The Wounded Knight

Chapter ~ 2#

Hearing what sounded like metal being dragged I slowly reached for one of the wood spears I hand made earlier. Looking through a crack in the makeshift wall of my shelter I saw something that sent a chill down my spine. A large black furred mountain lion just stepped across the river towards my side. The faint moon light only allowed me to see faint details. But what stood out the most to me, was the dead human, seen carried in it's maw. The dead man's head hung down from the neck, and the arms swung about lifeless like a rag doll. The eyes rolled back in the head as its legs were dragged along the ground. I noticed bits and pieces of the armor had been ripped off along with chunks of the dead human.

My eyes never left the creature as I watched it walk up the side of the river bed and towards the woods. It seemed too focused on the food it had in its jaws to notice me. When my glasses bumped against the wooden wall of my shelter a screen appeared. Similar to what Elva showed me with her own records.

{ Race ~ Inferum Cattus }

{ Age ~ 54 }

{ Species ~ Infernal Beast }

My eyes darted back to the hellcat curious if it saw me. But it had disappeared into the forest. I quickly turned my attention to the screen and swiped right, wanting to see if there was anything else. What I saw made me stay up the rest of the night.

{ Inferum Cattus ~ Level ~ 10 }

If levels were anything to go off of it means that monster is way stronger than both of my current levels put together. I silently stayed up that night. I had let the coals burn themselves out so that the fire or smoke didn't attract any attention. Luckily the coals were already dim when that monster passed. I think the only sleep I got was the two or three hours right before the sun rose up. At which time I quickly packed up what was in my camp and began heading to the town. Along the way I came across some markings that sat low on some of the trees. They looked like something was chewing on them. If I managed to get an animal and bring it into town I could sell it. Maybe get a few more coins and possibly rent a room. Given that getting a new set of common worker clothes is almost half of my current funds; I needed to put more coins in my pocket.

I decided to follow the tracks of the animal in question. My best guess was some kind of beaver or something since it seemed to eat the bark of the trees. I also noted that it avoided fruit trees; perhaps because the wood underneath the bark was poisonous to them? After a bit of tracking I managed to find the animal in question; it did look like a beaver though it seemed to have a much longer body. It coiled its body around the tree almost like a snake. What surprised me most were the claws it used to dig into the tree. And the way it bit into the bark of the tree only to twist it's head and rip the first layer of bark off.

Either way I don't want that thing getting wrapped around me. It'd tear a chunk out of me no problem; seeing the way the animal was built with the long body like a ferrate my best guess is this animal would run away at first sign of trouble. Though I did have one idea that might work for hunting it. If I could get it stuck to the tree it's currently wrapped around I might be able to kill it. I took out the sword and grabbed one of the wooden spears I had made. I approached as quietly as possible; I took the spear in hand and once I was close enough I jumped forward, stabbing the sword through the animal and embedding the blade into the tree.

Of course the ferrate didn't go down without a fight. I managed to pin it's lower body to the tree. But it still swung itself back and dug its claws into my leg. I managed to block it's teeth with my wooden spear. But the claws dug in so deep it made me fall back. The monster quickly struggled and managed to pull the sword out of the tree. But the sword was still stuck in its body; which allowed me to pin it again and smack it over the head with the shaft of the spear. It took a few whacks from the spear which eventually broke before the damn thing died. Luckily it didn't hit anything major otherwise I would be bleeding to death at this point. Though whether or not I got magic rabies now is left for the future me to figure out.