Novice Reincarnator

I raced through the forest on all fours. A storm of angry buzzes was hot on my five tails. Two furious roars crashed through the forest in pursuit as well. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I couldn’t help but lick the remnants of honey off of my lips.

It was totally worth it.

I could escape from the army of Soldier Bees by hiding in my fox den, but the two Tyrant Bears would quickly tear my home to shreds. I was now far enough away from the hive that there was no chance any reinforcements would be sent.

I darted into a bush and used what I had learned during my time as a 4 Tailed Fox Beastman to enter stealth. My five tails thrummed with ki as I prepped a powerful wall of [Fox Fire]. Within moments, an army of gold and black soldier bee’s raced through the air.

My weak stealth wouldn’t be enough to escape detection for long, but it was good enough for my ambush.

“Fire Wall!”

I cried out my self-named ki technique. Saying the technique outloud served no other purpose than making me feel more powerful. I wasn’t embarrassed because there was no one around to hear me.

A beautiful blue wall of flames appeared abruptly in front of the angry soldier bees. Many couldn’t stop in time and plunged straight into the fire. The ones in the back of the army quickly flew around the fire wall and were on me.

“Flame Coat!”

Blue flames coated my entire body. Any enemy that touched me would suddenly find themselves catching fire. With my strong [Ki III], none of these soldier bees would be able to escape death.

My claws flashed and I leapt into the army of soldier bees. Blood and fire danced on the wind. Soldier Bees had weak defenses and relied on their stingers to attack. Unfortunately for my opponents, my flames would kill them the moment they stung me and I was already very resistant to their poisonous stings.

This was an easy experience farm that I had stumbled upon during my life with three tails. Today would have been another easy win if it wasn’t for the two Tyrant Bears that apparently had their eyes on the same honey hive that I did. They didn’t take kindly to having their food snatched from them.

I ignored the sharp pain of the stingers stabbing my body from all directions as my ears carefully listened to the approach of the Tyrant Bears. Intense heat filled my body from the sweet experience rush I gained at slaughtering soldier bees. Very quickly, I hit max level and all of the further experience I received was directly converted into replenishing my ki.

“Flame Slash!”

My claws slashed through the air, sending streaks of [Fox Fire] in all directions. Tens of Soldier Bees died with each slash. I wasn’t fast enough. Two Tyrant Bears crashed into the scene and the situation went from manageable to life threatening.

Thankfully, I momentarily had an inexhaustible amount of ki, so long as there remained Soldier Bees I could kill. I didn’t hesitate to launch the first strike on the approaching Tyrant Bears.

“Flame claw!”

Densely packed blue flames coated my hand as I clawed at the Tyrant Bear with a brown fur coat. Unlike every other time, my hand encountered a fierce resistance against the brown fur of the Tyrant Bear and left only a shallow cut.

“Tsk.”

[Fox Fire] flickered on the cut, but the Tyrant Bear’s own impressive life force quickly extinguished my invading ki. My foe was no weaker than I was and to make matters worse, there were two of them.

An angry roar shook my eardrums. [Instinct] kicked into overdrive. I leapt backwards just as the Tyrant Bear slammed its paws into the ground. Rock spikes shot up from the ground and pierced the area I had just vacated.

[Instinct] screamed that I wasn’t out of danger yet. I turned my eyes to the second Tyrant Bear. This bear had just swiped at the empty air, despite the vast distance between us. Incomprehension slowed my reaction.

By the time my senses picked up the strange wave of energy, it was too late. All I managed was to shift my body to the side. A sharp wind cut off my left arm cleanly at the shoulder. 

“Ahhh!”

[Instinct] kicked in while I was paralyzed by pain. I quickly burned my bleeding shoulder to cauterize the wound. Beastly fury kicked in and I growled at my enemies.

“I’ll kill you!”

The punishment for the crime of taking one of my arms was death. It didn’t matter how much damage I took. [Fox Fire] danced wildly around my body as I poured everything I had into manifesting my fury.

There was no point in childishly shouting my attacks. I kicked off the ground and shot like a flame bullet to the source of my wrath. The wind manipulating Tyrant Bear was surprisingly agile, but it’s bulky size couldn’t match my [Agility].

My flames slashed at the teal-coat of the Tyrant Bear, leaving deep wounds on its arm. I wasn’t able to sever its arm. I leapt out of the way as wind and stone lashed out in retaliation.

The remaining Soldier Bees fled in a panic as our fight intensified. I used the wind Tyrant Bear’s body as a shield from the angry earth Tyrant Bear’s attacks, effectively rendering the slow bear with a brown coat useless.

Not only were defenses of the wind Tyrant Bear weaker, it also had much more trouble extinguishing my [Fox Fire] with its wind. Within a minute, I had covered the wind Tyrant Bear in cuts and blue flames enveloped its entire body.

The earth manipulating Tyrant Bear did its best to put out my flames with its earth ki, and it did manage to put out the flames on the surface, but it was helpless against the flames that had invaded its partner’s body.

The wind Tyrant Bear collapsed with a thud and the intense heat of an experience rush filled my body. One down. One to go.

The earth Tyrant Bear roared at me. I roared back even louder, not willing to be defeated. I was off balance with the loss of an arm, but that mattered little. The earth Tyrant Bear was even slower than the wind Tyrant Bear.

If a single cut wouldn’t work, then I would make ten cuts. If ten cuts wouldn’t work, then I would make a hundred. With five tails powering my ki, I was confident that I would not be the one to run out of energy first.

Blood and flames danced on the wind as I scored another shallow cut against the earth Tyrant Bear. Its brown fur was scorched and riddled with blood. My flames lasted longer and longer as the battle drew on.

The earth Tyrant Bear was running out of energy to put out my flames. In the end, I sat on the corpse of the wind Tyrant Bear and watched as my flames slowly consumed the earth Tyrant Bear.

Another rush of experience filled my body, but it did nothing to bring back my lost arm. Normally I would have tried to cook some bear meat, but I wasn’t in the mood. I searched for my missing arm and burned it to a crisp. It was impossible for me to reattach it, so I decided I would rather burn it than have it enter into some monster’s stomach.

I trudged back to my home with much heavier steps than usual. Goodbye, fifth life. Hello, sixth life.