Mobility.
He'd gone back to crawling on four legs… Yet it almost felt more natural than walking on two.
In fact, it was no understatement to say that within his tiny abominable quadrupedal body, he estimated himself to be about two times faster than he'd be running as a human. That was two times faster while jumping from branch to branch of the corrupted trees.
His body seemed particularly well-suited for scaling and maneuvering on these trees. His hind talons dug into the bark and kept him steady while his front claws scratched the surface and bit down to propel him forward.
Peace once again flung his body from one thick branch to another.
He wasn't entirely light, yet he wasn't wholly heavy. Still, it's not like the fear of a branch breaking under him was a thought allowed to his mind.
He was so overcome with voracity that all he could think of was food.
Another leap, then another.
Barrelling through the trees, tearing apart leaves as he ran, he finally spotted a nearly fresh corpse, almost entirely intact… minus a head and a small hole in its chest. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't care.
Peace scampered down the nearest trunk and dove into his next meal. Using his serrated teeth, he tore at the tough skin of the once ferocious beast and gorged himself.
Once he'd punctured the skin, he tossed his head down into the tough muscles and slowly tore them apart, exposing the soft, tantalizing organs.
Wasting no time, Peace used the head-sized hole he carved and threw his head in and began chewing the liver, every bite more juicy and tender than the last. Fetid black blood seeped into his eye, but he didn't mind.
[???] — (condition to unlock 2/100)
The moment the soft voice of a man sounded in his ears, Peace's entire body froze.
It was like a switch had been flipped… He went from being unable to think, consumed by hunger, to being consumed by thoughts.
Peace focused on the liquid that splattered all over his body, mainly his face. It slowly coursed down from his mouth to his chin and dropped to the ground like rain.
Peace was horrified.
Not because of what he'd just done, but because of his lack of disturbance at what he'd just done. He felt even less moved than the first time. His stomach didn't even churn…
That was just the beginning of his problems, though.
The next most obvious was that he was once again in the body of a monster.
This was undoubtedly the same monster he'd woken up as originally. The question became what was going on.
Was he a Night Elf having visions of being a monster or the other way around? Or was he both these beings? Was there a condition to switch bodies?
No matter how much he wanted to rack his brain, he knew there was a more pressing matter. The third thing he was currently worried about…
What had killed the monster? If Peace was correct, this beast was the Rank 5 Marauder.
Peace studied the neck of the almost humanoid beast with six arms, all ending in razor-sharp scythes.
'It's a clean cut'
It had been beheaded with a grace unbecoming of a beast. Not to mention, there weren't many monsters who wielded blades, and the fact that whatever killed it hadn't eaten it…
'This is most definitely the work of people.'
But this wasn't just any group. It couldn't have been. There were no other visible injuries than the divot in the chest, which was most likely postmortem, and the beheading.
To be able to kill a Rank 5 beast with one precise strike wasn't a task most would be able to do…
While Peace wasn't entirely sure how the game translated to this world, maybe he was in the game even… what he did know was that a character in the game would have to be at least Rank 3 and geared to accomplish this.
While that sounds like a slight gap, only a two-rank difference, the disparity of power between ranks is exponential. There is a wider gap between Rank 4's and Rank 3's than there is between Rank 9's and Rank 6's.
Of course, there are other factors, such as Essences for humans and the special abilities each beast possesses.
'What would I drop if someone killed me?'
While Peace would love to have the time and safety required to ruminate on such things, he didn't. Not even three seconds after eating his fill, he was dashing back toward the base of the tree. The thought of what the men had said from before lingered in his mind…
'They'd return later to look for me…'
Well, it seemed now was later.
Peace had no way to tell how much time had passed — it was always pitch black in the Corrupted Lands — but there was at least enough time for any evidence of the corpse of Lacan to be cleared.
Having played the game for five years and knowing just how deadly the Corruption was… it wasn't odd to think that capturing a beast that could resist it would be of utmost concern.
In other words, if those two had returned and spread rumors of his existence, then it wouldn't be strange for half of the Dawnbringer's forces to be mobilized. And they were bad news for him… they were people crazy enough to brave the Corrupted Lands in hopes of returning dawn to it — people crazy enough to have hope in a lightless world.
There might even be Imperial Knights sent after him!
Proving his fear right, Peace barely, spurred by a weird sixth sense of sorts, weaved to the right and dodged an arrow which sailed by him and into the base of a tree. The tree hissed and cracked before swaying a bit and toppling over.
As the tree fell to the ground with a thundering crash, Peace desperately dodged the cascade of leaves and branches that smacked repeatedly into his small body. Thankfully, he avoided the ones thick enough to do severe damage.
Covered by the leaves and broken branches of the tree, he could only hear the soft footsteps approaching and rugged, hoarse voices weathered by years of hell.
"We said alive, goddamnit!"
"Sorry…"
"His best friend just died, give him a break. I think it survived anyway…"
"Hopefully…"
"I can't believe the rumors were true… that thing was uncorrupted."