the next day as the sun was rising Mars was chewing on some stale roasted bear meat as he made the decision to burn the remaining bear meat to ash and looked over at Victoria that was lazing around on the bear hide that functioned as their bed"lets go hunting today Victoria"
as soon as Mars said "hunting" Victoria shoot up from the bear hide as her horns flashed while she looked at him with sparkling eyes
"hunting... fun"
looking at the excited panther Mars also got a little fired up
"then lets go... or not, give me a minute i need to make something first"
with Victoria impatiently pacing in front of him as her horns flashed telling him to get a move on Mars made a simple belt out of bear hide to sheath his sword, after securing his bone sword in his new belt he looked over at the impatient Victoria and gave her a teasing smile
"now we can go"
as Mars was walking out of the cave Victoria shoot past him like a black missile into the undergrowth of the forest seeing this Mars also broke into a run after her as he transformed into his half dragon from to gain more speed
"hey wait for me!"
agilely running through the forest Mars quickly got tired of jumping over roots from old trees that looked more like 1 meter tall wood fences than roots and avoiding brushes with thorns that was hard as metal, he sat off from the ground and landed on a branch quickly jumping to the next tree using his claws to climb up to the crown of the tree where the branches was denser Mars began to jump from tree to tree as he followed the presence of Victoria he could feel though their contract
"...where is she going?"
after moving in the top of the almost 50 meter tall trees with breakneck speed while fulfilling a childhood dream of imitating a certain man that was raised by gorillas for more than 15 kilometers he still had not caught op with Victoria
"oh she stopped moving"
sensing that the panther had stopped Mars started to move down from the top of the trees while he got closer to Victoria, until he saw her sitting neatly with her tail rolled around he feet on a giant tree root with a slightly smug expression while she was licking her paw
"yes yes i know i am slow"
as Mars landed in front of Victoria while admitting defeat he reached his hand op to pat her on the head to praise her
"but how are you so f---"
as his hand reached Victoria"s head to pat her Mars felt something wrong as his hand pa.s.sed through her head as her body turned into a dark mist as soon as he touched her
"what the ****!?"
Mars understandably more than a little confused stumbled backwards and almost feel over but he did not notice a shadow separated from the others and moved from the side of the root slowly crawling up behind him
"hey where are you Victoria?"
as Mars was still confused and looked around as the shadow that was now less than 3 meters behind him seemed to open op as Victoria jumped out of the shadow landing silently on the tree root before she pounced on him from behind pus.h.i.+ng him down to the ground with her front paws as she landed on his back and bit at his neck
"ouch!"
"caught... Mars"
being pushed down to the ground and landing on his face Mars momentarily panicked before hearing the usual cold feminine voice in his head now sounded a little playful he realized that he had been had by Victoria as he felt her teeth lightly around his neck he raised his hands
"you got me"
as soon as he admitted defeat Victoria let go off his neck and jumped off his back while purring happily as she walked around him with a proud face as Mars raised himself off the root and sat op and looked at her while rubbing the back of his neck
"well you got me good... but how did you do that?"
as she was still walking around proudly while purring happily Victoria sat down in front of Mars as her fur seemed to start glowing softly with a dark light as a dark mist came out from her fur and formed a lifelike copy of her that sat down right next to her
"...that"s amazing"
standing up Mars walked over to the life like clone Victoria had made in less than 5 seconds and studied it closely, finding that it looked completely like Victoria except for the eyes that had turned from a bright blue color into a slightly darker blue, finished inspecting the shadow decoy Mars petted the real Victoria on the head
"well this certainly is something, but how did you get behind me?"
"like... this"
as Mars asked Victoria she seemed to start shrinking slowly into her on shadow until she had completely disappeared into her own shadow that quickly moved around him in a circle before stopping in front of Mars as the shadow opened up and she jumped out from it again and landed right in front of him with a expedition that said "praise me"
"well you certainly are amazing Victoria"
as Mars was praising Victoria while smiling and petting her on the top of the head he was secretly terrified by the stealth powers she had, as he imagined him p.i.s.sing her off before they made a contract and getting hunted down by an enemy he could neither see nor outrun while slowly getting withered down by mid range shadow magic as he was using all his strength on shadow decoys until he was pounced from behind without warning and getting his neck snapped by this fearsome shadow death panther
"well the name of your kind was given certainly fits perfectly"
as Mars came to this conclusion Victoria was still purring with her eyes closed sitting in front of him enjoying having her head patted
"Victoria do you know any good hunting spots around here?"
"yes... a little away is a lake... with lots of prey"
"then let"s go"
having played enough Victoria seemed to enter hunting mode as she led the way cautiously sometimes stopping and listening with her ears twitching cutely as Mars did his best to follow while making as little noise as possible as man and beast moved towards the lake Victoria knew about, after a few minutes they arrived at the edge of a clearing with a lake in the middle, as Mars was peeking from behind some bushes at the lake he spotted the prey Victoria was talking about
"...that seems a little big"
on the edge of the lake was a wild boar the size of a mini van with 2 sharp 3 meter long tusks that was dipping into the lake as it was drinking water while it was staying alert of its surroundings, Mars marveled at the size of the boar before his [Energy: information] skill activated and information popped up in the edge of his vision
[adult earth boar
male
cla.s.s: 5
an adult earth boar or "tank boar" as they are known as by members of the hunters guild have the ability to use earth magic to manipulate surrounding rock and dirt to create a thick armor around their body when threatened]
"we need to take this one by surprise, Victoria circle around to the side and try to hit it"s throat
with magic while i distract it"
"okay..."
as soon as Mars gave the command Victoria melted into her shadow and moved into the clearing, while Mars unsheathed his bone sword and waited a few seconds before standing up and walking out in the open as he yelled at the boar
"HEY OVER HERE!"
the earth boar was instantly enraged as it turned around a saw a puny human with a tiny sword was yelling at it, not even bothering to use its earth magic to make armor it roared at Mars while it charged at him
"ROOOAA--"
only in the next moment a spear of darkness flew out from its flank and priced it throat cutting its roar short and almost decapitating it as it fell over and slid forward on the ground while bleeding from its throat as its eyes gradually dulled and it stopped moving completely
"phew... well all went as planned"
as Mars walked up to the dead minivan sized boar Victoria ran up to him while purring happily
"you did well Victoria"
after patting Victoria on the head Mars transformed and grabbed one of the front legs of the dead boar and begun to drag into the forest towards his cave creating a trail while Victoria followed after him
"what do you say Victoria, how many days do you think we can live off this boar?"
"boar... taste good... so a few?"
as Mars was dragging the boar through the forest and talking with Victoria he started to notice a
group of familiar presences closing in on him
"...looks like they are here again"
letting go of the boar leg he looked over at Victoria that also was alert and looking around
"let"s kill all of these ****ing spiders"