In Loki's Honor

One paw went for the temple, the other on the shoulder. In the middle of both, the jaw filled with sharp canines bit the soft neck of the hunter. The man screamed. I watched it as if in slow motion, my body too scared to even breathe. The two, predator and prey fell on the shallow banks of the stream and I was sure the jaguar pushed the man's face down into the water. A trickle of red tainted and dyed the waters while the hunter struggled in vain. The jaguar didn't rip his throat out. No, the cat just held onto the neck and pressed the nape down, to make sure the prey would drown. A minute later, the deed was done and the jaguar dragged its catch to the shore.

The screams and struggle drew the attention of the nearby hunters. I could hear them crashing through the forest, shouting in their guttural speech. The jaguar, wary of the newcomers, chewed on its bite of neck-meat and looked up, the muzzled blood red with... hunter. Two hunters, bigger than the one that just died sprouted from behind the bushes and into the clearing. They took notice of the corpse still bleeding out by the bank and the jaguar.

The cat growled and roared. The hunters rose their stone spears and shouted back, making themselves big and menacing. I felt like fainting from fright. All my rabbit instincts telling me that I should drop dead. I heard a faint squeak and looked up without moving my head. Two branches above me, a squirrel resonated with my feelings as its bushy tail shivered. Our eyes met and it tilted its cheeky head. Yes, what is a rabbit doing up on a tree? Surviving, that is, my little herbivore forest friend. A thought passed through my mind and suddenly the show "Happy Tree Friends" had another dimension of depth to me. Because everyday life for us forest critters was gore and the threat of death.

Anyway, the combatants were set. And neither wanted to yield their ground. I had to push past my fright and suck in air. A rabbit with less mental fortitude would've surrendered by now, I was sure of it. Then I saw it. Amber's fur, made into a crude pouch on the crude belt of the crude caveman hunter. Rage boiled inside of me. I wanted to get back at them. Seriously. My siblings. Dead because these greedy bastards wanted to hunt us for extinction.

The hunters shouted gibberish and brandished their spears to try and scare the jaguar away from the dead youngster. Yes, now that I could measure them, it was clear that the one that died was a teenager. The dead kid should be the apprentice to the two sibling-murdering hulks trying to keep the mighty fury of the forest away from them with sticks and sharpened stones. And while I watched, I made my plan.

I was about to weaponize what I had in me. Brave bunny, move. I said so to my body. It didn't obey. I let my rage seep and used that as fuel to fight my fright. I would be the first-ever rabbit berserker any world ever saw if it were up to me. Amber was so kind! Amber deserved to live and frolic among the herbs of the forest. Not become some crude bone dice pouch. Whatever they had in there. I finally moved a paw and another. I was crawling up the branch and back to the trunk.

In the corner of my eye, I saw squirrel staring at me, mouth agape. He was "I don't believe you are going to do that, bro!" like of gawking. I looked sideways back at the squirrel and winked. I was sure he just thought I was blinking because he didn't see my other eye. Stupid herbivore lack of depth perception. I had some, but just right ahead. On the other hand, I hardly had a blind spot and a little twist of my head was enough to clear it.

Innuendo lost on the dumb critter, I reached the trunk and climbed up to find a branch that would take me over the hunters. Behind me, the standoff remained the same. The jaguar roared and displayed its sharp claws. The hunters yelled and brandished not-so-sharp flint spears. I know where I'd put my money. I heard more shouts coming from deeper in the forest and I realized their stratagem. The sneaky crafty humans were waiting for reinforcements!

That wouldn't do. Amber would be avenged on that day. I kept walking until I was over the two humans. Feel the wrath of the forest now! I wiggled my bunny butt in their general direction, clinging to the branch with my four paws sideways. I twisted my head to look and aimed.

Pow, pow. From the business district, as one could call, came punishment from the heavens. One could call it to rain if it were not for the musk scent and warmth. Yes! I sprayed everyone with my bunny pee. I was gloating and cackling inside, as rabbits lacked the apparatus to cackle and gloat like people. Instead, I was just making some very strange squeaks and tiny cute grunts. The blue boxes came with a vengeance.

EMERGENCY ACTIVATION. FAIRNESS PROTOCOLS LOADED.

Congratulations. You are now a part of the System because you engaged in deadly combat with System-enabled sentients. You are not an adult yet.

Your base Physical and Mental Attributes are all 2. ERROR. OVERRIDDEN BY USER'S TRAIT. USING CUSTOM ARRAY.

