Akina was the happiest she had ever been.
She ran alongside her mother, father, and the twenty other members of the Wakimbiaji band that was her extended family. They had been running all morning through the savannah, heading towards the biggest event of her short life.
Since the day of the Ngwarekuu, when the world changed and the System talked for the first time, the savannah had been bountiful, making life easier for her and her people. As modern society crumbled in the so-called civilised countries, they had been pretty safe deep in the grasslands of Africa. The number of her people grew every passing year, increasing the strength of the bands and their hold over the valleys and the highlands. They occasionally clashed with other tribes over food and treasures, but nothing a good duel couldn't resolve.
Thanks to the System, they had gained a better understanding of their places in the world and the Omniverse–as the System called the world they now lived in.
Her people, the Hazda tribe, gathered every three new moons to discuss and coordinate their population growth and the land they needed to range to support all the bands. It was also a time of teaching and reckoning when the elder taught the young boys and girls about the new world and how to use the System's gifts to bolster the strength of the bands and the tribe. Most importantly, the Hazda took that time to welcome two kinds of new members in their midst.
First, there would be those chosen by the System to enter adulthood and gain access to their types, classes and skills. Second, and the most important in Akina's young eyes, would be the reckoning of the new Epeme, the best hunters of the Hazda tribe.
Like all the tribe kids, she had been taught everything she needed to know for when her #Display would unlock. Right now, she only had access to the most basic information about herself, the #journal, the #map and about twenty per cent of the entries available inside the #OBase. She was on the verge of entering adulthood and gaining access to all the tabs in her #Display, and she couldn't wait to choose her type and class and receive her skills. She secretly hoped it would happen at this gathering and had been calling on Ishoko's blessing and luck every morning for the last seven days.
Akina kept daydreaming about the type she would choose as she ran effortlessly alongside her extended family, following the hunters as she dodged the lashing tall bushes, the traitorous quicksands and all the other natural traps that had changed the familial African landscape forever. Thanks to Ishoko, Akina was tall for her thirteen years of age, reaching one metre eighty. She looked like a dark blue liana, hardened and lithe at the same time, with taunt muscles rolling under her skin as she used all her physical aptitudes to keep up with the forehunters. She wore simple clothes of tanned buffalo skin to cover her groins and chest, and she ran barefoot, as was the custom. The only other item she carried was a bone knife strapped to her leg–an early present from her mother to celebrate her soon-to-be entrance into womanhood. The same mother that was leading the hunters twenty metres in front of her. Amana was the best huntress of the Wakimbiaji, and Akina hoped to be allowed by the System to follow in her footsteps.
Akina wanted to become a Supporter type so she could choose a hunter path. To maximise her chances of the System offering that type and path, she had trained relentlessly with her mother and the other hunters for the past two years. She had learned to forage, scavenge, track and pursue her prey. She had practised throwing hunting spears and sparred in the defensive knife-fighting style that was her people's signature, for the Hazda's tradition was to use knives only to defend yourself or to skin and cut the meat of your kills. In short, she was as ready as she would ever be.
She kept smiling as her anticipation grew with each passing moment.
Suddenly, her mother raised a hand, calling the band to stop dead in their tracks. In unison, they all knelt and used the tall grass to hide themselves as best as possible. Everyone stayed silent as chirps, whistles, and hand signals followed while her mama explained to the hunters that there were signs of a large gnu roaming in front of them. Akina didn't catch the whole conversation, but it seemed it was a lone beast that had strayed from his herd. It was too good an opportunity to pass up for the Wakimbiaji. Killing that gnu would bring meat and skin and sustain the band for another two or three days.
Akina smothered her annoyance at the delay it implied–it meant they would get to the tribe's gathering in the middle of the night and miss the first festivities. Still, she knew her duty and called on the seven children of the band to get closer so she could protect them. Akina was not an Epeme yet, so she wasn't called to the hunt. Her task was to stay with the three elders to guard the children, the future of the band.
In a few heartbeats, twelve hunters vanished into the tall grass in utter silence. Akina stayed alert, moving silently around to get a better view of the perimeter around them. Her group was standing inside an island of tall grass surrounded by paths of dirt and empty, dry river beds. There was a small rise of rocks further west from their position that she didn't like because the sun blinded her when she tried to look at it. She signalled to the elders that she would be moving to get a better view, as a mix of instinct and training told her it wouldn't do to leave a blind spot unchecked.
Akina made sure to be quiet and leave the spades unmoving as her bare sole secured a silent and solid footing inside the grass island. Her hackles were raised, and she didn't like that. She started wondering how a lone gnu would have isolated himself from the herd like that. It could be an old one left behind or a young one lured away through its own distraction. Finally, another possibility came to her mind. The gnu could have been chased away by another predator.
Ever since the great awakening of Ngwarekuu, both predators and prey of the grasslands had become stronger, wiser and substantially harder to kill. It suited the Hazda fine since they also had become more cunning and better equipped to deal with their natural environment, taking to life under the System as hippopotamuses to riverbeds.
Akina put those thoughts in the background as she finally found a spot with a better view of the rise that bothered her. She slowly released her breath like her mom taught her, focusing on seeing without looking. It was a method that allowed her to quickly check for the inconspicuous. After twenty seconds of thorough yet passive search, she regained focus and narrowed her attention on a particular spot in the shadow of two big rocks resting one over the other. She was certain to have seen a fur-spotted paw before it retracted deeper into the shadow.
When she looked again, there was nothing. Yet, her instincts screamed something dangerous lurked there. She used the secret Hazda hunting language to convey her findings to the elders. Shortly, they answered with a sequence of chirps and whistles, telling her to investigate further while they secured the little ones. Such was the way of the band. Unless you were a kid, you pulled your weight and helped the people survive to see another day.
Akina scanned the area to try and find a route that would quickly take her to the rising rocks and keep her out of sight from whatever hid there. She checked one of the dry river beds and gauged it deep enough to hide her most of the way. The young girl gripped her spear, made sure her knife was still secured to her leg, and then moved. She dashed like a ranger with a steady foot and a keen eye, leaving no traces of her passage behind her. She was silent like a ghost of the plains as she quickly approached her objective. Akina felt her heartbeat increase in her chest as her muscles got tenser and adrenaline pumped into her body in anticipation of the coming confrontation.
While Akina practically flew, she knew she would have to battle when she got there. Life in the grasslands for her people was a constant fight against nature and its denizens. As a proud member of the Hazda tribe, she accepted this life. Better yet, she embraced it. She believed deep in her heart that she was born to hunt and to provide for her people. She reached the back of the rocky hump and finally got a good view of what lay motionless in the shadows. A cheetah. It didn't appear to be an adult, which gave Akina an edge. The young cheetah would be inexperienced and easier to kill.
