7 Chapter 7: King of the jungle

I didn't get very far before I found myself beset on all sides by white wolves.

"Gr…"

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"Well, hello there."

I glanced around me with a smirk. The pack of wolves growled as they circled me, deftly navigating the dense terrain. Their spiky fur protected them from thorns and rough shrubbery, and their paws mercilessly crushed whatever twigs or roots that impeded their way. Claws dug into the earth, and they opened their slavering jaws to reveal two rows of knife-sized teeth.

"Oh, scary," I sneered as I rested the cockatrice rib against my shoulder. "But I wonder…is your bark worse than your bite? Or are you going to continue snarling at me from a distance without ever attacking?"

The taunt worked. The wolves pounced on me from all directions, their claws outstretched and their jaws snapping ferociously.

I ducked under the first wolf, allowing it to sail past, and then responded with a kick to its gut. The wolf crashed into two of its comrades, the trio toppling over in a tangled heap. I then brought my bone weapon up and stabbed the next wolf that was sailing toward me, piercing its throat in a single, fluid stroke.

The wolf gargled and fell to the ground, suffocating on its own blood. Yanking my makeshift weapon out of its throat, I turned to face the other wolves. The third wolf was around upon me, and I bent my back backward, allowing the wolf to sail past above me. Once it was gone, I straightened up and whirled around with a roundhouse kick that cracked against its hindquarters, sending it spinning. Twisting around, I slashed at the fourth wolf, the bone eviscerating it and causing it to spill its guts out. Turning back to the third wolf, who was sprawled on the ground, I raised my bone and stabbed downward, penetrating its skull and goring its brain out.

The remaining three wolves quickly retreated, instinctively realizing that it was not worth the risk to continue fighting. With a pathetic howl, they fled the scene, leaving their dead comrades behind. I watched them depart, and then sighed a breath of relief.

"That was tiring."

My foot ached from the two kicks. Damn, but the wolves were a lot tougher than I thought. It felt like I was kicking a brick wall.

"Well, time to eat."

The wolf meat tasted just fine even without cooking. Relieved, I began to wolf down the wolves as quickly as possible. Tearing the poor creatures apart, I stuffed myself. Again, I was amazed at how I managed to chuff down so much meat into my relatively skinny body without any difficulty. I wondered where all my food went.

"Hmm…any changes?"

With that done, I conjured up my blue holographic screen and frowned. Despite gaining the Devour ability, consuming the wolves didn't net me any new special ability. That probably meant that the white wolves didn't possess such things.

"Oh well. At least I filled my stomach."

Rising to my feet, I proceeded down the forest, leaving the rest of the carcasses and bones to the ecological decomposers.

I had no clue where I should go. There was nothing but forest, forest and forest everywhere. There was no landmarks I could rely on, and for all I knew, I could be going in circles. Fortunately, no matter how long I walked, I didn't end up back where I started. There was no sign of the cliff, which meant I was actually making good progress.

The problem was that there wasn't any sign of human settlements either. While I didn't want to end up in a big town or major city, where the heroes supposedly dwelled in, I didn't want to spend my whole life in the wilderness either. I needed information and intelligence. And I absolutely must get my revenge, no matter the cost.

Even if I had to burn the entire world of Restia.

But how? I had been venturing through the forest for what seemed like three days now.

"And another day is going to end soon," I muttered, looking up at the darkening skies. For the past few day, I had been hunting white wolves and other smaller monsters. As I thought, the lesser beasts didn't possess any special abilities. I wondered if the anaconda or cockatrice would have any special abilities, but they were too powerful for me to defeat right now. Right now, I was only armed with a single piece of bone to pierce my enemies. I doubted I could defeat a gigantic anaconda by stabbing it with a big piece of bone. I would probably just give it a boner or something.

But I needed to move on to bigger targets or I would never be able to progress beyond my current repertoire of abilities. So much for eat and grow strong, huh? If only I was a lazy turtle who got innards of a god. Then I could probably…

Unfortunately, I had to work with what I had. Searching for a burrow in a particularly large tree, I settled down and went to sleep.

It was odd, though. Whoever heard of a zombie who slept at night and stayed awake during the day? Weren't the undead supposed to be nocturnal? Then again, I wasn't an expert on the undead, and most of my knowledge came from fiction, so…

I drifted off into a fitful sleep, vague dreams of my classmates flashing across my mind. I couldn't remember the details, but I woke up angry, vowing vengeance on my murderous classmates. I would show them…how dare they…

"Ugh…"

I stretched myself as I rose and left the burrow, creaking my neck from side to side. Morning had come, and sunlight was pouring through the canopy of the forest, illuminating the clearing. I gingerly climbed over the roots and proceeded to traverse the difficult terrain.

