Kill it

My mind started to race as I realized that Ashna was the daughter of the strongest warrior of the Veldans. I never remembered her from my past, probably because she had died early on. The only ones capable of killing her, after having tested her skills myself, were the Alorae. I had no reason to help my enemies, but in the end, I couldn't help but admire the simplicity of the Veldans and how their people held honor and truth with such high regard. The fact that I felt oddly attracted to her even though she was a foot taller than I was, had an incredible physique, and dark green skin heavily influenced my decision. 

I cleared my throat. "Ashna, I am known as an oracle among some of my people. I saw you in a vision being hunted by the Alorae, please be cautious, my visions don't tell me when."

Ashna nodded, but there was a confused look on her face. I could tell she was not expecting an enemy to share this kind of information with her. She turned to her people and motioned for them to prepare to head out. "I will keep what you said in mind…" She paused, and I watched as she pulled up her status window and quickly closed it. "…Ronan Wilde."

I laughed. "You can just call me Ronan."

"I will return to my father, and I will notify all the Veldan who are after you of our duel. The Veldan will honor the hour of peace between us and yourself." She turned and began to leave, pausing for a moment to say one final thing. "Why did you spare me? It would be easier to kill me; I would not have done the same."

I paused, wondering why I didn't just kill her and her men. The real reason was because I respected her people and thought she was beautiful. I can't kill someone like her. The Veldan are hunters, not killers. They were fucking strong and were very capable of killing humans, but they were trapped in this shitty situation just like the rest of us.

After a moment, I lied and said, "I don't know. Maybe it was because I recognized you from my vision."

She smiled. "My father tells me visions are fate. I will trust you, perhaps it is fate that I live. I may find you again and request a spar, Ronan."

I nodded and winked at her. "I'd love to exchange blows again." She looked at me with a playful expression that said she plans to win the next spar. 

With that, Ashna finally left. I sighed with relief as I turned to Tim, the treasure chest. "What's the ETA on the loot?"

The tiny face appeared again on the back of the massive treasure chest to respond to my question. "The ETA is three seconds… Ding, there you go."

I looked past Tim and saw that the Verdant Leviathan had turned into several piles. The piles separated the meat, scales, bones, claws, teeth, and hide of the creature. It was so well organized that I let out a whistle in astonishment at Tim's capabilities.

"You're a fucking good contract. I take back everything I was thinking about you since I got you."

"I know, I'm fucking good." The tiny face had a smug smile for a few seconds before it shifted into an inquisitive look. "Wait, you were thinking I was useless, weren't you? Fuck you!"

I laughed and leaned against the chest. Tim turned into a smart watch, causing me to lose balance now that I had nothing to lean on. I fell to the ground, still laughing at the mimic. "Yeah, I guess I deserved that."

I got up and opened my inventory from my status window, knowing full well that there was no way that I could get everything inside. It was then that I had an idea. "Hey Tim, can you shift into a wagon? Or is that too big for you?"

Tim hopped off my wrist and shifted into a small wagon. "I can do that. Are you planning on loading me up? That's pretty shitty of you; I just spent 10 minutes getting this loot processed, and now I'm a pack mule."

I sighed. "I'm sorry, Tim, but I won't let the Alorae get their hands on this. I don't even want them to have the meat; it's delicious and can be used as an ingredient for a strengthening elixir."

Tim the cart groaned. "Fuuuuuuuuuck, okay… I'll do it. You're lucky that I'm contracted."

Tim rolled the wagon over to the meat and started loading it inside himself. As he did that, I began to use my telekinesis to lift scales, claws, teeth, and hide into my inventory. I was surprised that it all fit, but I found that I had very little space left. It took a couple minutes to store everything properly, and I ended up having to put about a fridge worth of meat into my inventory as Tim couldn't hold it all. By the time we were done, I started to sense the presence of someone fifty meters to the west of my location.

"Okay, Tim, it looks like it's time to go. We need to get back into human territory."

"Sure, how much longer can they track you for?"

I checked my status window and checked the new leaderboard tracker tab. "It looks like they can track me for another forty minutes."

I felt the person come closer and realized it was an Alorae. They stopped once they got within ten meters of myself and Tim. "We got one ten meters that way; it looks like a scout." I nodded my head in the direction of the person.

Tim the cart shrugged. "Kill it."

I looked over in the direction of the Alorae and sensed it behind one of the trees to the west. It wasn't my style to kill someone who was just scouting, but this is a war, and I knew how the Alorae operated because of my experience from the past. The only reason we were able to survive the first season was because of the hostility between the Veldan and Alorae. If they did not have such a hatred for each other, the human race would have never stood a chance.

"It doesn't feel right."

I coated my weapon in advanced sword energy and threw it in the direction of the Alorae hidden behind the tree. The sword flew so fast that I only sensed the faintest buildup of energy from the Alorae before it disappeared. I could tell it tried to dodge, but it was already too late.

"But I'll do what I must. The Alorae aren't like the Veldans." 

I extended my arm and summoned my sword with telekinesis, remembering how cool Ashna looked when she summoned her warhammer. Instead of catching the sword, I lowered my arm and let the weapon slide into its sheath. I saw Tim the cart nod in approval with a face manifested on the side of one of the cart's walls.

"Not bad, Ron. That was fucking cool."

"Thanks, Tim, but please call me Ronan."

"Eh, I'll think about it. Maybe if I didn't have to lug around stinky monster meat in my body, I'd be more inclined to call you Ronan."

"Well, hopefully I live long enough to get us both back into human territory so I can unload all that meat."

"Why'd you kill that guy so easy but not the Veldan?"

"It's cause the Alorae are assholes and the Veldans aren't. The Alorae want to kill us, the Veldans only do it because they have to."

I began walking to the northwest, to a location I knew from the past where humans started one of their larger settlements in the Verdant Abyss. Tim followed, silently at first. It didn't take long, but Tim's face eventually manifested once more on the side of the cart.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask. How the fuck do you know so much about where people are going to be? And how the seasons work? Isn't this your first time here? And how are you so fucking strong?"

I was taken aback by Tim's question, but it was reasonable given how I've handled everything so far. "Well, that's a long story…"