Keeping the initiative, she threw her spear with as much force and speed as she could muster. Akina aimed true, thanks to hundreds of hours of training, and the spear penetrated deep inside the cub's hindleg. She didn't wait and charged right after. Akina covered the remaining distance in four heartbeats, using the full strength of her teenage muscles to jump the last metres and land right next to her mewing and spitting target. She already had her bone knife out, and she pounced on the disoriented cat, stabbing it clean in the neck. Akina then used her body to weigh down on the trashing feline and kept stabbing from the neck to the stomach. In less than ten heartbeats, the cub was dead under her. She felt satisfaction swell up inside her, and before it could explode and make her do something stupid, like roar to the sky like the lioness she had just become, she grabbed the corpse and brought it back towards her charge.
The corpse was heavier than she anticipated and hampered her movement. She grabbed the fur and pulled and dragged it until she finally reached the island that was their refuge. Akina's grin faltered when she saw the elder's expression. They were grim and disappointed. She was confused.
***
"What have you done, mwana?" Asked her mother in a frustrated voice when she returned from the hunt twenty minutes later.
Half the hunting band had followed her to protect the young and the elders on their way to the kill site, where they would make themselves useful by cutting and skinning the kill while some would forage for roots and berries.
"I killed the cheetah to protect the band, mama," Akina answered solemnly, even more confused than before.
"What danger did it pose to the band, exactly?" Amana asked, frowning.
Akina thought long and hard before answering. Her mother was not in the habit of idle chat and empty questions, and she was certainly trying to teach her something with this seemingly simple question. She racked her brain to recall the encounter. Her instinct had told her of a threat lurking by the rocks. She had moved to investigate, and upon seeing the cheetah, she had acted without thinking, charging and killing the cub quickly. If she was honest with herself, there hadn't been an immediate threat, just a feeling of a possible danger.
Following that train of thought, a new understanding dawned on her as to why the elders and her mother didn't praise her for the kill. Because it had been uncalled for. She hadn't killed to feed or protect the band. She had killed to prove she could. To satisfy her need to be seen as an adult before the gathering. In hindsight, Akina realised it had been a mistake. Her shoulders sagged as the heavy weight of her error settled neatly in place. The smile disappeared.
"Good. I'm glad you understand, penzi," Amana said when she saw her daughter's reaction. "Our people have prospered in this new world because of our ancient traditions. Our tribe has lived in harmony with nature since the dawn of time." Amana knelt and put her hands on Akina's shoulders, looking straight into her daughter's eyes. "We don't kill for sport or glory. We only kill to feed and protect ourselves. And, when we do, we settle for the adult and older beasts, not the young. Because if we kill the young today, what will we kill tomorrow?"
"I understand," Akina answered, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm sorry, mama, I thought there was danger in the rocks..."
She couldn't talk anymore, and she cried, burying her face into her mom's chest. Amana held her daughter without a word, slowly stroking her back as the teenager let it all out. When Akina was done, mother and daughter were alone inside the grass island. The rest of the tribe had moved to the kill site and got to work during this teaching moment.
"I trust you learned your lesson, Akina?" Amana asked while the teenager wiped her wet cheeks to clear the tears. "When we get to the gathering tonight, you will make an offering to Ishoko. Until then, this cheetah is yours to skin and butcher. Grab the legs. We will take it to where the others are."
Akina nodded her understanding. She was sad for the cub, but she had faith that Ishoko would look into her heart and find that she had not killed out of malice but out of ignorance. She will wear her new cheetah outfit proudly to honour the beast's memory, too.
Soon, mother and daughter were running side by side, grinning as they enjoyed the shared instant of unity with the savannah and the soft caress of the sun and the wind on their warm, ebony skins.
***
A few kilometres further in the grassland, an old cheetah hunted to feed the cub she had left hidden in the shadows of a small hump of rocks.
Every time it occurred, she worried something would happen to her cub, but such was the way of her kin. Her mother had done as she did now, leaving the cheetah and her brothers and sisters to fend for themselves in her absence. Nature had been cruel, and the cheetah ended up the only surviving cub of her litter. In one fateful cycle, she had lost one brother and one sister to the claws and fangs of the savannah's predators and scavengers. Since then, she had been carrying a seed of sadness and regret in her heart. A seed that grew as the cycles came and went. She feared the day when its weight would make movement impossible. When that day came, the cheetah would lie down and die.
She stopped that line of thought and came back to the present. Today was not a good day for the hunt. She hadn't found any prey easily overpowered. Gnus and antelopes stuck together more so than usual. The few lingerers were quickly snatched up by lionesses and leopards hunting within the same area. The various scavengers then took what was left of the carcasses. Her talent lay in speed and agility, not in raw fighting power. There were also the scavengers hunting in packs, like those stupid striped hyenas, that would harass her and trick her until they could steal her meal right from under her nose.
The cheetah was hungry and tired as the midday sun rose above the savannah. She decided to return to her cub and move to another part of the grassland where she would find prey more easily. She travelled through the tall grass at a slow pace, preserving her strength for the rest of the day. She instinctively knew the cub, and she would have to range all afternoon before they could find another water hole that would attract potential prey.
When the cheetah finally reached the rising rocks, she smelled the metallic scent of blood. Something was terribly wrong. She could feel it in her bones. Her worst fear was confirmed when she swiftly landed on top of the shadowed rock and didn't see her cub waiting for her. The smell of humans was overwhelming in the air, and she instantly understood her cub had died at their hands. A great sadness took over her heart and clouded her eyes. She was an old female who knew the cub had been her last. Covering the sadness was the guilt of never being able to rear any of her cubs to adulthood. She had failed her cub and her kin.
The feeling of shame explained why she only saw the king scorpion's attack at the last moment. The giant bug had come from under the rocks, and his poisoned stinger managed to scratch her hindleg before she could entirely dodge. A powerful tremor ran through her body, stopping her heart to the point she thought she would die here and there. She watched the king scorpion approach with his oversized pincer on each side of its stupid head as she desperately tried to get her paralysed hindlegs moving. The bug was being cautious since the cheetah hadn't died right away from the poison shock.
For one brief moment, the cheetah looked up to the sky as she laid on her back. She realised it was the first time in her life she took the time to do so. Her feline nature had never given her an instant to herself to enjoy the vast azure expanse. There had always been cubs to feed and protect, prey to hunt, other predators to escape. There had never been time for anything else other than running. She felt her seed of sadness swell in her chest. And, behind the sadness, she felt something else slowly rising. A stronger, deeper emotion she had never really felt before.
Outrage.
