Chapter Seven - The best time to hunt a predator is when it is distracted by a prey

Sitting behind a counter, a beautiful goth girl sighed with utter boredom, she looked around the empty clothing store, she took out her cell phone and started to drift through the social networks, with the other hand started to wrap a lock of hair around her fingers, without much interest she navigated the sea of ​​posts and comments, looking superficially at the content posted, she lifted her cell phone and took a selfie. She posted the photo with a #bored_at_work hashtag, some people had already liked and commented when she heard the door bell.

CLING

Without even looking at who had entered the girl murmured a "good morning..." in a weary voice, "need help?"

A male voice replied, "No thanks, if I need it, I'll call you"

The girl gave a small nod, without taking her eyes off her cell phone, then a tactical pants, a hooded jacket, a shirt and a pair of boots, all in black, were put on the counter.

"Hum? all black? are you going to commit a crime by chance?" the girl said in a playful voice, she looked up and then lost her speech.

The boy in front of her was handsome, he appeared to be close to her age, but he was tall and muscular, his face was angular and handsome, and strangely familiar.

"Hi Hanna" The boy spoke with a smile, Hanna's heart jumped with the smile.

"Do I ... do I know you?"

"Don't you remember me?" Locke smiled again, Hanna was one of the few people who hadn't ignored him before, she was a student at the same college as Locke, and although they didn't take the same course they took some mandatory classes together, although they weren't very friendly, Hanna was treated Locke better than most, always greeting him and asking him out with everyone, Locke hadn't once accepted but it didn't seem to bother her. "It's me, Locke!"

"Locke? My God man! What happened to you? You changed a lot! " They hadn't seen each other in a time, but Hanna still remembered the shade boy with almost no presence.

"Late puberty" said Locke playfully.

"Dude ... I barely recognize you! You are now so buff and muscular..." Hanna starts blushing "Are you taller?"

"Just your impression, I just started exercising more," lied Locke. "Anyway, can you pack these clothes for me?"

Hanna smiled and packed her clothes, Locke paid and he was getting ready to leave when he heard her say:

"Wait, Locke! So... it will be my birthday next weekend... would you like to come?"

Hanna opened a smile, she always asked Locke to go out with her group trying to include him with the group of students, she herself had suffered a lot in her teens due to her unconventional style, so she always tried to include the displaced ones, but Locke always refused, and she didn't care so much, but this time she wished with all her heart that he said yes.

"Why not? Call me!" Locke replied with a smile, leaving the store.

***

"So, who's the goth chick?" Tia asked playfully, as she circled Locke, invisible to everyone else who passed by on the street.

"A college friend, but you already knows, since you can read my mind," replied Locke.

"How boring, you really don't understand anything about romance!" said Tia, making a pout.

"Forget about it by now, we have more important things to do for now, right?" replied Locke, changing the subject.

Tia crossed her arms in protest and said "fine!", Tia then stopped in the air, she raised her hands and a magic circle formed over her feet, "I found it! Follow me!" she started to fly in one direction, Locke followed and after a while they were on a dead-end alley behind a building.

"Here, there are signs of a rift around here, I don't feel any traces of anything going through, so there should be nothing that you can't deal with on the other side, it's perfect for our first hunt!"

Locke looked at the end of the street, he felt a strange sensation in that place, as if the air there was heavier.

"We are going back here tonight!"

***

That same night Locke was back on the alley, dressed in the clothes he had prepared, Locke looked like a big, wide shadow in the night.

"You really look like someone who's about to commit a crime," Tia said sneeringly.

Locke ignored the comment and asked, "How do I get through?"

"True Dragons have the natural ability to cross between dimensions, it's in your blood, that's how you crossed that night, just walk as far as you feel the gap is and cross it"

Locke took the dagger out of his pocket and walked to the end of the street, he felt that the air was heavier at a certain point and soon he could perceive a certain distortion in the air, he took a deep breath and crossed.

Locke saw a strange landscape, it looked like an old village in pieces, with a few stone houses still standing, a huge meadow stretched around the village, with a forest visible in the distance.

"Another place straight out of a horror movie"

Locke began to scan the surrounding landscape, looking for any possible danger, "What should I expect? More zombies? "

"No" replied Tia, "There are no signs of necromancy"

Three small shadows crossed the sky at that moment.

"They're coming!" Tia said.

Locke took a battle position, as he prepared to face the creatures flying towards him, the creatures charged towards Locke, he jumped to the side while cutting with the dagger hitting the wing of one of the creatures, the creature fell on the ground thrashing as the others returned to heaven preparing for yet another onslaught.

Locke can finally observe the struggling creature. The creature was small, barely larger than a domestic cat, it had bat wings, with head and beak ressembling a large mosquito and four insects legs that extended from the body. Locke crushed the struggling creature with his boot, "What the f*ck is that?" He asked.

"Estirges, small flying monsters that feed on blood, they are not very strong but do not let them sting you." Replied Tia.

The stretches repeated the charge, Locke had an idea and ran towards one of the dilapidated walls, using the wall Locke jumped over the stretches, the beasts were not agile enough and hit the wall, being momentarily disoriented, Locke did not he wasted time and kicked one of the creatures, crushing it against the wall like an insect. The Third creature tried to fly again more before it could even launch the dagger, hitting the creature, which fell to the ground still alive, Locke crouched and finished the job.

"That was easy," Locke complained, "Why didn't I get a Level?"

"Because what you killed were just drones, they are even weaker than an undead! But don't worry, a gap with insect monsters is a great find! There must be other types around here! In addition, most insect monsters are dumb as a door and reproduce rather quickly! If we manage to ensure this gap we will have a constant source of experience and vital energy! We just need to make sure that no one else uses that rift!"

Locke, picked up the dagger and looked around again, he saw a large building-like structure out in the distance.

"What is that?"

"It looks like a nest of estirges, definitely has a queen."

"Should I go over there?"

"I don't think so, let's research the area first, maybe we will find other creatures."

***

Locke had walked for a few minutes and fought two more patrols of estirges in the meantime, the patrols were always three, but his attacks were so predictable that Locke was now able to fight the beasts without any difficulty.

Locke had also found some horned rabbits, Tia called them jackaloppes, but they fled to holes below the ground as soon as he approached, Tia thought they were the food base of that rift.

While walking carefully through the meadow Locke saw a creature in the distance, crouching in the bush, Locke began to approach, the creature was a four-legged insect of about five feet, the creature looked like a mixture of an insect with a lion, with compound jaws and antennae and a lionlike mane, the creature was devouring the corpse of a huge caterpillar.

"An Antlion, this can be a little dangerous, but now is the best time to attack since he is distracted by eating that dead Auseq" Tia spoke in Locke's mind "The best time to hunt a predator is when it is distracted by a prey "

Locke silently agreed, he approached the creature slowly, when he was close enough he invested, the creature turned towards the sound and was met with a kick rigth in the face, with the preliminary confusion of the beast, Locke stabbed the creature a few times, but the dagger barely passed through the shell, Locke aimed between sections and finally the blade penetrated deeply, the creature did not die and tried to bite Locke who dodged letting the knife still atache in the creature side, the creature attacked him angrily but Locke jumped, kicking at the end of the hip where the dagger was, the dagger acted as a lever and tore the creature apart, separating almost all the his hips from the back, but the blade broke in the process, Locke grabbed it by the end of the tail and pulled all out, being an insect, the creature had great vitality and stills refuse die, but Locke took advantage of the lack of mobility to violently pluck the others the creature's paws, then the head's, at last Locke heard a voice in his mind.

[Level two has been reached!]