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'What the hell is that supposed to mean?' Quinn yelled at the warrior. He did not get an answer though, as the warrior dodged the advance of another fully grown beast.
He looked back to the first monster. It had shrugged off the warrior's seemingly wide shots, and was now circling Quinn, letting out a low and continuous growl of hateful fury. But the growl wasn't coming from the beast. Quinn turned to the source of the sound and saw nothing, but as soon as his eyes fell on that spot in the forest the beast's movement faltered, like a creeping fox caught in the beam of a torch. Whether it's angry or not, it is still toying with me, he thought.
Luckily he had held on to his pistol when he was tackled into the tree. He now dropped the empty magazine and snapped a full one into place. Bang, bang! Two shots into the monster's snout, no holes or any signs of damage. But now that his gun was aimed at it (or at least at the monster he could see) it charged again. Quinn broke into a run and met it halfway; he shut his eyes tight and jumped right into its jaws.
Just as he had expected he was not swallowed whole. Instead he passed right through the illusionary monster and landed on his feet. It now stood several feet behind him, shocked by his boldness.
So this is what the warrior meant, he thought. It's projecting a fake. But if it charges when the fake charges, then it maybe it can only project its own movements. So if the fake is standing still...
Quinn aimed at the illusion, but really he was looking through it, back to the tree. That was where he had been standing a moment ago, and that's where the real beast would have charged at. He fired his pistol at roughly head height, pulling the trigger again and again until 'bang' was replaced with 'click'. As he lowered his hand, the illusion vanished to reveal the real thing fallen back against the tree. Two bullets had grazed its snout, but another had gone clean through its eye. A tendril of smoke from its mouth suggested a second fatal shot.
Quinn took a deep breath and reloaded his weapon with shaking hands.

'Vicious injuries? Pfft. That was nothing!' Quinn laughed at the warrior's warning, but the action put strain on his lungs and he dropped to his knees. There was definitely a rib broken, maybe two. Still, he could not stop laughing: short, wheezy huffs of breath that were barely audible.
Gaining control of himself again, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, wincing as he did so. That was it: his revenge mission was over. It was sooner than expected. Honestly, he hadn't expected to survive. What was he to do now?
To hell with planning, he thought. Just get on your feet, and figure the rest out after that.
It took a moment to rise, but he eventually found his balance. 'Thank you,' he said to the warrior in little more than a whisper. 'I think I owe you my life. The name's Quinn, by the way.'

Quinn followed the warrior's line of sight, but saw nothing interesting in the greenery. 'Aiv-what? Who are you talking to?'

Himura saw Aivendha glance towards Quinn. "The wetlander seems to be more ignorant than you of subtlety," she said in a cool, melodic voice as she tilted her head slightly, her dark green eyes locking onto Quinn like lasers.

{(Just waiting on a reply -- glances at 'Unfavored')}

((Like I said: I'm waiting on Unfavored Guest to reply... rolleyes ))

((I know you are. But you're not the only person I'm waiting for. What the heck happened to the thread creator? Where's Kalika?))