Chaper 2: Devour

Continuing for another minute or so, I stop as I hear rustling in the grass behind me. Twirling around, I am met with the dark black eyes of a cat. A big kittie. Roughly half my height, whatever that may be, I watch it stop in its tracks as it realizes it's been spotted. And spotted indeed, a jaguar. Realizing what's happening, I instinctually reach for my side, but find no sidearm, whatever that is. Taking a wider stance, feet further apart, hands low but stretched out, I make myself as large as possible, trying to scare the menace away, make it flee. I doesn't. It does that shaky behind thing, as cats do when preparing to strike. "Oh shi.." I manage as I dive to the side, feeling the cold caress of claws just barely making contact with my rough skin. I right myself and turn on my feet, I swing a vicious uppercut towards the already leaping feline. I can feel I barely make contact with its chin as I slide to the side. This time, the kitten scores a hit on me, raking me in the chest. I gasp in pain, eyeing the cat as it lands, and then.. crumples to the ground. I can se the cat struggling, trying to get up, but it's fumbling. For the briefest of moments, a memory flashes in my mind, two men with red, big hands, in a square. One man manages to clip the opponent by inches on the chin. The man flounders, then goes limp in a heap. Flashback over, I jump to it, straddling the beast as I realize what I have just done. I shook its brain. Not entirely sure myself of the how, what and why, I just know that when striking the chin correctly, it sends a shock through the skull, rattling the brain of the opponent. While thinking all of this, I am straddling the best, right arm around its neck, squeezing with all my might. The feline's struggle is slow, and sluggish, and a couple of seconds later, it falls to the ground limply as a crack sounds out, all tensions of the previous struggle leaving the cat. Getting off of the now dead jaguar, I sit there for a couple of seconds before the hunger-pangs set in. I feel it growing by the moment, the jaguar looking tastier and tastier. I put my hand on the corpse as I breathe slowly to try to gain a semblence of balance when something clicks in my mind. I will it, and my trait activates. Like a deflating balloon, the jaguar shrinks and shrinks until it disappears, nothing but a pile of dust left in its wake. The nudging returns, still annoying, but bearable as I look around again. A feeling of fullness and contentment hits my like a warm blanket, making my mind fog over in bliss for a moment before I snap myself out of it, alert of my surroundings.

Notice

You have devoured a new species. Jaguar has been consumed, part of its essence now resides withing you. +2 Dexterity.

"12 in dex now, nice! Wait, 12? didn't I have 9? hrmmm". Grumbling to myself, I notice Dexterity: 12 (11). 'So, I have something that grants a buff to my stats. Should've noticed sooner'.

After sighing again for the umpteenth time today, I continue at a slower pace than before. I probably won't outrun whatever is out there, and I want to conserve my stamina, so slow and steady. After walking directly the opposite way of the forest for 15 more minutes or so, I come across a road. Wary, I realize a problem, humans are famous for their conflict, strife, and hatred for anything different. I am different. Then it clicks; "I was a human! This changes nothing though...". I catch myself as I am about to sigh, chastising myself for how much I've been doing that, better stop. Shrugging, I figure I should walk off-road, but not too far, in case, by some miracle, these humans aren't as xenophobic as I first assumed. Continuing on at some 100 meters parallell to the road, I start hearing noises after another 5 minutes of walking. Steel clashing, loud voices yelling expletives, and screams. Running around a bend in the now densely forested area, I spot a convoy of caravans under attack by a group of men and women in mismatched outfits. 'Bandits for sure. Do I intervene?'. I can tell the sides at a glance. The convoy's guards have uniform armor and weaponry, wearing decent, tough clothing underneath the armor. There also seems to be a third party, individuals with each their own styling of clothing. A giant of a man with a big hammer and chain armor, a woman of middle height, with red hair, in robes carrying a staff. Another, which I can tell immediately is an archer by their light armor and graceful movemts, as well as the rapid firing they're unleashing from a short-bow. Lastly there's a swordsman, with a longsword dancing through the bandits as if he's not on the battlefield, but instead gliding through a ballroom. I can tell that the convoy is on the losing side as, except for the group of four, the rest of the guards are getting overwhelmed by the relentless and brutal assault of the bandits. Having watched enough, I storm into the clearing, catching the bandits by complete surprise as a punch one in the center spine. I hear a loud crack as the man fals limply to the ground, now moaning in desperation. I manage to catch two more occupied bandits by surprise before the next one spots me. He disengages from the guards as I rush towards him. Wary of the ax the man is wielding, we enter a stalemate, as he swipes at me, and me dodging away, trying to catch any opening, yet finding none with my smaller size and shorter reach. "reach." I murmur to myself, then I snap to the guards now unoccupied by attackers "Spear! I need a spear!". I can hear the guards muttering as they stop their charge towards the rest of the bandits, to give aid to their allies, rage showing on their features for their fallen. I hear a loud yell from the opposite side of the battlefield before a second later, the bandit I'm currently am facing is slammed into the ground, skewered by a spear. Grinning teethily, I grasp the spear's shaft, and yank it free.

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Something I didn't even realize I felt missing suddenly snapped in place, I felt whole again, the spear now a part of my very being. It wasn't perfect by any means, its length and weight not made perfectly for my size, but regardless, a wide grin spread on my face. The nagging feeling in my hindbrain returned, but I ignored it as I rushed the group of remaining bandits. I felt invincible, and I would destroy anyone in my way. And so I did. I stabbed the first one rushing towards me through the throat, then retracting my spear, spun it, and slashed it towards the second, a woman by the looks of it, as i moved in a zig zag pattern, severing her left achilles tendon before rotating my whole body with the movement of the spear, crushing her neck with the butt of my spear. I continued, felling 3 more in the same manner before I came to myself. I was surrounded by bandits. "Shit!" is cursed. I had overextended. I fought on, deflecting blows as they came, but it wouldn't last. First to go was my right arm, now hanging limply to my side, then my left leg. Then a sword pierced my stomach. I growled as the pain was unbearable. But I had to fight on, to live. Falling to the ground, I began crawling, black splotches covering the edge of my vision, I persisted. As my lifeblood was running out, I could feel it in my very being, I wasn't done. My body was regaining movement where I had lost it previously, at incredible speeds. What for a man would be a mortal wound, was merely an inconvenience to me, or so my instincts were telling me. "It's still moving, the freak!" I heard distraght yells around me, before the same loud roar from what I assumed was the beast of a man from earlier, sounded out. My vision still blurry and clouded, I simply lay there and waited. I wasn't invincible, unstoppable, or anything. Cursing myself for my recklesness, I swore that if I made it out of here alive, I would be better, do better. And then the fighting around me stopped, darkness overtook me as the sounds around me faded away.