As night fell Jace got the first of his alerts from the data tablet. At the moment he was sitting at the base of his tree. In front of him was a small fire where the chunk of meat he cut off the creature he killed was cooking. In his hands was an almost complete bow he was fashioning out of flexible wooden sticks and a high tensile rubber that was part of his orbital drop suit. S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    He pulled over the data tablet and noticed that the first alert was on the edge of the island, it appeared that a group was moving closer so he could not and did not have to do anything about it. The second alert was near the river and it was coming from multiple people that were part of a group, but there was one of the loners he spotted earlier nearing the group.

    He set the tablet to the side again as he focused on finishing his bow. With a bow and arrows he would be able to assist with enemies from afar. He would not have that much range, but it would still go a long way to remaining unseen.

    Jace stopped what he was doing for a moment as he listened. There was a thumping noise coming from another area nearby. As far as he could tell it was a hollow piece of wood hitting another hollow piece of wood.

    After it stopped he could hear a bunch of movement coming from everywhere. He even saw it as well as he watched a small rock, or rather what he thought was a rock, grow legs and shuffle away like a crab. Seems the noise was some type of warning that the nocturnal creatures were about to emerge as he could no longer hear the larger predators moving around.

    Once he finished his bow he waited until his meat finished cooking before he put out the fire and climbed back up to his hammock. With no intention to sleep he instead intended to observe the nocturnal creatures as he worked on fashioning arrows and another device from the orbital drop suit''s helmet.

    As he worked through the night he munched on the bitter but still edible meat he had found. It would probably be better to turn it into jerky next time. The juices of the meat actually made it taste worse.

    Checking the data tablet he found that the majority of the groups were located near a water source with their vitals showing half of them in a state of rest. Seems they were all setting up near the large bodies of water. Tomorrow he would have to set up a system so he could watch from afar.

    He looked down at the base of the tree to see what looked like a swarm of something moving along the ground. It was not just one thing either. He could barely make out motion going in several different directions. It was either a bunch of larger critters running over each other or a ton of smaller critters running in all directions.

    He put away the datapad as he kept watch through the night. Which was a loose definition since he was mostly using his hearing to listen. He figured it would be better to just stay up the first night to see if the location of his hammock would draw attention.

    Aside from the creatures that were skittering across the ground he could also hear something flapping through the air making a clicking noise at frequent intervals. Every once in a while he could hear a piercing noise before a whooshing noise. Almost like it was diving and grabbing something off the ground. He did not remember seeing anything flying when he dropped so these might be the apex predators, not just for the air but for the land creatures as well. He would have to build up some foliage around his hammock if he wanted to remain unbothered.

    Fortunately it sounded like they would be hunting down on the lower areas of the continent tonight. So he was safe at least for now from whatever flying creature resided here.

    —-----------------------

    Salem frowned as she looked around at her group. Half of them were resting on the rock hard ground. She decided to take the first watch as she still had a lot on her mind.

    After she landed she started grouping together with others. She figured the best method of survival in an unknown environment was having a group. It seemed like she was not the only one who realized this either.

    Initially once they started using the same method of communication across the continent some asked if it would be better to make a large group. But since having too big of a group would make all the local wildlife turn on them, it was turned down as an option.

    To communicate they were just using the radios they were provided. Only a single person would have a radio on in the entire group while the rest had the batteries removed. It allowed them to coordinate and provide information to others. However it would not work if someone was alone.

    Which brought her to her current conundrum. Why were there a few people missing? They had done a headcount and quickly realized that a few people were missing. All of the people that were missing were all reported to be incredibly talented, so it made no sense.

    Of those who were missing, Jace was among them. But she even saw him land on the top of the mountain. Which was a sound tactical plan for getting a lay of the land but she figured she would secure a water source while he did that.

    That is why she was set up at the base of the mountain where the river ran out of the mountain. It was an untainted water source as far as she could tell. Although there were some rather vicious fish and water lizards residing in it.

    She would have to spend some more time figuring it out tomorrow but she already suspected she had an idea. If the others were just as talented as Jace or had the same system compatibility it might be true that their survival kits had something different in them.

    She had heard that another group was fighting some multihead creature and was struggling when one of its feet disappeared. Giving the group the advantage they needed to kill it. Afterward they realized that it was none of them and noted the anomaly.

    Salem would see about scaling the cliff face tomorrow.

    Tonight she had enough to deal with as it is. She had a single injured person in her group who lost only a few fingers to a Kitinol that was disguising itself as a tree. Thankfully he did not lose his whole hand, but still it was an injury that used up some of his supplies.

    Now all of the groups were aware that the Kitinol were using disguises to hide rather than its usual form dedicated to killing. Which bothered her just as much since it meant the Kitinol thought the wildlife on this planet was too hostile for it to overcome.

    They had seen the signs, like the fact that one of the groups found a Kitinol vessel hollow and abandoned near the beach. Then there were the various predators they were finding all across the island.

    Salem stopped mid thought as she could feel the mind of some beast nearing at a fast speed. She looked around and then looked up as she could make out something diving down towards her group.

    "Contact!" Salem yelled as she grabbed a nearby stone and threw it in anticipation of the creature''s path. Her shout caused the others who were on watch to scrabble into a ready position. While those who were asleep began stirring awake.

    Salem''s stone hit the chest of the flying creature as it stopped on its dive with what appeared to be tendril-like appendages stretching toward the single injured person of their party. Since it had gotten so close to their communal fire Salem also now got a good look at this flying creature.

    The creature has a ten foot wingspan. The wings were leathery like a bat with claws halfway through the wings. The creature''s head had two giant vertical holes and two giant pointy ears to go with a monstrous mouth with razor sharp teeth. But as far as she could tell it did not have eyes of any kind. The creature''s entire body was flat but had creases like it was flabby. The ''legs'' of the creature are somewhere between four and eight tendrils all with differing lengths and it was located in the place she would have expected the creature''s legs to be.

    The stone caught the creature off guard as it flinched for a moment. Flapping its wings for a moment to hover, causing dirt to be thrown up and whirl of wind pushing around light objects.

    That moment of surprise cost its life as three knives were sailing through the air along with a lasso made of parachute rope. One knife went for its chest getting stuck near the lower area where the legs were. Another knife lodged itself in the creature''s head, causing it to shriek in pain. The last knife went into one of the tendrils that was reaching for the now fully awake injured person. The lasso wrapped around its head and was pulled.

    The creature unsteadily collapsed onto the ground as the rope was pulled tight. Salem ran forward drawing her own knife and jumping up. As she jumped onto its back she pulled its head to the side by one of its giant ears and cut through the throat with a knife, nearly decapitating the creature.

    As it began collapsing she jumped back and watched as it shook and shuddered a few times before going completely still. Salem looked around before nodding her head, "good response time but we could do better. Whoever has the radio, please warn the others that the nocturnal flying creature can smell blood and they appear to hyperfocus on it." Salem nodded at the injured person who was disoriented, "someone find a way to mask the smell, I don''t feel like fending off a bunch of those throughout the night."