Prey

A few days passed since Isaac had slain his first beast. Nothing eventful happened as he followed his normal routine of getting up in the morning, having some breakfast, and exploring the forest, little by little.

One could see him sitting in his safe zone and talking to someone.

"Ok, that was better than last time. This time try it like this." He said as he flapped his arms.

Without any context, one would think he was crazy.

In front of him was a small lion cub, flapping its bat-like wings.

After bringing the Manticore to his dwelling, Isaac now took care of it. The previous malnourishment and misery in the animal's eyes were now replaced with giant yellow gems that glowed mystically.

"No, you're flapping them individually. You won't be able to fly like that. Move them together."

The cub flapped as hard as it could, but to no avail, as it stood there huffing.

After thinking for a couple of seconds, Isaac came up with an idea.

He stood up and placed the baby Manticore on his head.

"Spread your wings, feel the wind under them." He said as he started to run around with a grin.

The cub gave a high-pitched roar as it smiled.

"Alright, I'm going to let you go now. This is all you." He said as he threw the animal in the air.

The cub stretched its wings and it looked like it had worked. It was flying.

"YES HAHAHA, YOU'RE DOING IT!" Shouted Isaac as the cub started to glide in the air.

Before he could go to catch it, the cub seemed to lose its balance and plummeted to the ground, hitting it hard.

Isaac saw this and ran to the beast's aid.

"Manny!" He had decided to name the cub 'Manny'. It was the first name that came to his mind after he thought of 'Manticore'.

Manny laid on the floor with his tongue sticking out.

Isaac held him in his arms as he looked for any injuries.

After finding no wounds he looked at the seemingly unconscious Manticore.

"Manny?" He said with a raised eyebrow. The cub had its tongue sticking out and its eyes closed. It looked almost comical.

After he said this the beast jumped up as it smiled, wrestling Isaac to the ground.

"Hey don't scare me like that," Isaac said as he laughed with the cub.

Their noise must have attracted something. Because, in the next second, they heard low growling.

Isaac looked up only to be met with a heart-stopping animal.

It had the head of a man, but the body of a hyena. The head was not very detailed. Only having a few scars and no hair. Its face was scrunched with bloodshot eyes, as it exposed its human-looking teeth. It drooled as it stared at the delicate-looking human. Why did everything in this forest resemble a human in some way?

"Hey, I know what this is called. A bu…bou…BOUDA! Yes, that's right." He said as he remembered.

He didn't know if they were called the same thing on this Earth, but seeing as he was all alone at the moment, he called them whatever he wanted.

Who knew all those games he wasted his time on would prove to be useful. If only he knew this then, it would have proved to be a good comeback to "What's the point of playing all those games" or "What good are those games going to do you in the future".

But even then who would believe that he would be transported to another world and use that game knowledge to survive in a dangerous forest that's threatened to end him multiple times.

Knowing the fact that he was in the safe zone made him severely less worried.

Manny jumped over the Wyvern as it unleashed a timid roar.

The Bouda was unfazed as it roared back.

Isaac started to chop off a piece of meat from the Wyvern. He smeared a blue substance on it and threw it to the animal.

The Bouda being vastly less intelligent than the manticore, showed less hesitation and it leapt at the free meal.

After it was done, it slowly started to wobble as it fell to its side.

"Too easy," Isaac said as he drove the Wyvern scale into the sleeping Hyena's skull, killing it instantly.

As he started to pull his spoils into the safe zone, he noticed a bright blue glow appearing from the corpse.

He had seen this before with the Manticore, although it wasn't blue, he still didn't feel cautious.

"Hey, Manny. Look at this."

But Manny looked past the orb as if he couldn't see it.

"Am I the only one who can see this?" He asked himself as he tried to describe what he was seeing to Manny.

Nevertheless, he quickly placed his hand upon it.

However, this time it felt different. Instead of power, he felt light. He felt like he could jump higher, run faster, and although it was subtle, he could feel his surroundings moving slower than it usually did.

It seemed that a different colour meant a different effect.

He tested this by sprinting to the closest tree and jumping to grab its branch. He quite easily pulled himself up and was surprised. He was more nimble and agile.

"This is it. This is how I'll become stronger." He said as Manny feasted on the Hyena.

After a few days, a crocodile-like animal with scaly humanoid arms and legs was currently performing a handstand as its legs were spread apart.

It spun itself on its head as if it was break dancing and landed on its back in a pose.

As he finished his show, he noticed a small feline, drinking out of the lake that he called his home.

He saw this as an opportunity as his face depicted mischief. Before he could sneak into the water, he saw that the feline had noticed him. However, instead of running, it turned around and wagged its bottom at the Berserker.

This infuriated him as he jumped into the body of water and swam with all his strength. When he reached his target, he jumped out with a wide mouth.

The small animal jumped up as it flapped its wings, evading the assailant.

Before the crocodile could follow him, a metal-like material was driven through his brain.

Isaac stood on top of the monster, victorious as he held his Wyvern horn.

He had noticed that the horns were much harder and easier to hold than the scales and therefore used both horns as weapons.

The weapon passed through the crocodile's scales easily, giving it an instant death.

"Seeing as how I went through so much trouble to get it, it better be been good." He said as the horn was extremely difficult to remove from the Wyvern.

"Good job, Manny." He praised the cub as it started to chew on the crocodile's leg.

Isaac stood on the corpse and waited for a familiar bright orb, but it never came.

"Does it not come all the time?" He asked himself, slightly depressed that they risked their lives for nothing. Well, he risked his life for nothing, as Manny was clearly getting his money's worth out of that leg.

He carried the crocodile, which he now named a 'kappa', back to the safe zone.

With the strength boost he gained after killing the Manticore, he was having an easy time.

He slumped the body of the kappa on the ground as he prepared a fire.

As he was deep in thought, he couldn't help but be perplexed. He and Manny tried their best to look for beasts over the past few days, but that was the only one they had come across.

Isaac already knew about this creature, as he had a run-in with it some time ago. However, he was not intending to fight it since the monster was a sea creature and he didn't know if he could trick it to come outside.

But now that it was dead, he was clueless as to how to move forward.

This was the most dangerous forest and yet he's only come across 5 beasts and a deceased corpse.

BANG

As he was thinking this, he looked over at the corpse. Simultaneously, he started to hear loud bangs which caused small tremors in the ground.

BANG

He had never thought…

BANG

Not for a second…

BANG

That whatever killed this Wyvern…

BANG

Might still be here.

As he turned his head, the air around him turned cold and still. He widened his eyes in terror, knowing that something was horribly wrong.

When his gaze fell upon the beast before him, he felt his heart stop in his chest. This was the first time since he came to this world that he felt utterly powerless.

The giant's malicious gaze pierced into him like a spear, and he knew, with a deep feeling in his gut, that he was about to become its prey.