The night sky was clear and cloudless. The moon was a thick crescent. Mannat analyzed from its position in the sky the time was two o'clock in the night. There was no wind blowing and it was hot -- not the ideal day for squatting in the bushes to hunt rabbits. Thankfully, they were out in the open fields.
Mannat and Pandit sat in the dirt. Well, Mannat was sitting with his knees folded and hands around them. Pandit lay on the dirt ground in deep sleep. He had asked Mannat to wake him up if something happens. That was two hours ago and nothing had happened. It was lonely to sit there alone, but Mannat wasn’t angry. He was thankful. Pandit could have declined to help him, but he was there beside him against all odds. What more could he ask from a friend?
They were not alone in the fields. Though it was nighttime, the old man had his sons and other farmers erect guide torches around the plot of land. Together, with a huge bonfire burning brightly in the middle, the torches were doing a fine job of keeping the land lit up. Everyone held torches in their hands for protection and as a position marker. They would have looked like wisps in the night if there wasn’t a bonfire burning brightly to scare away the darkness.
The farmers had also dug a wide channel from the pond, and water was endlessly flowing into the field from it. It had been half-day, but the land was yet to fill. The burrows were too deep. The water would endlessly gush into them and could take up to five minutes to fill one.
The old man had miscalculated the time it would take to fill the land. Half a day spent and barely a third of the field was underwater. The reflection of the bonfire and the torches was turning the water into a sea of fire. It was quite a sight to see under a clear star-lit sky.
Unknowingly, a yawn released from Mannat’s mouth, and his eyes closed. Darkness and a warm fuzziness enveloped his mind and he fell asleep. He was not a night owl. He slept soundly, unresponsive to the outside world until someone pushed him awake. He woke up with a start, instantly attentive in a burning world. There were screams everywhere. People were shouting. The whole land was a sea of fire. A suffocating smoke covered his surroundings in a dark veil. Shadows mingled with the smoke lit by the background fire and moved about the rippling water surface like tentacles full of malice.
Mannat could hear a buzzing in his ears, and it was suppressing most of the noises in his surroundings. Suddenly a loud snarl erupted from somewhere –he knew exactly where. It reverberated through his whole body, shaking his skeleton and opening his ear canals.
It was only after the shaking stopped did he notice the time. The smoke wasn’t lit by fire, but by cold sunlight. It was daytime already. It was impossible to figure out the time, but the sun wasn’t up yet. That was the most important thing. He had slept right through the night and missed most of the action. For some reason, his surroundings looked like the end of the world.
Fully awake, his mind returned to reality and he found Pandit shaking him. The boy was drenched in muddy water; his eyes were wide open in hysteria and teeth clanking.
“Why aren’t you waking up!” Pandit yelled in Mannat’s ears and he cringed away from the boy.
“I’m awake,” Mannat shouted back, unable to discern the volume of his voice. He was loud.
There was a yelp of surprise. Pandit caught his arm and saved him from falling back into the mud. “Finally!” Mannat heard as Pandit pulled him to his feet. “Let’s go before it hides again.” The boy said with an orange fire burning in his eyes and stared east.
Mannat looked for his knife, but it was not by his side. He turned to ask Pandit, but the boy was already walking away from him. There was no way he was finding it int eh mud. He gave up and fell right behind him. It took him a few strides to catch up with the boy. “What’s happening?”
“It appeared!” Pandit looked over his head and shouted. “Your beast… It is no rabbit. There are no rabbits so big.”
Somehow, Mannat was not surprised. “What does it look like?” He asked. They were still running or trying to get out of the mud. Did it rain while he was sleeping? How did the old man fill the whole land in such a short amount of time? Thankfully, he had come prepared to wear his high-neck leather boots. They made it easier for him to walk in the mud. That is what the field had transformed into a giant muddy swamp. The burrows had already collapsed, so he didn’t have to check his foothold every step.
Pandit's voice interrupted his thoughts. “It’s like a mole, a giant mole with black fur, red eyes, and fangs the size of my hands. It’s about the same size as your torso.”
