They all agreed that the creatures reminded them vaguely of cows if they could hop like kangaroos and had beaverlike tails. Kai had little sense of smell to speak of, but both David and Claire could practically smell the hamburgers, and to his eternal shame David had begun to drool at the scent of the animals. It had grown so bad that he’d stopped trying to wipe it away, and simply endured the slimy feeling as his stomach growled and protested hideously that he wasn’t already eating whatever emitted the delicious scent. Neither Kai nor Claire had commented about it, clearly being able to see David’s disgust at being unable to stop the steady stream of saliva that dripped from his maw as they circled carefully downwind of the herd.

“David, when was the last time you ate anything?” Claire asked quietly before she slunk into position, her movements limber despite how low she had crouched.

“Uhhhhh…” David trailed off for a moment, “I kinda ate a little tiny bit last night, on accident. Other than that…Fruit Tree?”

She gave him a grumpy look, “On accide– David, you wanted to be a predator, we already had this conversation. Eat what you hunt. It’s a simple concept.”

“Oh, I’m about to, trust me. Everything else smelled gnarly, but these things…I don’t know what it is about these things but I’m probably going to go into a food coma when I’m done.” David warned her seriously before continuing, “Kai’s already in the air and the herd is starting to get antsy, can’t you hear it? They stopped making that low noise and it’s all grunts and stomping now. I’m gonna get moving and scare them over here, I’m fucking starving all of a sudden, can we talk about it after? Please?”

Claire noted the repeated growling and rumbling of his stomach and just nodded, shooing him away with a flip of her snout. David rocketed away toward the underbrush, zipping below her tail and vanishing into the forest like a shot as she snorted with amusement. Hunger ironically fueled his sprint through the trees, and he was vaguely surprised at how easy his movement was when he just didn’t think about it whatsoever. David was in his element for once, and he combined his long loping run with powerful leaps, gliding, and a few rebounding maneuvers as he caught branches and trees with his claws and threw himself away from them quickly to adjust his heading. It reminded him of a few of those parkour videos he’d seen on the internet, except he could ignore gravity at will and was much stronger than most humans had been.

When he’d finally arrived into position he was nearly out of breath, and he eyeballed his readout for a second before simply choosing to slowly finish the approach and let his massive Regeneration score refill his Stamina a bit.

–Health 120/120–

–Stamina: 200/285–

–n/a–

He pressed himself flat to the ground and lurked through the long grass, keeping his body tightly compacted and folding his wings close to his body, not allowing them to disturb his cover. The only sign to betray his passage was a slight trail he left behind, but the surging mountain breezes quickly erased any evidence behind him and left only sparing traces. He chattered silently without stopping, Echolocations mapping the path ahead of his even through the dense grass that hid everything from his eyes and he soon reached the small line of pines growing adventurously out past the tree line. David carefully slithered up the trunk, sharp talons sinking easily into the wood and pulling him into the dense branches in seconds before he directed his gaze out towards the creatures.

He hazarded a guess there were about 30 of them, but he was sure Kai had an accurate count by now considering his vantage point, and observed them for a moment. The herd was agitated and had grouped defensively in a loose clump, snorting and thumping their flat tails against the ground to produce loud drumming noises as they watched the sky. David was happy to see that his Stamina was nearly full and leaned forward in preparation to pounce, certain that their plan would work. He vaguely noticed his drool dripping down to coat his talons and ooze from the branch below them onto the ground, but was well beyond caring at this point, his eyes locked hungrily on the largest and fattest specimen he could see.

With a screech he hurled himself from the stand of trees, ignoring the stinging in his wings as he dramatically shook the branches with his charge, snarling and snapping the air with vicious wingbeats. He shrieked hungrily, keeping the volume just below what would trigger Screech to activate, and snapped his jaws while he flew well below his top speed at the herd of beasts, who began to react almost instantly.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

–Unnerving Mutagen has leveled up!–

–Gained 3xp–

–Unnerving Mutagen has leveled up!–

–Gained 3xp–

The creatures bellowed with fear, the calls deep and hoarse as they wheeled in response to his mock charge, streaming away from him across the small field with a long bounding stride. They covered a lot of ground with each leap, quickly bunching together tightly and surging towards the forest opposite that which David had emerged, slightly off course to the right of his position. He smiled happily and kept up the act while he pursued them directly toward where Claire had positioned herself, hidden below the crest of the hill their prey was rapidly approaching, desperate to break David’s line of sight and escape. He really did feel bad for the creatures as they hurled themselves over the top of the hill into something so much worse than himself.

