Adam just stared at Silber, utterly stunned. Silber just sat there wagging his tail in excitement as he looked at Adam. Adam could not see the new vibrant colors in Silber's fur, but was able to notice that both Silber's soul and body were now shining brightly after being reinforced with spirit essence. The result did not make Silber a demonic beast, instead he should be considered a guardian beast!
After being over come for a moment, Adam finally hugged Silber as he cried: “You are alright!”
It was only at this moment that Silber started to notice the changes to his body. After Adam had exclaimed that, Silber looked at his body wondering why Adam would be worried for him. Silber started talking to himself as he looked at his body: “Oh, what's this? These colors.. I really like them. But why did I change colors? I feel stronger too!”
Adam laughed when he heard this. Adam could only figure that since Silber became a guardian beast he had gained some means to talk with Adam. “Silber, you have become a guardian beast!”
Silber looked back at Adam with a dog smile: “I don't know what that means but it sounds marvelous!”
Finally one of the Silver Saviors asked: “Adam what is this about? Is Silber fine?”
When Adam looked back, he finally noticed the Silver Saviors who were looking cautiously at Silber with their weapons drawn. “Don't worry Silber is not a demonic beast, he became a guardian beast instead!”
The Silver Saviors were surprised by this remark. Demonic beasts were more widely known than guardian beasts since they did not typically interact with humans. The Silver Saviors slowly started to sheath their weapons as they cast curious but still cautious gazes at Silber.
Silber gave a curious sniff to the air. He suddenly became alert as he barked: “Beta, there are some type evil creatures around this place!”
Adam was surprised at Silber's sensitivity to demonic beasts. “Yea, we call them demonic beasts. There a few that have spawned around in this area... and out of curiosity, who is it that you call Alpha?”
Silber went into a pondering pose: “What is the sound you call her by? Ah, Helen! She is Alpha! But never mind that, shouldn't we be taking care of those so called demonic beasts?”
Adam thought to himself: “Why is Helen Alpha? Oh, never mind for now.” He then looked at Silber and said: “We have teams of Silver Saviors out trying to hunt them down right now... Say, were you able to tell the demonic beasts were around by sniffing them out?”
Silber cocked his head to the side: “Yeah, why?”
“You don't suppose you could track them down like we were hunting, could you?”
“Oh, that should be easy! This foul stench of theirs I could smell for kilometers!”
“Nice! Let's go to Clayton and figure out a good plan of attack with the others!”
Adam then started running towards where Clayton was commanding everyone with Silber in tow. As Silber flitted past everyone, they all stared wide eyed at him. He clearly wasn't being hostile, so hardly anyone drew their weapons when they saw him. A few did, but they did not attack. Adam quickly moved up next to Clayton who turned around and was similarly stunned at Silber's new vibrant appearance. With a bright smile, Adam explained that Silber was now a guardian beast to the stunned Clayton.
“He can also sniff out demonic beasts now! Is there a team you can fit us into to hunt them down?”
Clayton had quickly collected himself and nodded in a pondering manner. “There should be a place I can fit you in. However, you need to get your leg looked at first.” Clayton said while pointing to Adam's leg.
With everything that had been happening, Adam had forgotten about that heavy abrasion on his leg he got when fighting the dragon. He looked at his leg with surprise as he started to feel some pain from it now that he seemed to recognize that it still existed. As Adam went to go get his leg cleaned and bandaged, he finally had time to ponder about what had happened. He had felt some sort of odd resonance before he seemed to speed up while being pushed from behind. No one was behind him so it must have been air pushing him like a great gust, but why? In that last desperate moment did Adam... subconsciously use a spirit formation? Adam tried to not get so giddy while thinking about it. He could not clearly remember what happened and would not be able to simply recreate it. He could only hope that dragon really did give him something worthwhile that he would need time to break down and finally, maybe he could use spirit formations! By the time Adam got back from getting bandaged, Clayton had already come up with a plan for him and Silber.
