Hey, finally my brother had a good idea, and of course food related; We left a good part of the body behind, but carried in our mouth the hind limbs to eat later.

I got worried that we would leave a trail of blood, but it was impossible to go on without leaving any trace behind, so might as well have a snack for later to keep my strength.

The woods were full of sounds and life. All around there were creatures going about their days, some as inoffensive as the fox that ate a chunk of meat that fell on the ground, others… well, made me rethink my brother’s strategy.

Drool was accumulating in my mouth as a sound perked my attention when it was already too late. A creature jumped out of nowhere on us, aiming for our faces, our snouts occupied with the meat and unable to react.

Shit.

I did the only thing I could: I throw the meat at the creatures face as it eats in one go, already coming for us as my brother did the same. With no time to whine about the loss we took a deep breath and aimed fireballs at it.

It did nothing beyond irritating the creature, but that’s not possible, the creature was covered in fur! It should burn nicely. Going backward as it advanced, I use appraisal on it.

-Appraisal completed-

Name: H6%3F

Gender: H$5#Y%

Race: Rock Lion

It was made of rock? No wonder it didn’t catch on fire. But it didn’t have the appearance of a rock… So I couldn’t count in what I see then…

The brown lion growled and for a few seconds we were paralyzed. Shit, what is that? I watch in terror as it jumped on my brother, its big size overshadowing him.

Nonononono No!

Panic made me struggle as if my life depended on it. It was for mere seconds, only what it took for the lion to jump, but I watched as if in slow motion, many things passing through my mind, and none of them good.

But one thing grows more than the others. Far beyond the thoughts of losing my last family member, my little brother, was the anger of being unable to protect them, anger against the destiny that made our young lives so miserable so soon, anger at those filthy humans for putting us in this situation to begin with.

Anger for being so weak.

Ding – Requirements for Unique ability from title Angry One met – Berserker mode Activated

After that everything went red. I don’t remember clearly, my mind was fuzzy as my body only reacted. I could only see the lion closing its jaws over my brother's shoulder, and a mix of growl and scream came to my lips as I quickly bit his ear off and hold my jaws close on the back of his neck.

It screamed, but I could only smell the blood dripping from my brother’s shoulder as bloodlust took over my senses and I scratched, clawed, bit until the thing stopped twitching and only an unrecognizable pile of meat stood below me, until meat and blood dropped of my chin and pilling it in puddles on the soil. Somewhere in the distance a ding sound reverbed.

Ding – Level Up.

Ding – Level Up

Heavily breathing, I stood covered in blood on top of the body, suddenly feeling extremely tired and numb, as if I was hit by a truck.

Hit by…A what…? Never mind… I’m so… sleepy…

No, brother, I need to help him.

With my eyes half closed I turn my face, my vision misty as only an immobile shadow on the ground came to view.

Oh no.

– Berserker mode off – Side effects inbound – Unable to move for 2 hours – Counting start…

And then I pass out.

~~~~~

My body is stiff, my mouth dry and with a weird taste to it. My eyes were heavy, so heavy…

Voices, voices nearby.

Brother.

I open my eyes only to close them again at the blinding light of the rising sun. Shit, morning already? We lost our advantage. With trembling limbs I stand up, scaring the life out of the little scavengers and birds.

Shh, shut up.

I try to take a step but fall miserable and roll down the dirty ground. Taking a deep breath to calm down, I try again as the voices came closer, urging me to go quicker.

“Brother. Brother wake up”

My voice came low and dry. Never thought I could sound so beat and desperate. If… if anything happened to him, I could, I couldn’t… It would be better to deliver myself to the humans than have to live that fate.

With trembling limbs I approach my brother only to see his muddled shoulder with an open wound covered in a bloody mess. A shallow breath coming from him gave me some relief, but the state of his wounds didn’t.

I have to stop the bleeding somehow… Fire, I can cauterize the wound. It won’t end pretty, probably will scar, will hurt like shit, but he should survive.

I start a fire inside my belly, felling the warm go up my throat. Accumulating enough heat, I slowly start spitting fire on the base of my paw over my talons.

Ding – Magic learned – Fire Breath 1

When my skin turned red I looked at my brother again. Coming closer I wrap a paw on his back, holding him in place, as I put my mouth over the wound to hold the skin close, starting to pass my blazing paw over the wound.

Let just say it wasn’t pretty or easy, as I needed more than one go to make it work. At the end he was still unconscious and breathing heavily, a frown of pain formed on his face, but at least the wound had closed and cleaned with my saliva.

The lively ambiance of the forests was a little annoying as the bird chirped and the squirrels climbed the trunks.

The voices were getting closer, and I needed to act, now. But what to do… I couldn’t outrun them, not while carrying my brother, no…fight them? No, they were organized and prepared.

I needed to distract them.

And I knew exactly what to do.