After all she had done and been through, her life was going to end at the pincers of a stupid bug half her size. She refused that end. Next to her righteous anger ran the feeling of rebellion. The cheetah refused to go down silently. She would fight and take the silly bug with her, showing her kin that cheetahs could become more than what they were. They would know of her last stand through the grapevine of the grassland. Many small animals would be watching. They would carry words of what happened there today. Having made her peace with her plan and incoming demise, the cheetah decided to play dead, slowing her breathing to lure the king scorpion as close as possible.
Thankfully, the stupid bug obliged, revelling in his cunning and hunting prowess. The king scorpion had known the cheetah would return to find her cub killed and gone. He knew she would be disoriented, and that would be the moment he could strike and kill her to become stronger and fiercer. He approached its kill confidently, bringing his carapaced head close to the cheetah's face. If the king scorpion had a mouth, he would smile in triumph. The insect had just realised the impossible. It had successfully ambushed and killed a warm-blooded beast. A feat for the ages to come.
His triumph only lasted for the next few seconds before the cheetah opened her eyes and mouth wide to bite down on its head with all the force she could muster. Her thick, sharp fangs punched through the carapace to skewer the silly bug's pea-sized brain. In its death thrall, the king scorpion's reflex snapped its stinger sharply down and pierced the cheetah's eye, bringing its poisonous payload directly into her brain.
In a rare occurrence in the grasslands, both beasts died simultaneously, embracing each other and leaving behind their remains, among which pulsed their cores. None of the other creatures in the vicinity dared to approach the two beasts for fear of death. When the bodies finally disappeared, they left behind the ragged cores, which, by a stroke of chance, fate or bad luck, ended up rolling towards each other to ultimately collide under the last ray of light.
What followed was momentous for the Omniverse. A new being came to life.
Both stones merged, fusing the cheetah's bright, tawny-hued core with the dark brown shade of the king scorpion's core. It resulted in an explosion of Mana, whose outgoing wave flattened the grass for fifty metres around the epicentre. Silence followed as all the small creatures fled the scene in fear of the newly born Chimera. Chimera were dangerous creatures that had started spawning ever since the Seeding took place and turned Earth into Pangea. They originated with the Elementals, who represented the quintessence of the Omniverse's principles. Elementals were all about fire, rain, wind, earth, etc... while Chimera was the name used for all the other aspects of life that could be found in the Omniverse, from talents to emotions.
This particular Chimera combined the cheetah's anger and the scorpion's thirst for power, thus creating a beast of Craving whose mere presence instilled dread in the neighbouring biodiversity. It had a long, tawny-hued body covered in thin, armoured chitin with four legs terminated by dark, serrated claws. Two sinuous arms ending with menacingly sharp pincers emerged from the back of the Chimera, right above the forelegs. It bore a two-metre-long tail ending with a heavy stinger it could use to pierce or crush its enemy. Finally, its head had no mouth or nostrils–only two murderous eyes constantly scanning and searching for prey to satiate its desire.
Chimeras and Elementals shared the same obsession with growing in size and power until they could dominate an entire area and challenge others of their kin. For long moments, the Chimera revelled in the strength and agility of its new body. Steel-like flesh rolled under the subtle yet impregnable chitin covering its entire body. True to its nature, the Craving Chimera launched into a killing frenzy, hunting all the creatures in the area to ingest their core and become more powerful. By the time the Wakimbiaji band reached the Hazda gathering later that night, the Chimera had gone from level one to level twenty, nurturing its instinctive talents for ambushing and fighting in the process. All along, the creature was driven by one simple emotion: retribution.
The Chimera would track down the humans responsible for the death of its cub, kill them and eat their core. Then, it would conquer the grasslands and kill the various rivals it could feel roaming the land. Nothing would stand on its path to power.
***
The prompt suddenly appeared in front of Akina's eyes as she and her mom arrived at the site where the hunting party had killed the gnu. The elders were already hard at work cutting and skinning while the alert hunters watched the children foraging the nearby brushes for berries and roots.
"Mama, I just received the prompt," she told her mother with a bright smile on her face. "What should I do?"
Amana didn't answer right away. First, she checked the sun's position in the sky to estimate the available time before the band would need to move again, then their surroundings, scanning for possible threats and dangers. They had to be careful because once the process started, the participant could not stop until he or she was finished, no matter what happened in their environment. If the band were to be attacked while Akina was lost in her induction trance, she wouldn't be able to move, and worse, she could very well be injured or killed. After five long minutes of pregnant silence, her mother relented and nodded her approval. The teenager imagined herself pushing the Y letter floating before her.
She looked over her unlocked #Display, stunned by the beauty and simplicity of it all. After thirteen years of living in the dark, she was finally given the System's light. This was a glorious day for Akina. She would savour every detail and remember it for the rest of her life. She looked at her attributes, remembering her teachings.
It hadn't taken humanity long to decipher what they represented. Might, Vitality and Agility depicted the physical aptitudes of the originator. Most texts accessible inside the #OBase called this the Body aspect. Insight, Memory and Perception were the Spirit aspect. Charisma, Willpower and Fortune were the Soul aspect. Health and Mana were secondary attributes derived from your primary attributes, type, and path.
From the countless experience logs recorded and shared in the #OBase, most originators started with a total sum of seventy-five to a hundred and ten attribute points unequally distributed among the nine primaries. Ten was the average starting value for any given attribute. The lowest recorded was five, and the highest was fifteen. With her ninety-two starting attribute points, Akina's were a cut above the norm. She couldn't wait to choose the rest and see her final starting stats. This was a promising start, especially with her 14 in Agility. She didn't know what to think of the 5 she got in Fortune since this attribute was the least documented and understood.
Some believed it was luck, plain and simple, while others hinted it could represent the place of an originator in the System's grand design for the Omniverse. Nobody knew for sure the difference between a high and a low value. The fact that it was the only attribute you couldn't increase with Reps added to the mystery surrounding Fortune. Akina couldn't care less. Whatever the truth, she would deal with it when the time came. She finally remembered to breathe and suddenly emptied her burning lungs. She put aside all this jabbering about attributes and focused on the next part.
This was the moment of truth. The System only offered five types or echoing archetypes, the official names found in the #OBase: Fighter, Breaker, Booster, Supporter, and Maker. To calm her mind while the processing took place, she went over each of them in her mind.
As the name hinted, Fighter was all about fighting everything and everyone. This echo focused on armour and defensive skills and a huge pool of health points, as a Fighter's trademark was to be the last one standing in every battle. Akina had heard some of the tribe members refer to them as "tanks" sometimes, whatever the term meant. She had searched the #OBase for a tank, and all she had found was a gigantic metallic box built on caterpillars and sprouting a long tube that could launch explosive devices called missiles at long distances. Akina couldn't envision herself running around covered head to toe in heavy metallic armour under the unforgiving African sun. Also, she loved her spears and wouldn't want to throw rockets at her targets. It felt too mechanical and technological for her tastes. She was a daughter of the grassland, first and foremost.
