We got far enough away until we were out of his sight, but I could still hear his footsteps echoing behind us. We came to a branch in the tunnels, and I was already unsure of which way to go.

  After briefly considering the options, I realized it didn’t matter and just picked one.

  Simply escaping him wasn’t enough. We needed to defeat him and then go find that other one before he could warn all the other red masks. That would be an absolute disaster, because even in my wildest hopes, I did not believe I could take on ten or more at a time. That was simply impossible, and doubly so if there were more who were as powerful as this guy.

  “Come on, you damn Hell Hounds,” he called after us. “You can't escape! Just come back, and all will be forgiven! Haha!” I heard his sword scraping against the rock wall behind us.

  It's not like he knew I could understand him, so what's with the taunts?

  After thinking for a moment, the answer was obvious. It didn’t matter what he said; he was simply making noise to keep us scared and running—chasing us towards his allies, who were working their way through the cave system from the other end.

  I had overheard Geirna and that other red mask talking about how there were three entrances; that meant the skylight cavern, the one me and Lily had originally entered through, and the exit Grick was guiding us to. If another team has started at the skylight cavern, then we would be crossing their path sooner or later.

  We branched down another tunnel, then another. Each path we took twisted and turned. I needed to find one with a straight enough path to give me enough distance to unleash my spells from afar. But he had already seen what I could do and would be wary of it, so it would be hard to get that chance.

  Lily whined softly.

  I know, Lily, I know. I'm sorry!

  I regretted letting that quest entice me back into the caves!

  But no, I knew it was the right decision. We didn't actually have a choice. Maybe if we somehow could have snuck past those other two without them noticing us, then simply fleeing would have been an option.

  Now, once their bodies were found, we would only continue to be chased outside of the caves.

  Therefore, killing the enemy here and now, annihilating them so they couldn't run back home for reinforcements who would be more prepared—that was the only way to secure our freedom. And as a bonus, we would become far stronger in the process.

  I saw another branching tunnel, and after I quickly chose one, I soon found it was a dead end.

  We doubled back hurriedly, but just before correcting our direction down the proper tunnel, an idea struck me.

  This brute chasing us knew about how strong my magic was, but he didn't know about Veil of Shadows. How I could all but disappear if it were dark enough. That would allow me the time I needed to get him with some magic.

  For whatever reason, Crippling Bite didn’t work on this guy, and without being able to cripple him, melee attacks were out of the question. His weapons were far too dangerous.

  I looked at Lily. I didn't love the idea of using my sister as bait, but her trickster skills would keep her safe.

  I sat on my haunches to get her attention; she looked back at me anxiously as the scraping of the human's sword grew louder.

  “Come out, come out! Haha! You can't run forever!”

  I activated {Veil of Shadows} right in front of her and then nodded back towards our pursuer. Her eyes widened as understanding dawned on her, and I prowled back towards the dead-end tunnel and lay on my belly, letting Camouflage disguise me further as I watched the path the hunter would soon come down.

  Lily then once again proved she was far more tactical than I’d given her credit for. She began going down the dead-end tunnel, and I was about to growl and try to communicate that she needed to go the other way. But then I realized she was simply selling it.

  If she were to just run up to the man and make an obvious taunt, he would become suspicious, especially when I was nowhere in sight. However, if what he saw was a panicked puppy who had lost her sister in the dark tunnels…

  Sure enough, as soon as the glow of his shock pole came around the next bend, Lily shot out of the tunnel, looking around anxiously and yipping in fear. The human smiled, totally buying it.

  “Ha! There you are…” He smiled and put his sword over his shoulder as Lily cowered with her tail between her legs. His shock pole was holstered at his side, with the tip glowing just enough to give him light to see by.

  He moved slowly as if trying not to alarm her. “Where’s the other one?” he muttered, reaching a hand forward, moving slowly towards her as Lily backed away with her ears folded down. “Ah, whatever. Just come here, pup, ehehe. I won’t hurt you.”

  Every step he moved, she matched backwards, but letting him get just slightly closer to her to dissuade a sudden lunge. For such a master manipulator, I wonder why she fell for Grick’s tricks so easily?

  Lily whimpered.

  “Na, na, see? I’m a nice guy.” He cooed. “Don’t be afraid, little puppy.” His voice was gruff and didn’t match his soothing words, but it was not lost on me how his fingers tensed on his sword.

  He moved forward another step, and another, until he passed the tunnel where I hid without even looking twice to check for me—not that he’d see me anyway! His focus was fully on Lily.

  I prowled forward as silently as possible, being extra careful not to accidentally kick any loose pebbles—I had certainly learned my lesson from the Earth Tyrant.

  Good job, Lily! Just keep luring him!

  Then, once there was enough distance for me to get a good angle behind him, Lily stopped.

