Chapter 17: 17: Killing the Beast

Kotori and Amelie set out soon after eating.

The first thing they had to do was confirm the location of the lizard monster and make sure they could set up a path to accurately run away from it without getting caught.

Kotori soon found an area of the forest where vines hung rather low and thus would hamper the lizard if it tried to chase them through it.

The lizard itself was easy to find as well. It was lazily roaming the forest. Each step it took shook the ground and made it rather easy to find. Additionally, the area around it was quiet, likely due to the fact that it was scaring away all the nearby fauna.

[The hunter has become the hunted] Kotori thought in bemusement.

Watching the lizard that had once terrorized her gave her a sense of satisfaction, especially when she knew that she was going to eventually hunt it.

The plan was simple. Amelie would lead the lizard around and Kotori would hide in the underbrush and shoot it with occasional waves of magic. If something went wrong Amelie could just climb a nearby tree and the lizard would likely give up. Now, if Kotori was caught it would be a completely different story. But Kotori was confident the lizard wasn't going to notice her.

The underbrush was deep, and she would even have Shu cover her in a light layer of dirt to hide her scent.

The trap was set.

Amelie led the beast over, and Kotori began to blast it with her sound attack. The first time she hit the lizard it looked shocked, looking around in surprise it gave a roar of anger, but soon located Amelie who was nearby. The Lizard began to chase Amelie who darted around the clearing like a scared rabbit. Often zig-zagging around and doubling back so that they stayed in the small clearing. To an outsider, it would probably look bizarre even to the denizens of this world.

All while this was happening Kotori started hitting the lizard.

It was going well. The lizard appeared to be taking damage.

When Kotori used "Status'' she saw that it was indeed taking damage. The small HP bar it had was starting to lower at a steady rate.

[Wow, this is simple I guess it's just a dumb beast at the end of the day] She thought

She hadn’t realized it yet but Kotori had made a critical error.

Kotori and Amelie had been fighting the lizard for quite a while. It had reached around 25% HP and nothing had changed. Kotori was in a good mood awaiting the death of the lizard.

That was, until the lizard suddenly swung its head towards Kotori and walked in her direction.

In the beginning, Kotori thought it was a fluke.

[There's no way this lizard knows where I am]  She thought confident in herself.

The Lizard still kept walking towards her.

[Right?] She thought as the lizard continue to walk over to her.

She quickly looked around to see if anything else had caught its attention. But there was nothing in the area besides trees and vegetation.

Amelie tried to get the Lizard’s attention again but the lizard ignored her.

[I caught its attention?] Kotori began to realize.

Kotori now learned that just like video games the monsters had an aggro system and she had done enough damage that it was going to start targeting her instead of Amelie who posed no danger.

Kotori began to run

She had once again become prey.

The lizard barreled towards her giving a roar. Its red-stained eyes looking even more malicious than before.

[He doesn't seem very happy] she thought in a grim bemusement watching the scene

She frantically had Shu cast several mud spots on the ground which made the lizard slip and slow its pace a little. During this time, she kept tossing a few more discordant sounds towards the lizard. It's HP was continuing to decrease even more slowly.

[Can my mana keep this up?] she panicked as she felt herself grow slightly weaker.

Kotori had been managing her mana under the assumption she would be having a long-drawn-out fight with the lizard with Amelie. Now that it was chasing her, she was unsure if she would be able to do enough damage with her pain melodies that the lizard would die in time.

Each shot of mana dealt around 5% of its hp and she only had 3 more shots left. The lizard itself was around 20% HP. This meant she could only deal around 15% more damage.

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If she collapsed due to mana exhaustion here she would most definitely die.

[It’s not like I got any other choice!] she thought

And thus, a deadly game of cat and mouse began

Kotori kept running with no direction. She tried to take paths that would be easy for a human to cross and difficult for the lizard, but this only slowed the lizard slightly. It appeared to be filled with rage.

"WRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

It roared as it trampled the small obstacles in its wake.

Kotori put her flute to her mouth and landed another shot.

15% HP left

The Lizard got close enough and attempt to snap at Kotori. She quickly ducked and heard a whish of air above her head as the lizard's mouths snapped shut over where her head use to be. Kotori began running faster. If she had been a little slower she would’ve been decapitated.

Using the brief pause, she once again gained some distance from the lizard. Shu cast a mud bolt at the lizard. While it didn't really do any damage, it did momentarily blind the lizard.

Kotori shot at it again with her flute.

10% HP left

[One left] she thought

She hadn't managed to spend enough time running around to save her mana. And since she was running around, much of her energy was being spent on running instead of being focused toward mana regeneration.

Despite this, she still kept running.

Leaping through a few bushes she thought she had lost the lizard, but soon its pounding footstep grew closer once again and crashed through the bushes Kotori had come through.

She gave another tired trill and the lizard once again took a hit

5%

Kotori's vision grew hazy as she reached the limit of her mana and she stumbled for a moment. This time the lizard ran up and snapped at her again. She tiredly dodged away but this time her reactions were slowed, and the lizard's teeth grazed her arm which lagged behind slightly. The teeth of the lizard were like knife blades and left a long gash on her arm. Kotori froze for a moment blinded by the pain. She hadn't been majorly hurt in this world yet and this injury left her gasping in pain. The training she did with Mari and the muscle pain of farm work was nothing compared to this.

What was worse was that the injury was on the arm she used to hold her flute.

[I have to try!] She thought

As blood dripped down her arm, she wrenched it up and used the last dregs of mana within her to land one more flute shot. It wasn't at full power, but it was an act of desperation.

1% Hp

[Not enough!] Kotori thought

It was over. Her plan had failed, and her vision was falling to darkness.

[I wonder what bug I'm going to be reincarnated as] She thought as she started losing consciousness awaiting her death

In the corner of her eye, she saw Shu begin casting a spell. A small compressed piece of dirt appeared at its feet and darted towards the lizard.

A small rock bullet sped towards the lizard and by some act of god, it manages to hit the lizard in the eye.

The Lizard roared in pain and began to fall to the ground disappearing into light

“[Hunter] activated!”

As Kotori's vision finally blackened, she once again heard the system voice

"Skill Acquired [Hunter]!"

"Follower [Shu] has evolved!"

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