Williams Hexwill gained awareness sluggishly. Mud was smeared all over his face,his suit and his dark unkempt hair. His body staggered as he tried to stand. Hunger getting the best of him, dizziness obscuring his vision due to low energy in his body.
Thud!
His body fell and tripped,his face landing assemytry to the earth. Disgruntled, he opens his eyes while lifting his head.
Ahhh!
A fright, his soul almost leaving his body. What meets his eyes were a pair of souless pupils. Large enough to be a natural snowglob. He stumbled to get a wider view of these eyes,taking in the sight of the long armed ape lifeless before him.
"Ahh, the blood is still warm. It seems I wasn't out for long." Williams looked at his hands and clothing. Earlier he had stripped and slipt due to the slippery pool of blood. Although his mind was a bit hazy, his nose could still pick up the bloody stench that eroded the air. And now, he was covered in this stench.
"I have to get out of here, this blood will undoubtedly attract other visious beasts. Especially at this hour!" It was still night time and the moonlight was the only source of light that reflected William's calm and decisive eyes. He took of his blood stained clothes,a great decision but one that left him exposed to the weather. It was either, he gets sick, or attract wild beasts that may as well as also include him in the menu.
The choice was clear.
"Fuck! I really need to find something to eat." He gained some clarity from the dizziness. His instincts forcing him to be alert at all times. Dying in this new environment is as easy as being lazy. And Williams knew this more than most, inwardly thanking his father for exposing him to the harsh training of his family during his younger days.
"Wait, aren't these beasts of the awakened realm?" Williams looked at them with fever. He recalled the information that surged in his mind after passing through the first culling process.
Among the bits of useful parts, it is said that beasts of the awakened realm are all edible and could provide nourishment. That is of course if the beast doesn't have unique features or mutation that shows its not a hybrid. All hybrid beasts are highly poisonous and are filled will the law of defilement and impurity.
It is spoken that hybrids are not natural and thus the path to Awakening is via profane energy alone. Williams recalled clearly: For all natural beings to ascended and awaken,one must first locate the divine aperture. Concurrently, the divine aperture can only be found by absorbing and circulating natural spiritual energy inside the body.
The same is also true for hybrid mutations,they also have to circulation chaotic energy in order to locate and open the divine aperture inside their body. But chaotic energy is scarce and hence it's minor form, profane energy is most used by hybrid beasts.
Now, you may wonder what that has to do with an awakened beast being edible or not.
It is actually due to the side effects of energy circulation inside one's body. Those using spirituality gain nourishment when spirit energy circulates, while those using chaotic profane energy gain chaotic nourishment that makes their bodies very toxic.
"F***k! F***k! Ahhh!!" Williams found himself in another quagmire. He just found out how tough the skin of an awakened beast. Even the hair on the long armed ape was as tough as needles all the while elastic like rubber bands. Williams couldn't even scratch the surface of skin.
Awooo!! Awooo!!
Williams quivered. It seemed he didn't even have enough time. Howls from wolves came from afar. But he knew very well that it would only take a few minutes at best before they reach where he is. Williams panicks for the first time. He sweats even though he is only left with his underwear in the cold night. He tries to pick his brain for solutions but... The only thing that comes to mind is..
" Fuck, fuck, fuck it! I need to run.Run, run!! As far away from here as possible." Williams picked a direction and bolted. He couldn't care less of his hunger or the night cold in the face of inevitable death.
Williams jumped out of the pool of blood and headed for the woods. His steps were uncouth and rushed,his whole body pushing him to go further like a wobbling tree.
Out of the blood pool into the brain matter and scales of the constricting boa.The brain fluids making Williams escape even more perilous and disgusting.
Awooo!!! Awooo!!
The howling made Williams loose his step again. Abruptly trying to rush up and run, it comes into his vision. Yellow glowing eyes accompanied by growling and growling.
