Chapter 73: The Implock – Chapter 67 – “Prey and Predators”

∼ Prey and Predators ∼

Chapter - 067

Stalking along the underbrush of the forest, Nyx took lead as Ignatius shadowed his movements. The human had his saber drawn as his gaze scanned the surroundings. They were hunting the druggle, Nyx following the scent trails with his keen nose. Nyx could've of course summoned his familiar as it was a naturally better-suited tracker than him. But it was not needed.

Nyx's senses and experience were more than enough to hunt this beast. Compared to the Netherworld, this place was nothing. And the beasts within were critters in contrast to what Nyx had been used to seeing wandering about.

It was with great ease that he had caught the scent of their prey the moment they entered the forest from the edge of the pastures. Iggy had described the druggle as a big, lumbering beast. So then again, it wasn't a surprise with how effortlessly the demon caught the odor of its musk. Since larger animals usually always had a strong scent about them. Not having to hide or mask it in fear of stronger predators.

Nyx was having a great time, though. So he was happy he had decided against bringing the thrasher into this. Besides, if he really were to summon her, he would be sacrificing a large part of his mana pool as keeping familiars in this plane reserved a portion of his mana. The same cost of her summoning, a whole five points. So while she was out and about, he only had four points of mana to do with since his trait [Demonhide] also reserved an additional ten percent of the poll as a whole. What he ended up with definitely wasn't a lot considering the costs of his latest new spells.

Even if Nyx were to de-summon her, he wouldn't get the reserved five points of mana refunded. It would have to recover on itself. A long and tedious process. So unless the situation specifically demanded it, he would wait with summoning the familiar prematurely until his mana pool had grown some more. He remembered Aria warning him about the fact that as the thrasher grows in levels, so would her cost for summoning her. Which was something to consider. As she was already above what he should've been able to summon, she was quite expensive to sustain, to begin with.

Coming back to himself as the scent of his prey became suddenly much more intense, Nyx picked up the pace. So far, they hadn't been met with any sign of remains from the farm animals taken or the serfs who had gone missing. It posed the questions of; just how had the monster made such a clean getaway? It didn't quite make a whole lot of sense since the beast was not eating its prey back in the pastures. Which had to mean it was somehow taking them back into the forest, without leaving any tracks at that.

Those questions were put in the back of their minds when they finally came upon their quarry, drinking from a river without a care in the world. Ignatius got low to the ground, crouching by a fallen log covered in moss leaning against another tree. Getting onto his stomach just in the nook of the mossy log, he extracted his handbook and flipped through a few pages until he found the description and notes of this particular beast.

Heavy-set, broad and muscular, with the head of a boar, its torso hang low to the ground with its stubby little legs. Even so, it still reached a grown man to their waist. It was a rather large beast, and despite its awkward build, Ignatius knew from his notes that this particular beast was very fast for its weight and size. So it was important he remembered that it wasn't to be underestimated lest he get run over. It was known to practically glide across the ground, gathering a lot of momentum before it would pierce its prey with either its strong tusks or long claws that were so long that they tilled the ground as they ran.

It was a menacing beast to be sure.

When Ignatius was just about to discuss with Nyx just how they were going to go about taking down this dangerous beast, a roar of fire whistled right past his head, flying right in the direction of the druggle. Ignatius was staggered as he watched the ball of orange fire arch towards the beast to then suddenly explode with a rain of liquidy fire all over the beast's leathery hide. It squealed like a pig, the beast thrashing about as the flame scorched its flesh. The massive monster had turned into a bonfire on legs.

Ignatius was too stunned to say anything or even react, but when the bucking monster suddenly began charging blindly in a direction, which coincidently put them exactly in its path, he scrambled to get up. A beast the size and weight of two whole stallions set on fire was charging right at them. Yet, when he saw Nyx just standing there, cackling maniacally he could only curse.

"Damn warlock!" He stumbled as he jumped to the side.

The human's panic was for naught though, as the raging beast came suddenly crashing to the ground, digging long furrows in the underbrush-covered dirt with its tusks. A single [Demonbolt] to its head had set a stopper to the still sizzling monster, the [Impfire] still burning away at the charred corpse.

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