"Hehehe!!"
Seeing this, the flat-headed peccary lost it. Smoke might as well have been coming out of its ears. It went full berserk mode, charging at James without a single thought left in its brain.
James didn't sweat it. He just played guerrilla games, using his agility to hop back and forth. He moved easy, completely unrestrained, while the pig fumed.
Every time the peccary missed, James saw an opening. He'd lung in and rip the wound on its back a little wider. Blood was gurgling out of there like a broken pipe. Now, James just had to be patient. Wait for the blood loss to kick in, wait for the legs to get shaky.
Then he'd end it.
Half an hour later, the peccary was running on fumes.
It was limping on its hind legs, its fat body wobbling like it was about to tip over. Only then did the dumb animal realize it was in deep trouble and tried to bolt.
But James hadn't been standing around for thirty minutes just to watch it walk away.
"Roar!!"
He lunged, hitting the thing with full force. He used his weight and momentum to slam the exhausted peccary into the dirt. Its neck was short and thick , He looked at it and figured his teeth weren't quite long enough yet to get a clean kill through all that muscle.
So, he went for the messy route.
He dug his claws in and shredded the peccary's soft belly.
Rip—
The stomach tore open like cheap rags. Guts and intestines spilled out onto the grass. Watching the gore, James didn't feel sick. Honestly? He felt a little buzzed. He'd been a Sabertooth so long that the human side of him was losing ground to the beast. This excitement was just the raw craving for a kill finally being met.
"Hehehe…"
The peccary was tough. It didn't die right away, kicking its legs and huffing like it was begging for a break.
But it's too late.
James started in on the organs, greedily tearing through the fresh meat. The peccary finally went still, eyes closing one last time as the life drained out of it.
"Roar!!"
James let out a victory lap shout. He hadn't expected to actually pull off a win against a peccary this early by playing it smart. For a predator, the "how" doesn't matter. Only the "dead" part does.
[Ding! Host hunted a flat-headed peccary. Gene points +25.]
The system chime hit right on cue.
"25 points? Not bad at all," James thought, feeling pretty good about himself.
[Ding! Conditions met. Unlocking function: Gene Replication.]
The pings kept coming, catching James off guard while he was still cleaning up the carcass.
"Gene Replication?"
[Ding! Nearby target suitable for replication detected: Flat-headed peccary.]
[Ding! Peccary blood collected. Cost: 25 gene points. Begin gene fusion?]
"So I can just copy its skill and add it to my own?" James muttered. He skimmed the system's fine print to make sure he wasn't going to turn into a pig. He didn't want the fat; he wanted the durability.
"Do it. Fuse."
Might as well see what happens.
[Ding! Spending 25 gene points. Starting replication!]
The second the system finished the sentence, a wave of heat hit James like a volcanic eruption from the inside out.
"Roar…"
He groaned, a low, pained sound vibrating in his throat. The heat washed through his limbs, eventually settling right under his skin. It burned, but James prepared himself and rode it out.
"Whew…"
After a while, the heat faded. James shook himself off, ignoring the exhaustion to see what had actually changed.
[Ding! Congratulations. Peccary genes incorporated. Skin strength and firmness enhanced!]
"Skin strength?"
James blinked and checked the skin under his fur. Sure enough, it felt tougher—thicker, almost like he was wearing a layer of flexible armor. Best part? It didn't feel heavy or make him feel sluggish.
He was stoked. According to the data, these peccaries spent their lives rubbing against rocks and trees to harden their hides into a shield. They were so tough they could literally roll down a mountain like a barrel to save time, bouncing off rocks without breaking a single bone.
"The hide is the only good thing about these pigs anyway," James thought. "The rest is useless."
He realized these fusions were just buffs. They weren't going to rewrite his DNA and turn him into some freakish hybrid; they just added a little extra flavor to his Sabertooth base.
"Show me the stats."
---
[Host]: James
[Race]: Smilodon Fatalis (Male)
[Age]: 8 months
[Strength]: 50 (+)
[Agility]: 42 (+)
[Constitution]: 47 (+)
[Gene points]: 250
[Fusion Genes]: Flat-headed peccary
[Strengthened Area]: Skin Firmness (lv1)
---
"Level 1? So I can rank this up?"
James stared at the screen, curious. Between copying genes and swapping abilities, he had no idea what kind of monster he'd end up being in a year. But one thing was for sure: he was getting a hell of a lot harder to kill.