13 Current Objective: Survive

J'Zaki ran with all of his might to get away from the fort. He knew that if he wanted to survive until morning, that was one of his two challenges. The other was finding shelter so that he would not freeze to death.

But it seemed like the gods also wanted to see him struggle for his trials.

Even though he ran in a direction where he did not hear any howls, J'Zaki still managed to run into 14 wolves. Knowing that he could not run, J'Zaki unsheathed his knife and released his chi before giving a small prayer before his battle.

"Sekhmet, give me courage. Hanuman, give me strength. Sobek, let them fear me. Ingcuka, let me live to eat their corpses."

The teen let out a battle cry and charged at the wolves. Not prepared for him to attack first, the wolves were caught unprepared. It gave J'Zaki the chance to stab his knife into one of their necks. J'Zaki stabbed several times to make sure that he killed his target.

'Sorry for not putting you out of your misery in one blow but I do not have the opportunity to grant you a swift death in these circumstances.'

With their comrade down, the other wolves lunged at J'Zaki. Two went for his legs while a third went for his throat.

J'Zaki jumped to the side, knocking up a large amount of snow where he landed. A large amount got inside his clothes and began to rapidly bring his temperature down.

The wolves didn't give up too easily though. Before he was able to stand up, 2 more wolves were already on him. A swift cut with the knife injured both of them, staining the snow crimson with their blood, but the rest were soon on J'Zaki.

The battle became one of attrition. The wolves used hit-and-run tactics to slowly wear down J'Zaki. Each time they struck, they made sure to leave an injury on his body. And although he was able to fight back at first, it was becoming apparent that this was not his fight.

J'Zaki stood in the snow with his fur clothes torn and blood all over his body. He had managed to kill another wolf and injure 5 more but that still left half of the wolves unharmed.

'I'm out of chi and I'm going to die. Guess there is no better time to use my power.'

J'Zaki's eyes turned white and the black tomoe appeared in them. He was instantly flooded with information from all around him but he pushed through it. He couldn't let the information overwhelm him. He had to control it.

Just as he was thinking about what action to take next, he saw a wolf had already appeared on his back. Or an image of it did. J'Zaki saw several overlapping images that formed a sort of video from one of the wolves attacking. He saw that as the actual body of the wolf got closer to him, the images began to get more and more realistic.

'There!'

J'Zaki slashed out with his knife in the location where the wolf would soon be. Before it was able to land its fangs on him, its throat had been slit in one clean slice. J'Zaki ducked under the body that continued flying through the air and looked at it in surprise.

'Did I really just kill it that easily?'

When he saw the dead body in front of him, the prince smiled. He looked at the wolves all around. With his new eyes, the fight had turned around.

Two of man's classic foes were against him at the same time. He was going up against nature and himself at the same time.

Nature was not just the wolves trying to turn him into their dinner. It was also the cold weather wearing him down. He had to resist the wrath of the planet itself and hold himself high.

And then there was himself. Not only did he have to resist the constant drain that his eyes put on his body but he also was questioning himself while fighting the wolves.

Was it worth it?

Did he make a mistake coming to the Jabari?

Did he bring this upon himself?

Have I truly ruined the lives of others just to try and get a little stronger for my own pride?

Every decision he had made since he first started wanting to learn about the 4 other Cults was going through his mind.

Even though he was injured, his eyes allowed him to see all around his body and predict how the wolves would attack. Within a few minutes, there were 7 dead wolves all around J'Zaki while the rest of the wolves had run off. Once they determined that J'Zaki was no longer easy prey, they gave up the fight.

As he saw the wolves fleeing, J'Zaki began to lose consciousness. His vision blurred. The cold was settling in.

'Damn. Well, at least I died a warrior's death.'

J'Zaki collapsed in the crimson snow around him. The blood in his veins began to freeze.

The growls of wolves could be heard nearing. The wolves that had retreated had come back, with reinforcements. They now numbered over 20. And all of them were eager to eat the flesh of J'Zaki's body.

But when the closest one nearly bit into J'Zaki, a spear pierced through the side of the wolf's head. The group of wolves turned to see a large number of men and women in fur clothing approaching. They were shouting and grunting like apes as they approached.

Seeing the new foes, the wolves quickly retreated without trying to fight any longer. They had already lost 8 of their members.

When the Jabari arrived at J'Zaki's body, they quickly wrapped him up in fur and began to carry him back to the fort. But even though they had rescued him from one of Nature's champions, whether the other one would end him would be up to the gods to decide.