were more likely to slip and be immobilized after landing from an attempt to attack me, to my surprise though, only one puma followed me into the river, my theory was that this one had separated from its pride momentarily before encountering me.

The puma began charging at me so I grabbed my spear and threw it at its neck before getting ready to jump away, I barely managed to avoid its attack as it had to shift in order to avoid the spear, and although the spear hadn't done any damage, it had just given me the perfect shot at the pumas head.

After shifting in order to avoid the spear, the puma had launched itself at me, and since it was already unbalanced, it slipped when it fell onto the unstable ground creating an opening for me to hit it straight in the head, so I took my shot, seeing this, the puma used its paws to push itself to the right making it so that the hammer hit its snout instead of its head.

This cause it to release a giant roar, although I instinctively knew that the rest of its pride would be on its way here, I froze up, although I had killed a couple of pumas before, this time things were different, all of the times before, the pumas died before they could even express their pain, this time through the puma's suffering was clear to see.

I had never been one to want to hurt animals, I viewed them as innocent beings that live purely on instinct and couldn't be blamed for their actions as they only killed when threatened or hungry, so seeing one suffering because of me caused me to feel remorse like I was being unnecessarily cruel, yet I knew that if I didn't fight back the puma would just kill me.

I was thankfully able to snap out of reflecting on my actions before the puma was able to attack again, I had already dropped the hammer after hearing the Puma scream, so I had to run to my spear. By the time I turned around, the puma was charging at me again, albeit slower than before, this time knowing that it would jump I angled the spear so that it would hit the Pumas stomach.

Sadly, unlike before, the puma didn't jump, and instead tried to just attack me directly by opening its mouth right after trying to shift to the side to avoid the spear, but the pain prevented it from moving away, and unable to stop its momentum, the puma ran directly into the spear, having it go though its mouth and pierce its neck from the inside.

The puma stopped moving shortly after, followed by me putting it on my back and running south on the opposite side of the river in the hopes of avoiding the dead puma's pride, although it was certainly risky to take the puma carcass with me, and it did slow me down, I didn't have much choice, as I hadn't eaten yet, and I wasn't going to risk hunting for food on an empty stomach.