I held myself back, difficult as it was, as Took and Brutus rushed in and began to assist the rest with their hunt. Without a word, I watched as the ones I had written off in my head were successful in their hunt against something that was originally a predator of keelish.

This group before me was less than halfway to adulthood. If I was to guess, they would be nearly twice as powerful, strong, intelligent, and competent come true adulthood, compared to where they were now. Even so, they had turned the assault of something that should have been able to kill whatever it wanted and leave at its leisure into a hunt. These keelish were capable. Far more capable than I’d believed as a human, or even now as a keelish.

I changed the magic in my throat from a concussive blast to attempt to use [Innervating Address]. The magic soothed, calmed itself, and I began to call to my subordinates, “VICTORY! Victory by fang and blood!”

In response to my words, I could see the keelish perk up, reacting more quickly to the terrorbird’s movements as Took and Brutus closed in. Every one of my pack were fighting with vicious, violent passion, every step energetic and ready.

With the two even larger members of the pack joining in, the pack was able to finally weigh down the terrorbird’s legs enough to begin laying into its body instead of being locked in the previous holding pattern. It tried to flee, abandoning its mate to an unknown fate, but it was too late. Took and Brutus gouged their fangs repeatedly into the terrorbird’s thighs, the flesh flaying beneath their constant assault, and though I didn’t pity the bird, I did feel a twinge of sympathy in my shoulder. As the terrorbird descended further and further into desperation, the pack didn’t relent as more and more began to scale the legs to tear into their prey’s body.

The bird’s cries of pain and fear brought comfort to me, knowing that the one it hoped would bring help was already dead. If they had their nest here as I suspected, then I could nearly guarantee that one of these two had been Oncli’s killer. That one died to a mere three of us, and the other succumbed to a group of adolescent keelish was, in my mind, a poetic blessing from above.

As the seconds transitioned to minutes, the exhausted terrorbird collapsed and was dismembered by the excited keelish. Still, I watched as the pack began to glory in the kill, each taking bites from the massive bird. If I was to guess, it weighed over 500 pounds, but quickly the legs and neck were reduced to mere bones while the torso was picked at until each of the hunters were blissfully full. Even then, I remained, contentedly watching those I’d raised to be more than they were destined to be.

At last, the pack had eaten their fill and turned to me, and I felt the descent of a presence that began to guide my actions and words.

“This is what we are. We are not prey, we are not the hunted. We are the blade that rips and the shadow that chills, the true hunters! We are keelish!”

The watching hunters echoed, “We are the blade! We are the shadow! Victory! Victory by fang and blood!”

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Again, the presence began to withdraw from me, and again I heard the female voice from my dreams sigh lightly through my head. “Well done.” Still I couldn’t say who or what she was, but I began to suspect. My thoughts were interrupted by a [System] message.

[The user has discovered the first iteration of the Third of the Words of Power of Nievtala. The user has been blessed with the lesser blessing of conquest. The user has been provided with the actions to take in order to step ever closer to becoming a Keel.]

I hadn’t expected to have “Spoken” something from this hunt, but it further cemented in me my need to continue hunting ever stronger things, not to rest but to constantly seek greater struggles. So long as I continued on this path of taking down everything that dared to stand before me, at last, I would be… I didn’t need to stand above everything and everyone. I shook my head. No, I just needed to continue… I shook my head again. I simply needed to keep doing what I had long been doing.

Setting aside everything else, I looked into my [Status], hoping to see some new evolutionary options. I wasn’t disappointed.

[Evolutionary foresight (Cannot Evolve)

-Adult Sonic Magicblood Alpha: Survive 60 days. Progress: 25/60

-Young Sonic Magicblood Brood Alpha Khatif. Requirements: Evolution of Bloodlust Skill to Combatant’s Bloodlust, Evolution of Sonilphon, Brood Alpha race (Completed).

Other evolutions possible, but not currently foreseen. Progress further, and such possibilities will be presented to you.]

These names were becoming all the more cumbersome, but the change from keelish to khatif, whatever that was, was almost certainly quite significant. But what exactly was a khatif?

[The khatif can be called the link between keelish and Keel. A more evolved species than the keelish, khatif can more nearly be called a people, and they lack the same inherent predisposition against the development of magical abilities found within the keelish race.]

Would the evolution to khatif require that any prospective keelish already have accessed a magic manipulation organ? Because if that was the case, then I couldn’t imagine there being many keelish able to evolve even to that point, much less to Keel.

[The Administrator laughs. The Administrator cautions you, saying that if it were so simple to rediscover the path to becoming Keel, there would already be many more in the world. Regardless, each individual’s route to evolution and growth varies.]

So, I would need to first evolve to that level, if I wanted to bring others along. Then, I could, no doubt, use any number of my advantages to help guide the rest of my pack, and, when I was able to rise to such a level, my swarm. If I could grow to know of this path simply by killing a terrorbird, being able to overcome Redael would be an even more impressive and impactful step on my journey…

I was, once more, impacted with the thought: Was this the journey I wanted to take? When had I decided that I was going to become a ruler, a superior, a Keel? No longer was my goal survival, or even revenge against Viilor, but to rise to the top as one superior to all the rest. I already felt that I was better than most of the rest of the swarm, and now I just needed to prove it.

But why?

I couldn’t retain hold on the thought for long, instead beginning to lead the pack back to the body of the other terrorbird we would soon have to begin hauling back to the nest. After all, we needed to show what we were capable of, and since I knew Redael was watching, somehow, maybe this could be an in for me to start gaining more widespread influence over the swarm.