authors note: so, apparently i cant increase the size of the letters *sigh* but i got the rest of the chapter out for you guys. enjoy!

Chapter 3

After declaring my name to the world, I knew that I would have to work hard to be worthy of it. I walked down the mountain, and while doing so I decided that I would try something. I said “show levels.” And looked above my head, and sure enough I could see the number 26 above my new name, shadowpelt.

Once I reached the bottom of the hill, I began to smell the delicious scent of prey. Since I have no real interest in what kind, I didn’t differentiate between species. It didn’t matter what they are now, in a little while, they will all only be, prey.

I began sneaking through the undergrowth, and it was not very difficult, since even though I’m the size of a large housecat one day after birth, the undergrowth was quite numerous, and made it easy to blend in, especially with my coat.

I started following a scent that seemed sharper than the others, while still sneaking through the bushes. “surprise is the worst enemy of preparation.” Was one of my masters sayings, and I would put his wisdom to use today. I came across a clearing, and within I saw two creature that looked like foxes, except each had two tails and three heads. They were feasting one what looked like one of their own, so I assumed that they had gotten into a fight. When I looked at their levels, they were 76 and 63 the bigger one was strangely the lower level, but as I looked at them, I knew that they had to have had at least their first evolution, and they looked much tougher than the spiders I had previously faced. Then I thought of Jordan, weak and useless as a god, but a much more decent person than I had yet found in my own life. Not counting silica. ‘if I am to conquer this forest, I cannot be afraid of every little animal I come across. And with that, I climbed into the tree above the clearing, and waited until my preys meal had almost been devoured. What I thought would happen did. They began to fight over the last scraps of the friend, and when they had turned on each other, is when I jumped out of the tree and landed on the back of the smaller one, with the 76 levels. As quickly as I could, I sank my fangs into the neck of his middle head, however, even though the head I had bit into had stopped moving the other two were still fully functional. I used I claw on the head to my right, and as its head turned to look at me I blinded it, and still biting into his neck I looked at the head to my left. It felt what happened to its other head and pulled its head out of my reach. However, I released my jaw from his neck and latched onto the one to my left with this, I reached around to where its jugular was and with a quick pull of my claws he painted the ground to his left red.

Once this was accomplished, he had one blind head left, and his friend was starting to recover from his shock of seeing a cat fly. I used my claws and sung from the middle neck and used my other claws to slash the left heads throat. As it bled out, I dropped to the ground, winded from my exertions. I wondered if that counted as one or three? As the second one yipped at me with two heads while growling with the middle one, I decided that their was a way to find out. However, as I was preparing to leap at him and do whatever I could to kill him, something happened.

Ability gained. Say ‘status’ for more information.

A voice had spoken and said that I had gained an a ability. I read the title as fast as I could, and when I saw it I smiled. It was quite self-explanatory. I fell back to the trees, and even though the fox-thing had three heads, it didn’t seem to increase his intellect.

Thus he followed me quite readily, falling perfectly into my trap.

When he came loping through the shadows after me i turned calmly and let him come. When he was ten feet away, I activated my ability. Actually, I activated it before then, but it took effect a couple seconds after activating it.

The foxes eyes were locked on my image in the shadows, and then he stopped. For a second he tried to keep running, but when he looked down, he saw a vague shadow grasping his heart. And a few seconds after that he fell over dead.

“One, Two.”

As I saw it, if a being had only one heart it counted as one.

“you fought bravely, stupidly, but bravely.” I told the now dead fox as my shadow image faded.

‘shadow image’ the first ability I had gained, along with quite a few levels. What it did, was simultaneously wrap you in shadow, while leaving behind a perfect image of you. It only worked in shadow, and the image stayed In exactly the same place for as long as you kept the ability active, but it would definatly come in handy.

Now that the foxes had been dealt with, I once again looked up at my level, and saw 57 in clear numbers above my name. From what I could guess, the smaller, higher leveled one had given me enough to reach fifty or over, and the larger one had brought me to my current level.

