At the same time that Volan and his squad were hunting the dorber, a large creature with matted fur sat hunched over and feasting upon the upper torso of a bear. With each bite it tore away flesh from the still-bleeding carcass with its ridiculously large and mismatched teeth. Its eyes looked more like colored lenses as they glowed a bright red in the shade. And hidden in the darkness and scattered all across the riverbed were human and animal corpses. The creature had already eaten most of their bodies, yet it left bits and pieces or sometimes nearly entire corpses out to rot as it ate its newest catches.

Half-eaten organs, strips of flesh, buckets of blood and more all poured out of the beast’s body as the monster ate away at it. However, no matter how much it ate, it didn’t feast with an interest in actually sating itself. Rather, it seemed to be eating just for the sake of devouring. Bones, flesh, bodily fluids, the monster consumed it all while most of it all fell and decorated the ground in a macabre shower of gore. Then, it heard something and stopped biting into the bear’s remains.

It raised its nose while its ears scanned for sounds of activity. The monster’s nose sniffed around and it smelled something. Something fresh. Something that reeked of familiarity and a potential means of actually stopping its ceaseless hunger for more. It dropped the bear’s body, letting it land with a heavy thud, and started chasing the scent. It dashed through the woods and grabbed trees to violently swing itself around and correct course as necessary.

Meanwhile, back at the opening in the forest, Volan was helping what other students he could back to the APCs. Since his squad managed to come out uninjured for the most part, the instructors were having them help out the less fortunate ones. Right now he was carrying one boy who managed to get a nasty hit to the head and was already bandaged, but the hit had rattled his head and left him unable to move properly on his own. Kunal was doing much the same, as was Viviana, and Broderick was giving what treatment he could via his skills as a Synergist.

Kusika, however, was the only unhelpful one. He was flirting with two girls from another squad. Volan only rolled his eyes as he helped the guy on his back get to the safety of the APCs. But then there was the loud crashing of trees followed by swaths of birds fleeing the forest for the sky. The three instructors immediately took notice. Mr. Crawford and Hunt ran to be within 10 or so meters of the treeline as a sudden roar came from within the woods. Even Ms. Greenhaven had to hand off the students she was helping transport to another student as she ran to join the other two.

Suddenly, a full dorber came out of the forest and caught Mr. Hunt by surprise. Mr. Hunt raised his arms, but it was too late and he was sent flying a good 30 meters back and knocked out cold when his head hit the back of a tree. Mr. Crawford drew two crystal pistol’s from his belt, but couldn’t find a target as a monstrous hand with claws for fingers cut into the side of his body and sent him flying in the opposite direction of Mr. Hunt.

Now, emerging from the forest, was a roughly three-and-a-half meter tall monstrosity. Its head looked like a brutal mix of a wolf, possum, and elk. It had no horns, but its long and gangly limbs that ended in giant claws and talons were weapons enough. Its legs and arms were thin, but deceptively short when not fully extended. Fur adorned the monster’s body, but in patches as random assemblies of flesh and bone kept it together underneath. It had no skin, or at least nothing resembling skin to cover the bits of exposed muscle that writhed and wriggled like an amalgamation of pink and red worms.

The students let out panicked cries as those that could run dropped anyone and anything in their hands to run for the APCs. Students on gurneys fell to the ground, left to either lie helplessly or crawl to whatever safety they could. Volan looked around as he watched everyone else react. Kunal and Viviana seemed absolutely terrified, yet he couldn’t see Broderick or Kusika anywhere. It was a frenzy of fleeing students, but Ms. Greenhaven charged to face the monster head-on.

Taking out a pair of state of the art crystal swords, she took a defensive stance before the monster. Volan watched as she faced off with the creature. He was paralyzed, but uncertain of why. It felt like this face-off was something he needed to see and his body was keeping him planted. And so, Volan witnessed a battle he hoped would go in the student’s favor. Alas, things went wrong from Ms. Greenhaven’s first attack.

Not wanting to let the enemy get any further advantages, Ms. Greenhaven went on the attack. She swung with all of her might with a combination of swings that flowed like water. The first came down with the blade in her left hand, followed by her right as she performed a kind of blade dance. Each slash and cut was never left without a follow-up from the other hand. And while it would normally be both beautifully terrifying and absolutely devastating to a normal enemy, this monster was anything but.

Her swords hit the monster’s limbs as it raised its arms to defend itself, yet Ms. Greenhaven couldn’t feel her blades biting into its patchy fur or exposed skin. Rather, it was like she was swinging a pair of wooden sticks at a concrete wall. These swords were certainly stunning to look at yet, but carried devastating cutting power against just about anything. Didn’t matter if it was a sheet of steel or a fae’s magical barrier, this would cut a gash in either. Yet, against this abomination, neither sword did anything.

