Knight of Corruption (LitRPG)

43 - Honest Assessment

Aside from the obvious difficulties in us communicating verbally, Tahar turned out to be a good teacher. Only an hour later I had gotten a basic grasp of using the bow. But being able to shoot an arrow was only half of the trouble – to achieve my first 'level' in hunting I needed to learn how to track down my prey, and how to extract the needed pieces from it when it was slain.

Happy that I could theoretically shoot and kill our target, Tahar decided to lead us deeper into the plains to try and find an easy start for us. She'd called them Toh-Ran before, and 'tall' didn't do them justice. It didn't take us long to find one. She pulled me down to my knees and pointed through a bushel of tall grass.

They were huge! The closest approximation was that of a giraffe. A long, lanky set of four legs attached to a wide barrel. Unlike a giraffe, it had a stout neck. A pair of curved horns poked out from a shaggy head of hair; and they had a short golden pelt of fur. I could tell why they were used as such a reliable source of food. Surely slaying one of these would provide enough meat for several weeks' consumption.

"Aim carefully. Hit side of body."

Tahar pointed to the flank of the creature. It was the biggest target, and was presumably the best way to disable them with the first shot. I took the arrow she offered me and loaded it into the bow. I could not express the full power of my body with my arm in such a poor condition – I could hear the bones creaking when I did it.

I didn't need to. If I did I'd snap the cord clean in two. I had to keep reminding myself of that. I had nothing to prove. I needed to keep a close measure of my own strength. I ignored the pain running through my raw nerve and held a deep breath. The creature wandered to a puddle of shallow water and thought about taking a drink from it.

When it came to a stop, I let go.

I didn't take a breath. I watched closely as the arrow sailed through the air in a long arc, before planting itself into the monster's flesh with a thud and a spurt of blood. The creature loud out a beleaguered wail and turned to run. It didn't get very far. I hit something important, as it soon slumped over onto the ground and fell over.

"Good! Good!" Tahar cheered, "Good shot!"

We broke through the grass and approached the body. "Is this enough?" I asked.

"Adult. Male. Well fed. Should buy affix with some to spare." She withdrew a large knife from her belt and handed it to me, taking back her bow. Now it was time to get down to the nitty gritty, skinning and butchering the thing for transport. Tahar pinpointed the exact locations that I needed to sever. I dutifully followed her instructions, cutting through skin and flesh and peeling it away until the organs and muscles were exposed.

The next part was very messy, and stunk pretty damn bad. We removed as much as we could. Tahar seemed to have need of the other pieces that I didn't want. The flesh, which was used as a source of food, was kept separately and placed into a beige sack. Tahar wrenched a rib bone away from the carcass with such force that she nearly fell over. She held the blood covered club up to me.

"Bone, sturdy. Make tools."

"I see."

The smell of gore was getting to my head. We had everything we came for and the body would be picked clean by predators and vultures in time. I wiped off my hands with a towel and placed it into the 'dirty' pocket in my rucksack. Amazingly I avoided getting any blood on my clothes. I put my injured arm back into the sling and said a silent prayer in the hopes that I hadn't aggravated my injury by moving it.

Tahar carried the bag back with us.

"How often do you do this?"

Tahar took a moment to comprehend my question, "One kill, food for two weeks. Cooked with plants."