Chereads / I'm a Ghost in My Second Chance / Chapter 4 - Prey of a Bird Creature

Chapter 4 - Prey of a Bird Creature

Reading through the contents, Finn mused, 'Eh, I already got new abilities!'

The contents of the screen were:

Name: -

Race: Great Phantom

⤷ Status: Inhabiting White Fenrir

Rune Gift: -

Inherent Skills: [Possession], [Spectral Healing]

Secondary Skills: [Echo of God(Dormant)]

Possession Skills: [Mana Sense], [Claw Slash], [Disruptive Howl]

'Mana Sense increases my sensitivity to mana, making me notice its presence better. Claw Slash helps me gather mana in my claws, releasing them will take the form of energy arcs. Disruptive Howl disrupts the general senses of those targeted.'

Reading the descriptions Finn summarized the description of the skills.

Only [Possession] was tricky to him, every other was easily understood… Except for one. '[Echo of God] is plain weird!'

[Possession: An inherent ability for beings that naturally lacks a material body. For specters, it's paired with the [Release] skill. This skill grants the user an advantage in suppressing or expelling a soul within a host.

Through this skill, you may create a bridge to the core of the host's body and use their skills. How much skill you may have access to depends on the strength of the other soul.

Expelling the will revokes access to rune gift skills and secondary skills–These skills will be expelled along with the host's soul. But expelling gives a complete access to inherent skills.]

Finn understood most of how this worked because he was experiencing the functions already. He saw the soul of the Fenrir, as the panel called it, leave the body. He could also feel a similar container to his—which he had deemed as a core— within the body.

When he gained control over the body, the core of the Fenrir was about dispersing. In fact, he felt the ability imprints of the Fenrir escape, only when the weaker imprints and swirling energy remained did his [Possession] ability forcefully contain them once more.

'This one…'

[Echo of God(Dormant): A dormant ability within you. This imprint gives you a false identity.]

So far, this has been the most vague description. Since he couldn't wrap his head around it, Finn shrugged, 'Oh well. I guess I'll understand it when those cases come… It doesn't seem to be a battle effective skill. Tsk, and here I was thinking it'll be the strongest!'

Setting that aside, Finn stood on his paws. 

'Getting used to this level of view might take a bit.' He said, looking around to determine his path. 'I should get stronger if I want to avenge Mr Fenrir. I don't want an evil spirit coming out of nowhere to take my body for some weird reason…' 

Then it dawned on him what he had just done. 'It will take a while for me to get used to all of this.'

Finn first tried using his nose to detect nearby creatures that he could engage with to gain experience, but he could smell none. He came to a conclusion, 'I guess I'll try that ability.'

[Mana Sense] was a White Fenrir's inherent skill. Apparently, from what was described in the description, this race had a good affinity with Mana. It could let one sense the atmosphere's energy easily, while for energy within a body, sensing them depends on various variables. 

Finn's blue eye took a dark shade as he saw the Mana around him gain colors that varied from green, red, brown, blue and white with the white colored energy being more in the atmosphere.

They all trailed the air, but in this region they were still sparse.

Towards west of this forest, where the luminescent grasses and insects seemed to appear more, Finn sensed stronger Mana as though their density grew denser the more one ventured towards that direction.

'Hm, I guess I'll go there. A philosopher back on earth said: "The beginning is the most important part of the work." The earlier I get used to this new life, the better.'

Bracing himself for the dangers that he might encounter, Finn began running in the shadows of the tree towards the west of the forest. 

Using the vague memories he got from possessing the Fenrir, he drafted a plan to solve the issues at hand.

One relating to the creatures that killed the Fenrir's pack and the other relating to how the creatures here acted.

- - - - -

As he moved west, closer to the mana dense places, he could feel his changed instincts tingle.

At the top of the towering trees, hidden in the crown of the trees, were various creatures that watched the grounds, looking for suitable prey.

Finn could feel their pressuring gazes without using Mana Sense, but he still pretended like he didn't, suppressing his fear, he walked around carelessly.

He still had a rough idea what he was doing and where he was going though.