Then, Ms. Greenhaven heard something. She couldn’t tell for sure, but it sounded like either a smug scoff or a prideful huff. Regardless, she immediately jumped back and put at least five meters between herself and this thing. Ms. Greenhaven grit her teeth, tightly clenching them, as her mind tried to figure out what was going on. Her eyes scanned the monster for any damage anywhere, but there was nothing. Maybe a burn mark or slight scratch, but they were healing at ridiculous rates.

But the monster wasn’t going to give her a moment to understand. Instead, it tensed its leg muscles and cleared the gap between itself and Ms. Greenhaven. And raising its right hand, it swung at her. Thankfully, she was able to dodge for the most part. Its claws struck against her armor, but only in a glancing way. But this too wound up being abnormal. Taking quick notice of the damage, Ms. Greenhaven saw the entirety of her left pauldron was basically torn into shredded metal. If not for dodging, she’d be missing an arm right now, but it didn’t make any sense.

Her armor was on par with that of Zekanto’s armor for officers at the very least. This was crystal-infused steel. Something not even the strongest weapons from the Republic could easily punch through with their high tech weapons. And yet, this unknown creature tore through it like it was paper. The monster wouldn’t give her much time to figure out more than this, however, as it went in for more and more attacks. Its arms swung wildly like a frenzied animal. There wasn’t any skill or thought, just a desire to kill.

Stuck on the sidelines, Volan watched as Ms. Greenhaven was stuck dodging swipe after swipe. Her armor was basically useless and her weapons did nothing. He scanned the bipedal amalgamation of flesh, but nothing stood out.

What the hell is that thing?! Thought Volan. And I don’t see anywhere that would land a good hit! There’s gotta be something! C’mon!

Volan wanted to help even the odds, but no matter how hard he strained his eyes there wasn’t a weak point anywhere on the thing’s body. Suddenly, Volan felt a hand on his right shoulder. Quickly turning his head, it was Broderick.

Broderick shouted, “C’mon! We gotta get out of here!”

He was right. Volan was still carrying someone on his back, and that thing wasn’t something any of them could face. And yet, he felt it too wrong to leave Ms. Greenhaven to fight on her own. He knew it wasn’t right to join the fight and that they should just run, but she was buying time to get them out. But to add on to the situation, there were also still students stuck on the ground and unable to flee without aid.

And just when things couldn’t get worse, Volan heard Ms. Greenhaven cry out in pain. Turning his head back to the battle, he watched as the creature cut across her chest. She had her swords crossed one against the other to shield herself, but they fared barely better than her armor. The beast’s claws broke the swords and cut across her chest and up her face, taking one of her horns with its attack. And with her now lying on the ground, it changed its attention to one of the helpless students on the ground.

Volan could see it was tensing its leg muscles again to pounce. In that moment, he made his decision to act rather than run. Quickly, he handed the student on his back off to Broderick and drew his sword. Immediately, he started giving out commands to those still present.

“Get the others to the vehicles and get out of here! I’ll buy what time I can! Go!”

Kunal, Viviana, and a few others were still frozen, but Volan’s orders got them out of their stupor. And while some wanted to join the battle, Volan was the only Sentinel-class student not either out of commission afraid of this thing. And after what happened to Ms. Greenhaven, the others preferred evacuating to joining the fray.

Broderick shouted, “Dammit, Volan!”

He then quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Thankfully they were still in service range and he speed dialed the one emergency number he trusted above all others.

“I’m calling for Rose, so don’t you dare die or we’re both gonna have hell to pay!”

Volan chuckled as he moved to be in the way of the monster with his steel heirloom of a sword in hand. He wasn’t sure if he was laughing because of nervousness and fear, or if he feared whatever Rose might do to his corpse.

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Volan yelled back, “I’ll do my damndest!”

With that, Volan raised his sword as the monster shot itself towards him. To try and keep the monstrosity focused on him, Volan charged back. But something changed when he raised his sword against this thing. His right arm throbbed and a corruption of his own flesh spread to the sword. Volan didn’t notice it at the time, nor would he after, but around the center of his sword’s crossguard was something resembling an open blue eye. And not in that its iris was blue, rather the blood and flesh that was normally red and connected to the back of the eye was blue.

Additionally, Volan found his eyes altering slightly. No aesthetic changes happened, but he was perceiving the monster’s movements faster. He wasn’t getting any glimpses into the future or anything, rather it was like his eyes were warning him of what attack it was going for. And this time, it was going for a lunging strike with its right arm.

