'Hollywood's got nothing on this!' he wanted to shout, but the reality was somewhat different.
"Damn, damn, damn!" he muttered the hateful word through his teeth.
Right now, he was doing two things. He was hurtling along the cable, scrambling upward with frantic arms.
However, at that moment, he was sliding along the cable, still forced to tuck his legs to avoid scraping the ground.
The speed was noticeable, and the metal rope was clearly not designed for hand climbing. It was not only painful but also ineffective.
Reality differed from the movies. He was spinning from side to side, his hands were slipping, and he had to try hard not to crash into another tree.
However, slowly but surely, he was climbing up...
Just like the metal beast, rapidly closing the distance.
"Wha...!" With his last ounce of strength, he drew in oxygen and forced his forearms to work. The predatory red lights flashing between the trees were a great incentive for this.
But even adrenaline has its limits.
'Come on, come on, come on!' He no longer had the strength to speak, so he had to puff only in his thoughts.
His legs were no longer threatening to fall and stumble to the ground, and the coveted treetops were getting closer...
But Ryskar was closing the distance faster and faster.
"...!" He could see it clearly himself.
Panic rose again.
In those seconds, a multitude of regrets flashed before his eyes. For example, he wasn't born a monkey. Or the damn automatic cable ascender was meant for anyone but him...
But most of all, he regretted and was angry that he had brought the advanced hunk of metal — Paymax — with him. He understood that it would not help him climb faster, and the sudden betrayal was just a program setting... But, on the other hand, if he had allowed the advanced intelligence to self-destruct, he would never have known about the existence of Red Lamb Ryskar.
And the latter, in turn, if the information on the map was to be believed, would not have touched him.
But now it was too late even to regret it.
"Please..." he whispered, clenching his teeth and hands with all his might.
The ground was already about 8–9 meters below him, and the rope had almost lost its initial momentum. At the same time, the long-awaited tangled canopy of branches was almost above his head.
Despite his palms being almost rubbed raw, he could have shouted, 'I'm saved!' However, something prevented him from fully believing this thought.
Perhaps it was the whispering that emanated endlessly from the trees, or maybe...
"RRVAAAAA!!!" the angry Ryskar roared.
Whether it was the loudness of the roar or something else, he could clearly feel the trees and the ground shaking.
Ryskar undoubtedly weighed several tons, and by all laws of physics, he simply could not jump almost 10 meters. He couldn't, could he?
"...!" His arms reached their limit and almost gave out, so he clenched his teeth on the cold metal of the cable and helped himself with a decisive jerk.
Meanwhile, the Ryskar gained incredible speed and was almost under him. All four limbs pushed heavily off the ground, clearly preparing for a desperate jump.
'Come on!' he mentally shouted, feeling the tension mounting.
His exhausted arms finally found the branches and tried to grab hold of them. However, he no longer had the strength to lift his body with them alone. He needed the help of his legs, so with his last ounce of strength, he tensed his abdominal muscles and...
However, at that moment, a strange red energy rolled straight from Ryskar's chest to his paws. It seemed as if his limbs were filled with incredible strength.
His paws dug into the ground with unprecedented brute force.
The predator was right below him and finally jumped.
Ten damn meters… And the creature crossed them in a single instant.
"...!" He saw it with his own eyes, which made his heart nearly stop and drop into his stomach.
At the last moment, he managed to grab the branches with his legs and tried to get as far away from the monstrous jaws as possible.
In fear, he closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, and then...
"Whaaaaaaaa!" He couldn't hold back a heart-wrenching scream.
A monstrous slash tore across his back. It was so painful that his limbs instantly lost strength, and his body was ready to fall.
He was lucky that he was so afraid of this, because even in the most painful moment, his legs clung tightly to the branches and held him.
He was hanging only by his legs, ten meters above the ground, and saw the monster that had struck him fall.
Only one of the predator's claws was smeared with thick red fluid — and he could swear…
He felt the claw go so deep it scraped along his spine.
