Author's Note

Sorry for the late update, my colleague Lecturers have started giving us tests and assignments to do, my week has been filled with work, work, work.

So it took a while for me to get back in the groove, please point out any mistakes on this chapter please, I really want to improve as a fanfic writer.

Ps the next chapter might come even later because this week was just the beginning of my time consuming activities T-T.

4. Natural selection final

Humanity!

Balance!

Divine potential!

Development of talents!

Your core, and thus your being!

The now named Mannaz worked in his hidden forge, under the his cave, a day has passed since Jinako requested…no…demanded a duel with him.

Though he agreed, now capable of speaking their tongue, though sometimes he would return to speaking English when caught offguard.

Apparently their language doesn’t have a name, with him finding out it’s the only language on this continent. Well actually the vixens said it was the only language in the world prompting him to ask them about naval travel and other continents which garnered confused expressions, which told him all he needed to know.

He stopped hammering the hot metal, ‘looking’ at his furred hands, he wasn’t wearing a shirt or anything other than some brown leather pants and with no shoes(hoofs are good enough on their own).

‘This should’ve freaked me out’ he stated in his head, but he couldn’t explain it properly but he was very relaxed here, in an alien world and an alien body, this world’s nature had a weird affect on him and his mental state. It made him feel calm and collected even when placed in a life and death situation such as when his ‘father’ left him to die, encountering the many predators here and even fighting anything bipedal that wandered here.

It wasn’t all good, as he became almost indifferent to the death of others, something he only questioned after his cat-mom passed, which got an actual reaction. Concluding that he can’t give a damn if HE was the one who took the lives of others.

Realising he was the cause of his ‘mother’s’ death during childbirth which explained why he felt almost nothing from it…’what the fuck is wrong with me’ came a thought as he sighed, frustrated at himself he continued to work again.

He was planning on making some steel platted armour, not for his battle with Jinako this afternoon but rather his venture in deep Caribou lands to save the slaves, rescue his brother and kill a lot of those blasted degenerates.

He shook his head in disbelief as he worked, he’s biologically eight years old, looks twelve, and is already thinking about being a murderous freedom fighter.

He can’t even be that excited as that weird calming effect he’s experiencing is also making it hard to be overly excited for anything.

“I can’t use Hàrr now” he said to himself, the foreign language rolling tastefully on his tongue, as he thought of his special spear “I still gonna experiment with it plus I’m too small” he’s been working around carving runes on it that did more than just light it on fire or cover it with ice to increase its damage and defense, trying to get more unique results, but that is for later when he is older and hopefully bigger.

It's not that he couldn’t use it but that he would look ridiculous if he did in his opinion. That spear is too long for someone of his size.

“But I’m still want a weapon though, to use for the caribou…hmm…whatever! A straight sword will do! The bread and butter of all weapons never fails!”

Hardyree base

In a vast green forest. Within a large castle-like fortress with large stone walls can be seen surrounding the fortress like city , we can see many anthropomorphic crows armed to the teeth(beak?) with sharp iron swords, daggers, throwing knives and crossbows attached on their hips.

Speaking of crossbows, giant versions of them can be seen lining the walls. With crows guards holding station next to them, their eyes surveying the distance, some doing so from the skies.

The crows all wore variations of full body thick leather armour with metal plates for extra defence, all that remained exposed being their wings and heads, some of them sported leather hoods or masks and even both.

Focusing in on the command room of the fortress we can see four black avian who were dressed in finer clothes discussing over a table with what looks like the layout of a battle.

“Damn barbarians!!” a male crow with frosted white tips on his feathered head slammed his claw on the table in a show of anger, none of the occupants reprimanded him for they also felt his frustration.

“Three years of war and they’re somehow pushing us back!?” questioned a female crow with white feathers atop her head, which acted as pseudo short hair, looking intensely at the fake battle ground that showed the crows being cornered by the Caribou.

“Not somehow. It’s because of that damn new leader of theirs, my spies reported that their leader, Dàinn they called him, is something supernatural” calmingly said an elderly crow hen with eyes that spoke of vast experience, “They claim he’s a God”

The last crow, youngest and male, scoffed “Nothing but stories to induce fear” he scowled “Those mud dwellers should not be this much of threat! They should’ve stayed in their place amongst the other savages!”

The three other crows nodded at that, they were uncontested when it came to military might, to see the Caribou’s actually match them is ludicrous.

