Katarina's fourth crossbow bolt slammed into the Fell Beast. Or was it fifth? Simon was having difficulty keeping track, what with his flesh having been torn to ribbons and all.

  Her aim was impeccable, but it didn't seem to be amounting to much. The Beast hadn't slowed, and its injuries kept healing. They couldn't even know if the poison was affecting it in the slightest.

  As if making a mockery of their efforts, it bit down on Simon's longsword, crunching forged metal like soft candy. The Ravenous Wanderer chewed just twice – without swallowing – before opening its mouth once more. Nothing was inside, as though the blade had been annihilated by a black hole.

  Through a disquieting haze of agony, Simon cast Identify. Maybe its Description would inform him if Katarina's poison-tipped bolts were actually doing anything.

  It took him a moment to remember that he'd already used Identify on the Beast, and that the Skill's Description didn't change after being used once. He sighed, dismissed the window–

  Then paused.

  Identify. The window popped up again. He looked past its Description, finding what he'd barely noticed before.

  Estimated Level: 34 (17 when not mana-gorged)

  At the onset of their battle, it had been at 39.

  Unlike my own Level, 'Estimated Level' isn't a static number. It alters based on the target's condition. Gerold's Estimated Level was lower than usual due to his illness, and the Beast's Estimated Level is inflated by the mana it absorbed from the Water Artifact.

  Furthermore, the Ravenous Wanderer had been wounded numerous times so far. One of those injuries would have been fatal to a creature without Fell-enhanced regeneration.

  Healing expends mana. So did that mouth-laser the Beast fired off. It also isn't draining the Water Artifact anymore. If we can keep hurting it, win the war of attrition, its Estimated Level will continue to decrease. It'll grow weaker, less powerful. And if we can reduce its Level all the way down to the base number, we'll be left with...

  A deranged Fell Beast that was still more than double his Level.

  Well. Simon centered his thoughts, embracing the pain as best he could. It's a goal to strive for, I suppose.

  Willing his feet to move, he started running towards his destination again. The sensation was...disconcerting. His brain and body were in conflict, with his body screaming that he shouldn't be alive, and his brain pushing his body to get moving anyway. The flesh begrudgingly obeyed the commands of the mind, transmitting feedback like your intestines should be spilling out of you while still managing a pace faster than what Simon had been capable of on Earth.

  Transmigrator's Body was artificially holding him together. Without it, he would be a red, squishy pile on the cavern floor.

  Simon glanced over his shoulder, checking to see if the Fell Beast was drawing near. His flagging heart skipped yet another beat at what he saw. The Beast had unhinged its jaw, its mouth opening impossibly wide as pitch-black energy amassed within.

  It was going to fire a mana laser at him. The last one had been powerful enough to devastate the cavern's staircase entrance. He'd dodged it before, but if the creature's aim was better this time...

  Making an executive decision, Simon reached into Inventory, prepared to fling all ten Warding Orbs at the creature. Doing so would put lifesaving resources out of reach, sacrificing long-term safety for a temporary reprieve, but he didn't have any–

  The Wanderer closed its mouth.

  Simon did a double-take as surprise blended with his pain-addled thoughts. It changed its mind? He kept his Wards inside Inventory, trying to puzzle out this new behavior. Does it want to conserve energy? Or is there some other reason?

  His questions were answered by the Beast itself. Saliva began dripping from the corner of its tightly-shut maw. Its head shifted, angling so that if it did possess eyes, they would've been entirely focused on Simon's right arm.

  Of course. His lips twitched with amusement. It's the 'Ravenous' Wanderer.

  It had eaten the corpses of its victims, devoured limbs from the still-living residents of Springwater – and now it wanted to take a bite of Simon. As much as it seemed to hate Demons, it would rather add him to the menu than destroy his body with a laser. Apparently, flesh was rich in mana.

  Mana-rich flesh...

  Dots connected inside Simon's head. With a thought, he accessed Inventory.

  Blue light shone as Stuart the Rat's meat appeared on the ground.

  It was like dropping raw steak in front of a starving hyena. An ear-piercing screech echoed as the twelve-foot tall Wanderer pounced on Stuart's meat. Rows of jagged, misshapen teeth tore apart Fell-tainted flesh with astounding voracity. A feast that could have served a family of four started rapidly vanishing.

