Chapter 40: Curse and blessings
"Almost there." Luna muttered as she crawled on the ground with her elbows. The others behind her move painfully slow, careful not to alert the beast they had gathered to kill and eat for the day.
The sleek, black-skinned beast with four paws, save for the white color that painted its nose in an unusual way, suddenly moved its red glowing eyes up and looked a far distance when Lucian and his team were hiding. The beast stumbled in fear and ran off without giving Lucian and his team a chance to run after it.
"Save your strength; that thing is too fast, catching it is impossible." Lucian frowns in frustration. Usually, they were the ones who ran away from beast, not the other way around. And even if they decided to hunt a weak beast, the creature was too prideful to run away from humans; it would rather stand its ground even if it meant death.
"Not again!" Soren groaned in frustration; he didn't want to go another day eating weird plants that needed to first be purified by Luna.
Marta had no words to say; she could only look at Lucian with concern in her eyes. She didn't want to be the first to say it.
'If I say it, I wonder if they are going to antagonize me by saying that I'm trying to blame Lucian for our troubles again.' Luna sighed. She couldn't be silent for too long.
"Lucian, I mean Captain Lucian." Luna said sweetly.
Lucian narrows his eyes at her. Luna only ever acts like that when she wants to be rude to him but tries her best to be sweet instead. Not that it ever works for her. Lucian would rather she was plain with him than put on a weird act.
"I think it's best you wait for us at our campsite; because of that damned beast aura of yours, we can't catch any prey. I don't know about the others, but I'm too f*cking thin to be living my life off vegetables." Luna glared at Lucian; Marta, in return, scorned her.
Ever since Lucian's new beast upgrade, monsters in Hlasked have been running away whenever Lucian came near them or was noticed around the area; his beast aura made him seem as though he were the formidable Achiloq beast himself. Most times the monster runs off before setting their eyes on Lucian after sensing his aura. Lucian's new ability was both a blessing and a curse.
Lucian glanced at Soren and Marta; their heads were purposely turned away from him. They silently agree with Luna but aren't bold enough to admit it to Lucian's face.
"Okay. I will return to our hideout." Lucian stated awkwardly, brushing his hair with his fingers. He was tired and annoyed by the failed hunt that had been happening because of him. "I will leave Luna in charge of hunting."
"Good." Luna smiled and walked away, with Soren and Marta behind her.
'I need to learn how to control this damned beast aura.' Lucian thought. He was back to his camp, in a stony tent strengthened by Marta's magic.
Lucian didn't know how to control his strong beast aura that was currently overriding his identity as a human. His new aura was so strong that he didn't need to activate his abilities before the aura is showed, like it subtly did when he killed the mindless beast Achiloq. Ever since the death of Joel, he had been hunted nonstop with a beast aura that protected him and restricted him at the same time.
Lucian sat down on the ground, his legs were folded like a monk, and he shut his eyes and tried concentrating on feeling the magic moving in his body, flowing in perfect harmony around different channels that connected to his magic core. He focused on separating beast magic from the other magic he had stolen from every opponent he killed. Suddenly his eyes were open into a dimension inside of him that revealed a dark core that he suspected to be his magic core; in surprise, Lucian opened his eyes and lost his focus. This was the first time he had tried evaluating his magic abilities without the use of his system that barely responded to him.
He gulps down in fear at the unknown sight and then decides to focus again, keeping his patience until he returns to the dark dimension he had removed himself from earlier. He saw a great flowing energy that looked almost liquid, except it couldn't be touched or felt, almost as though its true nature was something only Lucian's eye could define.
The energy looked the same as the beast aura Lucian was struggling to control. He imagined suppressing the energy, separating it, along with the beast magic it carried, away from his other magic until it was almost invisible. For a minute, Lucian's efforts showed results and the energy disappeared, and then it appeared again. Lucian kept trying for a long time, day after day, whenever his teammates went hunting without him, all until the day Lucian felt like he finally got it right.
But in order to check if his training had worked, he needed a practical confirmation that wasn't from his teammates but was from being close to a beast in order to examine their reaction.
Lucian set out on his own separate journey after his teammates had gone hunting, leaving him behind. His plan was to kill a prey of his own in order to prove to his teams that he finally had control over his beast aura.
A bear-like monster was sighted by Lucian; it wasn't as big as others he had seen around the forest, so he was confident that he could take the creature out alone. Lucian silently approaches the dangerous creature drinking water from a stream. The creature's body that was meant to be covered with fur was covered with a dangerous slime instead. The red slime mixed with the water as the beast drank from it, making the water seem as though it had been mixed with blood.
Lucian raised his sword, happy that the creature still hadn't taken note of his presence even though he was so near, but just when he was about to kill the beast, he stopped and suddenly remembered that Joel and his brother had the ability to speak to beasts, curious if he had the same talent even though his broken system made no mention of it. Lucian decided to give it a try.
The bear-like beast takes notice of Lucian when he keeps his blade. Quickly the beast raises its claws but stops in midair during its attack after feeling Lucian's beast aura as he activated his beast magic.
"Stop!" Lucian commanded when the beast tried running away. He had poured his beast magic into his voice. Letting it fill his mind and alter his human intelligence so that he could understand the beast's growls, but he still couldn't understand anything. However, the beast had listened to his command in fear, which means that the beast could understand him.
Lucian frowned as he approached the beast; the beast understanding him didn't prove much because there were some low-rank beasts who had the capacity to understand humans.
"Aren't you supposed to be human?" A female voice said behind Lucian. Skai. She had been hidden in the forest watching Lucian in an attempt to attack him because he was the villain, but now with the tremendous beast aura she was feeling off him, she felt scared.
"You…" Lucian was shocked. Skai was shaking in fear; he looked around, and thankfully she was the only one around. She had seen a secret that other players weren't aware of, except his team. "Let's talk." He said desperately and started approaching Skai, but she pushed her feet backwards until she began to run away from him.
'Stop running.' Lucian thought as he ran after Skai. From afar he spotted a cliff. Skai was so focused on looking behind her that she couldn't see the danger that was in front of her. "Stop!" Lucian shouted and increased his speed. He tried grabbing Skai; her nails only scratched his skin before she fell wide-eyed to her demise.
Lucian stared down at the high cliff, unable to do anything but watch.
'Maybe this is for the best,' he thought coldly. Feeling a little guilt inside of him, if only he didn't carelessly show his beast ability, the female player he just met would have survived.