### [Author’s Note]
Thank you! The recommendations and comments are increasing. Maybe one day, I’ll get to the New Today Best. sniff
### 15. Stalker045 – Stalker #3
— Swoosh!
A slippery tentacle wrapped around my waist.
It was stickier than I’d imagined, and the pressure was so strong that I could barely breathe.
— Ugh! What the heck is this!
I extended my claws and swiped at the tentacle clinging to my waist.
The sensation of my claws slicing through the smooth, soft texture was vividly etched in my mind.
With a loud Swoosh!, the tentacle detached from my body.
It seemed like the creature felt pain too.
— Grrrr! Ugh! Let me out!
I could see Lao-Hoo, who had been completely gobbled up by the Stalker, bouncing around inside its belly.
The Stalker’s octopus head stretched into a shape resembling Lao-Hoo’s front paws.
‘Not sure what I should do, but should I just leave it and run?’
I had no sense of loyalty towards someone I had just met.
In fact, I had a feeling that fighting this Stalker could lead to something unpleasant and troublesome.
As I cautiously stepped back, the Stalker’s two black eyes fixed on me.
— Swoosh!
It immediately reached out with its tentacles to grab me.
Despite having just devoured a large cat, it didn’t seem full.
Is it just that bigger creatures require more food?
Its long tentacles snapped against the surface of the water like a whip.
As expected of a mollusk’s tentacles, they were writhing and executing erratic attacks.
Still, they were less potent and dangerous compared to the leader’s attacks that swung Yan-Mite’s tail.
‘The numbers are a bit bothersome though!’
I scratched the approaching tentacles mercilessly with my claws.
One I swiped at would bring two closer, and if I swiped at two, four would come rushing at me.
— Swoosh!
Eventually, one tentacle ended up wrapping around both of my arms.
Dodging the attacks from all sides was still a challenge for me.
With my arms restrained, I twisted my body.
The only place I had freedom was my mouth, so it made the most sense to bite and escape my restraints.
I opened my mouth wide and crunch, I took a bite out of the Stalker’s body.
‘Hmm?’
Surprisingly, instead of the fishy taste I expected, its body had a fresh and bubbly flavor.
If the Wildling’s round grape-flavored jelly was one thing, this creature was like long, cola-flavored jelly.
‘Delicious?’
I then decided to bite all the tentacles that were wrapping around me.
My escape attempt turned into a determination to eat the creature instead.
— You’re tasty!
Maybe it was the delightful flavor, or perhaps the result of my long hunger, but saliva was dripping from my mouth.
I stood on my four legs, puffing out my spikes and fur.
My heart pounded as if all the bl**d in my body was rushing to my face.
My reflection in the water started turning increasingly red.
At first, I wondered if I were bleeding, but my fur was turning red like I was being dyed.
It felt similar to the way that leader had dyed their hair red.
‘What’s going on? Is this a new skill effect?’
The only thing I could speculate about was that disturbing skill I had gained after consuming Duoksini called Frenzy.
I didn’t know what the effect was exactly, but overflowing strength wasn’t a bad feeling.
— Swoosh!
The Stalker launched its tentacles at me again.
I quickly dashed forward into its attack range.
The tentacles that had been launched struggled to keep up with my sudden movement.
‘It may be fast when launching, but afterward, it moves slowly.’
While circling around the creature to analyze the situation, I noticed it was moving its body slowly to follow me.
Some tentacles chased my back, but they weren’t fast enough to keep up with my sprinting.
‘Looks like there are about twenty tentacles in total.’
The tentacles connected to its body numbered somewhere between a dozen and twenty.
They were mixed; thin, long tentacles and thick, short ones.
The ones chasing me from afar were the thin, long tentacles.
They probably served as the quick jabs or distractions.
‘Then those thick tentacles must act like big fists.’
I stopped running and recalled the fight between Lao-Hoo and the Stalker.
Lao-Hoo, who had latched onto the Stalker’s head, had been entwined by the thick tentacles and dragged into its mouth without any proper resistance.
The bigger the body, the stronger the force.
Lao-Hoo was undoubtedly a strong creature in its own right. Being easily devoured showed just how powerful those thick tentacles were.
‘If I charged in blindly, I’d probably get caught by one of those thick tentacles too.’
I started to ponder for a good strategy.
If I had a g*n or arrows, I could sh**t from a distance and take it down.
Without any long-range attacks available to me, I was left with no choice but to close the distance for a melee.
However, there didn’t seem to be anything in the environment or landscape that I could use.
‘Charging in for a close-range fight feels reckless. Should I keep up this war of attrition?’
I continued to bite and claw at the long, thin tentacles coming for me.
However, when I saw the severed tentacles sprouting back, I realized that this war of attrition was pointless.
More than anything, the newly grown parts tasted like sand, dull and unappetizing.
— Eyes! The eyes are the weak point!
From inside the Stalker’s translucent head, Lao-Hoo suddenly poked its hands and face out.
It looked like it was trying to escape from its bouncy rubbery prison.
Lao-Hoo was struggling inside the Stalker’s head, clawing at its insides and attempting to inflict damage.
But the Stalker seemed completely unfazed by Lao-Hoo’s attacks.
It was either completely numb to the pain inside, or its skin was too thick and tough for the attacks to penetrate.
‘If I get caught in that mouth, it’s game over.’
Should I be grateful that I’m not being chewed on?
— Swoosh!
The tentacles chasing me wrapped around my hind legs.
I quickly tried to swing my claws, but it flung me into the air.
My vision flipped instantly as my body soared high above the trees.
Surely I was thrown over ten meters high.
As my body floated in the air, gravity grabbed hold of me, and I began to plummet back down.
— Wooooaaaaaaah!
