Cored is the name given to regular beasts who gain the ability to gain strength through magic. Cored exist as both beasts with cores and as beasts without. Fant is the term given to a similar classification of beast, but with one very important distinction. Fants don’t exist without cores. While one may find a bear without a core, one does never find a lyndwyrm without one.
Excerpt: The Encyclopaedia of Beasts – a collection of authors.
Erin and Ashe were crouched together, watching as the hare sniffed around the vegetation. Erin was secretly glad that Ashe seemed to have some experience hunting and could, at the very least, move silently enough to not scare off all the prey. Ashe looked towards Erin and she nodded her approval. Closing his eyes, Ashe concentrated and channelled Ink through his finger. Luckily, the sun was still up so the light emanating from the energy wasn’t visible to the animal. As he completed the Rune, Ashe sagged but held himself upright; while Erin didn’t know exactly how Shinian powers worked, having never experienced them herself, she was able to offer Ashe some pointers on how to become more efficient with his Ink usage.
After having rightly guessed that all of Ashe’s training had been focussed on getting enough power into the Rune to power it, Erin advised Ashe by giving him tips on how to control his power and become more efficient with it, rather than just trying to shove power into the Rune and hoping it didn’t explode. Erin’s eyes stayed on the hare, looking pointedly away from Ashe, as he finished up with the Rune. There was a sudden explosion of sound and light and the hare leapt up from where it was sitting. While creating the Runes were practice for Ashe, Erin also used the time to practice, and she reacted without hesitation.
A knife appeared in Erin’s hand and, without consciously aiming, she extended her elbow and flicked her wrist, sending the knife tumbling, hilt over shining end, to lodge itself directly in the hare’s heart, midstride. Dead near instantly, the hare tumbled to the ground and Erin’s training took over. Immediately, she moved to remove the knife and slit the throat of the carcass, beginning to drain the blood out of it.
Cleanly and efficiently, Erin dressed the kill and was back by Ashe in minutes. Looking at the younger boy, covered in sweat but nowhere near as exhausted as he would’ve been earlier in the week. That wasn’t to say he was capable of using another Rune. Ashe may not have been so tired that he’d fall asleep on his feet but he certainly wasn’t able to write any more Runes. One was his limit at the Dawn stage.
I need to find a way to push him to the next stage. Erin pursed her lips, thinking about how this was only a temporary measure, when a roar echoed through the forest, shaking leaves with the force of the sound and Erin felt her chest resonate with the roar. Erin’s eyes widened and she motioned to Ashe to get down. Cored, the thought flickered through Erin’s head immediately. While there were some beasts who could roar like that, it was highly unlikely that it was just a mundane animal, which meant it had to be a cored or a fant. Cored was far more likely, though. Very few fants were left on the continent and those who did were not to be trifled with. Most fants that were left were 5th or 6th stage and those who weren’t were their children. Either way, it wouldn’t be a fant because no whelp roared like that and any adult fant would shake the mountain with their roar, not rustle a few leaves.
Lowering her voice to just above a whisper, Erin spoke to Ashe, “Go back to Sammath. I have no doubt that he heard the roar but you two need to be ready to run if the need arises.” Ashe opened his mouth, likely to protest, but Erin didn’t let him, “No. Ashe you’re not in any state to fight and you’re probably too tired to run by yourself right now. Sammath, even with your weight, should still be able to outrun any first or second stage Cored and, if it’s a higher stage, we’re all dead anyway.”
Ashe closed his mouth and nodded, slinking away through the bushed, back towards Sammath. Erin watched him for a few moments, making sure he was actually departing, before she turned her attention in the direction that the roar came from. Being cautious, Erin scaled the closest tree and stopped climbing when she was among the lower branches. Calling on the Dawnblaze bloodline, she ran along the branch and jumped to the lower branches of the nearest tree. Using a quick spurt of flames, Erin slowed down her fall so that the branch barely bent, and continued running. Leaping from tree branch to tree branch, Erin made her way to the source of the roar.
