The structure’s ground floor had been turned into a mess of a maze by my own two hands, and clearly, it was working quite well at slowing people down. I had stacked furniture in such a way that getting it out of the way was much more time-consuming than just crawling under it or going over the obstacles.

  With how many people made up this herd of prey, though, they formed an incredibly slow line. Some of them lingered back, and already… A few were stepping away from the safety of the group.

  Some people just weren’t very good at not getting themselves killed.

  I followed from a distance and eventually ran into a feathered beastfolk who appeared to have decided to investigate a random room on a whim, leading him to severely lag behind the rest.

  I casually approached him as he was stepping out of the room.

  “Ah… Do you know which direction the others took, I-”

  Before he could finish his sentence, I punched him straight in the throat. I somewhat overdid it as I wasn’t quite used to my enhanced strength in this bestial body, but the result was that he was silenced nonetheless.

  I followed with an elbow strike straight to the jaw–Or rather, beak, in this case–Before throwing him right back into the room he had just exited, before stabbing him in the throat with my claws.

  He choked on his own blood as I looked down upon him.

  Mmh… Say, Nara, do you think my future beastfolk little sister should have fur, or feathers? Hold, there are scales or just skin too… If she ends up being one of those mole rats…

  Fur is cuter and softer. Unless she remains a little bird forever and keeps those very soft feathers that baby chickens have?

  I am not certain if that’s exactly what is happening, but my little ghostly cuties seemed to be growing up the stronger they get, so I doubt a little birdie would remain one forever… Ah, but so many animals and beasts are very cute.

  I raised my bare foot and pressed down on my prey’s neck, causing blood to spray out as he emitted a pitiful, drowned cry.

  A bunny sounds like a good idea, but so does a kitten… Or puppy… A small deer, perhaps?

  Mmh… I’ll try to ask the others as well. Maybe they’ll have an idea I didn’t consider.

  I stepped out of the room after wiping my foot clean against my victim’s clothes–I heard the sound of distant whispering, thanks to my enhanced sense of hearing. I followed an alternative path to get there, going from room to room, traversing the confusing and illogical interior of this floor.

  “I told you we should have followed the wall to our right! It’s common sense!”

  “Shhh! Speak quietly, damn it! Are you trying to tell every monster in this damned structure where we are?!”

  “Shut up, you two! Keep moving and stop arguing–Or go find an empty room to do your business already! Stop subjecting everyone else to your bizarre form of flirting!”

  They were having… Interesting discussions, I would say. It’s impressive how unserious people can be in very serious situations. I guess they had no idea that someone had already been killed. Still… Have they not seen any monsters so far? They should have seen at least a few of those disgusting things, and they had been told that time was not to be wasted.

  Yet, here they were. Wasting time by spouting nonsense.

  I approached them closely. They were crawling through an obstructed hallway, and I was inside a room adjacent. Carefully listening to their movements… I was quite enjoying those superior senses, especially my hearing. I could easily make out small sounds, the direction the noise was coming from, and simply determine what a noise was within just a few moments.

  I had always had good senses. It had come alongside my fabulously strong body, but this was on another level entirely… Those feral beastfolks were born like this? It certainly is a shame that they lack sapience.

  Actually, I think that the natural ‘gift’ you had as a human, applies alongside the normal… ‘Stats’ of this body. So you are probably hearing much better than one of those feral tigerfolk

  Is that so?

  Yes, it is quite subtle, but I believe that you are slowly adapting to the body. In sum, you are growing stronger bit by bit… I think this is happening like this because this is the first time your form was so thoroughly altered in a nightmare trial

  Changing your body is much more difficult than giving you clothes you never wore, or adding a simple ability, since it involves changing the ‘base material’, we could say

  I see. Quite prodigious indeed!

  As I was talking with Nara, I suddenly leapt into action, suddenly opening the door and pulling an unsuspecting human woman into the room, grabbing her by the back of her shirt. Within just a moment, she was gone from the hallway and the door was slammed shut.

  Her fellows could only hear her brief scream as I slammed my knee into her back, keeping her down as I forcefully pulled her head up, my palm pressed against her forehead. This granted me access to her throat, which I deeply slashed with claws before quickly getting out of the room.

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  The others proved to be quite Good Samaritans. They came rushing into the room soon after I left, but they only found the woman dead with a growing pool of blood beneath her.

  “What the… What the hell?! The monsters we encountered on our way here weren’t powerful enough to do something like this!”

  “Did we waste too much time?”

  “No way. Not even thirty minutes have passed since we met those other monsters, how could that little time translate into such a dire increase?”

  “Even if someone died, it doesn’t mean that you guys can just yell! Damn it… There must be monsters that are just stronger than others to begin with… And smarter too, it clearly left after quickly inflicting a lethal wound. That thing can think and strategise”

  “Did you not see how she was suddenly pulled away with ease? Why would such a strong creature not just come out and slaughter us all?”

