Monsters.
What are monsters?
Wyrmlok knew the answer, and it was right below him.
A monster, in his definition, was anything that wanted to kill his lovable self.
“Go away! Oh, fuck. No! Stop, bad berry bear, bad!”
The red berry bear below him began to climb the tree, awkwardly maneuvering itself between branches.
“Hehe! No! Focus.”
He gave himself a slap across the face, trying to ignore the hilariousness of watching this bear climbing his tree.
Wyrmlok had dropped his stick when he ran away from the bear, so he was currently weaponless. He tried to break off a branch from the tree, but he doubted it was even made of wood, judging by how hard he failed. The branch didn't even bend when he pulled on it, showcasing the strength of metal.
Which begs the question, why wasn't his stick this strong? Or was it? His stick didn't break, but it did seem much too light to be that strong.
Getting back on track, Wyrmlok thought of a plan. It was pretty similar to his last plan with the frog. He shot a [Misdirection] spell, then dropped feet first onto the bear's head.
Thump!
Unfortunately, no crack.
Wyrmlok and the bear fell the rest of the way together. Wyrmlok hugged the bear and maneuvered himself on top. The bear hit the ground with a grunt, while Wyrmlok was cushioned from the fall by the bear's bulk.
The bear brought its head up off the ground in an attempt to bite Wyrmlok, but he simply punched it in the nose and rolled off the bear. On his way off, he grabbed one of the berries sprouting from the bear's fur and inspected it.
The berry looked kind of similar to a raspberry. Wyrmlok popped it into his mouth, only to immediately spit it back out.
“Eww! Gross! It’s so sour!”
Wyrmlok did not like sour or bitter tastes. He preferred the sweeter thing in life, like chocolate, pie, or cake.
Unfortunately, the bear did not seem to care about his tastes. The berry bear gave a roar of anger and twisted back into a standing position, then charged.
Wyrmlok sent another spell at a nearby tree, stopping the bear in its tracks as it turned to look. He turned and ran back the way he came, back to his stick.
After he was a distance away, he canceled the spell and heard the bear roar again. Then Wyrmlok heard the thunder of its heavy gait, lumbering its way towards him.
“Yes!”
Wyrmlok picked up his previously discarded stick. Then, he prepared himself to meet the berry bear. Wiping some blood off his face, trying to clear up his left eye, he saw the bear part the ferns and find him.
The bear charged while Wyrmlok fired another spell. The bear, distracted, looked away from him. Wyrmlok took his chance and ran behind the bear, aiming his stick between its back legs.
“Yowl!”
The bear turned and swiped at Wyrmlok, catching him on the shoulder. Then the bear retreated a distance.
Now, Wyrmlok was no fan of shots below the belt. But, this was survival. It might have also been the teensiest bit funny. But he would never admit that to anybody, ever.
Wyrmlok held his shoulder as blood leaked between his fingers.
“This. Is not good.”
He realized, that he did not really have any offensive skills. Yet. He was sure that the offensive skills would come later.
“No regrets. Let’s go berry bea- Pff! Haha! Your name is too funny! Ugh!”
While he was laughing, the bear had charged him, knocking him off balance. Then the bear opened its jaws and bit him on the shoulder. Its teeth sunk through his skin like butter and nailed through his flesh.
“Fuck!”
Wyrmlok tried to beat the bear off with the stick in his other hand, but it wouldn't budge. The bear stayed stubbornly clamped on as its paws came up to begin shredding his stomach open.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, there was a flash of white. This creature was speedy, appearing as a blur of white fur. It appeared small, only about a meter tall. It was nothing in front of this giant berry bear, standing two meters tall at the shoulder. But it was still a worry. How could he hit something so fast?
But contrary to his belief, the blur of white didn’t aim at him, but the bear. The blur of white sped towards the bear, kicked off the ground, then used the bear as a springboard as it kicked the bear in the face.
The bear let go of his shoulder, appearing disoriented.
Deciding to trust this white blur not to stab him in the back, at least not until this bear was dealt with, he lunged forwards. His stick came down on the bear's head, furthering its disorientation.
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The white blur came in again, this time rebounding off the bears' ribs.
Crack!
“Hahaha!”
The bear roared in fury. Wyrmloks stick came down on the exact spot the white blur had just broken, further breaking its ribs.
Crack!
This time, the bear whimpered.
“Haha! You wanna cry?”
Wyrmlok laughed and dodged a swipe of the bear's claws. As the white blur passed him for another strike, he thought he heard it laughing as well. It was a strange laugh, more like exhaling through its nose in a laughing series.
Shaking his head, he focused back on the bear.
The white blur sped right under its chin, then jumped and spun its legs to hit the bear in an uppercut.
The bear reared back as the white blur sped away. The bear stood on its two hind legs and roared in fury at the smaller creature. This was the chance that the white creature had been apparently waiting for.
The white creature rounded a tree, going even faster than before. It jumped and smashed into the bear's chest with all its momentum behind it. Its horns (didn’t know it had those) stabbed into the bear's chest, sliding past its ribs into the heart. The momentum threw the bear onto its back, unmoving, with a large ball of white fur on the bear's chest.
