Chapter 6: Tailing Prey

Lily went back to the tree root feeling dejected. She kept silent all the time. The sun has already set, it is dark outside, and with Silvester's men and monsters around, I don't want to risk drawing them near with fire.

Growl…

Lily's stomach rumbled as she tried to sleep. She kept saying okay, it isn't a problem. In fact, Lily was happier that she got a spare blanket as a pillow. She slept soundly after an hour.

As she slept, I relaxed my body too. It was a weird feeling that I felt tired physically but not mentally. I can close my vision, but I can't seem to fall asleep. It is that feeling when you are tired after doing sports. You lay down to rest but not sleeping.

"So, this is what it feels to have a connection with somebody," I whispered while patting her head with my tail. If she relaxed her body, I felt it too. She mumbled and snuggled me then, hugging me like a pillow.

Morning soon came, and I asked Lily to hunt with me. Her stomach had kept rumbling since last night. She might already get used to it, but I am not.

We scouted the surroundings and found no soldiers. That's a good start. I didn't expect those lazy soldiers to camp around here now that the whole expedition thing was canceled. Luckily, we found Saldrak's sword. His body was a bloody mess, but the sheath and the blade were still usable. As we scouted deeper, we finally found the boar we were looking for and tailed it.

"The boar was huge! and it has a tusk!" I mumbled. The moss boar was easily as big as a cow with a tusk as long as an elephant. The piglet, which seemed to be its juvenile, followed it.

"I see. Each adult boar has around 10 juveniles scattered around, making them easy prey. The parents can only guard 1 or two of them at the same time." I mumbled. By looking at how much the boar eats, the forest would be long gone if left unchecked. But, since it was so easy to hunt the juveniles by waiting around it, their population was kept in check.

After tailing one of the juveniles, we killed it with a single slash of the sword, decapitating it. Then we immediately returned to the tree roots, made real campfires, and roasted the meat.

"So Delicious!!" Lily screamed in ecstasy. The pork was a little bit chewy, but the juice that flowed from the meat tasted like barbeque sauce. I know the taste since I am a part of the body. It was odd that I felt full even when I was not eating.

"Lily! Goblins!" I warned her as I saw the goblins come in our direction. There were about twenty of them. She immediately picked up her sword. I also picked one with my tail.

There are two of those goblins that used a sword. I immediately assessed the surroundings as they encircled us. Should we engage? Or should we not? I am confident that Lily can beat one or two of them, but if they attacked us all at once, we are screwed.

The goblin charged from the front, But Lily stabbed its heart. Using the gap when her sword pierced the goblins, another goblin came from her sides, but I deflected its sword. That was dangerous. Lily would be dead by now if I didn't have a sword.

"Lily, we need to kill that sword-goblin first," I said, and she nodded. She slashed at it from the front, only for her slash to be easily deflected by the goblin. But I stabbed its throat in that gap and thus killed it.

Lily was struck by a nearby goblin, but since it was just a stick, it was just a scratch. She slashed at the goblin from below, cutting off its arm. I pulled my sword and finished the job by stabbing it in the throat while Lily dealt with another sword-wielding goblin.

"These goblins were more brutal than I imagined. I wonder why Luigi was so confident he could beat it. Yes, they are small fry one-on-one, but the sword-wielding ones were dangerous. It can find the gap when other goblins attack it and strike it with precision. We would be dead if I did not watch its movement from the start.

Lily tried to slash at it and repeat what we did with the other sword goblin. But this goblin dodged instead. The other goblins surrounded us as he was taking a distance from us. Lily traded blows with them, offering minor bruises on her body for a killing blow with the stick-bearing goblins. I only blocked hits since I wanted my sword to be ready when the sword goblin came.

Another notification for level-up came as we killed our tenth goblin. The sword goblin is still outside our strike zone. He was unsure when to come in as we seemed full of gaps, but not really.

It then does the unexpected. It shouted, and the rest of the goblins lunged at us. They threw away their stick and tried to hug us. Lily managed to decapitate two of them while I slashed another two. But the rest lunged at us and knocked us down. The sword goblin came forward while trying to stab us in the stomach. Its screech seemed like a peal of laughter.

"Lily. Roll!" I ordered. The six goblins hugged her stomach, legs, hands, and tail. But unlike arms that can be hindered by hugging, tails can still twist around. As she tried to roll, I moved my sword and narrowly diverted the sword from killing her.
'
After that, she used her teeth to bite the goblin on her arm, freeing her sword. With a slash, she released me, and we continued to slaughter the rest of the unarmed goblins in seconds. The sword goblin made its final desperate charge, but Lily blocked it, and I pierced its throat.

And thus, the day of our hunt ended.