  She whimpered pathetically, closed her eyes, and dropped her head to the ground, a clear sign of surrender.

  “Ah—smart choice, pup. I’ll reward you for that. Got some nice jerky back at camp, heheheh.” He reached down for her.

  But I knew Lily enough to know he wasn’t reaching for the real one. That was just one of her clones.

  I channeled my mana. I had a good five feet between us with a clear, open target.

  This is it!

  I felt the particles coursing through my fur, up my arms, and into my claws.

  He snatched at “Lily” greedily, his hand going right through as her clone disappeared.

  “Huh? What the hell!?” he growled.

  {Elemental Cocktail}! Pentacylsm!

  Then I saw the rigidity come over his stance as my sphere formed, lighting the dark tunnel. He looked over his shoulder, and I could all but imagine the horrified look on his real face and how it wouldn’t match the stoic expression of his mask.

  He began to yell, but never got it out.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The sphere flattened and shot its brilliant beam of light. He had no space to dodge in the tight tunnels, and all he could do to defend himself was try to turn away.

  The beam hit his back powerfully, exploding and sending him flying into the tunnel wall. Through the light, I could see his silhouette with arms and legs spread wide as if he were going to make a snow angel—or wall angel in this case.

  I gave him no time to recover, instantly pressing the attack as he hit the floor. He tried to get up to his knees, smoke billowing from his damaged armor. The feathered headdress along the back of his mask had been basically vaporized, with just tiny glowing embers at their stems.

  I bit the back of his bicep, right where I had before, sinking my teeth in.

  “RAAAAAH!” He screamed, and tried to stand. I forced my way up onto his back to push him down again as I swiped my claws, digging at his wound through the busted armor. He tried to roll and crush me against the wall, but then Lily was there, going right for his other hand.

  Breaking an arm or a leg was impossible on this big guy, but Lily could at least manage a few fingers as she pulled and twisted.

  His knee slipped; he tried throwing his elbow back at me, but the angle was so awkward he couldn’t do any damage.

  “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you damn mutts!” he screamed, thrashing back and forth, trying to pull his hand free, trying to throw me off—but none of it worked.

  We both growled viciously, and I continued digging my claw in while holding tight to his arm, digging deeper and deeper into his wound.

  I had to give him some credit for his persistence; he tried to get up to his knees again, but both me and Lily forced him back down. He wasn’t giving up easily, but even the toughest of people had their breaking point.

  When he pushed his forehead against the ground in a last effort to buck me off of him, his neck became exposed.

  I let go of his arm and instantly latched on to the exposed neck, getting him right at the sweet spot I knew could kill most creatures.

  Snapping his neck wasn’t easy, but ripping at such a vulnerable spot took the last of the fight from him. He didn’t even try to swing his arm back at me anymore. He reached forward, grabbing at the ground, in a last desperate attempt to crawl away as more screams escaped his mouth.

  Finally, after twisting and shaking a few more hard times, I heard the snap.

  Foe Eliminated - Lvl 20 Homo Sapien - Bloody Peaks Tribe

  Experience Gained!

  You have leveled up!

  You are now level 14!

  +5 Vigor

  +5 Strength

  +6 Dexterity

  +9 Attunement

  +8 Sense

  I breathed in and out heavily, looking at my sister, who grinned back at me, blood dripping from her fangs. His hand was absolutely mangled.

  Then, I received a second award:

  Pack Bond leveled up! 3 > 4

  You can now view your pack members' stat screens.

  OH!

  That would seriously come in handy!

  As much as I wanted to rush right into checking out my sister’s stats, I knew we had one more loose end to tie up, and we had burned way too much time dealing with this guy.

  I nodded to Lily, then turned and ran back the way we came.

  That human who went to scout would surely have found the first two we killed by now and likely was already making it back to report the casualties. He would find the third member of his party already dead and the other missing, then probably rush back out of the cave to warn the rest of our pursuers.

  If this story were from his point of view right now, he’d probably feel like he was trapped in a horror movie, and definitely not the main character.

  …Wait. They probably don’t have movies in this world.

  Anyway—

  We hurried back the way we had come, twisting through the tunnels as fast as we could. Soon, we came upon Grick sitting over angery mask’s corpse, humming happily as he searched through the dead man’s pockets. He still had the red mask he had stolen from the girl strapped over his back.

  I growled at Grick to prompt him for information.

  “Other human goes that way,” he said, pointing a bony finger down the tunnel. “Fears Grick! Knows Grick powerful! Heehehe!” The goblins tittered happily as he looted a small drawstring bag and shook it, listening to the rattle of coins inside.

  Honestly, I could almost feel sorry for this guy. Imagine going down that tunnel to find two dead comrades, then coming back to find another dead one while a goblin wearing the mask of the other looted their body. He was probably running in a dead panic to get back to his Direwing outside the caves.

