30 Chase-N

"Fuck..." 

A piercing pain ran across my body with every movement I made. My entire left forearm was drenched in my blood because of the giant hole in it, courtesy of that monster. 

I could hear its steps and screams from behind as I ran and jumped between trees. I was barely able to keep out of its range, slowing down even a little would result in another hole in my body. 

When that thing jumped at me it was easy to dodge it, however, that scythe-like appendage flew like a spear toward me and poked a hole in my arm, the arm guard was easily destroyed and now I had pieces of metal engraved in the insides of the wound. It wasn't much worry for me, the punch of that weird knight hurt a lot more and it was still easy to ignore, but the blood loss was a completely different matter, even if it doesn't bother me I can't afford to lose too much blood. 

Suddenly I heard a loud sound behind me and immediately jumped forward towards another tree, landing on a branch for a mere second before jumping again. The branch I was in before was cut in half by that monster even though it was double the size of my arm. 

I didn't gain much physical strength from killing the knight in the dungeon, but I did gain agility and speed. Although I have always been agile moving like this would have been impossible before. 

"I'm lucky that I didn't lose my arm" 

That thing is hot on my tail and is burning with killing intent. Its scythe is flailing around trying to cut me to no avail. 

As the monster jumped towards me I jumped too, landing on a higher branch. It screamed in frustration as it saw me get away from its reach, its body twitched erratically in anger. 

"I guess I'm safe now..." 

It would be quite a scary sight for most people, not that I'm not completely undisturbed either. The uncontrollable twitching and shaking made the already crackling bones even louder and maybe because of its anger, certain areas of skin ripped apart, letting the muscles beneath open for everyone to see. 

Even though it was disturbing, I sighed in relief as I was finally safe from that monstrosity. However, that relief was short-lived as I heard a loud crack and tree weight shifted towards the left. I looked down only to see that monster biting the tree with its gigantic mouth. The sudden disappearance of a large portion of the base of the tree caused it to start falling. 

"Guess not..." 

I had to jump quickly as the tree began to fall, although there were a lot of trees all around me none of them had branches thick enough to sustain my weight, at least not a height I could reach with a single jump, so I was forced to roll on the ground and start running. 

The monster didn't hesitate to chase me immediately, and now without the height advantage, this has suddenly turned a lot more dangerous. If I could move my left arm I would fight that thing head on but right now is just too risky. Moreover, I'm lacking in firepower, my original idea was to scout not too far away from everyone and collect food so I only brought the shortsword with me since it wasn't as cumbersome as the long sword or the red one. 

Suddenly I heard the sound of someone slicing through the air and I hurriedly swung the sword behind me. The scythe-like appendage and my sword clashed, having only one usable arm I was easily overpowered, but it was enough to deflect the attack so it didn't hit, but it did trip me over. 

I rolled forward towards the monster as I fell and slashed at one of its front legs, it was a shallow cut at best but it helped me to realize something. This thing is weak to blunt attacks. 

Although my sword didn't do much damage to it, I could feel the bones breaking slightly from the force behind the attack and the already twisted leg ended up even more twisted. Howls of pain echoed through the forest as the broken leg failed to support the monster's weight and made it fall for a moment. 

As I saw it tumble down I immediately jumped backwards, the monster tried to slice me In half with the scythe appendage as it fell but I was barely able to avoid it. I then sprinted in the opposite direction without looking back, but I could hear it trying to catch me in the distance. 

"Don't worry, I'm not trying to escape" 

I took the opportunity to drink a healing vial now that I had managed to make some distance. I saw the hole in my forearm slowly close while expelling the pieces of metal. Even though it healed it left a nasty scar in a shape barely reminiscent of a star and my forearm felt numb, but at least I could move it once again.

I quickly jumped towards a high branch one after another to get as high as I could, if I just kept on moving between trees I wouldn't have to worry about that thing biting them down. 

As I kept on moving I never once stopped looking at that monster, even though one of its legs was broken, which made an even more horrific melody than before, it still chased relentlessly. It was easily faster than a horse even in that state which only made me realize that I was probably just as monstrous since I was outrunning it. 

"But I'm getting tired" 

I have running non-stop for at least an hour while bleeding, honestly, I don't even know how I'm still alive but I feel lightheaded and if I don't finish things soon I will be in a really bad spot. 

I intentionally slowed down so that beast could catch up to me, and the damn thing didn't waste that chance, it eventually got close and tackled the tree I had just jumped onto. 

The whole thing trembled and it started to fall instantly, so naturally I jumped but not towards another tree. I jumped down towards the monster. 

With my sword in hand, I fell on the monster's neck, I heard it crack and break, but the creature didn't die or fall. Since that failed I tried to stab its neck but my sword couldn't pierce the skin. 

Luckily for me, the scythe appendage didn't seem to be able to hit me in the position I was in, apparently not designed to take on threats on the back of the monster, but it was raging around so hard that keeping myself on it's back was getting increasingly hard. 

I thought of choking it using the straps of my bag, but given the fact that the mouth and neck were conjoined it would be completely useless, and I don't wanna lose my bag and everything I collected inside because of that thing biting them. so instead I decided to use the most basic of tactics when dealing with an opponent you can't hope to beat normally. 

