The first impression I got from looking through the spatial window was that the ‘human’ on it was more monster-like than the monster chasing at him. Instead of your flesh colors, his skin was stone-like, of a dark grey tone, as if he was kind of sick. His body, more than 2 meters tall stood bulky and strong even though he was running from a monster. He had a twisting horn on the right side of his head, and instead of normal legs and feet, he had two hairy and bulky legs ending on hoofs.

Although the image appeared frozen to me, I had the feeling the floor was trembling beneath his weight, and the hoof prints he was leaving behind did nothing to take away this thoughts. He wore some kind of leather loincloth, yet his chest was bare. He had a horrible gash on his back, and by the depth of it, it seemed it had taken him by surprise, which was not strange, considering it was a Scorpion Panther that was chasing him.

He carried a tremendously huge axe on his left hand. It was probably a meter and a half long, with an intricate design on the handle that seemed a runic pattern, probably following a written language I knew nothing about. The double-edge on its tip was made of some kind of metal never seen on earth, or at least not by the common folk. It seemed to remember me of a black adamantium, although it probably wasn’t as tough, knowing how tough adamantium was.

Anyway, although it seemed heavy as hell, he wasn’t letting it go, so I deduced it was either some family heirloom, or just hellishly expensive.

The Panther Scorpion chasing it seemed bigger than others I had seen, and had a skin that instead of black seemed to contain the absence of color, and it distorted light around it, probably ensuring a better stealth, quite possibility some kind of almost-invisibility during night hunts.

Its tail seemed more agile than its peers’ and quite more poisonous, by the shades of purple on the tip. Its claws were sharper and stronger and by the extending necrosis on the human’s back, they were poisoned.

Before I jumped into a rash decision to save someone I didn’t know, I weighed the options. If I didn’t save him, I would suffer not from it, and I would be able to safely return to my cave, keep hunting until I had my fill of hunting, I would hunt all the beasts until I got two-hundred preys of each, reaching new strengths.

The other option was much more risky, as the first thing I would do would be exposing me. If I rescued the ‘human’, I would have the chance to hunt that Panther, which would probably render me similar benefits as when I hunted the Double-Horned Elk. Other than that, I would make contact with an intelligent species and maybe even become aware of a city near the forest, and how to reach it. That would leave me open to a serious of possible benefits, although nothing really clear.

Before I made the decision, I tried to feel the distance between the cave and the ‘human’ and was gladly rewarded with the knowledge that both were so far apart that if I had to walk back to the cave from that place, I would probably last three weeks, more than a month if I didn’t run.

With this on my mind, I decided it was worth the risk. Worth case scenario, even though I didn’t have any time to stay here anymore, I could still use the Brimstone Dimension to shadowstep away and possibly to my cave. In the case that wasn’t possible, I was sure that at the least I wouldn’t be killed, perks of immortality for you, so what the hell.

With that last thought on my mind, I readied my tail and my claws, pained over the fact I didn’t bring any weapon with me, charged my claws to the maximum I could endure at the moment and jumped through the window.

***

Unknown POV:

[Fuck my sister!] – I couldn’t help but swear inside my mind as I ran away from that damn sklarr. – [Why did I have to listen to her and come to this damn forest to train?!]

Three weeks ago I was happy to train with father in the safety of our manor, but my sister had to come and ask me if I wasn’t ashamed of myself for not training for real, with actual danger. – [I get it, ok? My sister is the strongest of our generation, and probably quite stronger than most of the previous on.] - Excluding our parents and our uncle, there were probably only five people who could barely compare to her.

[Our clan was formed by the main family and several branches, and we formed part of one of the branches, my grandmother being the leader of the branch.] – Don’t get it wrong, it’s not a matriarchal clan, it’s just that she’s the stronger from her generation, and that’s why she inherited the leadership instead of his brothers.

My sister had convinced me that the only way to even have a chance at getting stronger and with such inheriting something was to come to the Hell Forest. Even if all I could inherit was a zanther, which were some kind of inns with training facilities we used to offer training to those outside the family and were one of the main sources of income for our branch, it was worth the shot, or so I thought.

The moment I step foot on this forest, I was pressured by the danger. I was able to fight lone wuulfs just fine, but when a whole pack came at me, even if my ax could pierce a wuulf scaly armor, it wasn’t that good for group fighting, not without the proper training, and even thought I had trained quite fiercely, I had never had the chance to test my skills for real, and thus I was unprepared by the strength I needed to not only pierce its armor and kill the wuulf, but to extract the ax in a fluid movement to be able to defend against the others.

