As the sun was slowly raising over the horizon Rex stirred, his internal clock urging to wake and ready himself for another ordinary day at work. 'Damn, its monday' rex thought, not trully geting up but setting his mind in order for the day. 'That was one vivid dream though' he mused and feeling the rather moist air around him he murmured "Did i forget to close window and it rained at night?" when his thoughts were interrupted by a rather rough voice "Sheesh u do sleep like a log boy. I wonder if u could notice an attack of any sort in that state?" Rex blanked out for a moment feeling the odd familiarity of the voice, not being quite able put put a face to it, but that was the lesser of problems as the main question that rose in is head right now was how in god gods name could he have sneaked in his home and for what reason would he linger there.Quickly opening his eyes he got stunned once again as what he beheld denied reason. He was in a the same boat that he fell asleep in the lucid dream he was having last night, and was addressed by the boss.

By all logic and reason, he should have woken up, or if that is not the case he might be in a coma, and his consciousness locked in a construct of his own imagination. But even that makes no sense as who has ever heard of a person raising from coma and telling about their amazing or weird adventure in that state. He was sure as hell its neither drugs or alcohol, as he was not one to indulge in such recreational activities. It could wery well be just the continuation of the dream, but not that he was thinking, the raid and everything about that experience felt way too vivid and real. The murky memories of his earlyer time in this place also started to become clearer. Vague recollections of screams about and abomination, a demon taking over the newborn, low curses of the man carrying him somewhere, he doesnt understand the language of course, but the venom in the voices apparent, and then there is disgust and hatred, then the thud of a basket like object, more curses that became quieter and quieter and the source of the voice dissapeared in the distance. And then hunger, ever growing and ever gnawing hunger that rose and rose untill; something snapped deep inside him. And the feeling of energy, unexplainable and intangible enveloping him, and then sleep. Then nothing, silent peacfull nothing for a long time, yet growth could be felt, however small and intangible yet there untill the next vivid memory resurfaces- eyes opening, then confusion, some slight movements, then some more. Then some understanding dawns that he is enveloped in some sort of a cocoon. its hard yet solf at the same time, and exiting it is rather simple. What follows next can be described as nothing more than just primal instincts in search of food, hunger returns, but now physical, not like first time where it was more than that. As luck would have it some beries soon were found. and looking at them and energy hue around them giving off the feeling of food. He has never seen beries like that before- the sze of a tumb, round and pale yellow with purplish blemishes. One would think its poisonous given how colorfull it looks, but the feeling he can feel from observing the bery and the odd energy fluctuations around it makes it feel safe. There is no hesitation any longer he eats one, then the next and the next. In a few minutes the hunger subsides a little.

Next vivid memory resurfaces, where hes stalking a small mouse like creature, then the hunt, the failure. Another attempt later after sating himself with some berries. There is understanding that beries dont be available all the time, and protein mus tbe secured. And while body feels somewhat akward, hes getting used to it, thats how the memory feels.A simple trap with some sturdy vines used as a rope trap. After several tries its sucsessfull, a few hits ensures the mouselike creature stops moving. Then on instinct his arm extends towards the dead creature and as if with a mental tug the energy thats wery slowly diminishing from the carcass is being sucked through his hand into him. Its filling, ever more so than the berries, it provides sustenance, but more so, it gives something, so very small almost intangible, yet its there, he grows stronger. He understands he is a predator. One that grows sronger with each kill, and so he will hunt and grow not to be weak and feeble.

Memories of hunts ever more challenging and feasts of energy fills his mind, and then some snippets of eevr so random knowledge. Scents of beasts never seen but recognized, territories marked by other predators of beasts he has hunted before, nothing tangible, but feels true. He has found remains of people in the forset, no doubt hunted by other predators in the forest,where he has aquired some rather ragged clothes to wear. Some monsters do roam through here from time to time, and he hides from those. The energy they exude is far from what he believes he is capable of tackling right now. Over the years in his memories of hunts hes developed quite the instincts of a predator, he still is human deep down inside, still thinks as one, however moves on instincts more than anything. Then the first encounter with people. A couple of hunters as would the bows in their hands and small quivers straped to their backs would attest. He listens and he still does not understand a word they say. A pity he thinks and turns to leave. Then shouts, and as he turns back he realizes hes been seen. He thinks little of it as he has no reason to interact with the hunters, but then they suddenly draw their bows, and aim at the boy. he leaps behind window with a speed of a predator. A simple hatchet he picked from one the remains of humans hes found, tucked behind the worn out belt. he quickly draws it out and readies himself for combat.The man inside is exited, adrenalin pumping, instincts kicking in. A hunt wher he is both the prey and the predator. He had no desire to attack the hunters but he is no vegetarian either. He lunges from one tree cover to the next barely avoiding the arrows shot by the hunters, he senses hatred from the shouted curses, his senses sharpened by the hunted beasts, it feels as though the men, while fully grown and more developed, are slow, much slower than him. The dance to avoid arrows and reach closer to the hunters last for some teb minutes until he sees and opening and lunges for one of the men. The hatched in his hand is swung and it gets loged deep in the hunters chest, a scream of pain from the wounded hunter, and then a sharp pain in the boys side. An arrow loged in there, not too deep but painfull none the less. Rage and fury takes over and he leaps for the second hunter who wounded him whos fumbling now in fear as he tries to prepare the next arrow to be shot.Boy tackles the hunter abnd starts pounding himwith all the savagery of a bear. each hit caving in the chest of the hunter. The last strike caves in the head of the battered man and he stops moving. The man with the axe in the chest has stoped moving a while ago. While still high on the adrenaline boy pulls arow out from his side with a wince and gets to absorbing the energy of the prey as he has always done. One thing the memories have shown him, absoring energy alwasy heals the wounds first, then comes the satiating of hunger and as the last is the strenghtening. After absorbing the energy of both hunters, he doesnt feel much gain in terms of strenght, but a profound feeling is there. A knowledge, and understanding- not one of personal experience but realization. He now feels as though he should be able to understand their language. But boy also knows that he is too weak right now. If just two rather weak hunters managed to wound him he needs to grow stronger, absorb energy of stronger beings. He no longer hunts rodents and any other small animals as he feels that they no longer improve him. And lately predators like wolves also start to show less and less gains. It seems that the larger predators like bears and tigers are the way to go, and maybee finaly some monsters as well.

