Lament of the Slave

Chapter 43: Rolling

An utterly massive horned rabbit rushed towards me at speeds unthinkable for its size and species, completely ignoring my attempt to stop it. That wasn't why I was shocked, though!

The whimper I made wouldn't scare even a five-year-old, let alone this huge lump of muscles and teeth. I was shocked at why that happened! Why did I whine instead of roar? Why hasn't my presence changed? Some sort of dysfunction?!

This never happened to me before. Believe me!

Shit! I swore in my mind when I realized my hesitation. This wasn't a tea party, I could afford to space out at. The rabbit didn't wait for me to settle my thoughts and figure out why my attempt failed. Jumping to the right and rolling, only brushing my tail against its fur, I avoided the attack by the skin of my teeth.

I scraped my knee on a rock hidden in the grass, though.

The rabbit, due to its size and speed, could not stop on the spot when its attack failed, and by the time it had reoriented itself, I was already running away from it, making a distance between us and releasing poison behind me. I don't know if the rabbit didn't find the orange clouds between us dangerous or if it simply focused on its prey, but it ran right through them as I had hoped.

This time I was not as fast, I thought I would be, and the rabbit grazed the barrier, I surrounded myself, with its horn, shattering it, making me stumble.

Doubting the usefulness of [Master's Shield], I fell face first, landing on a rock. So much for my good spatial awareness and balance.

With my forehead bleeding and somewhat shaken, I wanted to take the stone and throw it away in a rage. It must have been one of only two stones in the whole meadow. When I sneaked around looking for rabbits, I didn't come across any, and now I hit two within seconds?!

Either I was incredibly unlucky, or it was a rabbit's skill!

Despite directing my anger, from my failures, at the rock, anxiety still clenched my guts, my heart was racing, and the trembling body almost paralyzed me. Yet fearing for my life, I jumped to my feet and ran out in another direction releasing the poison behind me again.

To my dismay, the overgrown rodent did not rush after me. It squeak-roared at me before its muscles tightened and it jumped. Seeing a shadow on the ground, I stopped in my tracks, looking back up at the beast that covered the sky. The thought of this quarter-ton rabbit landing on me terrified me.

So I did the only thing I could and jumped aside. Just a breath later, and its ass would crush me. The ground shook, and the turbulent air caused by the rodent's impact rolled away the poison. When I raised my head, I looked straight into the rabbit's mouth, the ten-centimeter-long front teeth just centimeters from me. I could smell its breath, and whatever it was that was rotting in its mouth.

Sage released the rest of the poison he had, covering me with clouds of it. I wish I could say that it was my intention, but it wasn't! Although it was embarrassing to admit, it was an uncontrolled release caused by the situation I was in. Better than pee my pants in fear, though.

(ding) You were poisoned

No shit! I cursed, not daring to speak out loud.

I knew that without the system telling me, it was already too late when I smelled apples.

But that was the least of my worries, after all, my own poison couldn't kill me now that my body was regenerating faster than it could destroy my nervous system. No, a much greater danger to me was the rabbit, which the poison seemed not to affect.

I could only speculate whether the level of my skill was too low, whether the rabbit was immune to poisons, or if it was due only to its size and more poison and time was needed to kill it.