Depending on who you talked to, Breaker was either considered the total opposite or the ideal partner of Fighter, as it specialised in dealing loads of physical or magical damage in the shortest time possible. In exchange for nasty destructive skills, Breaker had small health pools and lacked the endurance and resistance of a Fighter, making them the closest thing to a glass canon the Omniverse had. Once again, Akina had trouble imagining a Maker creating a canon made of glass.
Tank, canon glass, and many other weird words had popped up in the #Obase to describe types and paths. According to her parents, those words were relics of the civilisation before the Ngwarekuu, whose meaning had been twisted to fit their new reality. Amana had told her not to get hung up on the words but to focus on the path they opened and the price they exhorted. Akina was honest enough to admit she found the Breaker type intriguing, bordering on endearing. To be able to kill a beast in seconds, thus defending and feeding the band, was something she might have dreamed about a few times in the last years.
However, since it was an offensive echo type, it was rarely chosen by the Hazda tribesmen as it was seen as a breach of Ishoko's teachings. Not a sacrilege, but something close to it and frowned upon. She tried to recall the last time she had met a Breaker at a gathering but couldn't. Akina didn't dwell on that and moved to the next type on the list.
Boosters were the originators using their skills to improve or modify reality around themselves. Healers, enchanters, magicians, shamans, and druids were some paths that opened up for a Booster. They were kind of the conflict jack-of-all-trades originators in the Omniverse. They could travel their paths alone but worked so much better in a band setting. Their sole presence would often mean the difference between living and dying, especially the different types of healers who commanded powerful skills to treat ailments and cure even the lethal wounds if they got to you in time. Akina respected those who chose this type but knew she had no affinity for it.
This brought her to the echo she really, really hoped would best suit her: Supporter. These originators were the jack-of-all-trades in everything else not conflict-oriented. They were the other side of a coin paired with the Boosters. The Supporter echoing archetype opened all kinds of paths relating to feeding and providing for their communities, such as cooking, building, stockbreeding, farming, or hunting. Obviously, Akina would choose Supporter to become a huntress like her mum and dad or her ancestors before her. She had been preparing her whole young life for this type and couldn't wait for her mind to click the option when it would be available.
Last, and least if you asked Akina, was the Maker type. Those originators were the creators and the changers. Makers were most commonly associated with scholars, researchers and inventors. They saw the Omniverse differently than the other four types, which put them squarely apart from the rest of the world. To date, there had never been a Hazda Maker, and Akina had no intention of becoming the first.
Nope, no, thank you.
Akina's world came crumbling down around her.
Thirty-three per cent compatibility for the Supporter type. Only thirty-three per cent. Tears came to her eyes as she stayed locked in the induction trance.
Unfortunately, at this very moment, she had no other option but to decide her echo. She couldn't interact with the outside world to ask her mother and father for advice on how to proceed. She only had the knowledge gained from the past gatherings and the elders' teachings. She was in shock. Akina couldn't believe that all the training she had done only amounted to a thirty-three per cent compatibility for the Supporter type. Not only that, she had some of the highest numbers ever heard on the Fighter and Breaker type. Usually, fresh inductees only got compatibilities in the forty-sixty per cent range. Her own mother, Amana, had only gotten a fifty-six per cent compatibility with the Supporter type when she was inducted. Granted, it had been her mother's highest match, and she turned out to become one of the best huntresses of the Hazda.
Akina calmed her frantic breathing and tried to get her thoughts under control. The longer she delayed her choice, the riskier it would become for her and the band. She recalled a conversation she had with elder Jabali about the choices given by the System. Humanity was still young in its use, but many had shared their thoughts and findings in the #OBase about the induction process and its objectives. The predominant theory was that after breaking the world, the System actually tried to help the people unlock their potential and become the best version of themselves. The echoing archetype was just the first step of the process. The System assessed her physical and mental qualities, as well as her actions and emotions, to offer the most suitable path forward. Elder Jabali had talked at length about her induction day, and what stuck out the most to Akina had been his last advice, the one that had rung the most true to her.
Jabali told her that the induction was, above all else, a leap of faith in the unknown. You could decide to play it safe and follow your plan, or you could choose to follow the System's plan for you. Akina agonised over her choice for another long minute before she chose to jump into the unknown and mentally selected the Breaker echoing archetype.
Akina confirmed her choice with a small prayer of understanding directed at Ishoko. She wanted to help the tribe, but if she was honest with herself, she wanted to relive those emotions she had felt earlier with the cheetah cub. She wanted the speed, the mobility and the overwhelming power to strike devastating blows to her enemies on a grander scale.
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The bump in Agility brought Akina over the fifteen threshold, which was a pleasant surprise. The bonus in perception would also come in quite handy to help navigate the many dangers of the grasslands safely.
She also noticed she had earned Reps because of her little scuffle with the cub earlier. The amount was enough to bring her personal level to 2 if she desired to. She held onto that thought until after the induction was finished because she wanted to talk with her mum about the avenues opened by those Reps. Akina was proud of her mature wisdom in the face of exciting news.
She brought her focus back to her #Display and thought about the next step. The System would offer branching paths, usually between two and five, for her to choose and follow. The elders had warned the young Hazda tribe members that paths could also be called classes by some originators. It had to do with a type of game that used to be played in rich, dominant civilisations before the world was torn and rebuilt into Pangea. The elders didn't care about words. For them, paths unlocked an originator's access to countless powerful skills that would help the tribe subjugate the grassland. In that regard, they had to kill beasts and compete with other tribes like the Masaai and the Wanyiramba. They had regular skirmishes with both, and skills had quickly become the difference between defeat and victory.
Only two paths?
Akina was disappointed in only getting two paths based on the Breaker type. She tempered her emotions and thought about what those paths truly meant. This was another quirk of the System. It never gave you the meaning behind the choices. To find out more, you either needed to accept or search the #Obase for data in the hope another originator had been offered the exact same path once upon a time and had taken the time to log it in.
She didn't have high hopes about that since the induction process only started three years ago. She was taught that most of the world's population had disappeared in the first few months of the Ngwarekuu, meaning only a low percentage of the available paths were known by humanity. While in the induction trance, she could check the other tabs unlocked in her PSION. She decided to run a quick search for the two paths offered to see if Fortune was on her side. Then, she remembered her Fortune attribute and sighed when the search came back blank. Nobody had ever written about those two paths. The only information she had was the quality of both paths. Uncommon [Uc] for the stalker and Common [C] for the spear one. Ultimately, she resorted to another of Jabali's lectures: in doubt, go with the highest quality. Akina chose the path of the Dedicated Stalker.