  Simon could only laugh. Enjoy the appetizer! The sound of his mirth mingled with the Beast's lamentations. One of Katarina's poisoned arrows sank into the creature's flank, but it ignored her, crying and weeping as it tried to satiate the endless void of its own hunger.

  Simon just laughed even harder. Glad Stuart was good for something! Tears were streaming down his face. Probably should've dumped his meat long ago to make room for more caravan supplies...but it was just so *unique*! When's the next time I'm going to find a giant rat? Call me a hoarder, but–

  "HEY! HEY! WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE?!"

  Katarina's outburst struck Simon with a chilling dose of lucidity. Peering down, he realized that his legs weren't running anymore.

  Huh. That didn't make sense. The whole point of this repeated cat-and-mouse game was so that he could eventually reach the other end of the cavern.

  Each move Simon made – whether it was delaying with Warding Orbs, ejecting Stuart's meat, or even sacrificing his own HP – was all for that singular purpose. By standing still and laughing, he was wasting the opportunity afforded by an increasingly limited pool of options.

  Why had he stopped running? When had he stopped running?

  Simon looked inward for answers...and found a mind in disarray. The Beast's corrosive mana had lingered inside his body, sinking into his veins and nerve endings, traveling up to his brain. His thoughts were a storm of mania and nonsense, impelling him to laugh and cry and sob and yell and run and kill and feast.

  Yet within that tempest of contrasting emotions, one notion stood above the rest. One thought that drove all others.

  Hurts so much.

  That true and pure feeling told him everything he needed to know. Simon was compromised. Pain that he'd believed he could push through was directly impacting his decision-making process.

  Move, he told his legs. They refused to obey. Throw, he asked his arms. No dice.

  It was as if the signals sent from his mind were being scrambled by the Ravenous Wanderer's agonizing touch.

  This wasn't something that a burst of willpower could fix.

  Another *thunk* of an arrow drew his attention to the Beast. It had just about finished its meal. Soon enough, a whirlwind of teeth and claws would be upon him again.

  Simon's lips crept into a smile.

  Katarina likely interpreted the expression as a symptom of his growing mania, but in truth, it came from the one part of his thoughts that still belonged to him. He smiled because he'd finally figured out what to do.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  This pain was overwhelming. There was too much of it to just...shove aside. Simon couldn't isolate it to the distant recesses of his mind.

  So he isolated himself instead.

  You're not here.

  You're not here.

  You're not here.

  The mantra was a familiar one.

  You're not here.

  You're not here.

  Simon hadn't utilized it for several years now, hadn't wanted to, but...needs must.

  You're not here. None of this is happening to you.

  You're not here. This pain is not your own.

  You're not here.

  You're just looking in.

  --

  The human consciousness named Simon breathed an internal sigh of relief.

  Like an observer from on high, he sat back, comforted by the fact that he was untouchable. While pain still resided within his vessel of blood and bone, it was no worse than hearing faint rumbling noises in the distance, or feeling a breeze through layers of clothing. The sensations were detached, muted.

  They belonged to someone else.

  Peering through his body's twin orbs of sight, Simon examined the battlefield with clinical interest. He spotted the Ravenous Wanderer mid-leap, teeth bared, ready to bite down on helpless prey. He spotted Katarina Cartier standing at the opposite end of the cavern, shooting arrows with a look of fierce determination on her face.

  I'm not too late, the consciousness thought. My flesh is still alive.

  Mostly. Simon frowned as his empty vessel started to slump over. Just a few moments without someone in the driver's seat, and that was all it took to start slacking off? How sloppy.

  Get up, he commanded. You have work to do.

  Like a clockwork automaton, his body turned on its heel and resumed its frantic sprint towards The Destination. Its pain belonged to someone else, so there was no conflict with the consciousness' orders. Simon told his vessel where to go, and it obeyed, a dutiful puppet on a string.

  The Wanderer's noxious mana held no sway over an outside observer.

  Unfortunately, too many precious seconds had already been wasted. Simon's meat-body wasn't anywhere close enough to The Destination yet. It needed more time.

  Scattering a defensive line of Warding Orbs should work...once more, perhaps. After that, Simon couldn't guarantee their efficacy. This Fell Beast was hungry and instinctual, not outright stupid, and animals in search of food had a tendency of becoming the cleverest creatures in the world to get what they desired.

