Chapter 19

The Raptors chased after Fares. He wasn't Faster than them in any way, but his cognitive and calculative brain functions soared when he opened his brain node.

He made them angry on purpose to increase his survivability. As they say, if you can't outrun them, outsmart them. Literally in this case.

Fares knew that he has a higher chance of survival if he ran around the tree instead of in one direction towards the hole he dug. So he ran around it while accurately predicting and dodging the long Raptor tails.

A couple more trees later, Fares was panting slightly, even though he was in soul form, actions that use energy made by cells in the physical form need more energy than what he gains from the surroundings naturally.

He used all of his energy and jumped a high jump over the hole he dug and arrived safely with a roll on the other side.

The enraged Raptors didn't care why he would jump and kept chasing after him anyway.

As soon as the Raptor in the lead touched the leaves laid on the ground, his body immediately fell into the hole from his heavyweight. He was the largest and probably the strongest of the Raptors left.

That wasn't the end of it though, as it could've easily jumped out with its leg strength alone. The second-largest Raptor following behind it didn't have time to change directions and stumbled and fell over the first one.

Only the last Raptor had enough time to act and jumped over the hole and appeared directly in front of Fares.

Up to this point, it was all going according to Fares' calculations. He smiled mischievously and drew his sword.

The Raptor felt dread coming from the tiny human in front of it, so it chose to attack first by swinging its tail at him.

With Fares' newly gained insight, he raised his sword, infused it with energy, and pointed one of the sharp edges at the direction where the tail was coming from.

It sliced it off cleanly into two.

Screeeeeeeech~

The Raptor screamed in pain and used its legs to push itself at Fares with its jaws wide open. It appeared as if it was a bear trap, from where Fares stood.

But it was all accounted for, If he couldn't contend with it in terms of speed or strength, he could make up for it in terms of the brain.

He raised his sword again, infused it with energy, and placed it horizontally with the sharp edge pointing at the Raptor.

The Raptor's momentum pushed it towards the sword, slicing it completely in half. All its organs fell to the ground in a gore scene.

Fares felt like puking, but he didn't think he could do that as a soul.

All of this happened in a mere couple of seconds. By then, the Raptor that fell last in the hole was up and making his way towards Fares.

Fares didn't give it a chance though, he slid down beside it with the blade aimed at its legs slicing them off.

Screeeech~

Another loud wail could be heard.

"Just shut up already." Fares was back to his feet and walking towards the incapacitated Raptor. He pointed the sword at its head infused it with energy and thrust it in killing it instantly.

Till the end, the Raptor didn't know what that thing in front of it was. It was just feasting on a new prey with its pack when all of a sudden they were attacked by rocks blinding one of them.

After they chased it, it tricked them and killed off their leader. So they chased after it for revenge, but by using another trick it killed another one of them. That weird human hunted them one by one, they were supposed to be the hunters not him.

Fares felt no remorse for them though, when he fought the first Raptor that attacked him out of nowhere and almost sent him towards his death, he knew that in this world, it's either kill or be killed. And to kill you need more power, which is why he has to hunt, feeling bad for prey just dulls one's senses.

After killing his third Raptor, he turned around to the one in the whole about to make a jump to escape. Its head was at the levels of Fares' foot by now, yes he had the higher ground, he immediately infused his sword with energy and slashed at its head.

If he thrust he knew it could escape it with its superior speed, but with a slash and how small the hole was, he was sure it would be dead.

And it died, with the top half of its head sliding over the bottom half, even half of its brain was visible.

"That's four now. It's only you now." Fares said looking at the last Raptors tied by a rope helplessly.

Raptors had naturally shorthands, and even if it had a muscular tail it wasn't sharp enough to cut the rope.

Fares approached it slowly making it squirm in fear. He looked like a demon, a demon who only lusts for blood.

When Fares was in front of it, he gave it a swift death by slicing at its neck, severing its head from it.

Blood kept draining from the hanging dead body of the Raptor.

Thud~

With a thud, something fell along with blood. It seems to be a crystal of some sort.

'Why would there be a crystal inside a Raptor? Did it perhaps eat it on its way?' he thought.

Picking it up, Fares noticed that it was a thumb-sized violet crystal ball. It was so spherical that even the blood that fell over it just slid right off.

When Fares sent his energy towards it, he felt his energy rebound back at him.

'Does this crystal contain energy too?' He wondered.

'If all living organisms cultivate in the way that Azkar and the humans do, it means they collect their energy into their core. Then this must be this Raptor's core.' Fares thought excitedly.

He had no idea how he could bring all of these Raptors back, now he didn't have to. He could just collect the Cores and get the meat of his latest hunt.

Fares cooked up a plan in his head and proceeded to cut up the raptors one by one to get their cores.

The last Raptor was the alpha of the pack. Its core was similar to the rest but slightly larger and had a tinge of indigo in its center.

If Fares didn't look carefully, he wouldn't have seen it.

ROAR~

"Oh, man!" Fares said when he heard a roar. He knew that it was just a matter of time before other beasts get drawn in by the smell of the blood.

He untied the rope on the hanging headless Raptor, grabbed his sword, and started running in the opposite direction of the roars.

As he was running away, the land started trembling so hard that he almost lost his balance. It was clear that it wasn't natural tremors. But he couldn't stop here, or whatever it is that was causing this will catch up to him.