Chapter 23 - Rage

Mill heard a rustling sound to his left and instead of running away from it, he stood straight and looked directly at that area, particularly to a bush made of bare branches.

A head of a huge feline creature came out of it who immediately darted its head at Mill.

Mill looked back at it with no emotion in his eyes, waiting for the feline creature, that was half his size, to make a move.

The feline creature took a step back, then ran off somewhere.

Mill felt disappointed from its action but he let it be and continued walking to the sea’s direction.

He walked for five minutes till he reached a slight sloped area of soil leading downhill, the sea within his sight.

He was about to pass the sloped ground when he felt a danger pinged at his back.

He stopped and he felt the danger also stop moving. It moved and he heard some running steps moving towards him.

Instead of gunning to the sea and outrunning whatever it was, he turned around and looked at a hopping pig approaching him.

He walked three paces to his side, bent down and picked a huge rock on the ground.

He stood up and looked at the hopping pig approaching him with a mirthless smile on his face

His visions pulsed and he felt a phantom wave rippled on his brain. The anger inside him was stoked and as if he had a death wish, he sprinted forward to meet the hopping pig.

The pig was different from the boar that chased him a while ago, it was black and it had no tusks. But it had huge and long legs that pulsed when it jumped.

The hopping pig hopped and went off ten feet of the ground heading towards his direction. It came at him like a missile and before it fell on him, he evaded to his right and the pig crashed to the ground creating a small crater in it.

Without hesitation, he raised the rock on his hand and bashed it to the pig’s neck. His throat went parched from the contact and he swiftly raised his hands again and with the rage roaring inside him, pummeled back the rock to the pig’s neck.

The pig squeaked a painful squeal and shook its body. Its feet pulsed and launched its body to Mill by its side, with its back hitting Mill on the way.

The hit forced Mill a few steps, coughing as he went, but he stood his ground. His mind ignored the pain, and rage rolled in it.

The pig just landed in front of him when he jumped towards it and pummeled the stone in its bruised neck.

He hugged its body then threw himself at it with force, while still hacking it with the rock in its neck.

The pig threw some resistance at first, trying not to fall, but it eventually toppled over to the ground squealing.

The pig kicked its hooves towards him but he evaded it by going between its back and front legs. Without letting go of his hold, he continued pummeling its head with a rock without stopping.

A visible injury started to grow in its neck and the sight satisfied him, making him hit it more with fervor. Each hit filled something inside him.

The pig shook its body with its might trying to shake him off, but Mill insanely held on to it.

Maybe because of desperation, the pig gave a last heave and effort, shaking with all its might, and bouncing Mill on top of it for a few inches. It was enough for it to gain a space and throw a kick on him.

Mill felt something hit his left upper arm and felt something crunched in it. He was thrown back a few feet at the same time an excruciating pain attacked his senses.

He let loose a scream of anger as pain pulsed within his left upper arm.

His upper body clenched and he felt his bones tightened. He stood up without caring from the pain and with a scream, jumped to the still struggling pig on the ground and hollered like a madman.

He swung his right arm with so much force fueled by his anger and pummeled it to the pig’s head.

He did it again and again, hitting its snout, eyes, forehead and neck.

He went on it releasing all the anger he felt until he heard a crunch then followed by another crunch. Blood splattered everywhere, to his face, clothes, in his mouth, and the pig did not move again.

He continued, still shouting and grunting, with half of the pig's face already cratered. He did not stop even if he hit bones, even if it sent reverberation in his arms.

He only stopped when the rock in his hands slipped from his hands.

He did not pick it up and clenched his right fist instead and threw punches at the already mangled head.

He threw another punch and his hands slipped from the sticky pigs head. It made him lose his balance and went sprawling to the pigs unmoving body.

He stood up, and kicked the body of the pig. Again and again.

After what felt like his tenth kick, he stopped and stood there panting.

He looked at his hands and the pig whose head was mangled in front of him.

His hands were sore and he was drenched with pig’s blood but he felt released. He breathed and it went smoothly.

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He closed his eyes and took in the fresh air around him. He opened it and sighed.

For the first time in this state, he felt satisfied.

He was not shocked or mortified of what he did. His mind was now cleared and the rage and annoyance he felt inside him had already mellowed, his reasons were back to being forgiving, but he still did not regret or feel disgusted by what he did.

In fact all this time, he did not lose reason, he was still him but only angry.

Though he did not expect he was capable of this violence, it did not repulse him.

It used to fill him with guilt whenever he turned into this state and affected everyone around. The most he did was shout at his siblings who did nothing but just stand in his way and that filled him with guilt after.

He did beat a robber back one time, but that was because the robber was blocking him from having his lunch. Though what he did was right, he still felt a little sorry for the man.

But now, sorry was nowhere to be found.

He was so fed up with all of these creatures coming at him that killing one was not enough for him.

But his body ached and he wanted to sleep so much.

He moved his body and took a couple steps towards the sea’s direction, stumbling as he went.

He stopped and looked at the unmistakable human silhouette standing a few meters in front of him.

He clenched his jaw and waited.

The silhouette raised its arms and… waved.

“Are you going to leave that?” it suddenly said, it’s voice casual and jovial. It was a male’s voice.

Mill felt the tension in his body gave way and he dropped to his knees. He lost control of his body and toppled face first to the ground.

“Hey! You okay? Woah,” the voice said

It was the last thing he heard as he lost consciousness after that.

