Kyle continued traversing through the unknown wilderness.
He had no fucking idea where he was. He only knew he was somewhere south of Theodor’s Rest.
The forest was eerily quiet, but that was normal during the night.
Night was the time when many ambush predators hunted.
“I can’t find shit,” Kyle said. “Should I shout?”
Theodor didn’t answer for a while.
“It’s risky. This is unknown territory,” he said.
“But isn’t everything outside the Cradle also unknown territory?” Kyle asked. “You were the one who said that I should be prepared for dangers.”
“Yes, but you won’t be running through the outside, screaming all the time,” Theodor answered.
Kyle just rolled his eyes.
Then, he took a deep breath.
Theodor already knew what was going to happen, and he wasn’t looking forward to it.
“Come here! Come all! My hammer wants blood!” Kyle shouted.
His shout echoed throughout the forest.
Theodor just held his metaphorical head in his hands.
Why did this guy have to be so dramatic all the time?
A moment later, Kyle heard rustling from different locations.
His instincts picked up on the rustling and identified their associated danger.
The result was disappointing.
A couple of Spitters, one of these weird worm things, and some fleeing animals.
“Well, food is food,” Kyle said as he held his hammer over his shoulders. “Not a big fan of Spitter meat, but it’s better than nothing.”
Suddenly, all the rustling vanished at the same time.
“Huh?” Kyle uttered, looking around. “Why’s nobody moving anymore?”
“You’ve woken something powerful,” Theodor said. “The beasts can sense the danger.”
Suddenly, Kyle heard the quiet flapping of wings.
He looked into the distance and saw an approaching shadow.
Then, he took a deep breath.
’Well, I’m supposed to be in dangerous situations, right?’
Kyle readied his hammer and waited for the beast to arrive.
The beast was surprisingly fast, and it reached him in less than three seconds.
SCREEEEEE!
The terrifying screech of a big bird echoed throughout the forest.
Kyle had heard that exact same screech several times while working as a hunter.
The Cleaner!
Or one of them, at least.
Even Samson was scared of these things.
Kyle swung his hammer at the approaching beast.
The Cleaner was a completely black bird that was even a bit bigger than a bald eagle.
His hammer would perfectly hit the approaching beast.
But then, it suddenly stopped midair, its wings proudly on display.
Its black eyes looked at Kyle with what he perceived to be fury.
Then, it struck forward with one of its talons.
An ethereal image of talons that were way larger than the actual ones appeared in front of it.
CRKSH!
Two of the talons entered Kyle’s chest, exiting from the other side.
Kyle’s eyes widened in rage and pain.
“Aaahh!” Kyle shouted as he stopped his hammer swing.
The hammer was between the two of them at this moment.
The Cleaner’s reach was much longer due to the ethereal talons.
The next moment, the Cleaner’s ethereal talons put pressure on Kyle’s body, trying to topple him.
Kyle gritted his teeth and took a heavy step forward.
He chucked his hammer forward, and due to the short distance, the Cleaner couldn’t evade.
BANG!
The middle of the hammer’s head hit the Cleaner in the chest.
The ethereal talons dispersed since the Cleaner had lost its focus.
These were not real talons but talons created by a Beast Ability.
Strong beasts had inherent abilities that fit their affinity.
When the ethereal talons vanished, Kyle charged forward, a ton of blood squirting out of the holes in his chest.
The Cleaner was fast, agile, and had overwhelming offensive capabilities.
But its defense was trash.
Even though there wasn’t a lot of power behind the throw, it still pushed the bird back quite a bit.
As Kyle ran forward, he grabbed his hammer out of the air and swung.
The Cleaner hadn’t recovered yet, and it saw the hammer approaching.
Out of desperation, it summoned its ethereal talons again and struck the hammer.
CRACK!
The ethereal talons hit the hammer, but the force behind the strike broke them.
However, the Cleaner’s body was pushed out of reach by the knockback.
The hammer’s force was also weakened considerably.
This time, it was easy for Kyle to stop the swing.
He crouched down and ran forward.
He passed under his hammer’s head.
The Cleaner tried to regain control and flapped its wings rapidly.
BANG!
Then, one of its wings hit the branches of one of the iron trees.
It lost control again and tumbled down.
CRK!
It summoned its ethereal talons again and hit the ground, stopping its fall.
When it looked forward again, it saw Kyle in the middle of an overhead swing.
It couldn’t evade!
BOOM!
Kyle’s gigantic hammer buried the Cleaner into the ground, blood squirting everywhere!
The next moment, Kyle smirked victoriously.
That strike felt gooooood!
He lifted his hammer, and he saw a bloody and squished corpse sticking to it.
Except for its wings, the corpse didn’t resemble a bird at all.
It was just a mess of deformed bones, muscles, organs, blood, and feathers.
Kyle shook his hammer a bit, and the squished corpse fell off.
He grabbed it out of the air and took a satisfying bite out of it.
“Oh yeah, that’s the stuff, dude!” Kyle shouted.
He felt his entire body being invigorated.
He hadn’t eaten something this good in ages!
“You see, Theodor?” Kyle asked, his mouth full. “That’s why I want armor.”
“Focus!” Theodor shouted. “You’re not in a safe location!”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Sure.”
He paid attention to the rustling around him.
That was when he felt something dangerous approaching.
“Are you serious?” Kyle asked, looking in the direction of the approaching rustling.
Then, he heard more rustling coming from behind him.
That felt equally as dangerous.
A moment later, the gigantic silhouette of a turtle head peeked past one of the trees.
Apparently, there was also an adult Narvonian Worm here.
Shortly after, a big black bear came out of the bushes behind Kyle.
A Sparkly Bear.
“Hope you’re happy,” Theodor commented with annoyance.
Kyle took another bite of the squished corpse.
“Sure, why not?” he commented.