So, I’ve had quite a few learning experiences today; to start with the bird I shot the brains out of survived long enough to nearly kick my shit in. Normally, that'd be a full day's worth of learning from mistakes - but that was only the beginning.

Allow me to summarize what I now know with the following bullet points.

• Draining a carcass is harder than isekai novel protagonists make it sound.
• 150kg is heavy.
• You should be certain of your knot work when suspending 150kg of anything from a tree branch. 
• You should also be certain of the thickness of the branch and its durability.
• You should also not stand beneath the suspended object if you have failed to follow through on the last two tidbits of wisdom.
• Decapitation is difficult to manage with a dagger, even if the subject is already dead.
• Blood is slippery.
• Blood stains t-shirts very easily.
• 150kg is fucking heavy and having something that weighs that much fall on you fucking hurts.
• Blood, or I suppose the smell of blood, attracts the attention of horrible little bastard animals.
• Being pinned beneath a bird carcass while wolpertingers attempt to eat your face is not fun.
• Wolpertingers can be dissuaded but not entirely repelled by the effects of [War Goddess Aura]³⁴Rarity: Very Rare
  Qualifiers: [Army of One], [Born To Kill]
  Description: You gain a toggleable aura that can instill the [Fear] status effect in enemies of a lower level and the [Terror] status effect in enemies lower than half your level.
• Wolpertingers fear fire, so a torch is generally enough to keep them off your back.
• [Mid-Grade Monster Repelling Incense]³⁵Rarity: Uncommon
  Quality: B
  Type: Alchemical Admixture
  Description: A dried and powdered mixture of herbs that when burned produce a scent painfully repulsive to several varieties of monster, unfortunately it is also unpleasant to most humans.
  is hard to light and smells like a vulture ate a skunk and shit itself to death in a tire fire.
• You can only put items into the [Greater Magic Bag]³⁶Rarity: Ultra Rare
  Quality: A+
  Type: Wondrous Item
  Description: A conveniently enchanted magic bag containing a magically expanded space of nine cubic meters.
  that you can easily lift with two hands.
• Butchering a kill smells almost as bad as the incense.
• If feasible, it’s better to get a kill back home before attempting to butcher it.
• Checking the weather is an important part of planning any day.
• Light rain extinguishes incense fairly easily.
• Tying a bird carcass to your back is hard but not impossible, even under the pressure of a hundred little beady eyes staring you down from the shadows as the rain picks up.
• Wolpertingers are not easily dissuaded and will attempt to encircle larger targets even if they are kept at bay by fire.
• Rain can grow much stronger in a short period of time.
• Strong wind and rain can extinguish a torch fairly easily.
• Wolpertingers will follow you outside their territory.
• Wolpertingers and Giabal birds dislike the rain.
• One should not move through open spaces like grassy meadows in a storm.
• The smell of a fresh kill can attract things larger than a wolpertinger and in fact larger than a Giabal bird.
• Large things can move faster than their size would suggest in this world.
• [Danger Sense]³⁷Rarity: Uncommon
  Status: Active, Related
  Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter] [Combat Alchemist] [Mad Bomber]
  Description: A skill granting a sort of ‘sixth sense’ allowing the user almost preternatural detection of approaching danger. only works when you have enough time to sense the source of danger.

Lots of learning happened in the past hour and forty-five minutes and I feel much wiser for it.

Unfortunately, all of those lessons sit squarely in the category of ‘prevention’ rather than ‘solution’ when it comes to my current circumstances.

I now know why the wolpertingers did not continue pursuing me.

An immense falcon seems to fill my view as it lands gracefully, wings wreathed in crackling electricity as they sweep down bringing a gale that puts me on my ass faster than the first time I tried tequila.

It is 9m from head to ground with a wingspan of - holy fuck shut up with that shit [Accurate Measure]³⁸Rarity: Rare
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Combat Alchemist] [Mad Bomber]
Description: An ability that allows for accurate estimation measures of all sorts including but not limited to distance, volume, weight, number, and temperature. Fantastically useful in a number of careers. - and its talons measur - oh my god I don’t want to know. In summary, it is a very large bird; a very very large bird indeed.

It stares at me with curious eyes and tilts its head in that quizzical avian way - something I’ve seen before in parrots considering how they will disassemble the thing that currently has their attention. I have a sneaking suspicion that in these circumstances, I am that thing.