When she found the source of the sound, it was very obvious. A large bear was rushing around a small clearing, fighting against… a person? Erin was surprised to see that, behind the bear was a boy who looked only slightly older than her. His chest and legs were bare was bare and anything that shouldn’t be exposed was wrapped in an animal fur loincloth. With dark, tanned skin, the boy had long, wild hair that extended in all directions. Holding a small piece of stone, he warily circled around the bear. Erin could feel that the boy had no power at all and, for a second, she was worried. When the boy began cursing at the bear, however, Erin’s heart hardened.
A large part of Erin’s education had been focused on history and learning from the past, including about the wars with the Savagelands. The Savagelands were primarily north of Shinia and they were exactly what their name made them sound like. People born in the Savagelands were… savage. To say the least. Little more than beasts themselves, the people had a very rudimentary language and communicated through physical gestures just as much as words, themselves. That wasn’t to say they weren’t as smart human, just that they didn’t have a developed civilisation. They lived in small tribes, in a state of near-constant war. Even within their families, there weren’t any they could trust. Children deemed too weak were eaten and most families only produced one or two functioning adults in their lifetimes as children would constantly fight with each other to be stronger. In their tribes, there were generally challenges for the position of chief once a month and, if you lost a challenge, you died. In short, there were no rules in the Savagelands.
No truly civilised society or culture existed, and it was honestly worse than growing up as the adopted child of a Cored or Fant. Animals understood the ties of blood and family but none in the Savagelands would ever put a weight on that. The Savages only respected one thing: strength. The focus on personal strength meant that very, very few Savage children ever made it to adulthood and the tribes seemed to be slowly dying out. On the other hand, it also meant that their average stage of power was about stage four, far higher than the averages almost anywhere else, which tended to be the first stage, and they could become as strong as stage six before they were killed, either by a peer or by the Powers of the world.
A few hundred years ago, the Savagelands produced a man who would later be called the Beast King. No one knew who he was, where he came from, or how he became so strong, but that didn’t matter. What mattered is that, once he took over his own tribe, he didn’t stop there. One by one, tribe by tribe, he challenged all the chiefs and slowly beat them all, eventually uniting the tribes under his rule. Once the Savagelands had all been conquered, however, he didn’t stop there. The Beast King looked beyond the borders of the Savagelands and to the wealth and prosperity of the kingdoms beyond, seeking to subjugate them and bring them under his rule.
While the other Powers had initially disregarded the threat that the Beast King posed, they soon learned that, despite his savagery, he was far more powerful than they had thought. The Beast King had attacked Atra Oblor first, crossing through Shinia and reach the Atra Obloran border in a matter of around a day. Unable to face against the strength of the Savages, Atra Oblor fell in a few short weeks. Ethana, then Stoele, then Druzland came next and they fell over the course of around three months as the Beast King moved down the right side of the continent. With all of the refugees fleeing the powers and their leaders dead, the other powers realized how big of a threat the Beast King was and called a meeting to try and form an alliance to fight back against him.
Against everyone’s beliefs, the Beast King didn’t track back up to Shinia and pass through the kingdom. Instead, he made rafts from cut-down trees and from the wreckage of homes and used them to cross the channel that ran through the middle of the country, taking the Cooperative States by surprise and functionally ruining it in a matter of three weeks. Few powers left standing, they all evacuated into Shinia, where the armies of the powers met the Beast King’s army in battle. Where the Beast King fought against the leaders of all seven remaining powers, a huge pit, hundreds of metres deep, of black, scarred earth was formed as the city was destroyed. Eventually, that pit would come to be known as the Ring. But it took seven other Regents, the Arikaran name for the seventh stage of power, to take down the Beast King, who should have been at the same level as them.
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After destroying his army and freeing the remaining powers, the two surviving Regents, Gillan Bloodletter of Arikar and Shoko Araka of Shinia, lay waste to the strong in the Savagelands. Now, every few decades, a small but powerful team was sent into the Savagelands to kill anyone above a certain strength. Because of the impact of the Savagelands on the world, knowledge of their language was deemed important enough to teach Erin and, while she only knew as much as the Shinian academics studying the Savages had been able to figure out, she could get a general idea of what the boy was saying.
