Chapter 272: Cats are Disadvantaged Animals? All of It! [Part 1]
Armadillo wasn’t actually hungry, but it was worried that the two creatures would start fighting one another the moment they got out of the ship. Their health wasn’t really its concern — both of them had great resilience anyway — but they couldn’t afford to expose their presence to the mysterious sender before they had figured out who he was. They also didn’t know if there was a trap waiting in the journey ahead of them, so it was unwise to act recklessly.
The sky gradually brightened, and from the hillside the hills looked completely gray. Most of the plants on this land except the white ones shared the same oppressive color as the soil, but only a few.
Meanwhile, Rubu was tearing apart a “Sharp-Clawed Beast” at a nearby forest. It didn’t actually need to torment its prey so, but since it was feeling extremely unhappy right now the prey it just caught became its venting target.
From the hills one could see that a couple of black dots were moving around the area, although their numbers were being depleted rapidly due to a certain cat consuming them to to satiate its hunger. These black dots were black sharp-clawed beasts, and they were one of the most common creatures that existed on this planet.
Wheeze’s gray fur acted as protective coloring in this gray world, so it looked pretty inconspicuous especially from a distance. The average human being would’ve been hardpressed to follow its movements without some sort of tool. However, neither Rubu nor Armadillo were human, and their eyesight were excellent to say the least. They were able to track Wheeze’s movements perfectly without the use of any tools.
The cat looked tiny, but when the black sharp-clawed beasts tried to attack Wheeze’s mouth suddenly grew ten times bigger and swallowed the first creature completely, followed by the second, the third…
These sharp-clawed beasts weren’t stupid, and they quickly learned that the unassuming animal before them was no pushover. They immediately started running away, but judging from Wheeze’s movements it was doubtful that many of them could make a successful escape.
“Now I understand why Dahl was in tears back then, if that cat was really hungry it could probably eat even our little crocodile for lunch! Seriously though, how big is that cat’s stomach?” Armadillo shot a glance at Wheeze while it crawled slowly to Rubu’s side.
Armadillo noticed that Wheeze was extremely strong just from the way it was capturing those sharp-clawed beasts alone. Its tremendous speed aside, Armadillo knew that there was no way it could hunt as quickly as the cat did, especially the part where the cat just swallowed its live prey whole without biting even once! It wasn’t like it was a giant boa like Bona! This “technique” alone would place the cat among the top animals that roamed AF1.
Rubu bit down on the sharp-clawed beast’s bones loudly before replying impatiently, “Why would I know about that?! At this rate it’ll be stuffed in no time!”
Coincidentally, Wheeze came to a sudden stop just as Rubu had finished his sentence. Then, it crouched on the ground and did something the duo couldn’t quite see from where they were, ears twitching and tail swaying left and right in a wide arc. The few remaining sharp-clawed beasts seized the opportunity to run away as quickly as they were able.
“What’s wrong with it?” Armadillo asked. Rubu stopped biting and turned to look at Wheeze as well.
Wheeze maintained its crouching position for a moment before it opened its mouth wide and vomited a single black sharp-clawed beast.
Armadillo, Rubu: “......” That is so disgusting!
The black sharp-clawed beast hadn’t stayed in Wheeze’s stomach for long, but it was already partially digested by the time Wheeze had regurgitated it. Even its claws had melted, turned short and become softer than before. The half-digested creature looked like it had undergone a long period of catabolism and was nowhere as fearsome and bloodthirsty-looking as it was at the beginning.
“That cat doesn’t normally ruminate, does it?” Armadillo asked.
Rubu looked away and said, “Absolutely disgusting! I knew that all felines are eccentric animals.” He knew that there were a couple of “large cats” at AF1 who enjoyed crippling their prey before eating them, but this cat was even worse than they were! To think that it had a habit of chewing the cud!
Wheeze’s absolutely disgusting behavior had caused Rubu to completely lost his appetite. He kicked the remains of the black sharp-clawed beast in front of him and sent it flying to the nearby forest, where a couple of small, rodent-like animals had instantly burrowed out of the ground and pounced onto the leftover. Soon, even the bones were completely picked clean.