Memories of hunts of tigers and bears, and with each he grows stronger. Sometimes he encounters other hunters, but he is much more carefull now, and with his growing strenght it is much easier to remain undetected. Random conversations that he now understands, nothing worthy of note until in once such conversation he hears of a monster. Lesser blood kanine. It has been spotted at the edge of the forset close to the swamp. the meeting of two hunter groups ended as soon as it stared both rushing to their villages to warn of the roaming monster. Rex seeing the oportunity sneaked away and moved in the direction mentioned. While hunters seemed rushed they were not panicked, unnerved maybe but there was no primal fear in their actions. That gave Rex the assurance that this beast was an apropriate hunt, not too dangerous, but it should be quite the meal. Close to dusk Rex reached the edge of the forest, and started top search for trails of the monster. He was used to the local beasts and the trails they leave behind, so it took him little time to find what he was looking for. some thirty minutes later he found the monster. By size alone it was nothing impressive, slightly bigger than a fully grown saint bernard, while big for a canine, when compared to tigers or bears it felt like nothing. Its energy however was a decent bit higher than the aforementioned beasts. Rex was quite carefull aproachin the monster from downwind to make sure he was not noticed, the counles predator strenght he absorbed allowed him to move with deadly precision and silence. When he was close enough he pounced on the unaware canine and smashed it hard in the side breaking some ribs of the beast, making it howl in pain scrambe away. Rex didnt let go and folowed the prey not leting it get too far away, and the broken ribs ensured that it wouldnt run away as monsters had tendency to fight to death. The wound on the hound made it more sluggisg and as such the leap that it made was rather easily dodged by Rex and he imediatly followed up by another crushing striketo the monsters side. more ribs broke and the creature howled in pain. Then its eyes glowed red and its blood started boiling, Rex sensing danger instantly created distance between him and the monster,heightening all his senses, it felty as the beast had gone berserk, gaining more strenght, but burning up its vitality. This state woudnt last long , but it didnt matter as the danger now was qiute high. Undersanding the danger rex backed away a bit more and as the monster turned to rex hea leaped up in the air and pulled himself upon a rather thick tree branch. The monster in its madness driven rage lunged at the tree as if trying to shred the tree to pieces to get its fangs and claws on the hiding rodent that enraged it. Its rampage lasted for some five minutes untill it started to slow down and grow weary. When it seemed that the beast would soon fall Rex jumped down the tree that was close to the one he initially jumped up to which he had relocated soon after the beast rampage had started to avoid accidental fall in one of the beasts headbuts, swung his worn out hatchet at the monsters base of the neck. Now that its rage had ended and quite a bit of its blood was burned it was much easier to discern the gaps in its bony neck armor to make a deadly and precise cut. That armor was the main reason the initial attack from stealth was a crushing blow to its ribs and not an attack on its neck or head. Bony protrusions liek a spiked collars covered its neck and a rather thick bone plate covered its head. The cut was precise and ended the monster then and there, its exaustion playing a major role.

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One the monster was killed Rex didnt spend much time in observing it and went straight to absorbing the energy. What had to be noted is that while its vitality was drained quite a bit due to its berserking and burning of blood, the energy that his eyes could see and percieve was barely diminished. Rex did make instinctual guess that was he was devouring was some other energy, mana ki aor whatever people would call it here.Since Rex didnt recieve and notable injuries the gain felt rather substantial, since the amount of energy was rather plentifull. Hunt smart not hard was what lingered in the head of the hunter. Heroic and brave actions are those of a fool. Smart, eficient and brutal, thats how you hunt. More hunts of monsters flashed in his memory reel, some just as good as this one, others ill advised scuffles, but never ones taken with overconfidence or underestimating the monsters, and always withnotable gain in the end.

