9. The Great Hawk

"A."

"What?" The shadowy man raised a brow.

"That is its name." I pointed a scythe at the red chameleon monster.

"Right... Why A?"

"Because my name 'Avarice' starts with A."

"uh huh... How about you give it another name, something that is more than just a simple noise."

"Why?"

"The name's shit. That's why."

"I see..."

I was silent in thought for a moment. "What do you think would be a fitting name for it?" I asked.

"Hmm, how about... naming him 'Rampage?'" He realized something. "Wait, why does he even need a name? Let's just move on. Don't get attached to your minions. You'll only get yourself killed that way."

"I see..."

I looked at Rampage, he stood obediently. He faced me, but his chameleon eyes looked in different directions from each other, scanning the surroundings.

When I looked at his mindless eyes, there was an irritating familiarity. Did I create an ant?

No, he was different. He could be different. No, I told myself *he will be different.*

*No child of mine will be a mindless drone. I will make him like a human...*

"So..." The Demon interrupted my thoughts. "Do you think you can manage a second monster?"

I pondered for a moment. "Possible."

"Then I know just the right creature for-"

"What are humans like?" I interrupted.

"Humans?" He pondered for a moment.

"Tell me more about them."

"They're not that interesting, I'm not sure what you'd like to hear about them. Is there anything about them in particular that has caught your attention?"

"How are they able to turn into light and disappear? Is it because of their power?"

"That? Oh... well, humans don't have such power. There was once a people so ingenious and advanced that they have created massive underground cities and fortresses, and machines far too complex even for today's age. They were the same people who created the… thingy, uh… let's just say humans are using something they didn't make, that's why. Three big towers somewhere that saves human invaders..."

"Who are these people? Can I see them?"

"Men of today refer to them as dwarves. Though I doubt you'll be seeing one any time soon. They were hunted down ruthlessly by mankind, their great underworld sieged for a hundred years. Blocked off from the surface, and subjected to constant raids from above. They were flooded and suffocated. Their realms suffered famine, opportunistic goblins invaded from the deeper below. I tried to help them, tried to fix things, but I think I only really wanted to step on humanity." He frowned. "Perhaps if I did truly care, I could've done something." He shook the thoughts out of his head.. "They decided fighting each other is better than uniting against the outsiders, though I don't blame them, I had little hope too. Endless civil wars ensued. They turned into cannibalistic savages, struggling to survive in the underground where weapons and metal were more common than bread." ... "It's a shame really, how something so great could all go crumbling down in just one century."

"If they united against the humans, would they still be alive?"

He looked at me, unsure. "Who knows. In the face of overwhelming power, sometimes no matter how hard you try, there is simply nothing you can do. When God wants you dead, you'll just die, apparently. The dwarves weren't the first."

The songs and calls of birds had stopped. I could see silhouettes of several monsters far far above, jumping from branch to branch, but they all headed the same direction.

They were escaping from something.

"What is it?" I asked. The demon was unsure too. "I don't know, whatever it is, it's too far away." His eyes suddenly widened as he detected something. "T-that's too fast!"

Suddenly, a giant shadow emerged from high above, and consumed several monsters in a single blink. I could feel the weight of its powerful wings in the wind, disturbing the branches above, and displacing the fallen leaves where I stood.

One monster fell down, and crashed near me, shattering into a splash of rock debris. The giant shadow above began to descend.

"Hide! Now!"

I quickly looked around, searching for a hiding space... then I saw my chameleon friend and got an idea.

...

The giant shadow flew down, and landed on its talons. The weight of its landing, like a meteor, reverberated on the soil, shaking the very ground I stood on.

The claws on its two scaled feet were as big as I was. Its body was covered in stone gray feathers, with massive wings to carry its enormous avian form. It cawed with a roar that could be heard too far away.

Its face... two gray eyes, a sharp pale beak, and a pair of stone horns. It looked around with its head arrogantly high up, as if disgusted at the sight of the ground and all that lived on it. It noticed the shattered corpse of the fallen monster.

It flipped stone chunks of the corpse around using its talons, found the core, and ate it immediately.

Meanwhile... I was on the side of the tree, with Rampage camouflaged over me. I was backed up to the trunk, with his bark coloured arms on the wall, covering me. I peeked out of him, it was the bird monster readying for flight, unaware of me.

"Looks like you're safe." The shadowy man popped up looking at me from the outside. He looked at the bird monster. "Heh... what an idiot."

The bird monster stopped and looked at me.

No...

I realized that it did not find me, but rather... the demon. It stared at him, drooling a stream from its beak.

"Huh? Wait a second... can it... oh shit-"

Immediately, the avian launched towards the demon next to me. I didn't even get a chance to think.

In a moment -- a wide open beak before me, to swallow everything in its way in one bite. Its throat covered in hundreds of teeth, a lamprey's mouth.

I looked into its eyes as its mouth drew near me, there was a glint in its eye no ant could ever have. A manic glare, consumed by endless starvation. There was no life, no intelligence, no purpose, only hunger.

A wall of red ice erupted from the ground before me, blocking the avian's way, but nonetheless, it continued unrelenting. It rammed through the wall, shattering it into countless pieces. Rampage grabbed me and jumped away, pulling me out of the way right before it crashed into me.

