The milky white eyes stay on me.
The air felt different as it stared at me. Thicker. As if the trees themselves are holding their breath. Moss glows faintly at the roots, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. The pull in my chest sharpens, tugging toward the beast, not away from it.
Kitsuka's idea of a welcome gift, I suppose.
"I really hope you didn't mean fight it" I whisper.
The system answers by sliding another pane into view.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Unless death sounds more up your alley.
The tiger takes a step forward.
The ground denting beneath its heavy paw. Fungi sprout where its saliva now started to drip, tiny white caps erupting in its wake like a wound spreading with infection...go figure.
Okay. Decision time.
I crouch slowly, keeping my movements deliberate. My breath fogs in front of me, though the forest air isn't cold. I wrap my fingers around a fallen branch at my feet. It's half-rotten, spongy with moss.
A weapon this is not.
But it would have to do.
The tiger lifts its head fully now. Its blind eyes fully zeroing in on me now, it didn't need to truly be able to see, it was clear something controlled it. Its lips peel back in a silent snarl, rows of teeth stained green at the edges. Too many teeth.
The roar that follows is shorter than before, sharper. A challenge.
The system pulses.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Engagement has been confirmed
Instinct Override: Optional
"What does that even mean?"
The world feels like it shifts.
For a heartbeat, my thoughts scatter like startled birds. Then something settles into place behind my eyes. The forest sharpens. Every sound gains a painful reverb. I can hear my breathing again, somehow now calm, I could hear as spores burst mid-air, the drag of the tiger's claws against stone beneath the soil.
My body lowers without me telling it to.
Muscles coil. Weight shifts to the balls of my feet. My grip tightens on the useless branch, not because it will help, but because my hands expect something to be there.
A brief burst of memories floods me, experience fighting...I definitely knew how to fight.
The tiger lunges.
It is impossibly fast for its size. A red-and-white blur crashing through the bushes, spores exploding outward in a luminous cloud.
I move sideways, sliding across damp leaves as the branch snaps uselessly against the beast. Claws rake the space where my body had been a second ago. The air burns where they pass.
I roll, coming up hard against a tree trunk, bark biting into my shoulder. Pain briefly crosses my mind, burning and bright, but my body snaps at me that I was stronger than this.
A warmth spreads from my chest outward, the scrape on my shoulder mended slightly. My breathing steadies. The pain dulls to a manageable ache. Nothing my brain says I couldn't handle.
The tiger skids to a halt, confused. It chuffs, shaking its head. Mushrooms trembling, shedding another halo of spores.
It can't track me well when it attacks it seems.
Seeming more so guided by sound, scent, maybe even vibration.
A thought clicks into place.
"Alright" I mutter, "let's try something"
I kick a stone into the brush to my left and bolt in the opposite direction.
The tiger snaps toward the noise instantly, charging with another roar, tearing into empty space.
I don't run far. Just enough to circle back, heart hammering, lungs burning.
The pull in my chest sings now.
The system flickers, almost excited, then blinks with a new message.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Behavioural Pattern Identified
Situation Suggestion: Environmental Interaction
Environmental interaction?
I glance around wildly.
Roots. Vines. Fungal clusters glowing brighter near the tiger's path. A fallen log ahead, hollowed out and thick with shelf mushrooms not unlike the ones choking its neck.
An idea forms, reckless and half-baked.
"I am sorry about what I am about to do" I whisper, not sure if it was directed to the forest or the tiger or myself.
I grab a vine and swing it hard against the log.
The impact sends a cascade of spores into the air. The cloud blooms, thick and luminous.
The tiger charges straight into it.
It roars again, this time in distress. The sound cracks, warbling as it stumbles. The mushrooms at its throat flare bright green, then pulse violently, feeding, reacting.
The beast thrashes, claws gouging earth, knocking into trees.
The system surges.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Yuki, pull back
My chest burns, the pull now a command rather than a suggestion.
I step forward before I can think better of it.
As I do, something changes burns in my chest.
I rip the sleeves from my shirt, folding one over twice and then using the other one to keep it against my face, making a makeshift mask before walking into the spores. Just to be extra safe, I'm going to be breathing shallowly.
Kitsuka's voice is not in my ears, but in my bones.
Wanting me to pull back and run.
I raise my hand.
I wait until I see the tiger through the luminous cloud, then I activate my Terra Pulse skill, hearing it roar before a pillar of rock and earth shoots up at it, it goes silent as the cloud vanishes.
I watch it jump down from the pillar seeming to be stunned.
The tiger sways, its massive frame struggling to reconcile pain with confusion.
I can't risk hesitating further.
Something inside me has already clicked into place, like a latch snapping shut. Fear drains away in an instant, not replaced by rage or desperation, but by a cool, grounded certainty. The pull in my chest is no longer tugging.
Like it knows I HAVE to do this to survive.
I step forward.
The forest does not resist me this time. Branches bend aside. Roots flatten beneath my boots. Even the remaining spores seem to part, spiralling away as if unwilling to touch me.
The tiger snarls, low and hoarse, and lashes out with a clumsy swipe.
I catch its paw.
The impact should have shattered bone. Instead, its momentum simply… stops. The beast's limb jerks, muscles locking in shock as my fingers tighten around flesh and fungus infected fur.
The system hums.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Instinct override initiated
"Oh" I murmur curiously, "so that's how it is."
I grab the other paw and twist my body fully.
There is a sickening crunch as the tiger's body is thrown against the large stone pillar, its body bending in directions nature never intended. The beast roars, stumbling to its paws.
