Deep in the endless expanse of green that was known as the Twilight Grasslands, wet, blood-curdling sounds were resonating from a strange animal as it tore into the carcass of a horse-like creature. The creature stood on four stick-like legs, had a long, giraffe-like neck and multiple eyes, looking like a hybrid between an ox and a spider.
Joy danced in its many eyes as its long mandibles ripped into the dead beast's flesh. Shredding it alongside the occasional bone, before pulling it into its mouth in a gory, almost rushed, fashion. The disgusting sound continued as the ever-present, noisy insects nearby remained silent, creating an unnatural dead zone in the creature's immediate surroundings. However, this changed when the slight breeze switched direction.
The strange creature's movements froze as the hair-like spikes on its back rose slightly in an intimidating fashion. As it blinked, quietly sniffing, in the distance the natural sound of the grassland could be heard. To the beast's sensitive hearing, it felt like the noise was gradually growing in volume until the point where it was almost deafening.
As a shooting star drew a streak of light across the night sky above, the creature turned its neck and started to scan its surroundings. It was standing in a small clearing, the devastated ground having been churned and the grass flattened by the battle with its prey.
The wind blew again, causing the grass to rustle as it swayed faintly.
After lifting its head to sniff the air, the eyelids on its six eyes narrowed slightly, and it released a low guttural growl. Even though the sound once again silenced its surroundings, nothing changed.
Snorting loudly, water vapour escaping from its nostrils and rising into the sky, the creature turned its body. Due to its long neck, which had almost been bent in a U shape as it scanned the area, the movement seemed extremely clumsy for a predator.
When it had fully turned around, the beast revealed a frown-like expression before snorting again. Its neck quickly bent into an S shape as its actions became extremely agile. With the height of its head reaching over the tall, two-meter grass, the beast's gaze scanned the sea of yellow-green around it. Its eyes lingered on the two faint partings that it and its prey had made when arriving before lowing its head slowly and sniffing the ground.
The churned earth and flattened grass had the occasional splashes of blood, illuminated by the bright moonlight, staining them. Yet the creature ignored all of this as it moved forward, sweeping its head back and forth in an arch.
Due to the size of the beast, it wasn't long before its head had reached the edge of the small clearing. With a slight twitch, its head stopped sweeping and hovered over a small area of soil that had been completely turned over. After taking a deep sniff, the creature lightly scuffed the dirt with its right claw, removing a few inches of soil. Yet, before it had pulled its leg back entirely, the beast's stomach grumbled, and it's movements paused.
Looking at the dirt, tilting its head slightly to the side, the creature remained motionless for a few moments more before snorting. After a lingering gaze, the creature's head started to turn back towards the carcass behind it in a similar way to how it first acted when the wind changed.
Just as its head had moved around twenty degrees, the ground it had been investigating exploded upwards. The creature flinched but didn't seem to be too surprised as its head rapidly changed directions as its mandibles opened wide.
However, before it had moved far, a faint, silver light flickered in the moonlight, instantly drawing the creature's attention.
Moments later, it released a wailful shriek as a fountain of blood escaped from its neck. Confusion and fear could be seen in its eyes as the beast staggered backwards, its muscles in its thin legs starting to spasm and flail. With a soft thud, the creature released a whimper as it collapsed onto the floor before a pool of blood rapidly formed underneath it.
Gradually, the struggle in the six eyes dimmed, and they started to close one by one. A few seconds after the last closed, the creature had stopped breathing.
An eerie silence descended upon the area as the small arm that had emerged from the ground dropped the dagger and started to dig. Another hand quickly emerged from the ground, and before long, a young boy pulled himself out of the soil.
After dusting his leather armour off and trying to get rid of the dirt from his blonde hair, the boy's gaze moved to the creature he had just killed. After blinking a few times, a dazzling smile erupted on his face as he hopped from one foot to the other. The movements soon changed into a strange dance before they warped into the boy thrusting his hips back and forth as he slapped the air in front of his waist.
"Aaaaand that's ten. Mission accomplished." The boy stopped, dirt falling from his hair as he scratched his head, and smiled. "Ha, and they said that a group of adepts couldn't complete this mission, let alone me on my own."
After walking towards the creature, the boy knelt down and cut an opening in its chest with no hesitation or squeamishness. Sticking his arm into the slit and wiggling around, using his feet to help push him further, the boy eventually laughed and pulled back before holding the gem-like object up.
Even though it was covered in blood and had a few blood vessels still attached, the gem seemed to give off a subtle, light green glow.
Wiping the gem on his leather armour, getting more dirt on it that the blood he was able to remove, the boy threw the stone up in the air before catching it again. "Primary life element and fourth layer core... Not bad, not bad at all."
His eyes moved to the beast as his smile faltered. "Though... I'm fortunate. It was at a stage where its intelligence was a handicap. It would have munched me good if I had thought it head-on or it had started thinking that others could be self-aware."
