"Hnnnrrrrhhghh...." Viktor struggled to pull the bow back. Jesus, how weak was he?
'I should probably make a contract with a God of Strength or something.' He made a mental note of it.
The pink tinted heart-framed glasses came really handy. Inside the forest, Viktor could see hundreds of tiny orange and red splotches swimming around him. Heat signatures of living beings.
He didn't venture in too deep, and thankfully there wasn't any security around his house's perimeter..somehow. Maybe nobody was expected to come through the forest.
He was aiming at a rabbit about two meters away from him. He didn't know why it was just standing there doing nothing, but he definitely didn't mind.
Something fingered his mind...it almost felt like someone was breathing behind him. This was his ability apparently, ready to be unleashed.
Alright, then. He gave it an imaginary 'ok' signal and...thoughts bubbled up to his mind. It was like someone-or something- else did the thinking for him and pushed the answer to his consciousness.
Right behind its eyes.
A juicy organ cluster low and right in front of its shoulders.
Above its shoulders, the spine.
His brain somehow knew exactly what the rabbit's weak points were. But one location was practically throbbing in his head, and he could almost feel the thought pulsating, hot and intense, in the base of his skull.
The section of its spine right above the hind legs was damaged. No wonder it didn't walk away from him. It barely could anyways.
It was also extremely tired. Viktor just knew, thanks to this ability he was bestowed with.
So this was faultline, huh? Apparently the worst of the three abilities his family could be bestowed with. It didn't seem too bad. This ability seemed to allow him to gain the knowledge of weakpoints in whatever living thing he wanted to know about.
And this was just level 1. How could this ability look like in level 4, 7 or 8, he didn't know. Nobody did.
Well, his eldest brother was the only other dude with this ability, but nobody really knew where he was. Plus rumors mentioned him being a massive loser apparently.
Oh, and also Callista. The gifted child. Yeah, Spiros was even less likely to meet her. Guess he'll have to figure out how to use this ability to the fullest by himself.
Back to the rabbit. Viktor finally got the bow completely drawn back and was aiming at its brain. It took him about six seconds to focus fully. He was going to end its life painlessly
He used every single ounce of his strength to stop himself from shaking-despite his arms burning hot- took a deep breath, held it...and let the arrow loose.
THUNK. Although he aimed for its head, it went lower than where he aimed. It pierced the animal's heart and lungs instead.
"Fuck, sorry!" Viktor yelped and ran to it. The animal fell to the ground, coughing up blood, clearly in agony.
It jerked its working front legs back and forth in the air, not being able to manouver itself.
Viktor put his boot on the rabbit's hind legs, pulled the arrow out and stabbed as hard as he could into its eye sockets, then scraped it around its head, making a bloody pulp out of the rabbit's brain and killing the poor creature in an instant.
First hunting kill. His first of many. 'Thanks bro.' he saluted the corpse. 'Uhh..sorry about accidentally shooting you at the wrong spot, hehe.'
Memories. There was a tradition that was taught here.
He gathered a few dry twigs, put them all around the creature and lit a fire. Viktor wasn't going to take any of the animal for himself. He was going to give it to the goddess of Hunting and the moon, Artermis. His sunglasses showed him exactly how hot the fire was compared to everything around it. It glowed white.
'Uhh..I'm sorry that I'm giving you a disabled animal, ma'am.' Viktor prayed while feeling like a dumbass. But there was no way he was going to formally pray and do a ritual and all that fake bullshit. The act of praying must come from the heart, with real feeling. 'But this is my first ever kill in....a long time.' Did the other gods know he came from another world? He decided to not bring that up. Hopefully gods can't read minds. 'So, I hope you won't get mad at me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to hunt. This one's all yours. Sorry again...and thanks again.'
The flame flickered a little brighter for just a moment.
"Okay." Viktor waited until the animal was completely cremated, and disposed the fire properly. "I really should start practicing with bows, and swords." He said to himself. "I'm just not strong enough to even wield this bow properly. I should-"
A sudden flicker of red in the distance. It was kinda...big. Bigger than a rabbit. The size of a dog, maybe.
Viktor felt that familiar pulse of adrenaline and a feeling of restlessness. 'Chase it.' every fiber of his body yelled excitedly.
He burst forth, towards the direction where the animal was. He quickly glanced behind to see if the fire was completely gone- it was- good.
He didn't need to put his focus towards the creature in front of him - his brain's attention was practically all-in, towards the red spot. Thank fucking god for the thermal sunglasses, or else he couldn't have been able to see anything at all in the dark.
His legs started feeling the strain of running and he started gulping air thirstily as he increased his pace. You'd think Viktor would start to feel fatigued, but that wasn't the case.
