Chereads / The World Leaper / Chapter 17 - Nemesis

Chapter 17 - Nemesis

In the beginning, there was nought...nought but an empty abysmal void within which nothing else could exist- neither light nor dark, time nor space, chaos or order, life not death- and thus it remained until the Three Great Origins awoke from their unceasing slumber. The three great ones beholding the emptiness of the void we're greatly displeased and so sought to change it.

The first woken, Genesis [The Creation and Life], devoured the void and from it made all celestial bodies. Thus the planets and moons and all other things within the realms were born. Alas, Genesis still felt it lacking and created another type of celestial body a blazing orb of light and set the planets and moons to dance around them. So the first stars came to be and with them the knowledge of light and dark.

Excerpt from the Holy scriptures of the Beginnings.

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The slow swirling mist and electric sparks dissipated as Azra ended his morning meditation. This was a routine he developed ever since he had first discovered elemental mana. There was nothing much to do apart from hunting, sleeping and absorbing origin for his soul adaptation so any activity was welcome as long as it could ward off the monotony.

Lazily stretching his body he peeked his head out of the hollow. Feeling particularly sluggish he crawled out of the hollow to find a place where he could bask in the sun. Finding one such spot he slithered down the tree and coiled himself beneath the suns warm rays.

Snakes along with all other reptiles are cold-blooded animals so before they engaged in any vigorous activities they had to find a heat source to warm their bodies. Yet for some reason or the other Azra wasn't usually like that. He surmised that his body could limitedly produce its own warmth only needing an outside source when the temperature dropped below a certain threshold- like it did last night.

Just thinking about how cold it was made him shiver...not. Snakes can't shiver after all. Being a reptile is tough.

Feeling his temperature rise to an acceptable degree he decided it was time to go on a hunt. Strictly speaking, he didn't have to go hunting as often as he did being a snake (or something like a snake) he could probably go for quite some time without food. Even now he felt like he didn't need to eat anything for a while. If he was an ordinary snake in an ordinary jungle he would probably have taken things slowly and relaxed but sadly that was not the case. He needed to get stronger as soon as possible so that he wouldn't be steamrolled by some random hungry beast- and the growth spurt he had before had shown him the path to do so.

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Azra stealthily crept amongst the bushes. Were it not for his flashy, bright-blue scales he would be the perfect picture of a stealthy hunter. Why did he have blue scales anyway? Wouldn't predators usually be camouflaged based on their environment?

Gathering his wandering thoughts he silently observed his surroundings taking care to avoid the larger creatures he came across. He had somehow managed to survive his encounter with the giant python but he wasn't arrogant enough to assume he could deal with anything that came his way. It was sheer luck that he had managed to escape with his life- if the amount of rubble he collected wasn't enough or if that snake had a breathing tube like those from Earth he would be nothing but fertilizer at this point.

Throwing these thoughts aside Azra quietly slithered into a nearby bush after sensing movement coming from ahead of him. What appeared was a large feline beast with jet black fur. He was almost tempted to analyse the creature but refrained from doing so when he remembered his encounter with the weird chimaera deer. According to the ever sleeping system AI he was discovered at that time because of the fluctuation of origin when the skill activated.

Apparently, all his skills gave off fluctuations of the strange energy source when they were used; excess energy, like the heat from a light bulb. He could learn to limit this excess energy by fine-tuning his control, so the AI had told him.

"Oh great," he had complained, "yet another thing to add to my ever-growing to-do list."

Noticing the beast had once more disappeared into the abundant shrubbery he continued on. Finally, he arrived at one of his usual hunting spots, the pond he found last time.

Just like usual he hid in the bushes waiting for his unsuspecting prey to show itself. It wasn't long before one of his cotton-tailed compatriots showed up. It hopped to the water's edge while cautiously twitching it ears for signs of danger before lowering its head to take a sip.

Azra slithered towards the fluffy creature taking care not to alarm it. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that it wasn't the same as the elkhorns he usually hunted. Most notable was the lack of the signature horn that gave elkhorns their name. Instead of the pure white fur that elkhorns had, it was an ashen grey. Its body was about a size larger than it's horned brethren.

Azra got into striking range and was ready to attack but unfortunately or perhaps, fortunately, depending on which party was asked, his wandering mind caused him to mess up.

*Snap*

A small twig broke beneath his weight. It was a

faint noise but that didn't mean it went unnoticed. The little grey rabbit turned around quickly it ears twitching vigilantly as it made eye contact with the azure serpent.

"..."

"..."

With a sudden burst of speed, Azra rushed towards his prey only to tumble into a pile of coils when he was assaulted by a sudden headache. He felt as though someone had set off a bomb in his skull. slowly the feeling spread throughout his body like his nerves were lit ablaze. The little grey rabbit moved just out of his reach standing upright with disdain in its eyes. The adorable little creature cutely beat it's before promptly hopping away.

Between the waves of pain, Azra somehow scrounged up enough focus to analyse the wretched fiend.

[Name: N/A]

[Species: Psyche bunny]

[Class: Pseudo-extraordinary]

[Origin: 200]

[Unique Skills: Mind blast]

[Active Skills: Confuse, Telepathy]

[Passive Skills: Minor Charm]

[Titles: N/A]

[Psyche bunny: A variant of rabbit kin known for their mental abilities. While not physically strong they make up for this with their unusually high intelligence. Most predators tend to avoid these seemingly harmless creatures out of caution for their mind blast ability which sends a mental wave that forces the targets nervous system into overdrive "blessing" them with a bout of pain.

Any creature that attempts to hunt a psyche bunny either has a strong mental defence or is undoubtedly stupid. These devilish little fluffballs have a very good memory and are quite petty and vengeful.]