Waking from my wonderful rest, well… as wonderful as it gets sleeping on the cave floor. I decided to keep the trend of before and take out another monster group. The less I have to deal with later on the better. On a different note I don't feel any pain from my ribs, looking at my stats my hp is back up to full . Activating [stealth] as I walked out of the cave, I see the mice returning to their caves and snakes are starting to come out. Perfect I wanted to attack the mice next because even with the snakes low numbers they seem like the most powerful and intelligent monster I've seen so far, but that's just a guess based on...instinct? whatever. Anyway I want to target the smallest group of mice first to get accustomed to group battling before I go back to assassinating them. I walk over to the first of the three caves the mice use. Going inside I see three of them in the corner, two are starting to relax against the cave wall while the other one keeps watch.
A good strategy, but it's sadly useless against me. I [transform] into the crow and fly over to the two near the wall, swooping down I grab one of the mice with my talons and fly back towards the entrance. Holding it I can tell the mice are roughly the same size and weight as my base form, while on the way I kill it by breaking its spine with my grip strength. Landing at the opening I block the only way out, [transforming] into my combat form and growling threateningly.
I decided to sneak attack one of the mice because even though I still want to experience fighting multiple opponents, at the same time I want to reduce the danger of fighting a group head on.
Back to the fight, the 2 mice are bewildered. I’d say between seeing their friend suddenly getting killed, or my transformation skill, a crow transforming into a wolf is confusing. Either way they soon snap out of their daze and are ready to fight me. They have great coordination, probably a benefit of living together in a group. Both mice activate their innate skill shown by their tails lights up with the spiraling yellow pattern seen on the other monsters and In a flash of yellow sparks they disappear. Now it's my turn to be shocked. I feel a stabbing pain in both my front legs, looking down I see the mice biting into me. I open my mouth, planning to bite into the one on my right leg, but with another flash it’s gone. Both are back in their original spots. The one in front holds a chunk it ripped from my leg in its mouth victoriously. This demon beast's skill makes it so fast that I can't rely on any of my ranged skills in this fight. My only hope is for [lightning shock] to stun it so I can get a hit in, while fast it is weak to attacks. Lighting ripples out from me as I activate the skill. The mice show confusion seeing the skill but the one in front is able to react accordingly. It flashes towards the wall and when the lightning is about to hit it, it's able to use the wall to jump higher in the air, avoiding the lightning. The other one is not so lucky, being stunned it's only able to watch as I bite into it, ripping off the front half of its body and swallowing it. The remaining mouse is too smart so my lightning wont work, I can only try to beat it at its own game. I eat the other half of the mouse's body so I can use [devour] on it. Quickly looking at my stats I can see the skill is called [lighting boost], while I’m doing this the mouse is not silent and inflicts wounds into my until now unharmed back legs. I use [lightning boost] to dash over to it, instead I end up slam face into the wall behind it.
“Fuck!!!, this is what I get for not testing the skill first” I quip to relieve some of my stress from the fight.
The skill activated but with so much speed I couldn't control myself to stop in time, if I can't even use the skill right I have no chance at winning, lets try a different approach. I activate [transform] to change into the mouse and while it's confused by my transformation I use the skill again. This time I have better control. I'm not perfect at using the skill yet, but it's enough to let me take a chunk out of its neck with my teeth.
“squeeeeaaaak!”
It cries out in pain and shock, before I can zip away it retaliates and takes a bite out of mine.
“Aggg” I roar in pain, soon blood is filling my windpipe.This hurts a lot more than 2 broken ribs, on top of the pain, I can feel my body slowly being sapped of strength.My red blood pools onto the floor and mixed with my enemy.My memories start to flash before my eyes, strangely the ones I see are none from my past life on earth, but are all from my journey so far.From the beginning meeting Pride and the few memories I've made after. Re-watching my journey step by step I found something I didn't notice before. Wishing for my last hope to be true I use [transform] to shift into my base form. As I do all of the pain goes away and strength fills my body again.
“huuuu!”
“haaaa!”
I greedily fill my lungs with air, happy even as the taste of iron and the blood filling my lungs painfully is all I can focus on at the moment. I look over at my foe as light leaves its eyes. That was close, way to close. My fate would have been the same as those who lose in battle, if not for what I realized during my flood of memories. I remembered when my ribs were broken, the pain would go away whenever I was in my base form. I was ignoring the pain already so I didn't notice until now. Looking at my hp shows it's less than ½ my max health sitting at 10 hp. I can't help but feel fear would have happened if I tried to fight the three mice head on at the start. I won't be able to fight till I'm fully healed so wiping out the mice in one sweep is out of the question now. My best bet to figure these demon beasts is to use [lightning shock] after sneaking into their ranks. That way they won't be able to have enough time to dodge the attack and I can take out a good amount of the group while they are stunned. Also If i can learn how to use [Lighting boost] in my combat form I should be able to easily take them all out. This ‘break’ I'm taking won't be all bad. I can focus more on training my [mana control] and on using [lightning boost] in my combat form.