They’ve sent many spies to learn their secrets but a few of them got too close and got captured, torturing them and thus learning crow craftsmanship and smith work making the Caribou an even worse threat.

They were confident in their defensive walls, but now lay crumbled as witnesses claim seeing a gold light or object(some claimed it was shaped like a caribou which many did not believe) slam into them reducing them to rubble, now they were chased out of their old settlements and homes.

They tried fighting back, their armies got slaughtered as the Caribou used unanticipated tactics and somehow they were falling for them every single time, with their hens being captured as a result.

They tried to gather some owls to fill up the ranks, they turned out to be working with the Caribou and fed their enemy information concerning their weaknesses and strengths, as a result lost more land.

The council of four, the last four rulers, couldn’t believe how the odds are falling into the Caribou’s favour like this.

It was as if fate, and luck, itself favoured the caribou.

Now here they are, forced into residing in an old military base that was built when they were still in a cold war with the owls at their prime.

The elderly hen made a suggestion “What if we ask for a truce” the other three stared at the hen with disbelief as she closed her eyes and continued “We are running out resources and are cornered, we can’t even ask the foxes for help due to our shaky relationship and their food shortage is holding them at bay” She finished as her eyes opened, gazing at the other 3 crows with a look of defeat.

The white haired male and female crow flinched while the younger male seethed “So what! I rather our race die trying than submit to the Caribou!!” He stared at the other two crows “Don’t tell me you two think to entertain such a horrid idea! I will not put our hens in such a disgusting position!!” both of them showed their agreement, while the old hen sighed and spoke “Our superior metal works and military tactics was all that prevented them from even challenging us, despite our race being incapable of using magic, but now they’ve matched us and combined with their rune magic the direction of this war is inevitable”

“There is another option” said the male with white frosted tipped feathers “We can do as the owls did and migrate to Zonai, if the foxes won’t help us, than let’s make our problem theirs as well” the youngest shook his head violently before looking angrily at the male crows direction “She suggests we surrender and you suggest we run!!? No, I refuse to let these bastards gain anymore ground!!”

“No I believe my lord may have a point, we are in desperate need of reinforcements and resources” stated the white head crow “We are not running. Think of it as ‘a forced coalition’ with the Tamamo empire”

“I believe it’s time we settle this with a vote, do we stand our ground and fight till our last breath or do we group with the foxes and make our enemy theirs as well” stated the aging lady, the younger crow gritted his teeth seeing the his “allies” going for the second option ‘A species so proud now reduced to this!!?” he thought angrily, it's not like he hated the foxes as he sees them as worthy rivals to the crows but rather the very idea of abandoning their homelands and quite literally half of their race to the Caribou was what really garnered his rage.

‘These barbarians may lack in politics but they still have traditions, traditions that we-No I can exploit to my favour’ he thought thinking of the weapons and tools he could bring for his most riskiest plan ‘I just need to get close enough, close enough to this Dàinn than I can end this war!’

Savagethaw forest – tree free clearing

Mannaz stood in the middle of the clearing, the snow under his hoofs melting, his super senses already making him aware of three figures approaching the area.

“Are you ready Jinako” He asked rhetorically, the answer being obvious by the steel daggers she was holding tightly.

Her friends did not bring any weapons opting to stay out it.

Jinako took a step forward, Mannaz quirking a brow, he already noted the fact that Jinako abandoned her heavy snow gear now only sporting a red Chinese dress with golden yellow patterns( well what he assumes is a Chinese dress) and black baggy pants that was closed by bandages near her anthropomorphic exposed fox feet.

All which made clear by a combination of multiple senses working together as usual for the silver stag.

If Mannaz was a pervert he would’ve paid close attention to how well it hugged her model like figure, but he wasn’t as he only focused on the stance she took and the Magic swirling around her clawed hands.

Not counting her shivering and the uncertainty in her eyes, she looks like a seasoned warrior.

He still only wore his thin leather pants and furry boots, the cold never bothered him as his upper body was exposed, Nami looked at with worry while Temari had a look of indifference already aware of how the Caribou almost next to nothing in cold weather.

The weapon he brought was a simple iron short sword held on his left hand.

Once Mannaz and Jinako were firmly in the middle of the clearing, it began.

Jinako charged, kicking up snow as she moved fast towards his position swinging one of her daggers aimed at his neck.

