5 Wild Hunt - 1

Leaving the hut, Xion walks toward the small river at the backside of his hut.

"I hope by following this river I can found a game drinking by the riverside. Hopefully, it will be a mammal, and preferably a deer that won't fight back." He mumbled out loud.

Xion follows the stream downwards carefully. The riverbanks path was a stony one with shrubs here and there growing wildly. Xion evades the bushes by walking directly in the river. Avoiding from getting ambush by predators or poisonous animals hidden in the bushes.

Xion with his experience from his weird dream he can somehow recall the way to control his bones and make the throwable thorn bone. Seeing a dry river stone at the center of the river he sat and concentrate on his palm trying to make the base for [Thorn Throw] which is his own bone. He basically needs to generate a new bone from the existing one. And the process of growing the needed bone wasn't extremely hard, rather it was pretty easy for him. The thing that makes him want to pass-out is the pain resulting from his growing bone, pushing and tearing his flesh apart.

The pinching nerve pain Xion felt on his palm gives him illusion as if his muscle is torn fiber by fiber, and from the look of it, the pain won't be gone until he can finish what he starts or bail it out. Even with his Strong Will Xion still lose his conscious for split second, his vision turns black and his entire arm trembling, demanding him to give up the notion altogether.

'I wish I had pain resistant at this moment. Fuck! Why was it not hurt at all in that dream? Is it because it is a dream?'

And that's only the first phase of the skill Thorn Throw, creating the bone. The second phase is to fill the thorn bone with energy. While the third phase is to launch the thorn with his raw power.

Finished his first phase of the skill Xion body's drenched in sweat. Taking a few breaths, he calms his mind and holds his trembling arm with his other hand hoping to lessen the spasming muscle and its lingering pain. Xion then poured aether into the tiny bone stuck out of his palm, four minutes later and the required energy already make him light-headed. Knowing he doesn't have enough aether to pour he stop filling the thorn with aether and wrap it up with already store energy inside.

Somehow Xion's success in completing the second phase with his body trembling all over, he takes a break for almost ten minutes before continuing the last step, launching the thorn. He motions his palm straight toward the distance tree and…

"Pluck!' the bone successfully stabs into the tree yet the last step felt like a blocked hose filled with running water and then the wedge holding the hose is released. His body literally responds like an exhausted catapult, dead tired. Xion's entire body trembling like an end of the world earthquake.

Feeling extremely exhausted Xion let his body soak by the cold river water for a few good minutes and stands with his muddy wet clothes washed by the stream, leaving only hard to clean stains. His body already stops trembling but the sense of tiredness doesn't go away.

The skill was indeed looking extremely horrifying in his dream; anyone with bone will have their entire bone puncturing their flesh, the more vitality the target had the more painful it will be, the only solution is to prevent the bone before it can change the structure of their bone or… changing body. Besides the usefulness of the skill the downside was the pain and arduous energy, it requires to fill it in.

After two hours on foot, the small river joins into a much bigger river. The big river they had passed while Xion unconscious. Looking around Xion can't find any kind of structure that resembles a bridge.

'Maybe it's on the other side of the forest.' He thought.

The river stretches as far as a hundred meters with a clear blue color surface with an unknown depth. The river looks calm on the outside but anybody must know that a calm surface wouldn't mean safe water, after all, you don't know how fast the undercurrent is or what kind of beast may lurk under.

The surface is smooth enough to be reflective, like a glass that reflects the sky perfectly, giving a serene atmosphere. But that's not the case for Xion, with his cautious personality he back away and go upstream back to the way he comes from.

In the long hour of his walks, he found a few possible preys like rabbits, birds, and rodents which all successfully get away from him, unscratched. He can see fishes swimming freely unafraid of him. Yet, he can't get any of them. He tried to stab them with his spear but with the volume of the spear or maybe his inexperienced self, the fish always slipped away.

Feeling his body becoming a bit too cold and the sky already bright enough for him to dare to step into the dry path. Xion starts to walk at the river bank facing through the sometimes-thorny bushes.

They said in a clear sunny and happy day, misfortune happen unexpectedly. And that's exactly what happens to Xion at this moment. When he walks thru the dense shrub at the banks with his spear point forward, his spear unluckily stabs dead on into the butt hole of a big black bear. The bear whose meal-time interrupted rudely by a stab in its rear roar with all its might, angry.

Before the bear can even issue its angry roar Xion already ran ten meters away from the bear without once looking back at the bear, his target. Xion's body moved before the information can even be registered into his brain. After twenty meters his brain finally processes the information and at this moment, he knew that he fucked up. Fucked up so bad.

He ran into the denser forest hoping the obstacles would slow down the bear and hopefully the bear would stop chasing after him. But his hope was broken up by the angry roar of the bear a few seconds later.

No matter what world it is, bears are usually top predators in the forest. With their long claws and big body, they can kill a tiger or any enemy they encountered. And in this world, most black bears are level 3 beast that can kill a level 4 human hunter easily, maybe not that easy if the human can get away or had a great experience fighting with one but they can pretty much tear human flesh effortlessly.

In two lifetime of his life, he never believed in the word of luck or unlucky yet this time he wishes for the god of luck to bless him with luck so he can get away from the bear or maybe makes the bear stop chasing him.

"Crash!'

Hearing the crashing sound behind him Xion turns his heads and sees the bear bulldozing any obstacle on its way. Seeing the charging bear didn't slow down its speed at all Xion heads began to churn-up any idea he can possibly get but none seems to work and he can't perchance test his lucks which result to his death, maimed by an angry bear.