“I will give you and Silber ten squad members to help with your hunt. If any of you get tired or hurt, stop the hunt. I don't want you taking a careless risk. The demonic beasts may be able to sniff us and Silber out as well as he can, so you have to be careful! I am assigning Alfred, Darren and a few others to your squad.”
Adam nodded as a sense of excitement fluttered his heart. Before, Silber had just been a normal wolf. He would have been lucky to live to be close to twenty years old before he died of old age! Now, as a guardian beast, his life span would be much greater! Adam was also eager to just how strong Silber had become after his body had been reinforced by spirit essence.
When the squad had gathered, Silber saw Alfred and greeted him with a small bark: “Hi Alfred!”
Alfred had been close at hand when Silber had become a guardian beast, so he wasn't surprised by this new appearance. Alfred greeted Silber while petting him, though he did not hear Silber talk since only Adam apparently could. Adam had a little dissatisfaction in his heart, though. “Why do you call Alfred by his name and just call me Beta?”
Silber looked confusedly at Adam: “Beta is like, what do you call it... a title! It shows my respect and that I will listen to you above others. Everyone else is just normal so I call them by their name.”
Adam was surprised by this response. He became a little more placated from this. Silber then turned to the awestruck Darren and also barked saying: “Hi Darren!”
Adam became a little dissatisfied again but could do nothing about it. After everyone ensured they were ready to head out, they then set out following Silber on the hunt. Silber seemed to do the normal sniffing of the air and the ground as he went about trying to find a demonic beast. Even though it was the same process as finding a normal animal, Silber had a new sensitivity to demonic beasts and could easily hunt them in this manner, though the beasts had not moved too much since they recently became demonic so it was harder to find a good trail to follow. It took around an hour before Silber found a good solid trail he had confidence in that would lead them to a demonic beast. As Silber led the way forward, Adam cast his elemental sight out to make sure they didn't just stumble across the beast Silber was tracking. Around a half hour after tracking it down, Adam finally saw the demonic beast. He quickly stopped everyone so that they could try and ambush it, but Adam was simply flabbergasted at what the demonic beast was... it was a squirrel! Even after a close examination, there was not doubt about the corrupted nature of the beast.
Adam had everyone gather together so they could form a plan. “The beast is in a tree around a hundred meters in front of us. I don't think it knows we are here. The only thing is... it's a squirrel!”
After a moment of silence Darren exclaimed: “You're not joking are you? A squirrel? Just what kind of demonic beast is that!?”
Darren had come to like tough fights, they would tend to make him fight against cowering back and made him feel like he was doing something his father never could. This also made it so that he was very dissatisfied with weaker missions. Adam could only say: “There is no doubt about it. I know it sounds silly, but we still have to be careful.”
“Careful of what? How much weaker can you get than a squirrel?”
Someone else chimed in, supporting Adam's suggestion: “Darren, no matter what it is a demonic beast that we have to treat with utmost care.”
Adam knew it was hard to believe a squirrel could put up much of an attack, but he still didn't like the attitude Darren was showing. “Even if it is no stronger than a regular squirrel, if it managed to increase its speed it could bite your eye out before you could even react!”
Darren shut his mouth after everyone spoke out against him. He still held this demonic beast in low esteem though. After that, everyone started brainstorming to figure out a way to kill the thing. Trying to come up with a good plan to kill it was difficult, as even normal squirrels are fast and hard to catch without the proper equipment. In the middle of forming a plan, Adam noticed that the squirrel had suddenly started to move. Startled he shouted: “It's running our way!”
The demonic squirrel truly was fast. By the time Adam had shouted and the others had drawn their weapons, the squirrel was more then two thirds of the way to their position! Some one asked: “How long till it gets here?”
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“Now!” Adam shouted.
