Ray hid behind a huge tree, listening to the sounds of swarming ahead.

"About a hundred meters."

It was a very rare occurrence. In the eleven days he spent in the forest, he met animals for the first time that would dare to behave so noisily here. At some point, the guy even thought that these were not animals, because of the strange lowing and screaming.

Getting closer, Rey was finally able to see these strange creatures. The outlines of the bodies certainly resembled human ones, but these creatures were clearly not human. Each had small horns, the body was covered with short hair, the mouth was wide, with a number of sharp fangs.

Watching them, Rey noticed that each had a small green light glowing, indicating that they could be considered animals, despite the fact that these creatures were upright.

There were six of them running in front of him. They swarm around the huge carcass of the lizard, now and then tearing off pieces of meat from it.

At that moment, Rei noticed how one of the animals, having pulled out the large tail of a reptile, moved a little to the side. The others obviously didn't like it, as a second later, all five of them pounced on him.

The beating did not last long, it was interrupted by an arrow, which, having passed through the neck of one of the creatures, got stuck in the shoulder of the second. The reaction was quite quick, despite the fact that they had just been busy with civil strife. Two of them immediately rushed to Ray, while the one who stole the tail had not yet recovered from the beating from his fellow tribesmen.

The guy did not pay attention to the creatures running towards him, aiming at the latter, who looked with incomprehension at his two brothers, who fell to the ground, almost ceasing to move. An arrow pierced his head, instantly killing him and depriving him of such difficult thoughts for his weak brain.

Ray hid his bow and, taking out daggers, which had been used very rarely before, went towards the two who were running towards him. The creatures moved fairly quickly, sometimes dropping to all fours, which, coupled with their already short stature, made them a little awkward opponents.

The first one, which jumped forward, spreading its clawed paws, Rey met with the usual kick - but the force invested in the blow was enough for the beast to go into a knockout. The second, noticing how easily his fellow tribesman was defeated, hesitated a little, which cost him his life - the dagger entered the middle of the chest, almost without resistance.

"HM? And they are pretty lame. Although, they are considered animals, so the triple damage works.

After finishing with the stunned opponent, Rei took out his bow again. The arrow glowed green as it followed the sixth of them. It was the same one who had been beaten before.

By this point, he had only taken a few steps before an arrow pierced through his head, leaving a small hole.

Ray looked at the place of the massacre with satisfaction and began to collect souls, having learned at the same time that these creatures were called Zurds. After breaking one of the souls to restore his strength, he realized that the amount of energy inside them was greater than he had imagined.

“Less than the forest ones, but these creatures are too weak to have so much energy in their souls. Maybe they also have heightened perception?

Deciding to check it out, the guy undressed and changed his uniform. His height was reduced by half a meter, but the body obeyed well. Looking around, he realized that he was right. Zurds really heard better, the same applied to the sense of smell. In addition, the body was quite strong.

"The bones don't seem to be very strong, which explains the high speed of movement."

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The only problem was vision, which was inferior even to that of a human.

Moving a little in this body, Rei also appreciated the high sharpness of the claws and fangs, on which he completed the inspection, returning to the body of the forest.

“In general, the body is quite average considering the weak defense, but it seems that their strength is in numbers.”

The guy noticed in the distance the remains of two more Zurds, who apparently died while hunting for a lizard.

“It would be nice to find more of these creatures. Their souls are a great source of energy."

Deciding to stop moving north for the time being and take a better look at the nearest area, Rei spent three hours, but still found a trail. It would be quite difficult to miss him, because the Zurds moved only in groups, and the crowd of mindless creatures was not even going to hide.

Following the tracks, he found huge holes dug right in the ground. They were about one and a half meters in diameter, and, obviously, served as homes for these creatures.

“So they have poor eyesight due to the underground way of life.”

Choosing one of the pits, which was at a fairly large distance from all the others, Rey began to wait.

It was noon now, and these beasts seemed to be creatures of the night. He met the first ones in the morning, but the forest at that time is still very dark due to dense vegetation, so in the late afternoon, they should have appeared.

While waiting for them to appear, Rei approached the entrances to the burrows several times, but, unable to notice any movement inside, dissatisfied, he had to continue to wait.

When the sun began to set, the zurds really began to come out of there, but the number was just huge. At least a hundred of these creatures got out of the hole that the guy was watching, which, divided into squads, dispersed somewhere.

Ray carefully watched the directions they took, imprinting both the total number of groups and their sizes into his memory.

After making sure that he was not noticed, the guy began to retreat, as one of the groups, in which there were twelve individuals, was heading straight for him.

"It will be interesting." - the guy grinned, already thinking over the plan of the coming hunt.

***

Hearing the noise, the lead zurd turned its head in that direction. An indistinct shadow passed before his eyes, but that was enough for the animal. With a loud yelp, he rushed after her. The rest of the squad followed without any delay.

After a minute of such a chase, a small crowd stretched for several tens of meters, chasing an unknown creature. This continued until the shot was fired.

An arrow that left a green glare behind it scratched the shoulder of the front zurd, pierced the neck of another one and, with a flash of green light, turned a little to the side, stopping only at the head of the third. The lead Zurd, after running a few more steps, fell to the ground, unable to breathe air.

The rest of the squad stopped, watching the unfolding scene. Without waiting for them to scatter, Rei stepped out from behind the tree, firing another shot that landed squarely in the eye of the fourth of them. The rest, clearly seeing the enemy in front of them, as if a flock of sheep rushed towards him. The guy didn't even flinch. He was standing next to a large tree that he planned to retreat behind if something went wrong.

Taking out another arrow, he fired again, knocking another pursuer to the ground. The same fate overtook the sixth of them, a second later.

“Maybe I should use a shortbow against them?”

Ray's mind, though very aroused by what was happening, did not stop him from analyzing the effectiveness of such a hunt.

When the Zurds and the guy were already twenty meters apart, there were only five of them left, but even despite this, Rey did not retreat and the reason became clear pretty quickly. Zurd, who was the very first to run, instantly stopped, strung on a dozen green spikes that grew from under his feet. They pierced not only the creature's legs, but also, due to its short stature, the lower part of its belly, thus effectively guaranteeing a quick death.

The rest of the animals did not pay much attention to the fate of their comrade, continuing to rush forward, because of which a similar fate befell another of them.

"Fine."

Hiding his bow, Rei drew his daggers, as the remaining three, as if having completely lost the instinct of self-preservation, still continued to run towards him.

Step forward and the blade of the dagger enters the throat of the first of the zurds up to the hilt. The other two had already begun to strike, but they only hit the air, which still had a green glow from the used Retreat.

Decapitating another of them with a swift blow, Rei raised the weapon in front of him, looking into the small eyes of the last beast that stood before him hesitantly.

"It would be more difficult if the system didn't consider them animals."

Thinking about this, Rei began to slowly walk around the zurd, leaving a tree behind him, which was supposed to prevent the prey from escaping. Suddenly, the Zurd really decided not to fight and, growling something through his clenched fangs, rushed to the side.

This move was pretty predictable. Already about to rush after him, Rei stopped for a moment and, throwing a dagger in his hand, launched it into the back of the fleeing beast. Even though this weapon was not throwable, it was perfectly balanced in its manufacture.

Piercing through the spine, the dagger caused the Zurd to fall. Ray did not torment him for a long time, quickly finishing off.