The Shapeshifter - Chapter 16 Fighting Against Beasts 2

‘Roar! Roar!’

Twenty seconds haven’t even passed when two roars sounded from different directions.

“I guess we’re lucky. We got ourselves two beasts.” Arthur said after hearing the roars.

Alex wasn’t sure if his brother was happy or he was just being sarcastic. So he just nodded at his brother’s words.

As they waited for the beasts to come, a tiny silhouette dashed towards the body of the dead boar. The brothers saw it and watched the carcass intently to see what the black shadow was.

They could see the carcass shaking and attributed it to the black shadow. However, their gazes landed on the two beasts that emerged.

The first one was a Warthog the size of an adult lion. Warthogs were born with great physical strength. Their huge tusks are their main weapon and they can be pretty fast too when they are charging at their enemy.

The other beast was a Silverback Gorilla. Silverback Gorillas are tough to fight against. With its speed, power and defense, they should already have a king by now but it was still a wonder that they have none.

Arthur was shocked when he saw these beasts. Just by seeing their sizes, they were clearly in the ranks of the Acolyte.

Not just that, but a Warthog wasn’t supposed to be in here. So as the Silverback Gorilla, that should be deep in this forest with its troop. Troop?

Arthur’s eyes rounded at the thought of this. He looked at Alex to warn him about the trouble that might fall on them upon killing the Silverback Gorilla, but the latter already dashed towards the Warthog.

‘Haaaa! I already told him to control his emotions. I’ll just scold him later.’

Arthur wasn’t afraid even if a troop of Silverback Gorilla came. He was just worried that his brother may not be able to keep up with the fight. He ran in the direction of the Silverback Gorilla to get its attention away from Alex.

He didn’t want to kill the gorilla to provoke the ire of its troop. So he decided to prolong the fight and watched Alex’s instead.

Alex dashed towards the Warthog, knowing that his brother will hold off the Silverback Gorilla and wait for him to finish up.

He wanted to finish the fight quick, so he initiated the attack as soon as he got in range.

Summoning a trunk from beneath the target has always been his favorite move. But it wasn’t effective on an opponent with ‘beastly’ instincts.

The Warthog charged at him and the 4 meter distance was closed in the blink of an eye.

Alex was unable to use his spell to block the Warthog, as it charged to him abruptly. He can only tumble and dodge awkwardly as he made preparation to launch a counterattack.

He went for the same move he did earlier and summoned another trunk beneath the beast.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as he expected it to be. The Warthog was only lifted above the ground halfway.

Since his strategy didn’t work for the second time, he won’t try for another. So he decided to change it by placing his back against a tree and using it as cushion.

Though it wasn’t ideal to close his eyes during a battle, he did so just to concentrate. He imbued a large amount of mana in his right hand and thought of the trial he made in their backyard.

When he opened his eyes there was only a 2 meter gap between them. There wasn’t any trace of fear in his face, instead there was a smile on it.

‘I won the gamble. Hehe.’

A huge trunk appeared in front of him and was aimed at the beast. With the appearance of the trunk, the Warthog was unable to evade the attack. The momentum of charging forward doubled the damage from the impact and made the Warthog faint.

Even though he won the fight, his back was hurting from the force.

“Brother, I don’t think I can fight that big guy right now, my back really hurts. You can take care of him for me.”

“I wasn’t holding this guy off for you. I just wanted you to finish your fight so that we can quickly get out of here.”

“Why is that?”

“Silverback Gorillas travel in troops and I am sure that they are near us. So I must not slay this gorilla.”

“Okay, so what should we do about the Warthog?”

“There should be a beast core inside its head and it can be sold for some gold.”

“Then you go and kill it.”

“No, you go kill it. I’m currently hold off this gorilla.”

Alex cannot argue back. He knew that soon, he would have to kill these beasts. And he cannot be a coward at that time.

As he drew near the fainted Warthog, the black shadow that was inside the carcass of the boar darted out of it and rushed to the Warthog and landed on his head.

Upon closer look, Alex noticed that it was very familiar. It was the ‘dead’ lizard in his room!

He was shocked by the sudden appearance of this lizard. He was sure that it was the same lizard, although it was a bit bigger now, it still had the chopped off tail that was now growing back.

“Hi little lizard. Uhm. Sorry about what I did last night. Could you move one sec? I just needed to kill it.”

Arthur had a weird look on his face when he saw his brother talking to a tiny lizard. What made it look even weirder was that the lizard tilted its head and moved away.

Then he saw his brother close his eyes and smashed a trunk on its head, turning it to a meat paste. It was quite a scene. Where brain matters, blood, teeth and tusks where left behind. One that he should not have looked at.

“What the hell was that?” Arthur asked Alex.

“What the hell was what? Oh I just closed my eyes and smashed, I’m not even looking at it until now.”

“Not that! Did you just actually talked to the lizard?”

“I just… did.”

After that the little lizard jumped to his shoulder and gave him pulsating black rock.

*DING*

*The Black Lizard is submitting itself to you. Will you accept Y/N?”

The familiar dinging sounded in his once again, what came with it was a sentence that was very unfamiliar for him.

‘I think it’s better to receive something like this. But if I accept, will I still be able to get something in the future? Let’s leave that to the future me.’

He accepted its submission, thinking that he gained a Black Lizard as pet. However, the Black Lizard vanished in his left shoulder.

‘What? How can it disappear just like th-‘

His thoughts were cut short by a gust of warm wind.

It was not normal to have winds like that, he knew it even though he hadn’t ventured this far out.

The brothers looked at the direction of where the wind came from. It was from the village!