Feeling satisfied, I ate what I could of the foxes. They tasted much better than spider, I can assure you. Once my meal had ended, I went on the hunt once more.

---

I encountered several beasts of prey, but so far I hadn’t found any other predators, and this was making me frustrated. I wanted to at least see them, but apparently predators were staying away from the strange smelling stranger, and it pissed me off. If they weren’t going to come to me, then I would just have to go to them. I licked my lips In anticipation. Animals that just ate grass didn’t taste the same as ones who killed others and ate them for a living.

Knowing from experience that the sharper the scent, the more dangerous it was, I picked the freshest sharp smelling trail and followed it while sneaking through the bushes. Oh, and I gained a level from killing a large amount of prey. It felt undeserved, as they had mostly run away, and I wanted to rectify that.

What I happened upon was what I had been hoping for. A small den, made in a small hill. It looked like a couple wolves had decided to make this their outpost.

It will be the last mistake they make.

Their were six of them in all, two were female. I could tell from their smell, and that wasn’t just with predators, I could smell the difference between a male and a female immediately. However, even In my previous life I had never been sexist. Female assassins were just as likely to kill you as male ones. The former were just more attractive. I snuck up on them, and scraped my nails on the bark of a nearby tree, and activated shadow image. To the wolves who heard and saw me, it would appear as if I had been caught in the act of trying to slip past them and been caught in the act. As they made their way toward my shadow, I climbed the tree I scratched, as shadow image didn’t mask my scent, if they smelled me in a different place then they saw me, they would most likely get suspicious. When the first pounced toward my shadow, I leapt for the wolf at the back, who was slower than the others. Since I had grown after leveling up again, my claws were longer than they previously were. And sharper.

The force of my leap propelled my claw deep threw his eye and into his brain. He didn’t even scream, he died instantly. I thought about counting, but this wasn’t a fight.

This was just hunting.

I deactivated shadow image, as when I had leaped out of the trees I had been revealed in the light of the moon. Though, the ability was technically two parts. The shadow, and the image. While wrapped in shadow, I could deactivate my image, and this would allow me to use the technique for a longer time. Vice versa, I could be out in the light while my image stayed in the shadow. I had used it to ‘corner’ a couple of rabbit looking creatures by making them think their were two of me.

However, in this case leaving my image would only drain my ability. Since the one who had leaped at it had passed through without hitting anything but his head on a tree, the jig was up. However, I wasn’t done yet. I ran to the other side, once again entering the darkness. Once behind a tree, I activated my image and wrapped myself in shadow, then jumped onto a tree, using my long claws to hang on the side. When the first wolf came around he immediately zeroed in on my image, lunging with his teeth. When he passed through, he was quite confused, but he didn’t get to dwell on his confusion for very long.

I came down from above, and he didn’t notice me until my claw was in his brain. A second after him another wold rounded the tree, and saw his friend dead at my feet. He howled and ran at me, however I sidestepped and let his own momentum carry his throat across my claws. While he howled and bled all over the floor the other three approached my side of the tree cautiously, pausing and making sure it was safe before leaping into the open. I saw that they would not allow me to kill them easily, so I ran back into the clearing. After I made sure they were following, I let the last male catch up to me and suddenly froze in place. Seeing this, the wolf put two and two together and got four. But it turns out that one of them was a three. When he stopped paying attention and looked around for the real me, thinking he had figured out my trick, I turned around and casually swiped my claws over his throat. Before, being in this body had felt weird, but now I felt right at home with my four legs and tail. And having fangs felt great, it helped with striping the meat from bones. The wolf looked down in horror at the fountain of blood sprouting from his throat, and then he looked at me, who was slowly being dyed red by his blood.