After a week, though, I had grown used to the wuulfs, and I was able to defend easily enough, at least given the natural strength of our race and my own hard training, and so I moved deeper into the forest, only to find the stupidly sneaky sklarrs. Luckily they hunted alone, but even with that, I was pressured hard to even survive.

Our family was known by three main characteristics: colossal strength and high endurance and toughness. We were never known by our scouting ability or our stealth, so when it came to face sklarrs, I was at a huge disadvantage. They never attacked me upfront, always sneaking on me, forcing me to react on tight timings, always on the losing end of their ambushes.

It took me a week and a half to be able to respond without taking injuries, and I only survived because their poison was weak and the acid didn’t even pierce my hide, so they only had the same weapons a wuulf had, but without the advantage of a tough armor. Their only advantage was taking me by surprise, hurting me before I had the chance to retaliate, and thus rendering me weaker than I should be.

Three days ago I started moving out, after having trained my alertness to a new level, I was able to react before they had the chance to attack me, and thus, by fighting with my full strength, none were able to hurt me in single combat. That was until an hour ago.

I was moving deeper into the forest, always making sure to stay away from the Hell mist and its origin, the Hell swamp, when I was suddenly attacked. The sklarr that attacked me was different than every other sklarr I had faced this past two weeks; it was bigger, it was faster, it was more dangerous, and worse of all, its poison was not as mild as the other sklarrs’.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

It appeared out of nowhere and without making any kind of sound; it didn’t even emit any kind of killing intent, which was mostly how I detected other sklarrs. I didn’t have the chance to even defend and I was already heavily hurt, running for my life. The gash in my back was pulsing, and I felt the poison extend around my body. Given enough time, I would recover, sure, I was still resistant to any kind of poisons, but I would be weak for days, maybe even weeks and I would be dead long by.

I kept running, cursing inside my mind for leaving the comfortable life I had at the family manor, when I suddenly tripped. In that instant flashes came to my mind, but they were not about my life, they were about my death. I saw all the different ways this could end, either eaten alive, weakened by the poison and unable to move, or corroded to death by what I was sure would be a harsher acid than an ordinary skarr’s. I even imagined myself impaled to death by its tail, its poisonous spike piercing my heart.

That instant passed, and I used my fall to roll and tried to keep running, except when I was mid-roll, I saw something unbelievable. A shadowy figure appeared out of thin air, and I mean it, I don’t mean it appeared from behind a tree or that I didn’t see where it appeared from. I saw it clearly, and he appeared literally out of thin air, right on top of the sklarr. I couldn’t really make out its silhouette, but I was sure that it was smaller than me, and far smaller than the sklarr, but I didn’t feel anything at all. I could barely see him, but I neither heard any kind of sound nor felt any kind of intent. I couldn’t even smell him!

I finished my roll and turned around in time to see the sklarr jump backwards to avoid being punched by the silhouette, and in time to see said silhouette punch the ground. A loud thunder accompanied the dust rising and the tremor that hit me and threw me back. That thing had to be as strong as my sister! I mean, it looked somehow humanoid but being as small as it was, it was unlikely that a humanoid would poses such strength.

The huge sklarr dashed forwards, stopping in an instant and piercing forward with his tail. The dust impeded me from seeing clearly what happened, but the sklarr screamed and jumped back, and I opened my eyes wide in surprise at seeing that the beast had lost its tail. Blood was dripping from the piece remaining of his missing limb, and the floor was sizzling as if it was boiling.

The dust cleared and my I felt even more shaken than before. The silhouette was more than just humanoid, it was human! Humans were one of the three main races around here, but they were not the strongest, and they definitely didn’t have the strength to do what the one in front of me had done.

The part that shook me more, though, was not his human-like features, but the ones that distinguished him from humans. He had purplish skin, had claws on his hands, and what impacted me more, he had a tail! It was not like the tails some of the horghs had. Horgh was a common denomination for the people with beastly ascendance like me or my family. His tail was thin, but long, and ended in a sharp spike. His tail was full of little sharp bone spikes, and the spike at the end was also made of bone. What’s more, its tail was full of blood!

