Part 4
In the cloudless night sky, a full moon with a cold glow illuminated a city forgotten by time. With some tall buildings that reached toward the sky, old in appearance and with thick vegetation growing over their entire structure, the place was dominated by a dense forest of pines and cedars that occupied a good part of the ground. Alongside these trees, large fallen structures and open areas formed the environment, with some plains of tall grass interrupting the dense vegetation.
In one of those areas, a large group of beasts—more than thirty of them—rested. Similar to bison because of the fur that grew over their entire bodies, yet of much greater size, they stood in a circle with their heads turned toward the woods and buildings that surrounded them, forming a protection for the younger ones in the center.
Even so, even in formation, the beasts ruminated with soft breathing and heavy eyelids, resting in the tranquil environment composed of crickets and the swaying of leaves. Meanwhile, in the center of that circle, the younger individuals slept lying on the tall grass.
But, breaking that peace, a strange silence fell over the place, with the insects stopping their song and the breezes ceasing completely.
The giant bison, sensing this sudden change, opened their eyes and began checking everything around them, agitated.
Among them, the largest of the group—larger than an African elephant—calmly opened its eyes and snorted strongly. The moment the others heard that sound they calmed down, though they remained alert.
With that, the leader began looking around at the dark woods that surrounded them.
While still doing so, it snorted again, and a strong cold breeze struck the group and the trees around them, making them sway. At that moment, in the movement of a branch full of leaves, something white, as if it were snow, illuminated by the moonlight, caught its attention.
Bellowing with a hoarse, thick grunt that in no way resembled a bison's, it warned of the threat.
Responding to the warning, the beasts around it began to prepare, their great bodies closing the spaces between them while the younger ones in the center rose in alert.
A short time later, with slow steps, a slender white creature emerged from among the trees and entered the plain.
It was thin, with a terrible scar on its face and a body covered in sunburns, still recent, evident on its pale skin. But what most drew attention were two features: an underdeveloped arm and a mouth from which its teeth protruded.
Stopping in the middle of the tall grass, with completely black eyes, it observed the group of bison in front of it.
The moment they received that creature's gaze and felt its presence, a strong agitation struck the group—ears and fur rising, eyes wide and fixed on the wanderer.
The alpha, ignoring it for a moment, looked toward the forest around them, searching for something more among the leaves.
"…" But finding nothing, it turned back to the humanoid, which still remained motionless in the same place.
Taking the lead, it took a few heavy steps toward the threat and stopped a few meters from its group. There, lowering its head, it pointed its horns at the humanoid and began to shake its head while snorting and striking its hooves against the ground, producing the sound of dry impacts that echoed through the forest.
Yet, observing that, the humanoid remained calm.
The alpha, after a few minutes like that and realizing the creature had not moved away, charged at it.
Even though it was a great mass of muscle and fur, its speed was surprising. Cutting through the air and the grass, it closed the distance to the creature in only a few seconds—but at the last moment the humanoid shifted its body to the side and spun.
Passing straight through like a runaway train, the bison entered the forest and toppled several trees before finally managing to stop.
The humanoid, after a quick glance at the animal trapped by some trees, turned back to the group still in formation in front of it, toward the smaller ones in the center of the circle.
Taking a step forward, it sank its foot into the soil before launching itself toward the group.
In response, three other animals quickly and in an organized manner left that circle and set out to intercept it.
The first of that group, well ahead of the others, lowered its head to strike the humanoid, which, placing its arm behind it, brought it forward with full force and collided against the beast's skull.
Right at the impact a loud crack sounded through the forest, as if it were a cannon shot—but without stopping, the bison continued advancing. Overpowered, the humanoid was pushed backward, leaving marks of its feet in the soil in two small furrows.
Wanting to create distance, the humanoid leapt away, but was immediately surrounded by the three, as well as by the alpha, which had already freed itself from the trees.
Looking at its injured hand, where dark blood ran down its white skin, and feeling the fatigue weighing on its body, the creature stood still there.
The four, without wasting time, lowered their heads and charged toward the humanoid, trying to crush it.
But, looking ahead, the creature ran toward one of them, again placing its arm behind it and preparing an attack, then brought it forward toward the bison's skull. This time, however, at the last instant it reduced the speed of its arm and seized the animal's head, leaping onto it.
In the next moment the four smashed their heads against one another, producing another crack in that forest—stronger than the previous one.
While they were still dazed from the impact, the humanoid set off toward the group, from which three more emerged.
But these, noticeably smaller than the previous ones, were easily ignored as the humanoid slipped past their charges.
