Chapter 20 - Survival

The giant turned into a chicken.

Everyone else followed. No one cared about the cargo or the battle and their respective enemies. Even the merchant endured the losses and gathered all elites to escape.

Survive. One word in the mind of others.

Sounds of hoofs reverberated throughout the entire place. Red saw a long arm shred apart the caravans at the forefront.

Blood poured out like rain as he witnessed Faunus captives being shredded to pieces.

He couldn't even think why there were slaves. He followed everyone and tried to escape as far as possible.

Cries for help quickly vanished, and the hoofs continued their march. Another shriek followed and almost knocked the breath out of his lungs.

It held a magical power, almost bursting his ears and hurting his organs.

He was lucky to be further away.

Some bandits and people directly fell to the ground, bleeding from various places. It looked around and continued as it locked onto aura users.

He ran north, not caring about his energy. Ten kilometers or so later, his lungs couldn't keep up anymore and he stopped.

Although lost, he at least survived.

The Nuckelavee that shouldn't have appeared made its debut. Red witnessed the terror that it brought.

Any resistance seemed futile.

Unparalleled strength as it shredded through virtually anything. Long range attacks, sound attacks that almost killed him and a speed much faster than that of a horse.

If he had an aura. He'd be dead.

No lucky encounter nothing, his saving grace became his lack of ability.

Now he had a different challenge to survive. He had no map, no idea where he was, and no supplies.

Except for his spear and clothes, he had nothing.

The day was coming to an end.

Red tried to find any sources of water, but to no avail. Thirsty and hungry, he ate only the most recognizable edible berries.

Tired and in pain. The sound attack must have done some kind of damage to his organs.

Thankfully, he awakened his soul aura, as he called it. The healing factor came in handy and enabled him to carry on.

While tired, he had to find shelter for the night.

Howls represented a much more dangerous situation. Not to mention the Nuckelavee that roamed in the area.

He really wanted to walk through the night, but he had nowhere near enough energy to deal with a middle sized Grimm, not to mention a pack of them.

From what he remembered. Further north, there should be a lake and maybe a small settlement.

That became his best bet.

Maybe he could have tried searching for shelter by going east, closer to the capital, but he heard that Nuckelavee had a lair there.

He didn't dare go with it nearby.

An hour later and he didn't find the lake or a shelter where he could hide.

Lost, he at least managed to make a fire.

Sleep was out of the equation. No matter how much tired he was, he didn't know if he could awaken in time were some kind threat come.

In the end, he decided to meditate.

Not only to regulate his chaotic emotions but also rest to some degree.

Hours went by and he kept the fire barely alive. The cold had already invaded the place, and he'd freeze to death without the fire.

His clothes weren't the best for the current climate and he regretted it.

If he was a bit more cautious, this wouldn't have happened. Nevertheless, the more he poked around the things he could have done better, the more negative emotions he'd release.

Each time, a thought came to mind.

He observed it before refocusing on meditation. For the first time, he meditated for so long and almost fell asleep a couple of times.

His luck proved superior, and nothing bothered him that night.

The moment the light returned, he resumed his journey. After hours of hiking, he finally saw the large expanse of water, almost as if he was near the sea.

Thanks to the free time, Red went over the things that had happened.

Slaves, it suddenly made sense why they didn't travel through the lake on boats and instead dared to play around with the Nuckelavee. Most likely, the man who helped him knew about them all along.

After all, he belonged to one of the oldest members. Anyway, he had no right to judge.

Thanks to the huge body of water, Red finally beat his thirst and even saw a few animals. Sadly, the day ended on berries again.

He tried to throw his spear and hunt some game, but they always sensed it too early.

Nonetheless, he regained some of his strength.

At least now, he could escape if not fight back against some reasonable opponents. Though one bad mistake and he'd be dead.

Still with no real shelter. He stuck to the lake and decided to walk to the capital instead of Higanbana. If he wasn't utterly wrong, he should be closer to Mistral than the smaller settlement.

Another night came.

Red chose to meditate again, but reality hit him in the face the next morning.

It could replace one day, but two already took a toll on him. Plus, he was already walking around all day, expending a lot of his energy.

No matter how much luck sheltered him.

The lack of nutrition and sleep became a hidden danger by his side.

That day, he spent most of his day gathering berries and trying to hunt some animals. And he got saved by something else entirely.

The lake that supplied him freshwater.

He stumbled upon a small river that flowed inside the lake. There, he found lots of fish.

Red spent a couple of days fishing and drying the fish. He didn't know if he'd be able to get this easy source of protein again.

His luck finally ran out the next day he spent there.

A huge brown beast.

Bear, one of the weakest animals in the pokemon world.

That's how he saw it until he got corrected. Like a mountain, its charge almost broke bones inside his body.

It was way too different from his old world.

The battle quickly turned into a fight of endurance.

The bear charged towards him as he dodged to the right and thrusted his spear. Thankfully, it managed to pierce its hide and made it bleed.

It hesitated before attacking again.

This time, it became a real battle of life and death.

It growled and rose to its hind legs, trying to tackle him down and bite his neck off. He kept his distance and poked whenever he had the chance.

Most of the times the bear managed to attack him back, forcing him to stop his attack. But those few times became crucial.

Blood gradually took away energy with it.

Even when it bled from multiple places, it held on for almost half an hour. As its last resort, it lunged at him and managed to bite a chunk off his left bicep.

Red quickly killed it and tore off his sleeve, creating a bandage.

This time, he screwed up big time.

Not to mention the pain, just the bleeding brought myriad problems to the mix.

He couldn't move his arm around much. Not only it made the use of the spear nearly impossible, he also felt too drained.

Left without an option.

He found a relatively secluded place and made a somewhat useful shelter.

The option of turning his spear into a sword immensely helped. He also created a sack with the hide of the bear and the staff.

While skinning the bear, he wanted to take some of the meat to eat.

However, the amount of parasites clearly visible on just the bear's skin made him sick. He smoked the hide before daring to use it.

The day before, he carved a small wooden bowl, though it didn't last long. He had to boil up water. The amount of parasites that the bear had on him became a rude awakening call.

He was playing with fire, and even now he could have a tapeworm inside his body.

Just one could easily reduce his fighting chance of survival. More would be a death sentence.

It took a few days.

Not a month of hellish training or some kind of trial. But basic survival in a situation where safety didn't exist, and he felt tired.

Incredibly tired.

He wanted to return to civilization as soon as possible.

If he had no knowledge of the berries, he'd be probably dead. And most of the things he read about in books didn't help at all.

Makeshift fire was the best advice he utilized.

Even though he read more than a few books. To apply knowledge in the wild situation just off top became hard, if not impossible.

He took a fish he grilled over some stone and then dried it.

It tasted quite bad. A bit burnt and without any seasoning whatsoever. But in his eyes, it became delicious.

He devoured two fish and felt drowsy.

In the end, he couldn't fight off the accumulated fatigue and fell asleep.

The fire crackled, slowly dying…