GalaxyTL
* * *
“MEEOOOWWWW!!”
“SHHHHHHH!!”
In the dense, gnarled black woods of the Kaise Forest.
At this very moment, in one corner of this forest, a gruesome battle was unfolding between two monsters, betting their very survival.
“MEEOOOWW!!”
Raising its foreleg as thick as a log toward its opponent, poised to strike with its iron-hard claws, was the Kaise Giant Cat.
A massive feline covered in reddish-gray fur from head to toe.
Including its face, its body was an armor of sturdy muscle, devoid of any cute charm like a house cat.
Excluding its tail, its body length exceeded 2 meters – an outright monster, in simple terms.
“SHHHHH!!”
Meanwhile, the creature parrying those claws with its black, hardened exoskeleton while emitting a high-pitched shriek was a large insect monster called the Sharichet.
The length of this beetle-like monster was around 1 meter, smaller than the Kaise Giant Cat, but the murderous intent burning in its eyes was no less intense than its foe’s.
What they were engaged in was a struggle for survival.
The winner devours, the loser gets devoured.
A fight to the death where only one would live.
Their battle raged so fiercely that whenever the Kaise Giant Cat swung its arm, and whenever the Sharichet curled up and charged, the surrounding Kaise trees would break, split, and get utterly shredded by the impact shockwaves.
If an ordinary human got caught up in this fight, they would be reduced to a mere lump of flesh within 5 seconds.
However, the terrifying reality was that this was the everyday norm in the demon realm of the Kaise Forest.
Flinging their blood and flesh at each other as they clashed with all their might.
Such gruesome battles constantly unfolded somewhere within, day and night.
“MEEOOOWWWWW!!”
“SHH!?”
Now, a shift occurred in the combatants’ battle.
Until then, the Kaise Giant Cat had only been raining down overhead strikes. But suddenly, it unleashed an upward blow akin to an uppercut from below.
The Sharichet took the hit and was flipped over.
Exposed was its soft, unprotected underbelly lacking the exoskeletal armor on its back!
The Kaise Giant Cat had been observing the Sharichet’s fighting style, already seeing through this weakness!
The wisdom of the wild!!
Watching the Sharichet frantically wriggling its 6 legs trying to flip back over, the Kaise Giant Cat grinned.
It had won.
All that was left was to sink its claws into that soft belly.
Imagining the sweet, nectar-infused blood and flesh that would gush forth, the Kaise Giant Cat couldn’t help but lick its lips.
Assured of victory, it had grown careless.
That carelessness would cost it its life.
In the next instant, its vision began whirling around.
For some reason, its entire body wouldn’t obey.
It had the sensation of its head tumbling along the ground.
When that spinning finally stopped, what its vision beheld was its own headless body collapsing to the ground in a torrent of blood, and beside it stood an upright bipedal creature sprouting black fur from its head.
* * *
Somehow managing to stabilize its footing, what the Sharichet saw was the Kaise Giant Cat lying limp after losing its head, and this bizarre two-legged creature standing on the ground.
The Sharichet had a vague recollection of this two-legged being.
If it recalled correctly, its kin had called them “humans” – the frail creatures that would occasionally wander in from outside the forest.
It had hunted and devoured those beings several times before.
Weak, but moderately tasty if it remembered right.
It curled its body into a ball and used the power of its two remaining sturdy legs to hop and charge at the human.
For some reason, the Kaise Giant Cat it had been fighting to the death mere moments ago was now dead.
And as a bonus, a delicious prey had been added to the mix.
It was grateful for its fortune.
The Sharichet’s body rapidly closed the distance toward the human.
Its surefire killing move that even the formidable Kaise Giant Cat could barely evade.
The human would undoubtedly get swatted away and die instantly the next moment.
Afterward, it could leisurely feast on both corpses.
Thinking that far ahead, the Sharichet’s thoughts came to an abrupt end.
Without the slightest change in expression, the human struck the incoming iron-like Sharichet with tremendous speed, showing not a hint of fear from its velocity.
That fist unleashed from its slender, white, frail-looking arm delivered a far more powerful blow than the Kaise Giant Cat’s claws or the Sharichet’s charge.
Unable to withstand such ferocity, the Sharichet’s body was smashed into the hard ground with fractures across its entirety, ultimately shattering apart as it spewed bodily fluids and shredded exoskeleton debris before perishing.
* * *
The beast’s blood and the insect’s bodily fluids splattered all around.
The damp, woody scent was overpowered by the stench of blood enough to make one retch.
A gruesome scene, yet within this demon realm of the Kaise Forest, such was the everyday scenery.
Proud proof of living beings desperately battling and struggling to survive.
If there was anything out of the ordinary, it was that the victor devouring the loser’s flesh belonged to the human species – an uncommon sight in these parts.
That human was a 7-year-old female.
Her name was Emi.