7 Abandonment

There were three goblin hordes coming at me, one from my left, another from my front and a third to my right.

I jumped into the air with a flap of my wings and spun myself, creating a vortex of fire around me, burning brighter by the second. Awesome flames of green, blue and yellow danced around me. When the fire fizzled itself out and I came to a standstill, the charred light green bodies of the goblins were littered across me as far as the eye could see. I smirked and held my wings up in a victory pose, guffawing at their demise, when all of a sudden a rustle broke me from my stupor.

A giant jet black dragon stood in front of me, it's ruby eyes glistening with ill-intent as it eyed it's mid-day snack. I flapped my wings to get away but in a flash, the dragon snapped its neck forwards and I was once again trapped in a small wet and cramped enclosure.

'AHHH! OH SHI-'

I woke, doing the bird equivalent of sweating heavily and spasming for a hot minute, after collecting my thoughts I ran to the pond and drunk some water to relax myself from that god-awful dream.

'Gods I had no clue birds had nightmares as well, how terrifying must it be for animals that can't distinguish dreams from reality'... I shuddered at the thought of meeting a creature tens of times stronger than I was; shuddering even further when I remembered that in my current form, a creature like that would not be hard to find.

I waddled my way back towards my home when I noticed something. Or rather, noticed the lack of something. The 'YEECCHII"'s of my brothers and sisters which were a constant in the past day had suddenly disappeared as soon as it started, I looked around and it seemed that the seed mountain had been obliterated as well, putting this and the fact that there were no small yellow bodies to be seen anywhere...

Wait.

They're gone.

...

'WHAT THE HELL MA'??!

I cursed the chicks and my 'mother' in my mind, what kind of inhumane parent leaves her newborn to fend for herself just days after being born?!

That's right...an "inhumane" one.

I groaned slightly at my stupidity, I shouldn't have relied so heavily on an animal/magical beast I had just met.

Was it because I had covered myself with an egg and the mother hen didn't see me? No, there was some way it could detect her children, through some other magic or other means, this couldn't have been my fault I assured myself.

I looked around my surroundings, shattered eggshells and a few stray seeds were haphazardly littered all throughout the floor of the barn. It looked sad and desolate... I had taken some form of comfort from seeing so many friendly living creatures, but now that had been ripped from me.

There was no use cursing a bunch of animals, so what if they left me to die, I'll make it through dammit. I checked my "active buffs" on the system, the protection of the black chicken which was there previously was nowhere to be seen, this must've meant that she's far away, more than 10 km to be exact.

Looking on the bright side of things, this would probably force me to get stronger I thought, all great heroes and powerful people once went through a crucible which made them come out stronger on the other end for it, I decided I would survive being abandoned by some literal bird brains and continue my journey to get stronger on my lonesome. I knew that this rambling was just me trying to be positive after being abandoned by the only other friendly living creatures I knew but nonetheless moping around would do no good.

'System, you're still here right?'

The pale orange screen showed up once again, I knew the system was most likely bonded to me but it was always a relief to see it pop up at the start of the day, without it I would have no heads or tails of my situation, and would probably lead to me losing my head very quickly.

After checking my body and making sure I wasn't hungry or thirsty via the system, I asked it to lead the way to the habitat of the "Lesser Grass Lizard", it showed that I had the highest chance of beating it and getting away with my life, sure 35% wasn't high at all and that deeply worried me but I at least wanted to take a look at my possible future prey.

Mindless waddling continued for about 2 hours or so when we reached the area the system had marked on the minimap, I broke through a hedge which separated the two areas and entered the marked area, there was a highlighted yellow circle, according to the system this meant that the lizards could be found here in great abundance.

I walked the perimeter of the yellow circle, hoping to catch a stray lizard off guard, or possibly see it in action against another creature so I could assess it's fighting capabilities and decide for myself whether the risk was worth it. The walk continued for only 10 or so minutes when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a green silhouette stumble across the tree tops, slowly, the lizard jumped from branch to branch, making careful leaps as to not fall off.

'This is our prey right system?'

[ Affirmative ]

'Why is it jumping about so awkwardly? Are they this slow in general?'

[ Negative, this lizard is heavily damaged, as indicated by it's lack of a tail, slow movement and slight limp ]

'Ok we get it Sherlock'

After getting this new information, my eyes gleamed with a certain greed, could I kill steal this lizard and add its Status Sum to my own? It was worth a shot!

The lizard was moving so slowly between branches that only a slight waddle was needed to stay on it's tail (ironic considering their lack of a tail but I digress).

'What's the optimal way of taking down this lizard?'

