The sun slowly rose from the east, as the two cadets still stayed alert with bloodshot eyes. They carefully watched their surroundings for any threat.
After the sun fully rose, they finally relaxed their tense nerves a little as they knew that Night Rakshashas were nocturnal animals. As they watched, fatigue eventually overwhelmed their cautiousness, making them both fell asleep.
...
Leo woke up around the afternoon. He sighed as he saw his friend’s injured and bloody face. He drew nearer to wake him up, as he knew that staying further in the forest was no longer a good idea.
It was not a pleasant experience, but Clark still forced himself to wake up.
“Leo, you’re already awake?” He asked, as he forcibly cleared his sleepy head.
“Yes, bro. Let’s wash up and leave this forest for good,” Leo answered. Clark agreed without a word of objection, as the battle still gave him goosebumps.
During their vigil session, they both already decided to leave the forest to hunt other exobeasts elsewhere as the Night Rakshasha was a freak. The pressure from it alone prevented them from sleeping at night, which was torturous.
After packing everything into their bags, they embarked on another journey to leave the forest. They traveled for the remaining parts of the day.
During the night, they divided the vigil between themselves. Leo will stay awake during the early hours of the night, while his friend slept. Then Clark will later wake up to continue the vigil for the remaining last hours before daybreak, while Leo sleeps.
They could have employed better methods that they knew from their training to guard against the exobeast. But, having not slept well for more than a day after having 2 back-to-back fierce battles, they were too exhausted to employ better-sophisticated methods.
They used this clumsy rotation method, as they traveled for 2 days without stop. Even though they had a breakthrough, it was still very hard to persevere under so much pressure.
Hell finally broke loose on the third night, as Leo stayed awake during the early hours of the night. After a long day of non-stop traveling, not sleeping again at night was the greatest torture that they have ever encountered.
As he did the vigil, his figure swayed gently with the tree leaves as the wind blew. He was fighting a great battle between sleep and staying awake, as he almost dropped down numerous times.
The Night Rakshasha is a very patient and intelligent exobeast. It waited for the pressure to slowly accumulate in them for the past few days, bringing them more fatigue.
It selected today as the finale of their encounter, as it figured that the two boys would be very exhausted by now. It harbored a great grudge against them due to the eye it lost to them, so it never thought of allowing them to leave its territory alive.
It went on the hunt today as its instincts told it that the time was right.
Night Rakshashas have a unique strength of smell and detection, as they can track any of their rivals or prey miles away. This ability was a very practical one in battles that requires tracking your opponent, without them finding you.
As Leo struggled with sleep, he suddenly stiffened as he felt a familiar feeling of déjà vu. He was confused at first but he quickly searched through his brain for any reference. He suddenly gasped in his mind. “Shit, it’s the Rakshasha,” he thought, astonished.
He figured that it was probably watching them right now. He felt a chill go down his spine when the thought of a pair of eyes watching them from the dark, surfaced in his mind.
He worried about how he would alert the sleeping Clark so that they could maybe mount a sneak attack on it. He forced himself to sway the way he was doing before he felt the big beast's presence, as he secretly glanced at his friend’s position.
To his surprise, his friend's eyes were already wide open. Clark's eyes shone slightly under the glow of the moonlight. “How could I ever forget the presence of this son of a bitch”, he thought.
“I’ll definitely eat a barbequed meat from you after your death”, he silently muttered in hatred as a vicious glint flashed through his eyes.
The unsuspecting Night Rakshasha moved closer silently, with practiced fluid movements. Seeing this, you will directly know that this guy has probably sneaked on other exobeasts countless times, killing them which led to this much confidence and experience in its stuff.
Both cadets frequently glanced behind each other, as they both cleared their thoughts of every distraction. All their focus was on stealthily finding the exobeast’s location and sneak attacking it, without it being aware.
Clark found it first, it was behind his friend as it silently inched closer without making any sound. It was completely focused on Leo, as it probably felt that its other opponent was fast asleep, due to exhaustion.
Yes, they were exhausted, but it failed to add in its calculations that it was facing 2 cadets who already had their first breakthrough. This was probably it’s first-time meeting humans who already broke through, and may possibly be it's last.
Clark secretly blinked at his friend; they didn’t need words, Leo understood immediately as they got prepared.
“You’re dead today sneaky bastard”, he swore inwardly, as he saw it drawing nearer.