Just like that, both of us sit there for a moment, eyes locked as the rain pours down in heavy sheets soaking my hair, but leaving its feathers strangely unharried.

I attempt to stand slowly and find the task complicated by the bird carcass lashed to my back and the talons wrapped around my chest.

Wait.

When did that happen?

It was fast. Too fast to see. In fact, too fast to feel until it’d already happened.

I am not ashamed to admit that I have pissed myself and I dare anyone to go through this without doing the same - some small part of me hopes that this puts the bird off the idea of eating me and justifies it as a strategic action, but I fear it will not be an effective deterrent.

I’m lifted two meters off the ground by the curious falcon which turns me over in it’s grip to examine the carcass roughly strapped to my back.

Yes, you want that… not me, you want the already dead thing.

I’m passed from one talon to the other, now gripped by the carcass and dangling from the knotted mess of rope I used to fasten it to my back - my hair stands on end from the potential energy of the massive living Van de Graaf generator examining me.

Oh god, take it... just take it and leave…

My silent prayers are not answered by a divine defender descending from the heavens, but somehow I feel my fear-frozen muscles loosen up and a plan forms in my mind. From my higher if somewhat unsteady vantage point dangling from the falcon's grip I see the tree line and mark it as a goal - it might be hopeless but I’ve still got try.

That was always the plan.

The moment I consider proactive behavior, I feel a change in myself; all of my titles and passives activating at once to set my blood on fire.

I'm not stupid enough to scream aloud, but I do allow myself a fist pump and a mental cheer.

OH YEAH I’m fucking juicing now, lets do this.

The bird is too distracted picking at the carcass on my back, or maybe just too strong, to care about what I’m up to. Either way it’s good news for me; being underestimated is the best weapon I could hope to have at the moment.

With one hand I draw my dagger as unobtrusively as possible and in the other I gather a choice alchemical item from my bandolier, gripping it in my fist as I close my eyes to focus.

Okay, I have to do this right or my chances are less than nil.

[Overcharge Compound]³⁹Rarity: Uncommon
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Mad Bomber]
Description: An ability for forcefully increasing the explosive yield of volatile substances.

I haven’t had a lot of practice with the ability, precisely zero practice with it actually - I was too afraid to fuck with the bombs and even if I weren’t, I wasn’t about to waste them on practice runs, especially since I haven't figured out how to make more - even so, I manage to muddle through somehow.

A stuttering flow of power just barely crawls out of my fingertips to wrap around a [Flash Stone]⁴⁰Rarity: Uncommon
Quality: B+
Type: Alchemical Admixture
Description: Alchemical creation that when thrown with some force against a solid surface explodes to produce a disorienting burst of light and sound.
clamped tight in my fist making it glow very faintly and thrum with potential as an energy similar but distinct to vitae suffuses it. 

The gem feels warm to the touch and it’s inner shimmer flickers and gutters.

Not enough... fuck I should’ve practiced this - AGAIN.

[Overcharge Compound]

The power wells up and pushes into the gem once more, but still it feels insufficient.

more...

[Overcharge Compound]

I can feel it beginning to vibrate very faintly and glow through the gaps in my grip, but its still not enough.

MORE.

[Overcharge Compound]

The stone is hot and the bones in my fingers are outlined by the yellow light pouring out of it.

MORE!

[Overcharge Compound]

The crystal shakes violently as if trying to escape my grip and I grit my teeth as it sears the skin of my palm with a faintly audible sizzle.

That should do it.

With nothing left to lose I close my eyes tight and huck it at the ground with as much strength as I can muster, using my dagger to cut the bindings I’m dangling from in the same moment.

The [Flash Stone] doesn't even reach the ground before it bursts, apparently the kinetic energy imparted is enough to set off the barely contained storm of energy simmering within it.

As I fall, the supernaturally bright light burns my retinas through tightly shut eyelids - the falcon screams out a shrill cry of anger in response and I can only imagine the pain its in with it’s no doubt immense visual acuity. The moment my feet meet the ground, I’m running as fast and as hard as I can and ignoring the spots in my vision as much as possible. Above me I can hear the storm’s fury growing as if representing the rage of the [Elder Storm Falcon]; the heavy rain transforming into golf ball sized hail.

Now I'm free and its pissed - no time for regrets.