"I wonder what's on today's menu?"

Rubbing my cheek, I glanced around at the forest. Usually, white wolves would attack me while I passed through the forest. I had been fortunate so far not to encounter anything bigger than them, such as the anaconda or the cockatrice that I saw in my first day moving through the jungle. Perhaps they were one of a kind, given how I hadn't seen any others of their species so far, but I seriously doubted that.

"Whoa!"

I jumped when a branch crashed down right behind me, followed by a long hiss. Speak of the devil. The anaconda that I was thinking about had arrived.

"All right, you snake," I growled, turning my attention to the gigantic monster. It stared at me, its tongue flicking out several times, before it lunged.

What power! What speed!

Despite its immense size, the anaconda moved like lightning, darting across the forest and reaching my position in mere seconds even though I was at least thirty meters away. I jumped to the side, evading those vicious fangs that sliced through empty air.

Rolling to the side, I sprang back up and took a stab with my cockatrice bone. The sharp tip clashed against the diamond-hard scales and was deflected.

"Kuh!"

The anaconda whipped its body around to crush me in its constricting embrace, but I jumped on its coils. Realizing it was squeezing empty air, the anaconda spun its head around with its jaws wide open as it lunged at me.

I tried to jump to the side, but the fangs tore a chunk of my arm out. Crying out in pain, I twisted to the side and plunged my bone weapon into the eye.

The anaconda let out a wail, thrashing about wildly. I held onto the cockatrice rib tightly, but it slid out of the anaconda's ruined eye and I crashed onto the ground. Furious, the anaconda snarled and glared at me with its one good eye before lunging at me again.

This time, I spun to the other side and stabbed its remaining eye. The anaconda screeched, but I mercilessly pushed the rib bone all the way into its socket, piercing the brain. In retaliation, the anaconda lashed out with its enormous body, striking me and sending me hurtling across the forest. I slammed into a tree, the wind knocked out of me, and slid down, heaving.

"Huff…"

Wiping the blood from my mouth, I unsteadily rose to my feet. The anaconda was still flailing about, tenaciously clinging onto life.

I had to finish it.

I looked around for another weapon. There wasn't much stuff I could use lying around in the forest, so I made do with a thick, solid branch. Picking it up, I looked up just in time to see the anaconda hurtling toward me in vengeance. Even when blinded, it could roughly estimate my position by tasting the air with its flicking tongue.

Taking a deep breath, I waited for it. The anaconda rushed toward me, and this time I jumped to the side where I had left my bony weapon in its eye. The anaconda had learned its lesson, predicting my movement. But so did I – thanks to me guessing that it would predict where I would go, I managed to dodge the anaconda, who suddenly twisted its head around to bite at the side. Had I repeated the movements of my earlier two attempts, I would have found myself firmly clamped within the jaws of death.

Fortunately, I managed to avoid certain death. Bouncing back to my feet, I lunged at the anaconda and rammed the wooden branch in my hand into its eye socket, driving the bone deeper into its brain.

The anaconda let out one last wail before descending into its death throes. I was struck by its uncoiling body and thrown across the forest again, colliding with yet another tree. This time, I hit the tree with such force that I ended up snapping the thick trunk. The tree crashed down on me, but its various branches held it at bay, preventing it from pinning me to the earth.

"Huff…"

I lay there, winded from the blow. My healing factor was kicking in and mending my wounds, but the poor anaconda didn't possess such miraculous abilities. It continued to thrash about desperately, its enormous body uprooting trees and leaving craters in the earth. But it was clear that the anaconda was dead.

It was only a matter of time.

I waited patiently for the anaconda's movements to die down. It took a while, but I had all the time in the world. After spending a few days in the forest without seeing any human, I had lost all sense of urgency. The wilderness was the direct opposite of urban life – unlike the rigidity and mechanized schedules of the latter, the forest moved at its own pace. Like the anaconda, predators would patiently lie in wait for their prey to pass by, without any teachers or bosses to nag at them to hurry up. There was no need to rush.

And then, the anaconda finally went still.

"Phew."

I breathed a sigh of relief before crawling from under the tree. Picking myself up, I headed to the dead anaconda warily approaching it. It might be playing dead, or its head might snap at me in one last reflexive action.

