Chapter 4 – Vicious Beast

The bear was roaring loudly and pounced straight onto Drake. Drake tried to dodge, but he underestimated the speed of the blood red bear. He felt like he got hit by a giant boulder, when the bear crashed into him. Luckily, Drake had avoided the claws and didn’t get wounded severely. “Shit…” he thought and tried to think of a way to kill this beast.

“I have totally underestimated it!” Drake said while putting all the soulstrength into his scorpion tail tattoo. With a flash, which blinded the bear for a short time, the ghostly tail appeared above his arm and he instantly stabbed it forward. The stinger pierced through the pelt of the bear, but couldn’t stab deep enough to inflict serious wounds. “What the hell is this thing?! How can it be that hard?!” Drake thought shocked. He ripped the tail out of the body of the bear and tried to jump out of range. Unfortunately he wasn’t fast enough and one of the claws stripped his head. He managed to pull his head back out of instinct, but he still got hit and a long cut was bleeding visibly across his right eye. To his luck, his eye didn’t get damaged, but the wound across his eye was bleeding rapidly, blocking his sight.

“Why isn’t it healing?!” he thought panicked but he didn’t have time to think more about it as the bear as ready to attack again.

“You managed to surprise me! I will kill you!!” He shouted into the face of the bear, which seemed not impressed. Drakes eyes started to turn slightly silver and a faint layer of scales emerged from his skin, covering parts of his body.

“Watch out beast…!” He said with a growling voice and a dangerous light flashed in his eyes.

The bear didn’t seem to care and jumped straight onto Drake again. This time Drake was prepared and avoided the bear with a turn of his body. He kicked the ground with all his might and catapulted himself against the bears body. With a loud, surprised roar the bear sent away and slided a few meters on the ground. It slowly stood up and his angry and confused gaze was searching for Drake. Unfortunately for the bear, Drake had already vanished from his sight and suddenly the bear felt a stabbing pain on his hip. He turned around and saw a big hole inside his body, with blood spraying everywhere. Drake was already on another position, he was like a berserker running around and stabbing the scorpion tail inside the body of the bear. Countless holes appeared on the body of the bear, as he was stabbing him continuously. His eyes were burning with a silver flame and the faint scales on his body were slowly changing colour, turning white. He looked like a savage beast, a beast which could take on the heavens. A strong aura was emitted from his body and small stones in the surrounding started to melt. It was like a heatwave was pouring out of his body, powered from his anger.

The ghostly tail floating over his arm slowly became bigger and the stinger was getting longer. A sharp white light was enveloping the tail and with an even faster speed then before the tail stabbed numerous times into the body of the bear. Every time it ripped out of the body blood would splatter everywhere and it seemed to get stronger with every wound it inflicted.

The bear couldn’t stand anymore and fell to the ground with a loud noise.

The poison from the scorpion tail, which was enhanced by the battle state of Drake was rushing through the veins of the beast and it became weaker with every minute. Drake slowly returned to his normal condition, the scales vanished and his eyes became blue again. He watched the bear as it tried to stand up again. “Now…who is the beast here?!” he asked while laughing lightly.

“You shouldn’t have tried to kill me…” Drake said and walked closer to the creature.

Suddenly the seemingly almost dead beast roared with anger and swiped his claw as fast as lightning. Drake couldn’t react in time and got sent flying. On his stomach there were four claw stripes, blood and parts of his organs were spraying out of the wound. “Shit…! I underestimated you again!!” Drake coughed in pain and slowly stood up.

A normal person wouldn’t be able to even say something with this kind of wound, but Drake had endured countless sessions of torture. He knew pain more than any other being on this planet. He seemed like he was almost immune to the pain of external wounds. In actuality he could only suppress the pain for a few short moments. No one could get used to pain. It was impossible.

But you could build up a faint resistance to it and Drake had built it over 3 years of endless torture. He slowly made his way to the bear, which was lying on the ground one hand holding the wounds on his stomach, the other curled into a fist. The bear didn’t have any strength left. He was poisoned and countless wounds were on his body. The strike was dealt with the last bit of strength his body had and now he could only wait for death. Drake stopped in front of the head of the bear and gathered every last bit of strength from his body. He channelled every drop from his soulsea inside his fist and together with the might of his muscles he directly struck the head of the bear with all he had.

The bears head burst, like it was a ripened watermelon and brain parts splattered everywhere. Drake didn’t even care about this as he desperately searched for something inside of the head. After some minutes he slowly exhaled deeply and pulled a big dark red crystal out of the head.

He didn’t have time to celebrate, or think about what he should do. He handled instinctively and stabbed the crystal into the wounds on his stomach. He pressed with all his might and lost consciousness.

The crystal was pressed against the life threatening wounds on his stomach and slowly it started to pulse with red light. Blood was sucked out of the wound and slowly Drakes body seemed to lose all the blood. Suddenly the crystal stopped sucking and with a bright light it trembled. Slowly bloody was flowing out of the crystal, back into the body of Drake. The blood looked a lot more pure than earlier, it was even more silver now, with a faint golden shine. After an unknown period of time the crystal started to melt and entered the wound together with the last drop of purified blood. The edges of the wounds started to melt together and soon four vicious looking scars were seen. Even the cut across his eye healed and built a scar. His body looked even more wild and dangerous now. Vaguely a day later Drake slowly opened his eyes. “I am not dead…” he said slowly and suddenly he started to laugh.

