Deer(D-)

Stage: Juvenile Health: 70/72

State: Startled, Relieved

The deer seems content enough with its sudden aggressor dead, but it has obviously not expected yours truly. Or maybe my camouflage is a bit better than I thought? Either way, when I suddenly come lunging at it, it is very much surprised. It steps back in shock, but it is far from enough as I come leaping upon it, jumping onto its front leg and then climbing aboard its back. The hair isn’t too friendly to gripping, but with the animal still unable to react, I’m able to climb all the way onto its head and face before it thinks to start standing on its hind legs and doing all of that.

Since I’ve played this particular game once before, I already know what it intends to do. Step one is to do what I did last time.

Tying my tail around its short horns (female?) I dangle myself in front of its face like a great big spider. It makes a weird deer sound. Too little, too late.

I plunge both of my hands into its eye sockets and pull out the orbs.

“HNNNHHH!!”

Yeah, didn’t like that, did you?

Pulling the eyes further out, I bite off whatever their meaty tails are called, tossing the eyeballs to the side. They’re mostly water anyway.

In a blind rage, the deer begins running around, trying to ram its head (and me) into whatever it can find. However, by this point, I’ve already climbed onto the back of its head, holding onto its antlers and riding very safely at the top of its neck. Now, how do I best kill this thing quickly? If I was stronger, I could probably tear through the eye holes into its brain, effectively lobotomising it, but I’m sure that if I tried that, my fingers would break. They’d regenerate eventually, but still.

In that case… The neck? Soft neck. Yeah, sounds good.

Snaking my tail back around its antler, I turn myself upside down and angle myself for the neck. Everything is upside down and the deer is moving fast, but I don’t feel the need to puke because I am a STRONG MAN who hasn’t puked on a roller coaster for over THREE YEARS. I can do this.

A prodding stab to the thick skin of the neck tells me that, yeah, this is going to take a while. As it is, either it caves its own skull in first or I slit open its throat. I wonder if I still get exp if it kills itself?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Taking a page out of the book of cats, I begin clawing furiously at a singular patch of skin, shaving off the hairs and eventually a bit of skin, making beads of blood fly. It smells so good. Just the scent of fresh blood is enough to make me salivate, which is probably not a good sign of where I’m headed. But it’s not important right now. I can go without blood. Sure, it might make me claw a little faster, but I… I can handle it. I don’t need it.

Oh, oops, my tongue slipped out of my lips and caught a few drops! How silly of me.

…God, that’s sweet.

By this point, the skin has started to give way to the soft flesh below. Well, it isn’t exactly soft, the adrenaline has turned it rock-hard with tension, but it’s a lot softer than the skin. Panting, egged on by bloodlust, I plunge my right arm inside the open wound, digging around for an artery to puncture. Blood, blood, blood, blood…

“HNNNNHH!!”

What the fuck is-,

Something suddenly crashes into me, into the deer I’m riding, making the both of us tumble over and fall to the ground, the deer still giving fearful snorts, all the while I—being quite a bit lighter—fly away at the speed of light, the sudden removal from the wound making my right arm snap in the wrong direction. I bounce once, twice, before rolling over to a stop. I look up just in time to see as the hoof of some big, horned deer, a deer that actually has eyes, comes falling down upon me.

I can only watch wide-eyed as a hoof the size of a motorcycle plunges into my chest.

CRUNCH.

Ahh, ahhhh—!!

“Gaahhaarrr…!” I groan in pain before a spasmodic cough suddenly grips me. How many of my ribs are broken? That crack was so many. My chest feels like it's completely pulverised, filled with the bony bits of a rattle. Is my lung punctured? Is that why I can’t draw breath? My chest is collapsing.

But the hoof is rising off of me again, and within seconds, moments, it will fall again. Despite the pain, despite how almost everything feels broken, I drag myself to my feet, only barely launching myself out of the way of the second stomp.

Racial Skill Lesser Regeneration has reached Level 5

I tumble again, the fall making what little breath I had been able to collect flee out of my throat. Another hoof clamps down on top of my tail, pinning me in place. Purely by instinct, the tail bisects itself from the rest of my body, flailing around like a snake, making the deer step back for just a second. Enough for me to scramble away a little more.

I turn back to look breathlessly at whatever attacked me.

Deer(D-)

Stage: Adult Health: 90/90

State: Enraged, Startled

Is that the dad or something?

It returns its attention to me, its blankly brown eyes settling on me. Without even looking at me, it stomps down its hoof on the still squirming tail, making it crunch into mush and bone splinters.

Looking at this rationally, I don’t really have the power or health right now to take on this guy. I mean, I’m barely breathing here. All I can do is wheeze and wince when it makes my chest rattle.

What can I do? How do I escape this?

Hamnskifte? No, he’ll see right through it. Pretend to be big? He’s out for blood. Won’t work. In that case…

I glance at the still lying, slowly breathing body of the first deer I attacked. It’s slightly smaller than this big one. I grin to myself.

There isn’t much else I can do, because the second I make up my mind, the buck charges again, lowering its horns to my level.

Throwing myself out of the way at the last moment, the horns only graze my left thigh, but compared to my other injuries, it isn’t enough to stop me. In the small moment after the deer has run past and I’ve dodged, I use the small opportunity to run towards my ticket to freedom. Even though I only have three legs to run on, I speed towards the felled deer.

After all, it already has wounds to be opened, doesn’t it?