Cursing at the bear, the boy cast aside the small, sharp stone he wielded and roared his challenge at the bear, in the simple language of the Savage Lands.. “Come on. We fight!” Roaring back, the bear took a small swipe at the young man, who dodged it easily. Immediately, surprising the bear and almost surprising Erin, the young man waded in and punched the pear in the nose. Rearing back, the bear swatted a paw at the boy but, again it was easily avoided and he moved in closer. Running up to the bear, he leapt and pushed off its stomach. Initially, Erin thought it might be to try and knock the bear onto its back but he wildly swung and scratched at the bear’s eyes when he was in the air.
Disregarding any potential injury he might receive, the boy used his legs to grab onto the bear’s neck and began wildly swinging at the bear’s face. Every move was extremely telegraphed, but the bear wasn’t actually able to do much about that with the boy so close. Swatting at its head, the bear knocked the young man off of its face and onto the ground. Erin carefully watched the boy’s reaction to what had to be cracked ribs, at the very least.
Immediately, the boy got his feet under him and, crouching low on all fours, snarled at the bear. Leaning forward, its forelegs landing on the ground with a deep thump, the bear snarled back at the boy. With a single-minded determination, the boy leapt at the bear, who casually swatted him out of the air and sent him flying into a tree. Pulling on its core, the bear activated its power and Erin decided that she would strike. While she didn’t care about the boy, she did know that this would be her best chance to get a strike at the bear and kill it in one shot.
Erin angled herself downwards on the tree, pushing her feet into the trunk and cycling her power. For the first time since her mission had begun, Erin called on her second Bloodline. Erin’s father was a member of the Dawnblaze family that had a completely, 100% pure, Dawnblaze Bloodline. On the other hand, Erin’s mother also had a completely pure bloodline. Erin’s mother was from the Sarin family and was part of the House of the Crescent Blade. When people with bloodlines of the same purity and similar strength intermarried, there were three possible options for whatever Bloodline the children got. The first option was that they received one of their parents’ Bloodlines, receiving no bonus other than the power. The second option was that the two Bloodlines merged, forming a unique Bloodline, something that Erin had told Sammath about. Finally, what Erin had received, is that the Bloodlines existed separately in the child’s body, and they could call upon and use both.
Diving into the cold light of her Sarin Bloodline, Erin pulled on her energy and sent it through her skin. Lightly glowing white with the energy of her Bloodline running through them, Erin’s fingers and hands were as strengthened and protected as she could make them. Hopefully it would be enough that her plan to make the boy leave her alone would work. With a burst of fire from Erin’s feet, she pushed off of the tree with all of her strength and that of her Bloodline.
With their Bloodline constantly remaking and reinforcing their bodies, Arikarans tended to be stronger and sturdier than most people. When combining Erin’s prodigious physical strength with the force of gravity and the force from the small explosions Erin created underneath her feet, Erin shot from the tree towards the bear.
Evidently, the bear heard the explosions, but it didn’t really matter as Erin brought her right arm back, fingers locked into a knife-hand. Ears twitching around, the bear didn’t even get the chance to turn and face Erin as her fingers, locked into a knife-hand, collided with the back of the bear’s head. A loud crack echoed through the clearing and Erin’s extended fingers broke through the back of the bear’s skull. With the force of her momentum, Erin’s fingers plunged deep into the bear’s brain and through its eye sockets, bursting out of its ocular instruments. Erin’s momentum forced the bear’s corpse, for there was no way it would survive a blow like the one it had just taken, onto its head as it slid forward in the dirt. Coming to a stop in front of the Savage boy, Erin extricated her arm from the mess that was the bear’s head.
Brain matter and blood dripped off of Erin’s arm as she pulled her arm out of the bear’s head and the fluids from the bear’s eye dripped off of her fingers. Erin stood up and flicked her arm, spraying the matter from the bear’s head everywhere. Fire poured out of her arm as she activated her Bloodline, burning off all of the gore. While it was wasteful of the sun’s energy that she’d collected, it was worth it to maintain that the people outside of the Savagelands were too strong to antagonise. Erin glanced at the boy, apathy painted all over her face, and then looked towards the bear, judging where its core would be.