Approaching the circle, which closed at its presence, it leapt over that wall of muscle and horns and landed in the middle of it, where the young were. Before it could react, one of the calves—the size of a young cow—was seized with a bite to its spine, making it bellow.
With the defense broken, the larger bison gave space for the other calves to move away, but taking advantage of that opening, still carrying the small bison, the humanoid used one of those gaps to escape from the middle.
Moving away rapidly, it ran toward the forest; however, already recovered, the alpha pursued it closely.
Not only that—favored by the open field and snorting with rage—it reduced the distance between them more and more.
Accelerating its pace, Scar managed to enter the midst of the woods, yet it maintained the same speed, for, devastating everything in its path, the alpha bison continued right behind it, toppling the trees that stood in its way.
Something made more difficult by the creature itself, which sought to pass between the tangled trees.
Finally, after dozens of them had been felled, the alpha began to lose speed until it was finally halted.
With a powerful bellow that more closely resembled a roar, the alpha watched the creature flee with one of its young.
…
Some time later, inside a fallen structure of some building, in complete darkness, the sound of flesh being torn and chewed rang out intensely. In the dark corner of the place, the humanoid fed on an already disfigured carcass.
Finishing a rib, it tossed the bone onto a mountain of bloodied bones. While it fed, its back to the pile of remains, a strong vapor rose from its wounds and its musculature began to grow more and more.
***
Inside an old sewer system, somewhere in the underground of the city center, a thin layer of crystalline water flowed over the stones of the ancient canal.
There, the sound of the water's gentle movement was punctually interrupted by the squeaking of bats hanging from roots that invaded the place, as well as by the crackling of cockroaches and the sounds of rats that lived on the ground. Until, breaking that, the sound of something large moving over the water alerted them all.
Sensing the danger, the rats and cockroaches ran to hide among the cracks and holes in that canal, while the bats, releasing themselves from the ceiling, took flight and formed a dense cloud.
Flying toward the exit, they passed around the source of the noise, enveloping it, until in a few seconds a humanoid with a scar on its face emerged from that cloud.
Unlike before, it had thicker musculature that helped partially hide its bones, which had previously been outlined beneath its skin.
Even so, it still had some injuries—its sunburns still strong on its skin—and, just as before, its underdeveloped arm remained the same, the size of a normal human's.
Ignoring all those creatures, Scar continued in the same direction as the water's current, in the midst of complete darkness.
Within those tunnels, after a short time, upon turning a corner, it reached a section where one of the walls had a breach, with collapsed bricks scattered on the ground. In that space, opening directly onto gray rock, there was a narrow passage that led into a cave.
As it approached, a strong fetid odor of waste and rotting blood struck it, and, reacting to its approach, a large white hand gripped one of the edges of the rock.
Emerging from within, another humanoid as large as itself stopped right at the entrance. It was thin, its body covered in claw marks and deep wounds.
Yet it was not so different from Scar, for similarly it had one arm larger than the other, though in different proportions—one of them dragged on the ground while the other was of normal size.
Seeking the source of the sound that had alerted it outside, it quickly noticed the intruder and, aggressively, bared its teeth, which resembled those of a baboon.
But with steps of the same rhythm, Scar continued approaching.
With a growl the humanoid began to clench its fists, preparing to attack—but upon receiving only a look, it froze where it stood while all its fighting spirit vanished.
The moment Scar stopped in front of it, waking, it quickly lowered its head and opened space for passage, remaining that way until Scar entered the cave.
Passing through a corridor that was initially narrow, it gradually widened, making passage easier—yet at the same time large mounds of bone and excrement began to appear in the middle of the path.
Moreover, the odor that had been at the entrance was nothing compared to what was there, for it mingled with the smell of sweat and urine.
Dodging those mounds, it continued until it reached a point where the passage opened into a large crater, dozens of meters in circumference.
There, among skeletons and carcasses, dozens of undernourished humanoids, their bones perfectly outlined beneath skins full of claw wounds, clustered near the walls.
In one of those corners a group of females surrounded a mound with several dead young; among them, at the top of the mountain of bodies, was one with an underdeveloped arm and an overdeveloped set of teeth.
Gradually, noticing its presence, they clumsily produced grunts and growls at the intruder and clustered near the edges of the cave, pushing one another.
Without caring about that, Scar continued toward the center of that underground cavity.
There a large humanoid, larger than any other, was eating the rotting, disfigured carcass of some animal.
