Imperious, Chapter 011 - The Hunt Begins (Patreon)

The Bobcat snapped its jaws a couple times, trying to get a better grip on Anna’s protected arm. She grit her teeth against the pain as its claws dug into her shoulders again, its body too large to get purchase with its back legs, thankfully. She felt the heat in her veins as she tried to figure out a way to get it off of her. Her free arm, gripping her cudgel, came up with with a haphazard swing to strike it on the side of the head. It winced but held its grip.

“Get the fuck off me!” She snarled, shoving the side of her arm further into its mouth and driving her knee up into its abdomen. She twisted and jerked her arm, heaving it to the side as she kneed it two more times for good measure. It let out a low growl of pain and moved with her arm, releasing her and darting away a few paces. She scrambled to her feet and took a step back of her own, making sure to keep the hairy piece of shit in her line of sight.

Her breaths came in rapidly, the pain stinging her but the fire in her veins chasing it away. It gave her some clarity but she could also feel the adrenaline that was only amplifying the feeling. She wanted to throw herself at the thing, crush it in to paste and make it see the error of its ways. She wanted to find its kin and wipe them from the face of- Chill! She commanded herself, Calm down! She took a deep, shaky breath while keeping an eye on it. It slowly moved to the left and she moved to the right to keep it in front of her. Her grip tightening around her cudgel.

Big yellow eyes met pale brown. She saw its legs tense, just the barest movement, it lunged. She threw out her free hand and concentrated on Mana Barrier, the mana rushing into her body and activating the circle that popped into her head. The barrier sprung to life just at the apex of its leap, its head slamming into the shield and stopping. The barrier shattered and she brought her arm up in an overhead swing, bringing the weapon down on its skull.

CRACK!

The cudgel hit and the massive bobcat let out a howl of pain, stumbling backwards a few paces and hissing at her. It raked its claws and she raised her arm to block. She wasn’t prepared for the impact. The blow drove her to the right, stumbling. Fuck! She pulled her gun from her belt as she pivoted to try to get it back in her line of sight. It snarled and lunged again just as she leveled her weapon. She pulled the trigger twice before it landed on her with a roar, pinning her gun arm with a paw and trying to bite down on her head. Bullets did jack shit! She complained and drove her knee up and into it again. It pressed down on her arm with all of its weight and she felt a crack, her vision went white.

She dropped her cudgel and threw her arm up on instinct, feeling teeth bite down around the gauntlet as her vision flickered and filled with spots, the pain from her broken arm sending her head spinning. I gotta get it off me! Get it to hesitate for a second, get distracted, something! She thought in a near panic and with nothing else to lose she dove back into herself, pulling her presence inward until it was pressed against her skin. The bobcat froze and she winced as its paw rose a little. She met its eyes, they looked a bit unfocused but also… triumphant?

It thinks I’m dead! She realized and capitalized. Throwing her back into pushing it up and off of her, wrenching her arm up and then down as hard as she could. She heard a crack and a pained, garbled shriek. She didn’t look to see what she’d done, instead, she snatched up her cudgel and turned, putting her entire body into a swing. Metal met skull and bone that gave way, she heard a whine, then nothing.

Panting, bloody, her gun arm hanging at her side, she stared down at the mangled head of the enormous mammal. She tasted something on her lips and frowned, reaching up to touch her face and pulling her hand away. Blood, lots of it. She spat at the ground, breathing hard as the fire in her veins began to cool and the pain started to catch up with her. With the pain came a feel of elation and satisfaction that overrode the nausea that tried to crawl its way up her throat at the sight of the corpse.

You have slain, Lesser Bobcat Hunter, Level 3
Bonus Experience Gained
3 Iron Credits Gained

Slay 100 Creatures. (1/100)

She stared at the words and her lip twitched. She’d killed that huge thing. On her own. Even when it managed to surprise her. She did that. Weak, pathetic, nobody Anna Flitt had taken down a bobcat the size of a lion. The elation grew and then cooled. The heat in her blood and then the subsequent cooling of her mind was doing something to her. She didn’t know what it was, yet she didn’t fight it. She felt like she was going to need it, whatever it was. Instead, she sat down in the small open area between trees and caught her breath.

Her bones itched, so did the cuts and scrapes. She felt something shift in her shoulder a tiny bit and decided not to focus too hard on it or fight it. Pixel had said that vitality influenced regeneration, that was probably what her body was doing right now. She checked her resources instead.

Resources:
HP: 31/65 | SP: 48/65 | MT: 5/65

Already down to half health. Despite the sweet taste of victory, it was far from a win in her books. She had a lot to go over and figure out about what had gone wrong. This time though, she wasn’t going to let herself get spotted. She pulled herself to her feet and marched over to the same bush that the bobcat had come out of, sitting down again and drawing her presence all the way in. She held it there as she mulled over the fight. The more she thought about it the more she realized that those claws should have cut her to ribbons. The armor’s passive effect had done its job for sure. She was also not moving enough, even with the armor she was pretty light on her feet, she could have tried to dodge that last lunge.

Bullets barely harmed it, too, maybe it was because they were small arms rounds. Should she look into a more potent firearm? What firearms counted for her proficiency? She though it over until she heard something move in the foliage. Her eyes shot up and she stared from her concealed spot at the body and whatever it was that had come over to check things out.

 It took a few seconds before what looked like a wild boar stuffed out, it was about half the size of the bobcat but still freaking huge.