Williams eyes dilated, following the gaze of the big eyed wolf to a crystalin orb that was glowing alongside the brain matter on the huge snake.Tension rose and materialized in the air, William's mind calmed down for an instant before erupting in panic and fear.
"Is that, is that a freaking beast core!!" Greed momentarily manifested in his eyes. Then turned into great fear when he noticed the huge wolf growling louder as if it had sensed his desire for this beast core.
The moment stretched, a fragile bubble of stillness in the chaos. The wolf's growl deepened, a rumble that vibrated in Williams's own chest.
Its massive head, easily the size of a boulder, lowered, hackles rising like a ridge of dark, serrated blades along its spine. The yellow eyes, burning with a feral intelligence, flicked from Williams to the softly pulsing beast core nestled in the snake's brain matter, then back to him.
It moved.
Not a charge, but a single, deliberate step forward, a paw the size of a dinner plate sinking into the bloody mud with a sickening squelch. That was all the incentive Williams needed. The fragile spell of his greed shattered, replaced by the primal, screaming instinct for survival.
He bolted.
There was no grace, no thought to conserving energy. He just ran. His bare feet slapped against the cold, unforgiving earth, the shock jolting up his legs.
The undergrowth of the forest edge clawed at his exposed skin, twigs and thorns leaving burning scratches across his chest and arms. He didn't feel them. All his awareness was focused on the sound behind him: the crashing of a massive body through the underbrush, the snapping of thick branches like twigs, and the horrifying, rhythmic huff-huff-huff of its breath, closer than it had any right to be.
"Think, damn it, think!" The thought was a frantic mantra in his head. "Run in a straight line? Stupid. You can't outrun that. I need to run through obstacles.The more the merrier!!"
He veered sharply, crashing into a thicket of thorny bushes. The pain was immediate and searing, a thousand white-hot needles raking his skin.
But the wolf, a creature of raw power, couldn't follow as easily. It had to go around, its bulk thwarted by the dense, tangled mass. It bought him seconds. Precious, life-saving seconds.
He burst from the thicket, gasping, blood beading on a hundred fresh cuts. The forest floor became his enemy and his ally.
He ducked under low-hanging branches that would have been head-crackers for the pursuing beast, though he heard them snap like gunfire as the wolf plowed through them.
He scrambled over moss-slicked boulders, his heart in his throat as his feet slipped and slid, while the wolf simply leaped over them with terrifying ease.
A root snaked out, catching his foot. He went down hard, the air exploding from his lungs.
The world spun. He saw the wolf, a monstrous shadow, closing the gap in two enormous bounds.
He could smell it now,a stench of matted fur, old blood, and raw meat.
He scrambled backwards, his hands finding a rock. He hurled it with all his might, not at the wolf, but to its left. The rock clattered against a tree trunk. The wolf's head snapped towards the sound, its predatory instincts momentarily confused.
It was the opening he needed. He rolled, ignoring the sharp stab of pain in his ribs, and plunged down a steep, rocky incline. He didn't run. He tumbled, slid, and fell, using gravity as his ally. Rocks and dirt rained down with him. He landed hard at the bottom, his ankle screaming in protest, but he forced himself up.
The wolf was silhouetted at the top of the incline, hesitating. It wasn't built for a controlled descent. It had to find another way.
Williams limped on, his breath coming in ragged, burning gasps. The cold air seared his lungs. Hunger was a black hole in his gut, sapping his strength. But he kept going, his mind a cold, sharp point of focus amidst the fog of exhaustion.
He was leaving a trail of blood from a gash on his leg, a scent highway for the wolf. He needed to mask it, to confuse it. He crashed through a patch of pungent, fern-like plants, crushing them underfoot, hoping their sharp smell would overlay his own.
But then,the ground vanished.
He stumbled to a halt, his heart lurching into his throat. The forest ended at a sheer cliff edge.
The drop was dizzying, a hundred feet or more into a moonlit valley below. He was trapped. He spun around, looking for a way, any way.
