NOVEL NEXT Chapter 76: The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog
Dominic stared, a bit open-mouthed at the sight of a bunch of cute little bunnies hopping towards a bloody corpse. OK, they weren’t exactly the Flopsey and Mopsey of Beatrix Potter, but they had long ears, snub noses, long hind-legs, and even a little tuft of a tail like the rabbits he’d known. They were rather large – perhaps the size of a giant rabbit rather than a common European rabbit.
The difference between those bunnies and these creatures became quickly apparent, though. The rabbits were a bit wary of approaching the corpse directly, much as the resorels had been. However, they milled closer and closer until they were able to start eating from the carcass, their progress actually faster than the resorels’ had been.
Yes: eating. Clearly, these rabbits were not the herbivorous type. In fact, when Dominic caught sight of the bloody fur around their mouths as they lifted their heads intermittently to keep watch on their surroundings, he shuddered.
Although the rabbits were more of a sandy colour than white, he couldn’t help having flashbacks to Monty Python. That particular scene had actually given him nightmares for a while when he watched it at the tender age of thirteen. He’d had a rabbit for a pet at the time and had more than half-seriously wondered if it was actually an evil murderer in disguise.
Please tell me this System hasn’t taken inspiration from Monty Python, he said to himself, only mostly joking. While it made for good TV, he didn’t really feel like acting out the role of the knights in the search for the Holy Grail. Especially not the knights who got their throats torn out by the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.
Once more, he spent some time evaluating the blood-thirsty bunnies before making a move. They actually seemed pretty harmonious: unlike the resorels, they didn’t squabble together about the food they were eating. Or, to put it bluntly, the pieces of dead meat they were ripping off the corpse in front of them.
Dominic shuddered again. Give me mini dogs or killer birds anytime. Cute creatures being so…gruesome are just too much. Either there was some sort of non-verbal communication going on which Dominic couldn’t spot, or they were fairly peaceful creatures. Though he doubted the latter: not with those teeth.
With a thought, a weight materialised on Dominic’s tail. If it becomes a problem, I’ll put it in my inventory again, he decided. The reason he’d decided to put it on at all was because this kind of battle was exactly what his tail mace was made for. Whether he could actually use it or not was a different question, but he’d never know if he never tried.
Pushing himself slowly and quietly to his feet, he had to concentrate on not letting the mace-head scrape across the ground. Following the enhancement of his bones, he found that he was actually able to lift the metal head on the tuft of his tail – an improvement, at least.
Preparing himself, he planned his next moves. He wanted to get the absolute maximum out of his currently hidden position, but these rabbits were unlikely to have much of a health pool. The 50% increase from ambush would therefore go a bit to waste if it was used on a single member of the species. The question, then, was what would happen if he hit multiple members at the same time…?
Gathering power in his muscles, Dominic exploded into movement, activating Quick Strike as he did so. Before the unsuspecting rabbits could react, he had landed on a small group of them.
[You have killed Veten (Basic Beast level 4)]
[You have earned 23 PP]
[You have killed Veten (Basic Beast level 4)]
[You have earned 23 PP]
[You have killed Veten (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 26 PP]
[You have killed Veten (Basic Beast level 4)]
[You have earned 23 PP]
[You have killed Veten (Basic Beast level 3)]
[You have earned 20 PP]
Nice,Dominic thought to himself, delighted. Five kills in one strike. He’d check the log later but either these rabbits – vetens, actually, it helped to think that they weren’t really killer rabbits – had really small health pools or Pounce had helped him out again. Then a blow to the side of his head sent him staggering, quickly followed by another blow to his shoulder and a third to his hip.
What happened? he asked groggily, the hit having rattled his brain. Baring his teeth instinctively, he searched around him for the attacks. Another two blows came to his side, the hits painful and taking a small chunk of his health pool with them. With the combination of blows, he was already down a sixth of his total health. What’s causing this?
Confused, Dominic leapt out of the mess of vetens, wanting to get a little bit of distance to hopefully work out what was going on.
The vetens, acting like the swarm predators they clearly were, quickly hopped towards him, their cuteness definitely hindered by the blood smeared on their fur, particularly around their mouths.
As they got closer, the source of the blows which had impacted Dominic became apparent. Three not-rabbits came charging at him. Stopping abruptly when they were within a foot of him, they used the momentum to twist and drive their back feet into his body. At least, the first one did, Dominic wanting to see exactly what was happening and letting it hit his shoulder unblocked.
The other two were slightly more delayed, giving Dominic enough time to twist aside. One veten missed entirely; the other glanced off his other shoulder. Landing back on the ground agilely, it was Dominic’s turn next.