Black fur, red eyes, giant fangs; Mannat found himself looking back at the sketches he had seen a day ago. A mocking smile bloomed on his face. How could it be the same thing? That book was clearly an old relic. It was impossible for the sketches to become real. It wouldn’t make any sense.
There was a circle of people not far ahead. He could see them, but it was not easy to walk in the mud so it took them a good couple of minutes to get there. The number of people gathered there surprised Mannat. It was a crowd.
“Where did they all come from?” Mannat asked and Pandit shook his head.
“I only know they came to get a barrel of wheat. Do you know anything about it?”
That’s what it was. Someone had spread the rumor and most of the laborers and jobless villagers had gathered there. Most of them had probably helped to get the work done. However, there were too many people.
Mannat worried the old man would have to shell most of his harvest to sate the helpers, most of who were only standing around and watching. The losses were too great for a single rabbit.
A group of people had surrounded the beast. He could see its silhouette moving between the men’s legs as the torchlight held in everyone's hands swell and shrank with the wind.
Yes, the wind was blowing again, but it was not easy to determine whose side it had taken.
Mannat and Pandit pressed through the group of onlookers and squeezed their way to the front line. They stopped a distance from the group of people encircling the rabbit. They stayed close enough to see its movement and hear its angry roars. Mannat’s heart sank the more he heard those inhuman snarls. That thing was definitely not a rabbit!
Then he managed to get a direct glance of it in stasis and he drew a sharp breath.
“Are you okay?” Pandit asked. Mannat looked at him, opened and closed his mouth. He was speechless.
He shook his head and looked away, hoping his friend wouldn’t dig too deep into it. That would mean trouble. Mannat wouldn’t hide it from Pandit that yes, the rabbit indeed shared too many similarities with the sketch for it to be a coincidence. In a way, the sketch was more menacing. He didn’t know how he came to the conclusion that a living breathing creature was less intimidating than its sketch.
That’s what he believed.
Ahead, a group of men encircled the shrieking rabbit. A rope around its hind leg was trapping it to a thick wooden post. The rope was short and it could barely move a few feet around it. The men stood outside its reach. Most of them held torches in their hands, which they shoved at it whenever it tried to lunge at them. It would curl up and snarl at the person before backing up to the post. There was a man with a bow firing arrows at it, but it was spectacularly dodging them. Every few minutes, the rabbit would try to jump over the men, but the rope made sure it wouldn’t make it out of the circle.
There were four or five arrows sticking from the ground, but none had struck the rabbit. No. Mannat noticed broken arrows on the ground and healing wounds on the rabbit’s backs. If he noticed, then so did Pandit.
“Its wounds are healing at a visible rate!” Pandit exclaimed.
No wonder there were the whispers of monsters and demons in the crowd.
The man holding the bow was a former soldier. He might not be a perfect shot but had definitely trained with the weapon and seen many things. Even his hands were shaking. Who knows how bad things would have been if there wasn’t a rope tied around the rabbit's leg and limiting its reach. The former soldier snarled every time his arrow missed, and the men around hissed together with him. It was an amusing sight for sure.
Mannat didn’t know how long they had been at it, but the rabbit was still as energetic as ever. It was truly something.
“Fall goddamn it!”
“What is this thing?”
“Oye, don’t let it escape! Keep it in the circle.”
“God has forsaken us. God has forsaken us.”
There were all kinds of voices mixed among the bystanders. Some were crying and others prayed. Mannat saw the old man standing in the circle of men, holding a torch. He had abandoned his staff for the sake of safety. Mannat didn’t believe the old man could have overpowered the beast anyways. It was energetic as a boar, that could take more damage and didn’t get tired.
“Why aren’t they taking it down?” Pandit mumbled aloud and an onlooker told them.
“No one dares to get close to it. It has already injured three men badly. One of them almost lost his hand. Now they are waiting for it to grow tired or an arrow to kill It. Even wolves aren’t so tough to kill.”
“Looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer then,” Pandit said.
The man grunted in agreement and faced forward again, ignoring the two.
