I charged forward and went to maim, and before the small creature could even react, I was before it. I grabbed it by the neck and slammed it through a nearby tree and through another before tossing it into the air and kicking it through a few more trees. After its fun little journey, it laid on a fallen tree limply, it was a small humanoid, around four foot, with pale grey skin with large bulbous black eyes. I didn’t recognize it but that wasn’t going to stop me from ripping It apart. I slinked over to it and grabbed it by its shoulder and hip before ripping it in half.

It woke up with the new sensation and screamed in pain as its body realized what happened, but I didn’t show any mercy and dropped its lower half and ripped off its arm before moving to the next. I let it scream in pain for a bit before tossing it over my shoulder and leaving it to die a slow death. I have to say I feel a bit better now. I walked back out into the clearing and looked for any more challengers and unfortunately saw none. I decided to just take it slow and observe the environment in case of changes, to my knowledge the spirit world rarely changes but I was there for a few of them so I can’t be too careful.

I do have to say though, I don’t remember this realm being so, unreal, is the best word to describe it. It was always a strange place, but it wasn’t this strange, but it was still very similar to the one I was familiar with, so I don’t really mind. I slowly took a stroll through the aesthetically pleasing environment relaxing in the familiarity of it all, the new and intriguing were nice, but it was tiring in big doses. And I had to say the situation I had woke up in is very weird for me.

As I walked a small familiar clicking quickly made itself present to me, my mood was already sour and now I have to deal with an infestation. As I passed by a twisted pine colored with swirling lines I abruptly stopped and shoved my hand into one of the many knots. A screech echoed and I felt something franticly clawing and biting my hand. I swear, no matter what I do these little pests somehow always come back. I pulled my hand out and glared intently at what looked like a hairless lemur in my hand before squishing it in my hand like a grape. I really got to figure out how to expel these things from all existence.

I resumed my walk and munched on the corpse, to be honest, it tastes awful, I only eat these things out of spite. I’m going to put the pest problem on the back burner until I secure the space that contains my territory. After a bit of walking, I arrived at the edge of my territory marked by the faint magic I imbedded into each pile of stones I had placed as markers. Time for the tedious part, I summoned my magic and started to ingrain it into the space in front of me in a weave-like fashion. The process was a bit unwieldy and slow but that was to be expected, even with my control this realm is very fickle and turbulent.

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After a couple of mind-numbing hours, I had a general section done, ugh, it's not even meditative or calming because of all the constant ever-changing factors. I moved on to the next sections and repeated the process a few more times before my boredom became so intense that my hunger started to return, and I had to quickly distract myself. I guess this is a good time as any to start dealing with those annoying pests. I found a new clearing and began to set up the tried and true method of making a small fire and waiting. Now making a fire in this realm is not exactly easy or suggested but with a bit of searching and elbow grease you could by gathering enough fallen limbs that have a high enough mana content to look and act a bit real.

…..

With a nice little fire going I retreated to the treetops and waited for anything to take the bait. Very quickly the sound of clicking filled the air as the pests crawled from their hidey holes and began to franticly approach the source of light in droves. And in their infatuation, they completely missed the predator waiting above, me. I discreetly began picking them off one by one and eating them whole before they were able to alert the others. They tasted like burnt shrimp filled with very little meat and a lot of bones, but my hatred for their kind made it taste all the more sweeter. After their number was reduced to half the remaining ones finally noticed their neighbors were missing, but it was already too late. I abandoned my stealth and began a one-sided slaughter until every last one was ripped into at least three pieces.

After the culling I returned to the trees, something was approaching, and it was big. Loud crashing and the shaking of trees signaled the approach of the newcomer, despite its apparent size it was coming quick. Only a few seconds passed before it exploded out of the tree line roaring in a territorial display. It was big, mean, and familiar, a stiff-legged bear. Its name was a bit misleading though, it was not in fact a bear but an elephant-like creature. A rare entity but not very endangered so it's fair game. I quickly moved through the trees until I behind the rampaging animal and waited for the right moment to pounce, and that moment came when it broad-sided me. I pounced and latched onto its side before rapidly digging through its hide and flesh until it had a big enough opening for me to crawl through.