Records of Rebirth

Chapter 20 - Shameless Kill Stealing

Watching the Alpha's fierce reaction to the two thieving birds, you wouldn't think he was guilty of doing the exact same thing.

Hadn't he and his pack stolen the prey that was initially mine.

Sure, I may not physically be able to swallow a bison whole, but I would've appreciated them leaving me a few bites.

I didn't score any XP either even though half of the damage had been done by me.

I was the sole reason the bison had been so easy to kill.

If only the wolves had waited for the bison to die first, the kill would have belonged to me. I'd have preferred that over the shameless fighting over the corpse of my stolen kill that was happening right now.

I guess XP only counted when you dealt the final blow, as proven by the dead wolf.

Well, for now I would make do with the corpse of their brother. I needed to retrieve it.

The hideous large bird managed to fling away the Alpha that bit it. The two birds beating their large wings in unison, whipped up a gale that knocked down all the wolves.

One scratched a wounded wolf with its huge talons causing the Alpha to retaliate with his claws. But the birds were sneaky, at any incoming attack they would rise up into the air, hovering above the ground out of reach before descending to strike again.

The wolves could not reach them no matter how high the alpha jumped.

In the end they were defeated. The Alpha choose to abandon the bison's corpse to the birds. It growled an order for retreat to its wounded brethren and they scattered into the trees.

Staying low in the undergrowth I watched the wolves leave, their silhouettes disappearing swiftly like shadows blending into the dark.

Satisfied with the fleeing wolves the two birds grasped the bison's corpse by its limbs, held evenly between their strong talons.

They beat their large wings creating a powerful gale of fowl stench as they flew into the air. I watched the massive silhouette of the bison grow smaller until it disappeared into the mist above.

I felt mixed feelings watching them vanish to their hidden nest in the clouds. It was disappointing watching my prey vanish like that. The effort I put into the bison rendered futile first by the appearance of the wolves and now by these birds.

It seemed everything here knew how to steal. How shameless!

Those birds had only come when the fight was over, earning the catch without any effort just because they had the aerial advantage. I wondered how annoyed the wolves must feel.

They must be royally pissed off exactly like me, and rightly so.

Speaking of wolves, once the birds left I searched for a better hiding spot. There was no telling when they would return.

Though the bison was gone, the wolves could come back for the scraps of meat left behind from the fight, or to retrieve the corpse of their fallen brethren.

No way was I letting that happen. For all my efforts today I deserved some food!

Slithering under the soil away from any prying eyes I moved towards the fallen wolf.

On the way I sensed a large empty space under the ground through vibrations, in the shape of a long cylinder. Which could only mean one thing. It was a tunnel!

There had to be an entrance somewhere.

Surfacing, I spied a hole in the ground, hidden by branches, grass and fallen leaves. It was perfect!

It was concealed enough to hide myself and large enough to fit the wolf's corpse. I could tell it was a large tunnel from the echoes of the space within. I wish I'd passed it during the chase by the Alpha.

It seemed like the perfect hole to escape where he could not follow. And it was large enough to travel through too.

The tunnel covered a far distance. I sensed other exits above the surface besides the one I'd found. At the time, I could have entered it and exited from another hole leaving the Alpha confused. If only I'd found it then.

But the fight was already over. If I ever encountered him again and needed a place to hide I would return here. For now, it seemed like the perfect place to hide away my catch in case he returned.

I grasped the wolf corpse by my teeth, dragging it away from the scene of the battle towards the hole. Although the wolf was twice my size, it wasn't so heavy for me to lift. My strength must have increased since the level up.

I wondered if it were possible for me to swallow something as big as a wolf.

Hmm. Wouldn't that be a cool thing to test?

It would be like finding out how much you could eat at an all-you-can-eat buffet!

I would go to restaurants like that in my past life with my siblings, eating as much cheap food as we could shovel into our mouths in a single sitting to save money.

Snakes were capable of expanding their stomachs to consume creatures large than themselves. However, it took a long time and left them incapacitated while it was being digested.

It was certainly too risky to eat. I would rather take the corpse back to the nest to share.

While it would be possible to eat a wolf who stood at 3ft tall, the Alpha was out of the question.

It was enormous in comparison to its peers, twice the size of a normal wolf and nearly as big as a horse. I wonder if it was the adult of its specie.

I drag the body of the dead wolf into the undergrowth locating the hole. Entering, I found a cavern of tunnels broken up like a maze. They were spacious but not large enough to contain the Alpha's body if he came calling.

I felt satisfied It was safe to hide here for now.

The tunnel was the same size as the dead wolf. So when I dragged its body inside it somehow became stuck to the sides of the wall.

Great. Of all the wolves in the pack I had to get the fat one.

As I pulled it through, the wolf's foot got caught on a root. With no hands to pry it apart I could only yank at its body forcefully.

A section of the tunnel collapsed in a sandy rubble and the hole was plunged in complete darkness.

Ugh! Why was my luck so bad? Did Sensei nerf its stats?

Switching my senses to navigate the tunnel with sound, there were no vibrations aside from the ones I made, until I was about half way in. Then, I began to hear the sound of something moving about.

Hmm. This can't be good.

The vibrations eluded to something smaller than me that moved in an erratic way as if swaying left and right. I heard scuttling sounds coming up from the tunnel ahead and the sound of something scraping.

I froze. Had I unwittingly entered the den of another snake?

I stopped dragging the wolf corpse, leaving it in the middle of the tunnel to use as a shield. I crawled into its furs spreading myself flat against its cold belly to hide myself from sight, while I waited to see what would appear.

I was lucky the hole was narrow, It left a limited direction to strike if anything came near. There weren't any other passages.

Rather than facing attacks from multiple directions, my back was covered by the rubble and the wolf's body. I could face whatever was coming head on.

I waited, the scraping grew nearer, sounding like the noise made by an elongated body dragging on the ground.

Until it didn't.

As it drew nearer the sound depth increased, revealing a tinge of sharpness to it. Like something hard dragging along the ground along with the 'clink' sound it made whenever it hit a stone.

That doesn't sound like a snake.

Curious to what I would see, I braced myself as I curled inside the wolf's corpse ready to strike, waiting for the new monstrosity to reveal itself.

The scraping sound halted, as the creature made its appearance. It was small in size with a furry appearance, long front teeth and soft clawed paws like that of a cat.

It was a rabbit!

What scared me most was not its appearance but the source of the scraping sound. It came from two curved horns that scraped against the roof of the tunnel as it moved.

Two long horns growing from its forehead, ribbed like those of a gazelle and twisted like a spiral. They were black in colour and gleamed like polished marble.

The vicious horn came charging at me like a spear.

I panicked.

In the tight space the creature had the advantage. Its horns jabbed straight, spread apart to cover any side escape as it plunged towards me like a wooden stake.

I quickly scrambled out of the wolf corpse twisting to avoid its path, before the horns impaled the wolf corpse and me with it.

But it was not enough, It had already covered some distance to me with its charge. The space left was not enough for my coiled body to fully straighten.

I was linear so I was able to pass between its horns, avoiding the strike however, the rest of my coiled body was not so lucky. Before my fangs could reach, my body was stabbed.

Luckily the bones of the wolf corpse managed to stop the horn and I was not completely skewered.

My fangs dug deep into its soft fur, pumping in venom.

?You have defeated LV3 Novus Lapin?

Its body grew stiff at the system's notification. Impaled and stuck against its horn my body throbbed with pain, there was no way to move out of it without tearing my skin.

The creature was dead but I was now trapped.