Suddenly, another arrow struck the rabbit on the back. It curled up from pain and shrieked. The soldier saw the chance and let out a volley of arrows. Since his hands were shaking not all of the arrows stuck target, but four did. Cheers erupted louder with its cries. Mannat felt the energy in surrounding and goosebumps rose up against his arms. Pandit followed the onlookers and cheered the men.
When everyone thought it would die, the rabbit turned its head back and snapped the arrow shafts sticking out of its back with its mouth.
“Why isn’t it dying?” Mannat mumbled aloud.
Pandit answered him. “The arrows were too shallow. It has a tough hide and amazing regenerative capacity. Its wounds quickly seal up when there is nothing obstructing them. Are you sure, the Witch told you to hunt this thing? Didn’t she mean you to be hunted by it?”
Mannat kept silent, though his mind churned out thoughts afterthoughts. He heard a few, considered them a bit before pushing them all aside. He didn’t want to make a judgment on the basis of shallow speculation. He needed more information to find the truth, and inspecting the rabbit was one way to do it. He didn’t need to touch the beast, but he still had to be in close proximity to it.
“Let’s go,” He told Pandit, who instantly reacted by holding his arm and stopping him.
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“What are you doing?”
“I need to get closer to the rabbit to ‘inspect’ it.”
Pandit gripped his arm harder as his eyes opened in panic. “You want to touch that thing?”
“I don’t need to touch it,” Mannat said and explained.
Pandit heard him and shook his head in relief. He didn’t release Mannat’s arm though, afraid, the boy would fly into the circle of men and do something foolish. What if there was an accident? He wanted to say a few things but paused when he saw Mannat staring at him with his deep green eyes. Those eyes were confident, interested, eager, but most importantly, they were calm. Pandit had never told his friend how many times he had blindly followed him because of the utter calm he had seen in those eyes. This time again, just like the previous hundred thousand times, he was going to follow him into the fire.
Pandit sighed and released Mannat’s arm.
“Let’s go then. The faster you do your thing, the faster we can escape.” He said taking lead. No way would he let the frail boy walk in front of him.
Mannat smiled and quietly fell behind Pandit.
The old man saw them approaching and sent the bald man beside him to send them back. He agreed when the bald man told him what they wanted to do.
Mannat stopped behind him. He saw the rabbit and felt the prickly cold sensation again. It was coming from the rabbit, giving a sense of depth to its ferocious nature.
“Can you really ‘inspect’ it without touching?” The old man asked, apprehensive and interested at the same time.
Mannat didn’t speak but directly used the skill. A glowing blue message appeared in front of his eyes seconds later.
[Demonic Rabbit] [Male] [Lv-1]
[Demon rabbits are a group of rabbits corrupted by miasma. They always appear in pairs. The male spends his life digging burrows for his babies, while the female gives birth to dozens of babies every few days. Kill them before their numbers grow too strong. Beware: Where there is one, there are usually more of them.]
A cold drop of sweat slid down Mannat’s neck. Demonic Rabbit, Though it was not a very powerful monster, it was agile and had terrific regenerative prowess. Killing one rabbit was already proving to be a hassle; a few dozen of them could easily wipe out the whole village. As for an army containing hundreds of them attacking at the same time -- Mannat was sure even the town would have no answer to them and would suffer serious consequences. Perhaps, the great wall surrounding the town would finally fall.
The premise was that there was a female around. However, the Witch hadn’t told him about any females. She had only tasked him to catch one rabbit, not a pair of them.
He was determined to ask the Witch about its origin. He had an inkling she would be happy to tell him all about it, and maybe more.
It only took him a few seconds to read the prompt. His eyes focused back on the dreadful reality and he saw the old man anxiously looking at him. He was about to share the result of his inspection when the rope holding the beast suddenly broke. It would be better to say that an arrow cut it.
The rabbit didn’t miss his chance. It shrieked and jumped straight up to get out of the circle. Coincidently, it came straight toward them.
“No way!” Pandit shrieked and pulled Mannat back. Arrows flew toward the rabbit, but they all missed. People screamed in horror.
Perhaps, it’s trying to escape. Mannat thought. Then their eyes met. Mannat saw its beady red eyes fiercely fixed upon him.