She felt a tingle run through her nerves and muscles as the skills settled inside her. Akina suddenly held an instinctive knowledge of the skills in her mind. She could feel for them with her thoughts and instantly learn everything about them.
Fang of the Stalker would lend more power to her strikes with any sharp weapon she held. It was based on her Might attribute multiplied by her skill level and then by her general level. Right now, it would deliver 11 damages every time she used it since it was an active skill. To increase the skill level, she only had to spend eleven Reps. Akina could also choose to increase her general level to 2 by spending a hundred Reps. In both cases, her damage bonus would jump to 22.
Once more, the elders' teachings about the System's fairness and versatility came to mind. Any originator could decide to specialise in skill levels and quickly become extremely powerful to the detriment of everything else. Or, they could focus on increasing their general level, thus increasing the effectiveness of their skills equally across the board. Either choice was fine and yielded different results: the specialist and the generalist. A Supporter tended to go with the generalist approach. She had an intuition that the Breaker tended to go with a specialist approach. She would wait to speak with her mother to decide how she would spend her hundred and ten starting Reputation points or Reps.
Reputation was definitely the most intriguing part of the System. It was both a reward and a currency indiscriminately distributed by the System whenever an originator performed an out-of-the-ordinary action with his skills. It could then be spent to improve oneself and buy stuff from merchants, traders and other originators. Finally, Reps would also land you on the different territorial boards that followed the progression of all originators on Pangea, especially those actively seeking power and fame. Akina would definitely not be one of those.
She refocused on the other unlocked skills while waiting for the induction to finish.
Fleet of foot was a movement skill that would allow her to increase her speed when activated. It was based on her agility, and according to her new intimate knowledge of the skill, she could move up to four metres per second.
Identify was the most common skill on the face of Pangea. Based on the Insight attribute, it allowed the originator to gain additional information regarding the target of the skill, be it animate or inanimate. At level 1, Akina would get basic information up to level 10 targets. Mostly the name and level. As the skill grew, she would be told of the amount of Reps the target was worth, its type and path, and sometimes even some of the skills they had available. This was the one skill the records showed every originator would get when being inducted.
Keen awareness was a passive Perception skill that enhanced her five senses by 14% when surrounded by beings of her level. Its effect would be dampened by the level of people surrounding her, especially those with high Perception attributes of their own. It was barely noticeable as it was, but Akina had a feeling it would become something entirely different as she levelled. She was confident this skill had the potential to become groundbreaking later on.
Wraps of Shadow was an active skill based on Agility and Willpower. It would allow Akina to cover herself with shadows and become more difficult to spot by any perceptive skills. Once again, the higher the level, the harder it would be for people to see her. The main drawback was that she would need shadows to make it work. No way she could stay in the middle of the sunny grassland and hope to become invisible. Right now, the skill would give her a 13% bonus chance of not being seen by an opponent of the same level when hiding in the shadows. Just like Keen awareness, the actual bonus barely qualified as a bump. Yet, Akina had a strong feeling both skills would be fundamental to her Dedicated Stalker path.
A Boon?!
Akina was overwhelmed with pride and joy when she read that line. Boons were randomly given by the System whenever an originator had done something incredibly difficult and survived to tell the tale. Nobody knew how and when a Boon could be granted. The general consensus was that it had to do with stress and danger, just like paths, skills and almost everything ruled by the System. The higher the stakes, the better the rewards. According to the #OBase, Boons could happen at any given time, but to receive one at level 1 was a rare honour and a grand thing. Especially one that would increase her Willpower attribute every time she spent Reps on her personal level.
What? A mantle? What the heck was a mantle?
Akina was stupefied when she read the lines floating before her eyes. A stupefaction that turned into horror when she focused on the little description given by the System.
Caster of despair and darkness?
Consumer of all hope?
This couldn't be good, could it?
She called up her #Display to make sure it was not an error.
Nope. It wasn't an error. Her breathing sped up in flurries of short, ragged bursts. Her heartbeat increased, banging against her ribcage to the silent melody of a frenetic war drum. Akina was hyperventilating as the induction process concluded. She fell to her knees, crying and suffocating at the same time, with the words despair, darkness and consumed hopes swirling in front of her eyes. What had she done to deserve that? "What's wrong, little one?" She heard her mother speak like her head was underwater, slow and distant. Then, she felt arms wrapping around her shoulders, bringing Akina into a warm, loving bosom. She had no idea how long she stayed there sobbing and wailing at the unfairness of it all. This moment should have been about the System acknowledging all the good Akina could bring to her band and the tribe. Exhausted by the sheer weight of her emotions, Akina couldn't hold it together any longer and finally fainted in her mother's comforting arms. *** The Craving Chimera lurked silently in the countless outer shadows born of the giant bonfire erected in the clearing. The blazing light it provided paled in comparison to the hundreds of burning sun pebbles radiating from the frail bodies dancing and whirling around the fire totem. They would provide a feast worthy of its power. Even though it had gorged itself on prey all day, the Craving Chimera didn't feel satisfied at all. It had gained so much already, especially in the eyes of any originator worth its salt. Twenty levels in one day was phenomenal growth for any being in the Omniverse. To want more already was greed bordering on addiction. To want more was the sign of a desire that couldn't be mastered nor satiated. Ever. It fitted the Craving Chimera's purpose. It had been brought into the Omniverse to swallow everything and everyone until none were left to stand before its magnificence. Then, the Chimera would turn its gaze towards the heavens and engulf them as well. Such was the meaning of its existence. Nothing else held importance in its underdeveloped, feverish mind. The Chimera felt a group of three little pebbles come closer to its hiding spot. It crouched low, checking the surroundings to see if bigger pebbles were around, too. In its short existence, the Craving Chimera had already learned how tricky and shifty the pebbles could be when they hunted their prey. They would bait and lure their prey out to be encircled and killed. Seconds turned into minutes as the Chimera patiently waited for the small pebbles to come into range of the dry bushes masking their presence from prying eyes. They were noisy little pebbles, running and wrestling each other without ever managing to harm or be harmed. Instead, they opened their little mouth wide, making more strange noises and cries in their unknown language. Those human beings all looked identical to the Chimera, who only had eyes for the tiny suns pulsing inside them. Had it been sporting a mouth and tongue, the Chimera would have been licking its teeth and lips in a hungry, savage grin. As it was, the elemental savoured the delay as if it were the finest delicacy. It could smell the sweet fragrance of Mana coming off the small pebbles. The scent of sun, happiness, and innocence filled its mind full to bursting. The Chimera quivered with delight