Sparks flew as he parried her attack with ease, Jinako didn’t estimate the force of the parry to cause her to lose her balance “Dammit!” she regained her balance and jumped back looking at the young stag who hadn’t moved from position, she glared at him “Why didn’t you take the opportunity to strike me” he shrugged “Didn’t want to end this spar too soon” was his nonchalant response.

She glared harder at him “Don’t mock me!!!” she charged again using her illusion magic to conjure an ice storm to hide herself in, she tried to strike his right trying to stab him in his ribs.

He blocked the strike much to her surprise, when she got to know him the one thing she and her friends noted where his constantly shut eyes yet he could detect them with ease even at times eyes would prove useless, so she theorized he must have the ability to detect the magical energies of others.

She was pushed back by him but got her footing and assaulted him again with a flurry of slashes all of he blocked in perfect succession.

Jinako gritted her teeth, she created this snow storm with the addition of overloading it with her magic energy, from a simple illusion to a cloud of her magical energy she believed would act like a smoke screen against his magic detection.

She crossed her daggers to block a vertical slash to her head as he had jumped to attack, grunting with strain as her legs dug into ground from the force of his strike.

But it proved fruitless as he could still “see” her leading her to believe that one, his magical detection is more advanced than she believed or two, there’s more to his detection skills than what she determined.

Rolling away from him before doing a flip to get herself to her feet again, she analysed him as he stood only a few inches way from the same spot as before, much to her annoyance.

She was no novice when it came to creating illusion that title belongs to her friends, Nami never tried to learn any illusion magic other than the basics and Temari having a low affinity for them no matter how much she tried.

Jinako acknowledges she was not the best her kind could offer in that field but even she can tell the difficulty Mannaz could pose to their best illusionists, their magic relied entirely on fooling the enemies senses, sight mainly, smell, hearing and only the best could manipulate: touch.

Yet something told her that if they were to meet him their illusionists suffer nothing but headache from trying to fool this young stag.

She tried creating noises around him with her magic and muting hers, he still knew where she was.

She created the most foul smelling odour to get him to drop his guard for a strike, he was unfazed and she found herself knocked to her back before hurriedly standing up.

Sight was not an option as he doesn’t even use his eyes, something she now wishes to question him about as she just assumed he was blind but a part of herself tells her that’s not the case.

Her tail stood up violently shaking as her frustration grew.

She charged again with a war cry abandoning her form and wildly using her energy to try and break through his guard, he didn’t miss a single slash as he parried, deflected and blocked all her strikes, she tried to faint some to trick him causing him to deflect the false attacks with free right hand by slapping the flat side of her daggers not losing any ground as a result.

This ‘fight’ was absurd to her, jumping and throwing her daggers at him as a distraction, she charged at Mannaz ready to grab and wrestle him into the ground as the he deflected the incoming blades.

She was reminded of the kids super strength as the moment she was about to grab his right shoulder her world spun around as before she was slammed on her back, realising an “Oof!!” as her back hit the ground.

Mannaz mentally gave some credit as her little gamble could’ve proved to be a good tactic…if her enemy was physically weaker than him.

Pointing his blade at her neck, she froze as she stared directly into his closed eyes, “I win” was all he said with a small smile.

The vixen sighed in disappointment as she took the hand he reached out to her and picked herself up.

The other two vixens ran up to make sure she was fine, which she nodded and assured them that she was okay.

Jinako gazed at the sunset, taking a huge breath of cold air, “I had hope that I would give you a challenge, despite everything I’ve witnessed you do” she chuckled now looking at Mannaz, who adorned his usual serene expression.

“Don’t be hard on yourself, nothing about me is particularly normal” he flinched slightly from accidentally returning to english.

Though Jinako couldn’t care less from his hiccup, smiling in response.

Nami now made herself known “Okay now that this is settled can we go home now!” Temari agreeing “Nami’s right, I believe it’s about time we return to Zonai” causing Nami’s eyes to widen before quickly settling on Mannaz then her friends “That’s not wha-!” but was cut by their group leader “She’s right Nami, it’s about time we return to our REAL home, we can’t stay here forever”

Nami stuttered incapable of producing a sentence before looking at Mannaz.

She went to hold his hand, much to his confusion, “Okay we’ll go home, so long as Kurama-I mean Mannaz comes with us” Temari deadpanned while Jinako shook her head in amusement.

