Angel Monarch

Chapter 17: Hunt

The first rule of hunting is to always be prepared, at least that's what they thought her in school. In the past few weeks she realized how right they were. She won most of her battles to pure luck or some resemblance of skill, but she was never prepared.

Firstly the hound would have killed her with ease if it wasn't injured, and she nearly died like that as well. The chameleons she accidentally used her Transformation ability, which she still didn't know how to use. And lastly, the bats were only the servants of a stronger existence, so they as Rotten, were weaker than a strong Tainted.

All of it was just luck and miscalculation on the enemies side. But this would change today. Sera will hunt and kill this moose not because of luck, but skill and wit.

First thing she done is scan the monster. It was a Rotten of the 2nd Tier, named: Bloodletting Moose. After that she began to plan the trap.

It took some time but 2 hours later the trap was ready, only problem was that it needed a bait and well, she was alone. Walking through the woods Sera made as much noise as possible and 5 minutes later she heard the moose rushing in her direction.

With a grin on her face she began running, and helped herself on with her wings. For an outsider it might seem she was sprinting without direction but that wasn't the case, she knew where to go and what to do. She thought about it for a long time, rehearsed the plan in her head 100s of times, and now it was time to execute.

Sera seemed to be getting slower and the moose started catching up. In another minute there was only 15 meters between them. The trees then opened up into a small clearing that was covered in dead leaves and branches. Sera ran straight through it but her running was weird, her steps were sometimes bigger or smaller then necessary, like she was dodging something invisible.

In fact, she was evading her own traps. As the beast reached the clearing it followed her without a second thought, but after a couple of steps a crushing sound could be heard.

'Got you!'

Sera turned around and went into the air to fly behind the moose. One of the monster's leg was currently stuck in a hole dug by her previously, the whole clearing was full of them. Sera didn't know which direction she would arrive from and how many traps would the creature evade before hitting one. So, the best option was to put so many down, that it was impossible to miss all of them.

She flew above the moose to get behind it. The beast tried to turn around but was too slow and the blade of the glaive hit it's neck, decapitating it.

"You have killed a Bloodletting Moose, a Rotten of the 2nd Tier! Your Soul is Nourished!"

As the head of the monster rolled on the ground its body toppled to its side. And that was it. The whole fight lasted 10 seconds.

"Fuck me, this is so much easier. I should do this more often, it was kind of fun. Compared to the others at least."

She didn't waste her time and immediately began skinning the moose, making a fire and draining the blood. Only problem was that she had nothing to store it in and could only drink it from the source.

'Oh my god! And I thought the other one was disgusting! This is so much worse!'

Sera drank as much as she could without throwing up, then sat down and waited for the food to be done. She also made a separate fire to smoke the skin of the moose. While waiting for the food to be done she dismissed all of her items so they didn't drain her Essence further.

The food was done pretty fast and by the time she ate her fill the Sun was going down. Night was approaching and she had to leave by then.

But there was still time, she already put out both fires and now was gazing at the sky while lying on the monster skin. After a while of enjoying the calmness around her, she opened her map to check how much further was Havel.

"I started from here which was 50 kilometers away from Havel and I'm here now. There is still 35 kilometers to go. Not bad, I'm nearly there."

Sera could hardly believe it. She was close to 70 kilometers away from Newber, how had she survive this far? Castleberg was still close to 250 kilometers away but it was further yesterday and the day before that. So, slowly but surely she was getting closer.

As the Sun was about to set Sera grabbed some meat, and using the skin as a makeshift bag, put it away. Then she summoned her wings and clothes and went into the sky. First she scouted making sure it's safe, the Pet was nowhere to be seen. Staying low to the tree line she continued her journey toward Havel, then to the El-Ba, and finally to Castleburg.

While flying Sera was reflecting on todays hunt.

'It's good that it worked so well but I shouldn't place as much faith into traps, and have multiple in case one fails. And I also shouldn't completely abandon fighting with my glaive, it would be so much easier if I had an actual teacher. My fighting technique is mostly quick reflexes and guesswork.'

Sera was absorbed in her thoughts, when she heard the sound of heavy wings and saw the Pet approaching her location yet again.

"Okay, fine I won't fly! Just, fuck off!"

She made a hurried descent onto the ground and sprinted for a couple of minutes, before stopping next to a tree, panting.

'Walking it is then.'