Chapter 13: XIII – A Fight To (More than One) Death

As she gazed at the large beast below, Esperanza couldn’t help but to grow more fond than ever of [Gaze Unto the Abyss]. The skill allowed her to get a general glimpse and an estimation of whatever she subjected it to, and had definitely helped a lot with identifying all sorts of both edible and poisonous plants in the forest she was in.

 

From her talks with Oldies, she learned that supposedly there were various kinds of skills that could identify or analyze other beings or objects, but they usually only did one or the other. A skill like [Analysis] and its evolutions generally gave the name and level of whatever they were subjected to. On the other hand, [Identify] and its variants attempted to explain the various properties of the thing being identified, often limited by the caster’s knowledge.

 

Her [Gaze Unto the Abyss] combined both functions at once, which was how she studied her foe carefully from a safe distance.

 

[Tyrant-Claw Ursine Lvl44]

 

A beast native to the southern regions of the continent, greatly resembling a six-legged bear in appearance. Territorial ambush predators, they were capable of great stealth despite their massive sizes and often took their prey unawares. Generally poor in stamina, if one could avoid their ambush and stay on the run, they are likely to give up the chase.

 

Threat Level: Very High

 

It was not the most detailed information, but it served Esperanza’s needs. The first time she had encountered the beast, it had ambushed her, and she only managed to get a glimpse of its level and name before it tore her apart like she was made of wet toilet paper. Of course, that was relatively early in her life at the forest, when she was still in the single-digit level range. She felt more confident in attempting to tackle it now that she was a single level away from the second tier.

 

The beast also robbed her of prey she hunted a couple times, clearly intent on devouring her as well, though she managed to escape from it both times. The first time she barely avoided needing to respawn yet again, while the second time, she actually tried to fight it a little before she realized how far outclassed she was and made her escape.

 

This time things wouldn’t go that way.

 

This time she was the hunter, with the beast as her prey.

 

Carefully and silently, Esperanza moved across tree branches, having made sure that she chose ones that could take the mass of her amorphous form while her eyes were fixated on the slumbering beast below. As much as she tried to make no sound however, she made a mistake when she was close to being above the beast, and part of the branch she was on snapped. The noise almost echoed through the quiet forest.

 

It also woke the beast below her.

 

As she had no room for second thoughts or doubts by then, Esperanza simply leapt down at the beast, her amorphous form thinning and flattening as she fell from the branches. She wanted to wrap around the beast’s head and ideally blind it, maybe suffocate it before it could hurt her too much, but with the beast waking up that just became a far harder task.

 

Her form still fell atop the monster’s face and wrapped all around it, and she immediately tried to strike at its eyes as she felt fangs growing on the tips of the tentacular appendages she thrust towards them. Some of them met something hard and bounced off with likely little to no damage done, but the others met something softer and plunged in.

 

Whatever it was she struck, it hurt the beast as evidenced by the muffled roar it gave out.

 

Esperanza tried to dig deeper, but then a large clawed paw scraped away parts of her body as the beast tried to rip her off its face. Some of the strikes even went through her flattened body and likely wounded the beast’s face, but in its rage it didn’t seem to care. Despite the excruciating pain, she held on and kept trying to push her appendages deeper into the beast’s skull.

 

She did not make it.

 

Eventually the beast tore up so much of her body that she could no longer hold on, then it scraped the rest of her from its face by rubbing it against the rough bark of a nearby tree. Other than the pain, there was little that Esperanza felt, which faded to nothingness as the life was clawed out from her battered form. It felt almost like both an eternity and an instant at the same time, before she was given the choice she had seen every time she had to [Respawn].

 

You have Died.

 

Please choose where you would like to Respawn:

 

=> Your Current Location

The Nearest Safe Location

 

Without a second thought, Esperanza chose her current location. The feeling of just… floating around in nothing faded away as she felt the now more familiar form of her amorphous body around her, and she took in her surroundings with her many eyes. The sensory overload no longer gave her as bad a headache as it did at first, something she was not sure whether it was because she had gotten used to it or if her mind had just become more inhuman over time.

 

To her dismay, she discovered that the Ursine was still at the same location as well. It looked worse for wear after her attempted murder, of course. On the other hand it was also a beast several times her size that was in pain and very, very angry. It also recognized her as the source of that pain and immediately lunged at her before she could react.

 

Then Esperanza felt the pain of being literally torn apart for the second time in ten minutes or so.

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After the instant that felt like an eternity – she wondered if everyone who had the [Respawn] skill felt the same way when they died and waited until they revived – passed, Esperanza stubbornly chose to return to her current location once more. Fortunately, this time the Tyrant-Claw Ursine seemed to have left for some unknown reason.

 

She quickly climbed atop a nearby tree and searched for signs of the beast’s tracks from above, but before she could do so, she heard the creature’s heavy steps approach. The beast emerged from the woods on the opposite side of the tree she perched on moments later. Its muzzle dripped with water, so it must have gone for a drink.