Volan did a short slide to the right as quickly as he could. Thankfully, he did read the attack correctly. But this wasn’t the time to get caught up in an insignificant victory. Volan followed up his successful dodge with a slash from his sword. He didn’t expect it to do anything, but it actually did something. Or, better put, it cut deep into the creature’s unarmored left arm and bit into everything from the wrist to the elbow.

Taken aback by the wound, the monster jumped back as Ms. Greenhaven had done. It lowered its stance and examined its injury. It was bleeding, but that didn’t seem to be of any concern. It didn’t cry out in pain or lick its wounds, it just looked at the cut to recognize and take in that it was actually injured. And on top of that, the wriggling flesh wasn’t closing up immediately. Rather, it just kept bleeding like a normal wound.

On top of this, Volan was also stunned by the sudden change in situation. Looking down at his sword for a moment, there was blood on it. He landed a clean cut on the monster where his instructor’s sword had done nothing. It was puzzling.

Why did my sword actually cut that thing? There’s nothing particularly special about it, or… is there? Did dad do something to it in anticipation of a situation like this? No. Not even dad could predict something this absurd.

Volan glanced over at Ms. Greenhaven’s weapons as they lie broken in the ground. He tried to piece together the mystery, but it was a mistake in the middle of this battle. And seeing the opportunity, the monster dashed in. Hearing its sudden jump, Volan’s attention turned back to the creature. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t have the time to dodge and retaliate this time, but there was enough time to block the first incoming swipe and block the second.

Trusting his new instincts, Volan did a turn on his left heel to avoid slash from the creature’s left hand. It came down where his head was, but wound up digging into the earth. The follow-up swipe then came from its right hand and Volan protected his body with his blade as best he could. It was a horizontal slash like one from a sword. One at least Volan had dealt with plenty in his time training.

He braced for impact, half-expecting his sword to also break, but it took the hit and remained intact. There was a decent set of claw marks on it now, but nothing that would break it. Again, the monster didn’t seem to understand. Though its hesitation was an opening Volan exploited this time. Quickly, he chopped at its torso. The blade cut, but the monster wasn’t going to let it take the full damage this time. Volan’s slash cut into its shoulder and part way into its chets, but nothing lethal.

The beast, again, jumped back and the two started circling each other. Volan was able to wound and defend, and this had the abomination on the defensive now. It’d suffered two injuries and saw Volan as a threat, but it wasn’t backing down. As this was happening, the other students watched and a small hope entered their hearts. Volan, one of the less respected students, was holding his own. Kunal and Viviana were evacuating as many students as they could, but even they were stunned by how the battle had changed. They weren’t stunned for long, but seeing Volan do more than keep the thing’s attention helped calm everyone down and establish some level of order.

Meanwhile, Volan was trying to establish an understanding of the battle.

Alright. So, I can injure it and block its attacks. However, I don’t know how long I can at least keep things going as they are.

Volan’s eyes were starting to squint and flinch slightly on their own. His eyes had started to burn and his mind was starting to have difficulty processing all the new information. Sweat ran down from just about every pore on his body while his hands started to go numb with how tightly he was gripping his sword.

I also don’t know if I can even take a hit from that thing. If it breaks my guard, is one attack from it enough to kill me?

The element of surprise had gotten the best of this creature twice, but that was it. The monster was watching Volan carefully now and could see the strain in his eyes and slight difference in how he stood. It appeared to smile ever so subtly and could tell Volan couldn’t keep up the current fight for long. And with this in mind, it rationalized something.

Tensing its legs again, Volan prepared for another rushing attack. But this time it approached Volan in a serpentine motion. Its hands kept to its sides until the last moment. It raised both hands as if to try and grab Volan. Seeing this, Volan made a wide slash out at the creature. But nothing connected and the monster shifted back enough to dodge the blade.

Then it struck with a flurry of blows. Volan was able to parry or block them one after another thanks to his eyes and mind processing the information, but each blocked attack and new reading through his eyes was adding up at a horrible speed. And he couldn’t keep up. Volan tried to dodge, but the monster made sure to trap his movements so he could only block without suddenly exposing his back. And then, the worst seemed to happen.

With one more strike, the monster hit with enough force to break Volan’s guard. Volan’s hands were forced up, exposing his stomach, and the monster took the opportunity to slash at it. Its hand smashed into Volan’s gut just before its claws sundered his Academy-issued armor to shreds. Volan’s intestines were exposed as the skin protecting them had large gashes in it as he was sent flying over towards where Mr. Hunt was still lying unconscious.

Volan’s body hit the ground hard and bounced. Tufts of grass and dirt flung up into the air as Volan was now stuck on the ground. His face was in the dirt as blood was rushing out from his body. His vision started to blacken at the edges though his flesh was trying to wriggle and writhe like the monster’s had. It was repairing itself, but it didn’t seem to have enough available resources to fix the damage on its own.

