Chapter 8 - Into the Forest II

The orangutan was completely content with keeping his distance and just throw rocks at me, away from danger. I could try and throw my own rocks, that I kept in my pocket, at it, but that wouldn't really work; I did not have enough to deal significant damage.

I needed to close the distance, but every time I tried to jump on a closer branch, he would jump on another tree further away, keeping the space between us intact.

Plus, it was hard for me to both jump forward and keep dodging the barrage of small rocks coming my way, so with every attempt, I was sacrificing some of my health points.

I stayed in place, on top of one branch, dodging most of the rocks, parrying some, and stopping a few with my face, while at the same time trying to find a way to get close and personal.

I had my chance when the long-armed creature ran out of stones to throw. I immediately jumped forward, ready to pay it back, but it was much faster than I was. By the time I reached the branch it was sitting on, it was already on the ground, and by the time I reached the ground, it had already gathered another round of rocks and climbed back up the tree.

I would normally be able to outrun it without breaking a sweat, but inside the forest, things were different. The amount of trees and branches so close to each other made the place feel crammed. I also had to think and dodge before moving, which significantly slowed me down. The animal did not have the same issues, since it had spent all its life in here. Its body was literally shaped to be able to easily move around this tight space.

I was fighting in its own territory.

Soon we were in the same situation we started. With the orangutan comfortably doing its thing and me fighting for my life. If I wanted to make it out alive, I needed to do something and do it now. I did not have infinite health and there was no way the creature would give me enough time to consume a potion.

I jumped on the ground and hid behind the tree I was previously on top of. I looked at the ground, searching for rocks so I could throw them at the beast, too. There were none in my immediate vicinity; I had landed on a small, muddy pond. What I saw instead was another small branch, similar to the one I was already holding. I grinned slightly.

I came out from behind the tree and exposed myself. Before the orangutan had time to throw another rock, I threw my 'sword' at it.

"Take that, you damn monke!"

Rocks and small pebbles are much easier to dodge. The wooden stick was not only bigger but also spinning around, making it harder to calculate its trajectory and where it would land.

The orangutan panicked. It did not expect me to throw something at it, and it certainly did not expect a projectile like that.

It managed to dodge it, nonetheless. The stick barely scraped its face and flew off in the distance, with the orangutan looking at it for a moment as it side-stepped to dodge.

When the creature turned its head to look back at me, I was right in its face, mid-jump, with the new stick in my hands which were stretched down and back, ready to strike.

"Hey buddy, whatcha doin'?" I said with a slight, mocking sneer.

I swung the branch upwards with my outstretched arms, putting all of my force behind the strike, hitting its hand that was holding the rocks, continuing to its chest and then its jaw.

"[Gale Slash]!"

The beast was thrown in the air from my swing's force. It fell off the branch and landed straight to the ground with its back, making a loud thud. The landing was hard enough to make it bounce off the damp grass, leaving a growl full of pain and spitting blood.

I jumped down and sat on the ground next to the creature's body to rest and catch my breath for a few minutes. I looked at my new branch/weapon and noticed that it was a bit bigger and thicker and the one I was using previously. I assumed this was a positive thing and it potentially helped me do more damage to the monkey-thing. The not-so-positive thing was that the bottom half of the branch—the part I was supposed to be holding—was full of mud.

I was already starting to see a bit of the red 'danger' circle in my peripheral vision, which made me contemplate whether I should use a potion or keep them for later, when I realized something.

Where was the kill notification?

A slap of reality was followed by a slap from the orangutan landing straight on the left side of my head, sending me flying to the side, landing in another pool of mud.

"Rise and shine, sweetheart," I said after spitting out all the mud that had entered my mouth without my consent.

The beast let out an intimidating roar, hitting its chest rhythmically with its fists, ready to charge. It seemed mad.

It charged towards me with the intent to stomp me, but I managed to barely roll to the side at the last moment, escaping with only a slight bruise on my left arm; nothing my adrenaline rush couldn't cover.

I ran towards my branch that had fallen off my hands and was waiting for me on the ground, next to the tree I was resting.

Just when I managed to wrap my fingers around it, the orangutan hit me with his fist on the back, making me fall back down face first.

While turning around to face it, I slashed to the left, making a shallow wound on the beast's stomach. It was nothing lethal, but it was deep enough to make it start bleeding; this should wear it down at least.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Meanwhile, the red circle in my vision was getting bigger and bigger, which was terrible news. Yeah, it meant that I was low on health, I already knew that, but it also meant that this red circle, that was not so transparent anymore, was blocking part of my vision, disabling me from seeing the orangutan unless I was looking straight towards it.

So that was what I did.

I tumbled away from the long-armed beast to gain the time to get back on my feet. Then I turned to face it.

I could almost see fire in the creature's eyes and I knew that this orangutan was about to go ape-shit. I braced myself, knowing very well that one wrong move here could cost me my life.

It viciously jumped towards me, closing our distance in less than a second. As it was attacking me with its huge arms, I started taking steps back, dodging, bobbing, and weaving. It would be much easier to parry the attacks, but that would surely destroy my weapon and, with it, any chance I had to inflict lethal damage.

I was able to remain relatively intact despite its many consecutive attacks, thanks to all these points I spent on Agility these past few days. I even managed to sneak in a few slashes, wounding my attacker even further, which surprisingly made it attack faster instead of slowing it down.

