“Come on, Emmie. Let’s go before the smell attracts predators,” I said, gesturing for Emerald, my raptor friend, to follow me. Emmie hissed her agreement, taking one last bite before she headed out after me. It had been several days since Emmie and I had met, and we had encountered the beast once more when it was moving around late at night the night before. Unfortunately we had had to abandon our little nest that we had made together, fleeing from the creature.

Working together, we had hunted and defeated a bunch of strong monsters, increasing our power levels. Emmie’s was close to a thousand with mine not far behind at just over nine hundred. Wherever it was that I reincarnated, it seemed to be a hotbed of active and powerful monsters. I hadn’t gone a day without encountering and fighting several enemies since I’d hatched. I snickered at the thought of hatching a second time.

I was grateful that I didn’t need much sleep – I had barely gotten any since I hatched, and it was weird being awake for so long. Something else that bothered me was how little killing bothered me, especially those humans who had attacked me. I had always assumed that doing something like that would bother me more, and yet I just felt vindication since they had attacked me first.

Emmie growled at me, nipping my tail lightly, breaking my train of thought and bringing me back to the moment. “Sorry,” I whispered quietly, focusing back on the task at hand.

We had been stalking a herd of incredibly muscular deer. They looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger, if he had been turned into a deer. The most unfortunate thing was that they were travelling in a herd of over twenty, with them making sure that there weren’t any stragglers for long. One thing that I quickly discovered is that if I killed a monster, it dissolved into blue light, usually leaving loot behind, but if Emmie did, it left a body for her to eat.

My tail swished back and forth in excitement as I watched a single deer stop for a drink, momentarily separating from the rest of the herd. Hissing simultaneously, Emmie and I launched ourselves at our intended target. I flew through the air after my leap and landed on its back, instantly sinking my claws into its thick hide, attempting to get purchase so I could scamper to its neck. Emmie rushed low, nipping at its legs. Before either of us could make much headway, the deer bucked and kicked. Emmie just missed her mark and I yelped as I lost my grip and was thrown well clear.

Landing hard, my breath exploded out of me and I saw stars. Groaning and climbing to my feet, I shook myself to throw off the dirt and random debris sticking to me. I crouched low and hissed as several of the even larger, muscular males ran across to us, attempting to cut Emmie from the single deer we had tried to grab. I groaned again, this time in disappointment while I watched it bolt for the safety of the pack.

Jumping to one side, I narrowly avoided getting gouged by the stag while accessing my inventory and pulling out two swords. I spun with a sword in both hands, the blade of one sinking into its flank as it passed me. With a yelp, I was pulled off my feet as the blade abruptly stopped cutting, getting stuck in the stag's muscular thigh.

Just as I pulled myself to my feet, two things happened simultaneously – a group of three humans and an elf staggered into view, and I heard the roar of the undead armoured allosaur echo nearby. By the sound of it, not too close, but still too close for comfort. I took a moment to nerd out over seeing an elf in the flesh. An elf! He was tall and slim, with long pointy ears and short cropped blond hair. He was carrying a bow, which made me smile. If it wasn’t for the short hair, he could have been a cheap Legolas rip off.

“There it is, the monster who killed the Droconist’s son!” a rather muscular and giant of a man said, pointing his equally massive sword right at me.

A woman nearly as tall as the man, and almost as muscular swore. “How can you tell? She doesn’t look anything like what I had heard an asrai looks like. She looks more like a nekokin to me.”

Instantly I dropped to a crouch, hissing at them. “Can’t you all just leave me alone? I merely defended myself!”

The group paused midway through readying themselves for battle, looking surprised that I had spoken.

Shaking his head, the elf raised his bow and pointed it at me. “It has to be a trick, and even if it wasn’t, who cares? The quest reward to slay this asrai is large enough for me to ignore some random monster that can talk. It’s not the first time that’s happened.” As soon as he finished speaking, he let loose, firing an arrow that caught on fire as soon as it left the bow.

With my instincts screaming at me, I dropped down, narrowly avoiding the arrow as it whistled over my head, slightly heating the air where it passed. Instantly springing to my feet, I bolted deeper into the forest, the herd of deer completely forgotten. Emmie hissed and chirruped, chasing after me. Glancing back, I saw that the adventurers were racing after us, ignoring the deer running across their path, which thankfully slowed down their pursuit.

“Whose idea was it to give me a race that would automatically be hunted by others?” I growled, sprinting around a large tree. With a flick of my fingers, my claws shot out and I climbed the tree swiftly. Positioning myself, I prepared to ambush my pursuers. Emmie had hidden herself in the bushes, waiting to attack once I started my assault. I hoped that we both would survive the next few minutes. I wanted to say that I would regret killing these people, but considering they had once again decided to attack me without provocation – besides my death being a quest reward apparently – I had little sympathy for them.

The group hunting me stumbled into the small clearing around the tree, looking around in confusion at the disappearance of my tracks. Just as I readied myself to pounce, a giggle echoed around the clearing. “She’s up in the tree, look up, idiot mortals!”

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I hissed in frustration as the group of hunters looked up after a brief pause of confusion over the origin of the voice. Launching myself at the elf, I twisted my body midair to avoid the arrow he fired at me, feeling the projectile flash past me and embed itself into the tree trunk with a thunk.