He laughed for almost two minutes, then as the laughter slowly subsided he sat up and looked around.

Next to him, there lay the corpse of the giant red bear, with a crushed head.

“This was a close fight….I was careless. Something like that can’t happen again, or I will die! I can’t always be as lucky as this!” he sighed and a determined look once again flashed in his eyes. “I have to become stronger..!” he thought and slowly stood up. Drake slowly strokes the scars on his stomach and turned around to the forest and the faint cliff, that marked the border of this valley. He activated the Dragon God Chain and stored the corpse of the blood bear inside of it. Then he moved into the forest, still stroking the scars and slowly whispered “Strength…” with a thoughtful gaze.

Loud steps were echoing through a forest, accompanied by a dragging noise. After some short breaths a big figure could be seen walking quickly through the forest while dragging a giant corpse. The figure’s muscular body was covered in black scales and it had the head of a monster. A long mouth with countless sharp teeth in it and bright red reptile eyes, with an incredibly intelligent gaze. It looked a bit like a crocodile, except it was walking on two legs and wearing fur. It had no weapons, but his sharp claws were covered in blood. It seemed like he had slain the beast that was dragged behind him. This creature was Hekth’Sai, a warrior of the Du’Shalan tribe.

“I can’t believe I managed to kill one of the Mal’ma’s on my own, without even sustaining any injuries!” he thought and looked proudly over his back onto the corpse of the beast. It was a big creature with a mouth full of sharp brown teeth. Its pelt was in a muddy green colour and it had hooves. Four horns were on top of its head and it looked incredibly fierce. “Normally not even five strong warriors are able to kill a Mal’ma and they would all be wounded!” he thought and a small grin was parting his long mouth, which gave him a scary appearance. “It seems like the old man said the truth, when he told me that my bloodline is unusually strong. He said that I am destined to become the strongest of all the tribes! I am beginning to believe him…” he laughed lightly in his mind and a low growl was emitted from his mouth.

The tribes were communicating through telepathy, gestures and facial expressions. They couldn’t form words with their tongue even if they wanted to.

They would growl or roar sometimes, while talking or thinking, but that was not intentional, it just happened.

As Hekth’Sai was thinking about his tribe, his mood suddenly turned bad. A dark look was on his face as he thought of the countless warriors that once were protecting his tribe. It was only two years ago as almost all of the warriors vanished one after the other. They came back after some days, but all of them had changed. They became bigger and stronger, but the price was their mind. They began to attack their friends and their eyes became cloudy and lifeless. It was like they were puppets and someday, like they were commanded all of them left what they were doing and entered the forests. They never came back after this day and the Du’Shalan tribe was left with only eleven warriors. An elder mentioned that he could feel that the bloodline of the warriors who left were strengthened by a strong external power. But the power was not complete and the beastmen affected by the strengthening were all turning mad at first and lifeless after. The tribe listened around and talked with other tribes and found out that they were having the same problem.

Boiling rage mixed with helplessness was storming inside of Hekth’Sai’s mind as he couldn’t do anything against it. The warriors left and now he and the other ten warriors were responsible for the tribe. It was almost impossible, because the work of a thousand warriors was now shifted onto the back of eleven young tribe members, who became warriors after the real ones left. They weren’t weak and were growing with every task they completed, but they just couldn’t hunt enough food. And first of all they didn’t have any bloodline training. They were fighting with raw strength, because that was the only thing they knew.

Hekth’Sai sighed. It wouldn’t do him any good if he thought longer about the mysterious power that turned his tribe’s warriors into puppets. “One day…I will kill the creature that is responsible for this…!!” he swore with a determined look in his eyes. But the tribe was coming first and they needed food. While Hekth’Sai was thinking he had already travelled for almost three hours. In two hours he would reach his tribes village and could relax again. But now he needed to concentrate, the forest was dangerous. He travelled fast and paid attention to his surroundings. Everything went fine as suddenly, when he wanted to pass a giant black boulder, a growl was heard. To Hekth’Sai’s horror the black boulder was slowly standing up and turned around. It was no boulder. “I am dead….” Hekth’Sai thought and a long growl came out of his mouth. A giant mouth was slowly coming towards his body and he could now see the creature fully. It was a Zecais, a giant Stonebeast formed in the shape of a lion, but with sharp spines on its back. The Zecais were the ruler of this valley. There were only ten or so of them wandering through these forests, but they were undefeated vicious beasts. Nothing was their opponent. They didn’t have any fur, the whole body was looking like stone. The skin was as hard as obsidian and nothing from this valley could crack it open.

Hekth’Sai slowly dropped the Mal’ma which he was dragging and wanted to walk backwards.

