Whisper in the Woods: The Cryptid Caretaker: Book 1, A LitRPG Adventure by Northcutt A. W

Author:Northcutt, A. W.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Loaded for Bear

I backed up, feeling my body push into the rock facade in a stark reminder that escape wasn’t an option, no matter how much I may have wanted it. My eye jerked from left to right, trying to find the source of the deep growl, yet the shifting shadows that lurked behind the tree line made that nearly impossible. When Chester took a step forward in challenge, we both received a lesson on the true king of the forest.

My spine seized against my will, hearing the bellowing war cry matched with jagged teeth the size of spark plugs and four massive claws that wouldn’t balk under the pressure it would take to crush my skull into a fine white powder. Soft brown eyes raged into fiery orange as it stepped from the darkness and let morning light envelop its massive body.

My feet couldn’t take me back any further as I failed to see an escape to my right or left. One thing I knew for certain: this was the last time I left my front door without a shotgun loaded up with the nastiest slugs my dad’s anti-authoritarian mind conceived of.

“Chester?” My voice asked shakily. “Is that like an ancient Navajo Shapeshifter or something?”

The raccoon scurried behind my leg and poked its head between my calves. “Is that what your CryptoLink triggered on?”

I shook my head. “It didn’t trigger.”

“Then it’s probably a pissed off black bear.”

“Is that better or worse?”

“Why are you asking questions and not doing something?”

“If you don’t want to attack it, that leaves me with the Jackalope and a Bukavac I can’t control.”

The bear took two more steps forward, sniffing the air while not seeing either Chester or me as a threat.

“If you summon a Jackalope to kill that bear, I’ll make sure you’re dead long before Bahloo gets the opportunity.”

Well, I had heard my father call Bubba a bear before, but I always thought he was referring to something else. Maybe this was the same thing? I looked down at my wrist and tapped at the screen until the British voice chimed in with her thoughts on the matter.

“Warning! This Bukavac is over five times your level, with an aggressive disposition. Increase your level to work with this creature or risk disobedience against your commands.

Activate again to override this warning.”

“This should be fun… Summon level sixteen Bukavac…”

Teal light shot from my wrist while half my body shook. Was that from ‘The Puckering,’ happening below my belt, or from the vibrating CryptoLink at my wrist? We may never know as the subject fell moot when an amphibious snarl met a mammalian roar.

The Bukavac whipped its tail around, ignoring the bear rising to its back feet in a show of indomitable might. On paper, and well on the forest floor about fifteen feet away, Bahloo stood tall enough to have two, maybe three feet on me with four to five times that in sheer mass alone. Then you had the frog, pig, lizard-thing whose back hardly reached above my shin, a figure the bear didn’t fear one single bit.

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