Through blurry half-blind eyes I plot my course, diving through thickets and dodging between trees as lightning rips across the sky and ice pelts me from above - I can’t help but wonder what terrible powers something named [Elder Storm Falcon] can bring to bear; the only thing I can be certain of is that the hunt is afoot and I am the hare.

My question is answered in the most awful way possible a mere moment after I think of it. A swathe of apparently razor sharp feathers rains down, stabbing into the earth and sinking into the trunks of trees like knives - in response [Danger Sense] shoots a warning through my brain like a bullet forewarning me of an incredible threat and telling me that I should get the fuck away faster than humanly possible.

With no time to think, I heed my intuition and use [Incredible Leap]⁴¹Rarity: Uncommon
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter]
Description: An ability that allows for leaping incredible heights and distances. to launch myself through the air like a human canon ball - forcing my muscles to move in ways well beyond what they were ever intended to.

I soar a little over 50 meters and just barely avoid ground zero for that stunning opening salvo. I immediately regret glancing back to see as  hundreds of bolts of pure fury crash down following the path of the feathers to the ground - the space I occupied mere seconds ago explodes in a wave of burning timber and the air roars as untold power rips through it.

[Status Effect: Deafened]

“FUCK!”

Aside from bleeding ears from the thunderous sound, I escape the assault with minimal injury and manage a fairly safe landing - tucking and rolling before continuing my mad dash and paying no mind to my deafened state; if losing my hearing is the price of my life, I’ll gladly pay it.

Above me, the falcon keeps pace. Unperturbed by the failure of its initial attack, it switches to using individual bolt-strikes. Even with the ostensibly reduced force, I can feel the rumbling power of each attack in my chest.

Maybe it can only use that giant field of lightning attack after a cool down or maybe it's attacking with accuracy over power in mind, but frankly I haven’t got a goddamn clue. I wish this were one of those light novel cliches where this world was like a game I used to play; I could be like ‘Oh yes, when the storm falcon uses its aoe attack there’s a so and so minute cool down and it’s actually weak to so and so’ and then just kill it in some stupidly simple nonsensical fashion. Unfortunately this world doesn’t resemble any game I’m familiar with so I'm stuck guessing... at least, I don’t think it does; I do still have a lot of memories missing.

Tucking that train of thought aside I put my eyes forward and continue my escape, keeping just ahead of the falcon through the use of a mixed bag of skills and abilities.

[Dynamic Planning]⁴²Rarity: Uncommon
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter] [Combat Alchemist] [Mad Bomber]
Description: A skill used for swiftly formulating a plan under pressure, especially useful when facing danger or time constraints. helps me keep my head and I focus on backpedaling and reorienting with [Evasive Maneuvering]⁴³Rarity: Uncommon
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter] [Combat Alchemist] [Mad Bomber]
Description: A skill used to deftly avoid attacks and pursuers using the surrounding environment, they may be faster but are they smarter, more observant, and luckier? to stay out of the line of fire. I make liberal use of [Engage]⁴⁴Rarity: Common
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter]
Description: An ability for engaging in melee combat in the swiftest and least dangerous manner possible. and [Disengage]⁴⁵Rarity: Common
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter]
Description: An ability for disengaging from melee combat in the swiftest and least dangerous manner possible. to keep myself mobile and avoid tripping up on roots and brambles. Even with all of that, I find myself leaning hard on [Danger Sense] and [Combat Sense]⁴⁶Rarity: Uncommon
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter] [Combat Alchemist]
Description: A skill granting an effective understanding of the flow of battle to tell me when to activate [Incredible Leap] to avoid the bolts of lighting cast off by that terrible specter of lightning cloaked death chasing my back.

Through all of it I keep an eye on my stamina, and despite the buffs and benefits of [Endurance]⁴⁷Rarity: Rare
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter]
Description: A passive ability that reduces stamina consumed by physical exertion., [Sprinting]⁴⁸Rarity: Common
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter] [Combat Alchemist] [Mad Bomber]
Description: A skill used to move at incredible speeds over short distances, especially useful when fleeing danger. and [Endurance Running]⁴⁹Rarity: Common
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter] [Combat Alchemist]
Description: A skill used to prevent exhaustion when running long distances through a combination of controlled breathing, pace adjustment, and short pauses when necessary. I see my regeneration speed falling behind in the face of the extreme exertion; [Adrenaline Kick]⁵⁰Rarity: Common
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Guerilla Fighter]
Description: An ability that allows the manual stimulation of the adrenal gland for bursts of increased physical capability at the cost of mental clarity. Repeated use may reduce effectiveness and cause long term harm. provides a much need needed burst of strength from time to time, but I’m almost certainly overusing it. I'm giving about 310% and using every one of my system-granted superpowers to their fullest, but running this far and this fast over uneven terrain is stretching my capabilities to their limits.