Bringing a knife to her fingers she slit the bears skin then shoved her hand into its body, reaching in to grasp its core. Pulling it out of the bear’s body with a wet pop, Erin once again shook her hand and then looked at the core.
Roughly spherical, the core was made of some sort of crystalline material and it gleamed under the dappled sunlight that came through the canopy. Nodding to herself, Erin realised something; she could use beast cores to boost Ashe’s power. While it would be a risky endeavour, it was probably the fastest way to allow Ashe to gain strength with what resources they had. In addition, it would allow them to eat the meat from the beasts that she hunted.
Erin didn’t know exactly how Shinians increased their power from beast cores, Arikarans absorbed the core’s energy and used it to refine their Bloodlines like they normally would through use and through meditation, but she knew that it was possible. Based on what she did know, she guessed it would have something to do with absorbing the energy and using it to expand their Inkwells.
Glancing once more at the barely conscious Savage, Erin turned her back to him and walked away, heading back to Ashe and Sammath. She had some training to do.
Erin sat in front of Ashe, having presented him with the core after she’d cleaned the blood and viscera off it. Ashe looked down at the core, holding it in his hands as he sat cross-legged, “What do I do again?” Ashe asked, even though Erin had gone over it three times already.
Understanding Ashe’s uncertainty as growing stronger by absorbing the strength from the core of a beast seemed slightly unnatural, Erin patiently answered, “As I’ve said before, this is your decision. In your hands is the core of a Cored beast, which contains all of its power at the first stage. While I don’t know exactly how Shinians absorb the energy inside of a beast’s core, I do know that it is possible.
“My best guess as to how you’re meant to absorb the energy is that you begin by injecting a small amount of Ink into the core, providing a pathway for the energy to follow. From there, you would likely try to bring the energy into your Inkwell, pushing at its edges to expand it while also trying to maintain the concentration of your Ink. That’s how the Order uses beast cores to increase their power and I’m guessing it’s a very similar process for Shinians.”
Ashe nodded and closed his eyes. Erin watched on as a light, white glow enveloped the beast core and the crystalline structure began to dim by miniscule amounts. Ashe began to sweat, but Erin expected that as absorbing energy from cores was hard work. Slowly, colour began draining out of Ashe’s face and the sweat that had been beading on Ashe’s forehead began increasing in volume. Erin was by Ashe’s side immediately, laying him down, and when Ashe’s muscles began to convulse, randomly seizing then releasing, Erin held down Ashe’s body.
“Ashe!” Sammath called worriedly, jumping for the core.
Erin, moving quickly, whacked Sammath’s hands away, “Stop!” Erin yelled at Sammath, standing guard in front of Ashe as he thrashed on the ground.
“What do you mean stop? Can’t you see what that thing’s doing to him?!” Sammath yelled back, gesturing to the convulsing boy, “We need to get it away from him.”
“No.” Erin replied firmly, “He’s as good as dead if we take the core away from him now. Removing his contact with the core will split the core’s stream and will send all the energy rampaging through his body. Ashe isn’t strong enough to survive that. We need to leave the core in his hands, hold him down, and then hope that he’s smart enough to figure out how to absorb the energy.”
Sammath glared at Erin, lowering his voice, “This is your fault. If he dies now, then you do too.”
Erin met Sammath’s eyes, not caring about the threat at all, “You’re not the first person to threaten me like that, Sammath, and you certainly won’t be the last.” Ashe started thrashing around on the ground again and a sinister red light began glowing from Sammath’s body. Ashe’s eyes shot open and dark red symbols appeared on them as his back arched. Sammath broke eye contact first, hurrying to Ashe’s side. Erin’s eyes followed him, and she crouched down, using her strength to hold down Ashe’s hands and stop him from harming himself. Everything was in Ashe’s hands now.