Survival

Very rarely a parasite will be born with a title, in this case, the fiend in front of them carried the title "Thunderous Mountain Keeper". Killing these rare parasites often grant an absurd amount of life essence, and though it differs for each beast, it has always been a generous amount.

Staring directly at Nazurak and his companions the thunderous fiend did not break eye contact. Fortunately, it already had both its legs full and didn't care too much for the small humans.

Easily sinking its talons further into its prey, the fiend Let out a blood-curdling screech then shifted its gaze upwards taking off into the sky, creating a powerful gust of wind in all directions underneath it.

"That was a fiend...I think this is our time to leave" Nazurak said out loud.

"Ughh...My ears" Sora groaned picking herself up.

Dylan was lost in thought 'just how large is the power difference in their ranks?'

Moving out the team made their way down the cliff side. Along the way, they found many small parasites ranging from the size of a squirrel to a boar. It seems after the big fight was over, the parasites of the forest came out from hiding and the natural noise returned as if it was never gone.

After verifying these beasts were in the harmless rank, they attempted to hunt them. First, they started small and tried to hunt an animal that looked similar to a rabbit. Except its fur was orange and its tail was long and flat with a diamond shape pattern on it.

The sun was still out and shining brightly above them, its light passing through the leaves of the tall trees with grace. They didn't know how long the days and nights were, but it was a matter of time till they would find out.

Sneaking up on their prey, the orange rabbit was peacefully eating grass and going about its life.

"Heeyaaaaa!" Dylan screamed jumping out of a bush with his hands out.

Letting out a sigh Sora looked at Dylan with disappointment "For the last time Dylan, stop screaming when you lunge out at your prey!" Sora exclaimed

"I can't! I can't! It gives me power... It gives me... Meaning" he replied in a low voice at the end looking off into the distance as the rabbit hopped away.

Nazurak casually shook his head holding two rabbits in his hands. They weren't his catch, instead, Sora was the one who hunted them with pebbles, she just asked him to hold onto them so she can hunt more.

Despite encountering a fiend parasite the group decided to keep their heads high and not let that shake them up.

"You have to be quiet and strike them before they notice you. Unless you're fighting something that fights back, then your barbaric hunting strategy may work." Sora said lecturing.

Seeing a boar-like parasite cross his line of sight in the distance he smirked.

"The hunt continues" He whispered, trying to take Sora's advice by staying quiet and out of sight.

Letting Dylan do his thing, Nazurak and Sora began talking about what they should do next. First they talked about gathering more food, but more food means they'd have to carry more. Which lead them to their next discussion, finding a temporary camp. This would solve where they were going to sleep, where they'll store their food, and where they would rendezvous if they ever happen to split up for any reason.

After agreeing on finding a temporary camp, they looked around to find Dylan, but he couldn't be located in the area.

Remembering Dylan went on a little boar hunt not too long ago, Sora looked in the direction she last saw him.

"Oh man, I hope he didn't go too fa-"

Cut off from her, a shout was heard in the distance.

"Heeyaaaaa!"

Hearing this they didn't know if he was fighting for his life or if he was doing his hunting shout from before. Regardless they both ran in the direction of the roar.

Coming to a stop they spotted Dylan, his clothes were dirty and his left nose was bleeding. He was fine, but a bit ruffled up.

Dylan held in both his hands two medium size boars.

"Not bad huh?" He said proudly with a smug face.

Impressed, Nazurak walked to him.

"Dude nice! Looks like they got you good. Aren't these in the harmless rank?" He questioned.

Putting the boars down he whipped the blood off his nose.

"They are, but they still pack a punch. In the end, my trait gave me the winning edge so they were no match. What's cool is when I killed them the life essence traveled into me. I feel stronger, though slightly."

After telling Dylan what they had planned the group walked further down the cliff the group finally reached ground level, though it didn't seem like much changed because the trees were still surrounding them, they certainly weren't walking at an angle anymore.

Carrying one boar on his shoulder and dragging the other one, Dylan kept looking at his surroundings.

"So what exactly are we looking for to find the camp?" Dylan curiously asked.

Looking up Nazurak thought about it.

"I'm not sure honestly, whatever can cover us from the rain or hides us from parasites. Something like that." He replied.

The sun that brightly shined above them was finally starting to set, though slowly. Its light entered the forest at an angle rather than directly above. It was warm and beautiful, yet eerie and terrifying. The group didn't know what to expect when the sun went down, they also were unsure where they'd be staying the night.

Realizing this, Nazurak became uneasy.

"Say guys, if we can't find shelter do you think a fire alone would keep parasites away or draw them in?" He said keeping his eyes forward.

Sora gave him a quick look, unsure herself. She knew from the back of her head that they potentially would have to sleep somewhere unprotected, however it was only now that it had dawned on her.

"I'm not sure...we know nothing of this planet, and I don't want to find out what type of frightening parasites are lurking in the shadows." she said dispiritedly.

The group continued to move through the forest while discussing camp, eventually they concluded that they'll have to sleep without fire tonight. It wasn't worth risking their lives lighting a campfire in the middle of a forest they have no details on.

As the sun began to set, the ambiance of the forest changed. New creatures were heard, and the soft wind was replaced with a chill breeze. Shadows of the trees and leaves stretched until the sun fell below the horizon. It was now night.

Luckily for the group, they found three large trees that were fairly close to each other. It was barely enough to make them feel protected, they were still wide open. But it was the best they were going to get with the time they had.

Quickly agreeing this place will do, they placed their catch next to one of the trees and sat down.

With no fire, the group's vision was little to none, the only source of light they had was from the natural glow of the moonlight, even that was minimal. Cold and hungry they remained silent, afraid to draw in attention from the unknown.

'let's just hope no one snores...' Nazurak thought before dazing off into his sleep.

Soon they all dozed off. Occasionally they would be awakened by the sounds of distance fighting, unable to fall back asleep during the horrors of those noises, they had to stay awake listening to it until it stopped.

Time passed and the group was once again sleeping, they had lost count of how many times they have been abruptly snapped out of their rest. Nazurak was still awake, he was a light sleeper and had been brought back from his nap many times from branches snapping and leaves rustling nearby. Only this time it was much closer.

His heart pounded rushing blood throughout his body, he wanted to alert the others but didn't want to even move considering how close it was.

Frantically trying to think about what to do, he remembered the scanner screen had a night vision mode.

'The scanner, it has night vision!'

Trying to move silently, Nazurak wanted to test his theory. He pulled the monocular out from his pocket and raised it to eye level. Pointing it directly in front of him and switching it to night vision, he saw nothing. His heart began to beat faster as he slowly scanned left and right.

To his surprise nothing was there, was he just imagining things?

Gaining a bit more confidence he turned his torso to scan behind him but saw nothing other than solid green on the viewfinder. That's when something appeared on the screen making his skin crawl.

Text appeared on the screen.

[Calculating...]

The scanner started to adjust and he saw the details of the grass behind the tree... But the tree that he was leaning on wasn't in that direction, so what was currently in front of him? That's when it clicked in his head. Raising the scanner higher his eyes began to widen.

'Oh...fu-'