Book 1: Chapter 37: Survival Isn''t Living


    Elijah bounded off the embankment, using his enhanced Strength tounch himself at the enormous crab. At some point within the past few weeks, the crabs had experienced another growth spurt, and they had reached absolutely gargantuan proportions. With ws as big as motorcycles and a body that would rival a Volkswagen bus in size, it truly had earned the monsterbel.


    With that increase in size came the mixed news that they’d begun preying on one another. Usually, when he came within a few hundred yards of the beach, his ears would be assaulted by the thunderous sounds of cking ws and colliding car-sized crabs. On the surface, that didn’t seem like such a bad thing, and usually, it made hunting the distracted or often-wounded creatures much easier. However, their increased size and decreased avability presented a new problem.


    Food storage.


    Ever since the very beginning, Elijah had depended on the crabs as his primary source of protein and fat. He’d supplemented it with various small game and fish, but crab meat had always been the backbone of his diet. And though he often found himself looking at the lumpy bits of white meat with disgust, he knew he couldn’t afford to ignore such a ready source of food.


    However, because the crabs had grown sorge andbative with one another, when he killed and harvested one, he was forced to make that meatst. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if he had some means of refrigeration, but with spring already turning to summer, crab meat was quick to spoil. So, he’d ended up wasting far more than he ate. Again, that wouldn’t have been such a problem if they’d remained as numerous as before, but due to their habit of fighting and killing one another, that just wasn’t the case anymore.


    Still, that was a problem for another time, and Elijah focused on the fight at hand.


    Or rather, the ughter.


    For all their size, the mutated crabs werepletely incapable of keeping up with Elijah’s enhanced speed. Even if he’d been in human form, he could have run circles around the thing. The only dangerous bit came from how quickly it could bring its oversized ws to bear, but Elijah was an experienced-enough crab hunter that he was never in any real danger.


    First, he let his bounding leap take him to the top of the creature’s muddy brown shell. It spun in circles, trying to dislodge him, but he dug his ws into the surface and raced towards its head. Once there, heshed out with his ws, severing the creature’s eye stalks. It let out a whistling howl – a sound that enormous crabs apparently could make – as it tried to buck him off, but Elijah was already on the move, leaping from his perch andnding on the rocky shore.Once there, he raced off into the nearby brush where he waited for the crab to lose interest. For all that the crabs had grown in size, their intelligence had not increased apace, and as a result, they were just as stupid as always. A good thing, too, because otherwise, Elijah would’ve had difficulty bringing them down.


    Once the crab lost interest, it meandered around, confused andcking the senses it needed to navigate the world. Even if Elijah left, it would soon sumb to some other predator – or to another crab. He didn’t revel in the thing’s suffering, but killing was a part of life in any ecosystem. If he wanted to survive, the crab needed to die by any means necessary. Suffering just didn’t enter into his thought process. It couldn’t.


    Now that he was out ofbat – a nebulous state that he couldn’t really exin, save that he knew it when he felt it – Elijah embraced Guise of the Unseen, letting himself fade from view. It wasn’t invisibility. Not exactly, at least. But it was the closest thing to it, and he knew that most creatures would have trouble detecting his presence unless he got really sloppy.


    Which had happened more often than Elijah liked. While he had the instincts of a hunting cat to call upon, he was still new to it all. As such, he’d experienced almost as many failures as sesses. So, he’d learned to handicap his prey any way possible. Thus, his attack on the crab’s primary sensory organs.


    He stalked forward, confident in his ability to remain undetected as he passed beneath the monster’s shell. Because the crabs had a habit of standing extremely still when they couldn’t see – it was a new development from the unmutated versions, but Elijah had observed it on enough asions to trust it – he moved beneath the creature’s body without hesitation. Once he reached the appropriate spot, heshed out, plunging his w deep into its rtively unprotected underbelly, and destroying the nerve center closest to its head. With that done, he darted out from beneath it just before it copsed.


    It wasn’t dead yet, but it was only a matter of time before it sumbed.


    As he watched it slowly die, Elijah regretted that he couldn’t have finished it off more quickly. Before, when he could simply flip the thing on its back, it was easy enough to destroy the second nerve cluster and kill it, but with howrge it had grown, that was simply impossible. So, he had no choice but to watch it slowly perish.


    However, only a few minutes into the process, an acrid scent wafted toward Elijah. The moment it hit his nostrils, he dashed away. It was just in time, too, because, only a secondter, a Voxxian monster the size of a pony crashed into the spot he’d just vacated.


    Like all of the Voxx Elijah had seen, this neer was reptilian in appearance, with viridian scales, wicked talons, and sharp teeth. However, this one was also equipped with a thick, meaty tail that reminded Elijah of a crocodile.


    Except for the spikes jutting from the end.


    It recovered quickly, spinning around and using its tail as a weapon. Elijah leaped high into the air, avoiding a blow that would surely have skewered him, but the lizard-like Voxx was ready for that move, and it continued its spin by aiming a raking w in his direction. Elijah tried to twist out of the way, but being suspended in mid-air, he had no leverage. So, although he managed to avoid the worst of it, he still took a blow to his side.


    This narrative has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Blood gushed from the resultant wound, showering the Voxxian monster in red rain. It opened its mouth and screeched in obvious ecstasy as the momentum of the attack sent Elijah spinning through the air only to skid across the rocky beach before colliding with the dying crab.


    He ignored his wound, leaping to his feet just in time to dodge the Voxxian monster’s next blow, and he managed to clip it with a responding attack that easily parted the scales on its shoulder beforending lightly and taking off into the brush. The lizard-like Voxx crashed through the forest after him.


    Elijah hade a long way since his first encounter with a Voxxian monster, and so he wasn’t the helpless prey he’d once been. No – he’d spent weeks honing his skills as a hunter, and now that he’d recovered from the surprise attack, it didn’t take him long to gather his wits and turn the tables on the creature.


