ATLA, In A Darker World

Chapter 10 First Kill

'Dammit! Can't a guy get a break around here?'

Saying this, Luca didn't even think and let his body do the thinking for him.

The eighteen-year-old boy made a mad dash into the vast vegetation before his eyes, as fast as his legs could carry him.

At night, without any fire torches to light the way, a human's vision was severely limited. If one wasn't careful, they could fall into traps, get injured, trip on a stone, encounter dangerous animals hunting at night, fall of the side of a hill, hit their head against a hard rock. ...... Luca had already experienced the last one.

In short, travelling on foot at night and with rapid pace was dangerous.

Fortunately, the moon didn't withhold her light tonight and Luca's perception had gone up by several notches.

Quite literally. Before this, his perception stat was at nine points. It worried him as he had no idea how to increase it.

Now, it was as high as fourteen. A full five points increase, going up by more than half.

He didn't notice it at first, but now, the increase it brought to him could be felt clearly.

Luca felt ....... Like his eyes had finally been opened. Or rather, like he had opened the legendary mysterious sixth sense.

His eyes had also been enhanced to unknown degrees. His vision in the dark was much better than it was before, and he could feel the objects in his surroundings better.

Sure, although it wasn't as outrageous as echolocation, bullet time, Sharingan or 360 degree vision, it was astounding in its own right.

Alright ..... Where was he? Oh, right. Thankfully, his perception stat had increased allowing his movements in the grassland area to grow smoother.

Coupled with the fact that this wasn't a jungle terrain, his straightforward movement was unimpeded.

But make no mistake. Luca never had any ideas of outrunning his pursuers on foot. That was simply wishful thinking.

For an Eagle Hawk to be released, the ones chasing him should be a mounted search party.

Their Komodo Rhino's outpaced him by far. If he kept on running blindly, then an inevitable capture was what awaited him.

He certainly wouldn't have that. So since escaping was out of the question, then there was only one option left.

An ambush.

That's right. He had already given up on running away and had decided to take a head on stand.

Of course, that didn't mean rushing to fight recklessly.

Luca wasn't stupid. His running was simply to open up space between them for uncertainty.

Placing an ambush at the spot you were last discovered wasn't practical. So take the opportunity while the Eagle Hawk was gone and find a proper ambush point.

He didn't know how far away the cavalry were. The amount of time it would take to get here could be anywhere between ten and thirty minutes.

Sure enough, he was right. The search team of Fire Nation soldiers arrived at the scorched forest and advanced rapidly. How long had it been? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes?

Caw!

Time elapsed and before long, they were here. The first to arrive was of course the massive bird of prey to indicate where it last saw the target. The boisterous band of stomping hooves followed, coming to a halt right at the edge of the scorched forest.