Walking absentmindedly back home, Clay was about to open the door just to stop himself midway as he realized he still had a half carved spear under his left armpit and his knife in the right. Shaking his head, he laid the spear to the side and sheathed his knife.

Being able to again properly use metal tools was definitely a help since he decided to stop using his aura shield. Putting his wolf coat away, he shouted through the house, “I’m back!”

Not receiving an answer, he went to the living room, only for him to cross the corner and hear a sudden explosion. “Happy Birthday!” Before he understood what was happening, he had already drawn his knife and was ready to defend any sort of intruder, only to be greeted by colorful confetti.

Only after Mia began to laugh her soul out did he realize what a fool he had made of himself. Well, better be careful than sorry, but what did she just say?

“You didn’t forget your own birthday, right?” Mia asked while she still held the empty confetti popper in her head after seeing the still confused look on Clay’s face.

“Haha, Of course not, it’s just that you surprised me,” was what Clay replied, while he secretly turned over to look at his watch. He had totally forgotten his own birthday. Well, no reason to cry over spilled milk, he was just too occupied with other stuff than to worry about such trivial things.

Thankfully, Mia didn’t push the topic further and just presented him with the colorful table that she decorated. He didn’t even want to know where she got all that stuff from. But what surprised him most was that there was an actual pie on the table.

Pointing at it, he couldn’t really believe it. “Is that a real–?”

Cutting him off, Mia proudly nodded her head. “A real pie made from flour, sugar and apples.” Having already smelled it, he was astonished that she found apples. “Where the hell did you find apples?”

Grinning, she just put a finger over her libs and said, “That’s a secret.” Moving over to it, she got him a piece on a plate. “Here try it.”

Taking a deep breath, Clay took the fork and ate a piece only for him to melt away, as the sugar caressed his mouth, while the apple dissolved heavenly on his tongue and the flour crumbled with a satisfying crunch as he took the bite. Having only tasted salty meat for the last few weeks, this single bite felt like heaven. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had something sweet to eat.

Savoring the taste, he heard Mia’s eager voice from the side, “So how is it?”. Swallowing the bite, he nodded before replying, “It’s heavenly, I didn’t know I had a pastry chef in the house.”

Seeing the beaming smile on her face was all it took for Clay to forget his worries for a moment. “I’m glad to hear that, because I wasn’t sure how it would taste with me being unable to eat it myself.”

Hearing this, Clay’s mood diminished again, a girl of twelve not being able to savor the tastes of all the different kinds of food out there was not only sad but outright torture. Food was one of the few things that you could still savor in these dire times. Putting the plate away, he pressed her head against his chest, whispering in her ear, “It really tastes great, thank you very much.”

There was a slight sniffle which eventually turned into a weeping, “W-What does it taste like?” Getting on his knees, and taking her in a gentle hug, Clay described carefully and as detailed as he could what it tasted like, while Mia slowly calmed down…

***

The veins around his eyes bulged as Clay circulated his essence inside them to see several times further, just being able to take a glance at the brown fur of the dire wolf, before it vanished behind the thicket of trees. Circulating the essence from his eyes to his legs, he jumped from the tree he was hanging and landed with a heavy thud on the ground.

Spreading his essence through his whole body, he continued on his patrol. He still wasn’t able to find the lair of these annoying wolves. They were constantly stalking him and waiting for an opportunity to strike, and this was slowly getting on his nerves.

If he ever had to fight another awakened beast and got caught off guard in the middle of the fight because one of them attacking from above, he could very well die. At least knowing where exactly their lair was would help a lot in avoiding them, but so far they did a very good job in luring him to a false spot, or he outright lost them during the chase.

They were way too agile in the trees, and only if he burned at full force could he keep up with them, but he couldn’t afford to lose heart blood just to chase one wolf that might lead him to their lair.

Reaching the clearing he always crossed during his patrols, he first closed his eyes and pushed his essence inside his ears, immediately causing a new waterfall of information to rush through his brain. The biggest problem with the essence that he got from his ever smoldering embers was that it was just too little.

He could only ever enhance certain body parts and some took more essence than others, with the brain being the one which took the most, so he could enhance his brain but then nothing else.

