Chapter 21 - The

Val made me prove that I had conquered pain. A quick sparring session later she dropped the spell. Finally! “Now, how are you going to rescue Skadi? I want to hear a plan of attack.”

I thought about it for a moment. Just because I could stand pain didn’t mean I could defeat the entire tribe. “I’ll stalk their hunting parties, thin them out.”

Val nodded “Good start. But at some point they will hunker down. At best they’ll think some ravenous monster is in the area and wait for it to pass. At worst they’ll figure out it is you.”

“Alright, I’ll get a bear form down and hunt as a wolf, snake or bear. No human traces.”

“Good. And after they hunker down?”

I went with the first idea that popped into my head “Use the forest against them. Maybe cause a stampede somehow?” I wasn’t entirely sure how. I should be able to get a lot of animals moving in one direction by making a lot of noise. I was confident wild animals would break around the resistance eventually, but it would serve as an explosive opening. The question was how I could get them to actually attack the tribe and not move around it.

As I was pondering this, Val already had a solution: “I can give you illusory instructions on herding them. Your plan has a decent chance of succeeding. I approve.”

Great. Now for step one. Bear form. I had enough knowledge of bears, I just hadn’t tried before. It took half an hour for the base form, and another 20 minutes for the adjustments. Removing unnecessary organs and coating the claws and teeth in venom. Then I started my hunt.

It wasn’t long until I found the first hunting party. Five humans, three wolves. I was a bit sorry for the wolves, but I couldn’t be distracted by morality right now. I waited until they found a bear. I stalked them as a tiny snake, until they started to fight the bear. I turned into a bear myself and charged them. I didn’t have the advantage of that silencing Aura thing, but I didn’t care. I actually was looking forward to this. They could see me coming for all they liked, I would enjoy seeing their faces.

As soon as they heard me, they smoothly split their party into two groups. These People fought like a well oiled machine. My group had a mage, two spear-throwers and a wolf. I completely ignored the wolf, I just trampled right through it. At this point the mage was already thoroughly torturing me. That didn’t stop me of course, which sadly yielded no surprise from the mage. Instead she started to transform. I didn’t have time to watch the whole transformation, as I collided with one of the ranged warriors. He put his off-arm between my jaws incredibly fast, just before I could bite his head off. Doesn’t matter, I thought as I tried to bite through his arm. I couldn’t. The flesh was pliable, if very though, but the bones felt like a steel rod between my teeth. I was not going to take that. I activated [Berserk Rage]. After a second I was able to shatter the bone. After that the spear man quickly succumbed. He may have been faster and probably tougher than me, with my stats reduced, but you can’t really dodge, if the attack comes from a few centimetres away. I must admit I smiled inwardly at his terrified screams, while I was crushing his skull. Ok, maybe the smile wasn’t really all that ‘inwardly’.

And maybe I continued to grin throughout the whole fight.

What? These bastards took Skadi, they deserved everything that was coming for them. I was not going to feel remorse.

I barely noticed the other combatants during my exchange with the now cracked head. The other ranged warrior was peltering my left side with multiple spears per second, while to my left the mage had finished transforming. Currently eviscerating my flank was a 2.2 metres tall lupine biped with freakishly long arms, ending in equally unnatural claws. Although ‘daggers attached to fingers’ may have been a more accurate description. Lastly the wolf was nibbling on my leg, however even with my reduced constitution the wolf barely managed to pierce my skin. I ended my rage before continuing.

As I decided which enemy I was going to face first I had a thought this sure would be dangerous, if I didn’t regenerate the damage as fast as they could dish it out. What can I say? These elder gods really knew how to make powerful perks.

I decided to go for the mage first. It was simple enough. She thought she could blind me, essentially disabling me. It did not go as planned for her. She stabbed into my eyesockets, her claws going through the roof of my mouth.

In response I commanded my bones to close and harden, that made her stuck in my skull, without decent weapons. Sure she could bite me, but she couldn’t get a proper purchase on my skull, so all she could do was nibble on my skin. Next I started to sprint at top speed. I still couldn’t see, but my target was everywhere. After a leisurely jog - leisurely for a Car that is - we arrived at our destination. Well, final destination for my passenger. Said destination was: any solid object. The mage was quite literally squished between a bear and a hard place. After that I released her claws and regrew my eyes. She was a crumpled mess on the floor. Judging by the blood stain, she exploded against the tree and then slid down. To make sure I bit into her skull, put one paw on her chest and pulled the head off. I swallowed it in one piece. For some reason I felt compelled to roar. It was ear-drum shattering and felt oddly satisfying. Maybe I should look into these habits I am gaining. On the other hand, who cares? Roaring is fun!

Onto the last opponents.

How impolite!

They were ignoring me. They just helped their colleagues with the bear. That was not how we were going to do this. I charged right into the middle of the melee, with another roar. The other mage was my target. If he can’t cast his pain spell, the other bear can fight freely.

Lets just say concentrating on a spell isn’t good for your ability to dodge. Or maybe it is and he just sucked at dodging, I didn’t know. Anyway, he got a full dose of pissed-off-murderous-bear-charge. More than the recommended amount actually.

