Chapter 20 - Rabbit

On top of a tree, there was a small fireball in my hand. I had just slept under this tree and the sun was rising.

I was lost in my thoughts. As effective as being stealthy was, not having the fire spell made it almost unbearable.

I shivered. I really started to miss the coat I had earlier. There had to be some way I could make a coat right?

I suppose I would have to take down a wolf and find a way to turn the fur into a coat. If I happened to see a wolf I suppose I could try to take it down.

I closed my eyes and prepared two tunnel spells, Alyx's spell, and a healing spell. Preparing so many spells at the same time made me think of how far I had come. Originally even casting three fundamental spells would make me worry about my body's condition.

Though to be fair, I was mainly depending on Alyx's spell which was very useful but didn't put too much of a burden on me.

I started to think back to when I tried directly combining the spell casting procedure of the tunnel spell as well as Alyx's spell. It seemed it was too risky and ambitious to try with higher level spells right away. I decided to see if I could combine the ice and water spell since they were both fundamental spells.

I did not do anything crazy, I just tried to connect the first part of the ice spell with the water spell. After that I finished the last part of the ice spell, enclosing the whole thing, except including the additional water spell.

There was a minor pain, nothing that would faze me but noticeable.

I saw water form and ice condense around it very quickly. What was left was a ball of ice that was about the size of a large beach ball.

I was a little surprised at the effectiveness of the spell I casted. It seemed that proper synergy could enhance the output of the spell. Though I did not really see the usage of a giant ice ball, it showed me that the direction I had taken was not necessarily wrong.

I slid down the tree. I wanted to find some rabbits to eat, they were not only tasty but not difficult to eat, like the wolves and eagles.

As I walked in and out of the shadows of the trees I saw a rabbit looking over. I was able to kill it without it noticing, and after casting Alyx's null spell I cooked and ate it.

After finishing the meal, I looked up to see black figures in front of me. I slowly approached with my head down.

I was able to make out five one-horned demons who were clutching their stone knives. They were walking methodically in a straight line.

I did not think I could fight all of them directly, after all, I had barely been able to fight three. I thought back to when I stalked the two-horned demon.

I was only able to barely win the fight, and that was with the advantage when I did a sneak attack. I started to prepare Alyx's spell as I came up with ideas.

If I snuck up, I was fairly confident I could kill one, but the problem came with the remaining four. If everything works out, Alyx's spell should let me kill two. From that point, I might get cornered by the remaining two.

As I stalked from a distance away I noticed there was an eagle. It had screeched loudly, causing all the demons to turn and look at it. I stood behind a tree wanting to know what this eagle was planning to do.

The only thought in my mind was that the eagle was being foolish. Even if it had a large frame, a victory against five demons would come with heavy injuries.

The eagle dived one of the demons, that demon was helpless and had been pierced. The other demons were quick to react and tried to stab the eagle. However, they could not land a single hit as the eagle flapped its wings out of the way, then flew off carrying the demon's body in its claws.

...It seems that one could also do things that way. Right now the demons were in a panic, and I reckoned with some sacrifices I would be able to take them all out right now.

But I stood still. Could I replicate what that eagle did? The important advantage that the eagle had was its mobility which trumped anything that couldn't fly. Obviously, I had no method of flying like that. I also remembered the stamina that these demons had, when I tried to run before, they ended up catching up with me.

There seemed to be no way my mobility would be greater than the demons.

But...

Maybe I didn't need to be faster.

I slowly approached the demons who started to regain their bearings.

I was able to get close to one of them without any of them noticing. I stabbed my stake in its head, then quickly ran away. The demons quickly turned to me, while the one I stabbed was bleeding and fell to the ground. I darted for the trees and tried to flit between them.

Although I was able to shake maybe one or two, there would be one that spotted me and continued chasing me, then the others would soon follow.

I felt I was too sloppy when I changed between trees, although I was getting better the more I did it, I was going to run out of stamina at this rate.

As I softly landed behind a tree I climbed it. Sadly, it wasn't very quiet and the demons realized I was up in the tree. They climbed up the tree, stabbing their knives into the bark and pulling themselves up.

I saw this as a big opportunity, as they couldn't stab me. I stabbed the one that was highest up in the head, quickly reclaimed my stake and jumped over the demon's head.

The other two demons were already up on the tree, seeing I jumped off, they followed.

I wondered if the same trick would work on them again. I got a bit of distance, dashing from tree to tree. I scaled up the tree again.

The demons did not immediately try to come up the tree. They were staring at me and seemed to be hesitating.

After a few moments that started to run away. I was a little surprised but I decided to give chase. Since they were running I really had to strain myself to keep up.

I was slowly losing them, I thought about how I could catch up. I decided to cast the ice and water combination spell. As the spell was forming, I grit my teeth and threw it forward, aiming high.

I slowed my breaths and stopped running.

The ice ball collided with a tree and a loud sound was made ahead of the demons. Thankfully, it seemed easy to throw the spell while it was still forming, and I was able to get it ahead of them.

Upon hearing the sound the demons slowed, looking around for what the sound came from. They were unable to see the ice ball, I had a good idea of what their perspectives would be after trying to lose them for quite some time.

When the ice ball fell to the ground making another loud sound, the demons started to run the other way. Listening to the sound of their footsteps I determined where they were as I hid behind a tree.

The two demons ran together. They thought that the danger came from in front of them in their startled state.

As one of the demons ran, it occasionally looked at the other one.

As it passed a tree the demon heard a scream, looking over only to see nobody else was there.

It turned and only saw a hand retrieving a wooden stake from a dead demon.

As a last stand, the demon charged with a battle cry, but when it got to the tree it did not see anybody.

It started to panic, looking around, hoping that by swinging his head around fast enough it would see something.

It let out a growl and roared. But it was silent.

The demon started to run, occasionally looking behind itself.

If there was nothing behind the demon it should be fine right? That may be why the demon turned around to look.

However, as it turned a wooden stake pierced through its head.

A wooden stake I was holding.

I sighed and started to clean the wooden stake in the snow. Even when the fresh blood came off, the dried bloodstains stubbornly stayed.

I chuckled to myself. I realized this was the first time I was able to win a fight without using Alyx's spell. After stretching, I climbed a tree and cast the fire spell.

I was actually able to make out other demons that were nearby during that engagement. Thankfully, they were far away.

I decided to go back the way I came since demons appeared to be really congregated here and I didn't feel safe sleeping there.

On my way, I was able to find a rabbit, as I was hungry I tried to kill it.

I guess because I was careless, it noticed me and burrowed into a hole.

I recalled that the rabbit would come out eventually, so I waited at an angle it couldn't see me at. After a few moments I saw it peek out, when I tried to stab it, it was quick to react and started running. I ran after it.

The rabbit started dancing between the trees, I was able to make out part of the rabbit from time to time and used that to judge where it would be next.

Eventually, I was unable to find any traces of the bunny and I had lost it.

It seemed I would need to try this chase a few more times to learn how these rabbits could so easily run away.