“I was a driven man once. I had a dream and pursued it at all costs. Now, I’m just another wanderer searching for his place in the world. No one cares about someone whose trials and tribulations boil down to self-doubt and a lack of purpose.”

-Anonymous

-

Ra’hel concentrated her will, using it to sharpen the image she held in a delicate balance within her mind. She relaxed into a comfortable sway, at peace with the world around her as she forced it to bend to her desires. Desires which ran counter intuitive to the natural order. Fortunately, her understanding of that order allowed her to single out her prey with absolute precision.

Will, imagery, and understanding were the key components to using Source in complex ways to complete powerful spells. Mordai had drilled that into her over the weeks.

With great care, she made a show of wiping her brow and fanning her neck, drawing attention to her deep cut blouse, just in case anyone happened to glance over while she worked. It would be counter-productive if her instructors suspected her of playing the pig. She was, of course, but such was the nature of an [Ambush Predator], a Class she had been overjoyed to obtain last week.

Her Core flexed and responded to her will. The bowl of water before her turned to ice as she pulled the kinetic energy from it, weaponizing the way her Core gathered Source from the world to replenish itself. The ice was a start, but not enough for her. So, she pushed it further. She drained the potential energy from ice, partially severing its relationship to this world’s gravitational field.

Rising from her coils to match the ice’s escalating location, she sent lines of kinetic energy through it. The ice shattered it into long shards with jagged edges. A subsequent wave of kinetic energy sent the shards hurtling through the air to embed into a motionless target dummy, a good 50 feet away.

Once again, she feigned exhaustion at the spell. She swooned and glanced up toward Mordai, who watched over his protégés from nearby. He took a step toward her, his intent to help written all over his open face. With a weak smile plastered on her face, she waved him away. Her gaze lingered on his armored form, as it was apt to do. He surely noticed, but she could only hope that her acting combined with her [Facade] Skill was strong enough to hide her true intention.

She reassured herself that it must be. Mordai may be soft at heart, but if his near constant companion caught wind of her intentions, she was sure she would not survive long.

As such, cracking open Mordai’s hard outer shell to get to the tender meat underneath would be a massive undertaking. Ra’hel suspected she was not the only one hiding her true capabilities. There was no way a proud warrior like Honey would treat the carefree [Paladin] like an equal unless there was more to him than met the eye.

Indeed, his habit of wearing full plate armor and her observation of the locals during her free time substantiated this theory. It was rare to find an individual who went about their day to day life armed and armored for war, but those who did smelt of blood and fury.

It would be a challenge to get to him, but those were the hunts she enjoyed the most.

She settled down into her coils, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and sank into her Soulspace with practiced ease. Her Core and Class shone with increasing brilliance each time she checked in on them. They both exuded an air of advancement, as if they were on the cusp of evolving despite how recently she had obtained them. She allowed herself to bask in the pride she felt, but only for a moment.

Pride appeased, unlike her unending hunger, she flitted through her available Classes. None interested her enough to take in addition to [Ambush Predator]. That was no surprise. Next, she searched for a Skill notification, the reason she was here to begin with. She found none.

With a small hiss of frustration, she opened her eyes. To an observer it would look like she had closed her eyes for a few mere moments, perhaps just to rest and center herself.

Ever cultivating herself as the picture of a perfect student, she resumed her practice. However, on the inside her thoughts raged. According to Honey, if she showed the ability to do something, the System would reward her with a Skill for it. However, creating, levitating, and shooting ice yielded her nothing, even after several attempts. What was she doing wrong? Was her Class incompatible with magic? If so, she may have made a fatal flaw in her Class choice.

She had no intention of limiting herself to kinetic and chemical energy cantrips like Snowflake, adorable as his futile struggles may be. Thoughts turning to her hapless classmate, she decided that perhaps it was time for a break. Informing Mordai of her intentions, she slithered over to the sparring ground where Snowflake and his little rodent were once again receiving one on one attention from their martially inclined instructor, Honey.

Part of her wondered if she should be jealous of the way Snowflake monopolized Honey’s attention, but a much larger part of her shuddered at the gleeful gleam that shone in Honey’s eye when they used to spar… and the drops of drool that would leak from her lips. She knew the gluttonous look of a predator sizing up a meal, and she had no intention of being on the receiving.

Ra’hel suppressed a shiver and turned her focus to the spar. Spar, was perhaps, a generous term for what was happening. Snowflake fought like a baby bunny with no true sense of fear, or a mouse cornered by one of her lesser kin. It was what made him so delightful, just scurrying around with no sense of how weak and fragile he truly was. Just a weak little thing playing at being strong. Well, until last week that is. Now, he had more of edge, which she approved of. Before he was just a convenient snack, but maybe at this rate he would grow into true prey.