With a chuckle, he put the stone in a small rucksack hanging off his left shoulder before turning towards the carcass the beast had been eating. As soon as he reached it, the boy repeated the process and pulled out another green gem, this one a little brighter than the first.
Having finished, he stared up at the moon. "Though I have made a small fortune and still have the quest rewards, I wish there was more diversity in the beasts here. Most of them either cultivate life, light or nature essence, making them useless to me."
After staring upwards for a while, he stood up and stretched before looking around. "I wonder when I will get to go to the Twilight Sea or the Dark Abyss. I'd even be happy with one of the dungeons if it meant I could get my hands on some darker cores. If only there were some of the creatures that only cultivate dark essence. That way I could grow much faster as I could balance my affinities and resolve the deficit that's been growing."
The boy sighed as he checked his armour and weapons, a few daggers strapped to various places around his body. His gaze fell upon the black-haired creature that he had killed. "Why do beasts that cultivate darker elements have to be so weak and pathetic? If I meet another one, I'd probably let it go out of sympathy. I know this place suits light and it's variants of water, fire and earth more but come on... it feels like dark beasts are bottom of the food chain."
Just as the boy finished speaking, his pupils widened as a pitch black spear slammed into the ground a few feet away. After a few seconds where his mouth opened and closed without uttering a sound, the boy jumped back as his head snapped in the direction the spear had come from.
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A minute later, the only things visible being the rustling grass, the boy glanced back at the spear and sucked in a sharp breath. It was slowly disintegrating, small smoke-like trails dissolving into the air as if floated away.
"Ah..." A faint smile appeared on his face as a drop of sweat fell from his forehead. After scanning the grass around him once again and finding nothing, he sighed. "El... Senior, I'm sorry if I have offended you with my mindless chat. I like to talk to myself when on solo missions to keep the loneliness away and often speak a load of crap."
The only response he got was the rustling of grass.
Clearing his throat, the boy's right hand moved towards the sheathed dagger on his waist. "I'm just a lowly Twilight Sect disciple on a mission to eliminate a beast that had been terrorising hunters. We never target those who have gained intelligence and do not threaten order..." The boy's eyes darted to the rapidly vanishing spear, which seemed to be devouring any light that got nearly it. After swallowing loudly, he continued. "Especially those that are elemental royalty."
A soft, feminine, snake-like sound, faintly similar to a sigh, appeared from the boy's right causing him to spin. Yet, his eyes couldn't find anything. The sweat on his forehead increased as his heartbeat hammed in his ears, making it seem like he could barely hear anything else.
"Big..." The boy paused for a moment before speaking hesitantly. "Sis... Please be magnanimous and forgive me this once? I was only referring to the natural beasts found here, not someone of your amazing abilities. Also, if I don't get back to the Twilight headquarters by dawn, even if you don't kill me, my mentor will."
The boy backed up a little, putting the carcass to his back. "He's a grand elder of the Sect and pretty unforgiving and holds a grudge for a lifetime. Even for the smallest insults. I remember once that someone smashed a glass that he had thrown away. The poor girl got beaten to an inch of her life and sent to the arena so please let us avoid that-."
A quiet, hiss-like chuckle came from his left, causing the boy's blood to chill. As he slowly turned his head, only to find nothing once again, a cold, ominous feeling crawled up his spine. Without waiting, the boy threw himself forward, rolling once on the ground before regaining his feet with a dagger in his hand.
Though the strange creature had been eating the carcass earlier, excluding wounds on its neck and the cut the boy had made to extract its core, it had been relatively undamaged. However, now there were five, claw-like grooves cut deep into its flesh, even passing through bone. The damage had been done just where the boy had been standing moments before.
A faint, black smoke, accompanied by a sound that made it seem as if the flesh was corroding, floated from the fresh wounds, causing the boy to take a cautious step back as his eyes darted around. "Big Sis... I'm sorry. I was lying about the elder, but I really am a Twilight Sect disciple. I just wanted to make it seem that it wasn't worth your time to kill an insignificant nobody like me."
The boy flinched as he saw something black flicker in his peripheral. Throwing the knife in his hand, he turned and without hesitation plunged into the tall grass as fast as his legs could carry him. As he did, he yelled loudly, his voice sounding like it was on the verge of crying. "Sorry~."
The grass slapped at his exposed face and hands as he ran through the tall grass, making a great deal of noise as he did, but he didn't slow down. In fact, after a couple of hundred meters, his breathing became more even as his speed increased.
Just as a small smile started to appear on his face, the boy flinched as a black silhouette appeared in his peripheral again. Without a shred of delay, he threw the dagger in his hand and turned. As he continued to run, he started to beg. "Please~. Let me go~. I'm nothing but skin and bones. Not tasty at all."
After a short sprint, the boy pulled and threw the dagger that was strapped to his arm, as a translucent, hazy dark purple energy wrapped around his body, before changing direction again. While he hadn't clearly seen what was chasing him, it was clear that it was much faster, forcing him to change his course again and again.