It collided with the tree bark, and bit a massive chunk of wood from it. It swallowed the bark in one gulp, stretching its throat.

A humanoid creature made out of wood erupted from the wound of the tree, then another... and another. A horror of blank wooden faces and hands, ripping out of the wound... before suddenly the Stone Hawk roared an opaque gas from its beak, covering them out of view. When the clouds settled, they were all solidified into rock, and the hole in the tree blocked with stone.

The avian turned to me, finally noticing me on the side. Rampage was nowhere to be seen. As if it had completely forgotten about the shadowy man, it lunged for me. But it stopped, as if something pulled it back. I noticed the shadowy man riding on the creature's neck, its hand through its head grabbing its core.

"Avarice! Kill it! Now!"

I pounced at the monster. But it greeted me with an open beak to catch, but before it did, a blinding golden light emanated from its throat. The shadowy man screamed in pain as his arms dissipated, before he teleported away to safety. Holy energy glowed from the feathered monster, its eyes illuminated, and its feathers outlined with gold.

I entered the creature's mouth, and immediately it closed shut behind me, its tongue and a sucking wind pulled me towards the darkness. I released a stream of flames into its throat. Smoke blasted from its nose holes, its insides searing, it spat me out, launching me through the foliage. I rolled on the soil before crashing.

The monster's rapid heavy footsteps rocked the ground as it quickly approached me. I hid behind a titan tree, but not even a moment of rest, it peeked from the side of the gigantic wood pillar. It faced me, its beak opened, clouding with a gray mist.

Rampage appeared from above, and landed on the hawk's head fists first. The monster's maw forced onto the ground.

But, the chameleon was too light. The monster stood up on its two feet. Rampage smashed his knuckles on its head repeatedly, but the avian remained composed. Its left talon reached up and stabbed through Rampage's back. He struggled as the claw carried him in front of the hawk's face.

It scanned the chameleon, with hunger in its eyes. Its drool thickened into dust as it opened its beak.

I knew that I should escape, that while the monster was distracted, I must disappear to safety. But something within me could not let that happen. I thought that perhaps I only underestimated the avian, or was simply impulsive.

Then I understood, I just wanted to fight another *living* being. Even if the only looks it would give me is that of hunger.

I leaped towards Rampage, and landed on his back. A dusty cloud blasted from the monster's beak, creeping rocks into my chameleon's scales. I pierced my scythes into the back of Rampage's head, and ripped his core out before eating it to keep in my stomach.

The avian noticed me behind my monster's now corpse, and immediately threw its talon to the ground, attempting to crush me on the soil. I jumped away to safety. Rampage's petrified corpse shattered into a hundred pieces.

The hawk immediately moved to chase me, but its talon refused to budge. When it looked down, it realized that webbing, my webbing that I managed to fire as I dug into Rampage's head, was sticking its foot on the ground. It opened its beak and petrified the web into stone strings before breaking it off. When it raised its head, it realized it had lost me.

It looked around for me, but could not find me. Frustrated, it struck the titan trees with its talons. After a few moments, it calmed down, and immediately closed the wounds on the bark using its dust breath. It looked around, and its eyes glowed a golden yellow. In its sight, the world turned black and white, and behind one of the trees, the outline of two cores, one in my head, and another in my stomach.

It slowly approached me, silent.

The shadowy man appeared next to me, panting, his arms missing, and his body translucent, fading away.

"A-Avarice, look..."

"I need your help."

"I know... but... I can't... Avarice." He looked at my eyes. I was concentrating, trying to listen for the hawk. "Look at me, this is important..." He said before sitting in front of me. "I learned something, to protect Avarice, the first Avarice, but when I do it..." He paused. "Just wait for me. Prioritize your life, and with all the power within you... *fucking run from any humans when you see them.* I will be back... Do you understand?"

"I understand."

He placed his forehead on mine, he smiled before flickering into nonexistence.

A strange energy entered through my head and into my core. I felt different.

I left my hiding spot, and as soon as I took a turn, I was already facing the Stone Hawk, surprised that I came to it.

An explosive rage burned in my insides, a hybrid of lightning and fire. I opened my mouth, and unleashed a malevolent flame, glowing pure crimson. Unstable, and corrupting, it launched itself to random directions from my mouth, zapping and burning the soil, shrubbery, and bark around me.

I pulled to aim the blood fire at the monster, leashing the searing hatred towards my front, and once again, I let go. A beam of materialized hell burned everything in front of me and headed towards the avian.

A golden light covered the avian, it clashed against the hellflame, but it was overpowered.

When everything subsided, my sight had become clear. The Stone Hawk stood, patches of feathers burned. It looked at me, but the hunger in its eyes was not there, realizing I was stronger than it thought. It extended its wings and disappeared into the air.

I was left alone, surrounded by the destruction of my power. I looked at the titan trees, they were burned too, but somehow they seemed resistant to it, with the wounds never going deep.

I thought that perhaps, when the shadowy man returned, I should ask him about it.

I felt something cold within me leave my body. I realized what had happened. I could no longer breathe. My lungs had degenerated, I had lost my fire breath.

I thought that perhaps, when the shadowy man returned, I should scold him for not telling me that I would lose my ability.

But for now, the Stone Hawk retreated north. I followed it, and I would make sure it would perish by my scythes.