However, if she allowed that development to happen, she would have to be wary of his little pet, or get one of her own. The little creature had grown at an unnatural rate, going from a morsel to bite in the space of just a few days. It now stood knee-height to Snowflake. The grey patches of fur that had accented its fur had molted to reveal their true form. Black feathers, long and sleek. A crested ridge of them ran along its spine and covered the entire length of its unusually long tail.

It swiped at and harried Honey from the side, using its prehensile tail as a weapon more often than not. Judging from the long scratches on Honey’s wooden batons, Ra’hel suspected that the creature was using Source to harden and sharpen its feathers into deadly weapons. Nonetheless, its rapid increase in size and ability was not what made the creature a potential future threat. No, it was its instincts.

Even now, from dozens of feet away, it locked eyes with her and hissed. Ra’hel gave it a smile in return, making sure the annoying little thing got a good look at her teeth. Having overhead Snowflake’s investigations into the beast’s heritage, Ra’hel privately suspected it had some mongoose blood running through its veins.

She lounged in the sun, watching Snowflake scamper about in his usual delectable fashion, and plotted her dinner plans. Snowflake was off the menu for now, his value as entertainment notwithstanding, she was not yet ready to face his mother-hen if he were to go missing. However, something relating to him may be just the thing she needed to vent her frustration.

Last week he had taken the day off and come back smelling of pain and helplessness. The taste of it in the air had almost driven her mad with hunger. In the evening, she followed the scent to the part of the city where it reeked the strongest. Specks of his blood painted the walls of a nondescript alley. The taste of the perpetrator lingered in the air. She recognized it.

That same scent lingered on a man she had noticed following her several days before. At the time she thought nothing of it, merely enjoyed their game of snake and mouse. However, after Snowflake’s incident, the man had disappeared. Perhaps tonight was the night she pushed herself to swallow a piece of bigger game. Her Unique Skill [Gluttony] could surely take it, and perhaps the challenge would be enough to level her Class and gain a new Skill. If said Skill was subpar, perhaps it would be time to consider a new path to the top of the food chain.

***

Ra’hel set out that evening to hunt.

The art of the hunt, like many arts, was not a precise things with methods and rules. Not to Ra’hel at least. No, she found joy in the chase and thrill in not getting caught. There was a part of her that enjoyed a good struggle, but if it came to a fight she would consider herself to have failed.

It took perhaps a dozen bars and quiet drinking places to find the one she was looking for. She slithered up to her prey, taking great care to keep herself shorter than him. Humanoid males were often strange about height. She found it odd since more anatomical differences often did not differ them. It was bizarre. She folded herself into the barstool next to his, propping up herself up in approximation to how a humanoid might sit.

She flicked her long purple locks to the side, baring her slender neck and delicate, pointed ear to her prey. Casting a sidelong look at him, she saw his scarred knuckles whiten around the thick tankard in his hands.

“Wadda ye want?” The muscled man’s voice was thick with undiscernible emotion. Not that it mattered. Ra’hel had a hard time telling most of them apart anyway. She was familiar with only a few, but in those she was an expert.

“My name is Ra’hel,” she said, extending a hand for him to shake. He did not move. She rested her hand on his forearm instead. “We have met, but I didn’t catch your name.”

“Raarik,” he said, the guttural name rolling with ease from between his tusked lips. “Now go away, I’m busy.”

“Too busy for me to buy you an apology drink?”

“What fer?” He didn’t say no, which encouraged Ra’hel. Better this route than the other one.

“It has come to my attention that I’ve caused you a bit of trouble, and I feel that I should help ease it in whatever way I can.” She laid the implication on as heavy as she dared, leaning forward and pushing her elbows together and up as naturally as she could. For a moment, she worried that she had come on too strong. Sometimes prey were too skittish for this tact.

“Suppose I could do with a drink,” Raarik said, reaching over and down to snag her stool and pull it closer to himself. She discreetly rose on her coils to lessen the weight for him. “And some company. Tell me, what trouble did ye cause me?”

Ra’hel motioned for two drinks from the bartender and a matching pair of shots. The shots arrived first and she hefted one to her lips, giving Raarik a coy look over the rim.

“Oh I just assumed that a little troublemaker like me probably got up to something or the other, and I wanted an excuse to come over and talk to you.” She paused to down to the shot in one go. Putting the glass down, she locked eyes with him. “I have a tendency to be naughty.”

Raarik smirked and downed his own shot. She used the brief second his eyes were off her to taste the air. The pheromones he exuded were more than enough to tell her that the plan was working. His lust would be his downfall. After all, it was a far lesser sin than her [Gluttony].

She smirked to herself as she thought of the last time she was in a bar and thinking of her Unique Skill. They bought the [Big Eater] lie with such ease that it had surprised her. Looking back, they might not have been phased by the true name and use of her Unique Skill, but deception was her nature. She had no intention of changing.

