NOVEL WEB Chapter 70: Learning
The verdant forest sways under the cold night sky, along with the familiar aromatic smell of cedar wood, a memory from the distant past, and something that does not exist in this world. With the night sky ever imposing, a lone person walks a road of uncertainty, yet his will to move and change is unyielding. With his might, those around him became molded into his shape, thereby making his mark in the ever-daunting world.
With quick-paced steps, Quagmire moves. The night was getting deeper, and he was still outside the comfort of his base; he was in the comfort of the perimeter, but anything could change. Moreover, he just felt more comfortable being in the base, and with that, he could make the droids hold a defensive position.
With his eyes being erratic, lost in the world of his own thoughts, a sudden slight movement occurred near him. It was so quick that he was not able to notice it. Fortunately, when it jumped on him, a loud growl came in. Suddenly, with inexplicable swiftness, almost instinctively, Quagmire leaped from his position and rolled forward with his body.
After rolling and landing on his feet, he brought his hand forward and grabbed the pistol; he glanced from left to right, trying to find what had gone by him. With a glance, he saw what seemed like a stick protruding from a nearby tree.
Almost instantly, as if realizing something, he moved to the side with quick and rapid steps. Just enough time, when something flew by him, whizzing through the air, and hitting a tree beside him. With precision and haste, he aimed the pistol and, with intuition, pulled the trigger. The trigger was pulled before he was able to see where the enemy was, but he relied on his intuition, which saved him a lot of times, also the reason why he trusted it to just immediately pull the trigger without looking.
The sound was a loud bang that echoed only a few meters out through the windy night. With a loud thud and a few ruffles, something fell through the bushes a few meters from his location.
When his eyes landed on the location where the sound came from, his mouth was left agape, but it did not last long as he saw behind the bushes that there were more. Thus, with a quick change of direction and a few rapid steps, he was able to make a dash for the tree line and was able to hide behind one.
Almost immediately, after he arrived at the back of the trees, three howling sounds as if it was made to strike fear into something or someone, made a loud thud as they struck through the other side of the tree where he hid. By now, he was getting more and more confused as to what he saw, but nevertheless, he was in a different world, and getting complacent could get him killed, so he took a deep breath and pushed it back in his mind, so he could focus on fighting.
Thinking about his next steps, he pulled the pistol's magazine and looked through it to see how many rounds he had before he needed to reload it once again. He counted and there are about seven ammunition left. It was more than enough, with a room to spare for a few misses.
The wind blows cold air through his face. He breathed a heavy amount of air and focused. Almost immediately, his switch turned, and the atmosphere changed. He stepped forward and turned with a few quick and precise steps, with his eyes never leaving the iron sight of his pistol.
As if to throw his enemies off balance and to dodge possible incoming arrows, he leaped forward at his last step, during which he landed gracefully on the other side, without breaking much of a sweat. As he was in the air, he was able to clearly see what he was fighting for, and despite his initial surprise, thinking about it now, he was really surprised or questioning anymore.
That is that the ghouls were now learning how to use tools, or so he has currently discovered as of this right moment.
As he had predicted, a few howling sounds that seemed to whizz as they got closer to him went past him. The location being where he was earlier, watching what was happening, Habagat, the wolf cub he rescued, gave a mental thumbs up.
It was not a fluke; it seemed that his wolf cub, which he had picked up, could actually telepathically speak to him. Which would be incredibly helpful and beneficial for him in the future to come. With his initial surprise gone, he now pushed it to the back of his mind, and thinking of the mind, it seemed that he was often getting distracted these days. Not that he could blame it, it's just that there was not enough time to adjust for him to just process everything immediately. Nevertheless, he remained steadfast.
After landing, with three quick aims and three quick shots, he pulled the trigger thrice, and with three flashes, three loud thuds reverberated through the ground. Which he felt through the soles of his boots. Overlooking through the surroundings, and where the battle took place, Quagmire took a heavy sigh.
Along with a few notifications from the adjutant, during which he ignored as he was going to check it once he returned home, he suspiciously glanced around and perked his ears ever so subtly.
Fortunately, as the night was beginning to quiet down and his ears were ever so sharp when focused, he heard a flapping sound, and with a surprised face, he looked through the sky and cursed.
"Fuck"! Those were the words that left his mouth.
With a whizzing sound, he immediately dodged and rolled to the side, his instincts kicking in, and when he was back on his foot, he looked over and saw that there were multiple enemies that came down from the sky.
It seemed that the ghouls were beginning to get more and more aggressive and organized, as if they were beginning to learn, or, more specifically, evolving.