One’s companions could be more than just humans because of the increased number of sophisticated races and the System’s automatic translation.

Wilfrid Pember - Historian - The Start of the Apocalypse

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Silas Wycliffe

Level 35

Level 6 Duellist

Mana: 179/179 (recovery rate: 0.75 per minute)

Strength: 27

Agility: 40

Constitution: 23 (+9)

Arcana: 15

Perception: 53

Abilities: Weakness Vision, Harrying Blows

Silas seemed an ordinary post-apocalyptic survivor as he warily trod on. His armour was stiff from disuse as he had only recently taken it from Riverside’s arsenal, forced to replace his old one after the Infernal Explosion. Likewise, the spear in his hands and the axe hooked to his waist were also new additions, although they at least felt familiar to him as System-crafted weapons all shared the same dimensions.

His appearance was rather ordinary as well, his physique toned and muscular but not overly so, and his skin notched with a selection of marks and bruises. There were also blotches of red scarring his face and arms, remnants from the fire, but they were hardly eye-catching considering the prevalence of wounds now. Iris had tried to heal it off, but her abilities only healed up to 80%, never 100%. That would come with time, and considering Silas’s constitution, not a very long time.

However, despite his unassuming appearance, his aura was sharp and stifling, allowing those perceptive enough a peek at his true power. Unfortunately, Silas learnt that many beasts lacked said perception or perhaps disregarded his aura altogether as he was attacked frequently. Due to this, he had made slow progress so far, having only travelled twenty miles in what he imagined to be a couple of hours.

Even now as the night’s gloom drifted across the sky and Silas wanted to rest, he couldn’t because of a ferocious owl tailing him. He had first spotted it two hours ago in a flock of its kind, and while its kin had eventually glided away, this stubborn fellow had stuck to him like a fly to honey, like a predator to prey.

A while back, he had considered shooting it out of the sky, but as he had focused on it to right his aim, the owl had rapidly soared as if reading his mind. Since then, it had stayed out of his range while still following him, its behaviour hinting at a worrisome intellect. It was for this reason he chose to forgo sleep now, as he feared the owl was waiting for him to doze off to swoop down and tear his throat. Usually, he was perceptive enough to wake up before anything sneaked up on him, but this bird gave him a bad feeling.

Just as he was considering other ways of ridding the beast, he heard a bellow from nearby and stopped. Glancing up, he spotted a fuzzy owl-shaped shadow in a distant cloud and nodded to himself - it was still afar. Pleased it was keeping its distance, Silas then headed towards the noise he had heard, creeping through a thick set of bushes to spy on an ongoing fight.

On one side stalked four ghoulish monsters that reminded him of bats. Pink and red splotched skin covered their bodies from their stubby legs to their stretched torsos and triangular heads. Two great ears sat on the edges of their heads with their other facial features being pure-black eyes, dark snouts, and slight mouths. Their most catching features, however, were their tube-like arms as their skin extended from the sides of their chests and obliques, attaching to their arms and giving them leathery wings.

On the other side were men and women or, more accurately, the remains of men and women. There were two people still standing, and Silas figured the bellow had come from the heavily armoured man who wobbled on his last legs. The other man wore thin armour streaked with blood, although seemingly not his own as he swung his sword with healthy vigour. Despite this, the monsters were hardly intimidated as they playfully batted his attacks away.

Having made sense of the situation, Silas acted quickly, throwing his rucksack off and entering the fray. The bat monsters immediately turned to face him and all laxness left their movement. Unfortunately, the humans also turned to him and this moment of distraction was enough for one of the bat monsters to wrap its claws around the armoured man’s neck, ripping it into ragged ribbons of flesh. Simultaneously, its kin leapt into the sky and flew, occasionally flapping their wings to stay airborne - likely using magic, Silas observed, as their wings appeared too thin to grant flight.

Before they could react, he sprinted through the space they had just cleared and punctured their grounded kin’s head. It gave little resistance and promptly collapsed. Swiftly turning, he expected the remaining bat monsters to escape but, to his surprise, he found them directly above, circling him like a kettle of vultures, waiting, waiting, waiting.

“Be careful,” the remaining man said, “They’ll wear you down before killing you.”