Shocked he realized that the Zecais didn’t even care for the huge corpse of the Mal’ma, instead it looked onto him and started to get ready to struck him with his claw.

“Why am I so unlucky??!” Hekth’Sai shouted in his mind and a low roar was emitted from his mouth. The Zecais growled loudly and struck as fast as lighting. Its claw was flying throught the air and a loud whistling noise could be heard. “Am I going to die? It seems like the old man lied to me…I’m not destined to become great…” he thought and started to close his eyes.

Suddenly something hit his head from behind and scratched a small wound into it. It was a small wound but in Hekth’Sai’s mind it felt like a mountain collapsing. Faintly tattoos, which were not visible before started to appear on his head, forming a mysterious pattern. It looked almost like a dragon, but without wings. A strong power shot through his mind and he felt like he was reborn. Faint feelings were streaming in his head and his mind automatically merged with them. Suddenly his half closed eyes shot open with a faint noise. His former bright red eyes were now almost orange and the tattoos on his head were glowing faintly.

He looked very brutal. “I….DON’T…WANT….TO DIE!!!” He roared in his mind and opened his mouth. He never roared on his own before, because it didn’t come into his mind, but the strange feelings told him that something would happen. He inhaled deeply and burst out a roar that was countless times stronger then the roar of a bear. The nearby trees trembled slightly and leafs started to fall. The soundwave from his roar was almost visible, so strong was it. The Zecais was startled as he had never heard a roar like this before and his claw strike slowed down for a short moment. This moment was enough for Hekth’Sai, who kicked the ground and pushed himself into the air. While still roaring he curled his fist into a ball and struck it with all his might onto the nose of the Zecais. A loud bang was heard and right after that two faint cracking noises. Hekth’Sai’s hand was broken in an instant and his eyes returned to their red colour. He felt weak, no strength was left in his body. While falling he turned his head and observed the spot he hit on the nose of the Zecais. Slowly a small part of the skin crumbled and dark blue blood was faintly flowing out.

“Hah…I did it…!” Hekth’Sai thought with a proud gaze “Now I can step in front of my ancestors with pride and strength!” With a ‘thumb’ noise he fell to the ground and looked up.

The Zecais slowly licked the small crack on its nose and its eyes became furious. Something managed to wound him. It was a proud and arrogant creature and couldn’t tolerate things like this. It roared loudly and in its eyes were bloodlust. It would tear this lowly creature apart.

With a fast slash the body of Hekth’Sai was sent flying, his scales cracked and wounds all over his body. The whole time he had a challenging and proud look in his eyes, which made the Zecais even more furios. It slashed out a second time, even stronger and Hekth’Sai flew through some tress and crashed into a hard stone boulder at the end. He couldn’t breath anymore but his gaze was still the same and his whole body, which was covered with wounds exuded and aura of pride. “I am worthy of my ancestors!” He thought and laughed lightly in his mind. The enraged Zecais steadily came closer. It decided to eat this lowly creature whole, as it couldn’t stand the gaze of Hekth’Sai. The mouth cam closer with sharp, long teeth starring dangerously, but he still had the same gaze. Pride and Challenge. That was his innermost character. If he had to die, he would do it like a King! The teeth scrapped over the scales with a scratching noise and Hekth’Sai could feel his end coming nearer.

Suddenly a loud boom was heard and with a cracking sound countless trees were crushed, as a shadow was flying right through them. The shadow was incredibly fast, even faster than the Zecais and it rammed directly into the side of it with terrible force. The Zecais howled and was sent flying. It crashed through countless trees and ended lying on the ground. Its whole side was caved in and blue blood was leaking everywhere. It tried to stand up, but couldn’t .

Slowly Hekth’Sai returned his gaze onto the shadow, which had such a terrifying strength.

It was a strange creature. It had fur on its head, which was curled and a big dark red pelt was draped around his back. It wore a black unknown pelt around its legs. The creature had a very muscular body and a sharp aura was emitted from it. Slowly the creature turned around and Hekth’Sai was directly pierced by a gaze from ice blue eyes, which somehow had a faint silver light in them. A scar lay across the right eye of the creature and four giant scars were on its muscular stomach. What shocked Hekth’Sai was that the creature had something pearlwhite infront of his mouth and nose covering it. On the pearlwhite thing a demonic mouth with sharp teeth was making a grimace. It looked almost like it was grinning.

Suddenly the creature opened its mouth and said something, which he didn’t understand.

It sounded strange: “You did good…friend!” What was that supposed to mean??

Hekth’Sai couldn’t understand. The creature seemed to understand something and nodded lightly then it laughed and with a green flash something appeared above its arm. It was a big scorpion tail, shining in a green and white light. The tail was trembling and shivering as if it was alive and eager to fight. It looked very dangerous. “BLOODLINETECHNIQUE!!” Hekth’Sai almost died from shock as he saw this and suddenly excitement appeared in his eyes. The creature in front of his eyes was a real warrior! He watched the creature walking towards the Zecais, as if it was as easy as killing insects.

“This man…is incredibly strong!”

This was the last thing he thought before he fainted.