The Ambrosia Race has been a recognized race for over eight hundred years, but before that, they were unrecognized, no more than servants. Many unrecognized races struggle to stand on their own without any support. They bear a heavy price for their lack of a god or strength to rely on. Even with the many unrecognized races, the Ambrosia race stood as a unique outlier, as there has never been a single Seedling from the Ambrosia Race to awaken their racial essence. Sealed or cursed, no one was sure why, as there had never been a race like the Ambrosia Race before. Their potential remained a mystery to the world and themselves; only the God of Space and Time, who gave them their name when they became recognized, silently concealed their abilities.
***
Pit stood in the doorway of the old building that was their shelter for the night with his arms crossed and a distant, muddled gaze. He stared at the sky, watching the green light pillar slowly fade into the darkness. The air was crisp and cool, and a light breeze rustled the leaves of the plants winding around the pillars that supported the roof he was standing under. Pit stood motionless, lost in thought, until the last traces of the green light vanished, leaving only a faint glow in the night sky. With a firm nod to the darkness of night, he turned around, closing the door behind him, ready for the long night that awaited him.
As the first ray of Morin's light began to shine, the children slept silently, unaware of the events that unfolded because of their absence.
A familiar chitter echoed from outside the building.
Pit's head bobbed up and down, and the bags under his eyes had grown from the restless night, but the unsettling sound jolted him into alert.
chk chk chk chk chk chk chk
His and the other's lives depended on what that noise outside was, so Pit bolted out of the room with no regard for the sleeping children or the commotion he was causing. His mind was engulfed with the situation's urgency and the prayers to the gods that it wasn't more Night Beast. He leaped over small bushes that burst from the broken floorboards and pushed past broken and rotten furniture as he made his way to the exit. Once outside, he gasped for air, cold sweat pouring down his back as he looked at the hundreds of moving Night Beasts cackling around the buildings.
Pit tried to scream for the children to run out the back of the building, but the words caught in his dry throat, and all he could do was cough.
In the dim morning light, the Night Beasts crept from shadow to shadow, their eyes glowing an eerie, almost ethereal, haunting blue. Their attention was fixed on the building as if waiting for their prey to move just a little closer. Like a patient hunter, they continued to pace.
"What do I do..."
Pit moved backward until his back hit the door to the building. His mind cooled as he reminded himself that they were still inside and they couldn't do anything.
The sound of cracking crystal echoed from somewhere above. Pit panicked, hearing the sound, but was glad that he did not let them go to one of the higher floors of the building, scared that the floor might collapse. Now, it seemed to help buy some time, even if just a little. With another loud crack, he could hear one of the windows upstairs shatter along with a shriek of one of the Night Beasts, probably injured from the sharp crystals.
Carelessly or simply too focused on the task at hand, Pit turned his back to open the door with no regard for the danger behind him. As he opened the door, one of the closer beasts lunged toward him, striking at him with its sharp tail. Fortunately, Pit's reflexes let him shut the door just before the creature's tail could pierce him; instead, the tail was now embedded into the edge of the door. Pit watched as the poison trickled out of the tail and down the door, leaving a trail of droplets that dripped to the ground. It would have been the end of his life if Pit had been even a fraction of a second slower.
Pit stared silently at the tip of the tail and could only gulp at his reckless actions, but time wasn't on his side, so he jumped away from the door, shaking out the thought floating in his mind. He turned his body, ready to dash to the room where the others were sleeping inside, but the taunting chitter from the upper floor caught his attention. He looked up at the banister of the second floor and saw several Night Beasts looking down at him.
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In a swift motion, Pit reached around his back, his hand grasped onto the makeshift weapon he had spent the entire night on. It was a grey metal pipe that he had sharpened as much as possible, turning it into something resembling a spear or pike. Despite the limited resources, Pit had poured all his energy and focus into creating this weapon, hoping it would be enough to defend himself and the others.
