Proofreader: BrokenOlive

Chapter 37 - Hunted

Riins POV

Shadowfell, Region Unknown - Date Unknown

Week Thirteen

You have slain a [Shadow Hound] by doing so you have gained 450 experience! You have gained [2] [Shadow Affinity]!

After almost three weeks of tracking me on my journey I finally managed to get a stray from the pack making their numbers reduced to nine. One less massive over fanged overgrown dog to hunt me down and try to eat me, to which I'm very glad. I left the carcass of the dead hound in hope that the free meal will slow them down if they take the time to stop and eat or even fight over the dead body. I continue my walk along the forest in hopes of finding signs of life.

The hunting for me stopped for about ten hours, after I had slain the hound, I presume that they must have stopped their hunt for me, to eat their dead kin, a free meal. That is I saw nothing of them for around ten hours, during this time I slept and rested as much as two hours before I continued to move along the forest, in a slow run for four hours before resting again for two hours. During the two hour rests I checked my supplies and kept the amount I needed to carry with me to a bare minimum. When I first saw the hounds glowing eyes and heard their growls again, I had to move a good distance from where I had slain the dog. Soon our cat and mouse game began anew, with a pack of hungry beasts on my tail.

Week Fourteen

Little under an hour ago the hounds chanced their behaviour from following behind me at a safe distance to all of us to actively sniffing the air and making small bark like sounds, this increased in volume and now they have set off to somewhere ahead of me. So now I'm in a run to follow them, they must have gotten the scent of something eatable ahead. If it's something that not dead and smoked hound meat, I'm so going to fight for it.

With my light load I'm running at a good pace, but let's face it dogs are faster any day of the week. Still being able to see the butt of at least one of the pack members is all I need to keep tabs on them. We have been running for around half an hour, when I hear the sounds of fighting, voices! I hear fucking voices! I increase my speed as much as I can without wasting too much energy. After around five minutes of this fast running, the hounds ahead of me starts to fade into the shadows more and more, they are not going into hunting mode. The voices are growing louder and louder by the second. I along with the pack of hounds come crashing into a rather open space, - I would have called it a clearing if the was a normal forest. But like with anything else here this is a twisted version of a clearing, rocks in the form of spike like formations are all around the place. In this place, a group of young men are fighting a large group of hounds, a quick count reveals fifteen adding the nine that came with me a total of twenty-four hounds are now surrounding the group. Any other place and time, I would have let them deal with it themselves, after all only the strong survive in the world. But today is not that day where I let my potential rescue force die in front of me. So, let the fight begin and hope that I survive.

Bloodlust Aura, ten feet range!

[Bloodlust Aura]has been activated. Range set to [10] feet.

If I limit the range of my aura I can fight without worrying about affecting the group as long as I keep myself at least ten feet away from them. Throwing my backpack against a tree, I draw swords. I will use the hounds single minded focus against them, bringing myself in between two I ram my sword into the brain of one and in a spin, I force both swords down on top of the neck of the other one, two down. A jump over the dead body and I slap my swords into the side of another attacker heading towards the group, slicing open its abdomen, it will die shortly if I leave it but I can't take the chance, pricing its eye socket it drops dead. A growl from behind makes me spin around coming face to face with a hound growling at me. It seems as if it doesn't know what to do with me, stepping back and forth, good the aura is doings it's job. I jump to meet it, attacking first. One sword aimed for its head another ready to slice it open from the side off. It jumps straight up, a quick readjustment in the angel and the sword swung from the side ends up buried deep in the neck of the animal. A quick look towards the group reveals that three more hounds have been slain, they seem to be doing okay as far as I can see and more hounds are surrounding them as the fight continues.

I bring two more hounds down before a scream pierces the sound of growling dogs. A fleeing look at the group and I spot the problem, one of the young males has been knocked down by one of the hounds and he being torn apart alive. Nothing I can do about it from here, I turn my attention back to the problem at hand. The four growling dogs staring me down, one jumps at me. I slice its throat wide open. Just as I withdraw my sword I feel the tip of a pair of canines break the skin on my left arm.

Shadow Grab!

The pressure of the bite is stopped by the skills hold on the hound, I quickly withdraw my arm from its hold. Stabbing my swords into its brain as I do. Shit! With my aura, active I can afford to use shadow grab again, fuck! I messed up! Focus you dipshit!! Focus or you will die! A jump to the side and my swords slice the neck open on another hound, one more, focus. My breathing is getting heavy and I’m not without wounds, small ones but wounds nonetheless. It jumps at me and I try to avoid it the best I can in this place of dead bodies. Finally, I bring my sword down into the back head severing it vertebrae from it brain.