The old man swung the torch at the black rabbit beast while it was still in the air. Sparks ensued and a fire flower bloomed at the impact. The monster fell to the ground covered in a plume of smoke, but it didn’t stay there for long. The rabbit ignored everyone, the torches, the fire, the men, and rushed straight toward him without rhyme or reason.
Mannat thought he was dead. He couldn’t move. Yet somehow, Pandit managed to push him to the left just in time as the rabbit reached them. Pandit fell to the right from the opposite force and the monster flew past them through the gap that had opened.
It wasn’t over yet.
The rabbit made a smooth landing behind them and turned around. It was coming back for a second time. It kicked the ground and flew toward Mannat.
A sharp cry scream rang in the sky at the same time. A blackbird descended from the sky with wide-open wings and collided with the rabbit mid-air. The two shrieked and fell to the ground like a bag of meat and bones. Feather and fur flew from them as they clashed. Men screamed and cheered.
The raven attacked the beast with her talons, while the rabbit tried to fend her off with its claws. It only took a moment for their clash to turn bloody. One of the raven’s claws pierced the rabbit’s eyelid, and she ruthlessly pulled out its left eye. The long-furred rabbit let out a sharp, ear-piercing roar of anger. It didn’t run away but lunged at her with its claws spread open.
The sun was finally starting to show its face to the world and coincidently, the rabbit eye didn’t heal. The former soldier didn’t miss the chance. He enthusiastically let three arrows fly toward them without worrying about hitting the raven.
“NO!” Mannat yelled as one of the two arrows missed their mark and pierced the ground, but the last one hit the raven dead on her left wing. She shrieked and toppled to the ground, the rabbit right upon her.
Mannat didn’t think twice and rushed forward. Pandit screamed behind him. The old man cursed. Some people drew sharp breaths, while others encouraged him to die. He was thinking about how to save her. He blocked the soldier’s line of sight to disrupt him from firing more arrows.
He wouldn’t hit a civilian, right? Mannat hoped.
Ahead of him, the rabbit had pinned the raven under its body. However, if Mannat thought he would save the raven then he was being delusional.
“Getaway!” A familiar voice rang and Mannat only saw a dark shadow flash before the rabbit appeared in front of him. With his life in danger he instantly grew so ‘focused’ he saw the rabbit slowly open its black mouth. The raven lay on the ground far behind it. The beast had ruffled her feathers, and there was a broken arrow shaft sticking out from one of her wings, but she was not bleeding and definitely in one piece. She was alive. He saw her eyes moving and looking in his direction.
He would have liked to remain in that hyperactive mental state, but the world was returning to normal, and fast. He didn’t’ even have enough time to move out of the way. The next one second passed instantaneously. He fell to his left and the rabbit buzzed past him.
Only this time it couldn’t turn around. An arrow struck right in the center of its chest. There was a rope tied on the arrow shaft and the bald man was holding it. It fell to the ground and shrieked in pain as the arrow dug into its chest when it tried to move. That arrow had definitely pierced its heart, but it was not falling.
That is when Pandit charged forward. He was holding his trusted cleaver and looked angry. The veins on his forehead were visible and beating with his heart. “GO to hell!” he yelled planting his feet in the mud right beside the quivering beast. He held the cleaver in his right hand and made a large swing. The force behind it not only beheaded the rabbit but also sent its head flying.
Black blood erupted from the rabbit’s torn neck as its body motionlessly fell to the ground. The head drew an arc in the air and bounced on the ground upon impact, stopping right beside Mannat out of sheer dumb luck.
A chill crept up Mannat’s back as that lone beady red eye moved in the socket and fixed at him. The dilated pupils refocused as the rabbit looked at him. It tried to snarl but no sound came from its mouth. Goosebumps rose up Mannat’s arms from the horror. He pulled back from the moving head. He could sense the hatred oozing out of its rotting and degrading wounds. That was miasma. It was the cause of his woes. It was the reason behind the chill he had sensed from the land, and the illness eating his mother from the inside.