I move faster than I thought I could.
One step carries me inside its reach. Another puts me directly beneath its throat. The mushrooms there pulse weakly now, their glow flickering like a dying signal.
I drive my palm forward.
Not in a punching motion, more like a firm palm strike directly to the throat.
The force ripples outward through the symbiotic growths. The shelves of fungus shudder, then collapse inward, disintegrating into ash like second skin and falling off in a dull green light. The reaction races up the tiger's neck, unraveling the corrupted bond at its core.
The tiger convulses and collapses on me, making me quickly push it off of me.
Its whined roar cuts off mid-breath, replaced by a strangled gasp as its legs twitch. The ground trembles when it drops fully.
The beast twitches once, claws scraping uselessly at the dirt.
Then it goes still.
Silence settles over the clearing.
I glance down at my hands.
My breathing is steady. Heart calm. No burn in my lungs, no ache in my muscles. Whatever energy the system drew from me, it barely registers, like flexing after a long stretch.
"Well...that was interesting" I mutter.
I kneel next to the tiger, "I am sorry I couldn't help you" I whisper, my actions hurting my head, poor thing.
The system screen slides into view, I hadn't deactivated it during that whole fight, but oh well.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Entity Neutralised
Condition: Purged Symbiosis
KARMA GAINED +75
The number rises, climbing higher than I expected, then slows, settling with a soft chime.
Another panel flickers briefly beneath it.
Adaptive Milestone Reached
Contract Alignment: Strengthened
I look back at the tiger.
Without the corrupting fungi, it looks almost peaceful. Just an enormous, vividly coloured animal now, breath shallow but present. Alive.
Not dead.
"I didn't kill it" I realise quietly.
The pull in my chest warms, approving but restrained, Kitsuka clearly appreciated that.
The forest responding in kind. The oppressive weight that had clung to the clearing dissolves entirely. New growth already creeps across the disturbed soil, tiny shoots pushing through as if eager to reclaim the space.
I turn fully to the tiger, studying it. Whatever it was bound to, whatever twisted it into a roaming threat, is gone now.
It's eyes open, not milky anymore, it gets to its paws, licking me before it makes its way through the forest, heading back to where it came from.
I straighten, dusting my hands off on my pants.
"Well," I start, glancing around at the quiet woods, "that could've gone a lot worse."
A faint flicker ripples through the system, almost playfully.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
85 Karma collected, using 50 Karma to unlock the Lucky Spin
I smile and open the lucky spin, the cost was 25 karma, I had 35 now that it had been unlocked.
I shrug and use 25 karma to spin.
The system enthusiastically lighting up as the wheel spins.
"Alright" I mutter, "Let's see how badly this can go."
Sound drops away at first, before a soft birdsong is heard, then it's like I'm teleported somewhere as I'm momentarily suspended in a vast, dark space threaded with slow moving constellations of light. Symbols drift past, rotating gently. Weapons. Masks. Seeds. Fragments of things I can't name.
At the centre floats a wheel.
It is not mechanical. No metal, no gears. Just large golden rings of glowing script, each band spinning at a different speed. Some symbols burn bright and clear. Others are blurred, locked behind sigils I don't recognise.
A presence brushes against me, light and fox shaped.
Chance favours motion, Kitsuka's voice hums, somewhat distant but clear, almost pleased.
The wheel accelerates.
The rings blur, light smearing into ribbons. The symbols streak past too fast to follow. My stomach flips, not from fear, but anticipation so sharp it almost hurts.
"Come on" I whisper, not sure what I'm asking for, "give me something useful"
The wheel slows.
One ring clicks into place. Then another. Each lock sends a ripple through the void, a soft, echoing chime that reverberates through my chest.
Finally, the centre symbol stops.
The space goes still.
Light rushes inward, collapsing toward a single point before bursting outward in a gentle shockwave. The system reasserts itself, panels reforming, text writing itself with careful, deliberate strokes.
Lucky Spin Result: Acquired
A new pane unfolds beneath it.
Item Type: ObjectName: Serpentina Thread
I blink, all of a sudden, I was back in the forest.
A physical weight settles inside me, followed by a physical weight wrapping around my arm.
I look down to see a thin cord of greenish gold light coiled loosely around my arm, half spectral, half real. It pulses softly, seeming to pulse with my heartbeat. Leaves and tiny rivers of light drift lazily along its length, dissolving before they reach the ground.
Another line appears.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Serpentina Thread is a thick vine like object with enough heft to knockout and stun low tier creatures. Power based on strength stat.
It wasn't overpowered or something explosively amazing. But it was better than nothing, and it clearly would be useful.
My balance adjusts before I move. My footing feels certain even on the uneven forest floor. The forest no longer feels like something I'm navigating.
It feels like something I belong to.
A soft laugh echoes faintly through my head, unmistakably Kitsuka's.
"A fortunate first draw" she murmurs in amusement, "the wheel was kind this time"
I smirk and deactivate the system for the time being.
The panels fade, leaving only the quiet forest and the faint glow of the rope against my skin.
I exhale slowly, a content smile tugging at my lips.
"If that was my luck for the first go, I think I'm going to like this mechanism" I snort.
Allowing the pull inside me to point me in the direction I needed to go.
The stone pillar I made, sinking back into the ground, leaving the earth looking undisturbed.
Guess its time to head off.
I take a step, when I hear a twig snap behind me.
Please, not another fucking tiger.