With the rest break over, the group packs up and begins making their rounds to maintain their traps. Some of the younger people in the group begin to show signs of fatigue, not too long after their resting break. The veterans continue on without acknowledging the sullen atmosphere that is surround the group.
Usually, they would have spotted the monsters by now since they are so close to their own city. That would have been the case this time as well if not for the ever changing thought patterns of beings other than humans.
Humans regard themselves as the smartest creatures and top of the food chain due to their history and newfound abilities. They have slowly begun to realize that although the major events of the cataclysm are over, the aftereffects are still occurring.
The world and every creature inside of it are still constantly evolving, leaving humanity to update their notes for the same creatures repeatedly.
The group is currently in that situation now. Realizing this, the veterans are unable to rest easy and why they told everyone else to kill on sight.
Most of the time, a group could try and capture creatures from the wilds and bring them back to places to be raised as a form of cattle. That is only for the situations when one believes everything to be under their control.
"Huh?"
While walking towards the next cabbage to verify and maintain its runes, the person who planted that cabbage feels his trap activate. After running up to the cabbage that was not so far away, he sees a purplish trail of fog starting from where he had planted it.
He turns to the other veterans and nods his head. Afterwards, he speaks up to the group and says, "Alright everyone! I know that you all must be exhausted, but we have found our target now. We don't know exactly what we are getting ourselves into, so show extreme caution until we give you the 'Okay' to attack."
He informs the rest of the group and they all follow the scralebits trail back to its nest. After following it's trail, the group arrives at the edge of a dying forest.
The man who planted had been leading the way walks towards the cabbage head and sees the markings that it was handled very roughly.
"It seems that we are dealing with some smart beasts here. Luckily they aren't smart enough if one of them brought us right to their doorstep." The man chuckles and looks in the direction that the cabbage was thrown from.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The group follows his lead as he signals them to get into position of the nest of the scralebits. After making sure they are ready to move, they attack fast and efficiently. Veterans and students alike chasing after each scralebit with weapons and magic.
The scralebits put up very little resistance after a few of them had been slain. Alistair notices this and thinks, "Weird... For monsters that we should be so worried about, how come they are just lining up to be killed? It's almost as if we are the monsters."
Alistair pulls out a bundle of tarps from his backpack that are uses for processing and sorting materials. He lays them down on the ground and gets them ready for use.
The amount of corpses keep piling up. He had heard stories of their reproduction capabilities, but he felt that they had been greatly exaggerated. At most, there could have only been thirty or so beasts he thinks.
His team members begin throwing the corpses into a pile on top of one of his tarps. With nothing else to really do, he busies himself in his work. Dismantling corpses on each tarp and chipping away at the pile.
The dismembering process that he is used to is a very crude process. It does not involve anything more complicated than chopping up the body parts into small enough parts so that they can be easily transported and to let the blood drain from them during the process.
Doing this over and over, Alistair realizes that he still does not find any uneasy feeling in the excessive amounts of blood and gore. Usually on these missions, the newbies would be made fun of by the veterans for their weak stomachs. Alistair maintains a stoic expression the entire time he processes the bodies though.
What he feels while performing this butchery is not disgust, but hunger. So much that every other tiny piece he cut off would go into his own mouth when he knew that no one was looking at him.
He mentally prepared himself for a new power up of some sort, what awaited him though was disappointment. He realizes that no changes other than a more satisfied stomach occurs after eating. Upset at the turn of events, he grumpily decides to take it out on the next corpse he processes.
He thinks that maybe he just did not eat enough and after consuming more will reward him with the new abilities he is looking for. After the fifth body, he finishes with his first pile and makes his way to the next pile closest to him.
As he starts walking towards it though, he sees strange undulations pulsating off of it. The distortions are semi-transparent black ripples with small white dots flecked throughout it. Although the distortions are very faint, if one looked closely, they would notice it originating from the center of the pile of corpses.
Although the ripples are very unsettling, Alistair does not feel any blood lust coming from it so he decides to proceed with caution and investigates. The closer he gets though, the more intense the undulations become.
He decides to look through the pile of corpses personally instead of asking for help due to hearing about how lucky encounters are only lucky for the ones who are strong enough to keep them.
Wise words by his teacher that he fundamentally understands the importance of after realizing how important wealth is for those truly looking to improve themselves.
He takes the scralebits off of the pile from the top of it, one by one. He finally sees a scralebit hunched over in a peculiar position, as if it were protecting something. He reaches for it and lifts it up to reveal a young scralebit.
The scralebit would look like any other except for the flecks of shining white specks on its pitch black scales. If it were only that though, Alistair would not feel as in awe of the scene as he currently is. The young scralebit is currently floating in the center of the corpses with a small purple-bluish swirl forming around it.
It looks up at Alistair and meets with his eyes. The moment their eyes lock though, Alistair notices the look of despair on its face, the beast is crying. Something that was never in any book he read or talked about by his teachers. Seeing the beautifully tragic scene, Alistair revisits his earlier thoughts.
"Are we the monsters?"
After thinking this thought though, the spiral forming around the scralebit slows to a crawl before stopping and then fracturing. Seeing this, Alistair gets a dreadfully clear feeling of deaths scythe resting at his neck.
He is not even given a chance to move though before the fractured swirl completely cracks and from that crack a silent explosion engulfs the entire forested area. The area that was once covered with trees and the shouting of fighters and beasts disappears in an instant. What is left, is an area with only a young naked boy sitting at deaths door, a young unconscious scralebit, and the pile of corpses under it.