Jeck woke up with a start, his purple eyes snapping open. He jumped to his feet, carefully balancing on the thick branch he had been attempting to sleep on. The Wraith stayed silent as he scanned the forest around him, purple eyes moving at dizzying speeds in their sockets. The brown canopy above him shook in the gentle breeze making a quiet clinking sound. The trees around him stayed unnaturally still. Seeing nothing, he gave one last cursory glance around the area before relaxing.

"Was it just my imagination?" he pondered out loud. Crouching down he prepared to let himself drop the thirty meters to the ground. Something wasn't right though. A niggling in the back of his mind made him look upwards. He immediately leapt from the branch as a something heavy smashed through the spot where he had slept with a thunderous CRASH.

'I knew it wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me.'

Bouncing from tree trunk to tree trunk the man reached the ground and whirled around to see what hit almost hit him.

'Is that a fucking wrecking ball?'

The wrecking ball, metallic and shiny, was yanked upwards by a straight linked chain and out of sight behind the tree.

'Where the hell did that thing come from? We're in the middle of a damn forest!'

He shook his head.

'More importantly, where did it go? That thing is way to big to hidden by that tree trunk.'

Leaping onto the trunk of the tree, he stood parallel to the ground. walking around the trunk he kept a careful eye on his surroundings as he looked for the wrecking ball. Sure enough, the thing had pulled a vanishing act on him.

'It feels strange to be on the receiving end of that.' He thought absent-mindedly. He jumped back down onto the floor, closed his eyes and stood still. There it was again, his instincts once again screaming at him to move. The breeze that was blowing started petering out. A moment later the leaves stopped clinking together and the forest lay silent.

CRACK

The silence died an ugly death as the wrecking ball, now moving at an incredible velocity, shattered the sound barrier and barreled towards him. He waited until it was just in front of him.

A meter.

'Closer'

A centimeter.

'Closer'

A nanometer.

'Perfect.'

He bounced upwards, narrowly dodging the hypersonic industrial equipment. Landing on the underside of a thick branch, he looked up, - up for him, down according to gravity and followed the balls chain back to its source. The chain seemed to disappear into thin air but then he seen it. Small distortions in the air, shimmering like a mirage in the desert.

'I understand now, it's using camouflage. Looking at the general shape of it its gotta be some kind of insect. Probably a chameleon or something. Although you never know with these creatures.' He shuddered inwardly. 'Stupid spider-bat.'

Outwardly he opened his mouth and yelled. "Hey ugly! I can see you, why don't you show yourself already!"

The distortion let out a low hiss and color slowly began to fill the blurry spaces. Dusty brown scales covered one of the biggest reptiles he'd ever seen. Metallic grey scales ran down the length of its spine and and stopped just where its tail split in two vertically. Loose folds of skin joined the two split ends together. What looked like black speckles covering its brown scales were actually holes in its hide. The saurian rechambered its wrecking ball as it tilted its head to look at him.

'Damn! That's one big ass lizard.'

The chameleons large dark eyes met his purple ones and he let himself drop.

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Big Ball was displeased with this turn of events. his prey managed to avoid his tongue, not once, but twice?

Unacceptable!

He turned its head to look at where his prey stood, defying gravity stuck to the underside of a branch. Long spiky black hair ran down to the middle of its back. A smug grin was plastered onto its mismatched face. A mysterious white substance covered where its jaw had seemingly been ripped off, replacing the flesh and bone, melding into the upper half of its face in a jagged line. Its form was obscured by an open white cloak that stopped just above its ankles. Slightly baggy trousers covered its legs. It had some sort of tape wrapped around the lower shins that tucked the trousers into its boots. The same tape ran down the length of its right arm, obscuring it from view. Piercing purple eyes that held some sort of unnatural sheen to them stared at him. So it could see him? Not good. Time for a plan. He'd have to retreat, maybe break line of sight, circle around behi-

"Hey ugly! I can see you, why don't you show yourself already!"

