I woke up fresh and ready to train, I sat up without opening my eyes, getting fired up as I felt my muscles stretching. I breathed in a mouthful of air and then slowly opened my eyes as I breathed out the air. I hoped to stand up and then made my stretching exercises.

It was nothing extraordinary, just some less simple stretching exercises than on Earth. I then practiced the aikido stances, while remembering my second hunt two days after I hunted down the Elk and the Scorpion Panther.

***

It was a misty morning, though I don’t know where the mist came from, as I hadn’t seen any lake with enough water to produce such mist, I didn’t care, it was another cover to hunt. After the painful experience with the Scorpion Panther’s acid, I knew I had to be more careful from now on; beasts here had powerful weapons to defend themselves. I picked some rocks and hit them with each other until I had one that seemed slightly a knife, which although crudely made, could be quite helpful.

I ran through the forest for only 20 minutes before I found a beast, luckily for me it wasn’t a Scorpion Panther; I wasn’t sure I could kill it as cleanly as I did last time, and I didn’t want to risk a painful experience as the one with the Rock Bear. The beast before me was an Elk, which I decided I would call Iron Elk because of its antlers. This one, different from the one days before, wasn’t hurt, and its antlers were even more fearsome and sharper than the other one.

I would try to hide and ambush it, but it had seen me, and it was looking me as if I was a prey and not the other way, which unnerved me pretty much, so I got onto a battle stance, left foot at front, right foot at the back, and both arms in front of his chest fists formed and claws extended. As I got ready to fight the Elk did too. It bowed his head, pointing its antlers towards me, and then charged straight.

I dragged the right feet in a clockwise circle, spinning to the left and therefore dodging its dash… or so I thought, because when I finished the spin, I encountered myself face to face with the Elk, which had sidestepped with a little and fast jump to its right, making it so that he didn’t miss or lose speed. I found myself impaled by its antlers and pushed 20 meters away!

That damn beast was strong! I crashed onto a tree which almost broke and then fell down, but luckily I had already recovered from the antlers by the time I stood up. I looked towards the Elk with a serious and worried gaze, would I be able to kill it? I guessed I would, even if it was at the cost of my arm, but I decided against it. – [I can’t learn to fight if I always resort on wasteful and easy methods.] – And so I got into position once again.

The Elk, seeing me in perfect condition even after impaling and propelling me 20 meters away, got angry, and charged again at me. I frowned as I thought fast how to counter him, and then I realized what I could do. I prepared to do the same sidestep I did before. Once he was near me, yet somewhat farther than the last time, I repeated the dodge but this time observing how the Elk reacted, and as expected he did the same as the last time, but not me. This time, dodging with more of a time lapse, as I was finishing the circular swipe with my right foot, I kicked the floor, dodging right by a meter or so instead of the short sidestep I did before, and leaving the Elk just in front of the tree I had been launched to.

The Elk, who didn’t expect my second dodge, couldn’t react on time, and dashed right onto the tree, impaling it with its antlers and almost making it burst. I took the chance while he was struggling to remove its antlers from the tree to strike with my claws onto its heart, killing him almost instantly, making it so that he wouldn’t suffer and I wouldn’t be put in peril.

I was so satisfied the first time I hunted him without ambushing I was smiling all the way back to the cave, even when I was dragging 300 kilos behind me.

***

I finished my aikido stances and readied for the Werewolf Fury’s ones, which were much more aggressive and ferocious. And as I did it I remembered my second encounter with a Scorpion Panther.

***

It had already passed a week since my second hunt, and I had gotten more proficient in combat, even though some preys got away, coz I wasn’t fast enough. I had discovered just a day ago that the poison stingers still produced poison, and so I was equipped with poisoned daggers for the first time, but instead of encountering an Elk or a Draconic Wolf, which I had seen the day before yesterday and hadn’t been able to hunt yet, I found a Scorpion Panther, rendering my poisoned dagger useless.

I cursed my luck in my mind, but still got ready to fight; I couldn’t avoid them forever, so better learn how to fight them.

This time I crouched and used my most aggressive stance, one where I discarded all defense for offensive and agility. Against the Elks or Wolves I could just bare my teeth and endure the pain of being impaled or bitten, but against the Scorpion Panther, if I was bitten or scratched, I would suffer tremendously, so I had to opt for a different kind of fighting.

Before the Panther even jumped at me, I charged straight at him, which took him by surprise, as no one had fought him face to face, frightful of its acid. So I approached and he made a weird facial expression that I guessed was a smile, and then tried to bite me, only to find out I wasn’t in front of him anymore.