*****

Canto cocked his head at the battered body sprawled on the ground in front of him. The man was drenched in blood and had injuries all over his body that he questioned for a moment if he was alive.

He nudged him with his foot, albeit ungently, and the body groaned.

“Oh, it’s alive. Well, then.”

He picked the body off the ground and easily slung it in his shoulder.

He then went towards the carcass of the pig, and inspected it at close distance. It was a species he had never seen before.

It looked like a normal pig but it had long legs that pumped whenever it jumped. It could jump so high that he wondered if it was only taller or if they have longer legs then would it be able to jump higher? Would they be able to fly like that?

He also noticed, as he circled the island hours ago, such similar pigs jumping around the island, terrorizing the mainlanders. Even with their titles and titles’ skill bars, they still struggled to defeat the pig.

But here, on his shoulder, was a barless human who killed it with just using force.

Canto burst into a grin and patted the man.

He was right. Nothing was stronger than being big and having higher strength.

In the future, when he’d become a bar human, he would transform all of his body bars into strength bars and be really stronger.

He inspected the dead pig on his feet and judged that it was still eatable. Most of the damage was in the head, and the head hardly had meat—mostly bones—so it was better for him.

He had been sailing mindlessly for hours when he accidentally saw from the distance the pillars arriving on the island. He thought there would be a battle with the mainlanders and the scourgers, and he could score some free game from the commotion. But the scourgers that came out from it were stronger and bigger than usual. The mainlanders in the island could hardly even defeat one, much more leave him a scrap or even a piece of body from their kills.

He was lucky he came upon a man who was fighting bare handed with this pig.

He was monitoring some battle in the distance when he saw a man walking out from another direction. A scourger came and he only stood there without a weapon or a skill.

Canto’s blood boiled watching him grappled with it and he even wished there was another pig so he could grapple with it too.

But maybe next time. For now he had to get away from the island.

He grabbed the pig by its legs and dragged it towards the sea. Though he was strong, the combined weight of the pig and the man made him struggle a little.

He finally reached the shore and stopped in front of a small fishing boat still anchored and bobbing in the sea. He pulled it to the land and carried the pig in it and put it inside. He looked blankly at the three quarters of space it took inside the boat.

He glanced at the man on his shoulders and furrowed his brows. He then dropped the man next to the pig, leaving him with only a bare space that he wondered if he could fit.

After some shuffling and pushing, he finally entered and put himself inside the boat.

Then he found that he was still on the shore and he couldn’t push the boat to the sea now that he was in the boat.

He came out again and pushed the boat to the water. It took him a lot of strength to do but the rockless earth shore helped slide the boat to the sea.

The boat didn’t wait for him and continued moving while he was still outside it. He chased and jumped into it but only his upper body was able to get inside. He got out again and found the water level was on his waist. He jumped into it again and the force made the boat move farther, with him still outside of it.

He swam towards the boat and held to the hull causing the outriggers on his side to dip more. He jumped to it a couple of times and after his fifth attempt he was finally able to sprawl his torso to the hull of the boat.

Finally on top of it, he breathed and squeezed himself to it.

Then he found another problem. The paddles were on the bottom of the pig and the man.

He scratched his head in frustration

He then delved his hands between the body of the man and the pig and looked for the paddle. He went all over the side and spaces to look for it, till he felt it underneath the pigs bum.

He loomed over the man’s body, uncaring if his weight pressed on him, and tried to find the string attached to the paddles’ handle.

Unable to find it, He used his two fingers to slowly pull the paddle more to his direction causing the boat to shake from his movement. He was able to move it for a few inches and had just felt the string in his middle finger when something whistled from his side and slammed to his body.

The boat shook from the impact and the sudden movement pushed him to the water.

His head came out to the surface, now a little irritated, and looked for the culprit of his fall.

He shook the water from his ear-length hair and tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

A firefly.

A blue firefly was bumping its body to the unconscious man, hitting his head back and forth, and releasing a shrill sound everytime it paused and hovered above the man.

Everytime it hit the man, a bumping sound could be heard, which confused him a lot.

The firefly paused above the man's head and then started jumping at it, its body flickering like a faulty bulb while producing a shrill sound. “Die! Die! Die! Why are they slow? We need to kill him now! Die! Die!”

The firefly continued to release the sound again and Canto scratched his ears in annoyance. He heaved himself to the boat but he fell to the sea again as he was distracted by the sound. He came up again and then he fell back.

Annoyed, the third time he heaved himself to the boat, instead of entering it, he swung his arms across and slapped it to the firefly.

“Die—”

The firefly jettisoned somewhere in the boat and the noise finally stopped. He pulled his body again and entered it the same way before.

He had just squeezed himself to the available space when he heard a lot of loud noises behind him sounding like animal hooves trampling to the ground.

He looked back to the shore and froze for a second, then without caring, pushed the bodies of the unconscious man and the pig with all his might to the side, and successfully retrieved the paddles below them.

He then paddled like a madman away from the shore.

He heard some splashing sound, took a quick glance behind him and his eyes almost popped out from its socket.

The scourgers, which had now covered almost the whole shore, who were known to fear the sea, were now swimming in it, though slowly.

Scourgers as small as the pig in the boat with him, and as twice as big as him. Crab looking scourgers, spiders, lions, apes and other creatures he had never seen before, started swimming to the sea and coming to him

He did not need more motivation to row harder and row he did. He rowed with all his might, away from the goddamn island.

End of Part 0