Chapter 4 Hunter and Hunted

Bud stared at the Brute , it was the embodiment of power made flesh .The behemoth wrapped its vines around Jewel and began to twist , a thousand tiny cries could be heard as the crystals on Jewel's armour began to shatter , one after another they burst into a thousand pieces and as they burst , so did Jewel's blood.

The shattering of the crystals revealed Jewel's bare arm , it had a criss cross or scars due to the tiny crystals that embedded themselves in her flesh like little parasites, causing tears to welled up in her eyes and she screamed in agony. The Brute smiled in delight, its tongues licking its charred lips , savoring her cries , they were music to its ears.

Bud ,seeing the agony written over Jewel's face , opened his Pocket Inventory . A small swirling blue portal appeared right beside him , he placed his hand inside and pulled out his trusty weapon . The weapon emerged from the portal , it shimmered in the sunlight , its gold exterior glittered , the weapon was about 3 foot long , it was a ..... a ..... saxophone. The weapon that came from the portal wasn't a magical sword , nor was it a flamethrower , both of which , most people will bring to fight monsters.

No , instead it was a saxophone , a saxophone which one would see at a jazz band or a orchestra , if the jazz band and orchestra composed of bees. The saxophone's conical body was covered with a thick layer of honey comb , hexagon holes riddled the saxophone , from the saxophone , a thousand little voices could be heard , all buzzing at once. He held it and his fingers began to dance , becoming little ballerinas , twirling around the valves of the saxophone.

Jewel stared at the Brute , it smiled , looking at its next meal and lifted both of its tentacles , they stretched all the way to the sky , like greedy fingers trying to grab the Sun and he did grabbed the Sun. In the tentacles of the Brute , a tiny dot appeared , the dot was a seed and it began to grow , reaching into the sky and it expanded into a flower , blooming with energy. In the tentacles of the Brute was a sphere composed entirely out of magic , wild black oily magic , it smiled in the satisfaction at the sight of the sphere and brought it down!

In a blink of an eye , the flower bloomed in all directions of the forest , covering the entire forest with black shadows of fire , the trees burned and fell like dominoes, the grass of the Green Glade outside of the forest would never be green again . The grass would began to yellow and wither spreading everywhere . The skies would turn red with blood , birds would fell straight from the sky filling the air with the smell of charred flesh .The ground became barren , nothing will ever grow from this land ever again.

Or at least , that was what the Brute and Jewel expected , what saved Jewel and the whole forest from a literal nuclear explosion? Bees, That's right, bees! Buzzing sounds filled her ears , it sounded like a helicopter just landed. The Brute was wrapped by a blanket composed entirely put of bees , but as Jewel stared more intently at the Bees , she realized that they were not bees at all. First of all , they were blue , their whole body was just pure baby blue , they were the same size of regular bees.

Instead of insectile eyes , they had 2 small beady eyes each , she also realized that they lack any legs , their stingers glinted in the light as if made from metal. Their wings moved like a helicopter's , spinning in the air , but most noticeably , they had a maw that made up their whole face that chomped on the Brute , ripping out pieces of skin , revealing red flesh underneath the pale skin of the Brute. The Brute screamed in pain as the Bees ripped out pieces of its flesh , it shook vigorously , trying to get rid of the Bees.

But they bit harder and dig deeper into the flesh of the Brute , some of the Bees swarmed around the eye of the Brute and with a heart squelching "POP" . Its eye exploded , black ooze leaking from its socket. The Brute summoned its tongues and they changed from snakes into tongues similar of ant eaters . The tongues whipped around the Bees , hundreds of Bees were swallowed up in an instant into the blackhole of the Brute .

The Brute began to adapt to the Bees , its skin began to ripple and change into scales , the scales spread and covered up the exposed flesh. The Brute was no longer deathly pale , instead it was covered with copper tinted scales , the Bees bit into the scales but were unable to penetrate through its hide , the Brute began to swallow up more and more Bees. After every mouthful, scales thickened and more muscles rippled , Bud began to play a different tone on his saxophone , the ballerinas seized their dancing and instead became tin soldiers , more rigid and robust , marching across the valves.