Directly below me, the Stalker had its countless toothy jaws wide open.
It looked ready to swallow me whole, like tossing snacks into its mouth.
‘Ugh, I don’t know what to do. I’ll just tear you apart! It’s a big body! There must be a ton of food inside!’
While falling through the air, I sharped my claws.
Those claws had brought about the bl**d and flesh of many creatures; they were my most precious weapon now.
As I plummeted with gravity, I poured all my weight, hunger, and the inexplicable anger into my claws.
— Swoosh!
I dropped right into the Stalker’s mouth like a golf ball into a hole.
But my raised claws scratched the insides of its mouth thoroughly.
— You’re going to have a painful time brushing your teeth, ya j*rk!
— Woooaaah!
Screaming in agony, the Stalker still tried to force me deeper into its mouth.
Eventually, I found myself stuck inside a slippery meat pocket.
I wasn’t sure how its stomach was structured, but there was a thin membrane separating Lao-Hoo and me.
Upon realizing I had entered the Stalker’s belly, Lao-Hoo brightly exclaimed.
— Did you come to rescue me!?
— Nope, I got swallowed too.
At that moment, the Stalker’s belly lurched suddenly.
Soon, a pale liquid started seeping out from the thin membrane that surrounded me.
Hissss.
The liquid that touched my fur created white smoke and a pungent smell.
Perhaps feeling full after swallowing two beasts, the Stalker seemed to be ready to secrete powerful digestive acids.
— cr*p, what do I do?
I scrambled to claw at the Stalker’s insides.
But the smoother and stretchier walls of its belly didn’t get hurt by my claws at all.
It just slipped away easily, like everything was greased.
‘This is absurd.’
So far, no opponent had ever resisted my claw attacks.
So the fact that my claws were useless against this creature was quite a shock.
I yelled out to my ally Lao-Hoo in the next room.
— Hey, do something! You were the one who said you would help capture the Stalker!
— I-I’m also doing this for the first time on a rainy day… I didn’t know this thing would be so strong.
— What are you talking about? You’re Lao-Hoo, the master of the Western Forest, right? You’re the strongest in this forest!
— Yeah, my name is Lao-Hoo, but I’m not the master of the forest. That’s my dad! I never said I was the forest master.
— Oh. So you’re Mao. So you’re saying you’re not the forest master.
It was then that I realized I had misunderstood something.
I had vaguely thought that someone named Lao-Hoo must be the forest master.
It appeared that there were indeed separate creatures with the same name.
— Ah, Dad!
The Lao-Hoo next to me was now thrashing around, growling loudly like a lost child calling for their father.
‘cr*p, what do I do?’
Watching the Stalker’s stomach writhing and contracting, I trembled with anxiety and impatience.
The stomach acids were now rising up to my knees.
It burned and tickled like I was soaking my knees in cola.
It didn’t feel too bad now, but if I stayed like this for hours, my body would probably turn to mush like a melted pizza.
‘I need to do something. I need to do something!’
I was starting to feel claustrophobic in this cramped space.
Moments before I opened my eyes in this world, I recalled the time I was trapped inside an egg.
I had faced countless adversities and hardships after waking from that egg, and now I was supposed to be eaten by this octopus? How utterly disappointing.
— Dad! Dad!
— Shut up! I’m thinking!
— Hmph!
I scolded the large cat next to me, which had been being noisy.
It appeared surprised into silence by the sudden roar.
I took a deep breath and tried once more to stab the stomach wall with my claws.
The tips were still sliding off smoothly, proving my claws had no effect against it.
Maybe it was coated with some special chemicals able to withstand strong stomach acids.
‘But it’s still flesh and bl**d. There can’t possibly be a material with this perfect defensive quality.’
Denying reality, I quickly began to think.
Were there any other attacks I could use? That spiky growth on my back came to mind.
Not that I’m bragging, but the tips of my spikes were sharp enough, like needles or toothpicks, and should be sharper than my sturdy claws.
In terms of surface area, while my claws were like a line, my back spikes were truly like small points.
In terms of piercing, they certainly had an advantage over my claws.
‘Whatever happens now, I’m going to try everything!’
I grabbed one of the spikes growing from my back.
It hurt a bit, like having a hair pulled, but that wasn’t what mattered.
With a long and sharp spike in hand, I forcefully stabbed it against the Stalker’s stomach wall.
— Swoosh!
The Stalker lurched violently.
The spike I stabbed was dangling there, embedded in the Stalker’s stomach wall.
— Got it! It’s hurt!
I felt a rush of joy, as my bl**d heated up excitedly.
Holding onto the spike lodged in the stomach wall, I began twisting it around.
A small hole appeared in the Stalker’s stomach wall, gradually widening until it was large enough for my finger to fit through.
I tossed aside the spike and shoved my claws into the hole. I tore it open like it was a banner.
— You’re totally done for!
As the stomach wall crumbled, what lay beyond it—greenish flesh and innards—poured into the opening.
I plunged my claws into the insides and began tearing at everything in sight.
The writhing stomach wall convulsed and constricted around my body.
Was it trying to spit me out? It started an intense peristaltic motion.
— Too late, buddy!
I viciously bit down on the pink flesh exposed beyond the torn stomach wall.
I jammed my claws in everywhere and began to devour the creature from within.
— Swoosh!
I could distinctly feel the Stalker’s agony even inside its belly.
The crisis of being swallowed by the Stalker had become an opportunity for me.
Inside its stomach, there were no bothersome tentacles attacking me.
Instead, I could aim for the tender spots like the flesh or intestines, which was a significant miscalculation on its part, inviting its enemy to a critical weakness.
‘It probably thought its sturdy stomach wall would hold.’
But my struggles and efforts overcame its inherent body structure.
— Don’t ever mess with me again.
