Watching the devourer protomimus wander off into the distance, Ren gave it some time before exiting his hiding place. The tree, though not exactly hiding him, gave a great spot for him to avoid the gaze of the giant lizards roaming the mountains.

  Watching for a time, he desperately wanted to head off in a hurry. The commotion of the devourer may have attracted more of its kind, and he’d rather be safe. Watching the sun slowly sinking, he headed off after about fifteen minutes of waiting. No more devourers rushed after him, so he ran off toward the building slope of the central mountain.

  As he climbed the slope, Ren looked up the face of the mountain towards the strange stone that appeared to have been carved at some point. It was odd and stood out now that he had noticed it. In the fading light of the evening, it only looked more strange. It had weathered, to some degree at least. But it was meant to be something, whatever that was, he couldn’t quite tell.

  Climbing the slope further, the trees around him rapidly decreased until he was climbing a barren rock face. Grasses and small weeds still came forth from the earth, though nothing of much size. The area was dominated by stone, and Ren felt the earth affinity become powerful around him.

  Remembering the golem, those not powered by earth affinity, he worried that some giant stone golem would crush him when he checked out the stone formation. He realized it was best to avoid it for now and to solely focus on the task at hand.

  Veering away from the heavy earth affinity and carved stonework, Ren reached a point where he could see out over the back end of the mountain. He had avoided climbing over the mountain, instead going around its side close to the final mountain where he had begun his journey of reaching this point after having left the river bank.

  He stood on the eastern slope of the central mountain, looking North. From his vantage, he saw the river also branched out around this side of the three mountains. His educated guess was shown to be correct. At all sides, the three mountains were surrounded by the river. He was trapped, but he was also shielded from the outside world.

  In terms of safety, Ren was far from safe. Around him at all times great behemoths walked the earth hungry for his flesh. Seeking out whatever apex beasts ruled these lands may be a death sentence for him, so he began to scratch that off his mental list of things to do. An encounter with a singular devourer protomimus could be deadly if he was under the wrong conditions.

  Under the cover of night, he wasn’t handicapped as many would be. In some cases, it was an advantage. If a beast he fought struggled to see during the night, he would likely be able to fight it without as much danger. Landing sneak attacks could be a vital boon during the night, but there was no way to know how well these beasts were adept at hunting in the night.

  His resources were not all full, his mana was irrelevant, and his health was now back to normal. His stamina was lackluster though, his running and hiding had consumed a portion of it.

  Deciding to test out his ability to fight during the night, Ren stealthily traveled back down to where he encountered the devourer. Letting off a shot into the night to hopefully attract a foe. With only a small stash of bullets, Ren could not afford to waste many. Fighting with his knife was going to have to become the norm, something he had failed to practice much with thus far.

  Hiding in a tree, Ren waited. During the time he waited for a beast to show itself, he summoned some of the poison Cella had given him into his hand. A poison gland from one of the cave crawlers so long ago. He doubted it would be extremely effective, but it was better than nothing. He had enough to dose the blade several times before running out. Other than the poison gland, he had the ichor from the hounds and a dozen of the mushrooms from the Underdark. He doubted the usefulness of the mushrooms, but he would try them regardless.

  Equipt with the envenomed dagger, something he had neglected for a long time, he waited anxiously for the devourer to show. Instead, a far smaller predator showed itself. Possessing a height barely greater than Ren’s own, and a bony growth from its head, the protomimus was rather small.

  Night Hunter Protomimus Lvl 17

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Black and sleek, Ren didn’t doubt the capabilities of the creature to hold up to its name. Against a foe with a lack of good night vision, the creature would be impossible to lock down. With the momentum built from his stealth, Ren silently launched himself down on the primal beast. It may have thought itself the hunter, but it had become prey.

  A clean cut severed deeply into its neck. Thick blood spouting, it bucked Ren off as they both fell to the ground. He quickly became on guard as his foe stood up, not wanting to waste the poison, he waited out its effects.

  The creatures it was harvested from were far from apex predators, but he hoped their venom would be effective enough to make his stealth attacks lethal.