Maybe it's luck or fate, Xion sees a big tree tens meter away in his path. Seconds after he reaches the base of the tree he climbs like an agile monkey and reaches the highest branch, yet before he can take a breath the bear comes crashing toward his tree making the tree shaking and dropping lots of fresh leaves into the ground that weren't supposed to fall yet.

Again, destiny beat his ass and yell 'Not yet loser!" because a bear is one of the jungle predators who had an inborn talent that makes them an all-terrain master except air, they can climb trees with their claws easily like tigers, jaguar, etc.

So, climbing trees won't save your unlucky ass.

The tree keeps shaking with each movement the bear makes whilst its climb it's way into Xion's spot.

"Fine! I'll take you on and with the power of gravity I'll have your life."

Positioning his spear downward toward the bear snout Xion jump and grip the spear with both of his hands as tight as he can.

The bear seeing its enemy jumping forward into its jaw, roar and ready to take a bite of this mortal enemy of its life. Unfortunately, the bear was clouded because of its rage and forgot its puny mortal enemy had a sharp stick on its paw. And that's costly, almost taking its life out of its body.

The distance between Xion's branch and the bear was less than seven-meter and that distance would be traverse less than a blink of an eye giving Xion no extra time to repositioning his aim. Because the bear opens its mouth roaring Xion's spear tip hit the upper side of its nose and stab into its black angry beady eyes.

Feeling the pain on its eye, the bear shakes its head to the side resulting in more damage than it is supposed to.

Xion's body gets thrown a few meters across giving him no time to correct his body posture. Even though the ground in the forest is softer than other places the impact still gives him pain. Rolling his body away from the crashing point Xion stands and felt a jolt of pain on his left ankle.

As the distance between them wasn't far enough to get him enough momentum for him to pierce the eye into its skull thru its eye socket into its brain. Still, the damage induced by Xion's spear makes the bear blind in one eye and in so much pain that it falls from the tree.

"Boom!'

When your life on the line any sensation of pain would be put at the back of your mind plus any small stimulation will get you on high-alert mode even though you were already in one. And don't forget the pumping adrenaline in his blood to lessen his pain.

Xion moves his body unconsciously away from his original position and took a run for his life because he knows that it wouldn't deter the bear from chasing him, rather it would spark the bear thirst for revenge further. He planned to somehow kill or injured the inside of the bear mouth, incapacitating it and make a run for it.

With Xion left leg condition, he shouldn't be able to run like he previously did, uninjured. But Xion's way to adapt to things has already passed the norm, with his spear as a pole he used it as his body support momentarily to gain momentum for his run. True he may not be as fast as he was before. However, Xion wasn't out of an idea, he ran toward the denser shrub where another predator may lurk.

The always calm side of Xion's former self proves to be useful in his current situation. It's not like his former self far superior to his other self rather it is the result of his era, one lives in a super modern world, where traveling between planet reachable by the masses while the other one lives in a world where traveling between cities with only a distance less than a hundred of kilometer may put you at risk, be it from monster or bandits or anything that wants your life.

Like they said the more experience you had the more available option you can get.

Sure enough, Xion can see a three naked green humanoid holding wooden stick stood on his way. These three hairless humanoids are what they called as Goblin. Xion once read on a book about this persistent race similar to pest. The information about goblin shows up in his mind all of sudden. Is it because the pressure or other factor nobody knows but everything he reads appears inside his head clearly like he read it just yesterday.

Goblin is an omnivore creature with a strong stomach, they can pretty much digest any organic stuff, be it tree bark or even tree itself. As long as they can put it inside their mouth and chew it, they'll digest it.

'Pretty much like me.' Xion thought. Then he suddenly shocked that by the realization he himself arrives at. As long as he can swallow it to his throat, he could probably digest anything.

The goblin as a race is classified as a pest and weak, individually. They are as strong as 7 or 8 years old human kid. Those kids may be weak but you'll still be dead if they put a knife into your heart or any other form of fatal situation. Goblins sometimes had weapons they get from men corpses or using sharp bones or stone. Even when you take all that away they still had sharp teeth and claw they can use to kill you off and become their dinner if you aren't vigilant.

Still, why is goblin classified as weak? Because with their average height of 110cm (max) and retarded self they always become the food source for the predator in the forest, even as learning tools for carnivore cubs.

Then another question would popped-up, if they are so weak why aren't they get eliminated yet? Because they can reproduce super quick; an adult female goblin only needs 30 to 50 days of pregnancy and they only need less than ten days to reach adolescence and ready to reproduce filling the world with more green pest named goblins.

Coincidentally they like to gather together and creating groups. When their population gets so big, they may gather and create a hoard that would devastate any villages they can finds. Furthermore, once a goblin reaches a certain threshold they will evolve into Hobgoblin, a higher race of goblin which far stronger and smarter than its predecessor.

With hobgoblin as their alpha, they would build a settlement and increasing the risk of any other populace nearby.

When Xion gets into the distance of few meters away, he thrust his spear to the body of the naked goblin standing on the side.

"Puchk!'

The spear stabs the goblin body effortlessly, carrying his momentum he swung the spear toward the left where the other two goblin stands flabbergasted knocking one down.

The action he did took less than 4 seconds and without stopping to look at his victims he began to pick up his pace. He knows from the sounds and chills he gets on his back were from the bear that wants to maim him, to death.