Chapter V: Hunter and Hunted

Demonic Wildlands Near the Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 16, 172 ,328 DE

As my front paws hit the ground the change does not stop, and my body swells to a length of five meters and a height of three meters at the shoulder. For the first time in years, I am in the fully released state of my true form.

THUMP-thump!

A single heavy beat of my heart causes me to shiver. I no longer sense the flow of any Mana within myself. My Mana has been completely sealed. If I had not stayed in human form, how long ago would I have finished the Scripture of Body Forging?

My strength has increased, I cannot tell by how much. My muscles feel ready to explode with power. It has been so long since I have been in this form, I do not know how powerful it had actually become, so I cannot gauge how much of an improvement I receive from the final fusing of my Mana to my Body.

Pushing down my elation, I stare at the Demonic Yellow Earth Apes in front of me. The all too human expressions on their faces mimic the foul odor of fear emanating from them. With my senses no longer blunted by my pathetic human form, a new world opens up before my nose and ears.

Other than the now Demonic Apes, I cannot find any Beasts in the vicinity. A few birds and animals cower in the trees above or in burrows, but they have injuries. Anything that could flee has already long fled from the path of the Beast Wave.

The foul odor of burnt fire-powder still drifts from the north on the breeze, but the sound of gunfire has completely ceased. I pick the distant chugging of a large steam engine. It probably belongs to whoever owns the guns.

"AAAAOOOOOOUUUUU!"

My howl tells every animal and Beast in hearing range that a true Lord of the wilds has come into their territory. The terrified apes cower and grovel in the rotting leaves and dirt that cover the forest floor.

"RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

The Lord Class Beast lets out another roar, and it is noticeably closer than it was less than a minute ago. It comes for me, and I welcome the challenge. I have been playing the weakling for far too long. I need to feel the flesh and bones of my prey tear and crack in my jaws. I need to taste my prey's blood in my mouth.

Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud.

After almost a quarter of an hour, the sound of a galloping Beast reaches my ears.

"AAAAOOOOOOUUUUU!"

"RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

With an angry roar, the Lord Class Beast homes in on the sound of my howl. The huge Demonic Yellow Earth Ape comes into view when it careens around a tree. Its runs on all fours, with its long arms supporting its massive body as it throws its legs forward. With each spring, it crosses seven or eight meters.

Seeing its minions groveling on the ground, the Lord skids to a halt. As it scans the area, its beady eyes glow with fiery light, and its face twists into a very human-like expression of rage. Its gaze passes over me, as though it does not see me, before snapping back to glare at me. Confusion dulls the anger on its face, and the glow in its eyes fades slightly.

"What are you?" The Lord's bestial growl contains a hint of trepidation beneath its anger and confusion.

I draw in a deep breath through my nose. "The scent of fear. Do you know why you fear me?"

"I FEAR NOTHING!" As its rage crushes its fear, the Beast Lord's roar echoes in the quiet forest. Anything within twenty kilometers or more would easily hear it.

"Better. Fight me or die!"

"RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Letting loose a wordless cry of pure rage, the Beast Lord stands up and pounds its fists on its chest. Fully erect, the Beast Lord stands six meters in height, with shoulders half as wide as it is tall.

I charge forward and the Beast Lord leaps out to meet me. Dodging under the huge swing of a right fist the size of an adult human's torso, I sink my teeth into the bulging muscles of its thigh. I would have a hard time penetrating its tough flesh with my Bowie knives, but against my teeth, it parts like soft tofu.

Pain flares in my chest, as the Beast Lord's huge left fist slams into me. Sent flying by the force of the blow, my teeth tear out a huge chunk of meat from its thigh, and I flip over in midair to land back on my feet.

Spitting out the chunk of meat, I take a deep breath. I do not feel any grinding of broken bones, but without a doubt, my ribs are bruised. "Disgusting! Corrupted!"

"KILL!" The Beast Lord roars and leaps at me.

Dodging under the Beast Lord's feet, I spin around and sink my teeth into its left ankle. With my paws sinking into the ground, I push backward, tearing out the tendons and ligaments in the back of its ankle.

"RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

Roaring in inarticulate rage, the Beast Lord tries to spin around, but its ruined leg gives out. It pitches face first into the ground. With a wordless snarl, it pushes itself into a sitting position.

"Kill you!" With hatred filling its glowing eyes, the Beast Lord glares at me. If just looks could kill, I would already be dead ten times over.

Not attacking the Beast Lord, I take the chance to observe it better. Along with its blood, specks of fiery red leak from its ragged wounds. A much stronger stench of Chaos corruption emanates from its blood, strong to the point of overpowering the odor of the blood itself.

"Do you understand what Chaos corruption is?"

Still glaring at me, the Beast Lord makes a human-like nod. "Chaos makes me strong."

"Stupid. Weak. Chaos makes you its slave."

"No! Strong! Kill you!"

"How? Weak. Crippled." I laugh at the Beast Lord.

