The being almost couldn't believe what was happening. And it was already doubting its memory, even if it had happened in front of its very eyes.

  The rhino had been about as strong as the bison, and clearly even more durable. Yet, just like that...

  As if to further drive the point in, the owl jumped onto the corpse and started raging it in a whirlwind of violence, pieces of its former foe flying every which way.

  When one of those pieces landed closer to the rhino's group, that seemed to break them out of the stupor they'd also fell in at the sight, and they immediately started to flee.

  Which distracted the owl out of its own craze, and the slaughter the being knew all too well finally begun. There would be no escaping for them.

  For its part, the being crawled away as slowly and carefully as it could afford to, trying to hide itself better: even in its caution, it had been far too shallow in choosing its hiding place, when it really shouldn't have.

  It was starting to sink just how strong the thing was and how dead the being would have been had it tried to fight. That one cleaving strike alone... Worse, whatever had previously veiled the owl's strength was lifted, and what the being could feel now was immense.

  There was no whisper, no moves, no nothing. Just overwhelming, impossible strength.

  The owl had always been the opponent in its memories. The being had started to think meeting it now, with this newfound strength, would be disappointing. How wrong it had been.

  That thing was basically as far ahead, as unreachable, as it had been back then. Maybe more.

  ...

  ...

  The being had reached the far edges of the new nest before fear faded enough to give way to other emotions. And one of them stood over all the others, by far.

  Outrage at this reaction.

  So what if the owl was stronger?

  The familiar, desperate cries of pain could still be hear loud and clear, even from here. By its experience, they would keep on going for far longer still.

  Did it really want to keep running like this, taunted all the way?

  Again?

  The being had grown in more ways than just raw strength. Maybe it had failed to relearn the moves properly and failed to touch the principle entirely. But it was different from the other creatures around. It was smart. It had diversified. There was a reason it carried all this luggage around, after all.

  It had built itself to have many strengths and be versatile when facing danger.

  It had options.

  The owl was digging inside one of the survivors - because yes, that thing was still living, despite appearances - one that could not be identified anymore besides that it was a rotund creature.

  Beyond the simple act, beyond the torture... There was something there. Each time the owl inflicted pain, each time it twisted its talon inside. Truly an uncomfortable show to watch, this much senseless violence, but the being forced its sight forward. And was discovering a different perspective.

  Could it really fault the owl? The other group had come into its safe space clearly looking for trouble. And they had attacked it, and most importantly its friends, first and unprovoked. They had no grounds to complain for the treatment.

  So even if the being wanted to fight now - if only for a chance at proving that it could - would it be right to do so? Beyond the fact that it had only just decided to avoid pointless risks for no gain?

  It looked on as the owl pulled and pulled - stuff gradually bubbling up - until the creature was all but turned inside out. Then it turned to the next.

  ...Yes, there was definitely something strange going on. The being had already suspected there might be a deeper reason behind all that brutality, when it was the frog.

  The truth was different from its worst fears, that maybe the owl could directly steal strength away from its enemies. It couldn't be like that, since there was no essence leaving the victim, no transfer of any kind.

  Rather, the very act itself of inflicting pain on the opponent seemed to be invigorating the owl. That must be why it liked to prolong things as much as possible, even against smaller things: to extract all that it could.

  It was not actually a matter of torturing its victims. Well, maybe it was that too - most likely it was, judging by its obvious delight over the action - but if inflicting pain invigorated it, then it was at least understandable. And also bad news for anything that tried to stand against it. And maybe even beside it...

  Its friends didn't look any more calm, now that the fight had been won. The being might have mistaken it for a defensive measure against further attacks, if they hadn't all been looking warily in that same, conspicuous direction.

  Only the little floating light, whatever it was, seemed to have relaxed. After a while, it even tried to get close... and almost got cleaved in half too for the effort. It flew back towards the others hurriedly and all jittery, shining different intensities.

  There was no denying that even its friends feared the owl. Maybe more than they'd feared their enemies. And they weren't the only ones, were they?

  Now that the being thought back to it, didn't the little owls use to shiver and huddle together in that same way? It might have been because of the many incursions of challengers and the experience with the snake, but...

