Chapter 13 – Hunting Prey

Protecting yourself and the innocent is one thing, attacking is another. Kuno rationalized it to himself: ‘this is war. Staying passive will only lead to a slow death.’

A problem, however, was that this wasn’t like the mmorpgs he’d played before. ‘They might look like beasts, but they’re much smarter…’

Not only that, but he can’t afford to take major damage. Although Don had told him Regnum has ways to heal them, the fact that he was a mere F+ made him fear he didn’t have that privilege. Plus, he still had to get to them in the first place.

While the morning was still young, as Kuno approached the forest in the distance, the sky clouded, dimming the light above him. The dirt he stepped on was dry – nothing like the grassy green land Vermillion Village stood on. ‘Abandoned?’ he thought. ‘The less populated, the more dangerous it usually gets…’

When Kuno was a single step away from the forest’s shadow, he took his pants off and wrapped it around his waist. He looked up at the densely packed trees, aged multiple eras. He had reacted - Now; it was time to act, and having accepted that, he knew what he had to do. ‘The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.’

With a pickaxe in their hand, two brown humanoid rabbits dressed in tattered-clothing stained with char walked eastward. Their thighs and backs were broad and well developed, but apart from that, their physique had much to improve on.

‘I can’t believe she wants another litter,’ the left one, with a white patch of fur on the entire left half of his head, said. ‘Hopper, is it just me, or aren’t ten damned runts enough for a household!?’

Hopper shook his head before opening his swampy, dark green eyes. ‘You’re a naïve one, Chompy. You really think she likes to have another batch of kids? Her free days are almost up, the youngsters are growing. I’d prefer taking care of children instead of working our ass of like this.’

Chompy sighed, both of tiredness and agreement. ‘The mine’s almost empty. Just a few more days.’

‘Yeah, so we can go work in another mine…’ Hopper said, Chompy’s optimistic attitude doing little for him. ‘Day in day out, work-work-work, until we fall dead. Man, I wish I was a child again. I wanna go back to school.’

‘Those were the days,’ Chompy said with a smile. ‘Sweetie was like an angel in her cute little uniform.’

‘I heard Regnum has machines to do our jobs,’ Hopper said, ruining Chompy’s reminiscence.

Of course they had. The Kingdom of Regnum had many things over the Soji Empire, and the rabbitmen knew that. Highly experienced mages to teach the youth. Knowledge to craft the most ingenious inventions this realm had ever seen. And not to forget, the one-man-armies summoned from Terra One. Yes, the Regnum Empire had many, many things – If only the people would ask how they got it.

A hefty breeze shook the trees to dance. The song of the leaves didn’t bother the two miners, but a rustling did make them turn to the sound. Although they turned, they didn’t expect to see something, so when they didn’t, the march to the mine continued on.

Hopper and Chompy walked down the dug out earth to join their peers in the mine. The light shining through the trees’ cracks didn’t reach our rabbitmen here, but fire on their torches did the trick as they struck the coal in rhythm.

♫ ‘We,’ they heard, elongated and harmonic, the start of the song they too knew by heart. ‘Want light. Yes, we want light. We want the sun to melt our sorrows away-away. We want light, oh grant us light. When will we get it? Today-Today!’ ♫

If it wasn’t for their soft fur covering them, their scars would prove the way they lived their lives for the Empire. Good thing the looks on their faces sufficed. They weren’t forced to do this kind of work, but with no better option, and the ever-growing need for money to ease the lives of their children, they just had to. Education isn’t a right in the Empire, only the top percentile is allowed to continue onward after their teen years. The Empire is relatively young and needs as much muscle as it can get.

They hated the darkness. They hated the constant sound their tools would make, causing their ears to ring every night when they lay in bed. They hated the filthy air they had to breathe. They hated the muscle ache, the thirst, and hunger. It’s a good thing they had many things to love, or else these long days would never end.

Sadly, when their work was finally done, the sun had already bid its farewell. Two dozen rabbits walked this dark forest carrying nothing more than torches and desires of sustenance and rest.