  “How would I know that?”

  “That woman on the floor above was able to get through this floor, though… And she seemed to be by herself”

  “Maybe she just got lucky?”

  “Or maybe we aren’t supposed to be using lights? Perhaps it attracts some unsavoury creatures”

  Indeed, the prey had light with them. In the form of strange tools that I did not recognise at all. I wanted to say that they were very compact lanterns, but they just didn’t look anything like lanterns at all and didn’t even seem to use flames or crystals to produce light…

  These are flashlights. They are tools that fit the current environment–By that, I mean that they are pieces of equipment that are not out of place for the appearance the nightmare decided to take

  Mmh… And what sort of place is this anyway?

  I can only say that it is a typical recreation of a city in another world

  I see. Well, that’s enough for me. I really don’t give a damn about other worlds.

  The stalking continued. My prey were now more careful, but they had decided to continue using lights. Choosing not to believe the theory of just one guy–Which made sense, especially since they were correct anyway. I wasn’t attracted to the light at all.

  “Hey, look over here… There is a hole in the bottom of this wall. Maybe it’s a clue that we need to go there?”

  “Don’t be silly, a monster probably just ate through it”

  “I would be silly not to check”

  A man with a lizard tail and a mere handful of scales across his very human body crouched down to peer into the hole, illuminating it with a flashlight, getting closer as he saw nothing whatsoever.

  “Looks like a room like the rest we’ve seen before…”

  “What did I tell you? This damned place wouldn’t give us any clue”

  Before the lizardfolk could move away, though, a dark shadow–Me–Appeared before him. I lunged to grab his wrist, pulling him closer as I pierced his eyes with two of my claws, fully dragging him to the hole before the person he had been conversing with could do anything.

  Flexing my fingers, I clawed out the lizard’s back down to the bones. I grabbed his flashlight before making my escape.

  Another one down for the count.

  The group of prey argued amongst one another for a little while, but ultimately kept pushing forward. It wasn’t like they had a choice in the matter anyway. The objective was clear, and any time spent not trying to fulfil that objective would only push them closer to death.

  If the monsters merely got stronger, they could have waited and bet on being sneaky, but the creatures also became more perceptive, meaning that they would be able to find the prey with greater ease.

  Thus, the only thing they could do was keep moving forward no matter what.

  The fact that they were in a hurry to move gave me plenty of opportunities to strike, cutting down their numbers by a satisfying amount by the time they finally found the staircase.

  While they were busy dealing with the fat monster blocking the way, I jumped out of the building through a window, eyeing the floor above as I bent my knees.

  Alright… Tigers are supposed to be capable of jumping very high, aren’t they?

  My thighs bulked up to an impressive size as I focused on my target, an open window.

  The moment I jumped, I was very surprised. I was expecting to have to grab onto the edge and then get through the window, but instead, I leapt straight through it, ending up rolling on the ground before hitting a wall. It caused dust to fall off the ceiling.

  Mmh… Sweet, sweet pain… I really jumped high! Good thing I held back, I might have gone through the ceiling otherwise.

  After making sure that I hadn’t damaged myself with my little stunt, I quickly headed for the staircase, watching it from a distance.

  I could hear my prey struggling to deal with the fat-ridden monster. Not that it was powerful, but it seemed like it was an exceptionally effective roadblock. Judging by what I could hear them cursing out loud, the creature was trying to get to them, but couldn’t get through the door at all. It was far too bulky with fat.

  However, its impressive physique also made it exceptionally difficult to kill. The beastfolks clawed and bit with all their might for little results, while the humans used scavenged or makeshift weapons to try to slash and stab the creature to death.

  This act of comedy lasted twenty minutes. Even then, the show wasn’t over as they then had to move its corpse out of the way, which took them another five minutes to do.

  When I saw them ascend the stairs, making their silhouette out thanks to my feline eyes, I could tell that they were tired–Vulnerable.

  The headbanger was right there as well. It was in the way of their ascent, and if they decided to go on the only available floor to them, I would be here to welcome them.

  It was a lose-lose situation.

  For some reason, the wall headbutter’s reaction was to stare at the group. It didn’t actually move, as though waiting for them to get closer on their own. Being exhausted from hacking away for so long, the group naturally didn’t want to deal with another monster at the moment and decided to take a break on my floor.

  Big mistake.

  My claws stretched out of my fingers in full as I eyed my prey, waiting for them to settle down and feel safe.

  I was going to strike at the most opportune time…

  …Oh, aren’t there birds whose feathers remain close to down feathers even as they grow up?

  Mmh… Well, in terms of animals, there are a few

  I guess owls have pretty soft feathers too… An owl little sister… It does sound quite good! Can you imagine how cute it would be to see her neck turn a full one hundred and eighty degrees?

  I am not sure in which manner such an action is cute…