At this the squirrel jumped up off the ground to attack the closest Silver Savior, who happened to be Darren! Daren was caught in a bad position and had to use his arm to try and bat the squirrel away. He did not put too much strength into his arm since, well, it was a squirrel! But something surprising happened. Even with the squirrels light weight, when it swiped at Darren's incoming arm with it's paws, it felt to Darren like a large man had just punched his arm! This force pushed Darren back and made the squirrel become suspended in mid air for a moment. At this time everyone could finally get a good look at this angry squirrel. It had blood shot red eyes and deep black fur instead of the normal chestnut brown. It was also trying to make ferocious squirrel sounds to try and intimidate the Silver Saviors. These sounds worked far less than its appearance, though.
As the squirrel finally started to descend, the Silver Saviors all had a common thought: they had to kill this squirrel while it was still in the air or they would loose their biggest opportunity to kill it! Just as the Silver Saviors were about to move, a set of pearly white fangs suddenly appeared around the squirrel and chomped down on it! Silber had been one step faster than everyone else in responding! As his fangs enclosed the squirrel, it showed a hint of fright as it started squeaking out in its squirrel voice. Silber wholly ignored that as he viciously shook his head side to side and started to tear the squirrel apart! After a small while, Silber finally spat out the mangled corpse of a squirrel onto the ground. Silber then sat upright in front of Adam and asked: “Did I do good Beta?”
Adam couldn't stifle a small laugh as he pet Silber who started wagging his tail. “Yes, you did wonderful Silber!”
Adam then stared a little worriedly at Silber. Surely some of the squirrel's corrupted blood was swallowed by Silber. Adam was worried that this blood might try to corrupt Silber like a ghoul's blood would with humans. As he examined Silber, Adam did find a small amount of corrupt spirit essence in Silber's body. However, since Silber was now a guardian beast, that corrupted spirit essence seemed to be submitting to Silber's body and becoming less chaotic! Perhaps, over time, Silber could absorb more spirit essence in this manner and become stronger in this way. Adam still worried about what would happen if Silber ingested too much concentrated spirit essence, though.
The rest of the Silver Saviors looked between Silber and the mangled squirrel with odd expressions on their faces. Someone even said: “Well... that was rather lack luster for a battle with a demonic beast.”
Darren, who seemed extremely dissatisfied, mumbled: “It was a frigging squirrel!”
Someone who heard him then said with a laugh: “Yea, a squirrel that nearly knocked you to the ground and had its way with you!”
Darren's face burned in embarrassment and frustration as everyone laughed at this. Someone then said: “Well, I think we are all fine. Do we want try hunting another one?”
Silber could smell more demonic beasts around so there were surely more to hunt down. They all started to agree to continue the hunt. Darren mumbled: “So long as it is not another squirrel or another small rodent, like a rabbit!”
Somebody them clapped Darren on the shoulder saying with a smile: “Don't worry. We will make sure they don't take any undue advantage of you.”
Darren was getting tired of being teased like this so he roared: “Just you wait and see, I will land the killing blow on the next one for sure!”
Silber led them around on another hunt. It took him another hour before he found the fresh trail of another demonic beast. As they got closer to the end of the trail, Silber had started to feel like he could faintly recognize the scent he was following. He couldn't quite put his paw on it though. Before too long, Adam stopped the group as he could finally see the demonic beast off in the distance. As everyone expectantly awaited for Adam to tell them the details, he gave a concerned look at Silber. “The demonic beast is in a copse of trees around one hundred and thirty meters from us... it is a demonic bear!”
Everyone had their own feelings when they heard that it was a demonic bear. It would be more challenging to take care of than other animals. It had a thicker skin and its base strength was higher. Hopefully it had not been able to do much spiritual reinforcement with its body. While everybody had their own thoughts at that moment, Adam was paying attention to Silber. When he heard that it was a demonic bear, Silber seemed to show a burst of anger that hid small amount of fear behind it. Silber thought the scent he was following was almost familiar since it was a similar smell to that bear that killed his mother and his pack. He had heard in passing long ago that it was a demonic bear that killed his mother. Knowing that it was a demonic bear, Silber felt an intense desire to kill the beast. Someone started speaking: “This demonic bear will be hard to take down. Does anyone have a good plan?”