"Ha... ha... ha..." he breathed heavily.
Cold sweat ran down his face, and tears began to well up in his eyes.
He hung upside down.
Scarlet drops of blood dripped from his back and fell straight...
Ryskar waited directly beneath him. His predatory red eyes never left his figure.
His blood dripped directly into the monster's mouth. The mechanical jaws closed and opened slightly, and now he knew for sure...
This creature was savoring and licking his blood.
It doesn't matter when. In a minute, an hour, a day, or a week... Someday, the victim will come down from the tree. And then the predator will be here.
To take all the remaining blood of its lamb.
That was exactly what those red eyes promised.
...
Scorched earth, a dug-up grave, seven mangled corpses... And a statue. This place was silent, now deprived even of the howling wind.
Only the night sky, studded with stars, witnessed the changed details.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Three people in formal suits stood on either side of the dug-up pit and silently looked down. At the remaining traces of the person who had escaped from there
One of them was a woman with a double fringe and raspberry-colored hair. However, in the night light, her hair shimmered, and the shade changed to a dangerous crimson-purple... Just like her eyes.
All together, it created an impression of frightening, yet enchanting beauty.
This place was dangerous, very dangerous. However, the woman had no protective equipment or even weapons. She was dressed only in a formal suit. A dark, long coat reaching to her calves, a white shirt, and a black tie.
It seemed she didn't need a weapon — because she herself was one.
The emotions on her face were inscrutable, and her gaze was fixed on the traces in the dug-up grave.
The second was a man with chestnut hair and blue eyes. He could rightly be called handsome, and the formal style suited him very well. He was dressed in a clean black tuxedo and a white shirt with a bow tie. For such a place, he was also dressed "lightly," but behind his back was a long, thin sword. It was so long that it almost reached the tall stature of this thin man.
And yet he could not keep a cold expression on his face, like the woman next to him. His eyebrows kept coming together and frowning.
All three remained silent until the woman raised her head from the pit and looked at her companions.
"Where is the eighth?" Her voice was devoid of any hesitation.
Finally, the deadly silence of this place was broken.
There was no answer...
However, it was not needed.
She made a single movement with her fingers, and everyone began to move. Almost everyone.
The last man lingered by the grave a little longer.
"..." His face broke into a toothy grin.
He was the oldest of their group. Some of his hair was missing, and the rest was gray. He looked to be about 50, but age had not affected his abundant musculature.
His forearms were so large that they looked like they might burst if it weren't for the steel gloves on his hands. The man's eyes were not human. They were gray with white spots where the pupils should have been. Most likely, they were implants.
In addition, he had a belt with a holster attached to it, frightening black cartridges, and strange, round shells that looked like grenades.
The man spun the cylinder of a rather unusual revolver, then inserted a single black bullet into it. Although the revolver looked somewhat familiar, it was definitely not the same. The power slider wheel on the barrel, which the man moved to the "maximum" position, was clear proof of that.
"Pfff..." He could barely contain his laughter.
He probably thought it was a very joyful and pure laugh, but those who heard it could hardly contain the cold fear creeping into their hearts.
"..." Unfortunately, a command from their leader arrived on the chip in his head, and he could not continue to languish in anticipation.
Like the others, he was dressed in a formal suit. However, unlike the others, he wore only a white shirt that barely contained his large, firm belly and suspenders.
It was time to go, and the man habitually adjusted his thick gray mustache. Still, he couldn't resist one last comment.
"Does the little piggy want to play?" His deep, hoarse voice broke the silence once again.
He bent down and scooped up some dirt from where the man from the grave was crawling. Then he held it to his face and sniffed it deeply. This action made his face literally light up.
A joyful smile, missing a couple of teeth, began to resemble an animal's grin.
"You can run, you can hide... But I will still relieve you of the burden of loneliness. Because you are already mine, little piggy, mine..."