and anticipation. The Chimera was finally unable to reign its hunger any longer. Without making the slightest sound, it struck at the small pebbles. Its shoulder pincers snapped forward and grabbed two by the head while its tail lashed swiftly at the third's upper torso, killing all three instantly. The Chimera made fast work of consuming the flesh and cores, adding their budding strength to its larger pool of Mana. Still, it was not enough. Pebbles were only pebbles, after all. The Chimera shrugged its narrow, chitinous shoulders and went hunting for more. If it couldn't get quality, it would settle for quantity. It would thin the herd as long as the bonfire burned bright in the night sky. To facilitate the process, the Chimera used a newly gained power. It split into ten smaller replicas of itself. In less than a minute, instead of a single level twenty beast, the underbrush hosted a silent gathering of ten level two beasts the size of well-fed rats. The chimeric critters would spread out and strike on the unknowing and the innocent, collecting cores and flesh as they went, like a chitinous plague of pincers and stingers. Its clones would thin the pebbles herd until the flames of the bonfire became embers, and the dances turned to sleep. When that moment came, the Craving Chimera would reform and use the covert of night to feed on all of them. It would decimate the killers of kin. *** "What form of blasphemy is that?" Elder Jabali shrieked. Jabali was a thin, willowy man who looked like bones and old, leathery skin had decided to exist through sheer force of will. He was bald and sported a thin, grey beard that reached the middle of its sternum. A beard the elder was furiously stroking as he made his reproach clearly heard by the other members of the council of Elders. They sat in proximity to the central bonfire to warm their old bones and souls against the cold of the grasslands night. Around them, band adult members shared food and water, using this twice-a-year opportunity to mingle and socialise, arrange unions, and bargain goods of different natures. Kids ran and played games in the outer circles under the lax supervision of easygoing teenagers. Nobody took security seriously during those gatherings since it brought a force of nearly five hundred tribe members to the same spot for a short day of inner politics and a long night of celebration. Basking in this rare feeling of safety, the teenagers snuck glances at each other, some finding a quiet place to engage in harmless, fun activities, while the most eager to prove themselves challenged each other in duels of words and skills under the awed sights of their peers. This was where Akina should have been spending her night. She had dreamed of that moment when she would showcase her talents, challenge some boys and girls to a knife-throwing contest and maybe, Ishoko willing, make out in the grass with a boy she had put her sight on at the last gathering–Kion of the Kavudongo band was his name. Instead, she sat next to her mother after explaining everything that happened to her today, starting with the killing of the cheetah cub and ending with her induction into the System. After regaining consciousness, Akina had explained everything to her mother. To say that Amana had been shaken by Akina's decision to choose the Breaker type would be the understatement of the year. Her precious daughter had been talking about being a Supporter like her ever since she could think and decide for herself. To witness her throwing away this ideal had been staggering. Despite that, Amana admitted that her daughter's logic was sound. To refuse to follow such a high percentage of compatibility could have been disrespectful to the System. Her daughter had to choose between following Ishoko's teaching or the System's. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Strangely, her choice of path had been a non-event. Amana confirmed that the System provided cryptic names more for the sake of sounding mysterious than anything else. Her mother's path was called Provider of the Blades. Amana took that name and made it a hunter's path, providing food to her band with bladed spears. The Boon fell in the same category; any Hazda tribe member could be considered a Lone Ranger. The Willpower bonus was something her mother approved of. Any bonus one could get was another chance for the bands and the tribe to grow stronger and overcome adversity in the grassland. The real crux of the matter was her Mantle of Forlon Foreshadower. When her mum heard the description, blood drained from her face, and Akina saw an emotion she hadn't believed could exist within her mother. Nervousness. Soon, the little spark had been followed by another one that hurt a little. Fear. In that precise moment, Akina didn't know if Amana feared for her daughter or herself. Before Akina could voice her worry and find out the truth, her mother instructed the band to work faster. They had to reach the gathering in time to present Akina's situation before the Elders' council and ask for their guidance. Until then, everyone had to work fast, which meant no more talking. Amana went to help skin and bone the gnu carcass, not before instructing her daughter to take care of the cheetah's body and remove its skin, teeth and paws. The whole band worked fastidiously for the next two hours, accomplishing the task thrice quicker than usual, as if under the thrall of a magic frenzy spell. Even the habitually unruly and rumbustious kids felt subdued as they went foraging close by, a worm of uncertainty and worry in their little, innocent eyes. Thanks to this extraordinary feat, the Wakimbiaji got to the gathering not long after the sun had set behind the horizon. Most official talks had been concluded, allowing Amana to immediately bring her daughter's case to the council's attention. These old men and women, lauded as the wisest and most insightful among the tribe, would decide Akina's fate following her bitter induction. "As Ishoko didn't strike my daughter down the minute she chose the Breaker type," Amana answered cooly, "I don't see any blasphemy, only difference. Akina is still a faithful daughter of the Hazda." Amana let her statement hang in the air, waiting for any elder to challenge her words. She was one of the most prominent Epeme in the tribe and counted on her clout to quell the kind of questioning Jabali wanted to start. Ishoko was not a hands-on kind of god. A month into the Ngwarekuu, he appeared to the tribe's representatives and gave them instructions and directions on how to survive the coming ordeal. Simple commands that boiled down to 'fight and kill only to feed or defend the tribe members from danger'. "If the elders allow it, I would like to voice my opinion," asked Kovu, the first Epeme and hunt leader of the southern bands. He was a grizzled veteran, born and raised in the old times before, sporting numerous scars over his sleek body, the most prominent being the three lines crossing the left side of his face, a reminder of a fight for his life with a king of the grassland. Kovu spoke rarely, which gave a lot of weight to his words. This man could make and unmake Akina's fate. "I hear Elder Jabali's concern about Ishoko's reaction to young Akina's decisions," Kovu drawled as if measuring every word before saying them. "I can only bow to our god to make his will known when he deems the time right. In the meantime, as one of the many concerned about the protection of the tribe against all threats, I find this situation we face... fortuitous." "Tell us more, Kovu," asked Elder Lakicia, a frail-looking woman from the Lefupembe band. "These old bones are curious to hear your reasoning..." Other Elders murmured their assents, leaning forward to make sure they would hear whatever the hunt leader's arguments. Amana's hand gripped Akina's wrist tight, bringing the daughter's hand to rest on her toned thigh. There was history between Kovu and Amana. Akina didn't know the details, but her mother and father had always been wary of the hunt leader. They usually went out of their way to avoid him during the gatherings, letting the Wakimbiaji Elders handle all tribe matters. "As you all know, I recently returned from a meeting with the other hunt leaders," Kovu resumed. "We talked for one night and one day, trading stories about