A Salamander, but Mighty

If you lose track of something, I'm writing all important data in the glossary!

"Is there any problem?" Velen asked blankly, “ah! Concentrate on it, you should be able to see its name and its level.”

A gurgle from her stomach made her chose to obey. The black eyes of the lizard monster fixed insistently on the form of the horrid insect.

[Walflie – Lv: 1]

It was on the first level like her, and beyond a sting that felt like it would hurt a lot, it didn't seem to be in possession of any other weapons that could have hurt Tamara. The insect - which was more or less a third of her size - was resting on a stone along the watercourse not far from her, at a fairly short distance that Tamara calculated as suitable for a jumping attack from the 'high.

Maybe I made a mistake, maybe I should have selected an attack Feat, she thought, regretting having listened to her fear after risking her life against the cat monster, waiting won't make things better. Okay, here I go.

Tamara took a final measurement of the distances she would have to travel in the air and then took a step back, took a deep breath and tried to leap over the high ground to carry out an ambush worthy of an eagle. One moment she had the tall grass smacking on her face – maybe we should start calling it a snout – the next moment she was hovering in the air, whipping all over her torso, neck and chin.

“Ouch!” She hadn't yet gotten used to her new body and it was the first time she had taken a leap as a salamander monster, this meant not aiming properly and instead of crashing on the large insect with her whole body as she had calculated, Tamara ended up only managing to fall really close and grab one of its wings with her mouth.

It tasted horrible.

And the battle became inevitable.

The giant insect let out a high-pitched screech that didn't give Tamara goosebumps only because her skin was made of black and yellow scales; she didn't let go and tried with her stubby little four legs to hold her prey and try to bite it in a better place where the killing would have been easier.

The monster was on a rampage and you could tell it didn't want to be eaten just as Tamara wouldn't have eaten it if she had the choice of anything else like a nice salami, or maybe some cheese...

A sudden pang of pain brought Tamara back to focus on the present time: the horrible insect had somehow managed to twist enough that it was able to stick its stinger into one of Tamara's sides, making her feel as if her blood had caught on fire.

“Tam! Beware of its sting!” Velen shouted in a clearly alarmed tone, “it's its primary attack and it can do a lot of harm!”

Ah thanks for the warning! I didn't notice it! She thought without letting go, she wasn't some survivalist in her past life, but if a lion cub in exile could grow up on a diet of bugs, why not her?

With a paw, Tamara gave a sort of slap to the wasp-dragonfly hybrid, the walflie reacted furiously and tried to sting her again, but this time she was ready: the moment her prey took the swing to plant the sting as deeper as possible, she opened her triangular mouth and grabbed it harder, clamping with all the strength of her small teeth on the lower half of the giant insect, pulling so much that she managed to tear the monster in two.

Yet it really didn't want to die, even the stinger was still throbbing as if it was still attached to its body and was trying to inject - possibly - more venom into her.

'DIE! DIE! DIE!' She screamed in her mind as she continued to bite and tear and stomp until all that was left of the bug-monster was giant insect goo on top of a puddle of some yellowish substance that stained the brown of the earth and the green of the grass.

SYSTEM: DING! You went up [1] level! [+2] Traits points to place, [+1] Feat available.

“Woah! You did it!" Velen exclaimed, fluttering around her with a swaying motion that made the orb of light appear as if it were engaged in a dance, “I knew you had what it took to do it!”

Tamara's heart was pounding in her head and she was out of breath, she felt a bit feverish and her blood was still on fire from the poison that had been injected into her - not even close to be enough to kill her - and now she found herself contemplating the product of her battle, together to the fact that now there was the even worse part of fighting the bug: having to eat it.

"Come on! Eat it!” The guardian spirit encouraged her.

For Velen it was easy: she had probably never had to eat, she was a being whose nature surpassed that of any monster, therefore she had no particular idea about what to eat and what not, just as she lacked a sense of taste, or at least these were the conclusions Tamara reached… what intelligent creature would see an insect and think it was some easy-to-catch delicacy?

“Y-yes, just... just a moment,” she muttered as she approached the larger remains of the walflie and inhaled deeply through her nostrils.

The smell doesn't seem so bad, she thought, raising her completely black eyes towards the ball of light that emitted no light – if that made any sense – maybe it's just a matter of making an habit...

She closed one leg of the insect monster inside her mouth and clamped her little teeth until it tore, then chewed it a few times.

Mmh...

M-mh!

Yeah, it tasted like crap.

"SHIT WOULD TASTE BETTER!" Tamara said after forcing herself to swallow, “wasn't there anything that looked better and tasted better??” She asked whining.

“There was, but they would have eaten you,” Velen replied, “this is the actual best you can get!”

Disconsolate and unhappy - as well as in pain -, Tamara proceeded to eat the rest of the large insect, a complicated operation given that with every bite she ate she felt the already eaten parts trying to exit her stomach from the wrong side; when there was nothing left but a puddle on the ground, the system that had informed her shortly before that she had risen in level made itself heard again, with another positive note that raised Tamara's -otherwise very low - morale.

SYSTEM: [Hungry] status improved to [Nourished]. Penalties removed.

The first good news since she was reincarnated!

"...And what now?" She asked herself, “maybe I should try to gain some more levels.” Tamara turned her arrow-shaped head towards Velen, “maybe a few more levels before I stray from your borders would help.”

Velen didn't answer her, she simply remained floating in place.

“Well, first of all I'd say I'll check my level up,” if it weren't for the fact that she couldn't touch her paws, she would have rubbed them together in a conspiratorial manner.

“Um, speaking of your idea of moving away from my borders…” Velen began to say in a vague tone of voice, as if she was preparing to say something that Tamara might not have liked.

Maybe Velen wasn't this great altruist with a pure heart after all...