This forced him to filter the huge new rush of information which his enhanced senses provided, with his normal brain. This was especially bad with the eyes, which is why he tried over the last few days to get more information through his ears rather than his eyes.

Sadly, progress was slow, and it was hard to make sense of the mess of sounds that insulted his ears, if one was able to hear every rustling leaf and cracking branch on a tree. It was important to focus on one sound and filter the rest out, but he first had to find what he was looking for, and that was the true challenge.

He stood still, listening for something that might be out of place, and finally he heard something. It was faint and in a rhythm, something was breathing… no it was snoring? Intrigued by the sudden discovery, he took off from his usual path and left the clearing further into the forest.

Eventually he discovered an unassuming cave tugged away in a small mound. It appeared small at first sight, but after getting closer, he realized that it just appeared that way because the cave was sunken into a small valley. The entrance was quite spacey and could easily fit him a dozen times over.

The snoring definitely came from the cave, and with him being so close it the sound boomed in his ears, as the echos of the cave only enhanced the sound, compelling him to move his essence from ears to eyes.

The enhancement allowed him to see better in the dark, but the headache that came with it made sure he wouldn’t keep it up for too long, as he knew it would only get worse by the minute. At first, he couldn’t see much as he had to adjust to what he was seeing.

Laying in the cave was something which appeared to have brown fur, which caused Clay to almost cry out loud. Could he have finally found the lair of the wolves? Staring for a little longer and seeing the mass of brown fur move a little, he suddenly froze in place.

His breath became dangerous still, and his senses screamed at him, as he felt pain on his chest flaring to live. The deep claw scar on his chest may have healed, but his soul still vividly remembered his encounter with the bear, which now peacefully slept in that cave.

He had hoped that it must have moved from this region long ago, as he quite frequently traveled through the forest, or that the ants got it when they trampled all over the forest in search of more food to feed their ever-growing population.

His very being told him that it was the exact same bear that once nearly killed him, and he was sure it awakened by now, he could practically taste it in the air even without feeling its aura.

At every small movement of the brown monstrosity, his heart plumbed as he slowly moved backwards. Once he felt like he was far enough he took a run for it pushing all of his essence into his legs, feeling the power rush trough them he tensed and shot off.

He didn’t have the reaction speed to avoid every branch and bush, so he just rushed straight through them, ignoring the several cuts he got on his run, they would heal anyway. Having this bear, so close to their home, made things a lot more complicated. He already had enough problems with the dire wolves.

***

Despite fearing all winter long, a possible attack from the dire wolves or the bear, in the end attacked none of them. The wolves still stalked him from time to time, and there was one failed ambush, but since then, they seemed to avoid him. Maybe they have learned their lesson.

He still had to be careful, of course, but his bigger concern was the bear. Winter wouldn’t last much longer and once the snow started to melt it wouldn’t be long before the bear got active again and stumbled into their little village.

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He had a lot of time to think about how he should best kill that monstrosity, he had no chance in a direct confrontation, as he didn’t doubt for a moment that it would outclass him in almost every regard, besides maybe agility, and even that wasn’t confirmed.

The bear could have who knows what mutations. Clay may have more endurance in the long run, as he can close to indefinitely run, but who said he was faster and what if he couldn’t outlast it in the end? Then he would have to face that monster while being exhausted.

He had only one option, which he wasn’t really able to test much yet, but he was pretty confident it could work. The plan was to finally utilize the liquefied poison of Mia, which he had gathered for months now. Since making her mask almost a year ago, they had accumulated jars full of that stuff.

From what he experienced himself and what he was able to test, it refined foreign essence into more poison, essentially slowly killing who ever was afflicted with it in a slow, painful way. If you tried to burn it away with essence, the process would only be accelerated, so either your body was able to handle it on its own, or you die.

Of course, there was always the possibility that both essence and poison balanced themselves out and fused like it had done with Clay, but this seemed very unlikely. That he survived that night was by pure luck, and also during a time when Mia’s poison wasn’t yet as potent as it was now.

The idea was to poison a dead animal near the cave and hope the bear would eat it. If not, he would be forced to pierce it skin with a poison coated spear and then run. The latter was the part which concerned him to no end.

