Shouts.
Squeaks.
All echoes through the plain, awakening a particular Puddle from his sleep prematurely.
The moment he fully woke up from his torpor, a small, furred body bounced off the ground beside him, stopped right beside its own partner.
It's Whitey.
His old feral neighbour who had accompanied him from the very first time he reincarnated into this world.
But the Puddle noticed that the hare's fur isn't as white as it should be. Whitey looks dirty and bloodied. Whether the blood originated from its own body or its opponent's, Ronata doesn't know. The only thing he was certain of was that Whitey was hurt and currently glaring at the grass with its mate squeaking confusedly behind it.
Figures then showed up from the formation of tall grass.
Ronata was stunned when he looked up at them.
They're Humans.
The same group he had been spying on all this time.
Now, they all raised their weapons, forming a defensive formation before Whitey and its mate.
'What happened?'
He knew. Ronata could immediately process the situation with his liquid brain, not to mention with the help of his skill, Fast Witted.
He's just having a hard time receiving it into his mind.
This morning, the sky was dark, engulfed by dark clouds. The dark curtain of clouds looked like a wall that blocked the sun from Ronata and them.
Now, the peace had long disappeared.
Only conflict and killing intents remained, and he knew, this conflict wouldn't end before one of them perished.
At this point, the only thing that mattered was whether Ronata would let Whitey and its mate or the opposite group die.
Whitey's mate couldn't fight with its current pregnant state, so only Whitey could shift to offensive action in their group, while the Humans are a group of people prepared for quarrels from the first place. The advantage is clearly on the Humans' side.
But who cares?
At least Whitey didn't care about that. It only had a stubborn thought of protecting its mate and its unborn children, no less, no more.
The hare grits its teeth, revealing its four triangular teeth that could tear flesh as easily as a rapier.
Its hind legs tensed, gathering strength.
The next moment—
The wind blew away.
The hare's figure disappeared and reappeared before the big man holding a shield amongst the group of Humans.
It agilely avoided the shield and assaulted the man's shoulder before they could even properly react to its flashing movement.
The hare stabbed its teeth deep into the man's shoulder with all of its might.
Thunder echoes ringing everyone's ears. Raindrops began pouring down. All aligned with the scream of the big man.
The Humans reacted and extended their hands out to remove the hare from their tank's shoulder. But before they could reach it, the hare disappeared again, this time targeting the mage of their group. Its mouth opened wide, letting its flesh-tearing teeth bare for the world to see. In those tiny eyes, only a sole purpose to eliminate threats from its mate's front remained.
No one from the Humans is fast enough to stop the hare.
By the time their leader raised his sword, the hare had already begun tearing the mage's throat. The mage could only scream, her fingers scratching the hare in a futile attempt to move it away from her.
Casting magic needs focus. In her current situation, she couldn't do a complicated task like that.
Fortunately for her, one of the men of their group, the fighter, reacted fast enough to kick the hare off her throat before it could deal fatal injuries to her.
Rain continued to pour down.
The hare's tiny figure landed on the ground 3 meters away from the group. Its wounds worsened, but it still hasn't given up. Not before the threats are fully eliminated.
Their opponent was only a single Harcrum, a mere low-level monster. But the fear is real, the unrest borne on their faces. Because this Harcrum was too fast, way faster than a normal Harcrum.
And it's too aggressive!
The ranger of their group turned her head toward another Harcrum that existed in this place.
A brown, fat hare.
Feeling remorseful about the fact that her friend almost lost her life to the white hare, the ranger raised her bow, and her other hand reached out to her back to retrieve an arrow from the quiver. She opened her eyes wide, eyes filled with anger, as she pulled the arrow back on the bow string.
Then she released it.
The arrow launched forward, tearing raindrops blocking its way, flying straight toward the fat hare that had a hard time even moving its own body.
The white hare noticed the arrow, but the leader and the fighter of the Humans blocked its path to protect its mate.
The white hare squeaked furiously as it launched at the leader blocking its way; it intended to take down this human and immediately save its mate.
But it was a mistake on the hare's part. It forgot about the existence of the fighter, and that small mistake paid it heavily.
Something heavy and strong, a blunt, a punch, hits its abdomen while it is still midair.
The heavy attack launched the hare's small frame away, bouncing on the ground without any chance to stop its body from flying away.
Its eyes focused on the arrow that almost reached its mate
A millisecond later, that arrow would pierce its mate's body, killing its mate along with its unborn children.
Yet it couldn't even stop itself from flying away.
It's frustrating, the hare thought.
At that very moment.
Suddenly,
The arrow is sliced in two midair, losing its momentum, and falls to the ground, failing to kill its target.
And the cause of it was—
A blade of water.
It was hovering in the air after it sliced the arrow.
Then it pointed its sharp side towards the group of Humans.
The raindrops stopped in their falling path, floating a meter away from the ground.
Slowly,
They began transforming themselves into water blades,
The sight that sends a shiver down the bodies of Humans.
Thunder howled, a crying trumpet that witnessed the difficult choice a particular Puddle had made.
On that day,
For the first time,
Blood spilled into the Puddle that had unknowingly felt pride in being a clean Puddle all this time.