Chapter 18: Chapter 18: a scream

I awaken to someone screaming. Not loudly, or at least not nearby. Sitting up and swiveling my head around, the screams get louder, and I can tell that it’s getting closer, though it is still far away.

Didn’t notice it before now, but my hearing is much better than human hearing, but more importantly, it’s directional. Swiveling my head has me unconsciously swivel my ears to follow the slowly increasing scream. Neat. 

Anyways, what to eat? Easy, I take out the bird I got yesterday. The one I got from the elven vampire. Then I commence breakfast in bed, looking at the sky through the canopy. The sun has not yet breached the horizon, but it’s getting close, giving it that nice orange tint.

The thunderbird is probably the best food I’ve eaten so far, though that is probably because it’s properly cooked, with some spices. I don’t know what those spices are, but they taste pretty good. Some of the food from earth definitely tastes better, and it could definitely use some salt, but overall a tasty meal.

While I’m eating the scream gets louder, and closer, the whole time. Kinda impressive that they don’t stop to breathe in more often. As I’m chewing on the last piece of meat and preparing a bottle to drink from, a familiar red eyed elf runs into the clearing I’m in and just as quickly out the other side. He didn’t even acknowledge me, rude.

The reason for his distress becomes clear just a moment later as two large otters run into the clearing. On their head is golden, almost yellow fur, which contrasts nicely to their almost black fur on the rest of their bodies. I never saw otters in person on earth, but I don’t think they were this large.

Each of them have more mana than the elf and they, like the goat, share attunement with me, which is kinda odd. So many electric monsters in the area. Well, I guess I’m not a local monster though.

It looks like they are set to ignore me in their chase, which I’m perfectly fine with, but as I look on, the second of the two turns to look at me without stopping. I feel it charging some electricity, which it releases in the form of a lightning bolt heading towards me.

That would have been fine, had it aimed directly at me, but it was going to hit my bed, had I not made the split second decision to put it into my inventory. The result of the impromptu bed rescue was that I landed ass first on the ground just before the offending lightning bolt hit me.

The weak attack tickled pleasantly, and I would have let it go, had it not endangered my bed. Rising up and flaring my electric aura while staring at the offending otter got the message across. It stopped and tried to recreate my sparkles, with limited success, but it quickly realized that it was outmatched when I sent an arc of electricity at it, rooting it in place.

Loud buzzing fills the air as I slowly increase the power of my attack. The panic in its eyes only lasts a minute before my increasing current causes it to slump over dead. Its partner didn’t stop to attack my bed and just continued after the elf, so I don’t chase after it.

I wonder how long it will take before it notices its partner is missing? Maybe I’ll give chase after the elf to see what is going on? He did flee north east afterall, which is the direction of the demon society. 

Listening for a bit, I hone in on the scream moving away while stowing the carcass away. Since I’m already out of bed, I run after the elf.

It doesn’t take long to catch up to the elf, and when I arrive, I just sort of run parallel to him as he flees for his life. The otter is just far enough behind him as to not be able to hit him. The otter actually seems to run faster, but the elf uses magic bends plant in its way, slowing it down.

He sure has impressive lungs, only stopping occasionally to breathe. It’s during one of these breaths he notices me off to the side and immediately changes from the incoherent panicked screams to cries for me to help him.

What should I do? I mean, he did give me food. I’ll have him cook some more for me. How to do it though? Zap it like the other one, or something else? Kinda want to use my claws, and if it somehow is stronger than me, I can still zap it.

Having made up my mind, I change my course and rapidly intercept the otter. Enhancing my body with electricity has become second nature at this point, well, it might be first nature for this body, so the distance disappears in the blink of an eye.

It only has time to turn its head towards me before I crash into it, claws first. It doesn’t take long to notice that its lightning is more pleasant than painful though it seems to be physically stronger than me, at least until my electricity seeps into its body through my claws.

I let my instincts guide me as I bite into its throat, and after a short and violent scuffle, I come out victorious, albeit bloody. Most of the blood belonged to it, but it did manage to nick one of the wounds from my death with its clawed feet.

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Kinda sad how the blood sticks to the fur that’s not fully regrown yet, making me kinda dirty. Once again the desire for soap rattles around in my mind.

Standing up from the scene, I find the elf nowhere to be seen. Did he run away? He’s gonna pay by making me good food, so he’s not allowed to flee. Quickly stowing away the newly hunted food, I focus on my hearing. There are no screams to be heard, and the forest seems to have gone silent from this little scuffle. 

After a few seconds of intense listening, I hear him. Rushing footsteps heading further north east. I guess the hunt is still on.

I run directly towards him, though he’s gotten a fairly large distance away. Nothing a bit of physical enchanting can’t fix though. I don’t bother being quiet, which causes what I assume to be his footsteps to falter for a moment, before continuing with renewed vigor.

As I get closer, the vegetation gets more hostile, as if it’s trying to stop me, though I just break it in retaliation. He really IS trying to run away. That’s the same trick he used against the otter.

A minute more of chasing and I’m close enough to jump him, so I do. He noticed something and turns just in time to get a facefull of me.

 

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While hunting during the night, after Anana sent him away, so that she could sleep, he had an idea. Something stronger than the otters was in his territory. He could finally get rid of those pests. Though Anana didn’t seem like the kind to do something because he asked, therefore some trickery had to be used.

He lured the otters to chase after him, and then he ran through the sleeping spot of the monster. The hope was that it would be inclined to help him, but it just looked on calmly, at least until one of the otters attacked Anana. He didn’t stick around, but he heard the noise, and the hunters were reduced to one. As he started to believe the plan failed, he saw the white monster running a bit into the forest next to him. A few encouraging words and it charged the other otter. 

He doesn’t stop to watch the fight, he doesn’t hear the same buzzing noise this time, just the screeching of the otter and the telltale noise of the otters electricity, and something running after him soon afterwards. 

Using nature magic to scout the area behind him, he finds a powerful electric monster chasing him. A split decision is made, he assumes that the otter won and resumes his magic to slow it down. Anana certainly seemed more powerful, but he knows the power of the otters and the fight didn’t include the same noise that happened when Anana won.

The monster chasing him isn’t slowed down significantly by his magic, but he doesn’t realize that until the final moments of the chase, when the monster pounces on him. Having noticed and turned to defend himself, he spots a white fox monster covered in blood, with claws out and an open mouth barreling into him.

His hastily put up defenses are nothing to the apex predator that pushes him into the ground. Its claws dig into his arms as it pins him to the ground, but he doesn’t notice due to the shock.

As he’s ready to accept his demise, the monster speaks in that same terrifying voice it used when they first met.

“You don’t get to flee after I saved you. You’re going to cook me some delicious meals.”