Predator’s Hunt

………

……

…

—And then time went back, to the forest in the northern plains region near the adventure city—

It felt something strange.

For it, today should have been a good day. The soil was damp, and the wind was gentle. Clouds swam high across the sky, and the sunlight was soft.

On top of that, the hunt had gone as well as it possibly could. It swallowed a big one whole, its stomach was full, and it had no complaints.

Even so, it felt something strange.

“……………….”

It turned around.

There was nothing there. It knew that among feed and enemies, there were some that were good at hiding themselves.

But even if they hid, it was meaningless against it. From the moment it was born, it knew the performance of its own body. Even if they changed color or lurked in darkness, it knew where feed and enemies were.

It could tell what was warm. It had known that feed was there from the moment it crawled out of its egg.

“…………?”

It turned around once more.

There was nothing there. It could not see anything, and it could not Sense anything. So there should have been nothing there. It concluded that the strange feeling was only its imagination.

The temperature of the ground fell. The blazing sunlight was blocked by the zelkovas of the forest that was its dwelling place.

“………♪”

It had a family.

There were young individuals that had only just come out of their eggs and could not yet go hunting, and a mate who supported the family with it.

The large prey that had not yet been fully digested inside its stomach. First, it would vomit out half of it and give it to its mate, then distribute the remaining half to the juveniles, its children.

“……………”

The burrow. It twisted its body and slipped into its nest, whose construction its parents had taught it.

The space spreading underground after digging into the earth was its home, and also a safe house connected to the hunting ground, as well as a relay point.

“♪♪♪”

“♡♡”

“♪”

Its family was there. Its pack welcomed its return.

Everyone in its pack was fat and large-bodied. That was probably thanks to how good it was at hunting.

It had talent. It was merciless, cruel, tough, and precise.

Feed. The ones with black tusks in the plains. The small, brown, furry ones. The quick ones that were fun to catch.

Enemies. The big ones that flew in the sky. The four-legged ones with fangs and claws.

Both feed and enemies.

The strange two-legged monkeys. There were weak ones and strong ones. The weak ones were feed, and the strong ones were enemies.

It liked killing the weak ones among those two-legged monkeys.

When hunting them, it sometimes deliberately did not finish them off right away. It liked slowly strangling them with its body, covered in scales and muscles.

The weak ones’ claws were weak. They could not even scrape the scales that squeezed them with weak little smacks and slaps, and seeing them panic and begin to make a fuss because of it was very amusing.

Help meee, Motherrr, Fatherrr, Angel-samaaa. While strangling them to death, it also liked listening to similar cries fade thinly away.

It liked opening its mouth wide and threatening them, as if to say it would swallow them now, it would eat them to death, because then the excess moisture disappeared from their whole bodies and made them easier to eat.

“♡♡”

Its mate entwined her tail with it. Its beautiful mate, the most beautiful in this territory, a female who bore strong children. She was a female it was proud of, one it had obtained after fighting over her with several other males.

“♪”

“♪”

“♪”

It had triumphed over all feed and enemies. It had stolen, killed, and obtained.

It was now at its peak. It had shed countless blood, devoured flesh, overcome lives, won, and arrived here.

It would continue to do so. It was always the one that took. It believed that without a doubt.

Its position as a strong one, as a living being, the status of a predator—it truly believed that this would continue forever.

What should it hunt tomorrow? Yes, it wanted to hunt monkeys again for the first time in a while. A weak one would be good. A female would be good. The flesh was soft, and the feeling as it passed down its throat when swallowed was exquisite. Most of all, the cries were wonderful.

Killing was fun. Hunting was fun.

“…………♪♪♪”

It was unmistakably a strong one. A born predator.

The functions of its body had been designed by its genes to hunt and kill.

Its heart loved hunting, and it was cruel and cold-hearted.

It was strong, but it was a little too strong. There had been enemies, but there had been no battles where it risked its life, and it had continued winning without danger.

It had continued winning too much.

Therefore, it did not know.

It could not even imagine a creature more cunning than itself, more cruel than itself, and colder than itself.

Ah, yes. It could not imagine it. It could not even recognize the external enemy that threatened it.

That decided the fate of it and its family.

“………?!!”

First, the small-bodied child died. Suddenly, blood sprayed from its body, and it was sliced apart from within its body and died.

It should have imagined, even a little, the existence of a predator superior to itself.

“?!?!?!?”

Next, its mate began writhing in agony. Her body bled, and the half-crazed mate escaped from the burrow, from the home that should have been safer than anything.

Ah, but that was the road to death. Waiting at the exit was the hunting ground of a predator who had hidden himself in a cloak of shadow and completed every preparation through techniques born of knowledge.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!!?”

Its mate’s scream, which only it could understand, was heard from outside. That scream, that cry, was exactly the cry it had often listened to.

The pathetic death cry prey gave at the very end—

“?!!!”

Pain, suffering, pain, bursting, splitting.

And then, into it, the last one remaining, the predator’s fangs pierced. Ah, how terribly fleeting. Though it should have been born a strong one, it easily made the same choice as its mate amid pain and fear.

It slipped out of its dwelling, to the surface, to the exit.

Without even realizing that it had not fled, but had been smoked out.

“Hehehehehehe, welcome.”

It heard a voice. While leaving the burrow, it certainly heard the voice that echoed from the exit.

A monkey’s voice, yet a voice it had never heard before.

A voice that held neither fear nor despair.

It heard the voice of a predator, somewhere amused, surely waiting at the exit.

“Kill, Relic Blade.”

That voice, very cold, and very delighted.

Ah.

For the first time since it was born, it learned the fear of prey at the very end.