What?! How dare that little vermin call him ugly? He was Big Ball, the largest of his brood! He had sired tens of offspring and was a most fetching shade of brown, thank you very much.

Screw plans! This creature in front of him needed to die. Big Ball turned off his camouflage as he looked into its purple eyes and glared as it let itself drop down in front of the base of the tree, flipping one-eighty in midair to its feet. He felt his internal iron stores deplete as he prepared his attack. His prey didn't make any noticeable movements. With a cry that sounded like metal scraping against metal, he launched the wrecking ball at his hated foe. A flex of his throat muscles sent the iron stores towards the ball. The chain bulged as iron flowed through it like water and razer sharp spikes burst out the weapon, turning the wrecking ball into a makeshift mace. Yet his enemy did nothing. Accepting death huh? A wise decision when faced with the might of one such as he-

CLANG

Big Balls inner monologue was once again cut off. He couldn't believe it. His foe was standing in the same place, having not moved an inch, with his hand outstretched and his weapon stuck to the end of it. He had actually caught his wrecking ball. Very few creatures around had taken it head on and lived, and this one stopped it dead in its tracks? He was in trouble, big trouble. Panic started to set in as his enemy turned and rammed the mace into the tree behind him, then turned back, hopped onto the now taut chain and started running down it.

Big Ball struggled to retract his tongue and found that it was well and truly stuck. His enemy leapt into the air and was now on a direct collision course with his face. Reacting instinctively, the end of his split tails flared out, one going up, the other going down, before slamming them together, the loose folds of skin acting like bellows. Air pumped into his core, igniting it and smoke started to pour out the small holes in his scales. He opened his mouth and spat hot, molten metal at his opponent. Then he stared in shock as his opponent seemingly passed right through it, leaving the slag undisturbed as it sailed through the air. He could only watch in slow motion as his enemy pulled his arm back and rammed its fist into his face. Pain was the only thing he felt as his legs buckled beneath him and his vision went black.

He came to a few seconds later. Bleary eyes opened and presented a blurry image until he blinked a few times. What had just happened?....His foe! There he was, standing across the clearing. He opened his mouth for a sneak attack and then widened them in surprise, because his enemy had decided to stop occupying the space across the clearing and start occupying the one directly in front of his face. It crouched down and stared into his big black eyes with its terrible purple ones. If Big Ball had the ability to sweat, it would be doing so profusely right now. The creature before hims desire to to kill was palpable. One wrong move and flesh would be rent from bone. Swallowing his pride he slowly closed his mouth and bowed his head. That was the wrong move apparently. The creature smiled and leant in, reaching forward with its uncovered hand. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for death.

It never came.

What he felt instead, was the creature patting him on the head. He slowly opened his eyes again. The creature looked down and spoke. "You know, you're actually smarter than most people. All the ones I've fought before didn't know when to quit. You can guess how that went, right?"

Big Ball nodded vigorously.

"Good. Now, that I'm sufficiently warmed up, I might as well get a move on. You wouldn't happen to know if there's any towns around here? Civilization? Y'know, big buildings, lots of machines, good food. I haven't eaten in months and I'm craving something warm."

He didn't know what a 'town' was but machines? Big Ball knew where to find that. Eager to appease his superior, well, eager to keep living really, he frantically gestured over the creatures shoulder. It turned to follow the lizards gaze.

"That way?"

Big Ball hissed affirmatively, then turned around to leave, eager to get back to his den and forget about today. A hand clamping down on his shoulder ruthlessly crushed that dream. If he could sweat he'd be doing so profusely.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jeck said, amusement clearly present in his voice. "You attacked me first remember? That wasn't very polite of you. The least you could do to make it up to me is guide me there." He 'suggested' innocently although the toothy grin on his face told him he knew exactly what he was doing.

Big Ball did his best approximation of a sheepish grin and nodded. That bastard is enjoying this! Deliberately not meeting the creatures eyes, he turned and walked off into the forest, Jeck falling into stride behind him.