Weeks. He spent fucking WEEKS staying still, lying down, doing nothing. This. The burning in his thighs and the dryness of his throat, chasing down a creature, was like heaven to him.
This was what the human body was meant to do, and listening to his nature gave an immense sense of joy to Viktor. It was part of the reason he was a huge nuisance when he was in school. It was part of the reason Viktor felt joy when enlisting to the army. He found immense pleasure in physical activity. And a lot of despair without it.
He gritted his teeth and smiled as he saw the red splotch in the distance reappearing behind a tree about a hundred meters ahead of him. It slowly got bigger and bigger. Its four legs hitting the ground with the mechanical rhythm of V-8 engine pistons, its shoulder blades absorbing the impact and cresting above its skin. It was a wolf.
'What a beautiful creature.' Viktor thought to himself, as he was chasing it.
Wait a fucking second, it wasn't some dog-sized herbivore. It was a fucking wolf! Viktor slowed down. Ain't no way he was going to try and fight a goddamn wolf. Also, didn't they hunt in packs? And why was the wolf running away from him?
Ohh... Viktor saw another red dot far, far away. About 300 meters or so. The wolf was chasing something else, and it thankfully didn't notice him.
'Do I go after it?....' Viktor's heart pounded even faster. Yes.
'I'm gonna fucking die today, aren't I?' he muttered to himself and laughed. Nah, he isn't. He'll figure something out, and take down a wolf.
He sped up again, not to catch up with the animal - but to stay with it.
'Ugh' Viktor jumped over a tree trunk and burst forwards with renewed speed. The air streaking past his face made him want to run even faster, but his rough panting sounds and wobbly legs told him to not dare to burn more stamina.
The wolf seemed to look back for a second. Was he imagining it? No, probably not. It didn't act like it knew someone was chasing it.
He took the precaution to stay behind anyways. With his ability and a decently placed arrow...he could... he could.... could he?
Yeah, no. He could definitely hit it. He hit a tower at mach speeds, he could easily hit a wolf. He was fucking Viktor!
Viktor realized that slowing down was bad idea, because the wolf sprung forwards for some reason, going almost thrice as fast as its original pace.
Viktor's jaw fell open. What was that speed? 50 kmph??
'Yeah, nah. No problem, I can probably catch up.' He said to himself as he willed his legs to move faster. Unfortunately, his legs refused to listen. 'Nope. Can't catch up.'
He didn't give up though, he just kept following the faint wolf trails left behind at the speed his body let him, as the animal's body was now hidden behind some trees. Sometimes he could see a wink of red, but it kept disappearing between the trees.
By the time he slowed down to a jog, he heard a distant, pained bleating sound. The wolf had caught its prey. Good. There it was. A faint speck of red. A dying deer lying down some four-hundred meters away, still bleating. Couldn't move its body though, it had been paralyzed from the neck down.
The second heat signature of the wolf, though, was nowhere to be seen. Viktor immediately stopped. He was far enough away from the wolf to not be caught by it. He put his hand behind to grab an arrow from the quiver- and realized that almost all of them fell out because Viktor forgot to close the quiver. He had about three remaining.
No problems. He had some distance over it. He glanced around him and saw nothing. No wolf. Maybe it ran away? After killing a deer? He focused both far ahead and close. No wolf.
How? Where the fuck did it go?
He kept looking, and yet saw nothing.
Then he heard a crunch of dry leaves in front of him. What? But there's nothing there.
Then, another crunch. Closer, this time. Couldn't be more than fifty meters away.
Viktor raised his glasses in confusion and -it didn't make any sense- there it was, the wolf staring at him hungrily. It was completely black, so black that it was darker than the forest. At night...like it was actively sucking the light around it.
"What the fuck?" He tapped against his glasses, hoping it'll fix the wiring or whatever was under the hood and peeped through it again. No wolf. Took off the glasses. Wolf.
"These stupid fucking glasses don't work!" He groaned and stared at the wolf in front of him. It seemed to realize that he knew that it was in front of him..and Viktor could have sworn that he saw the wolf smile.
Crunch. Another step forward.
And yet, he felt no fear. Viktor vaguely thought how weird this feeling was. Maybe it was because he already died before?
"Dumbass." the wolf fucking spoke.
"WHAT?!" Viktor looked at it incredulously.
"Idiot human." The wolf growled back, and Viktor could feel its entire body tense.
He quickly reached back and grabbed the arrow while simultaneously activating its ability right as the wolf pounced towards him.
Eyes.
The base of its skull, slightly behind its ears.
The underbelly.
Its hind legs seemed to particularly catch his ability's attention.
It closed more than half the distance with its first pounce and jumped towards him again as Viktor took an arrow from the quiver, dropped the bow and dived underneath it, twisting himself so that he'll face the underbelly of the wolf and hopefully stab its guts out.
