Global Evolution

The reason why Chang thought that the organism was human-like was because the shriek didn’t sound like rustling or squeaking, but a syllable that a human would emit.

"Ah!"

Though a slight difference in the pitch sounded strange. The pitch was unusually high, as if it was born with a vocal sac on the neck.

And when the shriek came from the red fog, the organism got enraged. The assumption of emotion change was because Chang smelled that the scent came closer and closer.

The scent sprang up as if running up, dashing towards Chang. He noticed a swirl formed in the red fog due to its great speed. That swirl pressed toward him, wildly and gustily.

Chang didn’t have time to think and just switched his weapon to the Shark and the handgun. The target was still nowhere to be seen, so he fired toward the growing swirl three times.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A long flame tail stretched out from the muzzle, sending the bullets to the fog. This time though, there wasn’t any scream that could cheer him up, neither was there a deep sound of flesh splashing.

Chang knew that he had missed the shot.

Later, a voice came from behind the layers of leaves, a voice that sounded strange but had a steady tone and was filled with curiosity. It was speaking decent Mandarin. "You can’t see me, can you?"

"Wait... what?" Chang widened his eyes. "You can speak our language?"

"Of course! Dad teaches us about humans, and he even kidnapped a few human teachers for us. How can I not know how to speak?" The voice came from the tree crown, sharp but juvenile. "Though I’m not as old as you, but daddy told us that we are much smarter than you, learning your language is just a piece of cake."

Chang didn’t wait for the creature to finish his words. He fired in accordance to the source of the voice and scent. Though he missed the shot again.

"How dare you!" The sharp voice penetrated through the layers of leaves again. "This is what you human calls despicable! Right! I’m gonna kill you!"

When the voice dropped, Chang felt that he had lost his ability of locating the other with the scent suddenly. His nose could no longer detect that fishy smell, only the freshness scent of the jungle.

"Surprise! Dad told me that humans are pose no threat if they can’t smell or hear," that unnamed creature said with disdain. Then, sounds and scents associated with that voice disappeared completely.

The swirl was gone as well. It seemed like it had left.

"Here I am!" the voice burst out of a sudden. It was from behind Chang’s back.

A forceful strike came from behind Chang and he collided with a thick tree trunk that was more than fifty meters away. The pain on his back was burning.

The creature disdained and shouted out, "This is how fragile you are, human! Your species only existed for over ten thousand years and those who ruled for more than a million years even went extinctict under the force of nature. Arrogant, how arrogant you humans are!"

"Is that how you think of us?" Chang crawled up from the ground. He kept talking, "Even if we’re arrogant as you said, the world still belongs to us, doesn’t it?"

"I know you’re tricking me, you meant to locate me with my voice, right?"

Out of a sudden, the voice came out from all directions. The source became ambiguous instead of one. Chang widened his mouth in astonishment as he hadn’t expected that its camouflage system had evolved to such an extent.

Sweat wet the handguns in his hands.

"Unfortunately you’re too clumsy in this. What on earth are you thinking by trying to trick me?"

The voice approached again for it increased its volume. But the directionless sound confused Chang’s locating ability.

"I hate humans. When I read about your history, it only told me that wherever you humans step your feet, there must be destruction or extinction.

"A species like humans shouldn’t exist at all. Your desire for materials and power seems endless. Daddy also mentioned to us that humans are fratricidal, how inferior is that..."

The voice came closer and closer. Chang’s perception melted into nothingness. Perhaps his enemy was venting out its anger, perhaps it was merely teasing him. But none of it did he care about. He was only seeking a way to flee, to survive.

So he chose to close his eyes and refrain from smelling. When the voice came close enough, he emitted a very distinctive call.

The sound could not be heard. It was more of a hypersonic wave that collides with the surrounding objects and can retrieve the information ahead of him. The returning echoes gave feedback to his brain upon what it hid up ahead.

Then, the image of the creature was clear. He mapped out the figure by echolocation—it was about two meters in height.

Instantly, the outline of the creature rendered and Chang held up his handgun in its direction.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...

He fired off all of his ammunition because he knew that his enemy wouldn’t give another such golden chance to him.

Instantly, a mix of sweet and bloody scent fused in the air, and a deep sound of a bullet tearing flesh was heard.

"I got it!"

Chang was delighted for a second but his ecstasy soon diminished when his handguns were shaken off from his hands. When he regained his mind, he realized that he was being stepped on with a big foot.

"Despicable, despicable, despicable human!"

The light seemed to twist when the creature swirled in the fog. Something with an appearance that he had never seen before was looking down at Chang.

From what he could see at the closest distance were toes that gripped his chest—three rounded toes, flawlessly pale but with sharp toe nails growing on them like knives. The morphology of them resembled frog feet but above them were thighs similar to a human’s. The body shape was similar to a human’s but the difference was that it had a stout tail.

The first thought that sprouted in Chang’s mind was that the monster was a beautiful creature; not ascetically but sophisticatedly. The portion of strength and beauty was truly - well mixed. The streamline muscle could make people associate it with leopard and its bone structure seemed to be born with perfection.

Though this beautiful creature was bleeding, its eyes flamed with anger.