Shocking Abnormality

The night had cloaked the savannah in an eerie stillness, broken only by the occasional rustle of the dry grass and the distant cries of nocturnal creatures.

Lakan, Dob, and Toun lay on the ground, panting heavily, their bodies trembling from the aftereffects of the creature's devastating sound wave attack.

The lingering ringing in their ears was a constant reminder of how close they had come to death.

They exchanged glances, the relief in their eyes tempered by a shared sense of dread.

Dob was the first to speak, his voice shaking as he struggled to sit up. "We're... we're still alive?" He touched his ears gingerly, wincing at the persistent ring.

Toun nodded, his face pale under the moonlight. "I thought that was it for us. But why did it stop?"

Lakan, though exhausted, maintained his stern demeanor. He rose to his feet with a groan, scanning the horizon with narrowed eyes. "It has found a new target," he said, his voice steady despite the chaos they had just survived.

Dob's eyes widened. "You don't mean—"

"Lafran," Lakan confirmed, his jaw set. "We must hurry."

Driven by an obvious reason why the creature left and ignored their existence, they followed the trail left by the creature, the hoof prints of a goat leading them deeper into the savannah.

Each step was accompanied by the pounding of their hearts, a fear of seeing something they don't want to imagine were driving them nuts but forward.

The silence of the night seemed to amplify the sound of their own breathing.

As they reached a small hill, the scene that unfolded before them was beyond their comprehension.

In the clearing below, bathed in the cold light of the moon, Lakan's son, Lafran, was confronting the creature. It was a towering monstrosity, its form shifting and undulating in the moonlight, a grotesque amalgamation of shadows and sinew. But what truly left them breathless was how effortlessly Lafran evaded the creature's attacks.

He moved with a grace and speed that seemed almost supernatural, his body a blur as he dodged the creature's lethal blows.

Dob's mouth hung open in shock. "How... how is he doing that?"

Toun shook his head, equally bewildered. "That creature nearly killed us! And he's... he's toying with it!"

Lakan watched his son with a mixture of pride and confusion. "I don't know," he admitted, his voice softening for the first time. "Ever since Lafran saw what happened to our tribesmen during the Adolescence Ceremony, he has trained tirelessly. But this... this is beyond anything I've seen."

"Trained?" Dob echoed, disbelief etched on his face. "What did you feed that boy? How did he become... that?"

Lakan shook his head slowly. "I don't know. He has always been different, always driven. But this is..."

"Look!"

Toun interrupted, pointing with a trembling hand.

The creature, enraged by its inability to land a hit, unleashed an attack of pure eldritch energy, a dark, pulsating beam like sound that seemed to warp the very fabric of reality as it hurtled toward Lafran.

"Eldritch Esoteric Talent!" The three of them gasped in horror.

For a moment, time seemed to slow.

The beam crackled through the air, its malevolent energy sending shivers down their spines. But Lafran did not falter.

With a fluid motion, he sidestepped the attack, the beam missing him by a hair's breadth and almost scorching the ground where he had stood in their head.

Dob and Toun made another gasp in unison, their reactions exaggerated by the sheer disbelief of what they were witnessing. "Did you see that?" Toun exclaimed, his voice a mixture of awe and fear. "He... he evaded it like it was nothing!"

Lakan's eyes never left his son, a sense of awe creeping into his stern expression. "Yes, I saw."

Dob turned to Lakan, his face a mask of incredulity. "Who is this kid? What did you do to him?"

Lakan sighed, his eyes still fixed on the battlefield. "I did nothing. Lafran has always been determined, always driven to protect our tribe. After that night, he vowed to never let something like that happen again. He has trained every day since."

Toun shook his head in disbelief. "But this... this is beyond training. This is..."

Lafran, still evading the creature with ease, suddenly counterattacked. His movements were a blur, a flurry of strikes that seemed to land with pinpoint accuracy.

The creature howled in pain, its form flickering and destabilizing under Lafran's relentless assault.

Dob's voice was barely a whisper. "What is he?"

Lakan's response was equally quiet, filled with a pride that he could not conceal. "He is my son."

For a moment, they stood in stunned silence, their previous mission forgotten in the face of Lafran's prowess.

They had come to protect him, to save him from the creature that had nearly killed them. But as they watched him dance around the beast, effortlessly avoiding its attacks and striking with precision, they realized how misplaced their fears had been.

Like David and Goliath, Lafran was too small but he easily made quick work of the beast.

Toun finally broke the silence, his voice filled with a newfound respect. "Looks like he doesn't need our protection."

Lakan nodded, a rare smile touching his lips. "No, it seems he does not."

As they continued to watch, the creature, sensing its impending defeat, let out a final, desperate roar.

Lafran met the challenge head-on, his movements a blur as he launched his final attack. He drove the creature to the ground, standing over it with his knife poised to deliver the killing blow. But just as he was about to strike, Lakan's eyes widened with sudden realization.

"Lafran, stop!" Lakan shouted, his voice carrying across the clearing.

…

Lafran's grip on the knife tightened, his knuckles white with rage.

The creature beneath him, a monstrous amalgamation of shadows and sinew, lay panting heavily. Its eyes, glowing with a mix of fear and defiance, met him with an intensity that only fueled his anger.

This creature had attacked him, and had killed Corora for its competition. It was a threat that needed to be eliminated in order to satisfy his hunger for vengeance.

His breath came in harsh, ragged gasps as he prepared to drive the blade home.

The world around him seemed to fade, his focus narrowed to the point of the knife and the creature's heaving form. But then, cutting through the haze of his fury, came a familiar sound—a voice calling his name.

"Lafran, stop!"

He froze, the blade hovering inches from the creature's head.

Turning his head, he saw his father, Lakan, rushing toward him. Confusion and frustration mingled in Lafran's eyes as he looked back at the creature, then up at his father.

"Why shouldn't I?" he demanded, his voice harsh. "This thing tried to kill me and killed my Corora!"

Lakan didn't answer immediately. Instead, he kept moving, closing the distance between them with urgent strides.

When he reached Lafran, he grabbed his son's shoulder firmly, his eyes boring into Lafran's with a seriousness that took the younger man aback.

"Are you a tamer?" Lakan asked, his voice low and intense.

Lafran blinked, confusion clear on his face. "Tamer?"

Lakan nodded, his grip tightening. "Yes, a tamer. Once, a tamer tamed a beast, but if the beast upgraded or ranked up to a threshold beyond the tamer's capability, it would transform into an Eldritch creature. Its first job then was to kill its tamer to escape the binding."

Understanding began to dawn in Lafran's eyes. He glanced back at the creature, then back to his father. "You mean this creature is possibly Corora?"

Lakan nodded solemnly. "Yes, Lafran. This is probably Corora."

Lafran's anger gave way to shock, his grip on the knife loosening slightly. He looked down at the creature, seeing it now not just as a monster, but as something that had once been bound to him. Something he had once tamed.

"But if that's true," Lafran said, his voice softer now, "why can't I just kill it?"

Lakan's expression grew even more serious. "A tamer cannot kill their beast, even in this state. If you do, you won't be able to tame any more beasts. The connection must be removed first."

"What?" Lafran asked, a note of desperation in his voice.

"We need to inform the shamans," Lakan explained. "Once one of the shamans removes the taming connection, only then can we kill it."