Seed of the Sovereign

"Huff... Huff..." Luke panted while hiding behind a tree.

His clothes were ripped in various places, his body was bloody, littered with fresh wounds.

Exhaustion coated his face as he panted, his eyes roaming the forest vigilantly. His body was tensed and ready to move at a moment's notice.

After entering the forest, he had speedily moved through it, aiming to avoid the more dangerous aether beasts hidden in the depths of the forest. He faced a few weak awakened beasts but his strength shone brightly.

After awakening, he used his new understanding of his spear's essence to dispatched them quite easily.

He knew that he shouldn't be this strong. Most of the weaker beasts were at the initial stage of Germ—like he was, but the spear seed showed it's worth at this moment.

With his current understanding of the spear, he easily led his opponents by the nose.

His Phlego bloodline had also gone through a partial awakening in the ancestral hall trial; as a result, his body's strength rose sharply.

And so, his battle prowess sharpened with every fight as he got used to his new superhuman strength and ability.

But things didn't always go as planned.

A few hours after he entered the rainforest, he stumbled upon a powerful beast.

It approached him from the depths of the forest after been attracted by the blood of the weaker beasts.

It was a Rafulg. It wasn't too powerful compared to the deadlier beasts in the depths but the fact that it lived in the depths of the forest showed that it wasn't weak either.

From his new memories, he matched the beast's body structure to that of a polar bear, but that was where the similarities ended.

The polar bear-like beast was around 10 feet tall, with the body size to match. It had brown coloured aether crystals lining it's spine and it was much more ferocious.

The aether crystals on it's back stored aether that flowed through the beast's body increasing it's speed and strength.

But even worse, it's hide was aether empowered, raising it's defense to ridiculous levels.

Upon sight, the rafulg immediately attacked him. It was a peak Germ beast. He wasn't a match for it but drunk on his recent success and a thirst for adventure he charged at the beast.

But when they began fighting, it wasn't as easy as he had expected.

The hide of the beast was too damn hard.

He engaged it in battle for a while looking for an opening or a breakthrough but he eventually got exhausted so he decided to escape.

But the Rafulg wouldn't let it's prey escape so easily.

And so, a cat and mouse chase ensued between them, disturbing the dural forest.

"GROOO!!" The Rafulg bellowed behind Luke, he immediately jumped away from a branch, barely avoiding the destructive claw of the beast that tore of the upper part of the tree he stood on.

Their eyes locked.

"Is there a chance you can let me go?" Luke asked with a sincere smile.

The Rafulg roared in response.

Luke ran.

He dove under trees, using their trunks as cover, hoping to buy more time for his escape.

But the rafulg was relentless. It swung it's massive body tearing apart all the obstacles on it's way.

The sound of trunks snapping rang clearly behind Luke, urging him to move faster.

The presence of the rafulg drew closer little by little. He could feel it's hungry eyes on his back.

'i can't keep running,' Luke thought.

The rafulg was gaining ground and worse yet, he was already exhausted, having been on the move and fighting without rest for a few hours.

If he continued like this, he'd die before he was able to accomplish anything.

Luke's eyes grew cold. A blue flint flashed through his red eyes, multiple scenarios running through his mind as he calculated the best path to survival.

His eyes steeled as he came to a decision.

Since he couldn't escape, he'd play along.

A few minutes after this round of the chase began, Luke's speed began to reduce. He stumbled over roots and his eyes betrayed heavy exhaustion.

Seeing this, the rafulg's malevolent eyes shone and it increased its pursuit.

It covered ground faster, ecstatic about the success of this hunt.

But something weird happened. Luke had initially dodged the trees, using them as obstacles to slow the rafulg just a little bit more.

But this time, when the rafulg came close enough to swipe him with it's paw, he ran up the trunk of the next tree. Using the tree's top as a springboard, he leaped backward towards the aether beast, body twisting supernaturally.

Their eyes locked.

The fear that was previously in Luke's eyes vanished as his eyes shone a blinding gold, filled with calculating confidence.

His spear aimed for the eyes of the unsuspecting beast.

The eyes of the beast opened in shock and fear, as Luke's spear drew closer to it's eyes.

Luke face turned into a ridiculing smile seeing the fear of the beast that had chased him for so long. And then his spear pierced the beast.

"GROO!" The beast shouted in pain.

But the expression on Luke's face was only that of tired despair.

'Damn it' he thought.

At the last moment before the spear pierced it's eyes it had reflexively moved it's head, causing Luke's spear to only graze it's eyes and failing to pierce it.

The beast turned it's head towards Luke, it's remaining eye filled with vengeful malevolence.

And then it roared. "GROOOOO!"

Luke gritted his teeth.

He willed himself to stand up. His body failed him.

He had bet all his stamina on that strike, and it failed.

The massive head of the enrage beast closing on him snapped Luke back to attention.

The faces of his family flashed through his mind and he put everything he had into moving. Willing himself to move even just a bit.

Unfortunately, he still failed, the mouth of the beast closing on him.

The rainforest became deadly still.

In the clearing they had made from their battle the two opponents, a man and a beast remained still in a picturesque moment.

The fangs of the rafulg stayed a few inches from Luke's panting face, It's eyes frozen in dead disbelief.

Luke lay on the ground, his body still refusing to move but his hand held a golden spear with red tassels that pierced deep into the beast's eyes.

Luke looked with shock at the spear even as the body of the rafulg collapsed to his side making a loud noise.

"What just happened?"

He didn't understand. At that last moment when he willed his body to move and failed, he felt something in his consciousness and without thinking he applied his will to it as well, grasping for straws.

But suddenly, the next second he saw the vengeful rafulg impaled on the golden spear in his hands.

But he didn't understand how it got to him or how it transformed from a stick back to it's golden form.

He didn't even know where he dropped it in the heat of the chase but it suddenly appeared in his hands.

But before he had the chance to think through the matter, the forest proved it's deadliness once again.

Low growls came from beyond the trees.

Looking over, he saw bright blue eyes behind the shade of the trees.

Wolf-like creatures walked out of the forest surrounding the clearing.

His eyes opened wide in realization.

He had been stalked.

This wolves had likely followed them through their battle, waiting for both parties to wear each other out.

Now, the rafulg was dead and he was paralysed from exhaustion. It was a free meal for them.

Luke grit his teeth, unwilling to die here and in such a way.

But there was nothing he could do about it.

He couldn't move, that last spear strikes having taken him his all and the spear has transformed back into a stick in his hands.

He could only glare at the approaching wolves.

But his intimidation tactic didn't work, the wolves nonchalantly walked towards the middle of the clearing where his body lay beside the dead rafulg.

Then they immediately lunged to finish him.