The last time I was in my true form and laughed, Old Man Jones called me Muttley, but he had a sour expression when he said it. It must be something from his old world, Earth, but the shitty old man would not tell me what it meant. He said he would tell me the day I could beat it out of him.

"RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

As the Beast Lord's pain filled, inarticulate roar echoes through the forest, once more, the Demonic Apes under its sway look toward me with fear filled eyes. However, not a single one dares to attack.

The thudding gallops of hundreds more Demonic Apes rapidly rise in volume, and in the distance the chugging and rattling of some kind of steamer car grows louder, as well.

"How did you get corrupted?"

The Beast Lord petulantly clamps its jaws shut and continues to glare at me.

"Tell me or die. Your choice."

Dozens more Demonic Yellow Earth Apes spill through the gaps between the trees, and the sounds of hundreds more fill the air. Just like the Beast Lord before them, the Demonic Apes stare at their brethren in confusion. In this general area, the Demonic Yellow Earth Apes can be considered to be at the top of the food chain.

"AAAAOOOOOOUUUUU!"

At the sound of my howl, the Demonic Apes fall to the ground and join the rest of their kind in groveling. They have no clue why, but my very existence fills them with terror. As opposed to the Beast Lord, they absolutely lack the strength of will to overcome the inborn fear of me that rises from the very depths of their Souls.

It has been far too long since the accursed Dragon Gods of the Celestial Courts killed or sealed my kind, the Great Wolves. While they were Ferocious Beasts before their corruption, they are pathetic Beasts that would be lucky to even reach the First Circle of Coalescence. Their lives are too short. They have no tales of the ancient times nor any Bloodline strong enough to give them racial memories of what was.

"How were you corrupted? Tell me!"

"No." The Beast Lord looks away in a petulant human-like gesture.

With anger flaring up within my Soul, I dart in and out, tearing a huge chunk of meat from the Beast Lord's shoulder.

"Tell me!"

Leaping at the Beast Lord, I take its punch to my chest and slam into it paws first. The force from my mass and velocity hitting its chest bowl it over backward. I close my jaws around its throat, and it stops struggling.

"Tell me!" With the Beast Lord's throat in my mouth, my words come out slurred.

"Human female come on flying metal. Drops blood fruits. Eat and get strong. Don't eat and get eaten by the strong."

Blood fruit? What the fuck kind of fruit are blood fruit supposed to be? I have heard of a half-dozen fruits from Old Man Jones that have blood in the name. Which one could the Ape be talking about? Or is it some kind of fruit that I have never heard of?

"When?"

"Every full moon."

The chugging of the steamer car rapidly grows closer, and from the reverberations, there are three steam engines, one big and two small. Is it three steamer cars or three engines on one car? It could be either. I have seen a few multi-engine steamer cars before.

Closing my jaws, I rip out the Beast Lord's throat.

With shock and betrayal filling its eyes, the Beast Lord stares up at me.

I spit out the foul tasting, corrupted meat. "You were corrupted by Chaos. You have no right to live. Be at peace. I will kill the human female that corrupted you."

As the Beast Lord's blood spurts from its savaged neck, anger, unwillingness, and sorrow fill its eyes. While staring resentfully into my eyes, its heart stops beating, and one last ragged breath escapes from its chest.

"LEAVE THIS PLACE! THIS IS MY TERRITORY! GO! NOW! RETURN HERE AND DIE!" My howl clearly carries my words to any who can understand the Beast Tongue. And as with my normal howls, the resonance of my voice strikes fear into lesser Beasts like the Demonic Yellow Earth Apes.

Scrambling to their feet, the groveling Demonic Apes race eastward, without even daring to look back. From the noise, outside the range of my sight, hundreds more follow on their heels. In just a few minutes, the heavy thudding from their fists and feet on the ground grows softer and softer, and the heavy chugging and hissing of steam engines drowns it out.

With a thought, my Body begins to shrink, then with a crackling of bones, my shape shifts. As I return to my human form, I find myself on my hands and knees on the blood-soaked rotting leaves and torn up dirt.

After deliberately scuffing out the Wolf prints with my hand prints overlaying them, I retrieve my pack. By the time I am dressed in my loincloth and weapons belt, the thunderous chugging of the two smaller steam engines is almost on top of me.

Not more than thirty seconds later, a pair of steamer bikes races through the space between two trees. Splitting up, the two bikes skid to a halt facing me with a good thirty meters between them. The bikes are big armored jobs. The type of bike made for running around in the wild lands outside the walls of a city. They are not the kind of steamer bike that are massed produced in the Heian Kingdom, but they look like mirror images of one another. They are probably foreign models.

Form-fitting armor, made from Beast hide with bone plates for reinforcement, covers the riders from head to toe. Tinted crystal goggles hide their eyes. After their heads swivel between me and the corpse of the Beast Lord a few times, both riders pull out fire-powder handguns and point them at me.

The rider to my right takes a box off his belt and speaks softly into it. While I can hear his words clearly, I cannot understand them. I have no idea what language he is using.