  In any case, the being was unsure if the owl deserved to be vanquished.

  So, it would stay and observe for a bit, while also feeding, since it had been a bit forgetful of that need lately.

  This was a nice spot, easy to hide in, but with a good view below.

  If nothing else, it would be a change of pace from the frustration of the chasm.

  Maybe something interesting would come up.

  Time went by, but the group refused to move at all. Somehow, even the lesser creatures, truly barely more than critters, were able to resist the calling. Only the round and floating outlier seemed to be impatient at all. But ultimately even it stayed around.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  This close to the epicenter... the owl truly had a dominating presence. And it did seem to care, strangely.

  Just the fact that it allowed them in its precious nest, was a lot. And then there was the little acts that the being recognized too well: the owl always protected them in the end, and even pushed bodies for them to get the gems, after a fight.

  It was especially protective with the smaller and most frail ones. Those that really shouldn't have been able to get here in the first place.

  Truly, the only one that it seemed to dislike was the small light, which it always snapped at - though always half-mindedly and never landing a solid hit, somehow.

  In any case, the owl was an extremely territorial creature, so of course it would take a lot for it to leave the nest. And here it had everything it wanted. Though none of its friends were ever injured since the rhino incident, and so the creature never got truly enraged again, clearly it languished in the downtime between fights.

  Even though there were a lot of fights coming, which was another point of confusion for the being's sense of right.

  Creatures kept infringing upon the owl's territory, so it was understandable that the owl would lash out. But the vast majority weren't like the rhino: they just stumbled here unknowingly, on their way to the epicenter. They were here by mistake, just like the being had been.

  This slaughter didn't sit well with it, even if it knew they were all marching to their deaths either way.

  Actually, it was getting tired of just sitting here watching. It had learned many new things about the owl, but repeating another experience like the previous nest was out of the question. Reconnaissance was one thing, but the being had grown past skulking around like a simple creature. And there wasn't the time for that.

  It would try to mess with the owl just a tiny bit. Nothing serious. After what it had needed to endure back then, a little fun should be allowed.

  And it had gotten a really good idea...

  For what it wanted to do, any area outside the nest would work, really. But if it had to do this, then it would do it well. Especially if it had to expend its precious knickknacks.

  The being walked around a good while, in search of the area that had the greatest flow of creatures, until it had to force itself to stop: there really wasn't a place significantly better than the rest and, truly, it was just stalling.

  It shrugged off its bags and grabbed a spike - after spilling so much by mistake, it had sealed them so well it needed this to get one open.

  Once again, it hesitated and had to truly force itself. Even worse when it came to actually pouring the filth in a line. And when it first hit the ground, the being flinched so hard it caused even more to spill out.

  Hurriedly, it straightened the bag and guided the spillover with the spike, trying to form some kind of line. The result was coming out... well, it was better than wasting any more material, and that was that. Because this filth might be a horrible thing. Likely the most disgusting substance it had come into contact with since leaving the small world.

  But it was its filth.

  Once it was satisfied that it had done enough, it stood back up and gathered its bags. And waited in hope.

  ... It seemed to be effective! Creatures were truly- but maybe it should get out of the way? With its strength, it might be compromising the experiment.

  The being hurriedly moved some distance away, and then some more. Until it was so far off that it couldn't be possibly influencing the result.

  ... and creatures were still keeping far away from the line. Even it if they got shoved, even if they needed to resist the calling and go the other way, it didn't matter. They would rather get trampled on than coming close to that.

  The being then tried to position itself strategically, so that the passing creatures would have to choose between coming close to it and its terrifying, indomitable countenance or the filth... and was almost bowled over in short time.

  They truly hated the mucus, much more than they feared being. It must have got used to the substance after carrying so much around, for so long. Which might not be a good thing. Probably not at all, in all honesty.

  Well, at least the experiment was a success.

  The filth worked wonderfully for what it needed, but it would take a long time to encircle the whole nest. And the owl might just move to another, at that point. It probably wouldn't, not when it had even resisted the calling back then just to stay put. Still, it was better to check, before wasting any more of its precious filth.

