Past noon, the Sun started to slide off from the top, but Flint and Barama still had plenty of time to hunt. Outside of the gate, close to Flint's doghouse, the lizard-man readied the hunting gear they would use throughout that afternoon.

“Boy, did you ever hunt before?” Barama asked.

Flint shook his head.

“Not a problem! You’ll be learning from the best now.”

Nets, ropes, a machete, arrows, a bow, and many others were being rammed inside a large sack. The lizard showcased every weapon and tool, and said, “Different animal… Different the way we get them.”

Barama held the sack on his back, hanging it from the shoulder. After taking a deep breath, he started to walk towards the South Woods. “Let’s go, boy!”

*****

They were strolling through the woods again, but this time, Flint started with the right foot. He smiled, his heart pumped in excitement. What would they catch? Some squirrels? Maybe a big boar? What if a bear appeared? The element of surprise kept things interesting.

Before he got dragged into this world, he had never visited these parts while playing The Light Hero. Even though the game was an open-world, exploring the vast map was boring and pointless due to its own realism: Outside of seeing beautiful landscapes, nothing really happened. Great for casual gamers who just wanted a relaxing experience, but Flint wanted more than that. Exciting encounters against strong enemies were rare in the surface. The only places he visited were the monster dungeons, the human cities, and the brothels.

After walking south for fourteen minutes, they stopped by the shores of a small lake in the middle of the forest. Barama got the sack off his back and put it on the ground by his feet. He started to stretch his back, and Flint mirrored his actions. The water from the pond was crystal clear, and colorful fishes could be seen swimming in the bottom.

“So… How are we going to find something to kill?” Flint asked while stretching his shoulders.

“Easy, animals need water, so there are plenty of them to catch around here.”

Time for the lizard to show his hunting expertise. He crouched by a spot where the leaves from the trees weren’t blocking the Sun, and then he carefully started to caress the gritty sand. Flint fixed his eyes at the hunter. The boy had much to learn, and a good student is one that listens and observes. Thinking out loud, he commented on every action the lizard did. “He’s looking for footprints!”

Barama stopped and abruptly put his face close to the ground. He furiously fidgeted his nose, feeling the scent of his next prey. The anxiety of the boy started to rise. Flint didn’t expect to find an animal to hunt so soon. “He got the scent of something! We're really going to do it!”

The lizard attached the right side of his head onto the ground, closing in the distance between his belly and the soil. Flint, being the attentive student, threw his head back in awe. Did that lizard know how to locate living beings just by listening to the terrain? His hunting skills blew off the boy’s expectation.

Gradually letting his body hit the ground, Barama closed his eyes to focus. He became one with the environment, resting his torso over the sand. But of course, the best way to catch an animal was to be part of nature itself. A fool-proof tactic.

Five minutes had passed, and Flint kept observing the hunting procedure. He scratched his ear. That lizard just left his big green body lying there. Surely, something should be happening by now, right? Maybe not, patience was a basic requirement to be a hunter after all. He was too impatient.

Ten minutes had passed, and the lizard didn’t move at all…

After fifteen minutes, Flint started to tap his foot. Something felt off. He asked, “Did you find something?”

There wasn’t a reply. Disappointment filled his eyes. “You're sleeping… Aren’t you?” Seeing the green man lying on the sand, Flint remembered a line he heard earlier. “Learning from the best, huh?”

He stepped forward and bent his knees next to the sleeping lizard. He put his face close to Barama’s ear and yelled, “Wake up!”

“What? Huh? Ahn?”

Disoriented, the green man raised his head and looked all over the place: Tree, lake, another tree, a bird in the blue sky, then a boy with a dead serious stare.

“Barama! What about our hunting?”

The lizard let out a long yawn, followed by an apology. “Sorry boy, I’m cold-blooded… When I… lie on the sun like this… I…”

He rested his head on the ground, falling asleep again.

“Wake up!”

Barama shook his head. “Sorry…” After hearing Flint’s wakeup call twice, he finally came to his senses. He slowly turned his body over, letting his yellow belly be exposed to the Sun. “How nice…”

“Tsk, you lazy ass, are we going to hunt now?”

The lizard was utterly groggy but still said, “We’ll hunt now... Don’t you worry…”

*****

It is shameful to be scolded by someone younger than you, but fortunately, Barama didn’t seem to be bothered. After having his metaphorical ear pulled by Flint, he started to hunt seriously.

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“Pst! Over here, boy! Look this!” Barama pointed to a line of footprints on the sand from the shore.

Approaching the lizard, Flint carefully examined the format of the paws printed on the sand. The owner of it was small and four-footed. The front paws were similar to a dog’s, but the rear paws were vertically long.

“Try to guess the animal,” Barama said.

“I guess… It's a rabbit?”

“Yes.” Barama nodded. “And there’s only one kind of rabbit here, the horned ones.”

“Horned rabbit… A rabbit with horns?” Flint raised a brow. “A demon rabbit then.”

The words demon and horns reminded him of Melidia and Hyuna. His neck started to itch due to the metal collar the latter had put on him. He felt displeased by remembering their faces.

The boy tried to imagine what a rabbit with horns looked like, but Mother Nature decided to help by providing a live example. On the opposite side of the pond, a wild rabbit with brown fur appeared from the bushes and started to drink from the lake. It had a single horn coming from the middle of its forehead, similar to a unicorn. The bunny was small, fluffy and adorable.