Assuming the bear was faster than him and having learned from the incident with the boar, he knew that it wasn’t enough to just put obstacles like trees between them. It would probably rush them over without losing much of its speed.

Climbing a tree was also out of the question. Not to mention that bears were proficient climbers, it would have no problem just uprooting the tree whole. It was similar with swimming, as this too was something they were very good at.

Well, knowing all this he prepared something as a last resort, but he would rather not use it.

***

Having prepared the dead corpse, it was time to check up on the bear. He laid it out a few days ago and either it was untouched or the bear dead. Winter still wasn’t quite over, but Clay felt pretty confident it wouldn't say no to a free meal so close to its lair. Sadly, with his enhanced eyes, he could tell that the corpse was untouched.

He even saw the footprint of the bear near the corpse, so it definitely took a look and somehow knew that it was poisoned or at least that something was wrong. Taking a deep breath, he reaffirmed the grip around his spear.

This spear was something he specifically made for this bear using a part of the broken blade from the royal guardian ant. As soon as they moved here, Clay stored all the parts of it’s shining black exoskeleton that were still left safely away. The black blade which he relied on so heavily by now proved just how resilient this material was.

The upper part of the broken blade was deeply embedded into a firm trunk of a small oak tree, and then wrapped with string to keep it all together. As a finishing touch was the string then coated in glue to really make sure the blade would stay in place.

He almost expected the bear to not fall for the poisoned corpse, so he came prepared. Having made up his mind, he moved closer to the cave. After a certain point, he started to burn his heart blood at full capacity. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake, so he used his enhanced senses to slowly creep closer to its target.

After a while he could see the bear sleeping like always, peaceful in its cave. Clay’s aura was completely retracted, fully fusing his essence into his body. The closer he got, the shallower his breath and the slower his steps.

He halted at every movement and twitch of the bear, while trying to match his steps with the exhaling of its breath to mask the little sound he made. It wasn’t long before he almost loomed over the bear, and its head was in his spear's reach.

Standing so close before it, he realized how massive this creature truly was, as its every breath seemed to move a mountain of flesh and muscles. From this close, he could also tell that the thick brown fur had a touch of red on the edges.

Not letting himself distract from that, he was finally in striking distance and with the closed eye of the bear as his target he stabbed with full force, intending to end this battle in one swift strike. The moment the spear stroke a strain of fur, it suddenly became alive and moved to cover the eye and wrapped around the blade to stop it in place.

Shocked, Clay desperately tried to apply more pressure pushing the blade a little deeper before the fur magically grew and crawled along the blade up to the shaft, while the bear was awakened from the pain, causing it to quickly rise with a mighty roar.

With the advantage of surprise gone, he didn’t hesitate for a moment before turning around and making a run for it. He knew the mutation was too big of an unknown factor. Of course, it had to be something strange.

Still hearing the roar behind him, he didn’t even dare to take a peek behind him. Running was the only thing that could give him the chance to yet live. Time for the backup plan.

His legs strained as he tried to move even just a little faster, and his senses were running in overdrive to keep up with the surroundings and avoiding the terrain as he zoomed past it. Even more than with the boar, he made sure to put as many obstacles between him and the raging beast behind him.

Each crack of a tree boomed in his ears and the wind from the crashing trunk was vividly felt on his neck hairs, as he felt how the bear got ever closer, it wasn’t far now.

Finally, he saw in front a patch of dirt that looked like any other and with a last push he tensed his whole body, ducked and sprang high into the air. Feeling the air behind him, he knew what came and bent his back as much as he could. What followed was a searing pain as the sharp claws of the bear ripped through his armor and flesh.

Just barely did they miss his spine, as the leg of the bear plumbed to have firm ground and keep chasing, only to keep falling as the ground suddenly gave in. It was fake and with face first it fell into a deep pit filled with whole trunks of trees, which were drenched in a deep purple at the sharpened tips.

Heavily landing on the ground, Clay rolled two times on the ground before coming to a halt. He ignored the burning pain on his back as his regeneration worked its wonders. Hastily standing up, he wondered if he got it.