There was a time long ago when the darkness would scare them more than most. When many would have their eyes on their kind, especially a packed fluffle like them. Those days have luckily long past. Now, they got other worries, some might argue worse.

When the light of their camp reached their tired eyes, their bodies drew from the last drops of fuel. ‘Fuuuuuuck thiiiiiiis…’ Hopper said, the others reacting with nothing more than moans of agreement.

The camp comprised beige tents surrounding a large campfire. Apart from the 24 rabbitmen, the camp had 8 frogmen and in the middle, with his yellow beak to the flame, stood a single duckman, turning around upon hearing the rabbits.

‘QUWAHA! If it isn’t the foundation of the Empire, returned from their noble jobs!’ the duckman said, the only one with a smile on his face in the whole camp.

The rabbits all dispersed into their tents to drop their equipment off, with only Chompy opening his mouth to say: ‘When you put it like that, being a lowlife doesn’t sound that bad, JD.’

‘Shut up, Chompy…’ the rabbits said together in a deadpan manner.

Another day for the laborers of the Soji Empire. But their mundane lives were about to see a rather different day, since above them, laying on a thick branch eating homemade jam from a jar, was the only F class earthling of Regnum.

‘1-2-3-4… 1-2-3-4… 1… Pff, that ain’t a little amount.’ He licked the strawberry jam off his fingers, almost letting the jar fall as it began to slip. ‘Woah there! Gotta be vewy vewy quiet. I’m hunting wabbits.’

But he wasn’t the only one on the hunt. A few miles to the west stood another camp, one of the many in the region digging for coal. Instead of Kuno, these were being watched by others. Four, to be exact – The entire group of Xiuying. And instead of being here to level, they were sent – sent to smoke this and many other places out.

‘This one seems easy,’ Sarah said with a smile from the bush they were hiding in. Cara and Yuki stared at the hamster –and ratmen of this camp eat their well-earned dinner. ‘Who’s going, sis?’ Sarah asked, turning to Xiuying, who was doing calculations on a holographic tablet, having put on a pair of reading glasses, contrasting her tough girl look.

‘We still got a lot to do,’ Xiuying said. ‘Yuki.’

Yuki turned to her captain, a cold look in her glassy blue eyes, as per usual. Xiuying was the only one who Yuki’s silent, chilly persona didn’t affect. She put her glasses off and said: ‘eighteen enemies – you got two minutes. Ready?’

Yuki put her hands on her dark green jacket, feeling the many pockets it had. She scratched her nose through the black bandages that covered it. With a nod towards Xiuying, Yuki stood up and drew two tantos from the pockets on her back. The first ratman had already spotted her, alerting the rest of her presence.

‘Poor things…’ Cara said.

‘We got a long quest ahead of us, Cara. Better get used to it,’ Sarah said, keeping her eyes on Yuki to not miss the show.

When the light hit her, revealing her to be a human, the whole camp had already gathered in a defensive formation. With their swords, spears and bows at the ready, a hamsterman said: ‘freeze! Drop your weapons and no one will get hurt!’

Two ratmen were sneaking through the shadows, trying to circle around Yuki. Cara noticed them, asking Xiuying: ‘want me to take them out?’

‘Don’t bother,’ she said. ‘You might even get her angry if you do.’

Yuki kept on walking forward. A single girl shouldn’t scare these full-grown men, but the look in her eyes gave them no other choice. The only reason they didn’t flee, was because the earthlings they had been warned about worked in groups and mostly covertly.

Seeing she wasn’t going to back down, a hamsterman turned to one of his allies and gave the order: ‘shoot.’

Another hamsterman had already drawn his bow as far back as he could, closed one eye to aim, and upon hearing the order, released without a second thought.

The arrow moved fast, but the men could still see it was going to hit its mark in the few milliseconds they had to process the shot. However, they seemed to have shot a phantom rather than a human – the arrow simple went through Yuki, until it hit a tree near her party. The animals didn’t know what just happened, but the most logical conclusion was that the arrow simply missed.