  The night hunter, as a twice ascendant creature, would not die from a singular wound to the neck, as the arboreal protomimus did. Ren knew his chances of getting a one-hit kill against anything above level fifteen were low.

  Waiting out the poison, the wounded night hunter lashed out at him. Dodging the creature, he found it rather fast. It was still far slower than him though.

  As it bled rapidly, Ren watched with his eldritch eyes carefully. As his eyes did not see as others did, he looked into the essence of what he saw. Traces of everything that made up a being, or object were made bare before him.

  Reading the traces within the being before him, he read the parts of it as individual ideas, rather than a whole. The poison spread through it but would take a while to fully take hold. A slow progression, better suited for a drawn-out battle rather than a rapid kill.

  Realizing all he would be doing was drawing out the suffering of the beast, he went in for a killing blow. Attacking it was a deal complicated, as it could both bite and claw him. Three available ways to attack him, and for him just one weapon to strike back with.

  Pulling free his revolver, he readied it for being used as a tool for parrying rather than shooting. Ren readied himself to dodge to the side of the night hunter, giving it another vital blow to its neck while it was severely slowed and weakened.

  In the moment he prepared to strike like a viper, a small creature leaped onto the back of the night hunter. Goring into the night hunter, it gave a small shriek and pounced free. A chorus of small shrieking voices sounded out from the surrounding underbrush of the forest.

  Ren hesitated for a moment before darting for the tree he had previously made his sneak attack from. Launching himself into the tree he grasped for the branches above him, pulling himself up rapidly. One of the small creatures pounced onto his back and tore a new hole into his clothing, with the tearing of his clothes came a small chunk of flesh ripped from the back of one of his ribs.

  “Shit!” Ren swore aloud, trying to pull himself up further into the tree. Hopefully, the beasts could not climb.

  The one on his back jumped free of him as a stinging pain coursed through his back. Scrambling further up the tree, he saw several of the small protomimus killing off the night hunter below him.

  Hordeling Protomimus Lvl 9

  Hordeling Protomimus Lvl 7

  Hordeling Protomimus Lvl 11

  Hordeling Protomimus Lvl 8

  Hordeling Protomimus Lvl 9

  Hordeling Protomimus Lvl 8

  Hordeling Protomimus Lvl 10

  “Hordeling” damn right…

  Ren breathed a deep sigh as he looked down on the feast below him. The night stalker had quickly died, the small hordelings had begun to tear it apart and devour it.

  Hoping his poison would kill some of the weakest hordelings, Ren sat and watched. The stinging pain in his back slowly increased as he felt himself growing weak. The weakness was nothing too great for him to handle, but it was enough that he noticed a slight change.

  Venom, the little bastards have venom. Luckily, he had only been bitten by one of them. If a great deal of them had mobbed him, it would have easily resulted in his death. His night advantage seemed far less powerful than he would have hoped.

  While behemoths walked in the light of day, under the twilight stalked the small and ferocious creatures of the night. Ren was far from searching out the apex predators of this little world, the smallest terrors would even kill him here.

  If he still had his magic, a rapid conjuring of a fireball could take care of most of the little rats. That wasn’t an option for him anymore. Everything he had access to was weaker, and every bit of his strength less than that of his former self.

  The paladin had taken more from Ren than he could ever have known. Not only was his only friend in this world either dead, or worse than dead, but all of the power he had amassed was gone from him.

  In the depths of the Underdark, Ren was a powerful being, far stronger than he could have ever imagined when entering this world. Through falling again and again into the hands of his patron, he allowed himself to be used and made into something he desperately wanted to never become. The price was losing everything, even what his patron had given him.

  Sitting within a tree above the small hordelings, Ren looked only inward. Neither the sounds of their shrieking calls, nor the sounds of them ripping at flesh bothered him. The fear of being pounced on by an arboreal protomimus didn’t phase him. The true danger posed to him, was that of himself.

  He had created this situation, calling out to creatures of the night with gunfire, and stupidly fighting on the ground to test his poison. A long series of mistakes had brought him here and had lost him everything. Even if the power he used to kill the dragon was still in his hands, he would reject it.

  To progress, he had to make better choices, ones that strengthened him, ones that didn’t leave him at death’s door.