Chapter 4: Assassin Poinsetta

Kalen woke up feeling refreshed and revitalized. “I feel like I am in a VIP suite. It is so comfortable. It feels way better then I imagined,” he moaned with satisfaction.

He stared at the makeshift bed of tress leaves. He smiled and looked satisfied with his work. “I am going to miss this experience.”

He got out of his tent and observed his surrounding making sure there is no danger near back. The sun was shining brightly. He started to grin, as he was enjoying free vitamin D. “What a beautiful free world,” he exclaimed feeling satisfied.

He found water pit near his camp. He washed his face and filled his canteen with water. He checked his shadow to see what time it was, he felt it was around seven in the morning. “I should eat something before I leave and continue on my training,” he thought.

He ate some of the tigon meat, and then stored the remaining meat in a makeshift bag that he hand-made with some tree leaves. He knew that improvisation is a must learn skill to survive in the wild, a skill all squires must learn.

“It is time to move on. I can’t stay in one place too long, or I won’t be able to train properly. It is time to explore more within these four days,” he thought.

“It is strange that all of sudden I want to be an adventurer now.” He wonders aloud. “It must be the experience. Yes, it is the experience,” he encouraged himself to clear his mind of any misgivings. Decisiveness was an indispensable trait that any soldier should have.

“I need to get better equipped with some makeshift weapons. I need to show my country that I can improvise.” His brain went into work to search for ways to improvise that would make his situation better.

He studied his surrounding looking for anything to work. He didn’t find anything that would work, so he went on his aimless walk. He hopes he can find something to work for him. He knew that he must survive no matter what. “Survival sounds more badass. I am a survivor on a survival journey.”

“I should write a book on my experiences in the wild. It could be called, Kalen’s five-day survival through CreepyWillow Forest.” Kalen thoughts just keep imagining things as he continues his survival walk. He always knew that he was an avid thinker, and his brain was renowned for his unconventional imaginations.

“That’s it. Man come on. This is the typical behavior of a clueless person not on a survival walk. Kalen could feel himself doubting his decisions, but he conveniently tried to ignore these thoughts completely.

Loneliness is a disease no one should deal with.  His brain was spilling random thoughts as he knew he was just plain bored to death. Maybe it was just the youth syndrome, and his hormones were just in overdrive.

As he is walking, he started to actively look for things to empower himself with. Something caught his eye all sudden. He spots a specific plant near a tree. “What is this?”

“Oh shit!! This is Assassin Poinsetta. I can’t believe I found this out here. Nature is helping pass this test, thank you God.”

He quickly chopped off the poisonous plant without any hesitation. He sat beside the tree and started to mix the plant into a solution. After about twenty minutes he finished the solution and began adding it to his daggers and sword.

This just proves that the power of knowledge is very good to have. Just one plant helps him make his weapons more dangerous.

After an unknown time of walking, he noticed a tree that was oddly placed, oddly shaped and it felt like something screaming “I want to be low profile, so don’t notice me.”

He kept up his guard, as he didn’t want a repeat of yesterday encounter with the tigon. He might have just neglected or overlooked it, but he knew that there were predators in this forest.

“What is this? Another poisonous plant or something?” He knew to be more cautious, so he tries to poke it with his dagger. He got the shock of his life, as the harmless odd tree swiftly lashed at him.

“What the hell? It is a python,” he thought aloud. “And it is a fairly big one at that.”

He was quicker than the python. He quickly blocked the python’s trajectory with his gloved hands.

The python’s fangs failed to penetrate, as the adrenaline started to flow through him. He grabbed the python’s tail and used its own momentum against it. He slammed the python’s head against a nearby tree twice.

“Shit, this python is an augmented animal.” To his surprise, the python rebounded like it was rubber band and head back towards him. It widens its mouth for a bite.

He did a quick retreat, as he was retreating, he grabbed his dagger from the ground. Once he had his dagger, he quickly took cover behind a tree. He unsheathed his sword and did a wide sideways swing with it. The gamble paid off, as he cut the python into two. Then he quickly followed up with a cut to its neck removing its head.

He lost his footing and stumbled down a slant hill.

He slowly stood up, feeling slightly proud and satisfied with the smooth kill. He felt a chill going down his spine. He quickly grabbed the sword from the ground and turn around.

He just wanted to cry as he saw a huge lioness in front of him. It was much bigger than the normal one, clearly indicating its status as an augmented animal. The lioness growled at Kalen.

“Alright, let’s do this. It’s just a big lioness.”

Kalen began to question himself, but he stared at the lioness. He held his sword in his hands ready to retaliate once the lioness attacked him.

“Come on! Attack me!” Kalen come feel the tension rising as lioness stared at him.

Lioness continue to grow at Kalen. “What are you growling for? Attack me already.” As Kalen was thinking this, he heard two more distinct growls coming behind the lioness. It was two slightly smaller lionesses.

“Great! I thought this would be a one-on-one fight, but you want to play dirty. That’s fine. I will kill all three of you.

He knew that he could not win in frontal assault, so Kalen bolted into the forest searching a path with dense bush. The three lionesses chased after him while roaring at him. Kalen hoped that a lion will not show up. That would be bad.

The three lionesses were much faster than he was, and they started gaining ground on him. He started looking at his surroundings as he ran, and then he saw a thick tree along his path.

He quickly rushed to the tree and jumped on to it. He used his momentum to kick off the tree, accurately performing a backflip. As he was flipping, he threw his two daggers towards the two smaller lionesses.

They could not dodge the daggers in time. They roared and were disoriented by the pain. Their leader, the biggest lioness roared in anger and advanced on him quickly baring her fangs. He guarded reflexively with his sword.

The lioness momentum pushed Kalen backwards. He used all his strength and pushed her away. Before the lioness could recover, Kalen was already jumping over her, and swiftly stabbing the lioness in the neck with his sword as he landed on her back.

He used his spare hand to support himself as he ruthlessly stabbed the lioness neck repeatedly. Blood went everywhere as he stabbed it.

The lioness leader fell to the ground dead. Kalen looked back at the other two lionesses. He saw one was not moving, as it was dead due to the poison. The other lioness was still fighting to stay alive. The lioness charged Kalen.

Kalen quickly rolled out of the way. The lioness changed direction and continue it charge. Kalen knew that he had to be quick. When the lioness was right at Kalen, he quickly dodged to the side and swung his sword downwards cutting the lioness head clean off.

Kalen looked around to see he killed all three lionesses.

He breathes a sigh of relief. “I can say this training is surely a baptism of blood,” he muttered with excitement in his tone.