‘Cara,’ Xiuying said, prompting Cara to grow her already long hair even longer. Like it had a mind of its own, the hair formed a barrier in front of the spectating party, allowing them to see the event through opened slits between her hair.

Sarah grabbed the hair, smearing it on her cheek. ‘So soft… Make me a bed out of it Cara, please.’

The steady way Yuki kept going forward gave the camp no other chance to warn her. Not that it would have mattered.

‘Go,’ the hamsterman said, beginning the onslaught. From Yuki’s back-left and right, two ratmen equipped with daggers sprinted forward, with six archers releasing their arrows. three swordsmen with six spearmen behind them marched forward in formation. The arrows seemed to vanish the moment they were about to hit her.

When the sneaking ratmen reached her, she dodged the first one’s strike without even turning her head, hopping on his back and slicing the back of his neck with one of her tantos. When the other lunged forward as his friend got slain, she swiftly spun around his strike and sliced his neck open. Before the others had noticed their two allies were incapacitated, Yuki already dashed forward onto the sword and spearmen, making it unable for the archers to see her.

The spearmen pushed their spears out just as she got in range, but Yuki, again, evaded the attacks at the very last second, jumping up as the tips neared her torso, squeezing herself between the six spears and over the swordsmen.

She sliced the jugulars of two spearmen, before even hitting the ground, and when she did, didn’t skip a beat, immediately moving towards the hamsterman who was calling the shots. She had intentionally put herself between her enemies as the remaining spearmen turned around.

The archers hesitated to shoot, for if they’d miss, it’d hit their allies behind Yuki. Yuki threw both her tantos one foot in the air, swiftly throwing six shurikens from her pockets to hit all archers in the forehead. She grabbed her tantos back as they reached the peak of her throw, all the while still moving on.

The hamsterman in charge drew his weapons out, two scimitars, and put an enchantment on them: ‘Enchantment: Lightning!’

Jolts flew off both scimitars, with the hamsterman immediately swinging at Yuki. Every swing had the same result, missing by just fractions of an inch. The spearmen went to aid their captain, but when the first spear got thrusted towards her back, without even looking, Yuki dodged it. But not only did she dodge it while dodging the incoming scimitar swings, she threw one tanto back into the skull of the spearman, grabbing his dodged spear and sticking it into the belly of the hamsterman captain.

With the captain shocked by the damage, she swiftly cut his left hand off with the other tanto, kicking his face to have him fall on his back with the spear still stuck in his body.

She picked up the scimitar the severed hand was holding and dashed close enough to the remaining spearmen to drain all use of their long and pointy weapons. In a single second, she killed the three spearmen, one with her tanto and two with the lightning scimitar, causing small bolts of lightning to keep jumping from their sliced bodies.

At this point, the only ones left were the three swordsmen, who surrounded her and began slashing. ‘How is this possible!?’ they all thought, every single attack they launched at her missing. Her body created afterimages as she dodged three swords at ones with the most minimal of motions.

Upon seeing an opening, she spun around 360 degrees, cutting all three swordsmen at once. None was left standing. But one was still alive, the captain, who spoke the words.

‘Party: Gather – Teleport!’

Lights from all the fallen bodies shot towards the captain as he vanished into thin air.

Her party applauded her from the bushes, all three of them standing up. ‘Well done, girl!’ Sarah said, cheering on the blood of her enemies.

Yuki walked back to her party, asking through her bandages in her naturally high-pitched voice: ‘what’s my time?’

Xiuying looked down at her tablet: ‘1 minute, 54 seconds, but you didn’t kill the captain, so it doesn’t count.’

Yuki looked at the ground, embarrassed at the performance that left their enemies not the smallest of chances.

‘I wanna do the next one!’ Sarah said, throwing her arms in the air with a broad smile.

Xiuying gave her two taps on the shoulder with a stern face. ‘The night is still young. We’ll all get our fill, girls.’