Fortunately, it did nothing of that sort. Reaching into its socket, I yanked out the cockatrice bone and began to scrape away at the scales. Unfortunately, like my attack earlier, the diamond-hard scales proved impervious to the bone.

"What do I do?"

I felt frustrated. There was no way I could eat the anaconda if I couldn't tear off the meat. I doubted my teeth could bite through those scales. I was desperate enough to try, and was rewarded with a sharp pain in my mouth.

"Ouch!"

Clutching my jaw, I backed away. The damned scales were like steel. How the heck did the cockatrice penetrate that armor with its talons? It occurred to me that I should have taken the talon claw instead of the rib bone…except that the talons had been burned, without the muscle and skin to protect it from the fire.

"Damn it!"

I punched the dead anaconda in frustration, at a total loss. Scratching my head, I thought of several alternatives, and then sighed.

I'm not going to waste such a large meal in front of me!

I persistently scraped away at the anaconda's scales with the rib bone, hoping that the constant motion would eventually erode the armor away. After a few minutes of non-stop scraping, I saw that my efforts were futile.

"Ugh…"

I slumped down next to my prey angrily, striking the ground with my fist. There had to be a way to feast on such a large meal!

The anaconda's jaw suddenly snapped, scaring me out of my thoughts. I jumped up and backed away cautiously, watching the gigantic serpent as it jerked up, its fangs gleaming in the sun. Then I blinked as an idea came to mind.

"The fangs!"

Using the cockatrice rib, I dug the anaconda's fangs out from its gums. Yanking the terrifying-looking fans out, I proceeded to probe the dead anaconda's scales. I held my breath as I began scratching away at the gigantic serpent.

Clink.

"Yes!"

I cheered when the scales were scraped out by the fangs. As I thought, the anaconda's fangs were hard enough to pierce its own body. Not only could I began feasting on the anaconda now, I could also use these as weapons.

After spending half a day scraping the scales off and cutting the anaconda apart, I could finally devour it. As usual, I didn't know how I managed to stuff the whole anaconda into my belly, but I continued eating and eating and eating until there was nothing left of the anaconda but bones and guts. The flesh was succulent, tasting like chicken, and I enjoyed it tremendously.

But where did all the food go?

"Well…no use thinking about it."

I would just assume that there was a black hole somewhere inside my stomach. For now, I was more concerned about another matter.

"Let's see what special ability I got!"

I conjured the blue holographic screen, only to stare in disappointment when there was nothing new in my list of special abilities.

"Huh, so the anaconda doesn't have any special abilities either…"

Disappointed, I clicked on the Devour ability to double-check its details. Perhaps I had misread it somewhere…

Devour: Gain a special ability of the target you consumed as food

It was the same as before. No mention of any restrictions, no additional details. I had to assume that it was the anaconda and white wolves that didn't possess any special abilities then. Thinking about it, I had yet to see any of these monsters use any special abilities anyway. All they relied on were brute force and melee attacks.

Yeah, it would be weird if they did have some special ability since I never actually saw them used it.

Shaking my head in resignation, I left the anaconda's carcass behind and proceeded across the forest. Staring at the canopy overhead, I wondered how long more I would end up stuck inside this damned place. How long had I been here anyway? Four days? A week?

It felt like forever.

Yeah, well…I don't think I can last much longer at this rate.

I needed information. I needed the resources that human civilization offered. I might have survived thus far, but living off the lay of the land was impractical. Sooner or later, I would face stronger monsters in the forest, and I couldn't win against them as I was now. I needed to find a way to train and gain either combat-orientated special abilities or techniques. Learn to use magic. Actual weapons other than the makeshift bones and fangs I had been relying on.

Plus the lack of social contact was driving me mad. Sooner or later, I would lose my humanity. I wasn't talking about morals and ethics, but I feared I would just devolve into a mindless savage without any intelligence.

I needed to keep my wits in order to employ my schemes of revenge.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed forward determinedly. I clutched the anaconda's fangs in my hands firmly, waiting for any other monsters to attack me. The white wolves would inevitably come, I was sure of it. They had never failed to disappoint me…

"…eh?"

After a few hours of walking, I realized just how…devoid of life the forest was. The annoying bugs were still present, buzzing away and flying around me no matter how many times I swatted at them, but the chirping of the birds and the faint, vague sounds of larger beasts were strangely absent. Never mind the white wolves…the rabbits and antelopes that sometimes roamed the forest were gone.

What was going on?