Even from behind it was clear that, unlike the humanoids around it, this was the one that ate the most, for it had visible musculature and a body without any wounds.
Upon noticing its approach, it stopped eating and let out an impatient grunt.
Turning its head, it found Scar standing a few meters away. The moment it saw Scar its eyes widened, but soon a macabre smile appeared on its face.
Dropping the carcass, it planted its hand on the ground to rise, revealing a body that recalled a gorilla's, yet at the tips of its long fingers were claws similar to a hawk's, which dragged for a moment across the ground as it moved.
Finishing, it began to walk calmly—and a little clumsily—toward Scar, but the moment it felt the completely black gaze coming from Scar, its steps faltered.
Even though it was larger, that look was enough for the gorilla-like humanoid, by instinct, to take a step back.
The moment that happened, the humanoids watching the two, sensing weakness, stopped showing aggression toward Scar and turned toward the leader.
With confused and distrustful looks, some of them began to rise, though still a little undecided.
Irritated, the leader roared at those around it, yet they continued looking at it. That made it turn back to its opponent and, filling its chest—revealing a large scarred cut there—it beat its fists against it, just like a gorilla.
But faced with that scene, motionless, Scar observed it with a cold gaze.
Without effect, the alpha advanced toward its opponent, attacking with its arm in a horizontal motion.
Taking a step back, Scar saw the tips of its claws pass near its eyes as it dodged.
Without giving time for a counterattack, the alpha advanced and, with its other fist closed, raised its arm and tried to smash its opponent.
That forced Scar to retreat, leaping far away, while the fist struck the pure rock and shattered it into hundreds of pieces with a crash.
Taking advantage of that distance, the alpha tried to roar again to demonstrate strength, but Scar advanced before it could, closing the distance between them in only a few seconds.
With little time to defend itself, it raised both arms and placed them in front of its body, forming a wall of muscle and flesh covering the upper part of its body.
Scar, without caring, closed its fist, struck that mass, and broke through it, destroying one of the edges of the alpha's forearm to the point of revealing part of the bones.
"ARRRGGGHHHH"
With a cry of pain it opened its defense and attacked Scar to push it away with a horizontal strike, forcing it to retreat.
Dazed, falling to its knees, the alpha looked at its wound, where a good amount of blood ran—but it was possible to see that, at a surprising speed, it was already regenerating.
Raising its gaze to Scar, which remained standing in the same place, it bared its teeth in rage and charged toward it. With its arms it tried to attack in every way—horizontal, vertical, and diagonal—but with short steps Scar dodged its charges.
Until, in one of its horizontal attacks, preparing to dodge, Scar began to take a step back—but that was when it hit a wall.
Before it could react, with the claws already scraping the rock, the attack arrived.
Raising its arm quickly, Scar stopped the attack—but that was when it felt that the alpha had seized it.
With a victor's smile, moving its other arm back, it attacked aiming at Scar's head—but an excruciating pain in its legs stopped it and also made it fall to the ground.
Before it could understand, it felt Scar step on its shoulder and, in sequence, tear off one of its arms.
"ARRRGGGHHHH"
Trying to rise, it turned its body and put force into its legs, but they did not respond.
When it looked at its legs it realized both had been broken. That was when, turning to Scar's shins, it noticed there was blood on one of them—but it did not belong to Scar.
At the moment it attacked with the second arm, Scar had kicked its legs and broken them.
Desperate, using the remaining arm, it tried to drag itself away from there while bleeding in large quantities, and, slowly but perceptibly from the vapor rising from its wounds, it was already regenerating.
It tried to reach the carcass it had left aside in the center of the cave.
While it did so, without noticing, the humanoids that had previously been so distant began approaching with slow steps.
Scar watched it try to reach it, but remained motionless, observing its actions.
Yet in its attempt some humanoids stepped in front of it and also completely surrounded it. Threatened, it tried to roar, but all that came out were grunts of despair before the humanoids attacked it.
With the other alpha dead, Scar passed beside it while it was being devoured and, by the rotting carcass, kicked it toward the smaller humanoids that were still at the edges of the cave observing the situation.
The moment the carcass struck them, noticing the food, they attacked it.
Scar, without stopping its movement, went to one of the walls where there was a small cave connected to the one it was in, but which had been closed with a rusted gate and stones placed to secure it.
Inside, a being of human appearance, yet completely decrepit, covered in wounds and wearing a worn cloak and clothes, was leaning against one of the walls.
With light breathing it was still alive, but with a dead gaze it observed the ceiling of that prison while holding a broken sword.