Chapter 141: A Step Closer

[Warning: unknown interference detected.]

[Warning: unknown interference detected.]

Ned's fireball dissolved mid-air hitting nothing but air. Having no time to ponder the warning, Ned jumped backward evading the claw of the lead warg.

It was dark, mud slurped on Ned's boots. But he could clearly see the lines of light the lead warg was emitting.

With an elegant wave of his hand. The short-sword, Ned held on his right, sliced toward the advancing warg.

The lead warg evaded by throwing itself to his right.

Must increase speed, Ned thought. He bore mud with his left leg, he then twisted toward the lead warg raising his sword mid-air.

The lead warg doesn't lose either. After evading, it spun. Making the light on its back formed a crescent. It received Ned's attack head-on along with a short growl.

Ned retracted the short-sword, surprising the lead warg. He then spun, his knee came along the spin. Hitting the left side of the lead warg's canine face.

The warg rolled, brushing darkened leaves, and snapping sticks along the way. It hit a rough rock, sparkling light from its back.

Ned should have rested after he used Overclock. But, no. Muscles aching and mind focused on finding Roy, he chose to battle. Sweat dripping from his forehead. He then brushed it off with the flat of his hand and prepared himself after the lead warg decided to stand and chose to pursue its prey.

Ned's mind wandered for a brief moment, he decided to use a spell once again. Ned raised his left, opening his palm to aim at the rushing lead warg. Fireball he had used.

The sphere of fire formed against his palm. With a flick of his wrist, Ned released the Fireball.

[Warning: unknown interference detected.]

[Warning: unknown interference detected.]

This time, ICE followed through the warning.

[Ned.]

[There was a fluctuation of mana in your body.]

[It was a different kind of energy.]

[My system does not recognize this energy.]

"Can you find a way"—Ned advanced with his sword freely swinging mid-air—"to remove it?"

A slice coming overhead went toward the pouncing lead warg.

[The energy was the same as the one as Rassus has left you, Ned.]

[It was unknown. Unpredictable. And—]

This was the first that ICE has stopped her response.

And what? Ned said. A clang has made him stopped his movements.

The lead warg was medium-sized. But still bigger than his counterpart. Standing on four its height was near a meter. It has a well-built body and strong canine teeth. Canine teeth it used to stop Ned's short-sword.

[And canning.]

Intranode Content Emulator. She was a system beautifully made by Calahir and was redesigned very specific to Ned. She was a system; an Artificial Intelligence, an aide of controlling Ned's cloned body. She does not have emotions nor feelings toward her host. Or was she? Was it due to evolution that she could recognize intents and emotions? Or was she intelligent enough that she could precisely read emotions within Ned and interpret them?

Boom was stuck between the lead warg's teeth. Ned held onto it. While the lead warg shook its head, forcing Ned to let go of the sword. How canning? Ned responded after a brief second. He held Boom with his right.

[Canning as you are exacting vengeance directed toward the Royal Knight.]

[The energy was filled with animosity.]

[Wrath.]

[And retribution.]

[Ned.]

[The mana fluctuation was due to the unknown energy.]

Ned clenched his jaw. Stumbled left and right against the strong teeth of the lead warg. Veins almost poppin on his forehead. Gripping the short-sword, he kicked the lead warg's underneath. It has thick fur, the kick was strong for a fourteen-year-old body, but the warg persisted. It held the short-sword even stronger by its teeth. It growled and twitched its head even further.

The kick wasn't enough. Ned threw a knee under the lead warg's jaw. The impact was strong, but the lead warg squinted its enraged eyes as if telling that it wasn't enough.

Teeth scratching against the iron short-sword, saliva drooled, and beasts eyes look at Ned as if he was already a food.

Ned could force to use Overclock for the second time. But the impression it will leave against Ned's body was unpredictable. He looked at the struggling lead warg like a leech kept on sticking until it sucked all the blood from its host.

But Ned won't be food. Not today, not ever. He clenched his teeth. Opened his palm and marked the lead warg's thick skull. Sparks cracked, and deep orange light brought into existence as Ned moved his left hand closer to the base of lead warg's head.

"Egnious!" Ned cried. Instead of a massive sphere, the fire flowed like a water enveloping the lead warg's canine figure.

From its head, down to its neck, furry body, and at the end of its tail, the supposed to be Egnious, was smooth as water as it flowed the entire body of the lead warg.

It then turned dark. Like a mist evaporated under the scorching heat of the sun, the Egnious swallowed whole the lead warg. Swallowed, perhaps devoured. The Egnious turned devouring.