“One, he made it clear that he’ll leave this place after he attends whatever business that interests him and two, he said he would go there without us to explore the land more efficiently” stated Jinako.

Nami’s ears dropped as she heard that “You’re a child” she muttered looking at Mannaz in deep worry “Correction, I’m a very capable child” he answered with a sad smile.

She released his hand, conflict clear in her eyes, “Y-y-yes that’s tr-true…” she said recalling how he’s been living here on his own apparently.

“But promise me that once you’re done with errand or quest, seek US out once you make it to the Tamamo empire!” she pleads, Mannaz nodded his head “I promise” was all she needed to hear.

Temari scowled “Okay are you guys done? I want to return back into the cave to start preparing for our trip” drawing a glare from Nami and one disapproving from Jinako.

But nevertheless they ventured back to begin their journeys.

Mannaz looked at his sword as they travelled back home, his thoughts on the faint signatures his super senses detected at the very far distance, almost beyond his range.

A familiar setting.

8 hours later

Bravehoof town – dark morning

Caribou guards roamed their new and improved settlement, no longer staying in tents nor huts, many wooden homes littered the area.

The guards themselves showing of better equipment being their now iron blades, marked with runes, and leather armour which has been treated the same as the swords and axes they carries.

They all held torches, it being near four in the morning, so it was still dark outside.

The town wasn’t surrounded by any fence or wall, but guards can be seen patrolling the outskirts of their small town.

A nearby Caribou guard, with a great axe, yawned with his partner, whose holding the Torch, who sneezed slightly from the cold air.

“Dammit! I can’t stand this type cold! I wish we could make those dumb sluts takeover the morning patrols!” Angrily proclaimed the one with the torch, his partner sending him a look of irritation “You seriously think those dumb cows will know how to patrol? Actually defend the town!?” he laughed at the thought, his sneezing partner responded “I hate the fact that our females get to stay warm and cozy in OUR homes while we are out here freezing!!”

His axe wielding partner quirked a brow “Than why didn’t you bring your bitch with you, We could’ve had a good sucking right now” the one with torch huffed “She’s sick” he replied with a roll of his eyes “Doctors say that if I were to bring her outside in this cold my bitch could die or some nonsense like that!”

The axe wielding stag humphed “Sick or not I would’ve still brou-“ whatever he was about to say was cut short.

An armoured figure with an unsheathed sword appeared behind them, slight wind blowing in all directions, the figure returned the steel blade back in the scabbard on his back and continued moving forward deeper in the town.

The two guards stood frozen, before their heads slid off and bodies collapsed.

POV Mannaz

I moved silently in the darkness, my armour designed to be as silent as possible made also possible by the Chain! Raidho alternate! Kenaz alternate! Runes drawn on my armour reducing the sound they made.

Another patrol was decapitated before they realized my presence, and another, and another after that. I was using the darkness to my favour even though I doubted I needed to be this discrete when killing these bastards.

But it was because I’m rarely this discrete that I’m being stealthy now.

A whistle there to draw a guard to their death, a pebble thrown there to turn their backs to me and a simple air assassination here and there.

Fast, quick and clean, even though this is definitely something they don’t deserve, I’m making sure to be presentable to the slaves I’m about to save.

How would you react do if a deer child whose covered with blood and guts came to you, and says they’re here to rescue you. I would scare the slaves more than their slaver.

Though I’m gonna make sure there isn’t a single Caribou stag alive in this area.

Blood splurged from their exposed necks, as I cut through more and more of them, my super senses already showing their exact positions in the darkness.

Entering a storage building. Cages lined the room all containing new and old anthropomorphic females, weather it be bears, owls and the rare crow. At the very corner of the room, I found a target. I covered the mouth of a stag who was having his way with an owl hen in chains, dragging him away as he fruitlessly struggled against my smaller and stronger hold before I stabbed him in the chest and waited for his body to go limp.

I let the body go, before blurring around the room with untraceable speed, before leaving the storage building to look for more prisoners, still moving at high speeds.

The owl hen looked back with tired eyes, which widened seeing only the corpse of her rapist, magical torches flicked around the room as cage doors opened as the women stepped out with broken chains.

Hen’s shocked eyes moved to her wrists and legs, seeing them on the floor, broken. ‘Wha-what?...’ she thought baffled an expression shared by many who crawl and walked out of their cages, only the truly broken have yet to move nor acknowledge what was happening.