The lion bit at the veten, but the small creature was able to dodge his blow with annoying ease. Dominic felt pain in his hindquarters: another of the vetens had clearly launched a blow there.
After that, the blows came thick and fast. Each was of a different intensity, and overall the blows didn’t individually take much out of him, but when he was experiencing a hit every couple of seconds, it was having an impact.
Even more frustrating was his inability to land a blow. The creatures were just too quick. I guess this is how they take down prey, Dominic snarled to himself. Attrition. If he wasn’t careful, he might end up beaten to death by a load of bunnies. How humiliating: I might as well apply to be one of the knights after all! I need to change this battle somehow.
He could jump up into the tree, of course, but that would be an escape route more than anything else. Yes, he could attack from above like he had with the trodils in the dungeon, but he doubted he’d actually catch any of these vetens: they were just too agile.
If only they’d just stay still for a moment! he moaned. Then a thought occurred. What if…. It wasn’t guaranteed to work, but maybe….
Stopping stock still, Dominic tanked the hits which came at him, breathing in deeply. Then, unconsciously puffing himself up to seem bigger and more intimidating, he roared at the group of long-eared vetens in front of him.
For a moment the battle paused. The scavengers right in front of him cowered down with their ears pressed against their bodies, the loud sound clearly painful for them. From the lack of other hits to his flanks or hindquarters, Dominic had to assume that the other vetens were also shocked by the roar.
He wasn’t going to waste time looking, though. Instead, he leapt forwards using Quick Strike to enhance his speed. Biting and tearing at the vetens in front of him, kill notifications flashed before his eyes, practically blinding him. Not that it mattered too much: he wasn’t exactly trying to aim precisely at a target. He was more indiscriminately attacking anything within reach.
Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and when the shock wore off, the other vetens attacked with more fervour than before. Prior to his attack, he’d suffered three or four attacks every couple of seconds; now he was experiencing them every single second.
Deciding to try a new technique, Dominic started twisting himself in a tight circle, practically dancing on the spot. He turned as fast as he could, allowing the centrifugal force to pull his tail out sideways.
Lightning Discharge, he thought, hoping that his tail would show up in the diagram of his body. To his delight, it did and he spent the rest of that strange time-slowed moment in shoving his whole 15 points of mana into his tail. Let’s see how these vicious rabbits like a hint of electricity.
The move probably wouldn’t work on anything that could hold him in place, but these vetens weren’t latching onto him in any sort of way: their attack was designed to land and then have them bounce off to prepare another attack. That worked in Dominic’s favour at this moment.
At first, Dominic felt his tail armour collide with body after body, but it didn’t seem to have any impact on the number of return strikes which he took. By this point, his health was actually down to half. Not that he was too worried about that: there were plenty of corpses lying on the earth below for him to Consume and replenish his reserves.
Then, as he was starting to get terribly dizzy, the strikes started tapering off. When only two strikes fell within five seconds, he slowed his circle dance to a stop.
That was easier said than done: the dizziness made his body want to continue turning, making him stumble as if he was drunk. Quickly twisting the other way for a few turns, he counteracted some of the dizziness.
Around him were a number of injured vetens. They weren’t dead, but they’d clearly caught the malady of a spiked ball of metal travelling at speed. He quickly remedied the ‘not dead’ situation, notifications piling in. He ignored them for the most part, just dismissing the words as soon as they appeared in his vision. The evidence of the shifting bodies going still was sufficient for him.
He didn’t get all of the remaining vetens, though. About a quarter of the original load of creatures weren’t too injured and managed to hop away quickly as a group. Several of them were bigger than any of the others he’d killed; probably the highest levels in the bunch, and perhaps the most intelligent. Either way, clearly, they realised that retreat was the best way to survive to fight another day.
Dominic chased after them for a bit, using Quick Strike to speed him up enough to stand a chance of catching them. They were still agile even in retreat, though, and he missed far more than he succeeded in landing a hit. He tried roaring, but although it made two of them freeze up, opening them to a fatal bite or disabling strike, the rest just hopped away faster.
‘Don’t go too far or other scavengers will eat our kills,’ Leo warned him. Dominic halted quickly at that point, fear going through him.
Only stopping briefly to pop the corpses of the retreating veten he’d killed into his storage space, Dominic hot-footed it back to the battleground. His heart was in his mouth as visions of coming back to find an area licked clean of corpses and Cores alike ran through his mind. He wouldn’t put it past the hyenas to do such a thing for sure!
