31 Southern Area

The mist of the night dissipate upon the rise of the morning light, morning came and the bird's chirping woke up Xylene

"Ughh... its unnaturally loud, and its even worst than an alarm clock" Its natural to feel kinda mad about something like an unsmashable and unstoppable alarm clock in the morning, she knew that the bird just lached above the tree she was sleeping. She covered her ears and sigh, her body might have missed the silence of the old cave

"Guh, I feel old with my back feeling kinda stiff" she's just painfully reminded of one crucial thing, and that is to never sleep facing forward with her new wings, but she has no idea about it before so she made a silent vow to always remember it from now on

"No wonder winged animals can even sleep while standing, life sure is hard heh..."

Light rays fall down from the gaps made by the tree leaves, its a typical sight of nature that will surely bring you smile on the morning, however the sight of strange birds and chirping made it seem more extraordinary, though there is one flaw in it, the air itself is kinda getting colder by each passing day, which leaves Xylene with no choice but to frown, with the hope that it isnt winter she rubbed her eyes again and yawn

Cooking the deer meat, she stretched her body, and tried to feel as much as possible of the new changes

She played with her tails first for a bit lot of time, she somehow got stupidly enlightened of why dogs like to chase their tails, well... its only on her assumptions and its just that she really liked the tail itself. Her playing and feeling the tail ended when the food was ready to eat

And naturally majority of the meat ended as waste like before, but she never cared, yes yes... she never cared, all she liked to eat was the belly and anything that looked like actual meat, but actually... everything was meat and she only judged them by how they looked. You can pretty much guess what fate did the head part ended becoming into... , many butchers and chefs would scream at the mess and waste she always does, the scene mostly ended up as a gore

"Hmm... fuuuuh~ " being done, she head to the river to drink water and then to wash her face before eventually preparing to take a bath. However as she doesn't have any spare cloth and since the only cloth she have right now might be rippled by her new body, she decided to take it with her when she took the bath

She dried them off with a heated gust of wind, part of it was also because of the cold surroundings, and the other is to slowly dry the cloth bit by bit

Finally done and had nothing left to do, she began to finally focus and sense her wings, it wasn't numb anymore, but she could feel it being more uncomfortable and new to her

It took her half an hour just to try and fully sense it before attempting to move it, she's even worst than a bird hatchling trying to move its wings

Her wings move by each unexplainable action that she come up trying, not even natural instincts fuhh~~, sensing it again, and little by little she made more effort to it. It mentally tire her out, but she didn't stop. Eventually... she discovered a way to actually sense it, she should try tickling or touching each and every nook and cranny of her wings, Its one thing to consider when you feel numb on your body. She even discovered some actual ticklish parts that made her jolt unexpectedly to point that some tears formed on the edge of her eyes

Finally an hour, she figured how the wing flap itself, the wing might look small when wrapped around her, but the time she knew how to spread and move it, it expanded by atleast 1 and a half meter, with width no less than 3/4 meter. The first time made her jaw fall as the majesty of the dark blue scales that shines and glister with the morning rays of light. Contrary to its appearance, its actually wide. The shaped of it is actually similar to how a Dragonish-bat-looking-like wings looks like on some stories, it kinda resembled the bat wings on some part but it also had scales on it, addition to that is that it was actually very hard, making you think twice about how its able to move itself. Its quite a wonderful sight as it had a color of navy blue with wavy design that has less opaque, Giving it a majestic view that is only unique to its design

By the distance she knew that she finally looked like a dragonewt of some kind, this also made her think about her future as a sudden thought entered her mind

"If I look like this. How can I enter the human society?"

Looks like she finally found the clause of her new appearance and she immediately realize a very difficult situation, butー

"!?"

The premonition fires off, it was very quick but her body knew that something big is coming from her back, however there are no sounds emitted on the ground

'How?'

Its heading directly on her head

Due to trauma of the last event that left a deep impact into her, she trusted it imidiately and quickly jumped off rolling on the sidelines. Just by that few seconds, a huge chunk of tree hits her old position, tearing the ground open till it colided with a tree, leaving them both destroyed

It just took a few seconds yet it gives her enough time to responed, she managed to not get hit as she gave in and trusted on her senses

That was dangerous! Its probbably better to start trusting on my senses from now on!