“Hey, something seems off about that cat. Could it be food poisoning?!” Armadillo poked the resting Rubu with its tail before asking.
The snow wolf immediately opened his eyes interestedly when he heard this. He had eaten half a sharp-clawed beast earlier, and he could confirm that it was probably safe to consume. After all, he could sniff out most poisonous meat barring a few exceptional circumstances as a matter of course.
The two animals watched Wheeze closely. Wheeze was currently jumping all around the half-digested creature like it was experiencing a seizure or something.
A while later, Wheeze extended its claws literally and started disemboweling the poor creature.
Armadillo, Rubu: “...” They knew that felines were weird, but since when did felines develop this eccentric behavior as well?
If Wheeze was just trying to eat its internal organs, they could at least understand why it had disemboweled the sharp-clawed beast, but that wasn’t its motivation at all! No, it was dissecting the poor creature! For whatever reason, the eager cat had swallowed its prey, suddenly decided to spit it back out, and then started dissecting it in the middle of a hunt! What the fuck!
Neither Rubu nor Armadillo was truly privy to Wheeze’s current feelings. Right now, it was feeling very, very excited because it had discovered something extremely fun it hadn’t had a chance to play with for a very long time already. It was because they hadn’t ran into natural one until now, and Cillin hadn’t artificially made one for it to play with. Just now, Wheeze had discovered a different type of creature inside the sharp-clawed beasts while it was digesting their bodies. If its assumption was correct, it must be one of those parasites Cillin had mentioned!
Wheeze liked parasites a lot because Cillin could always tinker up something interesting every time they had discovered a parasite with great potential. In fact, Wheeze liked these tiny little things a lot more than those big fellows that only had size but no real strength to boast of.
Wheeze first cut open the half-melted skin of the sharp-clawed beast. Then, it split open its stomach and found a couple worm-like creatures that looked like tiny scorpions about the size of an adult human’s thumb. They were clinging firmly to the stomach wall, and it was obvious that the flesh they were clinging to were much thinner than the rest.
After Wheeze had cut open the sharp-clawed beast’s stomach, the tiny worms realized that they were in danger and tried to flee the scene. They tore apart the thinned stomach wall they were clinging to and scattered in every direction. Unfortunately for them, they ultimately weren’t faster than Wheeze, and the gray cat easily dragged them back to where it had found them again and again.
On top of the hill, both Rubu and Armadillo were stunned by what they had just witnessed.
“What the hell is that?” Rubu asked.
“I’m not sure. It looks like they were inside that sharp-clawed beast’s stomach. You didn’t eat its stomach earlier, did you?” Armadillo asked worriedly. Without careful study, it was impossible to tell if the worms could affect them negatively. In fact, the more Armadillo thought about the worms, the colder it felt. It was to the point where its armor-like scales were standing up like hair.
“No, I lost my appetite before I got to that spot.” Right now Rubu was extremely glad that he hadn’t continued eating, or he might have consumed the whole beast including those eerie worms inside its stomach! In the past, neither Rubu nor Armadillo had cultivated the habit of checking their food before consuming them, but Wheeze’s actions today had left behind a terrible trauma in their minds, one that wouldn’t be fading until a very, very long time later.
I’m absolutely not eating any meat until I’ve checked them for worms from hereon!
“Hmm?” This time, Armadillo slapped Rubu once with its tail — the latter busy checking its stomach for worms — and pointed its chin down a certain direction. Rubu followed Armadillo’s chin and saw a young human boy hiding behind a couple of large rocks about three hundred meters away from Wheeze. From his attire, it looked like the boy was someone from the city. He was holding a gun and a bow, and he was observing the gray cat carefully from behind cover. Although the boy looked very tensed, he was also doing his best to stay calm and collected.
Overall, he wasn’t a bad hunter.
“Say, do you think we should give that cat a reminder?” Armadillo asked.
“A reminder about what?” Rubu didn’t really care.
“About not eating humans just because it felt like it.”
Rubu: “...” Okay, that could be a problem.