"Where did they all go?"

The moment the question left my lips, I suddenly heard something heavy crash through the forest. The clangs of metal and the shouts of men drifted through the forest, and several explosions rang in the distance. I felt a tingling sensation over my body, and by now I could tell that my senses were reacting to magic.

There was a fight in the distance. From the sounds of it, it sounded like a huge clash between armies. That probably explained why the animals and monsters were gone – they didn't want to get in the crossfire.

What should I do?

Isn't this the perfect opportunity?

I was hungering for human company, and finally they showed up. I didn't know if the heroes were there, but if there were armies nearby, then I could join whatever army was opposing the heroes. The enemy of the enemy was my friend. Not only that, I could gain vital information on my foes and find a way to take revenge.

Even if I couldn't, the fact that there were humans nearby meant that there was a way out of this forest. I didn't have to waste too much time stuck in this damned place any longer!

I hurriedly proceeded to the skirmish, following the noise. The battle was further away than I thought, and it took me longer than expected to reach the perimeter.

There, two armies clashed. At first, I thought both parties were humans, but I saw that one of the armies seemed…abnormal. They were emanating a chilling aura that sent shivers down my spine, my intuition warning me that they weren't normal humans. Some of them sported horns, several had crimson eyes, and more than a few bared elongated canines. All of them were unleashing sorceries and vile spells that blackened the grass and blew human soldiers apart.

"Don't falter!"

That was when I saw my classmates. Led by Kobayashi, the human army counterattacked. One of my classmates, Yoshida Yume, casted a holy barrier that deflected a barrage of fireballs and dark projectiles that were launched from the inhuman army, and the squadron of heroes rode on. Flashing a feral grin, Kobayashi raised his sword and yelled something. The moment he finished his incantation, lightning flashed from above and struck the ground. An entire squad of inhuman soldiers were obliterated, the electric bolt leaving a charred crater in the ground.

Bloody hell…

I cursed under my breath. This was so unfair. My classmates had all the good, practical spells and abilities while I was stuck with something as useless as Adamantium Will. Well, Adamantium Will did prove useful in stopping me from turning into a mindless zombie, but unless my classmates relied on mind control magic, it wouldn't defend me against any of their spells, techniques or even melee attacks.

I was totally outmatched.

What should I do?

So close yet so far. As much as I wanted to run out into the battlefield and kill my classmates, I was hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered. Plus I had nothing in my list of special abilities to help me. As amazing as Regeneration was, it would only help me survive, but securing victory was another matter. Devour would be great, but I had to actually defeat and kill my targets first for it to work. I doubted my classmates would just let me eat them if I walked up to them and made that request. No, like Kureha and Tsukishima – who were slicing or blasting past a horde of inhuman soldiers on Kobayashi's flank – they would more than likely try to kill me again.

Well, for now I'll just stick close to them and wait for an opportunity.

But how?

"Aaaah!"

At the edge of the battlefield, a human knight fell to the ground, his body scorched and sizzling. More squads of human knights were thrown into the air as a gigantic black fireball razed their ranks. Noticing the aggressor, Kobayashi directed his troops toward the cabal of demonic spellcasters at the rear.

"Kijima! Yamada! On me!"

His ever-loyal cronies riding directly behind him, the trio formed an arrowhead and charged right through the line of inhuman spearmen. Despite enchanting their spears with magic, Yamada casted a defensive forcefield around his leader and the group, the shimmering barrier pulverizing the spears. With a yell, Kobayashi and Kijima swung with their swords, decapitating the first row of soldiers. Yamada followed suit with his axe, cleaving the second row by himself.

I watched, mesmerized, only to hear groans nearby. Crawling to the border that separated the forest from the plains where the bloody battle took place, I saw dozens of corpses strewn about with the wounded. Glancing at the dead and dying, I suddenly had an idea.

This might just work…!

I stealthily crept to the nearest dead knight, who was lying near the bushes, his neck and limbs bent at unnatural angles. Grabbing his armor, I hauled him into the bushes and began to undress him. Unsnapping the armor, I tugged his uniform off and began to pull it over my head. It took me several minutes, but I figured out how to strap the armor on. Leaving the body and the anaconda's fangs in the bushes, I picked up the knight's sword and crawled out of the bushes.

No one seemed to have noticed me. In the chaotic din of the battle, everyone was too distracted to keep an eye on the dead.

Good.

Smiling underneath my helm, which now completely concealed my face, I drew my newly acquired sword and plunged into the battle with a yell.