Gabrielle instantly shoots up out of her seat, "The village is being attacked? By who?!"

Zak slowly gets up out of his seat, noting Gabrielle's wish to help.

"We don't got all day! Knights from the Kingom of Minshire are attackin' the village! Hurry!"

Gabrielle and Zak follow the man through the forest. He's running incredibly quickly, almost frantically. Zak attempts to read the man's mind using [ Telepathy ], but it doesn't work. Seems like mind reading is a different skill altogether.

As they approach the village, screams can be heard. The man seems to recognize a particular woman's voice that's nearby, and yells out, "MARIA!"

A woman's voice calls back, "Alastair! Help!"

So his name is Alastair. It might have been quite rude of me not to have asked earlier...

Alastair runs towards a women, running from a trio of knights. The woman has long, brown hair and brown eyes. Her body is quite lovely, and she emanates a feeling of 'motherly love'. In her arms is a young boy, looking just as afraid as she is.

The knights are wearing pretty average-looking steel-plated armor. The colors of their armor are blue as the primary and a bright gold as a secondary. They seem like they would be the good guys in a fantasy novel, but their grins and fierce expressions are the polar opposite of that ideal. The knights are cutting through man after man of the village as they attempt to protect their loved ones, wife after wife, and child after child.

Alastair bolts for the woman, protecting her from the knights as he attempts to fight them off. "Maria, go! Run into the forest and protect Charles!" he yells to her.

Zak begins to think to himself, even if this man is above the strength of an average knight, three at the same time is obviously too much.

A duo of knights tears away Zak from his thoughts, intercepting Gabrielle as she runs to help the woman. In an instant, Zak's body quickly covers the large gap and ends up between the knights and Gabrielle. The knights look fearful as Zak's monstrous body towers over them.

"I-It's a beast! Someone, help us figh-" one begins to shout, but his words are cut short as his head is torn clean off by Zak's shadowy claw. The other knight, obviously a newbie, is shivering in fear.

Several more nearby knights begin to make their way towards Zak, their swords raised at him in caution. Gabrielle stays behind the beast, keeping an eye on the knights. Zak thrusts his hand into the body of the dead knight, pulling his soul out. The others can only see the faint soul once he has pulled it out. He quickly swallows the soul, surprising everyone, including Gabrielle.

[ Learned Skill: Discipline ]

[ Learned Skill: Lesser Enchant Weapon ]

[ Learned Skill: Horseback Riding ]

[ Upgraded Skill: Swordsmanship ]

Gabrielle's face look on in horror, "Zak, did you just... eat that man's soul?"

"Yes. I gain the powers of souls I eat, and that man didn't deserve the afterlife anyways."

She takes a step back from Zak, her hands covering her mouth. "Zak..."

The knights recover from their horrific faces. "Knights, with all of us together, we can kill this monster!" a knight with slightly different armor yells out to bring confidence to the others.

Probably their commander, Zak thinks to himself. The difference in their armor is there's a crest of a bear on the front, and his left shoulder armor is more decorative. Another knight joins the group, making a total of eight knights surrounding Zak. However, the new knight doesn't look the same as the others. He only has tough leather armor and a staff.

The higher-ranked knight leads the charge against Zak. As Zak goes to swipe at the commander, the staffed knight in the back mutters a long phrase before yelling out, "[ Light Barrage ] !" As he thrusts his staff forward, several balls of light form one after the other, constantly barraging Zak. The attack lasts for a few seconds.

The light catches Zak off guard, as well as weakening him. Due to this, the commander is able to dodge the swipe, but unable to attack, himself. Two knights each go for Zak's left and right, two come for the front, and the last melee knight goes straight for Gabrielle, running past Zak's right flank.

Zak kills the two knights to his right, and mercilessly grabs then rips apart the man going after Gabrielle. Since he left himself undefended, four swords cut deep into his body. Zak cries out in pain, thrusting his arm out at the four knights, pushing them back several feet.

He turns to the knights, and using his monstrous voice says, "I am your opponent, not the girl."

The knights recoil from the loss of their allies and the beast's fear-raising, intimidating voice.

"You monster! Die already!" the commander yells as he and his men run at Zak.

Electricity begins to form between Zak's fingers as he reaches towards the men coming at him, a bolt of lightning flying out from his hand. The bolt strikes down two of the men and injures the remaining three, including the mage in the back.

"[ Lesser Lightning ]? Chantlessly? What is this beast?" The commander falls down from the shock, attempting to force himself back up. As he looks back up at Zak, his body is engulfed in a fireball, along with the remaining two knights wielding swords.

The mage in the back coughs up blood, muttering a short phrase before again thrusting his spear out, "[ Fire Barrage ]!" The barrage hurts Zak, but not nearly as much as the [ Light Barrage ].

Zak thrusts out his right arm, a fireball forming as he does so. When he releases it, the mage crosses his arms, and a magic shield stops the attack, however he is still blown back as the shield shatters.

"Interesting. Let me take those skills from you." Zak says in his monstrous voice as he walks up and thrusts his hand through the mage's chest, killing him and taking his soul in the process. He swallows the soul, then smiles.

[ Learned Skill: Divine Blessing ]

[ Learned Skill: Fire Barrage ]

[ Learned Skill: Light Barrage ]

[ Learned Skill: Mana Compression ]

[ Learned Skill: Mana Shield ]

[ Upgraded Skill: Fireball ]

[ Ranked Skill: Lesser Lightning ]

[ Learned Skill: Lightning Bolt ]

[ Upgraded Skill: Mana Control ]

[ Earned Title: Lesser Mage ]

Ranked skill? he thinks to himself, interesting... After he eats the souls of the knights, he begins to feel full.

