Epoch of Desolation

[Side Plot]

Mutated Coyotes have appeared, and they hold animosity towards you and your Companion. Survive.

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Considering the current state of the world and what roamed about it, an expedition out of a confined space such as a hospital would have been better done at night. However, that was if the person venturing wasn’t Rain.

The amnesia-stricken teenage boy had weighed the pros and cons—like he always did—of beginning his adventure when the sun was high up in the sky and when it was nowhere to be seen, and he had decided that his current decision was the best. After all, it didn’t matter if it was daytime or nighttime, the danger of being preyed upon by mutated beasts still existed.

Yes, for one, most birds were diurnal, but there were still nocturnal birds as well. Furthermore, the predators of land, at least the ones with the most ferocity like the big cats, were nocturnal. While he… He wasn’t.

If he had chosen to journey at night, it would have brought forth anything but a good outcome.

He couldn’t see in the darkness, but the beasts roaming the earth could, and keenly to boot; it would have proven exponentially hard to escape from their claws and fangs, as well as find his way around the vile ruins of primitivity earth had become. And worse, the cold he felt was due to the coming of winter would be at a higher degree with the arrival of the moon. Even the walls of the hospital had not kept him completely safe from it, so he did not want to find out what would happen if he willingly exposed himself to it.

All in all, there was no way he’d made a mistake with his decision…

At least that had been his train of thought like an hour ago. His current ones were a lot unpleasant, but he was quite exhausted and had bruised his feet from running barefooted so that he was too tired to even dwell on them.

J—as he had named his newfound companion—was pouring out a guttural growl from within its throat, its body leaning forward as its tensed muscles trembled, seemingly with readiness to pounce or retreat.

Rain looked at it from where he was seated at its back, his hazel eyes pale with realization that the only reason J was still within this claustrophobic alleyway made from the sides of crumbling and dilapidated, vine-stricken, ramshackled buildings was him.

He could not fathom why the Jaguar was fixated on remaining with him. Was it seeing him as some sort of emergency food supply? Maybe. Surely it wasn’t just because of the Plexus, and it couldn’t be because he had fed it a meal, right? He had even warned it of its death if it went with him and it had followed either way.

Now look at what had happened. It was in danger.

But… Rain couldn’t bring himself to say that it was the Jaguar’s fault for not listening to him, and it would be its fault if it died here. He kept feeling like it was his fault.

If only he had not taken the road he had taken. If only he had not been so fixated on avoiding the birds in the sky that he did not focus much on the predators roaming the lands. If only he knew how to navigate in a ruined world. If only… If only… If only…

Rain turned his gaze towards the end of the alleyway to his left where one of the trio of the Mutated Coyotes on his and J’s trail was.

If it hadn’t been for the Plexus’s survival message he wouldn’t have known what the animal he was looking at was or used to be. It had the ambience of a monster now. And the more he gazed at it with each passing second, Rain was happy that it was J he had encountered at the hospital in his moment of weakness. He would have been long dead if it had been any other animal.

The Mutated Coyote, just like other two that made up their little hunting group of three, was quite tall and had lean, muscular front legs triple the length of a human’s hands. While on its narrow and pointed face, in the middle of its long pointed ears, protruded a black horn which seemed to shine in an ecstatic manner that made it look like a jewel of some sort. It seemed different from the one Rain had seen on the wharf rat, but at the same time similar.

Its fangs, on the other hand, could no longer be kept hidden within its muzzle. That was not because its lips were curled back into an annoying smile of mischief, but due to how its fangs were now longer than what Rain felt were the norms for the canine species, and furthermore, they were curved.

Am I really going to keep encountering more of these? Rain thought back to the wharf rat he had fought in the hospital and the flock of birds roaming the sky then sighed. What complete differences in the Physical Mutations of animals.

All of a sudden he smiled. A soft, furtive smile.

“Well, I guess that’s enough rest,” Rain muttered as he stretched his hand and took hold of the hilt of his knife, the words of survival from the Plexus shifting immediately.

[Active Skill, Blade Saint (Low Level), activated]...

He looked at the Mutated Coyote again, and this time its body was riddled with bright red lights with varying intensity.

In an instant Rain decided his mode of attack from the scenes which had flashed through his head; he picked the one he felt possessed the most surefire route to victory.

He had no knowledge of fighting—maybe he did before, but he didn’t now. And the Coyotes were too big of a threat to compare with the wharf rat. Still… He was now responsible for a life, and he wouldn’t sit his dehydrated buttocks down and watch it vanish before his eyes.

This was a part of his responsibility.

“Pardon, beasts,” Rain began as he pushed himself up, the arrival of his voice putting a hold on J’s growling. “I already didn’t intend to die before, but now I’m even more pumped to stay alive. You see, I’ve been given a rather daunting responsibility to tack on with my purpose.” His smile was a lot wider now, almost fully blossomed into a grin. “I hope you all can understand, even though you’ve sacrificed wits for physicality.”

The cats of the wild were still smart beasts naturally, so despite indirectly saying his opponents had no brain cells, Rain knew they had quite a few to make use of.

He turned his back to J’s back.

“Hey,” he resumed, this time in a softer tone directed at his companion. “Do you think you can hold out for a minute? There’s no need for you to attack, that will only endanger you. Just remain on the defensive by scaring them, pouncing around, or doing whatever you cats do to stall for time. Can you?”

There was a brief silence. But as the Mutated Coyotes began to inch forward like the predators they currently were, a low breathy puffing sound escaped J’s nostrils, and Rain took that as his answer.

He rolled his lips together. “I’ll make sure to be quick. Be careful.”

Yes. This is just a glimpse of what I’m going to experience further down the line… This is just a glimpse of the future to come. And if J’s going to be with me all the way, then I have to fend for it no matter what.

Rain turned back to the singular Coyote he had chosen as his test subject and narrowed his gaze into fiery slits.

His plan was to use it as an experiment. If his mode of attack was successful, killing the other two would pose little to no problems. He just had to make sure it was effective first.

After settling on his action, Rain placed his right foot forward, leaned into his chest, and raised his knife into an attacking stance.

The Coyote seemed to notice what was coming next, and so it readied itself as it opened its mouth and brought forth an unwarranted howl that increased in pitch as its peers joined in with it.

Rain gnashed his teeth together in stifled annoyance, knowing that he had to stop the beast from foolishly drawing attention to their current location and jeopardizing his and J’s safety even more.

As such, he peeled his determined gaze away from the face of the Coyote, placed them on its two over-the-top-elongated front legs, and dashed forward.