The forest was unusually quiet tonight. And strangely enough, the darkness seemed to be looming over everything; it permeated itself into anything within its sights, turning them into something… darker.
The pervading darkness can obstruct one's ability to see, this is a very well known fact, however, it can certainly do more than that. No, this darkness can do much, much, more than that; it can invade one's mind…
It's like a venom, it latches onto your very thoughts, corrupting them with never-ending hunger for….
But tonight is a special night; it's today that Ran had escaped his oppressors, it's today that he met a new friend, and it's today he would reunite with his other friends and family.
And on the forest floor, just in front of Ran, laid what appeared to be a black shadow in a pool of blood. The pool was big, big enough to surround the also big shadow as it dyed all the grass red.
Now according to logic and the information we know, we can definitely come to the conclusion that this one shadow was indeed Fluffy.
Now, what if I told you it wasn't Fluffy? How would you feel? Would you… get angry at me? Would you… comment on how s**tty of an author I am? Or would you… contemplate on why I'm even typing this in the first place?
…
Nah! Y'all are just tripping! Of course it was Fluffy! Who else would it be!?
Except something was… off.
She was laying in a pool of her own blood, barely able to breathe. Not only that, gashes were present all over her body; bundles of her luscious black fur floated on the surface of blood as small chunks of her flesh stood out like mountains of pain and agony.
Yet, it only got worse off from there.
Currently, Fluffy (the Almighty) was under someone's boot as they repeatedly kicked where her ribcage is supposed to be. The kicks were extremely violent with the intent… not to kill. Not yet anyway.
Yet, despite all that, Fluffy seemed perfectly fine. And by that I mean her face… her eyes. They radiated with life. Although she was a cat, her current facial expressions were more than enough to convince anyone of the stubbornness (to live) she had accumulated over her short-lived life.
Although she was no more than a year old, the trials she had been through are no less than some of our other characters.
"You f**king mutt! How dare you waltz in here and kill my men! Do you seek death!?"
Snap. He kicked one of her legs and snapped its bone in half.
Unfortunately for him, Fluffy seemed unconcerned by his viciousness. On the contrary, the white-pink scar on her head started glowing with more and more brilliance!
This seemed to correspond with the distance with the distance between Ran and Fluffy.
And when Ran exited the Crypt and saw this scene, he completely ignored the bodies on the ground as he felt two things at once.
One, of course, was rage. Unfettered and uncontrollable. This was what his current emotions predominantly consisted of. This type of rage was different from the others. It was a very familiar kind of rage to Ran.
Vindictive. That was it. That was the best way to describe it; it's the kind of rage that stopped at nothing to achieve the satisfaction it needed to die down.
The second was pain. Sorrow. Actually, no, it was definitely pain. It was like when he saw what happened to Fluffy, it had instead happened to himself… only worse. It was like he was Fluffy for that brief moment and felt everything she felt.
While pain itself is more of a physical reaction than it is an emotion, one's interpretation of said pain can be considered an emotion in my book.
Except the pain only caused the rage to fester faster and stronger, like a rabid dog - biting everything it could sink its teeth into as its brain quickly turns to mush.
Oh how he wanted to RIP that man into shreds before healing him and turning him into shreds once more.
THE PAIN! OH THE PAIN! It burst forth as the pain multiplied whenever he laid eyes on Fluffys condition; it was the fuel the rage needed and everything happened so fast.
So fast in fact, it exploded from his body outwards in waves; it took the form of his soul power.
And his soul power had the strength of rank-7! In other words, in that moment of intense vindictiveness, Ran had successfully elevated a rank - rank-7!
Of course, there's a reason for this… there's always a reason. For this, the answer was quite simple. He was already supposed to rank-up two weeks from the start of the horde.
It had been about a week since then, so he still had a week to level up. However, that was according to Ran. And he failed to consider one thing. That was the horde itself.
After all, while using stronger cores is a way to rank-up fairly quickly, the true way on the path to strength is to fight! The more you use your juice, the more you challenge yourself, the quicker you're going to get stronger.
And what better way to fight than to fight while being on the brink of death!? At least… that's the most cliche way of becoming stronger.
Nevertheless, even without the trigger of Rans anger, he would have elevated within a day or two.
But this is where it gets interesting.
Simultaneously, while Ran had begun to level up, the glow radiating from Fluffys head continued increasing in luminosity. Eventually, though it happened pretty much instantly, it grew bright enough where people had to cover their eyes.
The light covered her body as she roared loudly, the roar echoed throughout the forest; it rustled up entire trees and it ended up breaking the silence the darkness had introduced.
Even the darkness itself was shunned as the light scattered throughout the area.
When the light receded back into Fluffys scar, the blood and her injuries had completely disappeared.
Waves spread out from her body, showing the elevation of her rank. The black waves had a pinkish-blue sheen on it, similar to Rans only his was completely made up of that color(s).