Using my claws I could make sharp turns and dodge effectively, as described on the guide, and so I positioned myself on its side then elbowed its ribs, only to send him flying against a tree. – [Ha! It seems Kinetic conversion in little quantities is quite effective in making me faster and stronger.] – I immediately and unhesitatingly ran towards him and when I was a few meters of him I launched him a charged dagger. I threw it at his back, so that he would dodge towards my left...

And he did it, only to find both my fists with claws extended going through its ribs, trying to puncture its heart. Unluckily to me, its heart wasn’t exactly where I supposed, so even thought I hit it, I didn’t went totally through it, leaving the Panther with the chance to spit its acid at my face!

“Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!” – I couldn’t help but scream as the acid got into my eyes and I felt my face melt.

It was the second most painful experience I had had, and I didn’t want to feel it. I took the dagger on my belt, which I had improvised with some pelts, and stabbed myself on my head, effectively losing consciousness.

I woke up thrice only to feel the acid corrode me from inside, and so I stabbed myself again, falling into darkness again.

By the fourth time I woke up, I didn’t feel any more pain. It was already dark, and so I stood up and looked around, seeing that no one was around, I grabbed carefully the Panther and dragged it fast towards the cave. Luckily I didn’t encounter any beast before I got to safety.

***

I finished the first stances set, Equilibrium, that was the one I used against the Elk, centered on balance over defense, speed and offense, and then passed onto the stances of the more ferocious way I used to hunt the Panther, Feast.

***

As I had been hunting on the forest lately, I found some little beasts on the forest. Ones such beasts were big round rabbits, which would usually be waddling but that at the minimum sign of danger would contract, becoming a little furry compressed ball which then started rolling away from the danger.

I also discovered some birds which would hunt little snakes or even rabbits, but nothing dangerous to me, and as such, nothing worthy of being hunted to be devoured.

It wasn’t until after the first month when I discovered the fourth worthy prey in the forest (not counting the gryphon, which I had yet no chance to defeat, or the apes, of which I hadn’t seen any since that day.). It was a beautiful beast, five meter long, two meter high and a meter wide; it had a spiked mane which emanated a dangerous aura that was almost palpable. Yes, the Spiked Lion.

When I encountered it, I was already dressed in leather clothes made from the Elks, and had a belt made with the same leather, where I carried some daggers made with claws. The Lion smelled the Elk, and identified me as a prey, making him look at me with voracious eyes and a hungry gaze.

I decided to try fighting it, and choose the only fight stance I hadn’t tried, the Legion fighting style, being an entire herd me alone; that meant avoid the enemy, don’t be hurt, and you’ll be able to hurt the enemy hundreds of times.

I crouched on the floor, similar to when I fought the Scorpion Panther, but instead of leaning forward to gain speed to dash straight to the enemy as with the Feast, I leaned towards a side, prepared to dodge at a moment notice. And different from the direct way I attacked the Panther, this time I waited, ready to counteract.

The Lion, seeing I wasn’t attacking, ran towards me, neither too fast nor too slow, and definitely with a big strength behind its strides. When he was over me, he moved his paw with a speed unbelievable for such a big beast, yet thanks to my already leant body, I dodged immediately and clawed at its side before getting away and regaining my stance.

…

After an hour of dodging and clawing, the floor was full of blood and the Lion was furious but tired. I was also getting tired, because even if I could not get physically tired, it was mentally exhausting to keep my concentration at top during an hour straight. I decided I would try to finish it already, as he was getting more sluggish, so I prepared a dagger and started charging, only to see the lion lean forward, as if bowing, and I wondered if it was surrendering, until the spikes on its back stopped being relaxed and got straight looking towards me.

[Oh f*ck!] – I ran towards my right as he started shooting its spikes, and had to jump to avoid quite a few, but I got far enough to put a tree between myself and the Lion, so I breathed out and leaned my back on the tree…

*Thud!* *Crunch!*

…I looked downwards only to see one of the spikes protruding from my chest, that f*cking beast had impaled me onto the tree!

I gritted my teeth and walked forwards, only to notice that it was not a smooth spike; it had backwards spikes! I was ripping apart my own flesh only to get from the tree, and like hell it was painful. Before I could walk completely out of the spike, I saw the Lion staring me with hate and pleasure.

