Part 5, Intuition at All Odds

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Hours passed,
the creature continued to stand as still as a sculpture.
Only it's tail moved ever so slightly—like the slow orbit of the moon around the Earth.
The man was unamused by the creature's attempt at cryptic dormancy.
But he had to assume that it was an attempt to play with its hidden prey.
He knew that it knew he was there.
He hated that he knew that.
So the man continued hidden as it was all he could do.
The gate towered silently, glowing with an endless amount of lively particles—
Unobstructed by the beast's avian claws, clutching tightly to the esoteric monument.

The man could only breathe in small timed increments.
The constant alertness was wearing on him... but he was hopeful.
However, only for two things. One of which his hope was diminishing...
But his other hope, was that the gate would spontaneously open a portal.
He knew it would have to take a powerful turn of fortune to give that outcome.
But it would be the same sway of luck that brought the gate here in the first place.
It wasn't the smartest thing for him to depend on, but it felt befit for him—considering he stood before the most incredibly rare phenomenon to be brought about in all of existence!

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The man grinned at the thought of the gate opening and sucking the creature in.
Sucked into an unfamiliar world to its own, or rather once familiar, yet no more.
The beast would crumble under the weight of its own non-existence and likely perish.
A being of its size alone would not adhere to the physical laws.
But not only that; any nonhuman that escaped via the gate would lose its identifying marker.
The one you gain from existing in this realm. What gives you power.
The outside universe would not homogenize with the elements of this realm, at least not without the proper aid.
And that stupid creature,
It would not have that aid.

A flood of various ideas and methods of which he thought to rid the creature of its living rights washed over the man as he silently hid in the rocks.
Alas, he alone would never be capable of bringing about a single one of them.
The prospect must've excited him too much however...
An eyelid separated itself open to reveal an animalistic pupil, gazing at the man through the steel beams!

The man's heart raced!
Hours of calm were deceptive to his heart!
Although he knew the trap, he still fell into it!
His only option was to stay entirely still and hope and pray for it to turn away out of disinterest.
Calm his panic. Calm his panic. Calm his—
The eye flashed around in sporadic movement, blinking rapidly in unnerving excitement!
It was no use.
The man fell backwards and landed on his elbows. Paralyzed in fear!
A screeching growl hummed through the concrete walls like a war horn.
Like the auditory equivalence to that of a strangling thorn bush, wrapping its spiky twigs around its victim.
And yet this sound would even shrivel up any such plant. That is, of course, save for the flowers that had sprouted out from the gate in full unceasing life.
But even they swayed from the sound boom.
He covered his ears tightly, but it was almost useless as it rattled his bones and his eyes spun!
The environment tremored—
in response to what the one eye saw.
It's prey.
It was time to run
NOW!

At the dash of one fateful kick, the man flew from his hiding space!!
The iron beams that had hidden him safely for hours were torn from the ground and shredded like paper!
The creature dove up on its hind legs with fully spread wings!
Its outline pulsed in a vibrant uncanny green, as if its breath too had been held.
The man could only glimpse this now mostly visible creature.
Its muscles looked as if made of bundles of metal cords.
It had no head, or neck... but instead had ropes sprouting out of its torso with eyes at some ends, and deadly spears at the others.
Its mouth stretched far and wide across the chest and down the sides of its body and seemingly ended at the hind.
It could likely swallow a car whole.
Or even some of the gate!—if the laws of this lawless world would allow it.
It's teeth were razor sharp and abundant.
The scissor-like teeth tunneled back as far as the eye could see into the depths of the throat.
For this world, abstract beings like this were the normality... in fact this creature was quite normal in comparison to the rest!
The creature crashed back down and curled its wings back. And they absorbed into the skin like they were never even there.
It stood proudly as if it's show had dumbly amused itself.
Such dumb luck, it didn't seem to notice the man beginning to climb back up the steep crater!
Although, the monster's tail still coiled around the crater like a thin copper wire.
The man had to carefully and quickly duck below every sharp strand as it continued to circle round.

The creature only appeared dumbfounded however.
It's animalistic exterior hid a complex, yet adrift mind. Unruly to its own self most times, but still calculating, prudent even.
Luck was only perceived by this simpleminded prey
There was no letting the man escape.

It's tail whipped in a speed faster than light itself—instantly it slashed the tops of the man's fingers!!!
He fell,
rolling back down,
and he fell, hitting every rock on the way down.

The beast wasn't intent on killing the man, at least not yet.

He crawled shakily and coughed his way to the gateway threshold.
The creature seemed to allow it.
Gasping for air, he leaned against the inside of the gate.
He was riddled with cuts and bruises and his nose was bleeding all down his cloak.

"You-" *cough* *cough* he grabbed his side, feeling his ribs not being in the right places anymore.
"Not even the likes of you will tarnish this gate." He said grinning slightly.
These were the first words he's spoken aloud in years.

He ripped his sleeve with shaky and bloody hands and tied it around his fingertips the best he could.
The creature paced around the gate.
It was presumptive. He didn't really know whether or not it would lash out or even touch the gate.
Earlier he thought it could've been capable of opening the gate and now he hoped it would never touch it. Ha the irony.
How fast hope changes...

"All wounds are temporary, beast." He said closing his eyes and attempting to breathe slowly. 
He leaned comfortably inside the gate and smirked, but didn't make eye contact with any of its many eyes.
He knew it was angry.
The intuition paid off. But of course it did.
It had been subjugated to centuries of brutal training—
But,
It was not what saved him here.
Without it he would have been long dead by now.
The gate.
Even it knew it couldn't touch something so sacred with animalistic intent.
Foolish men have used gates with malevolent desires, because, after all—who could tell humanity what to do?
Yet any beast of any origin would of course bow before it's purity.
It exuded a cosmic amount of life force.
Arguably more so.
So it would seem ever likely and shamefully, that only such monsters like itself would know better than even the highest man.
It sits on the same wavelength that the gate does and almost as if it could speak to them, tells them to heed.
And they would do so.

A sigh of relief well fought for. One last one.

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