[ You have great soul power yet little to no magic capabilities surprisingly, this must mean that you are a KRYPTID focused on physical attacks, I would suggest leaping forwards and swiping at the weak creature to shatter it in one swipe]

I looked down at my tiny yellow legs and my soft fluffy wings, I wasn't going to be able to "leap" or "swipe" at anything with these appendages, they looked and felt like they were created more for adorability's sake than pure practicality. I envied those born as a wolf or a dragon, basically any other creature than a chicken.

Lamenting my physical weakness I asked the system what other approaches I could take.

[ The creature seems very weak, if you need to be very discrete, you may follow it for a while and kill it once it collapses due to exhaustion or a misstep ]

'Ah this seems way more plausible' I thought, 'but this does make me more like a vulture/scavenger sort of type, not what I envisioned my first hunt to be... but if I wanted to get stronger then I could care less about how I came across to an imaginary audience in my mind'

Being bored of waddling along the thickets and brambles, I decided to ask the system some questions which had been running through my mind.

'Hey system, where did you come from? Was there a momma system and a daddy system or something? How did you come to be?'

[ That information will be revealed in due time ]

Out of all the answers which I expected, that one shocked me the most. Never before had the system failed to answer a question of mine, much less knowingly withheld information. This proved that the system was an ends to a mean, there was a creator behind this with some goal in mind, I just needed to figure out what it was soon so I couldn't be used a pawn for some magical king or warlord, whatever reigned supreme in this backwards world.

'Are there human civilisations nearby?'

[ Yes, this forest borders the kingdom of Kuru, specifically it's outer villages, humans have high status sums so it may be worth to go and visit them, causing mayhem and adding to your own strength ]

'Woah that's brutal', the system showed no regard or empathy for human life, it's wording of "causing mayhem and adding to your own strength" made it seem like it categorised causing the demise of humans as a positive thing, this made me more wary of the system, trusting it wholeheartedly could lead to issues down the line.

Feeling a little irked by my system's answer I didn't ask any more questions, instead, I silently followed the lizard, which over time seemed to be getting slower and slower. 5 minutes passed and I heard a muffled "THUMP".

I dart under a bush and survey my surroundings using my handy 360 degree vision, there didn't seem to be any other creatures nearby, but the lizard which I had been following had disappeared from the tree tops.

Realising what happened I quickly stood up, and ran over to the area of impact, shaking the dried leaves which stuck to my feathers off on the way, after arriving at the base of a tree, I saw a pale green lizard with brown speckles lying on the grass, it's breathing was slow and haggard.

I inspected it closer and saw the scratch marks which had covered it's body, compared to me it was quite large, about three or four times bigger, but seeing it in this pathetic state made me feel less fear and more pity towards this creature. Whatever it had gone through, it wasn't pretty.

'System, what is this things status sum?'

[ Inspect : Lesser Green Lizard]

• Age : 12

• {Status Sum} : 573

• Gender : M

'It's just a child...'

I felt sick to my stomach when I realised what I had to do to ensure my survival, sure 12 years for a lizard was quite long by Earth terms, but maybe this was also a reincarnated human? Maybe magical beasts were highly intelligent and he had worried parents and siblings waiting for him to return home? Perhaps it was a-

My thoughts were cut short when the lizard snapped it's neck at me, opening its jaw to reveal rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth, it missed my neck by about half an inch, I stumbled back and tried to put distance between myself and it, falling down onto a pile of dead leaves in the process.

Even though it was heavily weakened I knew that if that hit had landed, it would've killed me just the same, even on its death bed it had tried to take my life to satisfy some innate urge to kill.

This was all the push I needed to exile thoughts of sympathy for this creature.

I waited for a few minutes while I watched it bleed out, it's breathing lowered as each second passed, I needed it to be severely weakened to kill it safely.

Eventually, I knew it was time for me to get up.

I sat up from the grass I had watched the 12-year-old lizard bleed out on, and walked beside it. I picked up the largest rock that I could find in that area firmly on my beak.

I slightly trembled at what I was going to do, even though I knew this was a blood-thirsty animal and that the Erom worms also faced their demise under my wrath, killing such a large creature brought up unforeseen emotions in me. This kill wasn't for food like the Eroms were, it was for personal gain through murder, to improve my strength and survivability.

I held the rock up high over the lizard, it's breathing was nothing more than a silent whisper, it's eyes were staring into mine with emotions I could not decipher.

Memories of my dream flashed through my mind, the immense fear of encountering a creature much stronger gave me revitalised strength.

I gripped the rock harder with my beak and brought it down.

Again.

And again.

[ You have eliminated a creature with a soul power greater than yours, congratulations! As a KRYPTID that is no easy feat! ]

I looked at the systems cheery message with a tired but determined expression. I felt a surge of strength in my body, similar to when the mother hen screeched, except now, it was a slow surge all throughout, healing me from the inside, tempering my bones and muscles. I could feel my body getting stronger.

'System, show me my stats'.