“It’s following us again,” whispered Vee, the human ranger.

“Still just watching?” Trella, the fox-girl mage asked.

Vee nodded in confirmation.

Both of them frowned in worry. They’d first noticed the presence during one of their early forays into the woods. It had shown up some time after their party had engaged with a gigantic grey humanoid monster, that they would later identify as a troll. Grix, the half-giant warrior, and the lizardman brothers Sul and Sil, had not been making any progress against the beast, as its wounds healed too fast. Vee had given up on peppering it with arrows, as they did not penetrate far into its hide and would just plop back out onto the ground moments later. Even if she took its eyes, its movements would just become more erratic for the next couple minutes until they recovered. It had been a very tough battle.

When Vee noticed the presence, she had started furtively looking around for it, but could not find it. She had discussed it with Trella in quiet tones, and they agreed to withdraw. Even if they somehow managed to take this monster down, they’d be exhausted and vulnerable. A terrible thing in a place like this filled with deadly monsters.

Trella had cast her strongest spell, which would block all of the troll's senses for a short time, and they beat a hasty retreat.

Three days later, they had come back to that same clearing, to find a scattered pile of bones, which looked to be roughly the correct size and shape for the troll they’d fought. That discovery had sobered the group, and they retreated back to the newly established fort on the edge of Slime Forest, ending their hunt for that day.

The next day, and every time they ventured into the forest, Vee’s keen senses gave her the sense of being watched, and Trella’s magic had picked up on it, just barely. It continued to follow them, every time they went into the forest. Sometimes it would leave for a bit and return. It was truly unsettling, and when they’d shared what had been happening with the others, a pall had fallen on their mood.

Weeks passed, and their constant watcher began to grate on them. Rumors had started to circulate among the adventurers around the fort about a mysterious beast in the forest that would swoop in and snatch fallen or badly injured beasts away from groups, and before long they’d begun to blame any and all disappearances of adventurers on the Devil of Slime Forest.

After some time with these rumors circulating and growing wilder and wilder, the guild put a bounty out for information on or subjugation of the infamous Devil.

The only ones who were not eager to take part were Vee’s party. While they had no information on it to share, they wanted no part in fighting against a beast that could kill that dreaded troll. Especially since they suspected it had been the one stalking them all this time.

Time passed, and I hunted well. I was stronger and faster than ever, and as per usual with my kind, my appearance evolved with me. I was still bipedal, but my form had shifted a bit so I could just as easily run on both legs as all four. Wondering if it’d bring back my tail, I’d eaten a a few dozen scorpions, and even some dire scorpions. That hadn’t had much effect.

I could now hunt dire bears, at least as long as I caught them by surprise. There’d only been three or four left in the forest, and I had successfully killed and eaten two of them. A clean hit to their head with my club would knock them senseless, then I’d leap on them to rend and tear at their throat until they bled out.

I’d taken to night hunts as well, which I had usually avoided when I was younger and weaker. Some of my hide had once again been covered by patches of scales, and oddly, my arms had some feathers growing along them as well. My coloration had darkened, making me all but invisible in the night. I feasted upon the creatures I found, from big felines to blood sucking bats to owls the size of a wolf.

My troll femur club had seen a lot of use, and I’d gotten much better with it, although sometimes I didn’t bother and just leapt upon my prey for the satisfaction of rending them with my own fangs and claws.

The humans had been venturing into my territory more and more. Maybe they were migrating?

The group with the furred human also came back often. I stalked them, curious. They hunted smaller prey now. I listened to their strange burbling growls that were meant to be communication. I still didn’t understand it, and that weird part of my mind gave up after some time, having only figured out that certain sounds were used to designate each member of their little pack. Vee was the normal human. Trel was the furred one. Gris was the dire human, and the two scaly humans were Sil and Sul.

Vee and Trel always seemed to be tense, and I could always smell a bit of fear from them. Sometimes they said things that made the other three uneasy, but they didn’t seem to fear the forest in the same way.

Ah, they must be teaching those two to hunt. That makes sense. The bigger three always move to protect the other two, and only let them participate in the hunt from a safe distance. While other humans of many types would sometimes come into the forest with groups of similar size, usually it would be alone, or in a pair or trio.

Sometimes I would watch the other humans. While I felt a desire to hunt and eat them, that weird part of my mind was very insistent that I don’t. How bothersome. I gave in because I hunted many stronger things, and I failed to see how eating them would make me any stronger. My arms were stronger than a dire human’s, my hide tougher than the scaled human’s. I was quicker and stealthier than any of them. The only thing I stood to gain was to learn how to make those strange magic aura patterns, but the humans who could do that were few and far between.

As the days and nights passed, I ate more and I grew stronger.

I saw other chimeras come into conflict with the humans. The younger and weaker ones would often be overwhelmed and killed, as was right. The humans were pretty active about retreating from stronger predators, so few of them fell. While I could smell and sense the conflicts, I was often too far away or otherwise engaged to go and steal the loser myself. I occasionally snatched away prey from the humans, because I was stronger and it was right. However, I restrained myself from snatching prey from the group I’d been watching. If I scared them off, I might not get to observe them anymore, and I found their antics to be entertaining. Entertainment was something I had not realized I'd been missing out on until recently.

Just a few days ago, they’d stumbled on a swarm of slimes, my much lesser cousins. Their frantic flailing about as they smashed and stomped the squishy gelatinous creatures had made me accidentally roar in appreciation. Sadly, that caused them to suddenly become very serious and coordinated, and they slaughtered the rest of the swarm without incident.

While I enjoyed the relatively idle time I found myself in, I currently had another goal for myself. I wanted to be stronger than a troll, as there were still a few left in this forest, and they were stronger than anything else I'd seen, with too big of a gap between them and the next strongest, the dire bear. My one kill of a troll had been foolishly lucky, and I would not try to hunt one again until I was stronger. Soon I would need to travel further in my hunts to find prey that would make me stronger.