That fucking bird is turning up the heat and I'm really starting to take a beating; more trees burst into kindling, boulders explode as lightning strikes, gale force winds rip the branches from grand old oaks, the hail grows in size, weight, and accuracy - it seems to target me precisely with the now baseball sized hunks of ice.

Just when it seems I’ve hit a wall, I feel something just click inside of me.

In any other circumstances, I’d probably jump for joy at that, but at the moment I can only dismiss it and keep running.

The change in me is… palpable.

 As I run, I fall into a rhythm and my body begins to respond almost automatically to my surroundings. The smell of ozone and the faint tickle of electrical charges forewarning me to the locations of lightning strikes as I skip over the landscape with leaps and strides that’d put an Olympian to shame.

More bolts of fury, more dancing on the edge of the reaper’s proverbial scythe as the pair of us leave a swathe of destruction through the forest - some grand trees made of strange wood manage resist the lightning and stand strong against the gales but countless others fall like dominoes.

I won’t say I can keep up with it and heaven knows I can’t fight back, but with [Predictive Algorithm] my intuitive inklings have become so accurate that it’s like looking into the future. I can see the phantom shapes of events a few seconds before they occur - guided by this foreknowledge it’s easy enough to avoid the falcon’s wrath. 

I duck and dive between the trees, sometimes soaring through the canopies and other times skipping from trunk to trunk, [Vector Acceleration] pushing me in any direction I please at dizzying speeds without the need for something so tedious as actually engaging my muscles as long as I keep feeding it vitae.

My legs pump with new vigor under the influence of [Perfect Pace] and my mind is no longer clouded by the ham-fisted injection of adrenaline - instead [Endocrine Modulation] maintains the perfect balance.

Simply put, I can feel my new acquisitions working properly and I’m certain that I can keep running.

My main concern now is answering the question of where I’m running to.

The only thing I can think to do is try and make it back to the village, if that goddess is worth one tenth of her big fancy church then maybe whatever keeps the monsters away will be enough to keep that giant lightning bird from frying me like a moth in bug zapper.

While the plan sounds great on paper, reality is of course never so simple as we hope; assuming I have my bearings right, I’m headed to the southern tip of the northern woods and I have about a 500m stretch of open ground to cross to reach the southern woods and by extension the dubious safety of the village.

As I break the treeline with [Vector Acceleration] my vision suddenly fills with an overwhelming swarm of phantom shapes of what might be; in the tight and confined forest [Predictive Algorithm] gave me fairly simple forewarning against attacks, but out here in the open it’s as if I’m looking at hundreds of potential futures layered on top of one another at once.

My skull throbs as I struggle to keep up with the influx of information - the one universal constant of every single prognostication I have...  is my imminent death.

I have to look at this from every angle - I have to think FASTER.

Time slows to a crawl as I soar overland, my brain working overtime to find some way to survive the onslaught I’ll face, but left, right, or center all that awaits me me is pain.  In the trees, the falcon couldn’t dive for fear of spearing itself on a hundred stakes - even if most of the trees were too weak, a few of those unusual ones might’ve withstood the impact and skewered it dead like the giant fucking turkey it is; it suffers no such restrictions out here in the open, in a few seconds it’ll swoop down faster than my eyes can track and mince me with those razor sharp talons.

I run the numbers again and again and again in that infinitely stretched moment but the only conclusion that I come upon is… that It’s going to kill me.

My heightened perception and the use of [Multitasking] allots me the time to consider this thought, to hold it in my mind and roll it over as I dig for a solution - I feel myself begin to crumble in terror until a realization strikes me. 

I never considered counterattacking.

The moment factor that in I see it, a needle plucked from the nearly infinite haystack of possibilities. There is a path I can take to give me a chance of surviving; it's a slim chance, but it’s a chance. All at once, the world unpauses and my feet meet the ground running, I feel a manic grin split my face as the plan solidifies in my mind.

With newly found foresight I zig and zag between crashing bolts of lightning, but they aren’t the attack… they’re just a distraction; it’s going to dive bomb me, but I have the perfect response.