As he fell sideways, I felt the grin creep onto my face. When the two females saw what had become of their companions they didn’t look too broken up about it. And that was only right. An opponent who was horrified at a little blood had no right to be called my rival. I tilted my head and meowed at them. It was a cute meow. One that a cat would make if it wanted you to pick it up and cuddle with it. even the wolves, veterans of many bloody and disturbing situations felt chills along their spines. The combination of the black fur dyed red, along with the red irises and the cute expression on Shadowpelts face combined to make them creeped out.

Never the less, they still prepared to confront him.

“Well, I didn’t expect two to be left alive after I used all of my tricks. Guess that means I underestimated you.”

Then his head tilted to the left and he showed his fangs, and they could tell he was having the time of his life.

“Give me a good fight, would you?”

http://orig10.deviantart.net/ab91/f/2015/127/c/2/untitled_by_raz0r151-d8sjab2.jpg

they barked something at me and then crouched in readiness. I walked the way only cats can walk, confident and casual. Yet screaming danger.

“hehe, I’m going to enjoy this. Almost as much as I’m going to enjoy eating your flesh.”

They growled once more and sprang at him, opening their mouths to take me in their jaws and snap my spine. I sprang back, narrowly avoiding their teeth. Then leapt back and gave a fast swipe with my paw, claws extended. They also dodged, and we fenced this way for a few minutes. It was enjoyable, but after all, all good things must come to an end. We backed off, they were panting and I was winded, and if we stayed any longer some other creature would come and interrupt us. So, with our eyes, we made an agreement to settle it with the next move. We leapt at each other, their mouths open wide, my claws extended. We both hit the ground.

I had missing fur on my right shoulder, and fangs had cut a gash on my left side. But, both of my opponents fell, their guts now spilling into the grass. It was the same as when I fought the spiders, with me being the victor, covered in blood and guts adorning the ground around me. I made my way to the wolves and started my feast. Truly, a meal fit for a king. If he ate it off of the ground. Eating something that didn’t fight back was so much less satisfying than this. As I paused in my eating, I said over their bodies,

“One, two.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

And made my way back to my cave, to rest and lick the gash on my side. When I got back, I lay down and licked myself clean. Having such a flexible body and toungue made bathing much easier. I could lick my fur clean of blood, which saved the effort of going to a stream to wash off. And besides, the idea of rushing water and just being in water in general made me uncomfortable.

---

after sleeping through the day, I went back out. This morning, I had received another notice, saying that I had acquired another ability. I was level 76, so it wasn’t surprising, but I wanted to try it out as soon as I could.

I went into the forest, and picked up the sharpest scent I could make out, which belonged to another fox, I believe. As I made my way their, I noticed my size. I was now about the size of an adolescent cougar, and the foxes that I had encountered had been about the size of a small horse. I wrapped myself in shadow using shadow image, without making an image, and crept forward. It was indeed another fox. It was low level, only level 17, but it was still one evolution ahead of me. This time their was only one, and since she was in a clearing I doubted that I would be able to lure her over here.

I walked out while looking like I owned the clearing, and strolled up to the three headed fox. Then I sat on my haunches in front of it. for a second she couldn’t believe her eyes, here in front of her eyes prey had casually strolled forward and sat in front of her. she couldn’t believe her luck. Which was ironic, as she was quite the opposite of lucky

“why hello there, would you mind if I tried something on you?” I asked in a polite voice.

All the fox responded with was drooling.

“well, I’ll take that as a yes. Hold still, will ya?”

I activated my second ability. ‘Shadow Blade’ which made a shadowy extension in the form of three claws that extended when I swung. I cleaved through the three heads, as it was so shocked I didn’t move at all. If it had had its wits about it she could have perhaps avoided having her second head cut off, but she didn’t, and now Shadowpelt was once again covered in neck blood.

“now, this is getting quite annoying. If I have to lick myself for an hour every night it is going to cut into my rest. Oh well, it cant be helped. After all, its not like I’ll stop killing things just because I get messy.”