Eh!? Both Ran and Fluffy elevated to rank-7 at the same time!? Strange… strange indeed.
Welp, that's another mystery. But don't worry readers, I finally have a list!
However, it had to be said that Fluffy had been at the peak of rank-8 for a while now, so it's sort of understandable for her to level up after being beaten half to death.
Well, I don't know, I can still smell some bulls**t, but they got to get stronger somehow. Might as well spice it up a bit while I'm at it, right?
Anyways, the man, who was the boss from previously, couldn't care less if she ranked-up. He was a rank-5 boss! Why would he be afraid of a stinky rank-7 "pussycat"!?
He was about to slap this mangy mutt in front of him for disrespecting his authority when his hand was caught by something.
When he saw what was preventing him from venting his anger, a batch of warm liquid wetted his pants.
"Y-YOU, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE-" he was going to continue when he suddenly saw his arm be twisted off like the arm of a doll; it just popped right off.
"Argh!" He yelled out as he stumbled on the dirt ground, trying to crawl away immediately.
Well, his reaction was quite normal considering the situation he was now in.
It wasn't because he lost his arm, but rather, it was the person holding his arm that scared him to peeing himself.
Pridicus! He had come to Fluffy's rescue!
His thick lion hand held the boss' arm as he walked calmly to the boss. Then, with a little strength, he swung the detached arm.
Smack! A red hand mark appeared on the boss' face as his head swelled up.
Pridicus then silently grabbed his previously bloodied leg and ripped that off too!
And of course, what do you do with a spare leg? You shove it down someone's throat, that's what!
And that's what he did.
"That's for calling this BEAUTIFUL lady a mutt!"
Can't forget to put the awesome and slightly romantic line in.
Both Ran and Fluffy were speechless as they watched the boss suffocate on his own dirty boot until he died of suffocation.
When Brother Pride turned around and revealed his full figure to Fluffy, she jumped back instantly.
It was powerful!
His figure. His figure was powerful and his aura emanated strength; well, he did just kill a rank-5 fighter, so of course he was strong.
While it might have seemed easy, it was no easy task. Even now, her claws nor soul power can do what Pridicus just did. That and the guy was a wuss, so he made it look easier since he didn't even try to fight.
She observed him silently, and occasionally, she would look over to the fully dressed Ran, who had reclaimed all of his possessions in a storage room which he had looted completely.
It was almost like she was deciding who was better! After all, one had almost killed her by making her come all the way to the middle of nowhere to save his puny *ss, while the other had saved her!
She wondered if he would accept the almighty Fluffy into his "pride".
Oh poor Fluffy. You don't understand, do you? You're not going anywhere! As Rans pillow, how can you escape!? Pillows don't have legs!
…
After they reunited with each other, Ran and the rest decided to just walk all the way back to the Hair Comb (can't believe I actually called it that).
They walked for several hours in the dark, sometimes strays would cross paths with them looking for food, though they were taken care of by Brother Pride.
By the time they got to the gates, the coming of day was oh so close, yet it never seemed to come.
Well, I have another scene coming up, so I need to keep the solemn mood somehow!
After discussing amongst themselves, they agreed to meet in the morning on what to do next and Ran even suggested staying in the Silver Wire Inn.
Once they separated, Ran and Fluffy returned to their dorm. And as they walked, Ran grew more and more nervous as he got closer and closer to his dorm. Goosebumps were making his hair stand on end and it felt like his soul heart, which he had reconstituted, fell to the pit of his stomach. It was not a pleasant feeling to say the least.
It was almost like he was walking straight into the jaws of death… only worse.
You know, death is a simple matter. If you're gone, then you're gone and you don't have to worry about anything anymore. But only when you're truly, truly, alone can despair hold you in its torturous clutches forever….
Even death doesn't want to be alone, after all, in death comes new life.
But if death was by itself, it would rather end it all and kill itself, leaving behind… nothing.
However, only in despair, true despair, despair of loneliness, can one reveal their innermost self.
And right now… someone was alone.
"Phew." He clutched his chest as he looked at the door in front of him; it was hard to even take a step.
It was like he was having the worst case of heart palpitations ever. It was like his soul heart had decided that coming out through the mouth was too easy and It would instead burst out through his chest!
Now, of course, it was established that his soul heart would react to his emotions, but that is also a simple matter really. After all, soul juice comes from the soul… actually that's wrong. It's an extension of the soul. So naturally, something like this is only to be expected.
And if one looked closely at his chest, one would be able to discern that a soft light was emitting itself in the shape of a heart outwards, though it only showed up as a red heart when it passed through the skin.
He exhaled as he released his shaky hands and knocked on the door.
He didn't know why he was so anxious about seeing her again, however, he just had to. Fluffy being by his side created no comfort either even though she also felt that something was off.
It was silent for a minute before, suddenly, the door slowly creaked open eerily….