Aim where it's going to be, not where it is - Space Invaders, don't fail me now...

In a free hand I clasp the ends of my [Bottle Sling]⁵¹Rarity: Uncommon
Quality: A+
Type: Weapon
Description: A leather sling designed for propelling bottles, deadly in the right hands with the right ammunition.
together and whirl it, building up centrifugal force and activating [Overcharge Compound] on its loaded ammunition as many times as I can before the critical moment. I feel the air scream as that bird breaks the sound barrier, unable to see my target I have to pray it’s taken the path I’ve predicted as I loose the bomb.

The bottle soars into the empty sky and rather than impacting the falcon, it’s more like the falcon impacts it; glass shatters and frigid mist blooms in the air like a silver flower as an overcharged bottle of [Alchemical Frost]⁵²Rarity: Very Rare
Quality: A
Type: Alchemical Admixture
Description: A bottle of a volatile alchemical admixture suffused with extremely high levels of Ice attribute mana, it's contents expand suddenly when violently disturbed and exposed to open air producing a frigid mist that reduces ambient temperature to near -80 °C in a 3m radius.
immediately drops the temperature to the point at which oxygen freezes⁵³Around, -220 °C - Thanks for the info [Accurate Measure]. Also what the hell?! That was a whole lot colder than -80 °C and a whole fucking lot bigger than 3m!. Using [Blast Shaping]⁵⁴Rarity: Very Rare
Status: Active, Related
Associated Classes: [Combat Alchemist] [Mad Bomber]
Description: An ability that allows for the shaping and manipulation of an explosive or area weapon's range of effect; passively acts to minimize damage to user. I barely keep myself from the worst of it as I tuck and roll beneath the falcon’s form. With wings immobilized and so much momentum behind it, the falcon crashes to the ground tearing a divot in the earth. 

FUCK YEAH! Holy shit [Overcharge Compound] is the fucking best!

Fist pumping internally, I rush forward towards the opposing sea of trees and revel in the small victory; even with the patches of ice frosting the front of my body and the stabbing pain that brings, I feel the maneuver was a success. Behind me the falcon is grounded, it’s wings immobilized by solid forms of several substances that under natural circumstances never leave their gaseous state.

The falcon is forced to thrash and shake off the sheets of sub-freezing material before it can take wing, giving me a few extremely precious moments of head start... and with that, I have enough of an opening to return to the relative safety of tree cover. I have no illusions of that being enough to fell or even significantly harm the motherfucker, but speaking metaphorically, it’s nice to see that it can bleed.

As great as that felt... I feel my second wind waning.

Under the cover of the familiar woods near the village, I should have something resembling a home field advantage but as I progress my perfectly timed dodges slowly turn into near misses. My body was never meant to move like this, that’s clear to me - each time I use [Vector Acceleration] to fling myself I feel my insides jostle and the bruises and burns from the splash damage just seem to be stacking up.

My condition only worsens as I near my self appointed finish line, my previously suppressed sense of pain returns with a vengeance and looking down I see that my skin is a patchwork of purples, reds, and even a few splotches of black - but it doesn't matter because I can see it! I'm almost home!

I can see the gate and the cloud cover above the village is thinned enough to reveal the twilight sky. It’s safe there, the storm can’t reach me if I just -

 

Those familiar razor sharp feathers rain down around me, too many to count, too many to dodge... 

 

The AOE recharged! I can make it though, I have to make it, - safety is in reach if I can only…

 

One of them sinks into either shoulder blade, another plunges in my left arm just above the elbow, and a fourth catches the back of my knee - the thin leather of my armor does nothing to stop them.

 

Fuck, I shouldn’t have let my guard down.

 

With the last of my strength I dash for the gate, two more steps and -

 

Pain.

 

A soundless flash of impossibly bright white light.

 

Not like this, I can’t die like this.

 

Skin burns, flesh sizzles, it feels like my eyes are melting - the agony is incomprehensible.

 

I feel my body hit the ground, but I can't see.

 

Did I make it?

 

[Perk effect [Deathless]⁵⁵Rarity: Ultra Rare
Qualifiers: [Death Denier], [One Who Walks With Death]
Description: If you would be killed by an attack, you instead are reduced to 1% of your HP unless the damage dealt is more than 10x your maximum HP - This effect can be used once per month activation failure - 10x Threshold Surpassed]

 

Fuck.