How to kill a Jackal

Another sheep lost. That made3 this week. Altair looked at the remains of a sheep, and studied the bite marks on the bones. Jackals. It’s always jackals. Whenever sheep just started to disappear, no matter where in the world he was, jackals were always to blame. Wolves made too much noise to go unnoticed, and bears were too big to ignore. But jackals were sneaky little bastards. They were able to get in, kill sheep, and get out before anyone could notice. Altair had to deal with this threat.

The thing about dealing with jackals is that you don’t need to kill them. If they get injured severely enough, they will remember to stay away from a particular field or flock. But the problem with doing that is that they hunt in packs. Usually there are four of them to a hunting party, and they attack in pairs using a flanking technique. Altair didn’t know any techniques that could be used on more than one opponent at a time, so he would have to invent something new. Altair thought back to his time in his village. He once saw his teacher use a joint breaking technique that moved at incredible speeds. He wondered if maybe he could utilize this to fight multiple enemies.

Altair went to the tree that he used for practice and began to strike it with his Rod. The tree was very resilient, and was almost unaffected by the blows. He wasn’t trying anything fancy yet; he was just getting warmed up. When he felt ready, he began to use the various techniques he had learned throughout the years on the tree. As he moved, he thought about the ways in which his body should move in order to make the strikes he needed. Altair stopped for a moment, took out some black paint, and marked four points on the tree. For this to work, he would have to hit all four points in very quick succession. Altair tried multiple things. He tried just twisting him wrist, and while he was able to hit the points, he had very little power behind the attack. He tried spinning around, and while his power was good, he took longer than he would like to strike the points. Finally he settled on a recoil method. He would strike one point at full force, and use the rebound to propel him to the next point, and so on. By adding in some twists and turns, he even learned how to avoid basic strikes while doing it. Satisfied with his work for the day, he settled down for a quick rest.

~439/1000~

Altair trained for a solid two weeks on his new technique, each day practicing either for more power or for more speed in the technique. At the end his training, the technique flew at a speed of 15 m/s, and could break bones, as seen by the now splintered tree stump. He now had the basics, but now he needed to test it in combat. But after Altair’s bout in the Casino Tournament, nobody wanted to fight him. So instead, Altair headed into the forest looking for wild animals. He searched all day, and finally came across an adult, male, grizzly bear. The bear saw Altair and immediately got up on its haunches, and roared at him. Altair got out his Rod, and got ready. The bear charged, and Altair sprung. He got through two strikes before the bear caught him off-guard and swiped a large paw at him. Altair hit a tree and was dazed for a moment, just long enough for the bear to aim another paw at Altair’s head. Altair ducked just in time, and tried the technique again, this time changing his stance to constantly compensate for the bear’s strikes. This time, it worked. Altair struck the bear on both elbows and knees, causing it to fall over and try to crawl away. Knowing that the bear would most likely be picked off after injuries like those, Altair did the merciful thing and killed it. He then skinned it and took what meat he could back with him. He sold the pelt in town and made a delicious stew with the meat. Knowing that his technique worked, Altair was now ready to take on the jackals.

Altair didn’t like using the sheep as bait, but he needed something that would draw their attention. He waited until nightfall and then watched for signs of the beasts. The first night, there was nothing. But on the second night, just before dawn, the jackals came. They ran for the sheep at the back of the pack, aiming to take down the weak and slow. But Altair was ready. He bolted for the pack, while yelling for the sheep to get away. He got there just in time. The jackals looked to each other before surrounding Altair, and then they began their attack. Altair used his new technique to get around their slashing claws, and battered their shoulders with his Rod. Four of them tried to jump him at once, but Altair gave each one of them a broken leg before they could do any kind of damage. The Jackals didn’t expect him to fight back, and were soon retreating, with many of them worse for wear. Altair roared savagely at them, causing them to scamper away.

Mr. Henderson rejoiced at the news that the threat had been taken care of. Even though he did nothing to help in the matter, he still made it sound like it was all thanks to him. Altair simply ignored his ravings, and let him enjoy the fact that the sheep were safe. Altair went back to the fields to care for the sheep after their scare, and found many of them huddling around a tree. Altair spoke soothing words to them, and was able to get them back to grazing. Even Daisy, who was almost attacked, was feeling better and nuzzled up to Altair in thanks.

~1002/1000~