Few moments later, she heard some rustling from the inside of the forest, directly at the direction of where the attack came from

She prepared herself, for once she knew that there is a chance for it to be the same enemy, and she already learnt her lessons in the hardest possible way

Intimidation soon came creeping into her skins, but she has long done on fortifying her resolve for the worst that is to come

The weight of the intimidation was actually like a slightly heavy veil being coated into her, it can be compared to a thin chainmail robe , and the sense of fear is making its way into her mind, as she could only ever grit her teeth to repel it

Her mood suddenly drop once again, one way or another, her life was once again in danger, but she finally got a hint on where she was, the familiarity of this intimidation gave a bit of nostalgia, as of course it left a mark as it was the first time she ever felt that

Most likely the depths of the same forest, on the same world, in the territory of a dangerous creature that is like a boss creature. But the worst case scenario right now is unfolding, that same boss already knew of her presence and is already heading into her direction like a tiger heading into its prey

"So I'm here again huh, making my way back to hell, and its even day 2 of the second run. To hell with bad luck" she knew she can't escape it anymore, same goes to the huge spider that even go as far as to hinder her movements and played with her till she helplessly died

The difficulty of unpreparedness, appearance, and difference in strength. She knew at fault at the last time, she let the confusion eat her

But I will not let it happen again, I wont die today. I'm mad about this life that I have, and its stupid to think that its safe here after all. If I'll ever die, then I should atleast resist with what I have

Calming herself, she tried to assess the situation

"What should I do... what should I do... hmm..." She began thinking of possible ways, as the trees were still in the way, its a question how did it ever found out her presence to point that it could even launch a trajectory at a certain accuracy

Perhaps I could do something about it with my skills

"System"

[{Access: Denied}]

"Aagh, I almost forgot. What should I do... what should I do... umm" She hopelesly got rejected more worst than a confession, and she ended up repeating the same lines. Having no choice and nothing to assist, not even a weapon of some kind. 'This is pointless', at this rate I couldnt do anything, but still, something must be done

As her life was now at stake at this new game of time

Having no choice, she picked up a stone that could be compared to the size of her hand and threw it on the enemy direction. Although it had no target, it still went past behind the trees hoping that it could damage it, like the way it did before. But it hit nothing on its way. But then it took alot of time before a sound of thud soon came indicating that it hit something hard

Did I miss!?

Hmm, but then the movement stopped for a bit, if so.... then Its far! how could it snipe me from that distance!!

Nothing of this made sense for her if its not for the possible existence of skills, but this also added into her uneasiness brought by the toxic aura that eats away people's will

A hoarse deep noise soon echoed in the entire place, something akin to a huge deep instrument, or more precisely a war horn. A simple but loud echoing roar

"!?"

Her body reacted to the noise, and her vision felt like splitting on the spot

I felt a bad premonition deep inside me, but it subsidie the moment I saw winged creatures and birds come fleeting above me

Visible clattering could soon be perceived on each of my corners, noises around as if creatures even on the land were running away in fears

That sound just now gave off intimidation into the surroundings, and it also sent a very tingling sense to Xylene's head, that made her dizzy for but a few seconds

But the most concern that shook her back to reality was the now peeking giant head from above the trees

Oi oi that was nearly three stories high. This is seriously no joke

What peeking above was a gray colored thing that resembled a tree, no, it has roots and leaves themselves, there are also moss that grew on a visible places. Its like a worn out ghilly suit. Its eyes were deep green that was glowing brightly behind those deep wall sockets, its teeth was visible aswell from the distance

This alerted Xylene but she knew herself that hiding now could only potentially kill her now

She began to ran on the opposite side trying to get off for a distance, but the giant finally cleaving off the last remaining trees remained staring at her as she looked back for the noice

Its steadily looking at her, with its deep green eyes that is obviously devoid of emotions, seemingly locking into its target, she sensed that she could not possibly shake it off the moment it pin pointed on her

Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, is that a titan!? Why do I have the worst encounter rate!!!

She grew anxious for each passing time that it stood still, as she wanted to run before it managed to catch her with the help of that opportunity, but the addition to that is the feeling of seeping fear that is trying to corrupt her mind

For once she knew she should run without looking back, accidentally meeting its eyes give more fear straining her more mentally as she is already fighting with the aura

She could tell that its already way lesser than the time she last felt it, the difference is very huge. She had assumptions that when it focuses the intimidation, it should be more heavier than this, but the thing right now are both weaker so she is expecting that something might happen later

The giant suddenly moves again and chases her, perhaps its intention was to intimidate but seing that it didn't work than its supposed to be, it knew that it should now give chase

Nobody in the forest should be able to suppress the aura that it had, the color of its body itself and some aspect like 'the height and size' heighten the effect of intimidation when it got seen by the enemy, addition to that is the eyes that could attack the victims mind with fear

But this time none of them served its purpose

Out of all the creature of the forest, it knew that it was the one on the top of the food chain and that it should contain its territory. But a prey to manage to resist its grasp

Its mad now, as it now shots killing intent than before