Adam suddenly remembered the time where he joined Dane when they hunted that other demonic bear. They had surrounded the bear in a circle and took turns attacking it, maybe that could work. Adam explained his plan with a new edition: Silber would be their heavy hitter since his bites would likely do more than ordinary swords against the bear. It would be the job of everyone else to keep the bear preoccupied while Silber attacked and retreated. As he was finishing his explanation he turned to Silber with a stern look: “Do you hear what I have said Silber? You are not to go all out and abandon your defense to attack this bear. If you cannot follow my orders, we will simply leave right now!”
Everyone was surprised by this sudden outbreak from Adam. Was it really so necessary to drill this into Silber? But it was necessary. Silber had been thinking of all sorts of vicious ways to attack that bear! He had mistakenly thought Adam was saying that he could attack without abandon while everyone else kept the bear from bringing its full force down on him. Silber was at a loss: “Beta...”
Adam responded: “Am I Beta or am I Adam?”
The onlookers here could clearly see confusion in Silber, just as they were confused by Adam's words. They then watched as Silber gently lowered his head and tail before Adam. With a gentle smile, Adam reached out and stroked Silber. “Your mother died trying to protect you. Do not put the life she saved in danger by fighting a bear that is surely not even half as strong or smart as that demonic bear she protected you from.”
After hearing that, the others finally understood why Adam had suddenly acted so sternly with Silber. Silber then said: “Beta, I cannot promise what will happen but I will definitely not forfeit my life to that demonic bear.”
Adam gave a small sigh. “Close enough, lets go take that thing down.”
They quietly set out with Silber in the lead. After getting close enough, the bear finally noticed their presence. Enraged that they were encroaching upon its territory, it gave a loud bellow as it started running on all fours at them. The bear gave quite an imposing sight with it's brown fur that seemed to be giving off a faint blood red glow. The first one who met the bear was Silber, as planned. Silber was more agile than the bear and easily evaded its jaw and swinging paws. Silber then gave a nip at one of its hind legs before quickly retreating. At that point the rest of the Silver Saviors had already formed a circle around the bear and Silber, ready to wear the bear down. If the bear tried to move in a certain direction, a Silver Savior would attack it from behind to prevent it from efficiently moving around or attacking, though their attacks would barely wound it. All the while, Silber would be running circles around the bear biting parts of its hide out to make it bleed. In an effort to break this circle, the bear would try to attack one of the Silver Saviors. Whenever it did, though, the one it was attacking would retreat backwards and the entire circle would move along to keep the bear entrapped inside. There was one tense moment, though, when instead of retreating Darren let out a fierce war cry and swung his sword while advancing forward at the bear! When they saw this, everyone's hearts dropped fearing that Darren would get the worst of it. Somehow, though, Darren's actions seemed to startle the bear who apparently thought this would never happen and it took a step back away from Darren! As the fight wore on the bear continued to get increasingly tired from the blood loss and having to defend itself from every direction. As it got more and more tired, everyone else took more and more liberty in their attacks to make them actually cut into the bear and wound it.
Throughout the fight, Silber had been fighting the desire to bite the bear more and cause it more pain and hurt it more. He really wanted to kill this demonic bear, but he held Adam's words in high esteem and did not risk his life to do so. Finally as the bear was weary and no longer able to coordinate its body movements, Silber decided to go in for the last attack! Silber quickly dove under where the bears head was and bit at its soft neck! A gush of blood came out and splashed across Silber's front as he retreated. The bear then collapsed, unable to support its weight as the last of its blood left its body. A fearsome looking Silber, splattered in blood, then gave a long triumphant and enchanting howl that reverberated across the forest.
[AN: I couldn't help it with the squirrel XD Also, what do you all think about the way I have written the fights so far? I don't like writing blow by blow fights but i don't know if my method is engaging enough or if it serves its purpose just fine. And lastly, I read your post on an early chapter bus lurker and I will try to reflect that more in my second draft =D]