 

For the first time since she tried to kill it earlier, she saw the extent of the damage she had done to the beast. Its left eye was a bloody mess that still dripped ichor from the eye socket. Many bleeding wounds also criss-crossed the beast’s muzzle, likely self-inflicted in its attempt to rip her off its face. It looked a bit tired, and clearly irritated.

 

Esperanza stayed silent on her perch atop the tree this time, and waited until the beast laid down by its side and eventually slumbered once more. She made some quick calculations in her mind. The tree she was perched on was a good distance away from the beast, but if she shaped her form into a flat, thin, sheet-like shape, she could glide through the air for quite a while.

 

In the end, she chose to take the chance rather than attempt to get closer like her previous attempt and leapt off the tree as she glided through the air towards the slumbering beast. The beast did not stir throughout her brief flight, and she attempted to control her direction as best she could by undulating parts of her body.

 

She landed right on the beast’s head as she hoped for, and immediately wrapped right around it. The Tyrant-Claw Ursine was naturally awakened by her actions, and was disoriented for a moment which caused it to involuntarily blink its eye. Esperanza did not waste that brief chance and shoved several of her fang-tipped appendages into the eye socket and ruined the beast’s remaining eye right away.

 

The beast went mad with rage, its forepaws carving out chunks of Esperanza’s body while its maw opened and snapped shut with other parts of her amorphous flesh caught between. As if it lost all inhibition from harming itself in the process, the beast tore her apart in short order, likely also carving many bloody grooves on itself with its claws in the process.

 

Esperanza returned ten minutes later and saw the additional injuries that cut through the beast’s tough skin and fur – skin and fur her fangs failed to pierce through – and got an idea. It was a stupid idea all considered, and would only really be viable to someone like her, someone with the [Respawn] skill to whom death was a mere inconvenience and nobody else.

 

Still, it was the best plan she had, so she went for it.

 

Once again she spread her form thin as she latched onto the back of the Tyrant-Claw Ursine. The beast roared in rage as it tried to pry her off its back, but could not reach with its claws. Its form lacked the articulation to reach that far back, so it resorted to slamming its back against the trees in the vicinity, the impacts hard enough to topple some of the unfortunate trees.

 

Those slams also crushed and battered Esperanza’s form, but she latched on regardless while her fanged and clawed appendages tried to pry through the creature’s hide, just to let it know she was still there. After it exerted quite a bit of effort – and more than a dozen felled trees – the beast eventually managed to thoroughly crush Esperanza’s body, and breathed in relief at the end of the infuriating intruder.

 

She just came back ten minutes later, and latched on to different parts of its body, whereby the whole process repeated itself all over again.

 

The bizarre struggle between the two apex predators of the region continued on for a long time, with neither combatant willing to relent and retreat to fight another day. The beast was territorial. It could not fathom the concept of abandoning its home, much less at the threat of a weaker, yet persistent thing like what it fought. Esperanza just fought it with persistence as she entirely relied on being able to return to life for more after every time the beast tore her to shreds or rushed her to a pulp.

 

Over time, the great beast, the tyrant of the region that had never been challenged in all its life, weakened. The Tyrant-Claw Ursine bled from countless wounds it had inflicted on itself with its sharp claws in its effort to remove the clingy intruder. Many other parts of its body were bruised and battered, its bone cracked in some spots from the violence it had subjected itself to.

 

Both of its eyes were ruined messes, and it had lost its sense of hearing as well as its eardrums were pierced through, its inner ears crushed. Its once keen nose had been mangled and it could not even breathe through it, the only thing it could smell being the scent of its own blood. Even its mouth bled profusely, the blood flowing freely from its tongue which looked as if some wild beast had clawed and bitten through parts of it.

 

Before its prone form was its vanquisher, which to all appearances looked like some sort of pale-purplish mound of flesh. A mound of flesh with far too many eyes and toothy maws all over it. The mound of flesh that was Esperanza shambled towards the exhausted beast and wrapped around its head, the beast too weakened to resist.

 

Then she narrowed one of her tentacle-like appendages to a size that would fit through the beast’s ear canals, topped them with fangs, and pierced through what was left of the beast’s inner ear and further, deep into the beast’s brains. There the appendages found little difficulty in reducing the brain into a slurry of blood and brain matter in moments.

 

The long-awaited notification arrived moments after she put an end to the beast’s life.

 

You have defeated [Tyrant-Claw Ursine Lvl44]!

You have gained bonus experience for defeating an enemy of two higher tiers than yourself!

You have leveled to level 20! +2 Free Major stat points gained! -2 Sanity gained! +1 Willpower Gained! +1 Intuition Gained!

You have gained access to the class [Primordial Devourer]!

You have gained access to the class [Formless Predator]!

You have gained access to the class [Beast of Gluttony]!

You have gained access to the class [Emissary of the Forgotten]!

You have gained access to the class [Huntress of Horror]!