You may not realize, but sklarrs were quite tough, even if not as tough as wuulfs, so to be able to cut it with his tail meant that he not only used for equilibrium, like many horghs, but also could control it, and he had quite a lot of strength in it, apart from amazingly sharp spikes. And even more, it wasn’t reacting at all to the blood on its tail, meaning he either wasn’t being corroded, or he didn’t care about the pain.

After a quick shake of his tail, the blood fell to the floor and he crouched, ready to attack, swinging his tail around in provocation. The sklarr jumped at the mocking, and dashed forwards in effort to kill him, but just as he had appeared out of thin air before, he vanished. I realized the moment he vanished that I could have ran away in the time he was there, but now my window was gone, and if he didn’t appear again, I was dead meat, the venom had extended too much, and I was weak.

Just as the sklarr was turning to me, the human appeared again right on top of the sklarr. This time, without the danger of its tail, the human sat on top of the sklarr and pierced his claws on its neck. The sklarr tried to trash around, but the human twisted its head, rendering him inert. I could feel myself letting out a breath I didn’t know I was holding, only to be replaced by a new breath holding. What if it killed me too? I tried to stay awake, but the poison was too spread, and I didn’t have more strength in me, so I vanished in the process of watching him approach me, uncertain if I would ever wake again.

***

Lyon’s POV:

After he fell unconscious I took the decision to carry him with me to the cave. Even though I had achieved the main reward for helping him, the Scorpion Panther, I was still curious to know where the nearest human stronghold was, and he couldn’t give me the info if he was dead, which he would be if I left him here.

Back on the cave I ate through some leftover meat to try and induce Red Mist onto my tail, strengthening the new bones I had grown. Bob was as curious about the tail as he was about the ‘human’ I had brought with me, but after I told him the tail was just part of my power he turned all his attention to the unconscious ‘human’.

[So the other humans are not like you?] – Bob couldn’t help himself anymore and asked.

“I don’t know, Bob, although I doubt it. Back on my home, none were like me, so it would be strange if they were like me at all.” – I was as curious as he was about the aspect of the ‘humans’ living in this world. If people were not all like the humans on Earth, I would have an easier time going around without being discriminated or persecuted for my aspect.

I saw that what I had identified as necrosis was not, and it was just the poison spreading violently. Luckily it seemed it was receding, and his wounds healing, even if at a lousy speed compared to my own regeneration, so I bandaged as I could his wounds and laid him on my bed.

After taking care of him I went ahead and ate the Panther, at the end, I was hungry, and I wanted to see if I was right, if eating it would benefit me more than just eating a normal Scorpion Panther.

Shadow-Blessed Scorpion Panther devoured, conditions still unmet, soul energy will be stored until you meet the conditions.

[So I was right, but it isn't useful right now. I wonder what the conditions are.] – It didn't have any effect right now, but it would. I suddenly thought of something and rushed to open the System.

Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 99.7 %

Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge):

- Iron Elk [II] ( x200 ) : Hugely improves agility and bone durability.

- Scorpion Panther [---] ( x35 ) : Improves poison and acid resistance, stealth and agility.

- Spiked Lion ( x7 ) : Improves strength and bone durability.

- Draconic Wolf ( x200 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability.

- Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength.

- Gryphon (x27) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+54% at Angel's powers)

- Shadow Fox ( x200 ): Highly improves speed and stealth.

*Sigh* It’s probable that I need to eat two hundred Panthers before I can evolve it… Damn my luck, why couldn’t it be a tier two Draconic Wolf or Shadow Fox?

[Well, while the human rests, I guess I can hunt a few Panthers, can’t I? I have Bob to watch over him, and I can teleport back the moment he wakes up.] – I told Bob to take care of the ‘human’ and went out to hunt; it would be a long work to get to two hundred Panthers.

***

A week had passed since I saved the human, and even though he had moved during these days, he had yet to wake up. I was eating through a few Panther’s legs when Bob shouted in my mind. – [Master, he’s awake!] – Gosh, when will he stop screaming inside my mind?

I stood up and went towards my room, where the human was resting and carried a cooked, blood drained Panther leg with me. He was laid back on the bed, somehow worried but at the same time calm. I guess the fact he’s still alive tells him we wish no harm, at least for now.

“Want some meat?” – I put my warmest smile and offered the untouched meat to him, he was probably hungry, as he had been unconscious for a week.

The words he spew made me lose my mind.

“Kih has kjoug?”

“…” – Of course he didn’t speak my language!