Essence Code

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The forest was still, and the boys cautiously marched forward. The journey was quiet and safe for the moment. Cale served as the rear guard, Lapis and Ardyn as the wings, and Leon as the spearhead. "Cale." 

Leon peeked backward while continuing his march, "I know you aren't familiar with the monsters here." 

Cale's ears perked up, and he nodded, "For the most part, yeah." Leon nodded confirmingly. 

"Most of it is just evolved beasts. Stronger, faster, mutated snakes, spiders, and animals. Then, there's the hybrids, and then humans. Although not beasts, still dangerous, as you should know."

Cale mentally acknowledged it and huffed in frustration as his mind raced back to the scene of the boy unhurriedly reeling in his food. The attire was undoubtedly odd. None of it portrayed anger, happiness, fear, or anything—just flesh and bones. 

'To get disrespected like that...' Cale bit his gums and set a mental note to get his revenge any way he could.

As simple as taking their food.

Or killing them.

"There's also one more you should know of, which is our goal if we make it there."

Cale's attention was returned to real-time as his interest was finally drawn out enough to make him flick his eyes to Leon. "A Nest," Leon spoke before Cale could ask what.

Cale was subtly confused at first but deduced it to be either a bird's nest, literally, or a considerable population of monsters. "As you're probably thinking," Leon raised one finger. It is either the hatchlings of a Beast," he raised the other, "or a compilation of multiple beasts." Cale nodded in response, keeping quiet. 

Leon turned his head back to face forward, keeping his fingers up. After a second of silence, he raised a third finger.

"Or both." 

Lapis, who glued his gaze to his side of the forest, swiftly glanced at Leon. "While Oris and I were surveying an area, we found an unusually large mass of young beasts, coupled with double the full-grown beasts.

It seemed like some collaboration, all the parents teaming together to protect their children."

Cale peered at Ardyn, who, as usual, seemed disinterested. "And so, the plan is simple."

Cale quickly knew where this was going. 

Go there, kill the young ones first, absorb their strength, then challenge the big ones. The amount of potential strength to accumulate, on top of all the food waiting to be scavenged, couldn't even be imagined. If everything went right, that amount could fuel the camp for about a month.

But as quickly as Cale got excited, he also knew that with rewards come risks.

"There are two things to this mission that I have yet to inform you guys on." 

Cale narrowed his eyes, slightly hesitating in his step. Lapis tilted his head and asked Leon, "What?" 

Ardyn flicked his head to Leon nearly instantly, pausing his gait. Leon heard the discontinuation of his steps and halted, Cale and Lapis following suit.

"Have you guys ever played an RPG game before? Or heard about one?" They all nodded simultaneously. "Well, it is like a Dungeon. The System asks if you want to join. You join, kill the beasts, complete the objective within a time limit, and reap the awards and the naturally gained XP from killing the mobs."

He paused as a light exhale blew from his lips. "But only three of us can enter."

The blood in Cale's body began to rush like a torrent through his body. Leon was an oddity from the get-go, and now he was telling the group a vital piece of information this late. 

'Is it a scheme to get me killed?' It was far-fetched and would make anyone consider him insane, but it was especially plausible to him. Cale wanted to drive his sword into Ardyn's abdomen to get a head-start on the battle.

After all, it was not entirely confirmed they were trying to kill him, so he stood at ease.

"I will be standing guard outside. You don't notice it yet, but the nest radiates a light essence signature, and these beasts love essence."

Cale narrowed his eyes.

"As far as Orin and I saw, most of these beasts were pretty weak, including the ones currently surrounding it."

Lapis nodded and returned to his side, surveying the forest around them keenly.

"Unfortunately," Leon began to speak as guttural growls resounded from behind the trees, enticing a sigh out of Ardyn. 

"We stood here for too long."

The forest around them rustled, coupled with the irking snarling of rabid wolves. 

They slowly emerged from the vastness of the forest, hateful intent masking their eyes. 

Cale spun to confront the wolves encircling from behind. Each member pivoted to their respective side, carrying an equivalent workload: two wolves each. Slobber slowly dripped from the beast's maw, and Carl scrunched his nose. The wafting scent of beasts finally entered his nostrils. 