It all ended with the meeting of this group of bandits, sailing across the river Rex had situated himself near when hunting for his next monster to devour. What made this meeting different was that the scouts, noticing Rex, informed their leader and for the first time in this life he was not only not attacked on sight by the humans , but the leader called out to him. "Hey there brother!" the leader called out to Rex as his eye changed collor reavealing the demonic eye of his. "Dont see one of my kind in this country alive and kicing often. " he continued as their ship closed to the shore and he jumped of the ship, remaining men staying where they are and waiting for response of the man they noticed. Rex scanning the people on the ships and realizing that they are quite an insignificant threat to the current him who had feasted on a lot of monsters by now let his hiding place and jumped down the tree, some ten meters away from the leader. Being able to understand the man did help in making that decision and since they were not attacking why wouldnt he converse, or at least try to. Rex looked at the man waiting for him to continue. "Havent seen that pattern, what deas it do?" leader asked and Rex realized then that his energy absorbtion must be due to his eyes. "And do people just straight out answer such questions?" Rex asked in a rather hoarse voice. "Ha ha ha. Foolish question indeed" laughed the leader as he observed the young man in front of him. Wearing rags for clothes, a young man with shoulderlenght black hair, cut rather haphazzardly, it was quite obvious the boy must be just cutting the ends of hair when it gets inconveniently long. hatched huged behind his belt was worn out. Rex then added "But i can see aproximately, how strong you people are. More or less." his voice sounded qiute unrefined, implying that he wasnt used to speaking a lot."State your intentions" he added. "Aaa yes, my name in Aron and these people are my bad of unafiliated mercenaries. We come from Zharr on an expedition for recourses." He smiled in a way that looked more liek a crooked grin than amiacable smile, but it was as truthfull as it comes. Rex felt no deceprtion in the mans voice. Aron then continiued "This here is the Eclisiarchy of Light, filled with religious fanatics and zealots, and people like you and me are considered abominations for our eyes give us quite the power. Each pattern gives something different, but its always a boon to the person. Here they scorn such peapleif they see their eyes, often even attacking on sight, and if one is born in these lands they are taken deep into forests and left alone to die and be eaten by beasts, or as they sai "Returned to the gods". Barbarians the lot of them. And since you are like me, it is only right that we offer you a chance to leave this forsaken land and have a chance of living like a human." Rex raised an eyebrow and looked at Aron, waiting for the catch, and boss quickly realizing the man is quite sharp despite his hermit like appearances quicky added "Of course, in exchange for our service in helping you leave thios place we could liek for your help in aquiring the wares we came here for. ". Rex looked at the man for a short while, glanced at the men on the ships, and truth be told those longboats did remind him of viking longships a tad bit, and so he asked with no particalar emotion in his tone "Raiding some villages for some slaves i'd wager?" Aron, still maintaining his grin asked in return "Woud that be a problem, seeing you are, for all intents and purposes, a demon of hells." This is where Rex remembers his "dream" started, and he answers "No problem whatsoever, might as well return a bit of Love i've recieved over the years from their' hunters i suppose." A rather sinister grin appearing on the young mans face. Aron smiling becons the man on their ship while talking of this and that, providing Rex with minor bits of information here and there while gauging his strenght and value in a fight. in the folowing few daysthey get to see how Rex disposes of a monster or two, making Aron all the more sure of his decision to interact with the boy when his scouts informed him of a spoted forsaken in a trees canopy. Unlike the Eclisiarhy, people of other lands considered forsakens as boon to any and all fighting forces due to their inherent advantages.

Then the memories of the raid itself flased pass in his mind, how easily he disposed of the men charging at him and Aron, then how he had his way with the curvaceous milf, her sobbing and begging, her prayers to their god of light for salvation, how it left so real even though it was a dream, the deflated fear striken eyes of the villagers as they were rounded up and loaded in the boats. The sobs of the women on the main boat as they were made to work overtime to relieve Aron and Rex a few more times. The memory of just how damn realistic the dream felt as Rex relaxed at the side of the boat slipping in to sleep while the ship was leaving, to return to Zhar to offload their merchandise.

It took several minutes for memories to flash by as Rex was quiet and staring into nothingness while processing his situation. Aron looked at Rex, who had blanked out on him for a few minutes, then he remembered just how much of a monster the monster was hiding, laughed and sad to Rex "Did the merchandise drain you too much last night? Its ok, you will get used to it. It will take a few hours for us to reach the port town of Blythe. one of the frontiers for Zharrs slave trade routes. I know you said u would like to strike out on your own once we are in Zharr, but know that you are welcome to stay with us. We can always use another powerhouse to get the jobs done faster. " That brought Rex out of his thoughts, sparking a realization "I'm awake, ain't I?"