His spear had obviously found its mark even as the beast clawed his side, but the man had proven victorious. When the man awoke, he was buried under the great bulk of the beast with both their bloods mingling together. He felt his spear sink into flesh, felt something tear his side, felt the crush of an impossible weight, and finally his vision slipped to black permanently. His vision suddenly flashed between black and red as the beast got closer each time. He entered a fighting stance and readied his final spear for a strike on the beast’s heart. The man’s vision shifted from purple to red as the beast charged him. The beast let out a blood-curdling roar and suddenly burst into flames that gave off no heat. The man loosed his spear at the beast and saw it strike it upon the shoulder, driving deep into its rippling flesh. As he prepared to throw his spear at the beast, its milky-white eyes suddenly flashed open, and it leapt to its feet with shocking speed. Its teeth dripped with blood, and the man silently said a prayer to the gods. Each paw held knife-like claws capable of rending flesh and bone alike. It had a brownish-green coat of patchy fur over its lumpy, mutated flesh. The animal was a Yao Guai, like a bear from before the Harrowing, but bigger, meaner. Ahead of him, within the shadows, the great beast slumbered. Decaying carcasses were mixed with sweat and something else, something he had never smelled before. He reached the cave’s turn to the right and was immediately hit with an unimaginable stench. The man began to edge his way into the cave, tightening his grip on a crude spear. The shaman had warned this was more than just a hunt, the whole fate of the tribe rested on his shoulders. The world had gone strange, hues of purple and blue, after he drank, but his hunter’s instincts had not failed him in tracking the beast. The man steeled himself to enter, but his mind was still reeling from the concoction the shaman had given him, some drink made from the sacred datura. The sandy floor was churned up from the passage of the beast’s claws, and dried blood covered the ground. The entrance was wide open and marked by the bones of past victims. The cave was just off a canyon, sheltered within the towering reddish-tan walls. The beast had led him across the desert scrubland, through several canyons, and finally to its lair. The man had been stalking his prey for the whole day, and he was finally beginning to catch up.
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