The Hunt

The following day, the sun rose over the horizon and the city once again became active.

The city guards however, had received a piece of startling but good news.

There was another victim of the Sleeper, only this time they were still alive!

Thanks to Alex's work over the previous night, this victim could at least be kept alive by the city's physicians while the hunt resumed for the Sleeper.

Alex tried his best to follow the Sleeper when it eventually stopped circling the victim, but he lost sight of it after it flew over the city walls and into the wilderness.

Up until that point, the idea of the Sleeper being a winged creature hadn't even occurred to him.

But thanks to the pointer in the right direction of that mysterious voice, Alex finally found the culprit.

Now he just had to catch and kill it!

The only problem was how.

Alex had no long range capabilities, and he couldn't suddenly buy a bow and start learning how to use it now.

The probationary period for missions was three weeks, after that he would be forced to go back to the mission hall in the adventurer association and report that he had yet to complete his mission.

He wouldn't have to pay the cancellation fee, but it meant that other adventurers could also take on the request to kill the Sleeper.

Having dozens of competitors all going after the same prey would make his hunt an order of magnitude harder.

This was the only reason he was so unimpeded on his mission up until now, not even the city lord could try and steal his prey while his probationary period was active.

This meant that he had to somehow kill the Sleeper when it landed.

And it only does that when it arrives back at its nest somewhere outside the city walls.

Thankfully, with the past two weeks of hunting experience in the forest outside Alex had finally gained some self confidence in his ability to find the location of the Sleeper within the 4 days left of his probationary period.

He didn't leave the city just yet though.

Alex spent the next night awake and camped out the same location of the city wall where the Sleeper had flown over the night prior.

He wanted to confirm something.

If the Sleeper left and entered the city from the same direction, then Alex was confident that its nest was in the direction it came from.

Sure enough, after only an hour of waiting Alex heard a whoosh sound as the figure of the Sleeper flapped its wings on its way over the city wall right above him.

He watched the beast make its way over to the hospital where the victim from the previous night was currently under tight supervision of the physicians.

Alex wordlessly got up from his spot when he saw the Sleeper start circling that area, and made his way over to the city wall and covered his hands in a chalk like substance and proceeded to climb.

If there was one thing Alex had absolute confidence in himself to do, it was rock climbing!

He had long become a seasoned expert in rock climbing after his years of traversing the deep caverns inside his asteroid mining colony with his bare hands.

This was a requirement all miners in the colony had to possess, or they would die.

It wasn't long before he reached the top of the wall, where he was given a birds eye view of the city on one side and the forest on the other side. 

The view paled in comparison compared to the one he witnessed in the mountains, but he wasn't there to appreciate the view.

Alex assumed a prone position as he watched the Sleeper circle the hospital.

Hours passed and there were movements from the Sleeper that suggested it was about to change its direction.

'It's time.'

Alex made sure to make no sound or movements as he watched the Sleeper fly closer and closer to him from a distance.

After thirty seconds of waiting, the Sleeper was barely a hundred metres away from Alex and was approaching rapidly.

Alex got a much closer look at the thing and realised that it resembled an owl, only the Sleeper had cloudy white eyes like it was blind.

The Sleeper drew in and was only 10 metres away from Alex at this point.

'Now!'

Right as the Sleeper was about to pass over him, Alex jumped up from his position and punched towards its head with his right hand while he latched onto its wing with his other hand.

The Sleeper was as big as Alex, and seeing how little of an impact his punch had on it, Alex's insides churned.

'Shit, this is an F+ rank!'

Alex pushed down his rising nerves and clung on to the Sleeper's wing for dear life as the two plummeted down into the canopy below.

Alex received many scratches and bumps on his way down the branches and trees, but so did the Sleeper.

The good news was that it seemed like the Sleeper really was blind!

Taking advantage of his position with the Sleeper, Alex pulled on its wing and positioned it between himself and the rapidly approaching ground.

THUD!

Only a few seconds later, the two hit the ground with a dull thud.

The Sleeper cushioned Alex's fall so he only received minor injuries, however the Sleeper released a howl for the first time as one of its wings and one of its legs hung limp.

Alex quickly stumbled away from the beast, trying to catch his bearings. His chest hurt like crazy, but he could tell he was doing much better than the Sleeper.

"I've waited too long for this, little shit!"

The Sleeper didn't react to Alex's words and only tried, and failed to take flight over and over again.

Seeing this, Alex grabbed a rock the size of his head with both of his hands and dashed over towards the struggling Sleeper, smashing the rock down over its head.

One hit wasn't enough as the beast was a whole minor level higher than him, but he carried on until no more movements could be detected from the Sleeper.

[You have killed a beast, Sleeper]