After a while, he was once again forced off course. This time by a row of black spears slamming into the ground in front of him. However, unlike before, after taking a few steps he felt his legs being swept away by something and he started to tumble forward.
Due to the speed he was moving at, the boy couldn't regain his balance and crashed into the ground with a loud thud. Lifting his face up from the damp soil, something that he didn't expect to feel, the expression on his face froze.
"You're... You're kidding me." Ahead of him was a small clearing. One with the corpses of two familiar creatures.
Slamming his palms into the floor, the force catapulting him to his feet, the boy quickly sprinted to the side and once again disappeared into the long grass. Six attempts at trying to leave the clearing later, the boy slammed into the ground of the small clearing, bouncing a few times before landing face up.
"Why are you doing this?" The boy's weak, sorrowful voice pierced the surroundings as tears started to form at the edge of his eyes. "I did nothing to you. Nothing. I even threw my bag of treasures as compensation. Swore that I would owe you a life debt and even offered to become your slave... Why won't you let me go?"
The boy's leather armour had been reduced to scrap and all but one of his daggers were missing. Not only that, but his face was streaked due to the sweat and tears that had flowed down his face and washed away lines of dirt, giving the boy a pitiful look.
The serpent-like chuckle, one that now caused him to shiver uncontrollably, resonated from nearby. Raising his head so that he was looking upside down, as he was laying on the ground, his eyes didn't even try and search as they landed on nothing but grass.
Taking a deep breath, the silent tears continued to flow down his face as he stood up. After looking around the clearing, the boy's shoulders slumped slightly.
"So... this is to be my grave." The boy's voice broke a little as he spoke.
Dropping the dagger to the ground so the tip embedded into the soil, he took off the remains of his leather armour and tattered shirt before throwing them to the side. The pale skin of his slim, muscular body, evidently still that of a boy, reflected the moonlight as he picked the knife back up.
After a moment's hesitation, the boy sliced a thin cut around his right arm's bicep. After watching the blood flow, he sighed and put the knife in his right hand before repeating the process on his left arm. As the blood flowed down his arms, the hazy purple light surrounding his body, that had almost disappeared, started to strengthen and become darker.
Crouching down, the boy picked up a handful of soil and rubbed it on his hands and the hilt of the dagger.
Standing back up, his back straightened. "Thanks. I don't want to die, but if I have to, I want to have... no regrets."
Closing his eyes, the boy's breathing became steady. Moments later, a dull thud could be heard as a wave of purple mist erupted from his chest creating an ever-increasing circle as it rolled outwards. When the ring had reached the grass at the edges of the clearing, the small parts that touched the blades flowed back towards the boy and entered his body.
As the last strand of energy returns to his body, the boy frowns. "What a nightmare... It's like fighting a ghost. I feel like I am going to lose my mind."
["Then why won't you break?"] A combination of small hisses and delicate clicking noises and grunts, appeared behind him, causing the boy to stiffen as his eyes shoot open.
"You're... right behind me... aren't you?" After relaxing somewhat, the boy revealed a regretful smile and started to slowly turn as the grip on his dagger tightened.
After spotting a black silhouette in the corner of his eye, the boy didn't hesitate and his speed increased as he stabbed out with all of his strength. As he moved, the red glow around him started to intensify.
The boy's eyes widened slightly as he continued to turn, noticing that the figure wasn't retreating or attempting to block, only for his expression freeze as sparks erupted when the blade of his dagger hit his target. After being forced back a few steps, the red energy that had almost illuminated his body vanished without a trace, blasted away from the brief contact.
Full of despair, his eyes lingered on a thin, frail-looking waist, his stab seemingly having landed on his tormentor's stomach. Yet before he could blink, it had been covered by a black smoke-like mist concealing all detail. However, he still had enough time to see the faint, scale-like markings across pitch black, soft-looking skin.
Gulping hard, the boys gaze started to rise. The black mist hid the details of the figure's body. Yet, the protruding shapes around its chest made it clear it was a tall, curvy, humanoid female. Not letting his gaze linger, the boy's sight continued upwards and finally stopped when it reached the figures head.
The moon was behind the head, making the concealing mist around its edges much less effective. Two large, pointed ears stuck out at the sides, similar to a soft-eared elf. And short, spiked hair resembled that of some of the female warriors, or physical cultivators were clearly defined against the silver-blue light.
However, these details were ignored by the boy, along with the white, crescent-shaped smile filled with sharp teeth, as he stared into the glowing blue eyes. What looked like white lightning flickered from the edges before seemingly being absorbed by the void-like, slit pupils that gazed back like black, endless voids.
The boy's mouth opened and closed a few times as he moved a step back. His body slightly trembling.
The wicked smile on the figure grew, the long ears slightly rasing, as it leant forward. However, moments later, the expression cramped violently as the boy released a quiet, subconscious whisper.
"So... beautiful..."