    And while he might’ve beenparatively vulnerable on the beach, he waspletely at home in the forest that had been his home for the better part of a year. With the failure of its ambush, the monster never had a chance.


    Over the next few minutes, Elijah engaged in hit-and-run tactics. He didn’t try to kill the thing with a single blow. Instead, he utilized the death-by-a-thousand-cuts mentality. Soon enough, the wounds he’d opened with his first few attacks began to fester, and the monster stumbled. It quickly righted itself, but it was the beginning of the end.


    Contagion, the passive ability that came with Shape of the Predator, usually didn’te into y. However, in a long and drawn-out confrontation, it showed its worth when the elerated infection began to do its work. Elijah could have left it there, and like he’d done with the crab, simply waited on the monster to die. However, he chose to use the encounter to hone his skills. So, over the next hour, he continued to harass the creature until, atst, it fell over and died.


    Elijah approached, ignoring the acrid scent assailing his nostrils as he beheld his handiwork. The Voxxian monster’s scales had be a mass of shallow cuts, and the barely-visible flesh beneath had turned a sickly green color with infection. It had been a useful fight, but even the day’s two kills hadn’t given him enough energy to gain a level.


    Which was frustrating. It had been almost a week since he’d achieved level eighteen, and he’d yet to progress any further. That stall had already resulted in him falling off thedder, which only exacerbated his annoyance.


    After ensuring that the monster was dead, Elijah returned to the beach to find that his crab was already being consumed by another of the creatures. So, with a feline sigh, he set about repeating his actions, killing the oversized crab with little difficulty. Then, he let Shape of the Predator fall away, resuming his human form.


    Ofte, he’d spent most of his time as a mist panther, and as a result, returning to his natural body left him feeling momentarily awkward. Once he’d taken the time to harvest the huge crab’s ws, he set off back to the Grove. Along the way, he stopped by to wash the blood from the wound on his side. Upon inspection, he saw that the monster’s attack had actually exposed his ribs.


    After cleaning up, he continued on his way, carrying an enormous crab w on either shoulder. Once, he would’ve had trouble with such a feat of Strength. Certainly, when he’d first washed ashore, he’d have been entirely incapable of even dragging such heavy appendages. But now? With his increased Strength, the only barrier was how awkward the burden was to carry.


    When he reached the Grove, he took a few moments to look around before heading to the underside of what would be his house. The roof still wasn’t finished, so he’d yet to move in. However, it was growing closer topletion with every passing day. Still, he found it difficult to take pleasure in its construction.


    Because he was frustrated with his slow progress.


    Elijah had never been the mostpetitive person in the world. Sure, he wanted to win anypetition he participated in, but losing hadn’t put him in a foul mood. Not like it had with his sister. Indeed, she had always been the trulypetitive one, and if Elijah was honest, he’d half expected to see her name at the top of thedder. She was the high achiever, after all.


    But now? Having tasted a bit of sess, Elijah desperately wanted to continue climbing thedder, and not just for the sake of doing so. He knew he needed to get stronger. The Voxx continued to assault his ind, and even if they hadn’t, there were the people across the strait to worry about. If he truly wanted to protect his Grove, he needed to grow more powerful, and fast.


    And just when he’d started to roll, his progress had stalled.


    His frustrations continued to mount as he stored his crab ws away in a woven basket he’d made for that very purpose. Then, he removed his clothing and cast Healing Rain. A small, localized storm cloud manifested, and a momentter, a steady drizzle fell from the sky. Elijah sat down and ced his hand over his wound before casting Touch of Nature. Thebination of the two healing spells quickly mended his flesh, and soon enough, Elijah was entirely whole.


    But he was still too frustrated to sink into meditation, so he took a few moments to inspect his garden. The berries he’d grown were almost ripe, which would be a boon for his food supply. To quicken the pace, he spent an hour steadily pulsing Nature’s Bounty.


    After that, Elijah made a circle around the Grove, using his spells to ensure that the trees continued their own growth. ording to Nerthus, the Grove would continue to mature, and that it would eventually epass the entire ind. Hopefully, at that point, the steady invasion of Voxx would cease.


    Once he’dpleted a few circuits around the Grove, Elijah retreated to his temporary home beneath what would be his permanent house, and ate some stew he made from mushrooms, wild onions, and, of course, crab meat. It was not pleasant, but he ate it anyway.


    As he sat there spooning the vaguely edible concoction into his mouth, Elijah pondered the nature of life. Survival, he reasoned, wasn’t enough. Not really. Eventually, endeavoring to simply live another day would lose its luster. He missed people. He missed good food prepared by people who actually knew what they were doing. He missed his family. He missed so many things about his old life.


    Sure, he’d gotten a second chance when his terminal cancer had been cured. He even got magic powers out of the deal. But was he really living?


    No. He certainly wasn’t.


    It was at that moment that Elijah resolved to change that. He still needed to ensure the Grove’s survival, and eventually, he would have to do something about his aggressively industrious neighbors across the strait. But once he’d aplished those goals, he decided to look for civilization, to find his sister, nephew, and sister-inw, and to actually start living his life.


    But as he looked up at the star-filled sky, he realized that those goals were probably a long way from bing reality. For one, the world had been transformed. One of the very first notifications he’d read said that the Earth would experience selective randomization. And clearly, they had alien visitors. The fact that he’d helped kill a goblin, gnome, and dwarf proved that much. So, he reasoned that finding his way back to Seattle would probably be much more difficult than he could imagine.


    Sighing, heid back and closed his eyes. It would be difficult, sure. But that was fine. He had magic powers, after all. He could handle a little journey. With that in mind, he felt a little better about his situation.