FIRST DEFEAT

[ Error ]

[ Error ]

[ Error ]

[ Mana insufficient for regeneration ]

[ Tapping into life force ]

[ ... ]

[ Insufficient life force ]

[ Tapping into contractor's mana ]

[ Contractor's mana is sufficient ]

[ Extracting contractor's mana ]

[ ... ]

[ Process complete ]

[ Healing Host ]

[ Healing paused ]

The bats repeatedly hit him with their sonic blasts, blood oozing from their nostrils. Despite reaching their limits, they did not stop.

They were but mid-tier normal magical creatures and thus had a limit to how many sonic blasts they could handle.

They knew they had reached their limit but did not stop as their rage and sorrow were stronger than their instinct to live.

Magical beasts were not ruthless, emotionless savages but had emotions like any other species. They laugh, cry, joke, ridicule, backstab, and do whatever the major inhabitants of Terra do.

That is how the creator made it. All the creatures he created, from insects to the great Angels, were given a will and emotion to experience the world he had created. A will implies the choice of how to perceive the world, which may differ among them.

After a couple more sonic blasts, they noticed the skeleton was not regenerating, they wanted to wait for a couple more minutes to verify its complete demise but the sun had peered its head over the horizon, a signal that they had to go back to their caves.

Squee!! Squee!!!

They leaped into the air, flying into the forest. As they flew, they would turn and look behind them, tears welling up in their eyes. They had lost two of their comrades, how would they tell their families?

Squee!!!!

They mourned swearing to avenge their brothers as they had an inclination that the skeleton was still alive.

[ Danger no longer present ]

[ Regeneration commencing ]

Ossa's body had completely shattered, most of his skeletal frame grounded to powder by the continuous sonic blast.

The scattered fragments mixed with the deformed earth, the aftermath of the sonic blast.

Small craters adorned the grassy ground, with most of them concentrated where Ossa's body slowly reformed.

Fragments and bone dust crept from the ground converging at one point to form his skeletal frame.

Slowly, they converged, materializing into Ossa.

After a couple of minutes, Ossa's body had completely formed. For the final touch, his dark green eyes lit up, gaining consciousness.

" ... " Ossa remained silent, processing the events that had just transpired.

He stood at the same place, unmoving, his dark green eyes flickering as he mused.

He continued to stand in one place unmoving. Seconds quickly turned into minutes, which slowly turned into hours.

BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!!

The wasps had awoken, buzzing around as they went on their business.

Surprisingly they did not attack Ossa, as he was not moving, staying still like a tree. The wasps were unable to attack as they had not noticed the unmoving skeleton.

[ How long are you going to continue to mop?... ]

Mors said to the unmoving skeleton, its tone a bit different from that of its normal monotone.

"..." Ossa did not respond still unmoving.

[For a skeleton warrior, you are quite emotional, I guess it has something to do with your soul ]

"..."

[ Really?! Are you going to continue to ignore me ]

"..."

[ ... ]

Mors also decided not to speak as Ossa made no effort to speak to her.

She couldn't use Francesco's voice without reason and thus did not, as there was no cause for her to use it.

Meanwhile, Bel's eyes fluttered, slowly opening as she finally woke up from bed.

Despite sleeping for hours she felt tired as Ossa had used her mana to regenerate.

" YAWN!!! " She rubbed her eyes, trying to rub the sleep off them.

Slowly she looked around her surroundings, trying to find Ossa.

" Where is he " She said, as she did not find him amidst the many wolves that slept around her.

" Don't tell me he is still there?! " She exclaimed as she realized, Ossa was not in the den.

Gently she got up from the shadow wolf she had used as a pillow, trying not to wake the nocturnal creatures.

" Pardon me!! "

" Excuse me "

She tried to stealthily move out of the large cave, but clumsily stepped on the shadow wolves, waking them from their slumber.

Grrrh!! The wolves who had been abruptly woken up from their sleep tried to retaliate but when they noticed that it was their cook, Bel, they calmed down.

Most ignored her and went back to sleep, but her guardians, shadow wolves assigned to her by the omega, tailed her.

She came out of the den surprised as she was unfamiliar with the surroundings.

" Where am I... " She said as she observed the unfamiliar surroundings.

Unlike the small rocky hill that the alpha used as their den, the pack's den was on a larger hill located deeper in the forest. It was a few meters from the alpha's den, but to Bel, who did not know where she was, it felt like she was at the center of the forbidden forest.

Curious and eager to find Ossa, she walked towards the canopy of trees in front of the small clearing where the rocky hill stood.

Wolf!! One of her guardian shadow wolves blocked her path, as she was headed into the deeper parts of the forest.

" Ahhh!! " Bel screamed, startled by the sudden appearance of the shadow wolf.

" Hey, you scared me " She exclaimed, calming down after noticing it was a shadow wolf.

WOLF!!

" I shouldn't be going that way?!... " She said seemingly understanding what the creature wanted to convey.

" Ok, please can you help me find Ossa, you know my skeleton companion " She requested.

Wolf!! The wolf walked in the opposite direction of where Bel had wanted to go, gesturing for her to follow it.

"This way," she followed the shadow wolf, which stood out in its surroundings with its black pelt, making it an anomaly in the morning sunlight.

The two walked side by side as they ventured towards the outer region of the forest.

Flying squirrels, mirror lizards, and other critters stared at the odd pair, watching them as they sought safety in the treetops.

Chirp!!! Chirp!! Tweet!!! Tweet!!

The birds sang, welcoming the dawn of a new day.

"Wow, what a beautiful melody," Bel exclaimed, enjoying nature's harmonious sounds.

After a couple of minutes of walking, they arrived at the wasp hive, Ossa standing there motionless like a statue.

"Ossa."