More words that sound like they should be the same language come out of the box. The box has to be a far talker. I read about them in a few engineering trade journals. They tap into the Mind Net to send messages, and using one, a man at the east end of the Great Plateau can talk to someone with an attuned far talker on the west end of the Great Plateau, a distance of over two hundred thousand kilometers.

The Mind Net was created by the ancient War Masters. It is a vast artificial Realm that exists in the Eidos, the Realm of Mind, and is sustained by the Watch Towers.

If a common man were to start walking from one end of the Great Plateau, he would need ten years at a minimum to reach the far end. Considering how rough much of the terrain is supposed to be, twenty or thirty years would be a more accurate estimate.

As the thunder of the bigger steam engine draws closer, the rider with the far talker puts it back in a leather case on his belt.

"Drop your weapons!" Waving the muzzle of his gun at me, the rider with the far talker speaks in the Trade Tongue, often called the Common Tongue or Commoner Tongue by the members of the noble clans in the Heian Kingdom. He has a terrible accent, but he is still understandable.

I smirk at the man. "Go get fucked up the ass."

The riders' fire-powder guns are revolvers. Each one has a bore hole bigger than my thumb, and a big cylinder to hold five bullets. As the rider that spoke draws back the hammer on his, the cylinder rotates.

"I said drop it." The riders voice resonates with anger and outrage.

"Get the fuck out of here. You should go home and sell your ass on a street corner like a good little bung boy." Usually insulting a man's parents or calling his manhood into question will get a reaction, and these two do not disappoint me.

As the rider pulls the trigger, I dive to the side and roll to my feet.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The two riders fire a second apart. They snap off their shots as fast as they can pull their triggers, but both of them miss me by quite a bit. As I sprint behind a tree in a zigzagging dash, more shots miss me, but one skims my arm tearing a huge furrow in my biceps.

Since Old Man Jones makes all kinds of strange guns as a hobby, I am quite familiar with them and am a better shot than these two. Once you start pulling the trigger, if your hand was not already in motion to track your target, it is almost impossible to react smoothly and still hit your target.

If you do not want to be shot, the trick is reacting before they finish pulling the trigger. Once fired, dodging a speeding bullet becomes almost impossible.

Keeping the bole of the forest giant between one of the riders and myself, I race toward another tree. After two more shots, the rider's gun clicks on an empty cylinder, and I make it behind the tree.

Chug-chug-chug-chug-chug!

The sound of a steamer bike accelerating comes from behind. Not stopping, I keep running until multiple trees block me from the view of the riders. Before the steamer bike reaches me, I climb up into the branches of a huge old tree. Only seconds later, I watch the steamer bike race by below me.

After a couple minutes, the steamer bike comes back. With the rider looking every way but up, it passes underneath me at a slow speed, and I jump from the tree. Landing on the bike behind the rider, I quickly straddle the seat and wrap my knife-wielding arm around his throat.

The rider struggles, but even though he is bigger, his strength is no match for my own. With my Mana completely fused with my Body, my strength has already doubled, and I do not think that is close to the limit.

When he feels the razor-sharp edge of my Bowie knife slice into the skin over his jugular vein, he stiffens up. I pull the big gun from the holster on his hip, before he gets any dumber ideas.

"You can get frisky and try to dump me off your little bike here, but I'll slit your throat all the way to the spine. Do what I tell you and you might live."

"Release me, and I'll give you a quick death." Despite his tough talk, the stench of the rider's fear gives him away.

Thunk!

I laugh and smash the butt of the gun on the rider's helmet. "Pretty good helmet. I wasn't even using a tenth of my strength. How many blows do you think your helmet can take before I split your head like a melon?"

The sound of the big steam engine dies down. It should be right on top of where I fought the first Demonic Yellow Earth Apes. If not for the trees, we would have no trouble seeing it.

"Low Kingdom trash!"

More of the strange language comes out of the talk box on the riders waist.

Even though the rider cannot see my face, I smirk. "Take out your far talker and open the transmitter."

Pulling the far talker out of the case on his belt, the rider holds it up and his thumb presses a rectangular button on the side of it.

"Hey, you dick-breath shit-eaters, do you hear me?"

"I hear you. Who are you?" The deep baritone voice speaks the Trade Tongue much more clearly than the rider.

"The man your bung boy here tried to turn into a sieve."

"Kill this animal, Lord-"

Thunk! Crackle!

A web of cracks spreads through the bone outer later of the rider's helmet.

"Ingwe! Shut the fuck up!" Anger fills the voice over the far talker. If he is just pretending, he has good control over his voice.

"Push the button and keep your shit hole shut. I already saw how you use it. I don't need you alive, anymore."

The rider, who should be Ingwe, pushes the button again.

"Hey, shit for brains. Tell those three you have trying to circle around behind me to get their asses back to where they fucking belong."

"Haldor! Come back! He already spotted you." The baritone bellow is the man on the far talker.

Monitoring them by sound and scent, I make sure the three make their way back to the big steamer car.

"What do you want?"

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