Chapter 15: We’ll see who bleeds first.
[Penalty for failure is death]
I sighed, of course the system would threaten me with death. I supposed it was just as well, after all the system gave me this life, it could take it anytime it wanted and no one would cry injustice.
I looked at my profile again.
[Here's your profile]
[Name: Levi]
[Level: 2]
[Title: Farmboy, Beast Slayer]
[Strength: 30]
[Intelligence: 20]
[Stamina: 20]
[Speed: 30]
[Mana: 20]
[Element: Air]
[Lust points: 0]
I had slightly improved stats from the fight I had the previous day, I should be able to survive.
There was one other thing I had that I didn't have the previous day, I had a burning drive to slay as many beast monsters as I needed to slay to gain my mana points.
It was just as well that the system was forcing me to kill them, I would kill them anyway.
I looked outside, the sun would set soon and darkness would descend on the town, I had to run to the forest and get my six kills before then.
I looked around the room for the knife Emily gave me yesterday, she had decided to leave it with me, she said it was the instrument of my first kill and I should be allowed to keep it. I wondered if she knew I would be walking back to the forest to fight more beasts, would she still give me the knife?
I found the knife on the drawer. Actually, it had slipped between the edge of the drawer and wall and it hung loosely there. I pulled it out and put it in my pocket.
Then I took off running. Speed was an important part of the day's mission, time was not on my side and darkness would soon fall.
As I stepped out of the house I almost ran into Ava, I moved out of the way in time and kept running, I didn't have time to stop and properly apologize.
"Sorry!" I yelled as I ran.
She looked at me with perplexion written on her face. "Where are you running to at this time?!" she asked.
"I'll be back soon!" I shouted in reply.
It was honestly a lame and uninformative response to her question and I felt bad about not telling her where I was going but I didn't have much of a choice, it wasn't like I could tell her 'hey, so I'm actually running to the forest to kill six beasts or else I'll die by midnight'.
I got to the forest slightly out of breath since I ran nonstop till I got there.
As I walked into the forest, I remembered what Emily told me the previous day, she said it was rare to encounter beasts in the forest on a normal day. If I found six beasts today, that would mean her fears were right and something was wrong with the forest.
For my sake, I hoped her fears were right. I didn't have to hope for too long as a low growl sounded in the bushes to my left.
I immediately spinned so I was facing the direction the growl came from.
The bushes ruffled and I held the knife tighter in my hand. I felt a little tremor travel through my body and I wasn't surprised by it. While I knew my attributes had increased and I was in better condition to kill the beast, it was still only my second kill and I couldn't help but feel a little nervous.
The beast this time wasn't a red eyed wolf, it was a wild cat. This cat stood three feet high, It's brown fur had several splashes of brown, it's ears were extra long and pointy and they twitched as it eyed me curiously. It's eyes were brown in color and they tracked my every move, it's long whiskers ruffled in the wind but most distinctive of all was it's tail.
It was long, stretching to almost three feet.
The long tail cat stalked towards me and hissed repeatedly.
Hisss!!
I studied the cat carefully. I knew cats were some of the apex predators for good reason. They were fast and very agile, they possessed great muscle control and can move their body in different directions at will, as well as stop or start moving at speed. Compared to this cat, the wolf I killed yesterday was way easy. I knew I would struggle to kill the beast.
The cat seemed to have finished sizing me up, it hissed and leaped at me. It's hindlegs were very strong and it leaped higher than the wolf yesterday. I timed my move and jumped out of the way just in time.
The cat hissed, frustrated that it didn't get me, another thing about cats was that they weren't patient creatures and were quick to get irritated if they didn't get what they wanted on time.
I held my knife steady and prepared for another attack from the cat but I was to be surprised. Instead of running at me again, it shot fire from its mouth at me.
I jumped out of the way but the cat didn't give me time to land, it immediately launched itself at me. It was too late to avoid contact with it so I twisted and put the knife near my neck where I knew the cat would bite, the other hand was flexed, ready to push the cat away.
It leaped at me and as expected it tried to bite my neck but it met only the sharp knife, the cat hissed as the knife sliced it's jaw a little. I used the opportunity to push it away from me.
The cat landed on the floor a few feet away from me, it's jaw was bleeding and it seemed shocked to see it's blood, it hissed and stood still.
Then I realized, it wasn't standing still, it was licking the blood. Why would a cat lick its own blood? I wondered, unless it wasn't it's own blood.
Then I felt a sharp stinging pain on my wrist, I looked down and my stomach turned.
I was bleeding!