When I looked at the now dead fox I couldn’t think about eating it. it hadn’t even twitched while I had cut its heads off. It’s no better than prey. With this in mind, I searched for something that wouldn’t disappoint. I walked around the forest on my side of the lake, searching with my nose. When I came across a scent so sharp it felt like it was cutting my nose I got so excited that I have to admit I drooled like the fox.

I followed it as quickly as my stealthy steps could take me, and when I got close I wrapped shadows around myself to avoid detection. My nose to the ground, I silently crept up to the edge of the bushes, and found what appeared to be a large frog. At first I had my doubts, but then I remembered that this wasn’t my world, and the frog was probably dangerous. I smiled.

“Lets see about getting dinner, shall we?”

I disabled my shadow camouflage and walked out. It would be useless here, when the frog was in the light. I looked up at its level, and for some reason all I could see was ????? and it confused me greatly. I wondered if it didn’t have a level, but then it wouldn’t be so sharp smelling, and it would be level zero, not ?????

After some thought, I decided that I was just going to try anyway. It may kill me, but if I ran away from frogs how would I ever be able to conquer this forest in the name of Jordan? I would face it. and die with honor, if that was my fate.

I walked up to it, not doing anything special, not strutting or sneaking. Just strolling up to the frog. When it noticed me, it looked at me with semi-intellegent eyes. The thing that surprised me the most was not the beard, but that I called out to me.

“hello there, my dear agrais. What has brought you to me this fine evening?” it had an old sounding voice, and spoke slowly.

“my name is not agrais, and how can you speak my language?” I was suspicious of this strange frog, and my instincts agreed.

“why, I was sure you were an agrais. The telltale pure black fur, the large size, the only thing that seems different are your eyes. Red irises, I have never seen any natural creature with such bloody looking eyes.

I see, agrias refered to my race. I guess that Jordan had assumed that it was a regular cat he was putting me into, since he warned me that my body might not be up to expectations. From what I knew of cats, the only difference from normal cats was that they were born from eggs, and could hunt from birth, while being much bigger. Other than that, I was just a big cat. But apparently, I was a type of cat called an ‘agrais’ it was intriguing to finally know what kind of animal I am.

“I get it now. What would your race be, I am curious what could make a frog grow so big.”

“I am a frogius magnus in scientific terms, but most just call us giant frogs, though the numerous differences between us and normal frogs are not always visible, the most easily identifiable one would be our ability to speak.”

“yeah, I think that would divide you from regular frogs pretty quick. “

“now, what have you come here for, is it wisdom you wish to acquire? Now that I am old, giving wisdom seems the only thing I can do.”

“no, I did not come here to seek wisdom. I came to kill you.”

“well, since that is your wish, stand back. I would like to get ready.”

I waited patiently while he got up and stretched his legs. Once he had finished, he took a cane from behind a tree and gave it a few practice swings. In the wake of the cane I could see fire, and I watched in wonder as he twirled the fire-enchanted cane.

It was the first time I had seen this worlds magic, and it was mesmerizing. So much so that he nearly took my head off with it.

“come on! If your going to kill me put some effort into it! unless you want to become one with the trees, then I will happily oblige by smashing you into them!”

I still watched the spinning cane, but this time I watched it out of caution, not wonder. As it came down vertically, I stepped to the side. It was too thick to cut with my claws, but there was something that I could do. He swung horizontally, then diagonally, varying the direction of his swings so I could not predict were his next blow would land. He reminded me of my master.

But that would not stop me from killing him.

The next time he swung vertically, I sidestepped again. However, he was not stupid and tried to hook me with the end instead of pulling it back to try to swing again. This was troublesome, he was much smarter than my previous opponents, and I was sent flying into a tree. I cracked two ribs and broke one, and when I came down I could barely stand. At this point, the frog looked tired. Not from exertion, but from dealing with life.