Bud cast " Chromatic Bot" , his saxophone rumbled and from the body of the saxophone , emerged an iron sphere. The iron sphere had 2 spirals for eyes that twirled in a hypnotizing trance and with a woosh of hot air , it flew towards the Brute . The Brute had eaten all of the Bees and it had changed quite considerably , it was now taller , about 10 feet and its body was more robust and rippled with muscles . It was like that one kid that was scrawny during high school that was ostracized and when he reach adulthood became a hunk.

In short, it looked like it was injected with a gallon of pure testosterone , it skin rippled in the Sun with copper tinted scales , it had regrew its eye , it no longer had a pair of tentacles but instead 4 pairs with pieces of spikes sticking out , twisted together like a gnarled trunk that acted like hands. It stared at the alien creature hovering in front of it , the iron sphere opened , revealing a little iron mouth , the Brute stared at the Chromatic Bot and poked it with its finger.

The Chromatic Bot eyes began to flash in a kaleidoscope of colours , the Brute shield its eyes from the flashing lights. The Chromatic Bot opened its mouth and roared , a wave of fire engulfed the Brute like a blanket , it looked at the sky and roared in pain . This scream was filled with desperation and pain , it was genuinely afraid as the fire ate away at its skin. Its scales fell off , it tried to grow more scales to protect itself . New scales sprouted but the fire continued to devour him. The air filled with smoke and ash , it tried to take in a deep breath of air only to breathe in ash and dust.

It coughed , its chest rising and collapsing rapidly , tears filled its eyes . The Brute was a predator before but it was definitely a prey now. It turned and saw a gap in the ring of fire and leapt out. It sprang from its feet and began to run , pushing forward with its mighty legs when a spear hit it . It send the Brute back into the prison of fire , embedded in the flesh of the Brute was a spear made out of crystals , the crystals began to grow , sinking deeper into its skin . It pulled out the spear and attempted to run away again when from the fire was a demon , a demon straight from the very depths of hell , a demon made out of crystals , Jewel smiled at the Brute , the crystal oni mask also smiled , revealing fangs .

The Brute backed away as Jewel stepped closer , in Jewel's right hand appeared a halberd made out of crystals and pulled all the way back and swung with all her might .The Brute's head should have been sliced clean but .... but at the moment , darkness enveloped her and Bud , the darkness was thick and oily like tar , swallowing both of them. Absorbing all the light , the fires died and disappeared. the Chromatic Bot began to whirr , smoke spurring from the bot and fell to the ground.

Richie stood at the branch of a tree, at the battlefield , there was a ball of darkness that engulfed Bud and Jewel. The Lush Dweller beside him shined its eyes at the ball of darkness , alerting him of the once white, then copper , now charred black face emerging from the ball. Richie pulled out 3 of his vials and cracked all of them , sending 3 metal wires into the shoulder , leg and arm of the Brute as it escaped ball.

Richie pulled out a fourth vial and threw it at the Brute , the liquid metal in the vial transformed into a net , trapping the Brute. The Brute fell to the ground stuck , it struggled against the net , it used its uninjured arm and managed to remove part of the net that covered its upper body . Richie watched in terror and shock as the Brute, without any hesitation , it detached its lower body with a pop . Blood trailed from the upper body of the Brute as it crawled away .The Brute use its uninjured arm and pulled out its injured arm.

The Brute began to change , blue vines spread across its body and when the blue vines disappeared was the Hunted . The Hunted was a deer with 4 blue legs that was gnarled like trunks , eyes were scattered across its body , blinking and looking in all directions , it made Richie dizzy just by looking at it. The Hunted was the perfect form the Brute chose to escape , it lowered its bony antlers and galloped away. The Hunted was the complete opposite of the Brute , yet the exact same , the Hunted sprinted away from its Hunters