I don't feel safe leaving the cave in my weekend state, so I construct a new burrow here to sleep while waiting for the mice to decompose into mana, when the corpses start to flake apart into green orbs I can start training my [mana control]. I got the idea when I saw the lightning mana disperse around me. Calming my mind and closing my eyes, I reproduce the feeling of diving into myself, of focusing my consciousness inward, but instead I direct it outwards. An image fills my head as my surroundings appear gray-scale and the familiar blue sparkle of mana surrounds me, I can see the corpses in the four foot range I can perceive around me. They both have the electric yellow mana flowing in their bodies in a specific pattern. I'm able to notice a distinct lack of whatever the green sparkles are in my vision, the only way to detect them is the blank spots they leave in the surrounding mana. It's impossible to control the mana still left in corpses, but I'm able to draw in the surrounding mana, creating an area of low mana density in my radius of control. Using [devour] on the green sparkles I see( or rather cant see) I am able to see no change to the skill in this view, the black whirlpool looking just as dark and mysterious as the surrounding outside of my view. I pull back my senses and open my eyes, no use making myself more vulnerable waiting for the absorption to be done.
…
…
My anxiety rises by the second as time grudges on, having found out I'm unable to use stealth while [devour] is active means I can only hope no visitors drop by. I need to be even more careful from now on. The fight I've had made me realize that while I'm an all-rounder who's good at close and long range fights, power is not everything. If I have to fight an enemy that is specialized at one thing I can't beat them in I will lose. My advantage is that I will slowly cover up my faults fighting more diverse foes and taking their skills. But I shouldn't be content with just taking from others. I need to also improve the skills I've taken. Also my goal should not be to enjoy the fights and getting better at fighting, I can gain experience naturally over time. Right now I should focus on what's most important in this moment, getting out of the hell hole and surviving.
Reaffirming my goals helps to calm me for now and thoughts for the future can be left for later. At least until I can learn more about the world.
‘It shouldn't be all monsters and demons right?’ while thinking irrelevant thoughts like that my [devour] skill finishes.
My mana's back to full. I should have checked how much absorbing mana from the surrounding gets me and how much mana [lighting boost] takes but I can just check later, now I just wait to rest.
I crawl into the burrow I made and lay down. On the outside I'm fine, but the exhaustion from the fight still carries over even if my wound doesn't.
“Sigh” a sigh escapes as me and my mind goes blank as I sink into the comfort of sleep.
…
…
…
Getting up, I feel refreshed and looking at my hp shows its back to full. My body sure heals fast. As long as I can [transform] and hide I can make a full recovery from any injury. This brings me a feeling of comfort that sleeping can't hope to match, but I still need to be careful. I close my eyes, and sense the area around me, I can't detect anything directly outside of my burrow, just to be safe I activate [stealth]. Digging a little hole I peek out and confirm no one is in the cave.
I can't tell how long I slept for because of how exhausted I was from the fight and recovering. To be safe I'll assume that the other monsters know about the disappearance of the boars and group of mice.
I have to make a strategy to have the snakes and mice fight, because I can't take the mice in a large group. Good for me they don't know I can take the form of those I defeat, so using these variables let's make a plan.
“heh”
Ah, I can't get excited. I need to focus on surviving.
Calm down… calm down.
“Okay, time to start” my eyes glow with a ghastly purple, as rationality and excitement clash in my mind. Waiting behind the bolder, I can see the mice are out and look spooked, staying huddled close to the lakeside their tunnels are on. After waiting for two cycles to pass, when the snakes head back to their caves, I follow the one heading towards the cave closest to the boar's side. The cave is like the mice, but smaller, giving the snake an advantage it can attack any part of the cave with its long body. That's only if I give it the change to act. I watch it silently in [stealth] until it enters a rest state. I walk up to it, still in base form, and extend my claws, a weapon I have overlooked thinking about attacking mostly in combat form after I acquired it.
I jab my claws into the snake's eyes and twist. An pain filled and enraged hiss threatens to break out but I quickly [transform] and hold the snake's head in my jaws, keeping the sound enclosed and muffled. I press down on the snake's tail with my front left paw and try to bite its head off to no avail.The snake is still hissing trying to call for help, but it can't escape from my vice-like grip. Lightning starts to streak across the snake's body, before it gets too intense I switch tactics and start to grind my teeth to mimic a saw. Another pain fills hiss rings out, and the sparks die down. Good to know that if enough pain is inflicted it disrupts the activation of a skill. After a lot of blood, sweat and hard work(the snakes, my anxiety of being found out and my sore jaw). The head messily separates from the body and I use [devour] on the snake.
After finishing off the snake, assume its form and lay down near the cave entrance. While waiting for the other snakes to head over to the lake I practice the new skill I got [Thunder clad].
{
Name: NULL
Lv: 8
Hp: 26/26
Mp: 42/42
Base form: Black Fox Demon Beast (Chimera(demon))
Combat form: Gray wolf Demon Beast
Species absorbed:Raven Demon Beast, Flaming Phoenix Demon Beast, Bull Demon Beast, Boar Demon Beast, Python Demon Beast
Skills: Stealth, Fire Rush,Fireball,Lighting Blast,Lightning Boost,Thunder Clad
Innate Skills: Mana control, Language Translation(demon)(passive), Devour, Transform
Titles: Reincarnator, Second Chimera, Chaos Conductor
}
don't feel safe leaving the cave in my weekend state
weakened