At this rate, I would slowly but surely be able to defeat the beast, even if it took a thousand cuts on its ugly skin. Except there had to be a tree root behind me.

My heel hit the root and I lost my balance and my footing. The orangutan took this chance to throw a hard punch straight to my diaphragm, making me completely lose my breath and make me follow my already falling trajectory even faster.

I let out a silent scream, unable to produce any actual sound whatsoever after that hit.

This was bad. The monke had the high ground and this was not going to change; I could not get up.

The creature hit its chest again, preparing for its endmost attack. It started running towards me a second later.

Before it reached me, its eyes widened. Tears started forming in its eyes. It let out an angry growl, but this time I could detect sadness behind it.

I had thrown my weapon towards the poor animal, just like I did earlier. Only this time, it found its mark. The branch pierced its chest and stayed stuck there.

The mighty orangutan fell on its knees and let out one last cry. At the last second, it decided it wanted to live. But it was too late to make a choice now. Its body fell, lifeless, on the muddy grass.

"I'm sorry to break your heart."

Defeated [Fanged Orangutan - Lvl. 7]!

Congratulations! You leveled up!

[Anthir - Lvl. 5] -> [Anthir - Lvl. 6]

Gained 6 Stat Points!

Congratulations!

Skill [Item Throw] obtained!

----------------------------------------

The fight was finally over, another one that I barely survived. I was lucky to have all these potions with me, otherwise I would be a dead man a few hours later. I reached into my pouch to grab one out and promptly consumed it.

I took too much damage. Even with the potion, I could feel that my health was not completely restored.

Every time I used [Gale Slash], I felt completely exhausted afterwards. I could use it one, maybe two, times at most in a single fight and after doing that, I always felt heavy, sluggish; much slower than before.

I could not tell if that was because of my [Endurance] or my [Wisdom], so I added +2 points in each category, with another point in [Vitality] and spending my last one on [Agility]

Name: Jinden

Race: [Anthir - Lvl. 6]

Class: None

Affinity: None

Stats:

[Available Stat Points: 0]

[Vitality]: 11

[Strength]: 12

[Endurance]: 15

[Wisdom]: 12

[Agility]: 17

[Perception]: 12

Skills:

[identify]

[Item Throw]

Abilities:

[Gale Slash]: Lvl. 1

The warmth all over my body that came with the submission of the skill points made me almost forget about all my aches and pains. I felt much better than before and was able to continue my journey.

I pulled my weapon out of the orangutan's dead body and continued on towards where I thought would be the forest's exit, wishing I had never stopped for that damn fruit.

At least I leveled up and I obtained a new skill. An odd one, but a skill nonetheless. I wondered what the difference would be if I used it instead of just throwing something. I would have to test it out later. For now, I needed to keep going while it was still day; it would be much harder to travel at night.

The more I was getting further into the forest, the more creatures I would meet and the more hostile they would get.

I found another animal blocking my path.

Defeated [Horned Owl - Lvl. 2]!

And another one

Defeated [Hedgedeer - Lvl. 4]!

Aaand another one...

Defeated [Fanged Squirrel - Lvl. 4]!

Judging by the increase in levels, I should now be in the deeper parts of the dungeon. Hopefully, I had traversed more than half of it by now.

But it was getting dark and I could not keep going; I had to stop and rest. Trying to push through was too risky.

At best, I would continue at half the speed I was currently going, since I would have to try extra hard to avoid bumping into hostile creatures or even mere trees.

At worst, I would lose my way and accidentally walk in the wrong direction, which could cost me a lot, even potentially make me go all the way back.

I picked a place that seemed a bit more spacious than the rest and decided to spend the night there. It would be better to be in a field as open as possible, as this would let me utilize my high Agility stat the most.

I was contemplating whether I should start a small fire to keep me warm during the night or not.

There was the risk of attracting unwanted company if I did but that risk was always there anyway, even without the fire. At least, with a fire going on, I would be able to see them as clearly as they could see me.

The worst case scenario would be the fire extending to the rest of the forest and burning it all to ashes, but that would mean that all the creatures would be too busy running for their lives and I would have an easy path all the way to the end of the dungeon, which honestly did not really sound that bad; maybe I should purposefully do that.

I decided against it in the end; I did not want to risk getting caught in my own flames. I did start a small fire to warm myself up, though.

I rested on a tree's bark. It was rough, damp, and pointy, but I was so tired it felt like the softest of pillows, which made me let out a sigh of relaxation.

The flames were playing around, dancing in their usual rhythm. I watched them to relax even further until I would go to a deep, satisfying slumber.

No.

I shouldn't.

I woke myself back up.

Sleeping deeply would mean that I would not be able to notice any enemies approaching. It would spell bad news.

What I should do instead was try to relax as much as possible while still remaining vigilant. I wished I could somehow sleep while keeping my eyes open. Unfortunately, something like that was not possible.

Trying to relax just the right amount proved to be much harder than I thought. Keeping a constant amount of awareness was impossible and what I ended up doing instead was extremely short cycles of sleeping - panically waking up - trying to relax again.

At some point, I got a weird feeling on the back of my head, almost like something was tickling me from the inside. For some reason I thought that something was approaching me, but it was probably just a dream with an effect that lasted longer than it should have.

No.

With every passing second, I felt it more and more. And then I heard a sound coming from a nearby bush. Something was coming after me.

What would it be this time? An owl? A fox? An orangutan? Another one of these boars?

The answer was "All of the above."