Tired of waiting, Silas took the man’s warning seriously and stole the initiative, flinging his spear in a smooth motion, catching his target off-guard. Spinning wildly, it screeched and crashed into the ground. The other two swooped towards him, but not before he armed himself with his axe. On seeing the gleaming blade, one of the bat monsters grew fearful and sharply turned away. Its kin screeched at the betrayal but didn’t follow in time as the Duellist leapt and smashed his axe against its chin.

Its wings tipped to one side, and the monster came close to grounding itself but not quite. Flapping its wings rapidly, it tried to escape but failed as Silas sprinted alongside it and downed it with another strike. Just then, he flinched back in trepidation and instinctively raised his weapon as he heard the escaped bat monster shrieking piercingly. Had it only pretended to retreat to force down his guard?

Pivoting around, he saw the reality was much worse as the owl had silently plunged from its height without him noticing, and it had caught the bat monster amidst its retreat. The owl’s talons tightened and the bat monster’s dreadful protests were cut short. Talons releasing, the monster spun lifelessly through the air and thudded to the ground.

Silas dashed to his spear and levelled it into a combat stance, noting with irritation that the other man had sprinted for his life on seeing the owl. Just when he needed help as well. In truth, while Silas felt he could defeat the owl by himself, he also knew he might be wrong as a beast this strong undoubtedly had a few of jacks hidden up its feathered sleeves.

Four feet tall, the owl had a royal plumage of rich gold and velvety ebony. While its beak was slight, its talons were terrifyingly large and curved, still wet with blood. Below its defiantly upturned crest, its electric eyes formed a disapproving glare as it slowly drifted to the ground. It was a wonder he hadn’t noticed its fierce aura earlier or heard its approach, but he knew that was likely due to an ability it had.

Muscles taut, he backed away from it while tightening his grip, but his actions only seemed to further displease the owl as its expression turned severe. He wanted to attack it now while it was aground where he held an advantage, but he feared the cunning beast was actually attempting to bait him by placing itself in such a disadvantageous position. It felt strange stopping himself from charging in as he was so used to it, but then again, such an action had almost resulted in his death against the ratkin sorcerer, so perhaps it was better to wait.

Silas stared at the owl for several tense heartbeats before recalling the System’s ability to translate speech. Perhaps it worked on owls as well. It was worth a try, at least. “Can you understand me?”

It snorted in response, then waddled over to a bat monster and effortlessly tossed the corpse before him.

“What?”

It ran to another corpse and began tearing strips off its face, swallowing them slowly as if demonstrating to him.

“Oh, I’m not hungry,” he replied, raising his spear into a passive stance. He still kept up his guard, though.

The owl’s expression went from disapproval to confusion. Bobbing its head, it tried to show him again how to eat.

Silas was likewise confused until he realised maybe it wasn’t so interested in watching him eat as much as it was in them sharing a meal - an exercise in building rapport of sorts. Well, if that was the case, he had a better idea. Keeping his eyes trained on the owl, he warily walked to his rucksack and unpacked some food. He chucked a few pieces of beef jerky, a handful of dried fruit, and a whole protein bar its way, not quite knowing what owls ate.

The owl seemed interested and trusting enough to check out his tribute as it took small bites. Then, purring appreciatively (at least he imagined that to be the case), it picked up the jerky and protein bar with one foot and the bat monster corpse with the other and flapped away.

He waited a while for it to return, and on seeing it didn’t, sighed and went on his way, eventually finding a bus shelter for the night. It reminded of him of his past and brought a wry smile to his lips as he lay under its cover, slowly drifting off.

However, unbeknownst to him, the owl silently settled on the bus shelter sometime after he fell asleep and roosted there, studying him with its electric eyes.

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Batorae are moderately dangerous social creatures. They’re characterised by their pink and red skin, stocky legs, elongated torsos, and triangular heads. Although they have large bat-like ears, their hearing isn’t drastically better than a human’s. They have long but thin arms with curved claws and small mouths filled with pincer-teeth, both of which can be deadly weapons but only under the right conditions. Their snouts provide them with a moderate sense of smell, while their pure-black eyes allow for lacking vision during the day and decent vision during the night.

All in all, they’re rather unremarkable, at least until you consider their other talents, namely their guile and their agility. One thing you should know if you face a kettle of batorae is that once they set on a plan, they can go about it for hours due to their formidable patiences, waiting simply for a single slip up.

Lavanya Sanghvi - the Monster Bane - Adventurer’s Guide to Surviving the Idroan Wilderness