Predator Stalking Shadows 18

"Angus had issued his response. Emerging from cover, and squinting through thesmoke, he aimed his portable grenade launcher and fired a projectile at the alien, then slid back behind his tree even before the grenade found its target. When it did the light was dazzling, the noise an overwhelming thunder that seemed to send a shudder of impact down into the roots of every tree in the jungle. Using the blast as cover, Dutch scrambled upright, then sprinted for the nearest rock and threw himself behind it. He took a single whooping breath, inhaling air that stank of fireworks and burned meat and scorched wood, and then he peeked
around the side of the rock. He was just in time to see the smoke clear, like a gauzy curtain being shredded by invisible claws, and the shimmering, flickering shape of the Predator, the mazy system of tree branches it used to travel through
the jungle literally torn away from around it-tipping almost gracefully forward and plunging to the earth. It landed in a blackened, smoking, but-from what Dutch could tell - mostly intact heap. It hit heavily, the cloaking field around it flickering out of existence."

"Dutch wondered whether the creature was dead or concussed. If the latter they needed to move in and finish it before it could fight back. At the same time, they had to be cautious. The thing was still bristled with weapons, and to go rushing the body forward en masse could get them all killed. It was on Dutch to make the call. Before the decision could be reached, the Hunter had leaped to its feet even before the moment of and was moving again, its high chittering respiration audible through the faceplate that both offered protection and also allowed it to breathe more easily in Earth's atmosphere. Although disappointed to see it still so mobile, Dutch was heartened to observe that the Hunter's injuries had clearly slowed it down. Not only was it bleeding copiously from the back wound he had inflicted, and leaving a trail of luminous blood that should make it easy to track even if it slipped into the darkness of the trees, it was also dragging its left leg slightly as it scampered across the clearing. Despite its injuries, the alien was still a thing of grace and beauty - not to mention incredibly dangerous."pg.97-98 chpt.4