You gained 60 Attribute points to distribute.

As a rabbit, you've been granted the following traits:

You gained the Pioneer Trait (Unique): You are the first of your species to be inducted in the System. Skill growth increased by 10%. ERROR. USER ALREADY HAS THE TRAIT. SELECTING RANDOM REPLACEMENT.

You gained the Clay Transmutation Trait (Unique): You can spend MP to transmute matter into clay.

Small (uncommon): You are small. Your maximum HP is divided by 10. Damage dealt by physical attacks is divided by 10.

Your race's maximum physical Attributes are set to 9.

Your race's maximum mental Attributes are set to 7.

Your race Attribute growth is 1 per 3 levels.

You gained the racial skills, Dirt Burrowing (uncommon), Leaping (common), Wild Sense (common).

You have 5 Skill Points to distribute. Unassigned Skill points will be randomly assigned in 2 hours.

Your lifespan is 10 years.

Thankfully, it was fairness in my benefit. Seriously, a baby bunny against two grown men! After my forced induction, more messages popped.

Disease Vector activated. You successfully infected Grothnar [Human Hunter] with amebiasis.

Disease Vector activated. You successfully infected Uklangor [Human Hunter] with amebiasis.

Disease Vector activated. You successfully infected the jaguar with amebiasis.

Watching with my own eyes, I knew the System got the whole amebiasis disease wrong. I was not above using an exploit when I find one. The three down there started to bleed, vomit, and forcefully empty their bowels in a most gruesome and soft-doughy way. The trio fell to the ground and quivered as the System-empowered buggy disease ran its course. They moaned, growled, and wept. I climbed up the tree into a branch where I could hide and watch.

Once I found a new spot deep in the treetop, I looked down and found that my prey was in their last moments. But I also found that the tree limb I was on was withering and dying. I remembered the roots of my earthworm's life. They too shriveled and died. Was I spreading amebiasis to them? Damn, it wasn't supposed to work like that.

Five minutes-ish later, more humans reached the bank. They tried to help their fellows, but the System was relentless.

Disease Vector activated. You successfully infected Bubilanbar [Human Ranger] with amebiasis.

The look of terror in Bubilanbar's eyes was dreary. He looked around and retched. Soon he succumbed to the disease and joined his fellow hunters on the ground. The other human screamed and ran away, uttering what could only be a prayer to his pagan gods. I watched and waited. I don't know how long it took but the sun didn't move too much. The messages I was expecting came with a vengeance.

You killed level 31 Hunter. You gained 961,000 Exp (9,610 Base x 10,000 x 0.0001 x 100 Size Bonus).

You killed level 28 Hunter. You gained 784,000 Exp (7,840 Base x 10,000 x 0.0001 x 100 Size Bonus).

You killed level 51 Ranger. You gained 2,601,000 Exp (26,010 Base x 10,000 x 0.0001 x 100 Size Bonus).

Strangely enough, the jaguar endured more than the humans but bunny butt doom came to all.

You killed level 44 jaguar. You gained 1,936,000 Exp (19,360 Base x 10,000 x 0.0001 x 100 Size Bonus).

I felt a surge of power flow through me.

You reached level 15.

You gained 5 Attribute Points.

You gained 30 Skill Points.

You have 6,282,000 / 6,553,600 Exp to the next level.

You can select your 1st Profession.

You can select a Class.

You can select your 2nd Profession.

Damn. Levels were on a power-of-two scale. Crazy. Who would've thought I would defeat a superior species, apex predators with the power of a lousy amoeba? I wanted to stay there and gloat, but the smell down there was terrible. After moving and jumping a few trees away from the stream, I accessed my Status window and spent my points. Attributes were limited by my curses. I spent the points to set them to the maximum.

Strength: 9 / 9. Dexterity: 9 / 9. Endurance: 9 / 9 (HP: 14). Mind: 7 / 7. Willpower: 7 / 7. Charisma: 7 / 7. Magic: 0 / 0 (MP: 0).

The first glaring effect was that my thought process. It felt like everything was sluggish before. Now, I could think, do math in my head, and even do some complex thought constructs like solving a sudoku or plotting a path through a graph. Imagine things and so on. The next thing I did was to spend my Skill points.

