Starbound: A Space Odyssey 80 The Great Hunt 2

His grip over the bow tightened. Droplets of sweat dripped from his face and back.

He did his movements very slowly and calmly so that he didn't alerted the Floran hiding.

He doesn't want to make the Floran go into hiding once again and take hours to appear one more time.

John closed his eyes so that he could feel his surrounding better.

The sound of his sweat dripping on the cold, hard stone. The roars from monsters in the distance...

He was able to hear all that.

[Found you...] John's ears twitched when they captured a strange sound coming from almost 100 meters away from him.

The rustling of dried gra.s.s indicate that a creature was walking closer at John's back.

While the Floran silently approached, John calmly took an arrow from his quiver and placed in his bow.

The Floran stopped for a few seconds after he saw John's movements. Once he was certain that it was safe, he proceeded forward, but now a lot more cautious and calm.

John took a deep breath and started to roam around the door, showing that he was still occupied with what was in front of him.

When the Floran was about 70 meters away from John, he stopped.

[Now!] John immediately turned around and aimed with his bow.

As his concentration peaked, he felt the world around him slow down.

Bullet Time!

He was unable to clearly see what kind of expression the Floran was making, but he could guess it was one of surprise.

John took his time to properly aim at the Floran with his bow.

The arrowhead glinted with the light coming from the glowing mushrooms around him.

*Swish*

The moment John released the arrow, he stopped his Bullet Time power and went back to take cover behind a rock.

*Puchi*

"Ah..." John was only able to hear a faint groan of pain that disappeared as soon as it appeared.

[Florans surely are strong.] John waited for a few seconds while hearing what the Floran was doing.

He was able to guess that he want to go around and see if he could shoot John from another angle, but...

It didn't happened.

Not even a few seconds laters, John heard the sound of a painful groan, and then the sound of something falling on the stone ground.

[It worked...] John popped his head out from the cover to take a look at the Floran that had just fell head first on the ground.

One closer look at the young Floran body and anyone would be able to see that there was a fresh wound on the Floran's arm.

It was John's arrow that created the wound. He had hit exactly where he wanted to hit with his arrow.

As to why the Floran suddently fell?

Of course John used poison, paralysis poison. He used the one he took from the Batong's tongues. Those bat-like creatures that John found on the cave where he met with Lenny and Oscar.

He had collected at least a hundred of them. He never got the chance to use the poison, but now he had the chance to test it out.

And looks like it was successful. A few milliliters of the poison was more than enough to knock out a young Floran without killing by a heart attack or something similar.

John cautiously approached the Floran. He didn't want face a surprise attack, so he approached with caution while he unsheathed his dagger, the Dark Wraith.

When John was able to confirm that the poison really worked, he sighed in relief.

He sheathed his dagger and crouched by the young, male Floran's side.

John took a proper look at the equipment that the Floran was carrying.

Aside from the PIPS, the Floran was carrying nothing more than a bow, and a sword on his back.

John tried to feel the armor that looked like it was made of a gray wood.

He instantly frowned as he touched the wood. He was able to tell that it was incredible hard.

"Well.....what now?" John looked at sprawled guy on the ground. "How should I deal with this?"

John scanned his surroundings and soon found a stone platform that was on top of the giant door.

The platform looked it was naturally made.

[I will check it out...] John was about to go forward when he stopped and glanced at the Floran. [First, I need to immobilize him.]

John took out a rope from his PIPS and proceeded to tie up the Floran in the same rock that he used to hide.

After he was done, John took out the Grappling Hook from his PIPS. It had once belonged to that a.s.sa.s.sin that was killed on the Lunar Base 12, Mouro, but now it was on John's hands.

He took a deep breath and raised the Grappling Hook. Taking his time, he carefully aimed at the platform.

When he was certain that he aimed correctly he fired.

*Bang*

With a low explosion noise, the hook was sent flying toward the platform.

*Clang*

John soon heard the sound of the hook hitting something.

He tried to pull the hook through the rope, it didn't bulged, "Alright..."

He confirmed that the hook was stuck on the platform, then he pressed the other trigger of Grappling Hook, and soon he started to ascend.

John swiftly went up the platform and looked around him.

It was very dark up there, he was barely able to see a few centimeters on front of him.

"Huh?" His sight soon locked in a metallic object that was on the corner of the platform.

As he approached he discovered that it was, in fact, a lever.

John narrowed his eyes and carefully scanned the lever from a safe distance.

"It doesn't seem to be a trap..." He muttered under his breath while he slowly approached the lever.

John gripped the metallic bar and pulled it to the opposite side.