Chapter 11: Battle Royale

  Gaia World, 4 Days After The Shattering

  After a few minutes of jogging, zigzagging between trees that cast ever more elongated and deeper shadows with every passing minute, Pawel ran into a clay tadpole that was completely fixated on a pine tree, chattering its teeth and dancing around it.

  He stopped to assess the situation and catch his breath from the run.

  Attentively scanning through the branches of the sprawling pine, he searched for whatever might have climbed there, but at first, he couldn't see anything in the gathering dusk.

  Finally, the small, cat-sized animal hissed angrily, drawing his attention to the right spot.

  From a distance, it looked exactly like a house cat; he couldn't make out the colors in the low light, but there were glimpses of red fur.

  Satisfied that it wasn't anything he needed to worry about, Pawel shifted his focus to the clay tadpole.

  The monster was chattering its teeth menacingly in its signature move, with its back turned to him.

  "A perfect opportunity for a sneak attack!" he thought.

  He began closing in on the monster, trying to remain silent, forcing himself to control even his labored breathing. But in his ears, every breath, every rustle of leaves under his feet sounded enhanced, as if the clay tadpole must hear it... but it did not.

  Just as he was close enough and began raising his spear to strike, he stepped on a particularly noisy twig—this was definitely loud enough...

  But the clay tadpole remained focused on the cat-thing.

  "Is it deaf?"

  Saving that thought for later, Pawel raised his spear and struck the creature at the top of its front side, where its brain might be.

  Again, after the initial toughness of the outer clay layer, he felt something softer underneath.

  The victim got pressed to the ground, wriggled for a short while, and finally stilled.

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  Pawel pulled out his weapon and waited, anticipating for a few seconds. Just like before, the monster dissolved into purple mist that disappeared into the air, not flowing directly into him—yet he felt a noticeable change in himself, a warmth spreading slowly from his solar plexus through his entire core, finally reaching his limbs and dissipating promptly.

  He attempted to grasp his "mana sight," as he'd started calling it to himself, but he couldn't calm his mind enough to enter the meditative state necessary. And it wasn't a good time to stand still, deep in his thoughts, so Pawel gave up on the attempts for now and returned to his dash through the forest, only glancing at the cat creature, still perched on the tree, following him with angry eyes.

  "Don't jump on me now—I just saved you, buddy."

  He pressed on, creating more distance between himself and the anomaly.

  Despite his best efforts to be hasty, he heard more and more sounds of agitated animals all around him, not just behind.

  Angry growls, yelps of pain, snarling, and the very distinct chattering of the new predator in the zone.

  "There's no way they could outrun me like that on their tiny legs," he thought. "They must be spawning away from the anomaly as well."

  He was snapped out of his musings by a loud trampling noise coming from bushes on his right side.

  Not even giving him time to plan or react, a pack of boars burst out from the vegetation and hastily paraded right in front of Pawel, perhaps six or seven meters away, giving him a good look up close.

  He was still standing there, paralyzed by shock and indecision, when right after the wild pigs, another group wobbled out of the undergrowth, chattering their teeth and making a lot of noise.

  Just like the panicked boars, the clay tadpoles completely ignored his unmoving statue and just ran past him, not even acknowledging his presence.

  Just as Pawel was about to start moving and shifted his posture, one last straggler showed up.

  This one wasn't announcing itself with menacing teeth chattering and surprised Pawel.

  His movement momentarily caught the monster's attention, and it tried rotating mid-step, causing its clumsy body to trip and roll.

  Pawel's shock from the encounter was already past, and he jumped on the opportunity.

  In a few large steps, he closed the distance, lowered the tip of the spear, and pushed it into the creature's "head" with his entire weight behind the strike.

  The makeshift weapon easily penetrated the clay-like body and went into the hard ground underneath, bending under Pawel's weight and then shattering with a cracking sound.

  Suddenly facing no resistance, his hands—still holding the broken part of the stick—pushed into sharp splinters, penetrating deep.

  "Aw, fuck!" he yelled out, letting go of what was left of his weapon and looking at his bleeding left hand.

  Then, with growing panic, he glanced at the skewered clay tadpole and immediately reached to his backpack for his hatchet. But his enemy was already dissolving into purple mist.

  And this time, for some reason, it absorbed into Pawel's body, like the one after killing the spider had—giving him a more distinct feeling of warmth.

  Seeing that the immediate threat of the monster was alleviated, he pulled out bandages, wrapped up his bleeding hand, and resumed his escape through the forest that was now turned into a battleground.