Chapter 8: Into the frying pan

Ethan reached a deeper section of the forest and basically as soon as he did he heard what amounted to massive foot steps. Ethan looked down and saw a massive Boar, that seemed to have barbed tentacles across the sides of its body. "What the hell is that thing? " Ethan thought to himself. "Looks delicious though! I will call it a Hentai Ham!" Ethan chuckled as he watched the Ham from above it. "Let's see what I can learn from watching it." Ethan kept tabs from the tree tops moving along with the newly named Hentai Ham.

"Let's take a look at his stats, I should be able to do that right?"

Thorn Boar

Strength: 60

Agility: 30

Intelligence: 5

Luck: 10

Vitality: 60

"Whoa, this guy is beefy. I won't take him head on, let's see what he is doing for now..no sense in getting myself killed. Best to play the waiting game." Ethan thought as he leaped from tree top to tree top chasing after the boar.

Shortly after matching its pace by jumping tree to tree he saw where it was headed namely it was headed towards prey.

It was currently hunting a giant lizard that looked like a giant Komodo Dragon. " I don't want to fight that just yet. Back on earth those things were extremely dangerous." Each of the monsters were eyeing each other trying to see how the other would react. No-one made a move just yet. " Once one kills the other, hopefully the other will be too weak to put up much of a fight" Finally the Ham had enough and charged the dragon.

The dragon tried to dodge but it still ended up getting hit and hurled away with the boar following closely behind. Once the boar reached the dragon again it jammed its tusks into it ripping into it viciously. And that was when the tentacles went to work whipping and tearing with vicious glee sending blood and flesh flying into the air with the speed they were moving.

The dragon was no pushover however, it opened its mouth and shot its spit into the hams face and as it reeled back in pain the dragon launched itself under the boar pushing it further back until it landed on its back. That was the opening the dragon needed! It launched itself into the air as spines shot out from the dragon's body as it landed, essentially pinning the ham to the ground as it bit down into its unprotected throat ripping it open... as the ham died in agony the dragon didn't waste any time and started devouring the Ham.

"Now is my chance" Ethan thought as he slowly descended from the tree via his webbing. He was only 3 ft above the dragon enjoying his meal when Ethan suddenly dropped onto the dragon.. It tried to throw him off. But it was too tired and weak from its fight. Ethan quickly bit down and injected the dragon with his venom. Within 30 seconds the dragon stopped fighting and dropped to the ground as Ethan thought " lay down."

With that being done, Ethan jumped down off of the dragon and moved to the boar and began feasting on it. Once he had eaten his way through about half of the pig. He compelled the dragon to pick up what was left of the pig with its mouth and then Ethan forced the dragon to follow him back to his home.

As Ethan and his dragon buddy made their way back to his temporary home Ethan looked over his gains. "Looks like I was able to get 20 mutogene just from what I ate, what if I ate the whole thing?" Ethan pondered this as his new total of mutogene was currently 110. Just as Ethan started feeling that he was in the clear he sensed something off, and true to form for this world a giant maw came crashing down through the tree line and snapped down onto the dragon.

Snapping it in half and sending gore and viscera flying everywhere. Hiamel came out and looked at the thing that was lazily chewing on what was left of the dragon. As he looked over its whole body he could see that the legs actually mimicked trees flawlessly and this creature seemed to be an ambush predator as well as it hides and waits for prey to show up.

" What the hell is that thing?? And also, that is cheating. You may want to run from this one Ethan I don't think that you are ready to take that on." Hiamel said to Ethan as he urged him to hightail it. Ethan didn't even hesitate to run, he knew how to pick his fights and this one was not one he could win currently.

"Hiamel, what the hell was that thing?! It was massive! It ate that freaking dragon in one bite! How am I going to face that thing!?" Ethan asked Hiamel slightly freaking out while trying to get a handle on his emotions... Everything felt so raw here, like swimming without a wetsuit in freezing cold water... filled with monsters that want to eat you.

" I don't know, but it seems like it is guarding the inner reaches of the forest. In order to progress, you will have to kill it at some point. I would suggest focusing on making yourself stronger and less... squishy. Basically anything can kill you at this point if they get the jump on you." Hiamel said matter of factly.

" What do you mean you don't know! I thought you were supposed to be a floating encyclopedia of monsters here!"

"Who said that? I am only here to guide you and make sure that you do not die immediately." Hiamel snorted as he said this. Ethan sighed while looking up at the sky as if saying " Why me? what did I do to deserve this?" Ethan began making his way back into the forest to begin hunting once more.