Chapter 53 - 53 - First Encounter

A dark, blurry silhouette was rushing towards an oak with frightening speed. Its figure drew a black streak as it dashed.

Almost instantly as he sprung into action the echoing hooting and hollering died down, replaced by high-pitched angry screams. Rocks and even sticks of all kinds were flung towards the hazy dashing streak, only to miss its target by a great margin and thump at the dark green carpet of ground.

The figure did not stop, did not falter, it charged seemingly towards the large, wide, gnarled bark. The small monkey-like beast, who was enjoying itself just a moment ago, suddenly sensed the incoming, looming threat, an inconceivable danger to its life.

The little beast just couldn't understand, how was he threatened? Their prey, the weak little outsider was down on the ground below whilst they were up, under the safety of the canopy, the dome of leaves.

He couldn't possibly threaten its life, could it?

Albeit sensing the danger, the little beast decided to not run away, to not escape. Its opponent was below, it seemed far too clumsy to be able to get to such a spot. Deciding it was just a trick of its nerves, it growled with a fit of newfound anger and even arrogance.

After all, how does such a weakling, furless two-legs threaten its obviously mightier presence?!

In its steadily rising rage, it reached out, seemingly grabbing the empty air with all four of its frontal limbs.

At the next moment, however, instead of holding empty air, 4 small, circular-shaped, smooth-surfaced stone pebble appeared in its four clenched palms. As it was following the steady approach of the measly target of theirs.

Releasing a mad, anger-fueled warning howl, all four of its limbs flung, shooting the quartet of projectiles simultaneously.

At the same time, its cry was like a call for battle, the monkey's 5 companions copied its leader's actions and each threw their own ammo towards Lucien.

Despite being sentenced to a heavy barrage from these cruel, short creatures, Lucien continued charging forward, ignoring the swarm of incoming stones. His speed, hastened by the continuous use of the [Bestial Rush] ability, their attacks could only fall behind him, he didn't need to focus on dodging, evading at all.

The little monkey leader watched with confusion as the figure reached below him. It still couldn't understand what the end goal was, as itself was still way out of its reach even if he were to try to poke with its sharp weapon.

However, its bewilderment was answered in the next instant.

As Lucien reached his spot, under the tree, he suddenly bent his knee, shifting all of his momentum and strength into his legs, springing upwards, shooting to the sky like a human rocket, he jumped with everything he had.

His body shot up in the air, lifting his weight, rapidly closing towards the surprised, shocked, and scared little creature with a menacing grin over his face.

As the distance closed, and before the monkey-like creature could react in any meaningful way, the sharp metal blade struck down, slicing through the air and subsequently, the beast in an instant.

The swipe was sudden, killing not just the beast, ending its life almost instantly, but also silencing the hooting crowd of its brethren as well.

The unexpected resolution to the opposed problem, the sudden strike of the exotic blade was all it needed to end the life of this unknown, dark-furred four-armed, double bushy-tailed creature, shifting the scale to Lucien's favor.

A single second. That was the required time all it took to shock the annoying, arrogant creature of the forest.

A meager instant, that in the eyes of his opponent it stretched out, never seeming to cease. Their small, bead-like eyes turned wide open, they watched with shock written all over their faces as their fearless leader's lifeless body split apart and fell down from the tree onto the ground, sending out two distinct muffled thuds.

Still, however long the moment felt, as soon as the previously hooted and hollered human's feet touched the ground, the nature of their discourse changed. Their taunts died down, replaced by fearful cries and sorrows and desperate screams as they immediately turned tail and escaped to all directions.

Lucien was keenly aware as their intent changed, shifting from the desire to annoy and kill into fear and misery. He had to admit, this feeling of power, the dominance over his opponent was intoxicating.

He didn't bother chasing after them. There was no point, they were much more agile and faster than him, it would be pointless, he would never catch up.

Also, he had a perfectly fine corpse in front of him, why would he leave it?

Listening as their voices gradually died down, Lucien snickered at them, turning his attention on the split carcass of this strange creature.

Now that it was finally not hiding, Lucien could confirm his first guess. Its features did resemble a marmoset, a small subspecies of monkeys with some obvious differences.

One was their size. While their 'normal' brethren, mostly known to habit the vast jungle biomes around South America and sporting a size of approximately 8 inches, this specimen was more than twice as large and thick, probably reaching 18, or maybe 20 inches even!

Another difference was the addition of another bushy tail and a second pair of frontal limbs, or arms. The usually short claws they had, seemed to be still present here, with roughly the same size. They were short and sharp.

Their chestnut-colored eyes were also matching the outside world, although there was a strange, dark-green hairline running from its pupil to the outer edges of its iris. Whatever purpose it served it rapidly began to fade as soon as life left the little creature, gradually losing its leftover color and fading into nonexistence as the seconds passed.

Startled by this, Lucien hurriedly reached out with his right arm, grabbing both sides of the split corpse.

In the next moment, he felt the rising hunger, the awakening sentience of the 'other one' inside him. His arm bulged, the outlines of the dark tendrils underlying his skin became faintly visible.

The lifeless, furry carcass liquefied visible to the naked eye and vanished as everything was sucked away into the depths of Lucien's body in mere seconds. Lucien could actually feel a rising, bubbling excitement, a strange hunger… no more like a thirst to grow, causing him to shiver at this strange experience.

Still, he could only grit his teeth, and swallow the fear and dread that came from his humanity.

Still, as he waited for the system's dark screen to appear and blast him with the slew of new messages, he couldn't help but wonder.

Was this a sign of weakness? Was his humanity going to be a problem in the long run, keeping him from going forward, towards his destiny?

Or was this his saving grace? His chance for a better future?

However, there was a deeper question underlying all of these thoughts. Something that kept steadily rising in the back of his head, fueling all of his other worries and concerns about himself, his future, and even his past.

Was he still human? Or was he ever one? Is he something else, something else… something dreadful?

—

A small smile crept up on Sera's previously worry-filled face as she witnessed Lucien's glorious attack. She couldn't help but be filled with content, happiness, as she watched from afar how the young boy sliced the Stone-Hurdler Marmoset leader apart.

Her smile only crept higher when she saw how her young master almost instinctively reached out and absorbed the beast into himself, further enriching his own power.

She clenched her hands as hope slowly warmed her heart.

"Soon… Grow stronger Master… This time, we will change the course of history!" She muttered, whispering into the air, keeping watch and protecting the boy from afar.