But regardless of its cuteness, it was still an animal composed of meat, and a hunter isn’t eager to let an opportunity go unnoticed. Barama pulled a long wooden spear from the sack. “Ha! Our first catch appeared.”

“What? Look at it! It’s so small, not even worth hunting!”

“Bah! Don’t be fooled by its little body! Rookies like you die easily. “

Flint glanced over the lake again. The bunny had stopped drinking the water and cleaned its fluffy head with its cute little paws. No way, he couldn’t let it be hunted. “But you have to agree it is too small! There isn’t much meat to get from it!”

“You’re not wrong… But it’s better than coming back empty-handed.”

“But… That poor rabbit is–”

A noise growing louder interrupted him… It was that bunny! Dashing through the lake’s shore, the rabbit pointed its horn forward like an enraged bull. The animal readied to pierce a hole in whoever stood in its way.

The boy panicked. “Shit! It’s coming! Barama, do something!”

Unfortunately, this horned rabbit fooled many naïve adventures, ones such as Flint, with its dainty appearance. Their lack of knowledge often costed a hole in their crotch. However, Barama was a seasoned hunter. To him, that wasn’t even a threat.

The charging horned rabbit was quickly closing the distance. Flint desperately ran away from the menacing creature. “Barama! Do something already!”

The green man tightened his grip on the wooden spear. He crouched and pointed its end towards the horned rabbit. And just like that, the animal charged into the weapon, effectively impaling itself. The rod penetrated its forehead and pierced through the brain, leaving by the back of its skull. It was over.

Flint returned, appalled by the scare. He didn’t know what was worse, the moment Melidia came out of his screen, or that.

“These horned rabbits are dumb, they charge at anything that moves.” Barama handed the rabbit to the boy. “If you see one again, just aim a spear at it. The creature kills itself for you.”

They got their first catch, but that afternoon still had a long way to go…

*****

“Oink! Oink oink!” said the boar.

Half an hour has passed since the encounter with the horned rabbit, and Barama had just caught a wild boar with a throwing net.

“Ooooink! Oink!” exclaimed the boar, struggling to free itself.

Barama, tightening his grip on his wooden spear, precisely aimed at the boar’s forehead and pierced it with a single strike, ripping through its thick skull and brain.

“OINK!” The boar let out his last breath.

That was their second catch. Barama pulled out the spear from the head of the boar, and after seeing the state of his weapon, he let out a sigh. “Darn, I broke it.” That boar’s skull was thicker than he expected. The wooden rod wasn’t completely broken: It just had a small crack in its mid-section. Nonetheless, it was too dangerous to rely on a weapon that could break in the middle of a fight, so the lizard just dumped it on the shore of the lake.

The day was still bright, the Sun prevailed high up in the blue sky. Flint looked up, trying to figure the time. His stomach rumbled once he remembered it was past noon already. He forgot about lunch, the last thing that entered his stomach was the mangolim breakfast.

Barama chortled. “You hungry again boy?”

“Seems so…” Flint nodded, a bit embarrassed.

“I like being a lizard. Just need a meal once per day.”

“Tsk, lucky for you”

“We can cook the rabbit right now if you want… Or you prefer some mangolins?”

Flint, being a city boy, couldn’t handle eating something he saw being killed, it was gross. Back in his world, everything he ate was processed by countless machines and quality control departments beforehand.

“Mangolins… Do you know where we can find a tree nearby?”

“Of course! Follow me, boy.” Barama picked up the sack with their hunting gear.

The lizard started to walk towards the north, leaving the shores of the lake to enter the dense forest. Flint tried to follow, but an eerie feeling started to sicken him. A white fog slowly covered the surrounding area.

“Ey! Wait up! I will lose you with all this mist!” the boy yelled.

Barama looked back. “Huh? What mist?”

Flint shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe the one around us?”

The lizard chucked. “Boy, you really need some fixing in your eyes.”

Was Barama not seeing the fog? Or was Flint going crazy? What he saw couldn’t be a case of schizophrenia. The air was getting denser by the second. The dark steadily engulfed the woods, as if an eclipse converted day into night.

Ignoring Flint’s complaint, the lizard resumed walking north. The boy hurried his pace, trying to catch up. But something appeared.

“What the fuck is that?” Flint stopped in his track.

Barama was getting annoyed. “First you say fog, now what is it?!”

“Right there, in the middle.” Flint pointed at an empty space. “There’s a person there!”

“You’re just seeing stuff.”

“You can’t see it?”

“See? See what?”

“THAT!” He pointed at the same empty spot.

Barama tried to register what Flint was talking about. Nothing. Just trees and grass. The lizard didn’t see anything special in particular.

But the boy did.

It was someone. No, not someone. It was something. A corpse in the last stages of decay. However, unlike a cadaver who just lies on the ground, this one stood on its own feet, slowly limping towards him. Most of its flesh had been lost to the rot. A giant beast had gnawed off half of its head. Where the skin still remained, the texture was charred black. The stench of the putrid flesh could be felt from the spot the boy stood. Could that be an undead who escape hell while being cremated? No… Remains of a wing hung above its left shoulder. Was that an angel?

“A... A monster..”

As the creature stepped forward, its joints created a particular crackling noise.

“Kah, kah, kah…” The corpse was coming closer.

"It is coming..."

 [https://i.imgur.com/EpOoc1w.png]

“Kah, kah, kah…” The monster repeated.