He was not alone. The quest identified the owner of the cave as a howler, the same brutal creature that gave him an absolutely terrifying “welcome to the game”.

Shit, why didn’t he think of this? He forgot that he was in a fucking forest. He was in the wild, and the wild did not belong to humans.

‘What do I do?’

A part of him, the cowardly part, wanted to retreat. He was better off finding another cave. He figured it wouldn’t be hard, right?

But a second part hated cowards like himself. A quest was in front of him. The game threw a challenge. What sort of gamer would he be if he ignored it?

‘I can do this. It’s just one howler… I think.’

Memories of his first encounter with a howler surfaced at the top of his mind. He tried reviewing everything he knew about the monstrous creatures. They could be killed. He had seen many of them die. Last night, at least one of them was slain by his hands.

‘All right. This quest is not totally dangerous. With my vampire abilities, I can do this.’

But there was a problem. The last time he had a weapon–a crossbow. This time, his hands held nothing but empty air. Ahh, the sadness of reality washed over him. Perhaps he should retreat before it was too late.

‘Ok. Ok. Ok. Let’s not think and just do this. What can go wrong?’ He continued moving after deciding to not obey his rational thoughts.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, Seth was amazed by the brilliant scene revealed to him. The core of the cave was a positively large space, about a hundred feet in width if he did his maths right. A scenic carpet of green grass flourished on the floor of the cave. It led a trail of grasses, with occasional yellow flowers, going all the way to the ceiling where a small mouth opened, bringing in the fresh air.

Seth wanted to marvel further but he heard a disturbing sound. It was the breathing noise made by the howler.

Seth traced the noises to the center of the cave. There he saw the howler, the monstrous beast curled up like a cat with its four tails covering its hide.

‘It is sleeping. So, the noises I heard were like snores.’ Seth gazed at the beast scrutinously, ‘Four tails? The others I have seen only had two to three tails. Why is this one different? Whatever, this is the perfect time to strike it.’

Every living being is vulnerable in their sleep. Seth bent low as he arched forward. He never really did hunting as Rhazien Az Morgen, but he knew the basics; silence your footstep, calm your breathing, stabilize your mind.

‘As if it was easy!’ Seth complained to no one in particular.

He was now within a two-meter distance, so he took his time to assess the situation, lest he makes a mistake. Essentially, he was delaying.

Closer and closer. Reaching the five feet radius, Seth summoned his claws. They protracted out of his fingers almost instantly. He almost forgot how weird it still felt.

‘Ok, I’m almost there. Here’s the plan; stab it in the eye. Simple and cool, right?’

The eyes of howlers were their most vulnerable parts. Surprisingly enough, their sensitivity was off the charts on the topic of their eyes.

As Seth snaked nearer, he tightened and prepared for a powerful strike. His eyes focused on the large beast, even in its sleeping form, the beast’s height almost mirrored his.

Seth spotted the eyelids of the beast.

‘Jackpot!’ He thought as he turned around the howler.

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Instantly, the countdown in his mind commenced. Activating «Vampiric Drive», the physical energy in him burnt as he leaped towards the beast. His hand straightened like a divine spear, ready to dish out punishment.

For a second, he thought he was on his way to victory. He could already feel it. Suddenly, the tails of the howler jerked. In close proximity, there was little Seth could do to evade. The barbed side of one tail lunged into the air and swatted him to the ground like an annoying fly.

“Blurgh!” Seth felt some of his bones break upon impact. It was not a nice feeling.

Blood dyed his mouth. Seth winced just as he felt a rather cold shadow overwhelm his entire frame. Looking up, he saw the curious yellow eyes of the howler. Those yellow orbs perfectly expressed the amused yet enraged thoughts of the howler.

‘Ahh, is this how I die?’

Another tail crept up to his leg. It wrapped around his lower torso and raised him up until he was looking straight at the beast. After an assessment, the howler’s hold on his leg tightened. The sharp spikes on its tail bit into his body, drawing blood on countless spots.

The howler flung his body to the side wall of the cave and waited for him to rise again.

‘Ahh, so it does have a degree of intelligence. Is this its way of expressing I’m not a threat? It wants to play with me instead, like how a cat plays with its yarn ball.’

Seth struggled to stand up. He went into a basic defensive stance as his thoughts brought a frown to his face. No one liked being played with.

Without waiting, the howler dashed to him.

‘Think. Think. It attacks with tail swipes. I have seen it do nothing more–’

Just as he predicted, the howler began its furry of attacks. First, it was a tail swipe to the left. Seth graciously twisted away from that, but the next attack that came proved to be a decoy for two sneaky tail swipes.

He was caught off guard by the killer instinct of the howler. The tails tore through his cloth and left a burning mark on his skin.

Seth winced as he heard the sound of another coming. He threw away any notion of confronting it and distanced himself from the howler.

‘I must say, that is quite a good attacking form. It intertwines its offense and defense. With more tails, the closer I get to its body, the more danger I am in. But if I stay outside of its proximity, I might be safe– ’

Suddenly, the howler shot forward once more. It seemed to have regained its vigor as it unleashed another raging furry of attacks on Seth.

Just when Seth was starting to get into the groove of things, the howler pressed forward, forcefully drawing Seth into its proximity.

‘What the–’ Such intelligence scared him more than the seemingly fated doom.

He was now back to a wall, with no further space to retreat. Seth’s eyes brightened to the brim as he raged out. There was no need to think further. It was now or never. The beast already got him where it wanted.

He kicked off the ground, lunging towards the howler as he calculated the trajectory of its tail swipes. The first attack, he easily evaded. The second one was a close call, but he pulled through.

His momentum suddenly increased as he could finally see himself bypassing the howler’s defense.

Out of nowhere, the last three tails shot toward him, blocking his path. As he tried to retreat, he felt something sharp pierce through his body and drag him to the ground.

A small hole the size of a fist appeared in his chest. His blood gushed out like a broken dam, and his perception of reality decelerated. At the cusp of death, his brain found it difficult to process what happened to him.

All he saw and felt was his body on the ground, and the barrage of tails raining down on him.

The assault continued for a good minute or two or five—he had lost count. By the time it was over, he was swimming in a puddle of his own blood. The howler gazed down at him with a sneer. That was the only way to explain the intentional display of its jagged teeth.

It bent its head lower, widening its jaws as it prepared for a delicious bite. However, it noticed the spasm on Seth’s body and it jerked backward cautiously.

It soon noticed that it was a false alarm. His prey was defenseless so it moved closer and took in a whiff of its prey’s scent, particularly the scent originating from it.

A tasty scent that made it reach a new level of excitement. It desired to eat its prey more than ever.

Lowering its head further, the howler attempted a bite. Suddenly, Seth stretched his wounded hands and gutted the howler’s eyes with utter ferocity. He did not care if the inside of the howler was slimy or bloody. The only thing on his mind was survival, the only thought keeping him alive.

The howler tried fighting back, but Seth twisted whatever mushiness he found inside the howler’s eyes. He twisted and twisted, disregarding the frantic stabs made by the howler.

Finally, the howler slumbered with a grievous squeal. It plummeted atop his body, dropping a weight three times his natural weight.

Seth winced as the fangs in his mouth came out. He was against time. Before the lights in his eyes could diminish, he bit the neck of the howler and began drinking its blood. Continuing this action until his body gave way to silent darkness.