Starving Forest Boar, Level 2

It sniffed the air, it's huge nostrils flaring. The bristles on its back stood on end as it approached the bobcat corpse and bushes it once with its tusks. It sniffed again and turned it's head, following the trail of blood she'd left behind on the ground. It looked up into the bush she was hiding in. It couldn't see her, but it knew she was there. She narrowed her eyes and grabbed hold of her presence as it started to saunter towards her. 

Manipulating her presence was strange and instinctual. She understood on a basic level that she wasn't adjusting the numbers. It was more like playing a song on a stereo. The song had been recorded at a default volume and she was merely turning the dial up and down. The only difference was the speakers couldn't be turned off completely. It was probably the wrong way to visualize it, but the more she'd done it since the integration the more familiar the feeling became.

She grabbed hold of that mental dial and like someone pulling a prank at a party, twisted it all the way to maximum in an instant. She didn't feel anything but her aura leaving it's tight embrace of her skin. The boar clearly felt something, though. It froze, eyes wide, and trembled once.

Fuck. Off.

The beast didn't need any encouragement. It let out a squeak and ran. She let out a sigh and turned the volume back down to one. Hopefully that keeps them away for now. I need to heal.

It was almost nightfall when she finally felt like her resources were replenished. She checked her arm and was impressed to find she had full mobility. From broken to healed in hours rather than days, hot damn. She thought. If there was one good thing that had come from the integration, natural regeneration was definitely it.

Still, it was getting dark and she'd made very little progress. She needed to up her game a little if she was going to get anywhere. Hunting in the dark seemed like a bad idea but she'd already reasoned that she had a bit of an advantage. Reducing her presence to the absolute minimum had made the bobcat think she was dead, a corpse. She knew the other animals here operated on sense of smell, so she decided to lean into it.

She coated herself in blood from the bobcat. Hopefully it would drive away others of its kind while drawing in scavengers like the boar. She needed to get a bit more experience before she fought more predators. Speaking of which, Where's the damn experience bar on this thing? I have no idea how much that bobcat was even worth. She checked her character sheet a few more times but she couldn’t figure it out. She grumbled. At least she got some money out of it.

Three whole iron credits, woo. She thought sardonically as she marched into the trees, cudgel slung over her shoulder and her eyes scanning every inch of her surroundings. It didn’t take long for her next target to appear. Apparently scaring the boar off once hadn’t been enough to deter it from coming back to try again. The level two boar ambled out from behind a tree and stopped, snuffing the air. This time, she didn’t give her prey a chance to react. She was already moving by the time it turned its head.

It let out a squeal of surprise when it caught sight of her, its beady eyes dark spots in the dimming light. She brought her weapon down, hard, letting her proficiency guide how she moved. The heavy rod of medal collided with the creature’s face and it let out a croaking grunt of pain, staggering back a few spaces. It threw its head left and right, holding her back with its tusks. Then it turned away, trying to flee the strange thing that was attacking it. Oh no you don’t! She snarled and threw her hand out, casting Mana Barrier. 

The boar’s rush to flee drove it headlong into the shield and it let out another squeal, its injured head taking another blow. Hell yeah! I can do it at range! She thought while it stumbled and she took the opportunity to run up to it, throwing all her weight into kicking it in the side. Her knee buckled a little under the forces she put it under, but she didn’t care. It fell over with a cry of pain and confusion, thrashing its legs as it tried to get to its feet. It was only then that she pulled out her gun and fired a shot to the head.

It went still, the only sound was her own labored breathing.

You have slain, Starving Forest Boar, Level 2
Bonus Experience Gained
2 Iron Credits Gained

Slay 100 Creatures. (2/100)

Anna wiped her brow, Better, but still not good enough. I can only really do damage to the head, She thought, frowning. I could aim for the legs and disable it, I guess, but that’s easier said than done. That’s a low swing. Torso and head are better targets, but the torso is really tough on these things. She pursed her lips and looked down at her cudgel, “Wish you had spikes or something,” She mumbled and shrugged, as she checked her resources. 

Just a little stamina drain this time and a single point of damage, where’d that come from? She thought back and picked out the moment that she kicked the boar in the side. Yeah that hurt, so I can still easily injure myself if I’m not careful. She thought and then stepped away from the body, taking a few practice swings of her cudgel and letting her proficiency guide her towards better form. Swipe, Overhand swing, what about a thrust? 

She stopped and looked at the weapon, it wouldn’t break skin or anything, but it might cause some pretty significant damage if aimed at the right place. She gave it a try, it was awkward stepping forward and jabbing with the heavy weapon at first but her proficiency came in clutch again. She could feel how poor her stance and movements were with the awkwardness in her muscles. She kept practicing until she felt the last of the tension and awkwardness go away, her feet spaced apart and her posture straight as she pivoted through her step, pushing forward and bringing the weapon in a slight upward arc rather than just trying to stab straight forward.

She grinned after a few more swings to get used to the feeling. Yeah, that’s not bad. She thought, How about a block? She tried raising it with one hand and immediately felt her other arm scream at her that it was needed. She looked at the weapon, Ah, no edges, thats fair, she thought and tried again, using both hands to grip the handle and haft of the weapon and absorb the shock of an imaginary blow. 

She lowered her weapon and felt an odd anxiousness in her arms, Am I missing something? She thought, I feel like I’m on the edge of-

A rustling broke her concentration and she glanced over her shoulder. Another boar ambled out of the trees, stopping in its tracks as soon as it saw a corpse of its kin. By now the sun had completely gone from the sky and the first hints of moonlight were starting to inch up, providing only the smallest amount of illumination to the two of them. Just as it looked up from the corpse to try to focus on her, she was already charging towards it, weapon raised over her head.