The wolf would be here any second and Williams looked like turkey covered in ingredients all over. Red and green moss and fern all over his skin.
And that's when he saw it. It wasn't a path down the cliff, but a dark, gaping maw set into the cliff face itself, about twenty feet to his left. A cave.
But was it empty. No!
A deep, rumbling snore emanated from within, a sound like grinding boulders. And clinging to the rocky shelf just outside the cave, glinting dully in the moonlight, were more of the crystalline orbs. Beast cores. Four, maybe five of them.
Whatever was in there had likely just finished up a meal and the cores were the left overs. Around the cores, much expected,were meaty bones and scattered fur all over.
"A mountain bear! No, an awakened mountain bear!"
The thought slammed into him, a mix of terror and desperate alongside insane inspiration.
The wolf's howl erupted behind him, so close it was deafening. It had found him.
He had no time. No time to think, only to act on a mad, spur-of-the-moment gamble.
He didn't run from the wolf. He ran towards the cave.
He scooped up the beast cores in a frantic grab, their cold, smooth surfaces a soothing sensation against his bloody palms.
The bear's snoring hitched, a guttural rumble of displeasure as it noticed movement near his cave. A sixth sense of some sort.
Williams didn't stop. He hurled one of the cores, a glittering projectile, straight into the dark heart of the cave. It struck something soft with a dull thump. Further aggravating the sleeping titan.
A moment of expected silence. Only the deep breaths of Williams barely audible.
Then, the mountain roared.
The sound was apocalyptic. A wave of pure, primal fury that shook the very stone beneath his feet.
A colossal shape, larger than the wolf, larger than anything he'd ever imagined, exploded from the cave's mouth. It was a living mountain of muscle and fur, its eyes blazing with awakened rage.
It didn't even see Williams, cowering and flattened against the cliff wall. Its rage was focused on the new scent, the new threat: the massive wolf that now stood snarling at the edge of the clearing.
The wolf, scenting the cores on Williams and seeing the greater threat emerge, also made its choice.
It lowered its head and charged, not at Williams, but at the bear, a final, desperate attempt to claim the prize.
The titans met with a sound like falling timber. Claws like scythes raked through fur, teeth like daggers sought flesh.
The ground shook. The air filled with roars and snarls and the wet, tearing sounds of violence.
Williams pressed himself into a crevice in the rock face, watching the cataclysmic battle unfold just feet away.
He saw the bear's massive paw cave in the wolf's ribcage, and in the same instant, the wolf's jaws locked onto the bear's throat.
They thrashed, a whirlwind of fur and blood, a storm of pure, destructive power. They crashed against the cliff wall, and the rock trembled. They rolled, locked in a death embrace, towards the cliff edge.
For one heart-stopping second, they teetered on the brink, a grotesque, snarling sculpture of mutual destruction. Then, with a final, collective groan, they tumbled over the edge.
The sounds of their fall faded, ending in two distant, sickening crashes far below in the valley.
Silence descended. An absolute, ringing silence, broken only by the ragged rasp of Williams's own breathing.
He stood there, trembling violently, his body a roadmap of pain, shock, and adrenaline. He was naked except for his shredded underwear, covered in mud, blood, and scratches. He was starving, freezing, and exhausted beyond measure.
Slowly and deliberately, he looked down at his hands. Clutched in his white-knuckled grip were four beautiful, unblemished beast cores.
He looked towards the cave, the dark, warm, inviting maw of the mountain bear's den. The scent of the beast, thick and musky, still hung in the air, but it was a scent without its owner. It was shelter. It was safety.
A slow, incredulous grin spread across his bloody, dirt-smeared face. It was a madman's grin, a survivor's grin.
He had nothing. He was beaten, broken, and bare. But he had a cave. He had four cores. And he had his life.
For tonight, in this brutal new world, that was everything. And for tomorrow these cores would propel him to the awakened realm.