From behind, he heard the mud below them shoot out, and only a few seconds later did he hear the first whimpering of a beast.

Cale heaved in a deep breath and began stepping forward, his sword in front of him. 

Behind him, Leon side-stepped a wild claw that slipped by to his left and pivoted on his front foot, torquing his torso to whip his leg forward in a deadly attack to the lower neck area of the wolf.

Unprepared and not fast enough, the shoe's vamp tore into the neck, crushing and eviscerating any viscera in his path. The body launched backward, bashing into the ground and causing an uprise of mud and dust.

To his right, Lapis deflected the abnormally lengthy claws that aimed to slash his jugular, counter-attacking by bashing his shoulder into the body of his enemy.

The wolf wept as it was sent flying backward, Lapis following after it with a vigorous dash. His black hair fluttered behind him as his figure contorted into a streaking blur, leaving the second wolf far behind him.

Leon picked up on the straggling wolf, quickly shuffling and lazily poking forward with his spear to stop it from attacking any of the others who were focused on their own battle.

Ardyn just finished retracting his blade from the stomach of the beast as the other one extended its maw forward, clamping the jagged and yellow canines into his shins.

Ardyn instinctually bit his own tongue, drawing blood. His eyes scrunched, and his eyes narrowed as an uncontrollable feeling of rage overcame his body.

With an indifferent glint taking home in his eyes, he raised his sword to the sky, casting a shadow over the wolf's head. Despite the low intelligence, it looked up, catching sight of Ardyn from the top of its eyes.

As much as their bite was powerful, It was a double-edged blade. 

Without pause, Ardyn plummeted the sword into the squishy skull of the wolf, pushing it all the way through to the hilt.

The bite instantly eased, and Ardyn hastily yanked his leg out and used his arm to muffle his own shriek of pain.

He angrily yanked the blade out of the head and fell on his ass, using his palms to hold himself up.

His eyes closed as his consciousness delved into his body, flowing like a stream down to his injured leg. It was a vast abyss, his sight shrouded in creepy darkness, the only perceptible occurrence being motes of essence gliding throughout his passages. He finally reached an area where nearly two dozen circles of red frantically shook in place. If Ardyn was in a normal state, he would've narrowed his eyes in discontent.

He flew his body to the circles and placed his palms on them, loading essence into his 'ethereal' form, as he calls it. Like a translucent fairy, tiny motes of essence streamed from his body into the orb, which steadily flowed into the other ones as if bound by a tiny incorporeal string. As more of his essence was depleted, the pain slowly alleviated, an unimaginable weight pressing onto his mind more and more.

Eventually, the pain almost subsided entirely, and he returned to his mind, leading him back to the real world.

He skimmed over Lapis and Leon, who were having an easy time with their opponents. 'Only to have a time like theirs.' He sighed.

He peered at Cale, who was currently in the flow of battle.

As the weakest group member and weaker than his opponents, his time was not as manageable as Leon's or Lapis's.

His sword slashed forward, narrowly slashing off a patch of fur on the wolf's leg. Retaliating senselessly, the beast lunged forward and extended its paw, the mutated claws shooting from the beast's paw. Like bullets, they tore through the air, aimed directly at his neck and chest.

Cale widened his eyes and swiped his sword before him, simultaneously leaning his body to his right to create distance between his vital points and the projectiles.

Due to being restrained to human physicality, his body couldn't evade the blitzing claws, one of which burrowed itself into his lower hip, just above his pelvis. As if it noticed the distress on Cale's face, the other wolf quickly dashed forward, opening its maw in a desperate attempt to tear out his neck in one go.

Cale raised his blade vertically in front of the beast's mouth. The wolf mindlessly attempted to bite forward, only to grab an unpleasing mouthful of a metallic blade.

However, the momentum behind it collided with Cale, launching him a few feet backward and causing him to fall. His eyes, however, remained glued to the wolf galloping from behind. Cale could see his blade fall too far to his side, rendering him defenseless.