I had forgotten what it was like running from shadow to shadow in the middle of the night. It had been over two years since I had last wore a sheet on my head like a cloak and went wherever I pleased. I had no reason to do it since moving in with Roland and Milena. There were several annoyances involved with staying with them, but I had a steady supply of food and a place to sleep. Both of which I had to search for every night and day before then.

But nostalgia would have to wait. I shook my head and tried to focus on the plan. I needed to find a way out of the city without being noticed, find a monster, get into a fight, unlock the secrets of this "frenzy" then return without anyone knowing I was gone.

…

Okay, so my plan sucked. But I didn't really have any other options, so I went through with it anyway. I headed for the East Gate and turned down a side street just before arriving. There, I would scale the wall about 3 stories up, pull myself up on top of the wall, then quickly get back down the other side. I had to be quick because there were guards stationed up on top of the wall, pacing one way or another on their rounds.

Thankfully, they were pretty easy to spot with their torches flickering brightly in the night, so I slipped over the wall with no issues. Once I was out of the city I headed straight into the forest, looking for trouble. Unfortunately, trouble wasn't so easily found.

I first came across a boar. It was just a simple boar you could find anywhere and it ran off the moment it saw me. Next was a rabbit, then a deer. Nearly everything I came across wasn't hostile and anything that was capable of putting up a fight, like the boar, always preferred to run off. Simple animals weren't what I was looking for anyway. I needed a monster.

I searched all night long and the most dangerous thing I could find was a rat that was bigger than most dogs. The fight was quick and disappointing. Just one swing of the sword and it was already dead. It seemed the plan was a complete failure. At least it was for this night. I've come too far to quit now.

Every night that I thought I could get away with it, I would head out on another hunt. But, night after night, I'd return no better off than when I had left. I'd get into a couple fights here and there, but nothing was strong enough to build up that necessary stress.

It was exhausting to go on hunts at night and still attend school the next day. I was dead tired and had trouble staying awake in class. To deal with that I'd head to the library to take short naps during lunch break. Thankfully, Marie didn't seem to mind.

But something changed on the fifteenth hunt. I was about to scale the wall when I heard the sound of someone's shoes scraping on the street not far from where I was climbing. Someone was obviously following me and doing a very poor job of it. I turned to look and at first, I didn't see anyone there. But there was an extra shadow that shouldn't have been there near an inn across the street from me.

"So, you think you can follow me?" I mumbled under my breath. "Well, let's see how far you go."

I slipped from one shadow to the next and then immediately started scaling the wall. As quickly as I could, I had gone up, over and back down again. Now on the other side of the wall, I stayed near it and looked up, waiting for whomever it was to appear on top of the wall in plain view.

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Unfortunately, they must've caught on to my little trick, because after over twenty minutes of waiting, nothing happened. Either that or they couldn't scale the wall in the first place or they had simply given up. In any case, they were wasting my hunting time.

I turned and headed into the woods once more. But, as usual, there still wasn't anything dangerous enough to produce the results I needed. There was a giant boar this time. The thing was taller than I was. But just like the small one I had seen before, it simply left once it had seen me. Once again, I returned with nothing to show for my work.

The next night, it seemed that my new "friend" had found me again. And earlier this time; long before reaching the East Gate.

"It looks like someone doesn't know when to quit," I thought aloud.

This time I led them into the slums. I didn't need to bother Big Louie this time, though. It seemed that whoever it was had lost track of me right when I entered the area. This stalker wasn't very good at their job.

I was able to complete my hunt this time and managed to kill a couple kobolds. This was a bit more challenging, but still not enough for what I was looking for.

The next night, once again, I was being followed. You'd think they'd give up after failing so many times. It was really starting to annoy me. I didn't have time to play tag with this weirdo. Every second I waste trying to lose them, is a second I could have been out hunting.

I decided I was going to confront whomever it was and give them a sound beating. But I needed a good place to do it. Earlier, during the day, I had moved a dumpster near the wall where I normally climb up and over. This would make it much easier to climb over. Even a human could do it without much effort this way.

Of course, this wasn't for me, but for whoever was trying to follow me. I had slowed down my running to reach this place to make absolutely sure that they'd see the dumpster as I climbed up. I wanted them to get over the wall this time. So, up and over I went, then waited.

"Hmm... guess nobody's really that stupid," I realized.

It was way too obvious. I mean a dumpster that had never been anywhere near there before, suddenly being there and conveniently making it much easier to follow me? What kind of person would fall for that?

I gave up on waiting and headed off into the woods to hunt again. But thankfully, I think I may have finally found something.

I had come across a half eaten carcass of some sort. Most of the meat had been chewed off leaving gleaming white bones sticking up into the night air. It wasn't just one, either. By following my nose, I kept finding one carcass after another. I counted up to four of them and all of them were fresh kills. Whatever this thing was, it was big and it ate way too much.

It's trail sort of meandered around with no real direction. It would weave this way and that as if it didn't really have any sort of destination in mind. It was more like it was just constantly searching for food and not letting a single tiny part of the forest escape it's notice. Still, with it's slow wandering, I should find it soon.

No sooner had I thought that, I heard a roar in the distance followed by the whistling sound of what I thought were wind spells.

It seems the creature found my stalker first.