Aku sat up straight, trying his best not to make a sound. Out in the distance, there was nothing but an impenetrable darkness formed by the trees and underbrush. He couldn't see a thing past a few feet in front of him. Faintly however, he could hear the crunch and snap of twigs and bushes being trampled.
Slowly rising to his feet, Aku reached over and grabbed the lantern he'd set down a few minutes ago. The metal screeched when he picked it up, and Aku cursed under his breath. Far away, he could hear a low snarling getting closer and closer, quickly approaching.
Straining his eyes, he tried to see past the thick foliage, looking for even a glimpse of whatever was out there. When he finally saw it, however, he wished he hadn't.
Barely 10 or so meters away from him, a grotesque, wolf-like creature was sniffing the ground, drool dripping from its hungry maw. Its shape did in fact resemble a large wolf. However, the resemblance stopped there. Its fur was ripped and filthy, leaving its skin bare in some places. It was covered in scars, some of which were still bleeding, making the wolf glimmer a faint red in the dim moonlight. Most odd of its features, however, were the two tusks extending from its lower jaw.
The blood drained from Aku's already pale face, and he took a few involuntary steps back. Trying to gather his racing thoughts, he turned and searched for a place to hide, but the only places to go were the undergrowth of the forest, and he had a feeling that they wouldn't do a very good job at concealing him from this monstrosity.
Speaking of which, it was getting closer by the second.
Aku was frantic at this point, trying to find something, anything, to protect himself with. But to his dismay, there was nothing around, not even a proper rock to bash the damned thing with.
Well… all except for one thing.
'Right, how could I have forgotten my trusty lantern? I'm saved!''
He scoffed silently, shaking his head dejectedly.
'Well, at least there'll be something to decorate my grave with when they find me… if there's something left of me to find.'
Turning back to the direction of the wolfish monstrosity, he froze.
It had seen him now. It too was frozen not even 5 meters away from him, staring at him with cold, murderous eyes filled with nothing but killing intent. Bloody drool dripped from its frothing mouth, its lips curled up in a snarl as it stared Aku down. Now that it was closer, he could make out some more features.
Sharp quills jutted out from its back, some of them more than a foot long. Its strong paws had long, sharp claws smeared with dirt and long-dried blood. The monstrosity's tail was long and had a sharp spike on its end. Oddly enough, it wasn't raised, instead staying low to the ground.
The awful thing looked… almost hesitant.
Finding his senses, Aku set his feet and held the lantern in one hand, raised up ready to strike.
"What the hell are you waiting on, bastard? Come on, try and take a piece of me, I dare you!"
'What the hell am I saying? Please don't do that!'
Whatever reservations the thing seemed to have before quickly melted away, replaced with a searing bloodlust that made Aku shiver. It lunged forward, aiming to spear Aku's chest with its tusks.
Aku hurriedly stepped to the side, narrowly dodging the wolf's charge. It landed a couple of meters past Aku and immediately spun around. Just as Aku managed to turn, it lunged again and opened its terrifying maw, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
Acting on pure instinct, Aku brought down the lantern onto the creature's head, sending it sprawling to the ground a few feet away. The lantern left a deep gash in the wolf's forehead, fetid crimson blood running down its face in gushes.
"What's wrong, mutt? Your head hurts?"
Aku laughed, grinning triumphantly with a mad glint in his eyes.
A moment later, however, the beast rose to its feet, glaring murderously at him. There was a twisted semblance of intelligence in those terrifying red eyes, and it sent a jolt of fear straight to Aku's heart. The wolf gnashed its teeth, snarling furiously, just before lunging again.
This time, Aku didn't get so lucky.
Just as he brought the lantern down again, the wolf's spiked tail shot forward and slammed into Aku's makeshift bludgeon, sending it flying into the darkness.
'Shit!'
Before he could recover, the beast slammed into his chest, tackling him to the ground. Aku barely managed to stop it from ripping his throat out by grabbing onto its tusks, holding its maw just centimeters away from his neck. The wolf snarled furiously, snapping its teeth in front of his face, blood and drool dripping onto his face.
The wolf raised its spear-like tail into the air and shot it down towards Aku's face, stopping mere centimeters from it when Aku managed to release one tusk and grab it, right before the spike on the tail, just in time.
Straining his tired muscles, Aku slammed the wolf's own tail spike down onto its head, piercing through flesh and bone and driving into its brain.
The wolf went limp on top of him, pinning him to the ground with its monstrous bulk.
Aku was panting heavily, practically gasping for air. Every bit of his body screamed in protest with every attempted movement, so he just laid there for a while, trying to catch his breath.
The wolf was dead, its eerily intelligent eyes glazed over and its brain skewered through by its own tail.
Aku himself wasn't in too bad of shape, bruised and shaken maybe, but all in all mostly uninjured. He had gotten lucky this time.
However, Aku wasn't thinking about any of that right now. He only had one thing on his mind.
'Food! It's food!'