  It would learn to circumvent the Wards if that card was played too often.

  What other resources are available? I can't sacrifice my vessel's flesh again so soon, and Stuart's meat is depleted. That leaves–

  Simon smirked as the process of elimination led him to its inevitable conclusion. I had wanted to save MP for Kill...but this is a suitable alternative.

  He commanded his body to raise its hands and face the Beast.

  What a loathsome creature. As Simon examined the Wanderer's abominable visage, a distasteful grimace stretched across his features. He allowed the emotion, nurturing it, letting his antipathy bloom like a flower in spring. And this beast – this *mongrel* dares to harm my vessel? To sully what is *mine*?

  Mana gathered in his flesh-body's hands. That cannot stand.

  Drawing upon a twisted sense of megalomaniacal authority, Simon made his intent known to the world.

  Preserve my vessel.

  He would be returning there shortly, after all.

  Suffer not the touch of Beasts.

  It had ravaged this body once. It would never do so again.

  Shield me.

  So he decreed, as that which was untouchable.

  A shimmering rectangle of mana materialized in front of Simon's vessel. Translucent, and colored like the space between stars, it covered far past the height and width of his body. He poured all of his vessel's MP into the Barrier's construction, hardening it as much as possible.

  The Ravenous Wanderer raked both claws downward. Its strength was crushing; if its attack had connected, Simon's fragile meat would have been left in an unrecognizable state. Yet his Barrier still held fast...

  For about half a second. With a trill of cracking glass, the translucent rectangle shattered. Hundreds of blackened mana particles dispersed in all directions, shimmering like sunlight reflected by the morning dew.

  Simon had already ordered his vessel to resume its sprint before then. This result was well-within acceptable parameters. If anything, considering that there'd only been 80 MP to allocate for the Barrier's construction, it had honestly lasted longer than anticipated.

  As a side benefit, the Fell Beast appeared distracted by the explosion of mana particles. Like a cat chasing a laser pointer, it kept trying to grab them out of the air, howling in distress when its claws swiped at nothing.

  Closer. The vessel had crossed approximately two-thirds of the necessary distance to The Destination. Getting closer. Just needed to delay the Beast for a bit longer. And then...

  Then he would win.

  ...Or Simon's plan would fail, leading to a swift, grisly demise. Either way, his worries would be much lesser very soon.

  The Ravenous Wanderer broke out of its stupor, bounding towards the vessel yet again. He commanded his meat-puppet to lay out five – no, seven of the ten Warding Orbs. More harsh screeching filled the cavern as the Beast stopped in its tracks.

  Except it wasn't cowering this time. Unlike before, the creature stood its ground, staring at the Wards with a sightless gaze of malice.

  Not good. Some of Simon's emotion leaked through to his vessel, causing it to wince. The Beast has adjusted too quickly. At this rate, even retrieving the Warding Orbs was a risky prospect – the monster would gut him the instant they went back in Inventory.

  He was about to throw caution to the wind and leave the Wards behind when a crossbow bolt pierced directly through the Wanderer's skull. It was a stellar shot that, against any normal opponent, would have brought their battle to an immediate end.

  The Ravenous creature just turned around, its attention shifting back to Katarina Cartier. Simon was no expert on Fell Beast body language, but its posture seemed remarkably similar to someone who was thoroughly fed up with an incessant, nagging mosquito.

  "That was my last arrow!" Katarina Cartier called out. She had situated herself near the caved-in entrance. "Poison's out too! I think I should–"

  "HuMAn."

  Whatever she had been about to suggest was smothered by the Fell Beast's warbling, distorted voice.

  "YoU woN'T...COMPLETE ME."

  Its mouth opened, mana coalescing inside. Katarina Cartier froze as she realized what was going to happen next.

  Simon performed a rough mental estimate. With Katarina Cartier used as a diversion, and if his vessel ran at full speed...he gave it an 80% chance of reaching The Destination in time. Those were good odds.

  Strange, then, then it was already heading in the wrong direction.

  His vessel jumped past the line of Warding Orbs, its sanctuary abandoned. Just before the Wanderer's mouth-laser was unleashed, Simon reached out and gripped the colossal creature's upper thigh, his Shapeshifted hand sinking five taloned claws deep into flesh.

  Fell Harvest.