  When the being settled down in its previous spot, the owl was already getting antsy. Just as predicted. It really was a creature of contradiction: if its main motivation was defending the nest and its little friends, it should be happy that fewer things were coming that could threaten that.

  Yet it was almost like defending its territory was just an excuse, and the being had an idea what would happen next. The fact that its friends were getting even antsier than the owl itself was a good clue.

  Soon enough, it would see for sure. And if not, it could always go back and further reduce the flow. How would the owl react when even less creatures came here? How would it react when they stopped coming entirely?

  But the filth was incredibly precious now that the castle was so far away and the local one was still nowhere to be found - maybe beyond the chasm?

  In any case, it could afford to wait and observe a little more.

  And alas, far less time than expected went by, before something did happen.

  The owl stalked towards its group and - after a token attempt at snatching the shining orb - grabbed one of the stronger creatures, and slit its throat cleanly.

  The others didn't seem to react at all, paralyzed with fear and astonishment. Though the latter was most likely only the being, despite that it had expected the eventuality. The 'friends' must have already known.

  To think it had truly started to change its mind on the owl... But it wasn't that different from the bison, in the end.

  For some reason, it needed to keep killing and cared nothing about what it would have to trample on to achieve that.

  Maybe there had been some hesitation in the owl's posture. But did that really matter? What was the point in feeling bad, if in the end the decision was the same? One it hadn't even taken long for it to make!

  ... at the very least, the being wouldn't need to apply more filth. Not for testing, anyway.

  This cleared all its doubts about whether it should fight. If it would go for the kill or not would be a matter for after its win. And it already had a viable strategy: the owl was immensely strong, but it had a weakness, and one easily exploitable.

  A lot of preparation would be needed to ensure the opponent wouldn't just flee when things looked ugly. Even though, in that respect, the owl felt much more prideful than the being: it would die before running away. But better be sure.

  And of course, the riskiest part would be getting the owl's 'friends' away from danger. So that the owl wouldn't just use them to placate its need, but mostly because it would feel bad leaving them to that death. A death that the being would be at least partly responsible for, in that case.

  ...

  Well, it had been too long since it had stolen something from right under the owl's beak! It had only gotten better at stealth while the creature, however deadlier, hadn't got better at detecting. It would be easily distracted.

  The being just needed to wait for the right opportunity.

  The bunny wiggled wildly in the being's grasp, much harder than its small frame and the strength it presented would suggest. But the being held fast.

  It hurried towards the filth - the little creature's spasms becoming frantic - and sent it gliding over in an arc.

  The bunny landed in the middle of the horde, easily getting lost in the mass, but the being's sharp sight could easily make it out. Now, by any means the bunny should take the chance it had been given and run away as far and as fast as it could. It would most likely be towards its death in the chasm, but what could the being do about that? At least, the line should ensure that wherever it went, it would be away from the nest.

  However, when the bunny snapped out of the daze of the impact... it went the opposite direction, against the crowd.

  The being was stunned, and stared after it, until it lost sight. Curious. Maybe it was just a matter of time - of shrugging off the owl's influence completely - and the bunny would soon be under the influence of the calling. But the being was happy at having done its part. At the very least, it had freed the creature from that terrible situation.

  Now it only needed to repeat the feat for the rest. All of them. Which it didn't feel remotely as sure about.

  But that was after it closed the circle of filth around the nest...

  No, better to leave that for last, on second thought. Actually, it should rather break the line it had already put down, if it didn't want the owl to exterminate the critters before they could be rescued.

  Plus, the real next part would take a good while and there was no way to know how the owl would react at a prolonged dearth of victims. It might really move the nest. The fact that the being wanted to postpone losing more of its precious filth had nothing to do with it.

  Even finding the right place...

  The being turned all around, scanning the surrounding areas for a good place.

  ... it might take almost just as long.

  Now, it should--

  Suddenly, there was a presence behind, and the being felt dread.

  However, it whirled to see not a deadly, feathery sight... but the little light, of all things, floating forward. With everything else going on, the being had almost forgotten about its existence.