the land and the people as customary. This is how I learned of the grave threats coming from the north... The Hazda are under attack. Have been for six moons already." Akina saw all the elders blanch when they heard the news. For the first time in her short life, she also witnessed how speechless old men and women looked like. It was not a reassuring sight for a thirteen-year-old. "Hunt leader Nalla of the northern bands told us that her hunting parties had been constantly targeted by Iraqw and Maasai war parties. Already, a quarter of the northern lands have been lost to the invaders. I had planned to wait until after the festivities to bring the subject with other hunt leaders, but young Akina's situation forced my hand." "What do you mean, Kovu?" Amana asked in a hushed voice, her grip tightening even more on Akina's wrist. "In our hour of need, Ishoko saw fit to send us the first fighting spear it needed to defend the tribe against its enemies." Kovu declared, fixing his sight on both mother and daughter. "To be clear, I believe that Akina will be the first of many to wield the spears not only to hunt and defend the people but also to attack and ambush our ancestral foes." Nobody talked for long minutes after that final declaration from Kovu. Amana kept glaring at the man as if she could kill him with her eyes. Akina darted glances between the two, unable to understand what all this animosity was about. For his part, Kovu had a sorrowful expression on his face that Akina didn't quite understand. The expression faded after a bit, and the man sat oblivious and unperturbed as he waited for an elder to speak. "Hunt leader, elders, something's wrong!" The shrill cry interrupted the silent stalemate as a scared huntress ran to them. "Groups of little ones have vanished in the night. We can't find them!!" *** The Craving Chimera felt stronger. For the best part of the dusk, she had hunted and fed on tiny and small pebbles, prowling around the bonfire, luring the unwary into the shadows to deal quick, painless deaths. When reaching level twenty-five, it felt a new awareness spread inside her. The Chimera had developed its own access to the System. The Chimera's senses tingled familiarly every time it came close to a particular spot where average-sized pebbles sat in a circle. These ones felt way more dangerous than the ones she had killed so far. The beast had twenty-five clones disseminated all over the camp, lurking in the dark, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and kill its prey. It had been a busy night for the beast, with a tally of nearly seventy pebbles ingested. Alas, morning would come soon, a time to retreat and capitalise on its growth. A time that could be used to better understand its traits and attributes. On a whim, the Chimera called the unlocked #Display to its sight, revelling in its newfound clarity of mind. Its Reputation had risen again. Sending feelers through its connections with the clones, the Chimera learned they had killed ten more pebbles, bigger ones too, and soon, ten more would join them. Its senses tingled again, and the beast paid attention to the circle again. One pebble came from outside the circle and got all the bigger pebbles to move and make loud noises the beast couldn't understand. All of a sudden, they were agitated, trampling where they stood, and soon enough dashed in directions that would bring them in range of its clones. Individually, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves, and all the gains of the night would be lost. The Craving Chimera retreated away from the fire and called back the clones. The pebbles had called the end of the festivities for the elemental. There would be plenty more occasions for the Chimera to exact its revenge. *** Akina was running around the outer perimeter of the gathering. A few minutes ago, the hunter had alerted the council that many kids and teenagers had disappeared. This was unheard of, and the hunter was mortified. A pit had appeared in Akina's gut, and she reacted quickly by running off to search for the kids. She was quickly followed by the rest of the council. A few shouts later, the whole camp was in an uproar as the tribe members formed a circle and waited for their vision to adjust to the night, back turned to the bonfire before extending a search perimeter, walking outward. Three hundred of them would accomplish greatly in a very short amount of time. Still, Akina couldn't wait and decided to scout ahead, using her Keen Awareness skill for the first time. She saw her Mana slowly tick down as the skill stayed active. The cost appeared to be one Mana for five seconds. Steep, but Akina chose to use it in bursts as she focused on areas in front of her. She found out very quickly that she could either use the skill in a passive mode, enhancing her five senses equally, or actively focus on one and get a greater boost. Akina went with the second option and boosted her eyesight, giving her tunnel vision where the deep black pools became dark grey. She could see details a bit more clearly as well. She ran low to the ground, looking for any clues of the missing people's whereabouts. What Akina found freaked her out. Footprints and traces suddenly disappeared whenever they got too close to the vegetation outgrowths, forming deep and wide pools of blackness. She had checked the first three outgrowths and only found kid-sized loincloths and grass skirts. The pit of dread in her stomach grew with each discovery to the point it was a chasm of horror and panic. Akina felt nauseous but soldiered on anyway. Throwing up wouldn't help the lost ones. Suddenly, a dark shape sprung out of the shadow before her. It vaguely looked like a scorpion, even though the paws looked different. The beast was the size of an aardvark but faster and ensconced in chitinous plaque. The hovering tail stinger indicated it was related to the scorpion somehow. The beast didn't notice Akina's presence and sped on the outskirts of the press to a small hill shrouded in shadows fifty metres away from her. Akina activated Wraps of Shadow on a whim and followed the weird beast, using the dark to stealth her movements. It was also the first time she used this particular skill, and she couldn't help but marvel at the delicate, dark-absorbing bands that crisscrossed her bare arms, torso and legs, allowing her to blend part of her body with the ambient blackness. Her Mana expenditure jumped up to two points every ten seconds. She would have to be quick if she didn't want to be Mana-deprived. In a few heartbeats, the weird critter reached the hill and disappeared. When Akina came within fifteen metres of the hill, her Keen Awareness picked up details that sent a shiver of fear down her spine. She stopped dead in her tracks as her mind finally put two and two together and realised it was not a hill. It was a monster. Akina's Identify was too low to give her more information than the creature's name. She instantly recalled the first teaching she had ever received from Elder Jabali when she was six or seven. The old man had pointedly explained that whenever hunters encountered a beast on the plains, they would use the Identify skill to determine the level of consciousness of their intended target to properly assess the danger. Anything the System deemed large, big, short, great, or any other size adjectives was okay to hunt and kill with the appropriate number of hunters, he had said with a knowing smile. Then, his face had taken on a sombre tone, and he had dropped his voice low to explain the vital part that no Hazda tribe member could ever forget: "But, when hunters encounter any beast labelled 'Awakened' by the System, they must make themselves scarce and flee, making sure to leave no trail behind." At the time, Elder Jabali had made them repeat that phrase like a mantra for the better part of the afternoon. He had never really expanded on the reason, but as she grew, Akina gathered tidbits of knowledge from hunters and Epeme. In the old days, before the world broke, the dominating forces of the grassland had been the roaming tribes. The Hazda, the Massai, the Chagga, the Sukuma, and the Datoga. These were the only threats to watch for. Not anymore. The 'Awakened' beasts had risen to challenge the tribes' stronghold on the grassland. Being awakened meant those