Chapter 306: The Hunter
Could the manifestations of Primal Constructs experience fear? It was a question that Coop couldn’t definitively answer on his own, though he was pretty confident the answer was no.
Based on all of his time in the assimilation, he was comfortable accepting that minions were effectively mindless and manifestations were only marginally more sophisticated, always fighting to the death in simple ways. They were all more like pieces in a board game than individual beings, using their particular set of attributes to claim territory and ultimately conquer the planet at the behest of their masters, one space at a time. They had a finite number of moves and usually only a single defined behavior. However, this new variant left him wondering about the limits of their complexity.
An Elite Primal Insurgent bounded through the underbrush, zooming through the subdued afternoon within the southern Appalachia periphery, barely touching the ground as its long legs desperately pushed forward. Dry leaves swirled in its wake before a separate set of relatively heavy steps stomped them back into the mud. The way the monster moved seemed to demonstrate that these particular specimens understood a compulsion for self-preservation, if not actual fear. It clearly had no desire to be caught by the haunting mists that had infiltrated its domain.
The hinges in its legs were more flexible than the human knee, able to bend both forward and back, and it fiercely sought to leverage its physical advantages over its pursuer. Each step was practically a long jump compared to a normal human’s gait, and it was so light on its feet, it left no footprints. Even if it did, its limbs narrowed to a point that they would have been unrecognizable to a tracker. There was no trace of its path, and if it could create a gap it would be nearly impossible to rediscover its location thanks to its unparalleled stealth. It sought obstacles as it twisted around trees, trying to break line of sight, running like a bipedal deer with a predator nipping at its heels.
Coop was that predator, his breath steady, as he rushed behind the monster. He was far less elegant than the alien, lacking the perfect precision that allowed it to pick out lines through the forest with the absolute minimal clearance necessary to rush forward. It hardly touched a single obstruction, avoiding anything that would slow it down in the slightest. Coop smashed through bushes, bounced his shoulders off tree trunks, and slapped leaves out of his way as he pioneered a cross-country track, his brows furrowed, and jaw clenched.
Fully stretched out, the Insurgent could easily grasp branches that were 15 feet above the surface, but it concentrated on speed and stealth to escape, staying extremely low to the ground with an impossible forward lean that pushed the limits of gravity. It cleared boulders by millimeters and slid across logs like the warped replica of an olympic hurdler, cast from a black glass that seemed to amplify its shadows.
No matter how fast it whipped through the thick forest, sweeping across trickling rivers with a single extended step, or weaving between gnarled old tree trunks to confuse its pursuer, solid steps inevitably followed. The persistent cadence of thumping footsteps overlayed with breaking branches, crushing leaves, and unencumbered deep breaths were practically designed to produce fear.
Coop was loud and clumsy compared to the sleek alien, but he was persistent. Human endurance was already an inherent evolutionary strength, but combined with his attributes, stamina, and resolve, he fully expected to run down the metallic alien, no matter how long it took. He imagined himself alongside the prehistoric human hunters that would have chased dangerous prey with nothing but a spear, exhausting them to the end, and worked to make those ancestors proud.
The Insurgent vaulted up a tree-lined outcropping, seeking the uppermost cliff while demonstrating impossible athleticism in picking out the narrowest of ledges to touch. It clearly believed the surge of motion would grant it a moment of solace while the human pursuer climbed up. The wave of mists that trailed behind its hunter, engulfing the low vegetation while promising doom would have trouble scaling the rock wall.
A few moments after it paused in the shade a complete silence fell on the forest. Not even the wind was blowing. The distant blue ridges seemed to wait, anticipating more from the competition between human and alien, but all else was quiet.
However, the silence didn’t last. The edge of the crest exploded as the hunter’s spear plowed through the lip of hardened rock. Amidst the debris, the Revenant appeared from a burst of mists, adamantlyrefusing to fall behind. Dust and gravel scattered across the outcropping as the real monster turned his head, eyes locking on the alien invader with unbroken focus.
The Primal Construct spun to escape, failing to comprehend exactly how much the roles had been flipped. It desperately sought refuge within the gloom of the expansive oak-hickory forest that had been swallowed up by the murky alien domain, but it had paused for too long, letting the human close the gap and draw near enough to lunge into melee range with the encroaching ethereal mists.