Chemical Awareness (very rare) - novice 9

Cyst Hibernation (very rare) - novice 3

Dirt Burrowing (uncommon) - novice 9

Dirt Digestion (uncommon) - novice 9

Disease Vector (rare) - novice 9

Flagellum Movement (uncommon) - novice 2

Leaping (common) - novice 9

Mythosis (very rare) - novice 1

Phagocitosis (uncommon) - novice 6

Pseudopod (uncommon) - novice 6

Tremorsense (rare) - novice 9

Wild Sense (common) - novice 9

I waited for some time but nothing happened. When I was about to move back to the burrow, a glowing light shone right next to me.

"I finally found you," An ethereal voice came from the light.

From the light, a guy in a business suit walked out. He had a well-groomed hair, no beard, and nerdy square glasses on his face. It was so out-of-genre that I knew this guy must've stolen that image from my memories. He looked at me as I was thinking between running away or staying still and ignoring him. He looked behind him at the feast of diseased corpses and incinerated the whole area with a wave of his hands. A display of power to inflict fear in my heart. It worked.

"Can you hear me, rabbit?" The deity asked.

I nodded. The guy stared at me.

"Nod for yes, wiggle your ears for no. Can you understand me?"

Just to get on his nerves, I squeaked then I laughed. Not like a human, but my squeaks and body language should've conveyed the idea of laughter very well. Because the next thing the asshole deity did was to summon a bolt of lightning on the tree I was clinging to. I was smitten by a deity and instinctively flinched, waiting for that bout of pain, and the message communicating I was onward to my fifth life.

It didn't come. After a while, I could calm down enough to look around. The sky was cleary visible and I was in the same place. The tree was gone but the trunk I was clinging to remained intact. I opened an eye and peeked at a very ragged god panting.

"What did you do?" He asked me.

Then it hit me. I understood what the fucker Loki did. I pulled up my curse list. Then my perks. I focused on two entries.

Divinity Absorption (blessing, unique): Any use of divine power targeted at you or the area you occupy is nullified.

Divine Siphon (curse, unique): divine energy that targets you or enters in contact with you is drained and the power is sent to [REDACTED].

Why would something that nullifies powers be called "absorption"? Was that the sinister purpose of my existence? To drain the gods and feed [REDACTED]. You got half a chance to figure out whom it was about.

He rose a hand. "Wait. That didn't work. I'm not enraged. I'm Wyxnos, God of Logic. What did you do?"

I wiggled my ears.

"No? You don't know?"

I nodded.

"The gods won't be happy about this. Violence won't work. I doubt I can harm you even indirectly, were I to toss an ordinary stone at you. I propose a compromise."

As he said that, a prompt appeared to me.

Wyxnos, God of Logic, demands you surrender your {Disesase Vector} Skill. [YES] - [NO]

I hammered "NO" and glared at the god. His eyes unfocused and he returned. "I can't patch the Skill, as several monsters depend on it. I can't modify your Status to change your disease for some other less-deadly. Very well. Here's my second offer. I expect you to accept it.

Wyxnos, God of Logic, offers you the {Disease Immunity (rare)} Trait in exchange for your {Disesase Vector} Skill. [YES] - [NO]

I left it hanging. Jumping down, I looked for a twig, then took it on my mouth and started to write on some patch of dirt. Wyxnos watched me closely. The System rewarded me with my first word.

You showed proficiency with words. You gained the {LIteracy (common)} Trait.

You gained the English (unique) Skill. Starting proficiency, Journeyman 35.

I passed my SAT and graduated from college, thank you. Wyxnos flicked his hand and a wooden frame holding a clay tablet appeared in front of me. Better. Painstakingly, I wrote. "Throw in another trait for poison and I'll add my {Mythosis} Skill in the trade. You don't want me to make more of me, do you?"

The deity took his sweet time to decide. After a few minutes, he glowered. "You dare bargain with a god?"

I gave him my cheekiest nod followed by puppy eyes. Truly, bunnies are adorable critters. I doubt you will resist my charm. He sighed, "Fine," and the System rewarded me.

You gained the Negotiation (uncommon) Skill.

The prompt I left unopened vanished and was replaced by another.

Wyxnos, God of Logic, offers you the Disease Immunity (rare) and Poison Immunity (rare) Traits in exchange for your {Disesase Vector} and {Mythosis} Skills. [YES] - [NO]

Satisfied, I hit "Yes". My Status updated. Wyxnos vanished, leaving me alone next to the charred tree bits and an unscathed trunk. I hightailed it back to the burrow.