2 Chapter 2

There's a tense moment of silence before the rat bares its fangs and screeches at me! It pounces forwards, trying to corner me in my hiding place. I launch outwards to meet it, letting my instincts completely take over my body.

I duck underneath its pounce, lightning fast. I use my tail to help me do a 360 degree turn, then pounce on its back as it lands where I just was!

I bite down at its neck with my fangs, trying to get them past its fur and into its flesh. I draw a little blood, flaring my instinctive blood-lust, but my bite is too weak to kill it!

I use my paws to try and hold it in place, but it shakes my smaller body off. It turns and faces me, then swipes outwards with its claws at my eyes. I shrink backwards, dodging them narrowly.

I take advantage of my longer reach to do the exact same thing, I rake at its face with my claws. It also manages to dodge backwards, but I follow through and pounce on its back again.

This time, I use my front claws to grip into its back near its tail and use my stronger back legs to dig through its fur and skin, causing blood to well up from every strike.

The rat shudders and tries to shake me off, but I hold on for dear life while I continue raking it. Its struggles start to get weaker from blood loss, but it muscles its way out of my hold by flipping us both so that its back is on my stomach. It scrambles free and attempts to run.

If it were up to me, I'd probably let it go, but my instincts are screaming at me to hunt, to kill. Kind of like when you're starving and there's food in front of you. Still in the grips of that instinct, I immediately catch up to it before it goes too far and pounce on it again!

I hold it down with my claws while I bite into its neck, crunching into its spine and killing it. My instincts tell me to devour it then and there, right on the spot, but my rationality catches up at that point.

It's incredibly dangerous to even bite into a rodent, never mind actually eating one. They're usually full of worms and diseases, which is absolutely gross.

I definitely want to eat it, but only if I could cook it first. I need a nice fire to cook this rat… my mouth waters slightly when I imagine the taste of roasted meat over a flame.

Ugh, what the heck! I feel an enervating sensation from my gut. Specifically, it feels like my five hour energy core just turned into a two hour energy core. Something drained it of energy, and now my body feels somewhat tired where before it was all nerves and excitement.

Wait… holy smokes! There's a ball of black flame floating in the air in front of me, burning silently!

I can feel some sort of a connection to it, kind of like how I felt when I first started using my tail, but it's even weirder… This must be magic, right?!

I used mana from my core, which drained me of energy, to create this black flame after imagining a fire to cook with. I assumed it would be more complicated than that to use magic, but maybe its actually really simple… in any case, I have a fire now.

First things first, I leave the fire in place while I use my claws to skin the rat's body. It takes a lot of work, but I get most of its fur off, leaving just its juicy raw meat.

While I do that, the fire waits patiently in the air, waiting for my command. I feel it draining my mana slightly, but it's practically unnoticeable.

Once the rat is prepared, I concentrate and pretend that the fire is just another extension of my body, similar to my tail. Apparently that works, because I successfully control the fire and bring it near the rat's body. It floats in accordance with my will, enveloping the body and cooking it.

In any case, after a few minutes the rat starts to smell really good to my sensitive nose.

I patiently wait a minute or two longer to make sure it's fully cooked before I attempt to sever the connection between the flame and I. If my magic were a tail, then that would probably mean letting my tail drop... which causes the flame to disappear. Then I dive onto the rat, devouring it quickly.

As I eat it I notice that with every bite I swallow, energy flows from the digesting meat and into my core, replenishing it slightly. I wonder if that's how I regenerate my mana, by eating other creatures.

I didn't see that rat using any magic, but maybe it was using mana to grow so big? I don't really understand, but if we're going by a novel, it should probably be possible for me to absorb mana from the environment to replenish my mana…

Oh! If I concentrate on my core, I think I can feel it taking in mana from the air around me as well as from the meat. But it's absorbing it slowly, very slowly. When I focus on my core, I can speed up the absorption a little, I just need to sense the mana in the air around me and suck it towards me…. but it's much worse than trying to adapt to my cat body. The process of forcing mana from the environment to move is incredibly exhausting and head-ache inducing because, from what I can tell, it relies purely on my willpower.

But as a result of my attempt, I know how to sense mana in a small area around me. With a little practice, I'll probably be able to do it without even trying. And most likely, I'll be able to increase the amount of mana that I can sense and absorb. For now though, now that I've finished eating, I have about two thirds of my total mana back.

I lick my lips as I ponder how I know to skin a rat… I think it has something to do with my grandfather.

Yeah, now that I think about it, I remember that he was always trying to get me to go hunting with him. I never really wanted to though, I always hated the idea of killing something, especially an innocent deer.

But my grandfather forced me to, and after that… I look down at the remains of the rat's body, a greasy skeleton with only bits of meat left. I guess I got over my reluctance to hunt, didn't I?

Well… I suppose that I should be glad that I have this knowledge now that I'm a cat. I get the feeling that my new life won't be a simple one… it'll be easier for me to survive if I adjust to a hunter's lifestyle.

I slap my face with my paws a few times, shaking off any bad vibes.

Alright then! Now that I'm finished eating, I should continue exploring to find a way out of the sewer.

And hey, maybe I'll run into another rat along the way... Mm, now that sounds good, I'm definitely still hungry. A single rat just isn't filling enough!

…what's that vibration? It's coming from the same direction as the rat, but it's much stronger than the last time.

Hmm… I don't think it's coming from just one animal... Actually, it feels like a lot of them, all pitter-pattering in the same direction… wait a moment… if I recall correctly, don't rats usually travel in packs? So why was this rat alone? The only reason I could think of is if it were a scout…? Oh no…

All of a sudden the vibrations feel a lot more sinister, as if I could sense the killing intents of probably dozens of rats. Movement comes into my vision, and even though I know I should run, I wait a second to watch as a horde of giant rats hurdle down the walkway and straight at me.

It turns out, the rat that I killed was actually rather small compared to its brethren. These ones are at least twice its size, some of them three times! Hatred gleams in their eyes, maybe because they can smell the delicious rat meat I finished eating only seconds ago.

…Time to run! I turn the other way and sprint as fast as possible in the other direction. I don't know if I can even fight two rats at once, let alone an entire horde of them!

During my frantic run, I once again let my instincts take over my body. My running becomes smoother and less choppy, as if I were born a cat.

My fur raises upright as I both hear and sense an ugly, sizzling mana approaching me rapidly from behind. I jump to the side and continue my running motion as I land.

I look over my shoulder to see putrid green acid eating into the stone walkway where I was. A rat just launched acid at me from its tail, which means the rats can use mana too!