They drank and talked, words and actions interlaid with near overt innuendo. After a few drinks, Ra’hel began to play drunk, swaying and slurring her words. She took several opportunities to flash the skin of her humanoid half, pretending that the alcohol made her feel too warm. In reality, it was a struggle to consume enough to overcome the metabolism of her lower half, especially given her pure mass. It was fortunate for her that males often overlooked her scaled lower half in favor for her fleshy upper one.

Just as Ra’hel began to suspect that she would have to be the one to suggest a second location, Raarik spoke up. “How’d ye like to come back to mine? Since yer new and all, I could show ye a few moves.”

She giggled and ran a finger along one of his bulging biceps.

“Maybe. But maybe I should show you what moves I have first,” she said. Lowering her voice to a loud ‘drunken’ whisper, she continued. “I bet I can do things you’ve never seen before.”

He grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her into a deep kiss. She made sure to place a hand on his thigh, moving it slight up enough to tease of more but bold enough to be noticed.

“Let’s go,” she said when finally given a chance, biting her lip and taking deep breathes to emulate passion.

He grabbed her hand and led her out into the city. They made their way down the streets, pushing each other up against walls and kissing as they went. After a few blocks, Ra’hel pulled Raarik into a dark alley. She had not originally planned to make use of this specific alley, but it was conveniently placed and tasted of poetic justice so she could hardly complain.

Ra’hel pushed her body against him, positioning her scaled half with care. She kissed him with tongue, letting the venom in her hidden fangs flow into her saliva, oh so slightly.

“Your place is too far,” she said, breaking away to look into his eyes. “Let me give you a taste of what I want to do to you.”

“Here? Out in the open?” He did not sound suspicious, just surprised. She was pretty sure.

Now was when the game was at its most dangerous. Raarik was beyond her in martial might, she was positive. If she had to guess, he had at least a tier 2 core and a combat Class. Not that it would help him if everything went according to plan.

“The chance that we might get caught makes it that much more exciting,” she said, coiling around him to whisper in is ear. “I told you that I tend to be a little naughty.”

“Mmmm,” he reached out to touch her. “Can’t say I’m upset.”

She finished a full rotation around his body and once again leaked venom into a deep kiss. They swayed together in that dark alley, one drunk and content, and the other weaving a pattern of complacency. On a whim, Ra’hel used her technique from this afternoon, drawing the kinetic and potential energy out from Raarik.

Her hands wandered his body, removing the concealed knives she marked earlier, during their fondling. He hummed contentedly as she wrapped herself around him again, nipping at his neck like a lover would, testing the tensile strength of his skin.

With her body pressed all the way around his, she could feel his heartbeat slow. The end of the hunt in sight, she could not resist asking something that had been on her mind.

“Why did your friend attack Snowflake?”

“Mmmm, Snowflake?”

“My classmate.”

“Oh, yeah. Dave just told Robert to send the Slave and Demon a message. Me too, but Angosin put a stop to that. Soft spot fer yer lil’ classmate that one.”

“I suppose I owe Snowflake a thank you then.” Ra’hel’s carefully positioned coils began to squeeze. “I doubt I could have taken you in a straight fight.”

“Fight? I’d wrestle a pretty lass like you any- Wait, yer huggin’ too hard m’love.” Raarik squirmed in her grasp, but his arms were pinned beneath her scales. His scent turned to fear, an emotion she was infinitely familiar with. She savored the taste of it in the air, her tongue flickering out.

His struggles turned violent, cutting off her leisurely enjoyment.

With a quick, practiced motion, she wrapped a hand around his mouth to keep him from screaming and sank her fangs into his neck. It took two tries and a bit of chemical, as well as kinetic, energy to puncture his tough skin. Unable to support the hundreds of pounds of pure muscle crushing him Raarik to the ground, Ra’hel wrapped around him. He struggled beneath her, but to no avail. A few of his Skills sent shooting pain through her coils, but she had been ready for a struggle.

She felt his sturdy bones give, then break. His breathe came out in slow, ragged gasps.

He put up much less of a fight than she was prepared for. She supposed she had her Source draining technique to thank for that, even if it did leave him a bit colder than she enjoyed her meals. At least he was still twitching the way she liked.

There, in the alley where Snowflake learned his place in the food-chain, she opened her jaws to feed. Her mouth opened far too wide for what looked to be the mouth of a humanoid woman. Despite its unnatural size, it was still too small for the meal before her. [Gluttony] bridged the difference.

Raarik disappeared down her gullet, nary a bump in her coils to show his passing. Another thing to thank [Gluttony] for.

Basking in the afterglow of a successful hunt, Ra’hel slipped away from the scene of the incident. She paused only for a second on the way home, to slip into her Soulspace.

[Skill learned: [Weakening Touch]]

[[Ambush Hunter] level up! Level: 6]

[[Ambush Hunter] level up! Level: 7]

[Skill obtained: [Swift Strike]]

[[Ambush Hunter] Class Change conditions met-> [Man-eater]]