An Unwilling Monster

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In the city of Kholakel, thehighlight of the year for the upper classes is theannualmonsterpacificationof the misty woods.Ostensiblyit'sa culling of the monster population to prevent them encroaching on urban areas, but it's an open secret that it's actually treated as more of ablood sport, the participants competing to score the most kills.After all, why else would the politicians and elites of the citybother to attendpersonally?

Given the intense competition and high-tech weapons and gear in use, one might wonder how the forest has not yet been completely depopulated. As this year's culling approaches, a group of unfortunate children are about to discover the answer first-hand, but thanks to an unexpected twist of fate, one of them will score the chance to play the role of the hunter instead of the prey.

This was an attempt at writing something darker than my usual fare. The story I actually ended up with isn't as mean to the MC as I'd originally planned out, to the point that I'm not sure the story deserves the horror/grimdark tags anymore, but this is still an unfair world with unambiguously evil antagonists. Chapters are short to start with, but get longer once the first act is over.

Published here and Scribble Hub.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2021
Author: cathfach

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 853
Views: 519,847

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Dr.CrustRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
1. It has a cute and/or fluffy MC
2. The world is dangerous enough to keep things exciting, but not a total grim apocalypse
3. The MC actually acts like a monster (at the very least for a little bit)
4. yummy humans and/or happily eating fully sentient creatures
5. Intelligent MC/ reasonable MC that isn't the common Isekai protag
Basically I just wished I read it sooner, I read some of the authors other books but this is my fav, I saw it before but I kinda just skipped it due to the cover...
I kinda wanted it to go on but it was totally reasonable to end it there, it would of just devolved into a political mess, of which I am not really interested. Basically this was the best way it could of ended in my opinion, even if I want more.
There were a couple of grammar mistakes here and there, which did not really stand out and take away from the experience. I thought their writing style was solid overall and It was pretty easy to follow and enjoyable but it didn't bring anything especially unique to the combat other then how casual it is. The story itself was absolutely my kind of thing, and I was hooked from start to finish. The main character, her little brother, and Maximilian really stood out to me, and I’d say they’ve earned a spot in my (very hard to obtain due to the amount of book I've read) top 100 favorite characters of all time. I don't usually write review and honestly I don't think that will change so that should show how much this book actually affected me.
Whelp I'm gonna read all their books now!
Fnord13Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a well written story, but it has a Horror tag, so not everyone will enjoy it. However, the author says they have made the story less horrific than they originally intended, and the chapter entitled "Identity", which I read before writing this review, actually suggested that the MC just might have a happy ending. On the other hand, the subsequent 3 chapters, written from alternate viewpoints, were quite depressing, so readers who dislike psychological horror stories should be cautious.
Some readers may be interested in this story because it may be happening at roughly the same time in the same multiverse as the author's main story, An Unbound Soul. While Cathfach may not have any current plans to link the two settings together, it is something I could easily imagine them deciding to do in the future. This story's world is nasty enough to provide Erryn and her people with a possible adversary, especially since a significant historical event occured centuries ago that could lead them to believe that Erryn was their enemy. They are very close to uniting a capacity for mechanised warfare with the ability to create armies of intelligent magical monsters.
HyrielRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I completely missed the fact that I'd already read some of your fiction, wordsmith. Anyhow, seems that the funnies are a part of your writing so now I will definitely be consuming all of them. Have another 5 star rating for your five star writing! Damn, I didn't make 50 this time. Hmmm, sleep or another one....
NetiZenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A tidy little short story, that is succinct and to the point. There are a lot of stories out there that write up the start of a long project and then die 20 chaps in. This is not that. Short and sweet anti hero lead with a monster genre twist.
ParaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I did not expect where this was going, but I enjoyed it a lot. A complete work, good grammar & style, interesting characters are usual qualities of Cathfachs writings.
Very nice character developement for the main character. Very unusual and psychological at times, and pretty gruesome even. But it is very well written, allowing the reader to undersrand and sympathize. While the side characters don't get much screen time (Ha Haa! We can use screen time for e-books now because we read it on a screen!) and are often times slightly insane, they are varied and have clearly different qualities and motivations. They don't really get as much depth as the main character, but in my opinion that doesn't matter to the story. I like that the main character doesn't abandon her past and that the people of her previous life still play a part in the story.
The world or rather the main character view of the world ist pretty dark, but this is understandable considering what happened to her. The setting has similarities to our own reality, but with the addition of a pretty catastrophic event in the past. There are still cities, schools etc, but science has taken some turns in response to the monsters of the past. At first I almost got "The village" vibes.
But while it is dark and very cruel at times, it also has very funny moments. I loved the interaction between the main character and various random strangers. I mean, what would you do if you went to the supermarket and saw
a Harpy buying a cellphone? "Cool Cosplay!" is a pretty accurate reaction I think.
Anyway, it's not a long story, so give it a try and enjoy!
TogakureRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm not very good with ratings, tend to give out 5 stars. I do think though that this story is well written and short, a good (part of an) afternoon's read and the better for it.
The author wrote it for the writeathon challenge, and acknowledges that it would have been shorter and more concise were it not trying to meet a word-count target.
For what it is worth, I still enjoyed it enough to take the time to write a review of it.
TomiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
After reading the first chapter I personally was instantly hooked and from then on it just gets more interesting every chapter. I couldn't find a single grammar mistake as well. So check it out ;) Character development is also very good, you can immerse yourself in the character and understand why she does what she does.
Void seekerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Very good story.
I love novels non-human protagonist + female protagonist tags and it was unique.
As an anti- social I am not good with words but I really want to say I like watching our murderous ball of fluff and I want to see more of it, even if it will be comedic ball of fluff.
I know the main story and even epilogue is done but daily life of our harpy girl after epilogue is enough for us.
galileo personsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Before I get into the explanation of my review I would like to remind any fellow readers that reading a novel in a genre you don't enjoy will generally be a poor experience. Thus, I try to judge my rating off of how well it executes upon its own premise, rather than whether I enjoy that premise.
To explain my rating without spoilers:
While the MC is not portrayed in a neurotypical manner (i.e. she responds to situations in a way different than the perceived average human), she still comes across as consistent and believable.
Sufficient body horror is involved to portray discomfort, but it is not so egregious to the point that it eclipses the rest of the story.
The Inciting incident is eventually addressed, but with both enough specificity and vagueness to leave room for speculation without just being confusing.
Satisfactory spectacle moments are included.
There was no bloat that I could detect and I applaud the author for having the courage to trust themselves and end the story where they did. (while I think that the author has a large enough and interesting enough world written here to squeeze out at least a dozen more chapters, I am satisfied and delighted with the wealth of chapters that have been crafted)
P.S. apologies if the review seems pretentious, but reviews that I have previously written were mostly down voted and thus I wish to be thorough with this one.
rarsonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
ok it's been, like a year since I have read this, so I don't remember all of the minute details, but I am going to try to get it right regardless, so first things first I love the slow(ish) build up that is day 13, I love the world building and I love the main character, is there anything else you need to get right to make a good stroy?