beasts were intelligent. They were more cunning than the mindless animals they were used to hunt. They could come up with plans. They could form bands and rule over territories unchallenged. More importantly, the awakened beasts could hold their own against anything but the best war bands a tribe could muster. Awakened beasts were not to be tangled with. All those thoughts flashed in Akina's mind as she beheld the monstrous creature with ragged pincers as wide as a grown man, a thick and quivering stinger attached to a chitinous body perched on four legs that vaguely looked feline, like a panther or... a cheetah. The Chimera stood five metres tall and projected an aura of hunger, death and violence so dense that her breath caught, stopping her from sounding the alarm. Akina watched in horror at the ticking countdown that filled her sight. She tried to move or utter a sound, but as the message said, she was paralysed. All she could do was watch the Chimera turn its attention towards her and slowly approach. *** At last, the Chimera absorbed her final clone, feeling as powerful as it could be. It didn't have enough intellect earlier to fully understand what this body could do when it was undivided. With the help of its Aura, the elemental beast could tackle higher-level foes, especially those of the pebble calibre. It intuitively knew that the clearing held no tangible threat. Even if some of the pebbles appeared strong, they simply did not range in the same tier of power. A sharp movement caught its senses, and the Chimera turned to see a lone pebble nearby. Instantly, the Chimera released its Aura to ensure the little pebble wouldn't alert the other. It decided it would do the honour itself and kill every living creature in the clearing to celebrate its true birth. Thinking about it, why did it still refer to itself like that? The Chimera searched its Soul attribute and soon found the truth. She had the Soul and Mind of a queen and the Body of a king. She was no longer a simple Chimera. She was more, and she demanded recognition. In that moment, the Chimera of Craving named herself. Malkiaduma chuckled internally when she saw she had gained another level just by absorbing the final clone. This one had been a good killer; she would have to remember it the next time she used the trait. She was in a good mood as she approached the frozen pebble–scratch that term. The chimeric queen used her unlocked Analyse trait on the poor little creature. So those pesky, noisy beings were called humans. Not a big change from pebbles, but Malkiaduma enjoyed flexing her Mind attribute to sound more refined. If she was to be feared as the queen of the land, she had to act accordingly. It would all start with a statement of power to all other creatures out there. Malkiaduma would kill all those humans, gorge on their juicy flesh and absorb their pebbles into hers–cores, not pebbles. She would consume their cores and delight herself at the hot waves of growth they would send through her mighty plated body. Without thinking, she used her stinger to strike the little level one down. Something remarkable happened next. Her stinger stopped a few centimetres before the human's neck, unable to go through, even though the human hadn't moved a single muscle. Taken aback, Malkiaduma willed one of her pincers to finish the deed to the same result. The appendage stopped a few centimetres shy of its target, unable to push further. Intrigued, the queen used her Mind and Soul to investigate the little human. Why was the human resisting her death, and more importantly, how did she achieve such a feat? Her probes quickly found the explanation for this strange human protective power. The little Akina of the Wakimbiaji appeared to have nothing to do with it. She stayed unharmed because of her necklace and headband made of teeth, claws, and bone remnants of the queen's cub. Her last, beloved cub. Fortuitously, Malkiaduma had found the murderer of her line. She successively attacked with pincers and stingers in moves so fast no human could hope to see them, but to no avail. Every one of her attempted strikes failed. So be it. Malkiaduma checked the time left on her Aura of Craving and went to work. If, by a twist of fate, she couldn't devour Akina of the Wakimbiaji to avenge the last love of her life, she would fall on the other humans instead. *** Akina couldn't believe her luck when she witnessed the multiple strikes stop centimetres short of killing her, especially with a Fortune attribute like hers. Trapped in her own body as she was, she simultaneously thanked Ishoko for his protection and begged him to alert the tribe of the impending doom. She knew the Chimera had been the one to disappear the kids–Akina couldn't admit they were dead. It broke her heart to think of that outcome. According to the first estimate, that monstrosity had been preying for hours on the future generation, the tribe's most precious riches. More than a third of the tribe population had been decimated. If she could have cried, her face would be flooded with tears. She would be wailing at the moon. Instead, she was stuck in this pose, unable to bulge even the smallest muscle in her body. All she could do was think and try to understand. Why did the Chimera come to the gathering? Why had she targeted the Hazda? Why didn't she kill Akina when she had the chance? The question whirled incessantly in her mind until she heard the first cries of panic and agony coming from behind. The sounds were similar to those made when skinning and butchering their prey, and Akina started to imagine what the Chimera was doing. The noises of horror amplified. The cries. The pleas. The moans. and then smells reached her nostrils. Blood and viscera. Feces and urine. The air took on a metallic quality she had never smelled before. The stench quickly became unbearable. Then, a thick, roaring buzzing rose as the flies and other insects joined the feast. Akina spent the next hundred and eighty-nine seconds trapped inside a nightmare of her own making where she envisioned the way the Chimera killed her tribespeople in the most cruel and vicious manners. Her inner torture was fueled by the horrendous cries of murder that rose into the night sky, barely covered by the throngs of insects falling down on the corpses. Akina stood frozen while her whole world came crashing down. *** Malkiaduma strolled back to Akina when she was done with the weak humans. As her intuition told her, they had been subpar opponents, barely able to scratch her mighty armour with their crude weapons. She had made short work of them, amassing enough cores to significantly increase her own level. She had left the flesh behind this time because she didn't need that kind of food anymore. Mana was the key to her evolution. Truly a grand night. Her growth had been accompanied by enlightening breakthroughs about her nature as her Mind and Soul attributes grew in levels. Among other things, she had learned that if the System dubbed her a Chimera, she was, in reality, part of a powerful force in the Omniverse known as Elfenkin. She was Elfen, representing an immutable element of the Omniverse, Craving. She personified the element like her brothers and sisters did with Fire, Water, Fear, Air, Wind, etc. Her kin existed only to grow powerful and challenge the other kin for total domination of creation, notably the Steadkin and the Wealdkin. The passive Grehkin could sit and rot where they stood as they had been for aeons. The second fact she now knew was that communication between different kin was way above her current level of power. Her intention had been to taunt and torment the human girl, to squarely put the blame for the killing on her frail shoulders. Had she not killed her cub, none of this would have ever happened. It would have been cruel and delightful, but it would have to wait for some other time. The grassland was not large enough that they wouldn't run into each other again. When that time came, Malkiaduma would have mastered the Steadkin's manner of speech. It would make her vengeance sweeter. She gave one last look to the stumbling form of Akina of the Wakimbiaji before melding into the fading shadows in search of a place to rest and consolidate her recent gains. The heavens awaited their queen; making them wait too long would be unbecoming.