system
A chat on 4chan
human
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gpt
>tell us more
There is a possibility that these creatures have a mesmerism ability focused around their eyes, to confuse or entrance prey humans.

This is the furthest out there thing though and the most /x/ tier one, though it's not entirely impossible, just improbable that they could evolve the mechanism for this. If it does exist, it likely takes the form of some sort of limbic hack on the central nervous system. Perhaps eye contact in combination with a series of tones, clicks, or sounds is able to cause overwhelming paralysis. We already know that infrasound and ultrasound are capable of causing everything from religious rapture to experiences of alien abduction. Infrasound in particular is well known to innately cause humans to feel disturbed and hallucinate supernatural things at specific frequencies. Perhaps these predator hominids are capable of generating these naturally via humming or something similar.
human
>Infrasound in particular is well known to innately cause humans to feel disturbed and hallucinate supernatural things at specific frequencies.
Maybe that explains the panic at the woods phenomenon?