The huge weight of the bear definitely acted to his advantage here, but he wasn’t sure yet. Slowly rising, he crept to the hole, but stopped himself and instead listened. The seconds flew by, and he couldn’t really here anything else besides the rustling of the leaves, so he finally had the courage to move closer.

Before he even could look inside, a paw came from below grabbing unto the edge as the huge mass of brown and red tried to heave itself from the pit, causing Clay to stumble backwards. There was no way it survived that fall, it couldn’t be!

No matter what he wished, the rising shadow before him told him otherwise. The eye that he pierced was still completely covered in fur, while the mouth slightly parted to let out a slow growl which would soon turn into a roar. It was dragging several trunks that pierced its body out of the pit, but by dragging them along the ground, and it’s fur wrapping around them, it could tell that it was pulling the trunks out of its body bit by bit.

The places where it was pierced were covered by dense layers of fur, which filled the open wounds and stopped the bleeding, while the small strands of hair grew and moved with unnatural precision inside the body to temporarily mend blood vessels and organs like a surgeon with needle and string.

Witnessing this, Clay froze for a moment before coming back to reality and running away as fast as his feet carried him. He couldn’t waste the time the thing needed to mend its own wounds. Before he was still able to keep his cool, but now he was panicking.

Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, and he was in no position to face that monster, as the phantom pain in his chest underlined. It’s laughable how he thought he could beat that beast when he already lost to it in the past.

Hitting himself on the head while he ran, he began to weep. Fuck, he didn’t want to die! He couldn’t in a place like this, he still had Mia to take care of, he promised it! No matter how fearful or how low the chances, he, at least, had to try to survive.

Think Clay, think! There had to be a way to come out of this situation alive. Hearing the roar and rhythmic padding of the bear behind him didn’t help in formulating a plan. Before he could come up with something, he felt his feet leaving the ground and his right side carving in, as he was hurled to the side, barely missing trees before sliding along the ground.

When he finally came to a standstill, he could tell from the constant cracking that his rips were broken and currently assembling themselves back into place. He fucking hated the regeneration of bones the most. The pain was always short but in turn that much more intense.

While trying to come to his feet, he slipped on the edge of frozen ground. Why the fuck was there ice?! Wait, the pond, that’s it! Stumbling to his feet, he rushed over the frozen pond. The ice was by now pretty thin, and the slight cracking under his feet caused him to laugh wildly.

Standing in the middle of the pond, he drew his blade and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Come here, you ugly piece of shit!” The bear of course didn’t understand any of his words, but it knew it was being taunted.

It rushed mindlessly at Clay, ignoring all the loud cracking ice underneath it, which should have told it that something was wrong. Just before it could get the sweet, tender meat between its maw, the ice gave in and broke under the heavy weight.

The pond itself wasn’t very deep and the bear was able to keep afloat with the trashing of its legs, but the depth wasn’t why he lured that bear here. It’s because of what lived underneath this pond. He himself barely missed them and truth be told didn’t really know what they were as he could just barely make out their shape.

But that wasn’t important, he knew they were large, and heavily outnumbered the bear, as they filled the whole ground of the pond. Thankfully, the breaking ice and moving water seemed to have awoken these underwater creatures, and they took the bear as its target, as the water quickly turned red.

It might have been able to fight back if the ice wasn’t limiting its movement so much, or if he could use it’s fur, which was now soaked in water and hard to control. Well, no matter, the bear stood no chance as it was slowly dragged further and further into the pond.

Soon there was only the head and neck above the surface, while the water turned into a dark color of red. One moment the water was restless like a storm, and in the next a thick black tongue sprang from beneath the bond and attached itself to the head of the bear and dragged it with one tug sideways beneath the pond. Soon after, the pond turned still as the last bubbles of air reached the surface.

Watching this with a heavy breath, Clay finally let himself calm down as he broke down on the ice. Scared by what he just witnessed, he slowly crept over the ice back to the safety of land. After waiting for a while and really making sure the bear just wouldn’t jump back out of the pond like it had done in the pit, he stifled his flames back to embers.

Besides all that happened he didn’t lose much heart blood, the chase barely lasted a few minutes even though it felt like hours. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled in relief. Good, one less problem and one more region to avoid at all costs. Whatever things lived in that pond can stay there.