A good distance away from where Michael stood, a small rustle could be heard, in the trees, when he looked, there was nothing there, and yet he could still feel a faint presence, and it seemed the little rabbit could tell as well.
The small rabbits ears shifted slightly, they moved, observing different directions, while it's eyes remained pointed away from where the sound came from. As it scanned the area, Michael noticed the magma that it produced, begin to simmer down until it became completely cold, turning into stone.
Watching the small creature, he assumed that it was hiding its presence and trying to remain unnoticed by whatever lurked in the shadows, but it was already too late.
The moment the magma dulled, a shadow rushed past Michael's position and landed ontop of the small creature. The shadow was fast, passing him before he could even turn around, and it was strong, strong enough at least, to pin the small creature down just long enough to sink it's teeth into its flesh.
Michael stared with wide eyes as he watched the shadows head jerk violently as its maw clamped down on its neck and viciously tear away at the little thing.
Michael took a small step forward, the sight infront of him was hard to watch, he knew it was natural, but even still it was a little too much for him to just stand back and watch, but the moment the first step was taken, the sound of rustling could be heard once more but this time it wasn't just from behind him, no the two of them had unknowingly been surrounded on all sides, and soon another shadow had stepped out into view, then another and another, and soon the trees around them were filled with around seven to eight vicious creatures.
As the first creature stepped into the light and walked past its sibling whom was still gnawing on the rabbit, he could finally see what it was that was hunting them.
Out from the shadows, a long orange snout emerged, followed by a deadly maw filled with razor sharp teeth, dripping with saliva, it growled at him viciously as its brown eyes began to emit a bright blue light, its sharp pointed ears shifted in the darkness as it scanned him, as the beast moved closer he could see the muscles of it legs bulge as its heavy paws dug into the dirt. From the way it looked as it slowly inched towards him, it seemed to be some kind of Coyote.
Michael took and involuntary step back as it snarled at him, then the growls of the others rang out behind him as he took another step. He really was surrounded from all sides, there were so many of them and only him, his was confident in his new found strength but even still he wasn't sure if he would be able to win, even more so because the pain of hunger was slowly building up inside of him, but even still he wasn't willing to back down, not when he'd been through so much from the start, of his awakening.
'Tsk, let's get this over with.'
As he thought this, his eyes became incandescent, and he readied himself, raising his hand and manifesting the black blade. With Michael's current strength being that of a, stage two lesser demon, and his rank divine, his blade followed suit, he wasn't sure what so called ability it would mimic from him but he was sure that with it he would be able to at least make it out alive.
Michael flipped the blade into a downward position, lowered his stance,and prepared push off towards the beast with all his strength, but before he did, a small pillar of fire emerged from where the first beast was gnawing on the small rabbit.
The beast was instantly consumed by the flames, as they rose higher into the trees. The flames instantly bit away at their surroundings, spreading swiftly from tree to tree until they were surrounded on all sides not just by the beasts but the flames themselves, trapping him in a death trap.
With all the flames quickly growing wild around them, no one moved, not just him, but the beasts also remained motionless, staring into the vortex as it began to disperse, revealing the vicious little rabbit bearing its ravenous fangs at them, as it stood above the ashes of its first victim.
A slight smirk found its way onto Michael's face as he saw the scene before him, he realized now the true terror of the small creature, that it infact was the real predator of the forest, if before he questioned what the beast hunted, now he knew, but he was in for a bigger surprise than he bargained for, because the next moment, its tiny body began to convulse and expand.
Its sharp fangs elongated and its maw grew larger, its legs bulged with muscles as they expanded, its tiny paws now the size of a small coffee table, now held large claws, and its small body, now towered high above them. Its furr had become ragged and stood on end, its burning orange eyes now matched the of the lava that dripped from its large ears, and lastly its puffy tail had elongated and split into two, become something akin to whips with pointed ends.
Michael's smile widened as fear mixed with excitement filled his heart. He was excited simply because the rabbit had truly become a force to be reckoned with, or rather it always had been, but more so because he was amazed at such a thing, it was a terrifying yet majestic sight to behold, such a being simply should not exist and yet here it was, a simple, small, and harmless creature, in his world, was a terrifying monster in this one, it was exhilarating, yet the fear still sat in his chest, because what if he were also the target of the terrifying monster.
The feeling was only cemented when one of its tales whipped around and crashed into a nearby tree, snapping it in half, effortlessly.
Noticing the small window he was givin by the sudden shock they were all put under by the rabbit, if that was what it could even be called now, he had quickly made two decisions, one was to seize the moment and attack first but before that he gauged the power of those around him.
With glowing eyes he activated his newly evolved aura detection ability. Most awakened were given the, God Eyes, skill and were trained in how to use them but a select few like him were given a different skill all together that worked completely different from, God Eyes, for him, his ability was called, Aura Detection, it allowed him to read the ability, strengths and even the weaknesses of his opponents, yet unlike god eyes, that also gave the information of said subject, like their name, it instead gave him the ability to see the description of the subject's ability, allowing him to gain the upper hand in combat.
Activating, Aura Detection, he quickly scanned the surrounding enemies, the first to appear were the beasts that surrounded him.
Class: lesser demon(Stage 2)
Rank: Mythic
Ability: Storm
Then came the rabbit beast.
Class: Demon (stage 1)
Rank: Transcendent
Ability: Hell spawn
His eyes widened as he looked at the large beast, he had recently learned the ranking system of abilities from Scarlett, when they traversed the forest. It was as follows, Common, Rare, Legendary, Mythical, followed by Transcendent, and lastly Divine.
Looking at the beast he was surprised because not only was it exceedingly strong only losing out to his own ability by a single rank but because it wasn't labeled as a lesser angel or demon like the rest of them, including himself, no it was labeled as a demon, meaning it was stronger than all of them, but by how much he wasn't sure, he wasn't exactly caught up on the evolution path, but he did know that although he stood a chance against the beast, the others stood none.
What stood before him was a true moster hidden in the forest, a true wolf in sheep's clothing, and more than that the manifestation of the creatures Demon ability.
Ability: Hell Spawn
Lesser 1: Molten veins: user has attained poisonous blood of molten lava, and the ability to manifest their blood into a weapon.
Lesser 2: Devil's Flame: can manifest and control all flames within their radius
Demon 1: Hell's Guard: manifestation of one's inner demon, allowing it to consume them and take control (can be controlled)
Michael's smile faded as he read the demon ability, his question of whether or not it would turn against him, had been answered.
"Crap."