Chapter 29

The forest grew thicker and darker the further Seraph Squad delves in. The creatures within got stranger too, birds as large as the trees they're perched on croak horrible sounds at them before Lavinia tears their guts out. There are more animals than demons here, much to her annoyance. Her blood-soaked strategies only lured the largest of animal predators and the occasional monster. Bears taste good, their meat is chewy and hard to pull apart even with her fangs. Lavinia relished the challenge it gave even after death and her teammates enjoyed the creature's flesh after a patient moment over a fire, she enjoyed it crunchy too.

Jonn scribbles away at the charts, mapping every new part of the forest they come across with a little drawing of whatever unfortunate animal or monster Lavinia got to slaughter. This section is marked by Dire Wolves. Their encounter with one was brief, it was the latest of a string of monsters falling for Lavinia's trap but it was a powerful one. It presented as much a challenge as the monsters she faced in the dungeon long ago and to an extent she felt the hunt was worth it. Besides the food its corpse would provide for the squad, it helped Lavinia burn away the growing frustrations she had with the entire mission and journey by putting up a good fight— she even got injured and in several places too.

Seraph let out a long, drawn out yawn as she stretches out her back, arms and legs. Snapping her neck side to side she sighs and looks about the forest for a moment before pointing over at a moderate clearing, "There. We should make camp there and keep up the search tomorrow, still a lot of forest to comb through."

She marches them over to the small patch of the thickened forest with a wide opening in its canopy. The further they journeyed into the forest, the darker it got and though each of them possessed a keen night vision, Seraph insists it's always better to have some light over where they lay their heads.

Lavinia growls dissatisfaction as Jonn and Seraph pull away their belongings and start setting up camp for the night. Without looking, Seraph says, "No point in that now, Lavinia, we're only two days in here and there's so much ground to cover before we find what we're looking for."

She tossed her knapsack onto the ground, kicking it into a roll as Lavinia's growls become more guttural, "Maybe you don't need to rest after a whole day of wild search but we do, so take first watch and wake us up when you're tired. If you see anything dangerous coming our way, kill it, okay?"

Jonn gives a thumbs up as he snuggles into his sack and threw his head under with Seraph following soon afterwards. Their valuables and Lavinia's knapsack sat in-between as they left her to guard duty tonight. Seraph took the first watch on the other nights, then handed over to Jonn and then Lavinia. But since Jonn was often too lethargic from heaving and charting all day, Lavinia often took up from his half-finished watch.

With a low grunt, Lavinia settles into a perimeter patrol around the camp. Seraph would twist around their camp and keep an eye out for braver animal predators like the Dire Wolves, bears and those large birds that watched over battles to scavenge. Lavinia adopts the same roundabout patrol technique, circling the outline of the light from the canopy but relying on her natural night vision to peer the veil of darkness that grew each day.

The hoots, chittering and cawing of the forest keeps her company as she patrols, staring into the thick mesh of black bark trees and red leaf bushes. It doesn't take long for her to feel idle in her work and so she expands the perimeter just enough so she can pick at the blue berries in the bushes. The fruits don't hold a candle to meat, to raw flesh or the Essence she craves more as the day went, but they have a sweet-sour tang that her idle mouth appreciated each revolution around the camp that brought her to them.

Lavinia smacked her lips in sweet satisfaction, one bush was almost finished as she thought to return to her revolutions. As she raises her head to the circular path her feet wore into the leaves and roots, she catches a set of glowing yellow peepers glaring at her through the thick of the forest. She stifles a gasp of surprise and the chilling instinct to run that crawls up her spine.

Standing completely still Lavinia searches the rest of the forest she can see for more but rounds down to the glare of yellow. Familiar with the colour and effect of those eyes Lavinia takes an easy breath and plucks one more berry— It blinks away, vanishing into the forest. She searches all around her this time, swivelling on point and marching the worn path of her revolutions. But she finds nothing until she makes a complete turn in her path— the yellow returns deeper in the thick of bushes with a clicking growl that silenced the forest of previously excited chittering's and hoots.

The eerie silence has her skin crawl with excitement; only a large, powerful predator could silence the forest with its presence alone. And seeing as it stalks her, she is certain it will be a demon this time.

Finally.

Essence flooded her thighs and legs as she paces the same few feet, watching as the hidden eyes latches onto her movements. She'd need to be fast in turning the tables on it; a quick burst a speed that will clear the distance between them before it chooses to vanish again. Lavinia spares a look at Seraph and Jonn fast asleep by the campfire— this counts as protecting them.

Resolved, Lavinia thrusts forward as she turns back to her stalkers eyes, catching them widen with surprise as she bounds through and over the bushes towards it. It blinks and vanishes, but this time Lavinia is on hot on its tail— unfortunately for it, it unwittingly smothered with the scent of berries.

A grin plasters itself on Lavinia as she tears through the forest at great speed, splashing through a cutting river after the stalking creature and growling all the way. She throws herself onto the trees, swivelling through their branches with hops, vaults and straight walking and swinging from branch to vine after the nervous stalker.

With her vantage and the shine of a river reflecting what little light the skies provides, her stalkers identity is quickly known to her. An orange tailed, brown furry beast with the same round face and knuckle running as the curly-tailed demons she fought. 

{T-2/L-2— Kimpe}

Lavinia let a groan at the result of her {Inspect} and continued stalking the creature; now it looked for her. She refrained from setting upon it for its specie name alone. Belongs to Corym, right? There were the Kimpe, Caldri and Trirax within Corym and all were meant to be off limits to her devouring hunger. But…this isn't Corym, I can eat that!

Reminding herself where she is her grin grows even larger as she stares down the very tree the Kimpe hugged for safety. She let herself fall, flip and land in front of the creature. It yelps, filling the forest with cries of panic but its too late, Lavinia lurches at its neck, sinking her fangs deep into its neck and draining it of the panic filled blood— the secret sauce to any hunted meal; fear.

The Kimpe fell into her arms, weak from being drained so completely, but it fights back anyway. Essence surges from within it, funnelling into its eyes but Lavinia can't be bothered waiting for its effects and punches her arm through its chest.

Its crystal lights up the blood soaking around it in Lavinia's palm, she let the dead Kimpe drop at her feet and without a second thought absorbs its crystal for all its worth.

8 ESQ Absorbed! 10 Essence Points Absorbed! 

Crystal Essence Level 8—>10! 

Crystal Essence Ascended— Crimson Tier! 

Vampiric Class Activated! Vampiric…

"Aahhh!!"

A shrill scream brings Lavinia's ascension to a halt. She snaps her attention towards the scream and immediately curses at how far the weak demon had brought her away from the camp. Leaving the details of her new abilities for later she delves into the significantly larger pool of Essence she now has access to, "Crimson Blink!"