Without the lead warg's shining mana, the surrounding turned dark. The black cloud sizzled as it devours the lead warg.

The beast wobbled inside. It chose to let go of Ned's short-sword and forced itself against the dark clouds.

Ned never had thought that the devouring would occur on its own. It has been two months after his last devour. By his—it might mean the crystal core floating inside Ned's consciousness, or it might be Ned himself, he just wasn't aware of.

First came a howl, then a growl, and ended with a weep. The lead warg stopped struggling as the black cloud started to sipped inside Ned. It was swallowed whole.

After the last of the bald cloud sipped inside Ned's hand. He closed his eyes and focused on the Core inside him.

He was naked, yet the surroundings felt warm. Warm, like the Core, was alive, happy, perhaps excited. The dark cloud has entered the crystal core, filling it with another dark energy.

The lead warg was Grade E, evolved. But the crystal Core, according to Ned's system, was counted as a single Grade E core. A hundred Grade E core was equivalent to a single tick of Prime Evolution. And at two-hundred fifty-one, where would Ned find Cores to fulfill the seven-hundred forty-nine left to evolve.

Ned flicked a finger, triggering a vibration against the crystal core. The sound hummed and ended echoing inside the pool of nothingness.

It was a single core from Grade E beasts. But the feeling Ned felt after devouring was unquestionably soothing.

The night welcomed the moon—although half, the light it illuminated was enough to let Ned see against the darkened forest.

Ned left the battlefield by turning to the rock that separated him from the two hunter.

Along the way, Ned heard another growl. It was the warg that he kicked. The last of the two minions the lead warg had.

The distance was almost ten meters, between them were grasses, the first to die warg, and rocks. A distance enough for Ned to use a fire spell.

After the devouring, Ned wanted to try if he could use spells since he has fulfilled the hunger the crystal Core had. He lifted his hand. Aligned it freely so that the mana from his body circulates going to the end of his palm.

He could feel the rushing of mana into his veins. The warm, like a hot kettle steaming against the freezing snow. With a simple gesture, Ned conjured a Level-two Fireball.

It didn't whistle like a wind spell or flowed like a water, certainly not crackle like a terra spell, it burned with a throb-throb sound.

The Fireball hit the unprepared warg. Just like the lead warg, growl followed by a weep. It fell with its grey fur and skin charcoaled. The smell of burned flesh and fur hemmed the surrounding.

To be able to use the skill again, he smiled. Ned then dashed towards the path—Rickart and Keesha left. Trail of footsteps was faintly visible against the thin shaft of the moon.

Sometimes the footsteps trailed to the left, and right. Whenever a footstep trailed offtrack, one or two wargs could be seen lying on the ground; dead.

It has been ten minutes since Ned left the contest against the lead warg. The path was straight, indicating that Rickart the Quickfall scout exactly knew where Malik and Sidric was.

Ned skipped rocks; as big as a human. Trees bent in different directions, and mud; deep enough for a knee.

Ned then heard a cry. Wasn't magical beasts, but human. Humans cry along with metals clanging against each other.

Ned dashed to his fastest.

And if Ned was right to follow Rickart, then the place where the cry was heard must be the beast settlement.

Another cry traveled the still air of the forest. It was from a lady. Strong, high pitched, and very familiar to Ned. It was Swift—no, it was Sasani.

Under the mask was her muffled voice Ned couldn't forget: delicate and noble.

Ned dashed forward, and forward was the only way. It was all human: the Voice. Not a screech from a magical beast. Even the grinning swamp goblins, not even their smell. Only humans inside the beast settlement.

Without trees casting their shadows. The beast settlement was pronounced: a thin plank of woods circled the settlement, acting as a fence ( since when did beasts fix their own fence? Ned thought). It wasn't a hut or stone house. The settlement was a simple compilation of dried grasses pillared with sticks and based with brown stones: an incoherent way to make a settlement.

In the middle were woods and sticks piled together and burned to light the circling settlement.

Near the fire were humans Ned knew: Rickart and Keesha both their back facing Ned. Across them where three human—hunters. One of them was Sidric the Warrior, to his right was Malik the Runner, and his left was unfamiliar to Ned. Their faces show nothing but impassiveness.

Ned walked slowly, exiting the thick forest. Now that he was close, almost a dozen bodies circled the bonfire. Not far from Rickart and Keesha, to their right, were other figures. A male, muscular and bald, was atop another figure.

Under the muscular man was Sasani—clad in black, but without a mask. Blood drenched her head, flowing beneath her side making a small pond of crimson red liquid.

"Sasani!" Ned said.