His hand touched something solid, long and thin. It was an arrow stuck in the mud. Suddenly the raven cried in the back. It was urging him. Do it, his inner voice said. Mannat didn’t think twice. He pulled the arrow from the mud, grabbed it tightly in his hand, stretched forward on his knees, and stabbed it into the rabbit’s empty socket with all the strength he could muster. The arrowhead pierced through everything in its path and reached its brain. It died. The rabbit slowly stopped moving.
The crowd grew silent for a moment, then cheers erupted louder than ever before.
Mannat stared at the lifeless head in a daze as the rabbit’s one eye slowly lost color. The redness governing the eyes retreated to the back of the eyeball, returning it back to its normal dark color. Only, the eye remained lifeless.
The rest of its huge black body was also shrinking at a rapid rate. It was not returning to its normal body proportions, but deteriorating into a dehydrated bag of powder bone, slush organs, and liquid muscles. A vile stench wafted out from the body and the wind made sure to spread it out evenly in the field.
Many men groaned as the stench reached them and those too close to the source hurriedly scattered. Anyways, the deed was done and the rabbit was dead. The only thing left was to collect on the barrel full of free grains. That would have to wait until harvest.
However, Mannat believed it was not over yet.
He put his thoughts to rest and heaved to his feet. He didn’t stay there either. The stench was getting worse with time.
A few people tried to approach Mannat, but the raven was faster, even with a broken wing. Mannat only heard a pair of beating wings approaching him before the raven swirled out of the crowd, grabbed the head, and slowly rose to the sky.
Mannat exhaled in relief. He had been worried for her health. Thank god, she was alive. The Witch would have killed him if she were too badly hurt. He found the former soldier taking aim, but held his hand when the old man shook his head. He passed Mannat a nod, shook hands with the old man, and left with the crowd.
Pandit asked after his health, checked his body for injuries, and offered him water. He accepted both and noticed a blue dot glowing in the corner of his sight. He had somehow missed a system message. It was strange.
Which skill leveled up? Could it be vigor? He thought. The result was disappointing. Actually, he had never received such a weird message before.
[Congratulation! You killed a Demonic Rabbit. 20 EXP gained.]
He couldn’t make heads or tails of it until the message faded from his sight. Later, he had no time to worry as he got busy ensuring both Pandit and Sardar about his health.
Sardar held Mannat’s shoulder in concern and said with worry-filled eyes. “It’s all right to tell me if you are hurt somewhere.” he looked distressed.
“I’m fine,” Mannat said in exasperation. “However, I have something to tell you.” He didn’t want to cry wolf but decided to share his thoughts for the sake of vigilance. “There could be more of them around.”
The old man nodded. “Don’t worry. We know. There has to be more. It couldn’t have dug the burrows alone.”
Mannat sighed. “No, it did dig them alone,”
“What?” Pandit yelled.
Sardar looked at him distressed. Mannat shared his knowledge with them and they were speechless. Mannat even noticed fear from them both.
To think there could be more of such blood curling, giant rabbits out in the open were a cause of distress. It was enough to make even Mannat vigilant.
The old man sobered up fast though. His age wasn’t just a number.
“That’s what the skill say’s,” Mannat continued. “I personally believe this was the only one. They would have jumped at us if there were more. Still, I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“No, you are right.” The old man gave him a pat on the shoulder and looked away at the group of men cheering at the hard-won victory. He didn’t tell them the truth about the monster, that it was just a rabbit.
The old man looked at the rising sun. It was being hounded by clouds, but they weren’t able to hide its shine. Suddenly, he remembered a rhyme from his childhood. It was something like,
“Keep an eye on the falling sun,
They come when light is gone.
Keep close your eyes, my lovely angel,
and don’t answer their call.”
Mannat found the rhyme interesting.
“What comes next?” Mannat asked when the old man stopped singing.
“Nothing,” the old man shook his head. “I don’t remember.” He said feeling tired. His age was starting to catch up with him.
Mannat looked at the headless corpse in the distance, wondering if they should bury or burn it. However, the old man saw right through him. “You both have done enough for one day,” He said. “Let us do the rest. After all, it’s our land.”
They parted ways.