I continued out the building finding and ending more Caribou guards and those who were in the land of dreams.

Making sure to separate the unconscious doe from the sleeping stags as killed the males in cold blood.

‘My father and brother aren’t here’ I mentally concluded, a bit saddened to not feel my twins energy anywhere near my senses range, but I reassured myself that he’s most likely okay and hopefully not too groomed in the Caribou’s ways.

‘He’s eight years old. There’s no way he’s already taking part in their shit!’ was my final thought as I laugh off my fear.

I shook my head refocusing on my personal quest, which was almost done as the town was quite empty “Some of the Caribou must have moved to another area, probably with my brother too” I deduced.

Even though the whole point of my sneaky approach was to be as efficient as possible, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly underwhelmed.

Most the Caribou stags were either sleeping or fucking.

Even the few runemasters I encountered didn’t have any security runes or anything like that to alert them of my presence. Poor ass security.

But that didn’t matter, freeing the prisoners was my first and primary goal above the rest.

Freeing them from storage buildings, and animal pens, the worst of them which left the women held there(chains/magically) at the mercy of the cold morning air…and those derpy beasts they kept around.

I made sure to burn those…things to nothing but ash.

I used a Thurizas alternate! Runes to disrupt and remove all the runes the Caribou used on the women before inscribing my own, that would protect them from the cold and give them enough strength to power through the environment.

POV END

For eight years she lived as a slave, for the pleasures and tortures of this caribou tribe.

A once mighty bear warrior respected and praised by her clan, her strength and savage spirit, uplifting and inspiring many of her kind.

But she blundered, a single blunder when her party of four encountered a caribou hunting group, the bears fought proud and relentlessly. But it only took one mistake for things to go all wrong.

They were defeated, the males killed, she and her sister in battle captured by them to be used for their desires.

In bear culture the females were always attracted to strong and violent males, the more blood they bring from their enemies the more “excited” they become, the same could be said about the males preference in mates, all to make a stronger generation.

The Caribou stags strength and barbaric nature would’ve garnered attention from the female bears, but such quirks are ignored due to how they treat their women and all other women of a different species.

She was defiled and used against her will, she never had a mate, her might drawing many suitors but none of the them measured to her standards.

But that didn’t matter now, nothing else matters…

She had hope, a hope that started to fade more and more, with her being forced to give birth to more of those ugly beasts they use as mounts as punishment – a process that nearly broke her, they tried…they tried to break her with all their perverted rituals and magic.

But she stayed strong, she remained defiant, even when her hope of escaping vanished she vowed to die without giving in.

She was Olga, she was strength, she was one of her clans greatest warriors, she was a brown bear, unyielding and unbreakable!

So here she was in chains, inside of a shed with no windows to block the harsh elements from ravaging her body, Corrupt runes on her made her more sensitive to her environment, to everything.

A black collar around her neck, with a chain leash, gagged and spread by the chains in a compromising position, her hard muscles twitched from the pain she experienced.

It was worse for her “assets”, large breast and fat thighs jiggled in pain beyond her wildest imagination, the runes one her serving their goal, so much so she would’ve ripped them off to end such torment.

All that was spared from the torture was her womanhood as the Caribou wish to “keep it in good condition” as they blatantly told her with malice.

She hasn’t seen her clan sister for months.

They didn’t cover her eyes but that didn’t matter, as the entire shed was too dark to see in, well for now as it seems as morning is approaching.

‘Another one is coming’ she tiredly thought, she wasn’t surprised that one would come so early in the morning, they’ve had had turns with her at any given time they’ve felt like it.

The door to the shed was opened quite quietly in her drowsy opinion, she couldn’t hear any hoof steps and wondered if it’s a guard just passing by admiring the “goods”.

‘Bastard…’ she thought with a sigh.

Relief

She felt relief, the pain disappeared, the invading corrupt magic disappeared, replaced by warmth.

Her muscles regained strength that has been lost for nearly a decade, she felt rejuvenated as if all the horrors her bodies experienced never happened.

She felt her chains loosen and heard them drop on the floor as her body dropped too.

Shocked at what was happening she stood up, setting her gaze to the door she saw a very armoured Caribou kid who looks as he had yet to reach staghood.

His back was turned as he was walking back to the door, sunrays of an early sunrise brightening up the entire shed.

She did the most sensible thing in her mind.

Fangs bared.

She lunged with the intention to kill.

END