Crashing into him we staggered back a few steps – clearly he was stronger than he looked – claws and fists grappling at each other as we each fought to gain the upper hand. Two wickedly curved daggers attached to his chest via holsters gleamed in the low light underneath the trees, flashing the blue that let me know they were suitable weapons for my skill [Weapon Specialist]. I grimaced in pain from smashing my head into his, my small horns cutting his skin and disorientating him enough to make my next move. Quicker than thought, I pulled the daggers out and slashed them across the elf’s body before activating [Clean Kill], slamming the daggers deep into his chest. Jumping off of his now limp body and crouching, I pulled the daggers free, flinging my hands outwards to either side and flicking them at the two hunters who had attempted to surround me while I had fought their elf companion.

One dagger sunk deep into the arm of one target, while the other was deflected with a parry from her sword – very reminiscent of Aragon in the movie – twirling off into the forest. “Whoa! That was awesome!” I couldn’t help exclaim – even if it was annoying at the same time, it had looked pretty cool.

Unfortunately the move didn’t slow either of them down much, but it did give me the chance to use [Clean Kill] again, since I could only use it on someone that I had already wounded.

Just as the surviving hunters moved in to finish surrounding me, Emmie burst out of the bushes that she had been hiding in, hissing as she pounced on the one I had already wounded. The injured hunter yelped in surprise and pain as the smaller raptor scrambled up his back using her claws.

Someone made an angry noise, their voice higher pitched than any of the people fighting me should be. “Oh, for Nyx’s sake! I guess I will just have to kill her and you myself, then!”

The ground shook from the pounding of large footsteps, and I burst into a cold sweat as the undead allosaur charged into our midst, roaring its rage and hunger.

Emmie jumped off of the hunter she had been biting, immediately slinking into the nearby bushes and blending into the greenery. I attempted to break away from the hunters to flee into the forest when the woman suddenly moved to face the massive dinosaur, causing me to trip and stumble as I attempted to get past her.

Falling over, I scrambled onto all fours as I moved away from the sounds of fighting behind me, the roar of the allosaur accompanying the clang of metal weapons on metal armour echoing around me as I ran.

“No! She is getting away! Ignore those idiots and get her!”

Sheesh, what did I do to get the person behind the voice so riled up?

Jumping to my feet, I bolted for the safety of the deep forest, weaving in and out of the ancient and massive trees, hearing the noise of my pursuers slowly getting quieter every second. Thankfully the trees were too close for the much larger dinosaur to navigate them easily.

As I continued to run, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched, my instincts screaming at me that I was in danger still. I was just glad that Emmie had seemed to have gotten away safely. I was sure that I would be notified through our bond if she hadn’t, and until I could throw off whatever was causing the hairs at the back of my neck to stand up, I hoped that she stayed away, even if I did want her with me for entirely selfish reasons.

I burst out of the thick forest into a clearing and slid to a stop, just narrowly avoiding falling off the edge and into a dark abyss of a truly massive hole that seemed to almost come out of nowhere, swallowing up all the light and warmth in the vicinity. The cold was such that even I shivered from it, and I had barely felt the temperature since I had been reborn on this new world.

Shivering and trying to avoid staring at the Giant Black Hole Of Doom, I had just turned away from it when my instincts screamed at me, and I threw myself backwards, narrowly avoiding a blast of some kind of magic that had been directed right at my heart.

There was a flash of light and suddenly a small girl with wings appeared, floating up high near the treeline. “Dammit, you weren’t supposed to see this! You’re harder to kill than you ought to be.”

Breathing hard from my marathon through the forest, I crouched low, tensed and ready to dodge anymore attacks. I hissed as I laid eyes on my newest attacker. She looked like a fairy, but a gothic, evil version. She had silky black hair and almost chalk-white skin, though the strangest thing of all was how the minimal light filtering through from the trees almost seemed to warp and get sucked into her body. Normally I would consider a goth-looking fairy cool, but the evil, sadistic gleam in her eyes made me reconsider that for her. Now that I could see her, I decided to use [Inspect] to find out what I was dealing with.

Oleander (Rare)

Power Level: ????

Class: ???

Warning: Daemon

I felt an instinctual dislike for this girl, beyond the expected for someone trying to kill me. I wanted that smug, yet annoyed look on her face to be wiped off and replaced by a startled, afraid one as she died by my hand. Shaking my head, I attempted to ignore the bloodthirsty thoughts bubbling to the surface as I watched my enemy hover high above me, seemingly contemplating something while she watched me in return.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, panting slightly from my exertion.

The daemon smirked, narrowing her eyes at me. “Because I can. Because you are not just a hated asrai, but you are also from my hated enemies in the nearby village.”

Confused by her statement, I had just opened my mouth to respond, when my instincts kicked in and I jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding getting hit by a blast of magic from the daemon. The magic slammed into the ground where I had been crouching a moment before, a large explosion rocking the ground, kicking up dust and debris everywhere. The shockwave slammed into me, and unable to react in time, it sent me flying out over the edge and into the dark pit.

Yelping with fear, I flailed my arms and legs before the darkness surrounded me. Slamming into a small ledge that was somehow sticking out of something, I grunted in pain as I rolled off and fell deeper into the darkness before I could catch myself. The last thing I heard, before I passed out, were creepy, incomprehensible whispers echoing around me.