Darius' actions infuriated the malevolent animals as they yipped and barked back at him even more angrily, yet none dared to approach. They were extremely fearful of his might, but they didn't leave because they still outnumbered him greatly.
Darius knew that too, which was why his thoughts were running super fast on how to resolve this situation. He knew some basics about hyenas thanks to the NatGeo channel which he had watched in his offtime, but that didn't make him an animal expert.
Darius had an idea and walked to the carcass of one of the nearby hyenas. He then bent over it and plunged his iron dagger straight into the corpse and began skinning its hide deftly.
This, of course, almost made the surrounding hyenas go mad as they advanced. Laughing at and taunting them was one thing, even killing one of them in self-defense was just the way of the wild, but carving up their dead brethren's corpse right in front of them?
Darius' eyes flashed when one of them came too close in anger, and he quickly fired a Sparks spell at it. The poor wild dog had been too enraged to pay attention to its situation properly, so it received the electrical shower without fail.
When the beasts watched another of their kin fall dead, they abruptly paused and fled back again as the fear set in again, this time much stronger than before. Alas, the anger also remained as Darius continued to carve the corpse leisurely, as if it meant nothing to him.
Darius had succeeded in killing a quarter of the beasts using timing and some tricks, but to clear the rest in a manner that didn't make those survivors go crazy and risk it all would be hard.
For the time being, he simply removed the hide of the hyena and began working on its meat. Despite all this, the remaining survivors seemed content to bark and yip from their distance without any intention to get close.
They had once again entered a troublesome stalemate. Darius did not dare to show any weakness by retreating or acting soft, as they would maul him, while they did not dare to be the first one to rush in, as he could kill one of them in one shot.
No one wanted to be the first guy, and hyenas were not so noble that one would sacrifice their life for the pack. Darius needed something more solid and fearsome to scare them off, and his Ember spell seemed to be the answer he had been looking for.
Hyenas would respond strongly to fire over lightning, so he just needed to find the right opportunity…
In the meantime, he quickly carved up the corpse beneath him and kept the hide as well as the meat in his Inventory, with the stuff from the Grey Bear and the tusks from the Wild Boar.
Darius had a few plans that could work if he used Conversion Points, but he refused to be so wasteful. The day had just begun and he had already spent 8 of his 10 Conversion points, so he felt he had to be more miserly with them.
Mana though, was not an issue. He could recover that quickly and easily. How he wished this confrontation would be one where he had cover to hide behind, or if he could just get someone to act as a defender for him.
More than ever, Darius wanted to reach civilization and acquire some useful people to brand, so that traversal like this would become easier. A Magus was not meant to be a frontline fighter unless they were a Spellblade, yet Darius' other class was an Itemancer, someone who arguably should never be on the battlefield.
Darius was finished with the first corpse, so he walked over to the second one. Instead of carving it up though, he stretched his hand over it and cast Ember.
A shower of flames not lesser in quantity than the sparkle of lighting from the Sparks spell rained down on the corpse, quickly setting it alight. This made the watching hyenas howl in anger and fear.
Some of the pack were considering retreat. A human who could summon death and fire was not to be toyed with. A predator never fought another predator who had equal or more power, unless it was over territory or a conflict of interests. Treating another predator as prey was a sure-fire way to earn death, or at best, a pyrrhic victory.
'First, that strange blue light that killed our brethren, now the dreaded fire? Just what is this human? This was supposed to be easy prey on these grasslands, yet we've lost 3 of our brothers with nothing but empty air to eat!' While the hyenas were obviously not clever enough to make these kinds of sapient analysis, they did have instinct.
The alpha of the pack barked at the others to maintain order, but it was futile. Hyenas were not wolves, they were not noble and loyal animals, but traitorous bullies that liked to torment and torture others.
When they were on the receiving end? Not so fun for them.
Once the first one broke off and began running, it was a prelude to a full escape. Darius didn't let this chance go, as he fired one more Sparks off at a running hyena as it went, killing it.
This made the survivors bolt even faster so they would not share this fate. In the end, even the alpha slinked away with a filthy look towards Darius, but he had no interest in fighting it.
Once they were gone, he sighed and checked the messages from the system.
[You have gained 5 EXP, 3 Bronze Ando Coins, and 1 Inferior Mana Potion.]
[You have gained 5 EXP, 1 Bronze Ando Coin, and 1 Inferior Stamina Potion.]
[You have gained 5 EXP, 2 Bronze Ando Coins, and 1 Inferior Health Potion.]
[You have gained 5 EXP, 1 Bronze Ando Coin, and 1 Rusty Iron Sword.]
Interestingly, the loot they dropped was better than the Level 2 Reticulated Python, but still inferior to the level 3 Grey Bear.
Curious about the items specifically, he Inspected them.
