Ch.8 Fight or Flight

‘I didn’t expect there to be so many!’

‘Me neither.’

‘What do we do?’

‘Run.’

‘I’m already running.’

‘Run faster.’

Cinis accelerated a bit more.

‘I have an Idea.’

‘What is it?’

‘We can go to the mountain and hide in the slit, the rabbits are too large to fit.’

‘Good Idea.’

Cinis turned to face the direction they believed the slit to be and ran for it.

During the chase one of the rabbits came dangerously close, but Cinis rammed it away, losing only 5 HP.

‘Quicker!’

Aiden screamed and Cinis’ eyes burned due to the wind.

When Cinis finally arrived they went into the slit, barely fitting after the recent evolution and retreated far enough so that the horns couldn’t reach them. The Rabbits grouped up in front, not allowing Cinis out.

‘What do we do?’

Panicking Aiden answered.

‘I don’t know. Wait, I got it!’

‘What?’

‘Use the fire, just like before, the rabbits can’t reach here.’

Brightening up Cinis followed the instruction and repeated the attack, although jumpy every time rabbit tried to get through none managed and Cinis was able to release the attack.

Fwooosh! The attack went straight through the slits entrance and burned the rabbits. Although none of them were hurt enugh to die just from this the majority of them fled the scene, likely back to the field. The three unlucky ones remaining were injured at their legs and unable to run. Aiden was able to finish them off by themselves.

“Level up - 3 free stat points gained”

“Stats gained: 2 Strength (STR); 1 Agility (AGI) ”

“Gained Skill : [Lesser Dash]

“Lesser Dash”

Allows you to run faster for a short amount of time at the expense of tiring faster.

‘All of that seems really useful, but why only one level? These were very strong! And what are “free stat points?’

‘Wait, my “Instinct” skill knows.’

‘It’s because of me being a tier two creature, apparently I don’t get 1 to all anymore, but can specialise now.’

‘That seems good, but You won’t get stronger as fast!’

‘But it also seems like I can get more level ups in total now.’

‘Fine, at least I don’t have to deal with that.’

‘Lucky you.’

‘Where will you put them?’

‘I think I will put two in Agility and one in dexterity, they help with being fast and I’m a bit lacking. I don’t know if I would be able to pull that off another time.’

‘That seems reasonable, but you should put only one into agility and one in constitution. You almost died after all.’

‘Alright, so how do I do this?’

‘Add one point to AGI, one point to DEX and one point to CON!’

“Confirmed”

‘Great, what do we do no?’

‘I am actually starting to feel sleepy and…’

Cinis drifted off into a deep sleep. In the last moments before they too lost consciousness Aiden felt something familiar about the situation. After waking up again Cinis discussed their hunting with Aiden.

‘We should use the rabbits as our new prey.’

‘No, I almost died there, it's far too dangerous. It’s also way too close to the tall things.’

‘But look, you gained a level just by killing four! It’s worth it.

‘Let’s make a deal. We will look around for a few days and if we haven’t found something better we will go hunt there, but only at night.’

‘Agreed. Where do we look first?’

‘I was thinking about moving in the direction of the lake we saw, it’s a bit far but we might find something else in the plains. I would even be fine with another group of rabbits if it’s further away from the walls.’

‘That actually sounds like a good Idea.’

‘What did you expect?’

Per their agreement They stepped out of the crack into the now daylight. From there they went back to the fields, easily finding their way back by the trampled ground. They didn’t enter the field again, there were a lot of the tall creatures on it at this time. Instead they moved behind the first layer of trees, hiding from unwanted attention.

Before they got out of range, one of the creatures rotated their head to look in Cinis’ direction as if they had noticed something, but seemed to shrug it off. After that Cinis was more careful and was not spotted again.

‘Lucky.’

‘Right, if it happens again we might not be.’

In the fields separating the rabbits’ and the lake there were no monsters. The walls walling them off seemed to work and Cinis was able to travel comfortably. Arriving at the beach Cinis immediately felt that there was something wrong, the atmosphere felt almost exactly like at the rabbit field. In addition to this the area on top of the sand was completely empty and not a single thing moved.

There were a few bumps in the sand, but Cinis did not approach them. They had learned from the rabbits not to be careless about this. instead they took a stick in their mouth, twisted their head and launched it at the bump. Immediately after they were glad they hadn’t approached it as the stick was snapped in half immediately after hitting by a claw that had emerged from the sand. The claw belonged to a huge crab, twice as tall as Cinis was long. One of the crabs’ sides was weirdly bumpy, as if the carapace was thicker. Its claw on that side was also larger and clunkier, the opposite one to the one it had used to snap the stick.

The other claw was thin and sleek, yet it looked sturdy. It looked as if it was for slashing and cutting ,instead of bludgeoning like the other one, as it slashed through the air.

Cinis slowly retreated further back into the woods, hoping that they had not been sensed by the huge monster. It seemingly hadn’t or just simply didn’t care enough to pursue them. If it had chosen to do so the trees would have likely been little of an obstruction.

‘Let’s not come back here again, the rabbits are perfect. No need to anger any more crabs.’

‘Deal.’

‘I guess we can’t go back to the rabbits during the day. Only when it’s dark do the creatures leave.’

‘Do you think you can sleep during the day?’

‘No, I can't. It's too cold for me at night if I’m not up during the day.’

‘So we can only hunt in the evening, right?’

‘Maybe in the morning as well, but yes.’

‘Then what do we do during the day?’

‘I have an Idea.’