[ Learned Skill: Courageous Heart ]

[ Learned Skill: Stone Skin ]

[ Learned Skill: Taunt ]

[ Max Skill: Swordsmanship ]

He turns back to Gabrielle, but sees an odd look on her face. She looks up at him and says, "Z-Zak... Please don't tell me you ate the souls of those knights... P-Please."

Zak sees a face on her that he hadn't seen since last night. "Yes, why? It allows me to gain their powers."

Her face turns to one of both horror and disgust. "They can't go to the afterlife... You just robbed them of the afterlife!" She runs up to the beast and begins punching with all of her strength, though it has no effect on him.

"Is that an issue?"

Gabrielle stops punching, and looks up at Zak's face. Her eyes are red and tears drip down her face. Zak goes to wipe them but, to his surprise, she smacks away his hand.

"ISSUE?! THEY LOST THEIR HUMANITY!" she yells at him as she backs away. "ARE YOU GOING TO DO THE SAME TO ME WHEN I DIE?! HOW CAN I TRUST A BEAST THAT EATS THE SOULS OF OTHERS?" She turns to the forest and begins running, crying and sobbing.

The beast is stunned, not knowing what to say. He turns to the town, his head down. As knights run at him to attack him, he kills each of them without much though. Guess I leveled up a bit after killing so many knights...

Turning a corner, he sees Alastair with a sword through his stomach. The knight that pushed the sword into him pulls it out, taking a step back as Alastair falls. The beast watches in silence as Charles runs up from afar.

"DADDY! DADDY!" the boy sobs as Maria begins running up a ways behind him.

"Charles! No!" she screams as she reaches out towards the boy. The knight swipes his sword, beheading the boy. Maria stops, her eyes full of shock. She falls to her knees as she begins sobbing.

"Charles! Charles! Why? Why did you run?!" her heaving gasps of sadness end as a crossbow bolt penetrates through her heart by another knight further away.

Alastair gets up slowly, the knight not noticing as he's faced away from him. Alastair painfully raises his sword, stabbing the knight through the stomach several times. The knight falls down, and notices the beast watching from afar.

"Ya damn beast! Why didn't ya save me family? Why?!" he yells at the beast before getting shot, himself.

"Why..." Alastair's body falls to the ground, dead.

The beast begins to look down as a flurry of emotions build inside of him. Memories of his past begin to flood in, as well as what both Gabrielle and Alastair said.

My wife. What would I do if she had died in front of me? Imagine if someone were to kill my family and they could have saved them, instead of watching like a detached viewer. Gabrielle. What draws me to her? Why do her words sting so much... Am I nothing more than a monster?

[ Learned Skill: Animalistic Rage ]

The beast awakes to find himself in the center of the village, bodies strewn about everywhere. Bodies of knights, village men, women, and children. He begins to feel a pain in his stomach. Looking around, no bodies have souls, and some are missing limbs. A burning sensation fills his mouth as he vomits.

What have I done...

As he pulls his hand away from his mouth, mixed in with the vomit is blood.

Did I do all of this...? All of this destruction?

He opens his stat screen, his hands shaking from adrenaline and fear.

Name: Zak ("The Beast")

Race: Shadow Beast

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Level: 43

Experience: 21953/25000

Titles: [ Beast ] ✔, [ Savior ] X, [ Devourer of Souls ] ✔, [ Natural Enemy of Humans ] ✔

Racial Skills: [ Shadow/Darkness Manipulation ], [ Body of Shadow ], [ Body Manipulation ], [ Soul Absorption ].

Skills: [ Absorb Impact ], [ Alchemy ], [ Animalistic Rage ], [ Blacksmithing ], [ Boost Attack ], [ Bowmanship ], [ Courageous Heart ], [ Deception ]*, [ Discipline ]*, [ Disguise ], [ Divine Blessing ], [ Farming ], [ Fishing ], [ Fire Barrage ], [ Fireball ], [ Flame Lance ], [ Forgery ], [ Horseback Riding ], [ Intimidation ]*, [ Lesser Enchant Weapon ], [ Lesser Healing ]*, [ Lesser Lightning ]*, [ Light Barrage ], [ Lightning Bolt ], [ Magic Missiles ]*, [ Mana Compression ], [ Mana Control ], [ Mana Shield ], [ Quick Strike ]*, [ Quiet Sneak ], [ Shadow Control ], [ Shadow Step ], [ Shield Bash ]*, [ Spearmanship ], [ Sniping ], [ Stone Skin ], [ Swordsmanship ]*, [ Taming ], [ Taunt ], [ Thievery ]*, [ Tool Creation ], [ Water Bomb ], [ Water Spear ], [ Water Missiles ].

Where did all of these skills come from? Some are even maxed. Where did these dangerous titles come from? More importantly, why do I have so many agricultural... The beast looks back to the villager bodies surrounding him. His monstrous face contorts as he takes a similar facial expression to Gabrielle earlier. What have I done?

The beast begins walking towards the path of the cottage, seeing the dead body of Alastair, Maria, and Charles. He stops for a moment, putting his hands together in prayer to apologize, but realizes something. Why am I praying to a god that turned me into a heartless monster?

The beast looks up at the sky, anger enveloping his face. Soon, I will surpass you. I will make you apologize for what happened today.

He continues walking towards the cabin. As he reaches it, the sobbing of a young girl emanates out from the half-open door. With a sorrowful look in his eyes, the beast opens the door...