This morning, Dantu had joined up with the city’s hunting squad to hunt down some Claws just like usual. However, his plans suddenly took a turn when he saw a big, injured Claw while he was resting by luck. He didn’t want to give up on the beast because a big Claw could be traded for a lot more resources and was worth way more than a small Claw, not to mention that it was already injured.
Dantu thought that this was a great opportunity, so he spoke to the captain of the squad about his intent and was given thirty minutes to roam freely. If he didn’t return after thirty minutes had passed, the hunting squad would move on about their business and leave him behind.
Regardless of ability, any hunter who ventured the wilds alone would mostly like be eaten because anywhere that wasn’t a city technically belonged to the Claws. Moreover, they normally turned off their communicators while they were out on a hunt because the Claws were extremely sensitive towards magnetic fields and were drawn to it.
Dantu had learned many techniques from veteran Claw hunters at a young age, and he was already accompanying the hunting squad on hunts since he was just ten years old. Today, he was considered an experienced hunter who knew how to hide and track down preys.
Dantu looked out for the best time to act while he was following the injured Claw carefully from behind. He couldn’t attack it if there were other Claws nearby because he wasn’t sure if he could take on multiple Claws alone.
Finally, Dantu found the chance he was looking for. However, the injured Claw suddenly let out a screech before running down a different direction restlessly just as he was about to launch an attack.
Did it notice me?
Dantu was just about to give chase when suddenly, he sensed something moving towards him and concealed himself once more. Before long, two more Claws had run past him in a hurry, almost as if something terrifying was chasing them from behind. It was probably why the injured Claw had decided to make a quick escape all of a sudden.
Dantu shot a glance down the direction the two Claws had come from. Why had that big Claw acted so afraid? What had the running Claws seen to make them run like mad? This was a rare sight because the Claws normally thought themselves as kings of the gray land.
He had fifteen minutes left in the clock before the captain and the squad would leave him behind, and there was no way he was catching up to the injured Claw at this point. Should he go back?
Dantu didn’t want things to end like this, however. Puzzled and reluctant, Dantu finally allowed his curiosity to lead him down the path where the running Claws had come from. It didn’t take long before he saw a cat sitting on a flat land at the foot of a hill.
Dantu was well aware that there were no cats on this planet. He had only ever seen them on books, pictures and televisions, and in fact those who had never had the opportunity to consume media wouldn’t even know that there existed such a type of animal.
Why is there a cat in this place?
What confused Dantu was that cats were supposed to be weak animals according to the books he read. However, the small cat in front of him was standing in front of a glob of flesh that took him a long while to realize that it was a Claw. If he didn’t know the bodily structure of a Claw well, he wouldn’t have been able identify the defaced creature that looked like it had taken a dip inside an acid pool at all.
How did the Claw turn out like this? And why was the cat blanking out right next to it?
What happened next surprised Dantu even more. First, the cat’s claws had extended unnaturally right before his eyes. Then, it easily cut open the Claw’s skin and dissected it after.
Dantu’s face was white when he saw the worms, just like the first time he had killed a Claw. Not only was the boy afraid for his life, he was regretting his decision to obey his curiosity like never before. Why had he come over like a suicidal person? Also, he knew that everything in the books and the televisions were all lies! How could a cat possibly be a disadvantaged animal? Would a disadvantaged animal be able to dissect a Claw like it was nothing?!
At this point, Dantu was absolutely certain that the cat — the tiny creature that wasn’t even the length of his forearm — was the one that had scared away the Claws earlier.
Dantu did his best to calm down his beating heart while coming up with a solution. First, he absolutely couldn’t turn on his communicator. He would be discovered the second he tried it. Second, he couldn’t ask for help, not that anyone would come and help him even if he did. Therefore, his best choice was to retreat quietly while he still could.
However, the moment he turned his head, a voice rang from right next to him.
“Hey kid, where do you think you’re going?”
Heart skipping a beat, Dantu reflexively tried to fire his gun at the source of the voice. However, his eyes turned dark, and he fell unconscious before he could do anything.