The wolf was caught off guard from this, wondering for a second how suicidal this stupid chimp's plan was as it could see him floating below it, for just long enough for his face and neck to disappear under it.
It did, unfortunately regain its brain functions and opened its jaw and tried to bite as much of Viktor's chest as it could, while extending its claws to scratch at him. Its eyes widened as it saw Spiros' arm grabbing that arrow moving towards its side and with a quick swipe of its paw, sliced his entire arm off, along with the arrow.
Start timer: 0.00 seconds
Viktor notices his arm feels weird.
Viktor feels the animal's teeth sink two inches into his chest, and felt his breath starting to leave him forcefully..like a deflating balloon.
Viktor notices that he's stopped moving opposite to the animal, and felt himself being jerked along the animal's direction, like someone tied one end of rope to Viktor's torso and another to a train.
Viktor notices he doesn't even feel his arm, yet still moves his arm to his side.
Viktor figures out that his arm was possibly chopped clean off. This was no regular wolf? That black-hole-like fur did seem...unnatural.
Viktor sees two ball-shaped things gently poking out of the wolf's fur, like shy baby penguins peeking out of a mound of snow
Viktor's eyes light up as he reaches towards the balls with his remaining arm.
Stop timer: 1.4 seconds
Viktor grabbed the monstrous testicles and squeezed them with all the force frail Spiros could manage. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to cause the animal enough pain to yowl so loudly he could feel his lungs vibrate through the teeth sunk in it.
They crashed to the ground and the wolf desperately yanked its head out, pulling Spiros' sternum and a couple of ribs out and exposing his heart, trying to kill him as soon as possible so that he'd leave its nuts alone
Viktor felt like he was drowning as his lungs filled up with blood but he didn't care. He held on to the testicles for dear life and pulled himself towards it.
The wolf bit his open chest again, this time tearing out his heart and smushing it with its teeth, and although Viktor felt it immediately, he knew he still had strength for about a few seconds. More than enough.
He opened his mouth, and-instead of screaming in pain- he clamped his jaws shut around the wolf's testicles, puncturing it deep.
"AAAAAEAAAA-" The wolf didn't howl. It screamed. Raw, guttural terror and pain caused by a moron biting its balls.
It desperately jumped ahead, but Spiros' body dragged itself along the mud with his teeth still biting the wolf's testicles.
Almost instantly, the wolf heard a
CRUNCH.
It felt a huge amount of weight off its groin, evidenced by Spiors' body lying behind it. Then..
Plop. Plop.
A bit too much weight off. Something felt wrong. Hollow, almost.
Two pieces of...something fell on the ground, and the wolf's blood sprayed on it like a water sprinkler in full throttle.
The wolf couldn't do anything but scream in pain. It saw a dying Spiros laughing as he spat a chunk of balls out. "Looks like...ugh." He grunted in pain. "..you're balls deep in trouble. Heh....heh."
"THAT WAS A HORRIBLE ONE LINERRRRRRRR!!!!! AAAARGGHH!!" was the last sound Spiros heard right before he fell unconscious.
The wolf, angered, humiliated and in pain ran towards Spiros with the intent of deforming his body so terribly that his bloody chunks can never be recognized before it saw a flash jump towards it.
Then it was looking back as its own body from 10 feet away, along with a man so ridiculously tall and muscular he looked like he could cut down trees just by hugging them. The man walked towards the rapidly dying wolf's head and put his foot on it. "That's why you don't run into battles like an idiot. Guess you didn't....use your head."
"Ugh....please stop with the one liners and let me die in peace...bleh." The wolf died, not in peace. But rather distraught having to listen to not one, but *two* cheesy action movie dialogues.
The stranger decided not to smush its head. He picked his foot off of it and hurried over to Spiros' body, wishing his brain hadn't died yet and fumbled with something in his pockets. He finally found what he was looking for- a small bottle with the symbol of a rod with wings on top and a serpent coiled around it. Thick white mystery liquid sloshed inside it.
"Ugh...I'll only have three left after this." The stranger groaned and opened the cap. He was about to open Spiros' mouth to feed it to him, but saw his open torso and realized that he didn't need to do it the roundabout way when the stomach was just hanging out right there.
"Huh? Will that even work?.... oh well." He tore a small hole through Spiros' stomach and poured the liquid into it, praying it will work. But then he wondered who he'd be praying to since he himself was a God.
Thankfully, the boy started healing. The stranger could see Spiros' lungs close and slowly inflate as Spiros took a breath. Then a new sternum and ribs started growing right in front of him.
The boy will survive. The stranger breathed a sigh of relief, then was surprised at how he was so invested in this outcome.
Well, his hunting plans might have to be put on hold for the rest of the evening. He got up and started picking twigs.
He seemed like a cool kid.