Anri's luck had been fantastic so far. It was as if death had a bone to pick with him. And he wasn't even taking into account what had happened previously to have landed him in this wretched place.
'Click click click'
He lowered his head and closed his eyes. There was no point in wondering about the origins of the monster. He had to survive the day. What were his options? Stay quiet and hope that it left the area after eating its fill? Anri wasn't a fan of the idea. Escape then. How? It would notice him immediately if he stood up to flee. The patch of grass he was hiding in didn't go on far enough even if he planned to crawl away into the sunset. His final option was to kill it. How? He had enough magic to blow the thing up but he was betting on it having friends.
Physically, there was absolutely no way he was a fighting match for the thing that stood twice as tall as him and had armour on its skin like dragon scales. Anri took a chance and raised his head to look around. He had been right. There were half a dozen more of those creatures in the distance.
Sweat began to pool in his collar as Anri's fingernails dug into the sandy soil. He cut off the magic that powered some of his active runes. He would need every drop of power for what he was planning to do.
'Click click click'
He decided to wait a little while longer and hope that the monsters left after their meal.
'Click click click click'
Anri swiped his fingers over the back of his head where congealed blood stuck to his hair. He could have used the headless corpse as a diversionary tactic if only he had a larger reserve of magic.
The young man wasn't unaffected by the sound of crunching bones and the wet slurps that occasionally punctuated his stoic silence. Death wasn't always this disturbing. He had often killed people; some in ways that would have disgusted any sane man. But right now, his neck was on the line if discovered by the monster. It put things into morbid perspective for the young sorcerer.
Mind and heart racing, he cursed silently and in every language he knew. The clicks had multiplied and were getting closer to his position. The monster's friends were closing in and by the sounds of it, he could tell that it was the entirety of the group he had seen. He wasn't going to survive this by passively waiting for them to leave.
Gaze on the monster that was chewing on the dead woman's arm, Anri sighed and stood to his feet. Pick your battles carefully, he had been told. Know your enemy, plan before you strike. But where was the advice for a situation like this?
"My luck has been pathetic," he told the monster whose head turned around to look at him. "..... wow.. you've got a mouth like the piss hole of a cow that's just given birth."
'Click click'
The monster dropped its half-eaten meal and roared at Anri. Its unhinged jaw stretched open so wide that a small child could climb in and slide down its throat. The creature had spiny armour that protected its neck and chest. The powerfully built arms ended in claws that had chunks of bloody meat hanging off them.
Anri hated having to use the soul rune under such circumstances but his back was against the wall. The creature leapt at him and the sorcerer allowed himself to fall backwards. He stretched his hand up, fingers spread out, when the thing flew across and above him, just inches of distance separating them. The sorcerer's palm hit it right under its stomach and the rune burned hot.
Anri collapsed like a bag of sand on the ground. The monster fell several feet away from him after having its leaping momentum carry it so far.
'Click click click'
The monster's tail whipped the air as it recovered from the jump. The other creatures were closing in to eat the unconscious human boy whose prone body lay unmoving. Letting out a roar, the monster leapt to the human and scooped him up in its arms. The claws tore into the boy's thin clothing and drew blood but there wasn't any time for gentle ministrations.
His prey. Anri was the monster and the monster was Anri. His claw squeezed into the soft flesh of the immobile prey in his arm.
'Click-' his six eyes blinked one after another as he hissed at the others. The one closest to him decided that the meal was worth a fight. Every single muscle in its body tensed and there was a great leap towards Anri. It was the wake-up call that the sorcerer needed to jolt back to himself. Realising what was happening, he swiftly grabbed the dead woman's corpse by the leg and swung it at the attacker.
There was no hesitation, no second thought. Anything could be used as a weapon, even another human, willing or not. The woman's corpse smashed into the monster and it disintegrated into small chunks of meat that landed everywhere. Having been struck into the ground by the force of Anri's swing, the attacker was forced to re-evaluate its greed.
Another guttural scream from Anri's grotesque mouth convinced the others that he wasn't sharing. The one that had tried to attack him loped off first. It was hungry and there was prey to be hunted. Like a scattering of sand in the wind, the others followed its example and made themselves scarce. In good time too because he was out of magic.
----
Monster or not, Anri screamed like a dying animal when he broke his four legs and an arm. He knew that the moment his consciousness went back to his body, there was a chance that the monster would regain its sense of self. This usually happened when the host being piggybacked off was the kind that completely relied on its basic instincts.
The fundamental rule of possession - the dumber the host, the easier it was to possess it. The more intelligent the host, the higher was the probability of leaving it brain damaged.
When Anri exited the monster, there were a few seconds wasted while he floundered on the ground. His mind felt as if it had been stretched out and catapulted from one place to another. He heard the pained groans of the creature whose head he had just evacuated.
"That's right," Anri said as he looked at it through tired eyes. A raging headache was incoming. "I was inside you. I feel dirty but you must feel worse."