Two more goes down. I'm out of breath, sweat and blood is getting mixed up, yet, I can't stop. If I do stop I can lose my only way home, I must push myself even more, to survive and to get home. I steady myself with one sword as I bring down one more hound, I can feel my legs. I see the claw come swinging down at me but that I can do little to fully avoid it. The pain is dizzying, I grit my teeth, refusing to scream even if every fibre in my body begs me to. I swing my swords blindly as the blackness still clings to me. Finally, I get my sight back enough to finish off the attacker. With the break in attacks I stumble towards my backpack to find something that I can bandage up the wound with, while all this going on, there is only one thing on my mind and that is, ‘Man, I fucked up big time.’ I'm just glad that it not my dominant eye. On the bright side, I can be a real pirate now! I mean real pirates only have one eye anyway, wait… Does this world even have pirates!? Ah man, if they don't, I'm just a plain mildly disabled person… Not that I can't live without my right eye, it's just the fact that some might see it as a liability, but there is nothing I can do about it now. I find a piece of my old shirt and rip a string off thick enough for me to get it all around my head and tie a knot. A new wave of dizziness hits me as I tighten the knot, I steady myself against the trees log. A noise behind me makes me spin around, bringing my sword into the head of a new hound. I can't keep my focus any longer.

Bloodlust Aura deactivate!

[Bloodlust Aura]has been deactivated.

Having decreased the amount of mana didn't seem to do much for my sorry state and the dizziness only increase as the seconds ticked by. With my sight, all blurry I spotted two remaining hounds bend on fighting to the last man or dog I guess. They had their focus on a wounded member of the group, leave me to try and move towards them. That task was easier said than done, begin exhausted beyond my limit, barely keeping myself standing and my body screaming in pain over having lost an eye. I was for all intent and purpose not fit to pick a fight with two overgrown dogs bent on killing and eating everything they could. But if I were to give up I would most likely lose my sole chance of getting back, back to my own realm. So, I kept dragging myself towards the growling dogs born from a horror movie gone wrong. But hey what can you do, right. Coming into reach with them I did the only thing I had any energy to do.

“You dumb mutts look this way”

All the while swing my sword in - well let's face it, - pathetic weak swings. Making me look like a baby with a rattle. On the bright side, my plan seemed to work as one of the dogs spun around to face me. The bad this was this, I had no energy whatsoever to move from my spot or in this case defend myself well enough to make it matter. So overall? I'm very much screwed right now. I feel the impact from the hound more than see it jumping at me, once more I'm sure I cracked a few rips. The jaws close in on my face before the dog freezes in place. That is all I need to see before I pass out on the spot, dog or no dog, I can't keep myself awake a second longer.

Week Fifteen

I fade in and out consciousness. I hear voices of men and women. I am burning up. I feel the sweet touch of something cold. I'm in so much pain I want to die. No even if I'm hurting, I want to live. It hurts so much. My eye burns. My body burns. I want it to end.

Week Sixteen

I want to live. I want to kill every single dog out there. It hurts to breath. It hurts to move. I feel myself being dried clean, I must be sweaty. I feel people next to me, yet I can't seem to find the energy to open my eyes… no eye, open my eye. A woman is hovering over me I can smell the sweet fragrance from her body. She here again, her hands gently cleaning my chest from the layer of sweat. I'm sure I'm having a very high fever. She lifts my head and I feel a cold thing being gently pressed against my lower lip, liquid hits me. Water, sweet water. I know she's in the room, close by. Always staying close by.

Week Seventeen

The fever has come back, I'm sure. My body burns. No, my eye burn so much, so that I want to claw it out. It hurts. I grit my teeth’s, I'm not one to scream in pain. My throat hurts. Did I scream my throat to this sorry state? We are back to me being dried clean by the gentle hands of the woman and me twisting in pain so unbearable that I wish someone would knock me the fuck out already.

Week Eighteen

I feel fine. Had a few moments where I was sure that I was going to kick it. I can breathe without it hurting at all, meaning that at least two weeks has gone me by while I was down with a fever. I'm in a bed made with some kind of linen sheet. The room itself is simple, a bed and a fireplace and a chair. I lay there for a few moments getting a feel for my body and its condition, feet moveable, legs no damage that will hinder my movement. Stomach and chest feel fine, the brushing and pain from the fractured ribs seems to be in good shape. Hands good, arms working. Now to the last and most serious part, taking a status on the wound sustained to my right eye. I gently remove the bandage covering the wound. Hmm, so my eyelid is intact, well that's better than what I had expected to find. The eye itself it there but no light enters my sights. Closing my left eye, I wait, after a few seconds I give up hope of receiving any light or any form of use from my right eye. But it remains in the eye shocked at least.

Lifting myself up on my elbows I get myself into a sitting position resting myself against the wall. Taking a closer look at down myself, I find that I'm more or less naked. Well things just keep getting better and better, don't they? Wrapping the blanket around my lower body, I slowly stand. Having spotted a change of cloth on the chair I strike at my target.

Now with my lower half covered up, next order of the day is to find out what the fuck happen when I passed out in the middle of a battlefield.

Show waiting messages!

Messages have reached max limit, messages have been combined. You have slain a great number of [Shadow Hound]’s to a combined number of 14. You have gained 5.850 experience by doing so. You have gained [26] [Shadow Affinity] in this battle. [Shadow Affinity] has reached first rank, ability [Shadow Rift] has been granted to [Familiar: Blood Queen Spider]. [Blood Queen Spider] has slain an enemy you have gained [2] [Shadow Affinity]. You have lost consciousness.