I still couldn’t crush bone with a bite, at least without my rage, but there are other ways to do harm. For example I could crush a human chest cavity when I knocked them down first and used my full weight and strength with a stomp. That was the fate of mage number two. The wolves and spear people were just a formality after that. The bear was back to full strength and they were already exhausted.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

In less than two minutes it was just the bear and I left. Surprisingly the bear looked me in the eyes, nodded his head and then left at full speed.

I suppose fleeing was an option when it came to [Challenge of the Apex]. I was proud of my accomplishment, until I realised I wanted to eat that bear. I had lost about two bears worth of biomass from all the regeneration. Well, it couldn't be helped. At least the humans should have a good amount of that ‘Vital Energy’.

Oh boy, did they. Just one human gave me almost a third of a bear in biomass. And they were even more delicious. After having cleared the scene of any biological evidence I left the area. In terms of test runs this one had been a major success. Even my biomass-reserves were more full than before the fight, if barely and only through the wolves’ help.

Now to repeat.

Two days later:

I was charging the second hunting party today, my fourth in total, as I saw what I wanted to find for a long time now. I saw a familiar face. The ugly mug of the man, who wanted to ‘buy’ Skadi in the first place, was among my targets. I almost missed the mage, I was charging, since I was distracted by that fucker. I managed to right my charge at the last moment. He died quickly. I may not be able to shatter the bones in their limbs, but my strength is enough to break a neck, if I get a good grip on the head.

Just as it was the last time, three spear chuckers, two mages and four wolves were fighting a bear and me. At this point I had managed to copy and improve the Hybrid Form their mages used, Val called it a ‘Werewolf’. Granted my improvement consisted of removing organs and adding venom, but those are improvements non the less. The base form is very solid. Although I did redesign the claws a bit, to make them compatible with venom injection. Venom on the outside of weapons hadn’t failed so far, however it just felt unreliable somehow.

Anyway the battle was bloody, but one sided. Between my regeneration and my Venom the outcome was inevitable. Although I expended almost double the biomass, I usually did, because I tried to keep fuckface alive. Also I had to fight the bear in the end, because … see above.

In the end though Shit-for-brains and I were the only ones left. He had run out of Spears to throw a good while ago, now he was just standing there, panting heavily and waiting for me to pounce. I withdrew my claws from the bear’s head and reverted my face to human. Then I plastered on the fakest smile I could manage and walked towards the bastard. “Hey, turd! How are you? Doing well?”

The man was understandably confused. Then after a few seconds it clicked and he understood. “You! You are the one attacking our hunting parties. What? Are you trying to thin us out? Death by a thousand cuts?” he spat in my direction “If I don’t come back, they are going to shut down all hunting. We have enough preserved food to last us well through the winter. You won’t get any more easy prey, you bastard!”

I approached him until we were nose to nose, then I made my smile unnaturally wide, literally ear to ear. “Good! Then I won’t have to hunt your people down. I was getting a taste for you.” I bit off his nose and swallowed it. “You are just too delicious. I can’t wait to slaughter and devour the rest.”

His expression turned horrified: “What is wrong with you? All this death for what? Because we took your pet? Are you going to kill all members of the hunting party for that?”

He did bring up a valid point. What exactly was my goal here? I was happy to explain.

I grabbed the back of his head and pointed his face upwards to look into mine. Then I smiled even wider than before, showing all my razor sharp teeth: “You misunderstand, little hunter. Your party attacked me. For that I will kill all involved. But you also kidnapped my companion. For that” I took a long pause “I will destroy your tribe. Slaughter every man woman and child. Everyone you have ever cared about will end up in my gullet. I will erase your people from history.” Again I paused, as I luxuriated in his terrified expression “That is the punishment for the crime you have committed.” I took a deep breath “So thank you, for telling me about your look down. That makes it so much easier to execute your sentence.”

He got off a “You insane mothe …” before I ripped off his face with my teeth. I started devouring in earnest after that, he was just screaming until the blood loss got him.

Now his death should mean that …

Congratulations! You have hunted down and slaughtered those that have defeated you before. [Aspiring Apex] may now advance normally again.

Yup! I guess I might as well look at the rest of my notifications. Haven’t done that in a while.

Congratulations! You have proven that you are at the top of the food chain in this area. [Aspiring Apex](lvl 16) has gained one level. You have gained the class Perk [Pride of the Apex].

[Pride of the Apex]

Who would dare to strike from the shadows at one such as you? Whenever you are not engaged in active combat, or have been properly challenged, anything used against you is only half as effective.

Statistics:

Strength+5=>

91

Agility+5=>

99

Constitution+6=>

105

Endurance+5=>

100

Intelligence+3=>

61

Willpower+6=>

95

Wisdom+4=>

75

Charisma+3=>

61

Free Points+4=>

8

[Athletics]+3=>

38

[Forest Movement]+2=>

12

[Infectious Mana Manipulation]+4=>

32

[Internal Mana Manipulation]+2=>

64

[Human Anatomy]+6=>

37

[Perception]+3=>

31

[Shapeshifting]+4=>

42

[Natural Weapons]+5=>

47

[Ursine Anatomy]+8=>

44

And with that the board has been set. The field was ready for the big showdown. I would fulfil my mission.