6. Warning Signs

The beast's roar reverberated, startling the area as it locked its eyes on Clifford, sending a shiver down his spine. This awakened the wendigo's soul inside his Sea of Conesus, causing it to take control over his body as it instinctively assumed its form and immediately turned around, fleeing for its life.

The shock confused and annoyed Clifford as he felt something else controlling his body, ruining his plan. As the Wendigo fled the area using Clifford's body, the gigantic monster chased it down, causing havoc by destroying the trees and blocking its path. Feeling danger closing in, Clifford assisted in taking partial control of his body, sensing that his life was on the line.

Turning his head around, he witnessed the beast closing in right behind him, its blade raised, preparing to slice him in half. His will to survive kicked in, freeing his body from the Wendigo's control completely. At that moment, the blade came down like a meteor, but Clifford threw himself to the side, rolling just in time to save his life from the impending doom.

Without allowing Clifford to catch a break, the bear drove its blade toward Clifford once more in an attempt to slash him, but he barely managed to dodge it. Followed by one attack after another, Clifford remained alive as he returned to his human form to reduce his size, allowing him to move more effectively. Nevertheless, he sustained several injuries from the blade grazing him a couple of times.

Shortly, the bear's attack speed started dwindling as frustration assaulted it, slowly leaving openings for Clifford to attack. He waited patiently for a chance to strike. Half an hour later, the beast's speed diminished greatly, no longer having the strength to strike, giving Clifford the signal to attack.

Giving it his all, Clifford charged at the beast, propelling himself up high and aiming for the bear's eyes as he held the small antler in his left hand. Coming face to face with the beast, he attached himself to it by grabbing tightly onto its fur with his right hand. Then, he struck the antler into the beast's left eye, causing it to roar in pain as it used its claw to shove him aside, sending him flying and crashing into the distance.

Devastated by the impact, Clifford watched the beast hold its eye, crying out loudly in pain. As he slowly recovered, he celebrated his success and decided to proceed with the next step of the plan.

After approaching it and slowly circling it, the moment came when Clifford felt his confidence building up since the beast didn't attempt to attack him. Instead, it took a defensive stance, keeping him in its view and rotating itself in an attempt to keep up with his speed.

Thoroughly in vain, the beast tried to protect itself from Clifford as he continued to strike it time after time, driving the antler deep into its body before pulling it back and retreating to avoid the bear's feeble attacks. Shortly after, with a couple of bloody holes, the beast, unable to sustain itself further, fell to the ground on its knees, seemingly giving up on defending itself.

The beast's feeble appearance encouraged Clifford to approach it calmly, preparing to kill it. As he came close, his body gradually transformed into the Wendigo's form, influenced by the soul in his Sea of Consensus. Standing right in front of it, Clifford split his jaws wide open as he bit down on its neck, ripping a large chunk of meat while holding it in place using both of his arms.

The helpless beast screamed in pain as Clifford proceeded to eat it alive, swallowing its meat chunk by chunk until it met its demise. This didn't last long as Clifford felt full and content with the amount he ate for now, leaving the remaining parts of the beast to eat later. His body wasn't in a very bad condition, just some light injuries and bone fractures here and there.

Not the result he anticipated, but not bad either. If his opponent couldn't push him over the edge, then it didn't mean he would allow himself to get damaged intentionally just to grow stronger. Unlike intentionally damaging his body by resorting to extreme measures, this would count as a defeat from someone unworthy. His pride didn't allow him to do such a thing.

An hour passed, and Clifford was now working on separating the bone blade from the bear's body. After successfully clearing the meat around it, he was finally able to get a hold of it. The blade replaced one of the elbow bones and was connected to the other one, which Clifford found decent enough as a handle.

The blade's shape was oval, with a thickness of nearly half a meter from the handle. Then, its thickness gradually decreased as its length extended toward the tip. Clifford tested the blade's sharpness and found it worthy; it could easily cut down a thick tree with just one swing and minimal effort. This made him content with the hunt.

The night was approaching, and the cave was far from Clifford's current location, prompting him to abandon it since nothing of importance remained there. This gave him the idea to build a camp around this area, a place where he could spend the night and hunt regularly without the need to go back and forth.

Despite not having any tools to build anything decent, he could just construct a simple shack. Pushing his thoughts aside, he decided to skip that and instead sleep high on a tree branch, saving the resources he had around him for his benefit. Since he had seen nothing around since his fight with the bear, he assumed this area was its territory, and thus, nothing stronger came here.

Leaving the bear's remains on the floor, he proceeded to climb the tree next to him right away. A few moments later, his consciousness started fading as he fell asleep leaning on the tree's trunk.