“if you would like, we can stop here. You are too wounded to win against me. Perhaps, if you were an adult agrias you would be able to fight with those wounds, but even if you did you would still lose. What is the point of fighting when there is no chance of winning?” he said this reasonably, and a few days ago I would have agreed with him. But not now. Now, I had experienced a hopeless situation, and died even though I fought to the best of my ability. I knew what fighting to your fullest in a hopeless situation and losing felt like.

And this did not feel hopeless.

“ha. Ha. You may have the advantage in years, but you spirit is broken. If you still had your fighting spirit then maybe you would have a chance against me.

But as it stands now, you wouldn’t kill me in a thousand years.”

I smiled. And he smiled back.

“let us agree to disagree. you will meet your end here, agrias.”

“it will not be me who meets his end. And my name isn’t agrias. It is Shadowpelt. You will remember me in the afterlife.”

“hahaha! Then stop stalling and come!”

I laughed as I ran towards him. Every time I took a step it felt like someone had hammered a new nail into my side, and he stood there twirling his cane with confidence. As I entered range, he brought his cane down with an earth shattering smash. I leaped to the side, and activated shadow blades. I came back in and slashed at the cane. The blades sunk half-way through, but got stuck so I deactivated it so I wouldn’t get carried away when he swung the cane again.

Instead of taking the cane back he spat some sort of green liquid at me, and when I leaped back, the ground where I had been standing was melted. Every movement I made caused spears of pain to lance through me, and I was panting for breath, while he looked concentrated, but not tired. There were few options, but all of them seemed to end in death. So, I did none of them. He raised his cane over his head, and readied his mouth to spit acid wherever I dodged. As he brought the cane down, I activated shadow blades, and swung into his cane. I cut off roughly a third of it with my attack, but something strange happened.

His cane exploded.

I guess this is what happens when you break a magical weapon. The explosion wasn’t very harmful, just laud and bright. It was like a flash grenade thrown in between us. The flash blinded us, the bang made us deaf. But the advantage I had over the frog was that I had undergone training involving flash grenades. I knew what to do. I closed my eyes, as they were blind and of no use. When you have a flash grenade explode on you, you move. “To stay still and hesitate is to die.” Another of my masters quotes.

In this life, there was a difference from my previus one. where in my first life I had relied mostly on hearing and seeing, I had an advantage that the frog did not. I could smell him. the explosion had not in any way inhibited my smell. It produced the scent of burning wood, but it did not make my nose close up. In this time when my eyes did not work and my hearing was nonexistent I had to trust my new body. I leaped, trusting my nose to guide me, and sure enough my fangs closed around the main artery of the throat. When I could see and hear again, he was bleeding massively. But even as the life drained out of him he waved me over.

“you have done well, Shadowpelt. You will be a terror when you are full grown. However, do not think for a second that you are safe just because you killed an old frog. Agrias are naturally violent. And you seem to have brought enough violence for two with your personality. You will be hunted down. You will never be able to relax. Death will be your constant and only friend. Be carful, young agrias. And make a good showing of yourself.” He made an embarrassed smile. “I wouldn’t want the person who killed me to die in a non consequential way. It would be embarrassing.”

He stopped talking since he no longer had the strength. While looking at his dead body, I was once again reminded of my master. His last words were nearly identical to the words my master made when I killed him. the only difference between his and my masters words were that my master swore a lot more. I never learned more words than in those last few moments of his. I looked over the body of the geezer, and bowed my head. He had been a worthy opponent.

“One.”

and began my feast. I ate his head first, and I ripped out his organs one by one to devour them. I couldn’t eat all of him, so I took a bit of each of his organs. He was delicious. I could practically taste the wisdom contained in his body. once I was full, I looked one more time at his mangled corpse, and went back to my cave. At this point, I heard the voice again.

Would you like to evolve?

As I fell asleep I muttered.

“Yes.”

End of Chapter 3

Authors note: whew, that was a few hours well spent, I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!