And as he was stuck on the ground, his sword still in hand but with no strength to stand or fight, the monster had cruel interest in Volan and began to run at him. It dropped to all fours and ran just like any other bloodthirsty beast. To the monster, Volan was the first true feast it would have this day. And it loved that idea.

Meanwhile Volan was using what strength he could muster to put his hands against the ground and force his body to stand up, but it was no use. The strain his eyes had put on him and the monster’s attacks had taken it all out of him. He was knocking on deaths’ door. And while he’d fought as best he could, it wasn’t enough.

Then he heard a voice. He recognized it, but couldn’t remember who it was.

Sacrifice…

Volan’s right arm started throbbing intensely as a blue glow started to burn its light through his clothes.

Sacrifice…

And then his body began to move on its own. He didn’t understand what the voice was intending, but his body did.

Sacrifice the animal…

It reached out for the body of the bear that kept Mr. Hunt pinned. The creature had been dead since before the battle, but had the misfortune of being turned into a projectile.

Sacrifice it.

Volan’s hand touched the bear’s fur before resting on the deepest part.

Sacrifice it!

The voice wasn’t suggesting, it was commanding. And in its last utterance, Volan yelled out as the thought “Sacrifice” ran through his mind. Suddenly, the flesh of the bear began to strip away piece by piece into Volan’s hand. The bear’s blood and bones became Volan’s and quickly his injuries began to heal at inhuman rates. The wriggling flesh began to repair itself and all damaged parts of Volan’s gut.

And as this happened, the monster paused. It realized something had changed. It stopped smelling fresh blood, and the body of the bear quickly disappeared as Volan dug his sword into the ground and stood back up. He gripped the handle with renewed energy and strength. Volan’s gear around his stomach was thoroughly torn up, but he was back in fighting condition.

But this time, the beast watched as Volan charged at him. Though, it wasn’t the rush at itself that surprised the monster. Rather, it was that Volan was now covering twice the distance he had before. With a single push off from the ground, Volan was nearly upon the monster and swung with a heavy chop at its head.

The monster dodged, but now found itself on the receiving end of a flurry of attacks. Volan cut at the creature wildly, seemingly with reckless abandon, but he was now doing what the monster had done. Each attack narrowed the monster’s margin for error. Soon enough, it was being forced to block with its claws or take a weaker slash to avoid a worse injury. And what strain Volan was enduring on his eyes and mind before had stopped.

Volan felt like he was in what people called “the zone”. He could see everything clearly and react faster. Additionally, what weight the sword had normally now felt completely absent. To him, it felt like he was just swinging around something roughly the same weight as a broom’s shaft. And with his training, he made his attacks more and more deadly as he quickly adapted to the change.

Then he saw a weakness appear. His eyes spotted a section of the monster’s left arm at its shoulder joint. He hadn’t noticed it before, but perhaps it was due to still adjusting to his new ability. Taking advantage of his advantage, Volan was carving the monster’s claws and arms up. None of the cuts were particularly lethal, but they were adding up just as its had against him.Volan could tell the creature couldn’t keep this up for much longer, and one more strike was enough to end things.

Dropping into a low stance, Volan put all of his strength into one more swing. Gripping his sword he swung upward at the beast’s hands and broke its guard as well as several claws and cutting a gash in both. But with his opportunity to repay the wound from before, Volan went for what he saw and stabbed at the creature’s left shoulder. The blade pierced with ease and he started to drag his blade down and out.

Immediately, the creature could feel its left arm about to fall off. It wasn’t fully severed, but it wouldn’t take much more to lose. Finding itself at too much of a disadvantage now, the creature jumped backwards several times before running off into the forest. Blood trailing behind it as it disappeared into the shadows, leaving Volan to stand there as he stood the victor of this battle.

Every one of the students who watched with silent hope had nearly fallen into despair when they saw Volan get hit, but his last blow that chased off the creature left them all stunned. No one moved a muscle as they realized it was over; at least for now. They all watched Volan now and weren’t sure what to do, but he was at his limit. The new power that coursed through his body was starting to overwhelm him, and the pain from his injury was now starting to take hold.

Adrenaline from the battle had kept it in check, but now it was fading away. Volan fell to one knee with his sword’s tip in the ground as he started to collapse. Broderick started running over, calling and shouting Volan’s name, but to Volan, it was just one drawn out ringing. In the corner of his eye, Volan could see a quickly blurring image of Broderick.

Oh. It’s Broderick.

Volan’s eyes were slowly closing.

Seems he’s okay. That’s… good…

With that as his last thought, Volan blacked out.