You know, I haven’t actually seen Claire fight anything since she evolved, minus her finishing off that bear thing for us when we met Kai, I wonder how she’ll handle–

A thunderous, bone-shaking roar exploded from just beyond the crest, the primeval sound nearly causing David to lose his rhythm and drop from the air as his heart skipped a beat. Massive jaws packed with serrated fangs like crooked daggers lurched open as Claire burst from her concealment. Tons of solid, rippling muscle surged forward in an unstoppable wave of scale and armor before she impacted the leading edge of the herd like an avalanche.

The creatures' bellowed cries of fear were swiftly silenced as she powered into them, turning her jaws horizontally and darting her head forward to clamp down, and one hapless animal found its body crushed and rent between her merciless fangs. The others faltered, their frantic bounding strides thrown into disarray as they found themselves pinned between two creatures even this harsh new ecosystem could have never prepared them for, and crashed together in a press of bodies.

The beast kicked feebly as she reared back, powerful neck muscles bunching, before bringing the full, crushing weight of her jaws to bear. David winced as he heard the creature's bones break even from the distance, and Claire dropped the body, giving it a solid kick before it hit the ground, the animal blasted away as though struck by a cannonball. Her tail whiplashed to the left, balancing her as she swung her head in the opposite direction with terrifying speed for a creature her size, and plucked another beast from the air as it hurled itself upwards in terror. She shook it savagely for a moment before dropping it as well, her clawed foot firing forward like a piston and slamming the already doomed creature into the earth. She snorted loudly before she cranked open her maw again and roared, plowing directly into them like a freight train.

HOLY FUCK

David almost forgot how to fly as he finally had a front-row seat to what a prehistoric ass-kicking would have looked like when she waded into them. Kai chose that moment to descend like a bomb, his swoop bringing him in between the herd and the river, cutting them off and leaving them penned in between a loose triangle of all three Pack members as he obliterated the first creature he targeted. David registered the wet popping sound the beast had made as Kai pressed it into the ground with unbelievable force beneath his talons and tried not to think about what, exactly, had caused it. The huge golden bird pecked, slashed, and flapped his wings as he butchered everything within reach while streamers of blood traced outwards from his lethally sharp wings.

David hovered in the air with his jaws open, blinking stupidly at the sheer savage violence unleashed by his more combat-oriented companions while they made short work of most of the creatures, with only a few escaping by sheer luck and darting away into the trees.

Offensive evolutions are just plain unfair sometimes. That would have taken me hours of planning and setup, not to mention finishing them off after I got them down. Specialization is not just for insects…Didn’t Dad say that once? Something like that.

David cleared his head and swooped over to land next to Claire, fluttering down into the overturned dirt and flattened grass of the hilltop. She was breathing heavily, and both blood and other unidentifiable fluid covered her jaws and fangs, the stains reaching up to the top of her skull. She turned to look at him with slitted eyes, staring at him coldly for a moment before she clacked her jaws happily, blood splattering a bit with the impact.

“You were right! It does work! It took me a few tries though, these things dont put up much of a fight.” Claire rumbled happily, “Nine xp, just like you said. It just says ‘Combo’ though, doesn’t specify Offense.”

“Perfect, now if you guys will excuse me for uh…like…a couple of…” David couldn’t take his eyes off of the pile of shredded creatures, “You may want to look away for this, I take no responsibility for anything, this isn’t gonna be pretty.”

David descended on the food like a swarm of locusts with a single body, fangs flashing greedily as even Claire cringed back from his famished enthusiasm. He was vaguely aware of Kai openly staring at him with wide eyes as well but didn’t slow or stop until he was so full he could barely move, simply savoring the feeling of a full belly.

Okay, phase one complete…now to convince them we can take that Area Boss with a little preparation…You know what, I think I’m going to eat more. Fuck it.

He opened his jaws again.