Running deeper into the forest he heard sounds of a flapping noise and a high-pitch cry that seemed to intimidate the weak. A bird-like creature was preparing to set-off.

'It's not coming for me, right?' Finn questioned, but he knew better. Even if he didn't, his instincts knew; all the fur on his body felt like they were frozen due to fright.

Not reducing his moving speed, Finn calmed himself down, acknowledging that he was prepared for this. 'Still, I didn't expect them to be this terrifying.'

Using the image he got from slight peeks and his Mana Sense, Finn identified the creature that was coming at him at rapid speed.

It had a head similar to that of a horned deer, the pair of wings that each looked about 2 meters had claws at the end of them, its hindlimbs had claws that could destroy a normal tree and a long thick tail that could slap a human head off. Aside from its white deer head, the feathers of the creature were dark green.

Fear gripped Finn, but he didn't let him ruin it. He has faced multiple issues head on. Only those who continue to look up can push forward.

The more steps Finn took towards the west, the more luminescent grass appeared. Additionally, in between the trees, there were mushrooms the size of trees growing like a mini forest within the towering tree forests.

From above, the caps of the tall mushrooms blocked the view of what was underneath.

The Deer-bird couldn't locate the Fenrir it was chasing with its eyes, it could only vaguely sense it through Mana and catch glances of it once in a while.

To get a better view, the creature descended a bit closer to the caps and began circling above the region where it could sense the wolf.

Now using his Mana to improve the effects of his [Mana Sense], Finn could sense the bird-creature above him. 

Placing himself directly under a cap, he spread his senses further. Because of this Deer-bird creature, other creatures had run and hid themselves in fear; Only the strong remained unhidden.

'Thinking like an animal indeed. It still thinks I'm avoiding it. Heh, well you wait till I turn you into my prey.'

Finn activated another ability he had gotten, [Claw Slash]. It was basically condensed energy that took the qualities and a huge shape of a claw.

Condensing a considerable amount of energy in his claws, Finn jumped and hurled them through the gaps between the mushroom's caps.

10 bluish white arcs of energy that exuded sharpness cut through some of the caps easily and flew further.

The Deer-bird saw the arcs, with few of them coming towards it. Dodging it was an easy task, and now that it knew the location of this Fenrir that didn't know its worth. It plummeted from the skies and dived into the mushroom maze, searching for its alluring prey.

Under the shade of one, it saw the blue eyes of its target glaring at it. With a shriek that held contempt, it navigated through the tight maze.

'Predator turned prey,' Finn smiled inwardly, watching the bird-creature approach him.

Immediately after his first round of claw slashes, Finn had prepared another, believing the Deer-bird would take the bait.

With even more energy condensed compared to before, Finn launched them towards the bird and immediately changed his position.

Feeling the danger these energy arcs carry, the bird-creature halted suddenly, and aggressively blew a gust of wind that reduced the speed of the approaching slashes.

It couldn't completely stop the slashes and opted to dodge or block the rest, sustaining little cut injuries.

Witnessing this, Finn thought, 'It was blowing mana, not air!'

Not giving him time to figure out how it worked, the creature flew towards Finn once more.

The bird's speed was limited because navigating through this mushroom maze wasn't easy. 

Finn kept running through the tight parts of the maze, using his size to his advantage. After the creature entered his range, he pivoted towards the creature's direction. And so, he howled.

[Disruptive Howl]

This messed up one's general senses and control over mana, its effects depending on how much mana was put into evoking it, how long the howl lasted and the strength of the target.

The Deer-bird was momentarily taken aback, before it released a shriek of its own to counter it.

Seeing this, Finn muttered self-deprecatingly, 'Oof. I did not expect that. Heh. Take notes Finn, expect the unexpected.' 

Stopping his howl, he set-off running deeper into the mushroom maze. 

At this point, the bird did not care again, it just wanted to kill this Fenrir— the energy it even possessed wasn't strong, but it chose to defy a creature like itself.

Its speed increased, using its strong wings to cut down the tree-size mushrooms obstructing its path, causing a commotion.

This made Finn muse more, 'You're even making things easier for me!'