I tried to get out and the Lion jumped towards me, so I did the only thing I could think at the time, I walked backwards, impaling myself again, but successfully getting away from the attack. The Lion, after failing, stared at my eyes as it stood in front of me. I prepared something I had thought at the moment while I waited for the Lion to attack me. It wasn’t even a few seconds until he tried to bite my head, and when he was upon me, I jumped upwards, displacing the spike so it pointed towards the Lion, as the Lion saw it, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem, he knew its spikes, so he could avoid most of the damage.

That was his last mistake, as I had charged the whole spike with energy and the moment the Lion entered in contact, it exploded furiously. I saw myself getting launched backwards, or at least half me. The damn explosion had ripped me in two halves.

I coughed blood as I landed, and tried to look for the Lion. I saw him and damn he was resistant, he was still alive! Obviously he was hurt, but the fact that he could survive that proved he was powerful beyond belief. Luckily he was too distressed to realize I was regenerating, and in a minute I had re-grown my legs, I ignored the fact that I was naked and looked around, I took one of the spikes the Lion had shot before and charged its tip to improve its penetrative force.

When it was charged, the Lion finally realized I was alive, and seeing I had grabbed one of his spikes, one of the same spikes which had hurt him so badly, he showed fear for the first time, and tried to run, but I didn’t let him, launching the improvised javelin with all my strength, which was quite a bit, and I looked the javelin fly through the 10 meters separating me from the Lion, and impaling him onto the floor.

I took a second spike and approached, ready to finish it, only to see that I had hit its heart without even realizing it. That was the first time I felt sorry for a beast, as it was a magnificent beast, but still I was more important to myself than a beast, so I swallowed my thoughts and dragged the Lion together with all the spikes I could carry, and went to the cave.

***

Now that I reflected upon it, I had quite the lucky first time hunts, if I must say, but I wasn’t one to ignore the gifts the world gave me, and so I took advantage of anything I could. As I finished the stances I went towards the entrance, and worked on separating the scales of the Draconic Wolf on different piles depending on its shape, to know which I could use to craft my robes, and which not.

I spent around an hour between separating and sticking the new usable ones to the clothes, and then I got ready to go explore the forest.

I carried some strange leaves that I used to make some kind of canteen to carry the glue I used to craft. I also carried a sharpened fang I had worked on quite a bit to use as a knife. It was the better crafted weapon I had, but still I preferred to use my claws, they felt more like me.

I wandered for half an hour until I found one of the glue trees, and tried my best to collect it. I had discovered that it solidified when heated, and that’s why when I got in contact it solidified, the body heat had solidified the glue instantly, but the leaves I used to collect the glue where strangely cold, and this way I could carry the glue to my cave. After collecting two canteens I got ready to leave when I saw some little monkeys jump between the trees not too far from where I was through the help of some vines. – [Those vines seem quite useful; I could really use them… Ah! I can use them!]

While thinking about the monkeys and the vines I realized just how useful could those vines become if I used them to do what I had thought. I excitedly ran towards the tree and climbed it to cut quite a few vines, then coiled them around my body and ran towards the cave; I had so many things to prepare!

***

After a few days of collecting vines, glue and doing preparations, I was ready. I had to prepare everything perfectly, or it would be dangerous, but I was sure it would work, so I prepared everything and ran with all the equipment towards a particular pond where I had been months ago, and started preparing everything.

I took a big rock, pierced with antlers parts and a vine attached to it and buried it, leaving the vine outside, attached to something I let on the floor. I repeated this all around the pond, burying around 20 rocks, and by the time I finished I saw a shadow jump down from a tree.

I jumped backwards and prepared my knife; as the shadow hit the floor, I jumped forwards even faster and slashed the legs of the ape which had dropped on the floor with a edge charged knife, which cut through flesh and bones as if cutting through butter, leaving the ape without legs, only to slash again at its right arm, followed by its left one. Once I ended, an amputee ape was on the floor. I made haste towards one of the buried stones and hid there.

After about half an hour, a shadow even bigger than the ape dropped from the sky. – [What I had been waiting for!]

When the shadow had almost grabbed the ape, I took the spike javelin which I had tied to the rock with the vine, and charging its tip, I launched it towards the shadow!

It arrived almost instantly, and I heard a beautiful pain scream.

*Craaaaaaaaaaaaah!*

[Yes! I’ve got you, damn gryphon!] – Exactly, I had made a plan to fight the gryphon thanks to the vines, which would tie him to the ground.

I grew excited as it dropped onto the floor, only for it to look towards the source of the spike, but I wasn’t there.

I had ran all the way around the pond, getting on the other side of it, grabbing the spike on that side I charged it, and aimed at my new prey. It was time to hunt the big shots!