In another location there stood a large buffalo, its head was low as it was focussed on eating grass.
Unaware to surroundings as it continued to eat it did not notice that a smaller figure was approaching behind it.
The small figures light steps approached carefully trying not to be noticed by the larger beast, luckily it was distracted which provided the opportunity to get closer.
Reaching the hind legs of the buffalo the figure swiped its paws at the back of its hind legs with a red coloured energy coating its nails.
The buffalo panicked upon noticing the enemy already prepared to deliver a blow but it was already too late to avoid the strike.
Losing strength to stand on one leg it became flustered, another strike to its other leg it could no longer hold its own weight and collapsed to the ground and fell on its side helplessly.
Trying to flail its front legs and head in the hopes of rolling over and crushing its enemy were useless and the enemy had already moved away.
The buffalo let out a moan of pain as blood continued to pour from the back of its hind legs, the tears and dirt in its eyes were beginning to blurr its sight so it began to lose sight of their enemy.
A figure jumped decisively onto an opening that presented itself, a young brown fox appeared by the buffalos belly and began to swipe furiously at it until she had dug a very deep series of wounds into the buffalos body.
Screams echoed from the buffalos mouth until the wimpers quietened down, its last strength was spent on trying to roll its body one last time to try to crush the small fox under its body after its death.
Unfortunately the fox was not too distracted by landing a flurry of swipes to its stomach not to notice its intentions.
She remained alert and patient until the buffalo would be dead, avoiding its attempts by jumping away from the buffalo.
Taking its final breath the buffalo failed to kill the fox and finally passed away.
The fox still waited patiently for a few seconds to determine that the buffalo was definately dead before digging into its body to retrieve its beast core.
Holding the core in its paw inspecting it seriously the fox nodded its head. "My first medium grade 1 beast core. If only I had others who I could trust then things would be much more efficient."
While the other beasts larger numbers to fight more efficiently and help with holding on to what they collected during the journey she did not.
She had to kill alone so she had to kill by landing the fight blow before the enemy could notice her and also hide the cores she collected in a secret location.
Luckily she was smart enough to use this option otherwise she would suffer carrying around the cores with her when fighting all on her own.
Especially if she encountered multiple enemies, she may have to drop the cores in order to escape.
Of course there are exceptions to this as the brother and sister of Shadow had been gifted a space pouch to store their treasures inside, so long as it was nor damaged they could focus on working as a team to hunt together.
She put the core between her teeth and ran towards the location where she hid her spoils of the competition.
By a tree she began to dig into the ground until the cores were revealed, placing the new core with them she quickly counted them.
She had been hunting not too far from the location of the hidden cores, this way she would not have to search for enemies so long as they come into her territory.
This way she can detect any intruders and begin her hunt, get back to the tree and hide the cores before beginning again.
Unfortunately the decisive flaw with this strategy would be the dead bodies and the bloody smell attracting enemies to her location.
While it could also be used to increase the rate she encounters enemies luring them with the smell of blood it could go horribly wrong if it attracts a larger group of beasts because then she would have to run away.
"Not bad, I have collected 1 medium and 3 low grade cores. If this keeps up then I should at least be able to collect enough to compete with the others or at least not lose too terribly. However the bloody smell is becoming stronger after every kill I make... I need to pick my targets better." The brown fox began to think of how to improve the rate of medium grade cores, the chances of encountering a high grade beast in this location was very low but that did not leave out the possibility of encountering a group.
"The chances of encountering a pack in this location should also be low... I couldn't be that unlucky right?" She shook her head and let out a sigh.
She quickly covered the cores in dirt burying them before stalking around her territory quietly looking out for new intruders.
Unfortunately for her she had already been spotted by someone quite some time ago and had already been reported to their leader.
Indeed... someone had been monitoring her actions this whole time and was waiting for their opportunity!