Hunger

By the time Rio began rethinking his choice to jump into the portal and go after the level 4 direhog, his vision had been swallowed by darkness, and then as fast as it came it also disappeared.

On the other side of the portal, Rio appeared in a completely different world, but he paid it no attention as his sights locked on his prey.

The level 4 direhog trudged forward after crossing through the portal and after some seconds it came to a stop and let out a painful growl. 

Thinking about the humiliating defeat it had just suffered, rage filled it, but just as it began whimpering to itself, believing that it was in a safe and private space, his senses picked up on danger and his head snapped to it's right.

Shock ran through the level 4 dire hog's eyes, the beast unable to believe that Rio was here and that wasn't just because it had expected him to not follow him into the portal but rather because even if Rio had, he should have been taken to a dungeon, not here his home.

Unfortunately, what the beast didn't know was that Rio's system was inactive and with that, he was invisible to the mechanisms of the portal, to the portal's catalogue, only it had passed through. 

When Rio had laid his eyes on the beast though he had done his best to move as stealthily as he could towards it, never could he have expected that he would get more than 10 meters to it with it being none the wiser.

When the beast's head snapped towards him, finally becoming aware of his presence, Rio knew, but it changed nothing for him because by then it was too late.

Pushing his body off the ground with as much strength as he could so much that he left deep imprints in it, Rio coiled his body as he sailed through the air and then believing in his sturdiness, rammed his entire body against the Direhog's ankle smiling when a satisfying crack rang out.

Rio's hit had the direhog falling to it's side, but just as quickly, it stood up, though this time with a limp.

"I could do with that" Rio muttered, and just as he and the direhog made eye contact he pushed off towards it.

Not even aware of its actions, the direhog filled with fear turned to flee but then as he put pressure onto its hind leg to sprint forward, pain flooded it's senses and by the time it could think of adjusting to the loss of such a crucial limb, Rio got close to it and this time landed a kick on his already damaged ankle.

Pain ran through the Direhog and it's snapped back at Rio with an angry roar, but whereas another creature would be scared or move back in fear, Rio merely looked at it with a smile unfazed by it's temper.

"You know you'll die today right"

Bathed in another bucket of fear, the level 4 direhog adapting to the loss of strength in it's right hind leg attempted to flee again but it had barely made two leaps when Rio caught up with it and landed a powerful punch on it's face.

Rio's hit sent the beast staggering to the side, and he didn't wait for it to recover before he sent another hard one.

Rio's fists hurt from colliding with the sturdy bony face of the direhog but he ignored the pain. 

While the beast staggered struggling to orient itself especially now that it had lost the usability of one limb, Rio pulled his axe out of it's shoulder and with a spin swiped it at it's neck.

Shock flashed through the direhog's eyes at the sudden swing and with unwillingness it collapsed to it's knee, it's head soon dropping down, life leaving it's body.

"That's one way to die" Rio thought as stared at the best which would have looked like it was bowing to him if not for the blood rapidly pooling under it's neck.

With Victory achieved, Rio felt his rage fading away and the control he had over the energy slipping through his hands no matter how hard he tried to hold on to it. 

A strong sense of fatigue and weakness hit Rio but at the same time, something which had been crowded out and subdued by his hunger and greed for battle resurfaced.

Once again, not even aware of his actions, Rio climbed over the body of the direhog, used his axe to tear open it flesh and then he dived it.

Though the flesh of the level direhog was tougher than that of the previous beasts it was far sweeter and Rio happily went through the challenge of tearing it apart with his teeth.

At a point unknown to Rio, he collapsed on the flesh of the beast, gripping his stomach as the normal burning sensation which he always felt when he ate spiked up to unbearable levels.

Filled with agony, he writhed around in the corpse of the direhog for several minutes before calming down some and then with renewed hunger went back to feeding.

...…

It was the loud cry of a Circling bird that woke Rio from his deep slumber and when his eyes and senses awoke to the world, he immediately pushed himself out the side, escaping dive from above which saw a long red beak tear deep into the soil he had been resting on a second ago.

Pulling it's beak out with a cry, the towering green bird turned to look at Rio wanting to have another try at him, but instead of seeing the man on the floor what met its vision was a fist smashing into it's eyes and dropping it to the floor.

As Rio's heart calmed down from the action it had been sent to just on waking up, he observed the green feathery beast he had knocked out or perhaps killed and it was then that memories of when he was last conscious flooded his mind and he looked around finally taking a look at where he had gone and dumped himself.