Chapter 101 - Survival Of The Fittest: A Leg Piece

"The wolf wasn't killed by us!", the moment when Balton said this, Shin paused.

It was as if he had turned into a statue for a moment. Of course, hearing something like that would shock him because until now he had been thinking that it was these humans who killed her!

'Are you for real?'

'Someone else killed her...?', was what he asked himself.

Blood was oozing out of Balton's body. He was injured beyond his limit and was still suffering from the pain even after revealing something so shocking.

'Then...'

'Who killed her?', was the only thing that he was thinking at the moment. 

"Tell me, who killed her then?", Shin asked.

He couldn't possibly believe anyone on a whim! Also, he was talking about a human at that!

In this world, where even aminals and beasts could lie and scheme, believing humans would be a challenging task.

"We..."

"We didn't kill her...", he repeated the same thing that he had said a while ago.

"And..."

"She isn't dead...", was what Balton said.

"Huh...?", this was some sort of joke that Shin was hearing at the moment.

Although he wanted to believe that, it was unfortunate that it was a lie.

"It would have been good if your words were true."

"However a dead person cannot come back to life...", was what Shin said.

"The lie that is coming out of your shitty mouth isn't that bad, but it's affecting the wrong side of my heart.", Shin said with a fierce glare.

Although Wolves' had hearts with four chambers, it was believed that they had an extra space for supernatural things. The same was thought about the foxes too, their close relatives.

That part of the heart was thought to get filled with the emotions that the wolves would have when their body would get overfilled with a particular emotion!

And at the moment, that part was filled with sadness and anger.

Shin was completely sure that Aella was dead and that was because of the stats that he had seen a while ago. He didn't suspect the system even once probably because he had become accustomed to it long ago.

All this time he had been doing as the system asked because of which he was believing it more than believing himself. Of course, he found Aella thanks to the system so he had nothing to complain about it.

"I'm tired of your games.", Shin said because he felt as if Balton was just spewing lies while hoping for his survival.

Though, Shin wanted to hear each and everything he had to say because, at the moment, the only thing he could hope for was that his words were true!

"I'm not lying, even before we could kill the wolf, it ran away!", was what Balton said.

It did seem satisfying because Aella had exceptional speed stats. Even if Balton were to chase Aella while riding the horse, he wouldn't be able to catch up to her.

Even Shin would be no match to her if pure stats of speed were taken into consideration but oh well, even if it was satisfying, Shin couldn't believe it.

"I swear, I never killed a wolf of that forest!"

"No, I never killed a wolf in my entire life!", Balton shouted at the top of his voice which reached Shin's heart!

"..."

For a second, Shin thought about what he said deeply despite thinking that those were all bullsh*t.

'A dying man never lies...'

'But a man who is trying to survive would definitely lie or do anything in his power that would enable him the extension of his life.', was what Shin said to himself.

Interesting as it may be, Shin was forced to take a look at the status of Aella yet again. It could have been an illusion too so he thought about checking again.

'Swish'

[ Status ]

-< dead >-

He could still see the same stats however there was something different that he noticed.

'This bag does have Aella's scent, however, it's not that strong.', he wondered.

The tears that were flowing down his eyes, the rage filling his heart and all other emotions were halted for a moment.

"Something is weird...", was what he said.

He was a crow at the beginning but despite that, he was able to lift Aella. Surely, the skill Fly reduced the object's weight, but no matter what, a crow would fail to lift something heavier than 1.5 times its own weight!

Normally it was believed to be 0.6 kg, but the maximum was 1.5 times its own weight!

But what Shin was carrying seemed almost within his capacity or a little over that which only used a light ripping of the beak!

If it had been Aella, then it would have been a done case for Shin! He wouldn't have been able to lift that in the first place. Well, normal world logic would be applied to him too after all he lived in that world too and was an entity accepted by the world, at the moment at least. 

He ripped the thread or rope that had been closing the opening of the bag with his sharp canines.

Right after that, he peeked at what was present inside only when he found something completely different inside it!

"What the-"

"..."

"A beaver?", he asked himself.

There was a beaver with a size that was comparable to him. He recognized it almost immediately because he had hunted a similar one long ago.

"This is ridiculous..."

At the moment, a sense of relief covered his body because he was happy that the dead status belonged to a wild beaver and not his dear Aella.

"Just how much of an idiot could I have been?", the tension of the situation was so much that he was confused because of which he didn't realize this earlier.

However he still had a question in his mind, 'If Aella wasn't here, then why was the system's navigation pointing here?'

Indeed, that was something he had to be clarified about. It was purely because of the navigation he assumed that the dead one was none other than Aella!

When he took a look at the navigation, it was still pointing towards the bag saying that Aella was inside that.

Yes, he had taken a look at the 'Link Active' stats so he was for sure that the dead beaver was no illusion made up to cover Aella's death.

She was definitely alive, but the weird system texts made him confused even more.

Balton took the opportunity to scream and say, "Why did you attack us?"

"Don't you have any conscience?", was what he said after seeing that Shin was a bit guilty.

"I'm...", and just when he was about to apologize, the bag slipped a bit and the beaver came out.

Needless to say, the bag tore because of the arrow which got dragged along with the beaver's body. Just when that happened, something else became visible too.

'Ding'

[ Aella found ]

This notification popped up right after this, a leg covered with white fur became visible. Most parts of the fur were covered with blood however the fur was definitely white.

He saw that, and for a moment he became blind!

His mind was blank because he very much recognized the leg. It was Aella's forelimb which came out of the bag!

'Aella...?'

He now understood why the system continuously said that Awlla was present in the bag.

Well, this had happened once earlier too. The system would detect the objects with which the target would be attached and would identify it as the target itself unless and until the target is within the area!

But after knowing that one part of Aella was missing, Shin got mad all over again.

In this world where survival of the fittest was the primal rule, Aella without a leg would be one of the worst possible situations.

Since she isn't fit because she has lost a leg, nature will try all its means to eradicate her.

'Ding'

[ The system failed to suppress mana ]

[ The host would return to the previous state of rage and madness ]

"..."

'Ding'

[ You have used the skill Burn ]

[ You have used the skill Burn ]

[ You have used the skill Burn ] x 5

"..."

To be continued...