One of the Night Beasts leaped over the second-floor railing, landing nimbly in front of Pit. It blocked his only path to the others, leaving him no choice but to face the beast head-on. Meanwhile, the other Night Beasts remained crouched and uncaring behind the railing, their blue eyes gleaming with a taunting glint as they watched from above.
"Just like practice..."
The Night Beast pounced at Pit.
Pit pushed his makeshift spear forward, a simple thrust; it wasn't anything extravagant; no essence flowed into the sharpened pipe, and no technique was used, just a simple thrust with all the hope he could muster that for once he could win.
The Night Beast flew through the air, its path already shown in Pit's eyes. All he had to do was to put his spear in the path, and that would be it one gone, but could he take a life even in a situation like this? His body answered the question for him, moving on its own as the beast fell onto the spear with a screech before going limp.
Pit stepped back from the body that lay limp in front of him. It started to glisten green before shining green motes of light began to float out of the body.
It was effortless and so easy. Was taking a life so simple? Was he going to have to do this again?
Pit threw his attention to the second floor where the other Night Beasts were, but when he looked, they had disappeared.
"When did they vanish!" Pit screamed as he dashed to the room with the others, throwing the question to the back of his mind.
When he finally arrived at the room, the door was still tightly shut, and when he burst through in a panic, the children were still sleeping soundly. With a sigh of relief, he closed the door.
He reached around to grab the spear, only to realize he had left it.
"Do I go back and get it or stay here?"
chk chk chk
"Seems I have no choice, then."
Pit grimaced as a group of Night Beasts charged into the hall. However, there were too many to fit, so only a few of the smaller beasts managed to fight their way through the hall. They bounced off the walls, jumped over the rotting furniture, and ran towards Pit and the door he now protected.
"Could you not have given me just a little time to get that pipe." Pit screamed
A Night Beast pounced toward Pit. Unfortunately, he did not have his makeshift spear to help this time. Left with no choice, he reared back his arm, doing the only thing he could: a quick and concise swing at the beast's jaw. The force sent the small beast tumbling through the air to the opposite wall with the sound of breaking bones; the beast slid down the wall, its jaw seeming to be dislocated, and the mandibles cracked. It whimpered in pain, which seemed to drive the other Night Beast into more of a fury.
Before Pit could celebrate, one of the beasts bit the back of the arm that had just swung. He had created a blindspot, and it seemed like this small Night Beast latched to his arm had taken full advantage of it.
Pit's head cocked back, holding the scream inside, releasing a huff of breath from his nose. He took a deep breath, but before he could wrestle the beast on his arm away, another larger beast latched onto his thigh. He held another scream with a sharp gulp of air, but it seemed the beast saw an opening as another of the small Night Beasts pounced at him. Pit, in reflex, raised his only free arm to protect himself, and the beast bit and held onto his forearm. With all the pain, it seemed he had finally hit a breaking point, and a loud scream burst out of him, but he wasn't done.
He slammed the first beast that had latched to the back of his arm against the wall with as much strength as he could; fortunately, the beast let go. With the momentum of him swinging his arm back, he punched the other beast on his other forearm, seeming to kill it or just knock it unconscious. As for the larger beast that was biting his thigh, before he could pry it away, another beast launched its tail into Pit's hand, almost instantly numbing his hand and part of his forearm.
Pit ignored the numbness and the pain and pried the beast off his thigh, doing everything in his power to incapacitate the beast as he flung its unconscious body away. As he looked at the hall, he noticed there were nowhere near as many beasts as before.
"Where did they vanish to?"
Before he could think about anything, a flood of more Night Beasts seemed to fill the place of the ones that had vanished, but Pit stood his ground. With his slowly numbing arm starting to droop and the tiny motes of green light slowly drifting from his body, a madness flickered in his eyes.
"If you want through this door! YOU WILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH MY LIFE PILLAR!" Pit screamed as he charged forward.