"Let's gouge your eyes out~" 

I grabbed the left side of the neck and made an effort to twist it inward, after all, I may not be able to cut it, but I'm capable of breaking it. As the neck broke once again the head ended up pointing towards me because of the direction I twisted it, the eyes of the monster were staring at me with rage but I didn't allow it to do so for long. 

With my sword in my right hand, I stabbed its right eye. Blood gushed out like a fountain while the beast screamed in pain as it thrashed around with more force than before. Suddenly I felt my grip loosened and I was sent flying away. 

As I coursed through the air I let go of my sword to avoid stabbing myself by accident once I fell and I moved my body to avoid falling on my head or neck. As I did so I noticed something strange in the corner of my vision, but I didn't have time to see what it was. 

I was struck by sudden pain as I crashed against a tree. My back hurts badly but it didn't seem as if I broke anything, so that's good, I can push through pain with ease since it's neither bothersome nor completely unpleasant, but a broken spine is another matter completely, even I couldn't move after that. 

That monster didn't waste much time before charging at me with its only horn pointed at me, but I didn't move. The sound of wood slowly cracking behind me gave me an idea. 

As it got closer I hit the tree behind me with my elbow. Since I could break through a stone wall I guessed that a thick log wouldn't be too hard to break, and I was right. 

The blow easily broke the tree, causing it to start falling rapidly, I quickly jumped sideways to avoid it. The monster noticed but wasn't able to stop or change the direction of its charge in time, so it was crushed beneath the weight of the tree, a horrible cracking noise was heard as a lot of blood as well as semi-digested prey and organs were expulsed from the monster mouth, it was quite the gory scene. That thing is durable, but its bones are brittle, so naturally it couldn't move after that, it wasn't dead though. 

It was still trying to cut me with the scythe, but since only one of them was functional it was easy to avoid it by just walking to the opposite side of the beast, where It could only glare at me with its only remaining eye, it was a bit surprised that the eye didn't pop off because the skull was probably cracked. 

"Now...how do I kill this guy?" 

My father would have tried to kill any prey as quickly and painlessly as possible, but he is not exactly my role model, plus I don't think that's possible in this case. 

On the other side, my grandfather would kill any prey in whatever way he thought he would find more enjoyable at the time even if it was bothersome to do... 

"I don't like either, let's just use the easiest way" 

This thing doesn't look like a zombie or some sort of weird immortal monster that one could easily find in fantasy novels, so the fact that it isn't dead even though its skull was broken probably means that the brain simply wasn't destroyed. That just means that I have to destroy it. 

I walked away towards my sword, which I had lost when that monster sent me flying. After retrieving it I approached the monster once more and I swear that for a split second, I saw fear in its eye as it probably realized what I was about to do. 

With my sword, I pierced the corner of the eye and used it to scoop it out. The deer-thing couldn't even scream now but the pain was obvious, not like that would stop me though. Since It's easier to clean myself than clean the sword I plunged my hand into the eye socket. I went deep and soon enough half of my forearm was inside its skull, and my hand clenched around the brain. 

It was a weird sensation, but it was slightly satisfying to see that monster shake uncontrollably as I gripped its brain. I played with it for a moment, enjoying the monster's pain until I got bored and finally crushed it. As I pulled back my hand blood started gushing out and I noticed some shard of shattered bone piercing my arm, I didn't even notice when that happened. 

"Now that I think about it...didn't Touji say that he needed animal blood for the healing vials?" 

Since I have some empty vials I decided to fill as much as I can. I was able to fill up three vials with blood, oddly enough this blood smelled sweet, so much that I was tempted to take a sip of it, but I refrained from doing so. 

I stood up and took a piece of cloth from my bag to clean the sword. I'm glad that there were a lot of these in both the dungeon and the town since they're pretty useful. 

"I'll come back for the meat later, I'm sure that I can cut through it with my other sword" 

As I turned around to leave I caught a glimpse at the thing that I had seen before when I was sent flying by the monster, though it was hard to see from the angle I was in, it seemed to be a person, or to be exact, a corpse. 

"Well, I guess we aren't the only humans here after all..." 

Naturally, I got closer to inspect it. The corpse was old and rotten, but there was no putrid smell

It was also covered in lethal wounds and blood, the right arm and left leg were gone, the right leg was twisted oppositely, and there was a hole in the stomach. 

Looking at his clothes this guy wasn't from our time, or maybe not even from our world. He was wearing gray robes that looked like something a monk or a mage of fantasy games would use, along with leather armor beneath it, there was also a weird-looking metal visor covering his eyes for some reason. 

"Maybe he was blind?" 

The armor and clothes were unusable, but there were more things other than that. The man had a leather bag which could be useful on its own, but it had various items inside as well. 

The first item that caught my attention was a small dagger, given its intricate design and blade without any signs of wear I would is not meant for practical use as a weapon, but as a ceremonial dagger. The rest of the items were a pair of books, a scroll, and what seemed to be a bottle of oil, of all these items the one which looked most useful was the bottle of oil. 

"With this, we can finally use the oil lamp we found a while ago" 

The books and scroll didn't interest me much, but Touji will probably be delighted with them. I put everything back in the leather bag and started walking away.