—
Time blurred. He didn't know how long he had been moving. Eventually, the screams faded. The geysers stopped. Only the rustle of wind and the occasional birdcall remained.
Asher dangled from a branch, panting. His body ached. His chest throbbed. His tail twitched weakly.
What kind of hellhole was this?
First, they hatched only to be thrown into a bloody brawl and Now they even had to survive this?
Asher understood the principle that the abyss was trying to go for well enough—natural selection. It was a term any human who graduated high school roughly understood , the problem was that this wasn't natural selection, this was a damn gauntlet!
Thousands of demons had hatched and slaughtering each , and when they finally stopped there was , maybe only a few hundred were left. If you Add in the beasts prowling outside, and they'd be lucky if the survivors even reached triple digits. More likely, the real number would be in the low tens.
No… this wasn't a hatchery meant to raise demons.
This was a forge.
A forge to create monsters no one sane would ever want to face!
Grrrrr…
Asher's stomach growled violently cutting of any grand thoughts that Asher was about to have
"Of course," he muttered bitterly.
"I survived the murder gauntlet, the drop from heaven and then a cruel the murder-forest… just to die of hunger...."
Unable to endure his hunger anymore, Asher dropped from the tree ad started hunting to the best of his ability.
creeping low through moss and roots. The towering trees loomed like ancient gods over his small, three-foot frame.
He crawled silently, scanning every shadow, every bush.
Then—movement.
[Detect]
Soon a notification came back
[Horned Rabbit]
[Rank: Common ★★]
[Level: 4]
[Skills: Hyper Sense (E), Burst (E)]
Asher blinked.
"Level four? This thing's stronger than that clawed demon back in the hatchery…"
It was observation that the system told him but Asher found it hard to believe.
Unlike his ugly demon brethren, this creature looked rather… beautiful.
It was covered in smooth gray-blue fur. And hopped around in graceful and cute movements with a white spiral horn that would shine in the sunlight
Majestic.
Graceful.
Adorabl—
"Grrrr."
Asher's thoughts were rudely interrupted but the loud grumbling of his stomach
Nope. Sorry. All of a sudden, the rabbit was not so adorable anymore.
It was lunch.
Asher crept up through the underbrush, tail coiled tight as he quietly approached the fluffy beast. His claws twitched, ready to strike and then-.
Asher moved
He dove forward in a tiny blur of claws and teeth aiming directly for the rabbits neck.
As this happened, the rabbit's ears twitched quickly, without even looking it quickly sidestepped Asher's attack
"THWACK!"
A pair of muscular hind legs slammed into Asher's chest mid-leap.
He went flying backward like a kicked football, landing in a heap of leaves and bushes with a strangled wheeze.
Asher struggled to get air back into his lungs as he struggled to comprehend what just happened
"I…I got bodied by a rabbit?"
Quickly suppressing the sense of disbelief, Asher coughed as he dusted himself off, and narrowed his eyes.
After being embarrassed Asher wasn't kind enough to show any love or consideration for his future diner
"That's it, no more pity for you, you furry fu—"
Before Asher could even finish his words, The rabbit seemed to have enough and transformed.
It started from it's eyes which began glowing red. Soon veins surged and bulged across its fur. Its jaw snapped sideways whilst Its torso swelled, growing unnaturally broad. Its front paws cracked with muscle.
In one simple word, it was jacked.
"Dear god…" Asher muttered quietly , his tail dropping limply behind him.
Asher looked at the creature in front of him and knew he had fucked up
The petite and cute rabbit before him has suddenly bulked up immensely. its small body had almost doubled in size with most of the growth being focused primarily on its legs
"Fuck! It looks like it just got done squatting a mountain!"
The rabbit snorted and sent saliva flying everywhere
The once cute and fluffy animal was now looking more manic and crazed than your neighbourhood crackhead!
"Okay! Okay!" Asher said, throwing up his hands in surrender and slowly stepping backward.
"I get it. You're on steroids, damn!"
Unfortunately for Asher, the rabbit didn't seem to care about his half hearted apology and roared.
The rabbit lunged forward its graceful shiny horn now looking like a lethal spear.
Asher didn't have the heart to test the effectiveness of this self propelled rabbit javelin and bolted.
He didn't even have time to be embarrassed about the fact that he was quite literally running away from a rabbit and fled like crazy.
The Horned rabbit chasing after Asher was fast, but maybe it was too fast.
In its angered an manic state it was struggling to keep with sharp turns and rapid changes in movements that Asher was making as he zigzagged through the trees and roots.
Asher glanced over his shoulder and his blood ran cold.
The rabbit wasn't just chasing him. It was gaining.
Each bound shook the earth, ears whipping like banners in the wind, eyes blazing with feral hunger. The damn thing was less a rabbit and more a runaway avalanche with teeth.
His scalp tingled with dread. This thing's faster than me?!
But Asher wasn't planning on outrunning it.
He angled toward a familiar spot, the twisted snare of vines stretched taut between two gnarled trees. He'd noticed it earlier, filed it away like a gambler pocketing an ace.
The thunder of paws closed in. The beast's hot breath prickled the back of his neck.
At the last possible second, Asher feinted left and then rolled right.
The rabbit, too massive and furious to stop, barrelled straight ahead.
SNAP!
The vines faced with this sudden force seemed came alive, coiling around its forelimbs with the creak of tightening rope. The beast reared back, snarling and thrashing and just as it was about to break free
.Asher dove in, tail snapping around the rabbit's neck while his claws gouged straight for its eye.
[Spiked-Tail Whip (E)]
[Rending Claws (E)]
The beast thrashed violently, the threat of death and was the best steroid for any creature and it allowed for the rabbit to break out the veins and crash wildly into the nearby trees
It slammed hard on its back shaking Asher's bikes but
It wouldn't be surprising if the pain made Asher let go. But the thing bout Asher had always been a a spiteful little bastard.
The pain that would have made others give up only made Asher more cruel and ruthless. He he opened his mouth and bit down, hard on the beasts neck and twisted his rending claws in the rabbits side causing its already bad bleeding to become even more catastrophic!