  I snatched Grick up as he screamed in surprise, and I tossed him onto Lily’s back and resumed running. We still needed him to guide us.

  “Bad puppy!” Grick complained. “Grick not done finding lovelies!”

  I growled back at him.

  You can get even more once we kill this other guy, you stupid goblin!

  But Grick seemed to accept his role as our guide. As we made it through the cavern and down to another branching tunnel, he pointed. “That way, puppy! Leads outside!”

  Sure enough, as soon as we turned, I saw the literal light at the end of the tunnel. But the fact that I hadn’t seen the human yet made me worry we were already too late.

  Exiting the tunnel, we were met with a new type of landscape. There was a large flat plain immediately surrounding us—one that lacked cover from any sky-bound scouts who might come after us. Far in the distance, I saw more mountain peaks with woodland at the foot. Amongst the forest, I saw a stone wall and maybe a few wooden structures poking over the top. It was quite far away, though.

  But considerations of this human town were for another day.

  As I glanced around, I saw four Direwings perched on rocks outside the cave, then a fifth in motion as the laughing-faced red mask ran alongside it, pulling on its reins.

  Oh, no you don’t!

  I ran towards him, but as the Direwing bounded upwards and spread its wings, the human swung himself up into the saddle and pulled the reins up.

  Damn it! I cursed inwardly and quickly thought through my ranged options.

  Pentaclysm was too slow, too thin, and could be too easily dodged.

  Noting the thin webbing along the mount’s wings, I instantly thought of ice spikes to take away its ability to fly.

  Water, and wind made sense, and I threw in electricity just to be extra sure.

  {Elemental Cocktail}! Ice Missiles!

  The spell name came into my head as I cast it, just as the other times I tried a new combination, and it was one I was quite pleased to hear.

  As I swept my claws up, doing my best to aim, the elements poured out of me, forming several baseball-sized chunks of pointy ice that scattered and flew upwards.

  I could see the wind and electricity elements forming behind them, and though they zigzagged messily, they were clearly heading in the right direction.

  The human pulled up on the reins, hastening his ascent, trying to outmaneuver the projectiles.

  I used it again to be extra sure.

  {Elemental Cocktail}! Ice Missiles!

  The first wave caught up, several of the missiles flying right past as the rider attempted a barrel roll, but with the creature's wings spread wide, several tore right through.

  It bucked and lost some altitude, flapped its wings to try to force itself higher, but turned messily in the air. The second wave hit, and this time, its attempt to correct itself completely failed as it started gliding downward and screeching in pain.

  The four other Direwings jumped from their perches, screeching in alarm as they took flight, but it didn’t seem they had the wherewithal or ability to try to attack us, just scattering in a panic.

  I heard the human curse loudly, swinging his legs off of the Direwing just as it hit the ground, and he landed in a sliding crouch.

  Lily and I ran right for him as he pulled out his spear, but I could already tell he would not pose the same threat as the last one we killed.

  I pounced just before pivoting at the last second. His spear caught my side, but it was a shallow cut, and I knocked him to the ground.

  He reached for a dagger—I attacked his arm, and now Lily was on him as well.

  I didn’t want to waste any more mana on a Crippling Bite, so I just shook and tore at his arm until he dropped his dagger. With that done, I aimed for his neck, forcing my jaws under his mask, and ended it quickly.

  Prey Eliminated - Lvl 13 Homo Sapien - Bloody Peaks Tribe

  Experience Gained!

  Breathing heavily, I looked up, considering the other four Direwings, but they just fluttered around aimlessly, having nobody left to command them. As for the one I had downed, it weakly tried to run, flapping its wings, but not managing to stay airborne for more than a second.

  I licked my lips. I hadn’t considered it before, but its back legs looked particularly meaty.

  It seemed Lily had the same thought, as she was already bounding after the injured prey. She yanked its leg down after a pathetic attempt to take flight. It rolled on its back and swatted the clawed ends of its wings at her, but they were not very effective weapons. Lily soon found its throat and ended it.

  Prey Eliminated - LvL 6 Direwing

  No experience rewarded.

  I supposed we had a few minutes to enjoy a quick meal, and during our well-earned breather, I could check out my little sister's stats for the first time!

  But as I walked over to join her, the System registered the kill and updated the quest, giving me my earned bonuses—which included another useful skill!

  [Show them what a real hunter looks like.]

  Tier 1 achieved!

  Major Stat Bonus

  Minor Development bonus

  New Skill Unlocked

  Would you like to learn “Intimidate?”

  [Yes] < [No]

  I selected "yes."

  Intimidate lvl 1

  Let out a vicious roar, temporarily inducing fear and paralyzing creatures who are inferior to you. The weaker the target, the longer the duration.

  To push some traffic to Patreon, I'll begin giving free access to the next chapter after every RR update.