The white creature slowly slid its blood-soaked horns out of the bear's chest. The creature turned its head and looked at Wyrmlok, standing there with his mouth open.
The creature was snow-white, with red eyes. It was about a meter tall while crouched down on its two small front legs. The creature had powerful hind legs, a short fluffy tail, and most importantly, two large ears standing straight up atop its head. The only thing out of place was the pair of brown backswept elk horns alongside those ears.
“It's, it’s, a rabbit! Wait! No, that's not right, it has horns.”
Wyrmlok squirted at the “Rabbit” and words appeared above it.
[Jackalope]
“A jackalope? I’ve heard of those. Now there real? Hm! Awesome!”
A thump of the jackalopes leg brought Wyrmloks attention back to the horned rabbit.
“You know what? You look familiar.”
The Jackalope made its weird breathing laughter again.
“And where have I heard that before? Wait. No! You! Fraud?”
The jackalope hopped over to Wyrmlok, lifting its head with its ears flattened back.
Wyrmlok tentatively reached in behind the jackalope's horns and pet his head.
“It really is you, Fraud.”
Wyrmlok dropped the stick he was holding and began to pet Fraud with both his hands. Fraud seemed to like the affection, as he began making those weird rabbit sounds.
“Haha, your funny as always Fraud. So, I guess all the animals in here are magicked-up beasts from Earth?”
Wyrmlok continued to pet his rabbit. Fraud was his pet rabbit, magicians rabbit, and magicians assistant all rolled into one cute ball of fluff. He had had Fraud for eleven years now, pretty old for a rabbit. In fact, Fraud used to be tired all the time in the last few months. Wyrmlok was worried that his little buddy was on his last legs. But the system seemed to have changed that. Fraud had never been so active before.
Of course, Fraud had changed a bit. For one thing, he was larger. Humongous by rabbit standards. Also, his eyes used to be that kind of albino red, but now they looked more solid. The iris was no longer pale, but a deep red, like an apple. Additionally, Fraud now had elk horns on his head, which was probably the biggest change.
“I sure am lucky. Aww, but now you can’t fit in a hat. Unless, it's a huge hat, Hahaha! That image! Hehe!”
Fraud also laughed along with him.
“You know, you seem a lot smarter than before.”
Fraud stood up on his hind legs, pointing his nose to the sky, giving the ground a thump.
“Alright, alright. You were always pretty smart.”
Fraud assumed his earlier position, enjoying the pets and scratches behind the ear.
“Want some berries? They're just lying there, bare for the taking, Hahaha!”
Fraud snorted in bemusement at his pun. Then, the jackalope hopped over to the berry bear and began nibbling at the fruits hanging off it.
While Fraud ate, Wyrmlok inspected his wounds. Everything had stopped bleeding, thankfully. The puncture hole where the teeth had entered might become infected. Although, with his Vitality, would he get infections anymore? He didn’t know the answer, but he guessed he would soon find out.
Moving on to other things, he walked over to the bear carcass.
Wyrmlock wrapped his hand around one of the longest claws on the bear's foot and pulled. The claw did not magically pop out as he was hoping.
“Hmm. Fraud? Could I borrow those horns of yours?”
After a few missed horn stabs, the horn finally punctured the finger of the bear, separating it.
“Thanks.”
Giving Fraud a pet on the head, he left to find a rock. Once he found a rock sharp enough, he began to scrape the meat, cartilage, and skin off the finger, leaving behind the claw.
The claw was about fifteen centimeters long. When he held it in his hand, the exposed tip extended six centimeters.
“Pff. I guess that is long enough to at least slightly injure something.”
Heading back to the bear carcass, it seemed that Fraud was finished eating all the berries. The jackalope gave a cute little burp.
“Alright Fraud. I am going to ask you an important question. Do you! Want to be the famed familiar of the great Magician?”
Wyrmlok brought his hand behind the Jackalopes’ ears.
“It seems there is a coin in your ear. Haha!”
Wyrmlok pulled out the coin “Magically” from Fraud's ear.
“Hm hm hm hm!”
Fraud always liked that trick. His new familiar nodded his head.
“Great! Now let's see, how do I do this? Will it, probably?”
Wyrmlok willed the skill to activate. When he did this, he had a sudden urge to pat Fraud on the head. When his hand touched Fraud's fur, the system responded.
//
Familiar [Jackalope] Acquired
Familiar status:
Name: Fraud
Species: Jackalope
Lvl: 2
HP: 18/18
MP: 21/21
SP: 37/37
VIT: 8
END: 9
STR: 6
SPD: 12
PER: 11
DEX: 9
WIS: 7
INT: 7
WLP: 6
Skills: [Dash] [Charge]
//
“Wow. What a powerhouse!”
With Fraud now backing him up, he could begin the hunt for real now. Plus, Fraud was basically immortal now, as long as Wyrmlok remained alive. Of course, Wyrmlok would still be careful. He didn’t want his little buddy to have to bear the pain of death.
“Let's go hunting!”