Ran was engaged in the history; though he had just puked all over the place a few seconds ago, he already forgot that this isn't a good story but a tragic one.
"Alright, where was I? Right; after the guard witnessed the atrocity, he ran away and notified both tribes."
"Of course, they didn't believe him, so he hid away in his house for the night. Come morning, he would be missing too. It was only until the morning did everyone find out about the disappearance of the leader. They remembered the terrible story the guard had told them yesterday, and only then did they confront it."
"Alas, it was far too late."
"Why," asked Ran. He was the only one participating, but he wouldn't get a trophy for it.
"Simple. After consuming his father, it broke through to rank-5 on the spot. You have to understand; the two races were allies because they were both weak to begin with. There were no more than a few rank-5 in total who could potentially stand up to it. Yet, not even they were a match for it."
"At the time, it was the same as us, but it ruled with an iron… scaley fist. It would only take a few years, but afterwards, the state of the two tribes were horrendous. Especially for the human side."
"It would have as many offspring as possible and at the same time, feast upon its own family's flesh. We don't know why, but it grew an voracious appetite, an addiction you could say, for human flesh. The only thing anyone could have thought of at the time was that after it ate its father, it grew jealous that it couldn't eat its mother as well. Thus, it filled that void with the flesh of its mothers species."
"Worse yet, its offspring ended up the same way. They even shared the same… preferences."
It was here that Bob took a pause. He, himself, didn't know whether it was to catch his breath or to prepare himself for more tragedy. He looked at everyone and once he saw their attention on him he continued. There was no reason to speak of such things if no one was listening.
"All the offspring and the original were so blatant in their ways, that both tribes were easily able to catch on. So, the remaining elders of the human tribe decided to take their people and run; and it was going well too."
He took another breath before continuing:
"It was going too well. The Emerald tribe ended up finding out and in a bid to save their own people from the offsprings' stomachs, they sided with the monsters and captured many of our people. Several thousand."
"Though it was only about a quarter of our population at the time, it had hurt them so much to leave them behind. But they had to, otherwise their sacrifices would be in vain and everyone would end up dead and eaten."
"And that leads us up to today. The rest escaped while the offspring would chase after us to satiate their desires, though they would occasionally dabble into other wells."
Bob let out a breath this time, his face had already turned dark and gloomy. He didn't like talking about it, about anything close to it, but he wanted to this time. If it was them, he would want them to know his family's story. His story.
"Phew, that's it? That was intense." Ran still had a pale face and he was currently sweating, even though the fog froze it after a few seconds.
"No, that's not all. We're not done yet."
He took one last breath.
"I saved the worst for last." He smiled a weak and defeated smile as he uttered the sentence.
"We still have to talk about the how."
"The how?"
"Yup. The origin of how it was able to do all of this terror and how his offspring are still able to terrorize us today."
"You know he was able to use his soul in some form since the beginning, but that itself would not explain how it was able to be invincible not only within its own rank, but possibly even the one above it."
"You know that he also has a paralytic attributed soul, correct?"
"Yes."
"What you don't know is that it is actually dual attributed."
"What? Really?" Ran was then brought back to how Brother Pride had mistaken his dual-colored soul juice for dual attributes. Then again, maybe he does?
"Really. Not only that, it is an extremely rare attribute that is overly powerful and is a terror to all those who experience it."
"Its second attribute is… greed."
"Greed?" Ran was confused, so he scratched his head. How could it be an attribute, or an affinity as well?
"Oops sorry. Sometimes I mix the two since they could be used interchangeably depending on the context."
"What I meant to say was that its second attribute was gluttony."
Hearing the word "gluttony", his body began shivering uncontrollably as he almost hurled; his mind was flooded with memories once again.
This time, he was brought back to when he met Granny, the Coelacanth, for the first time. He could still vividly see and feel the fear in her eyes as she looked at him. She was astonished by his existence and claimed that he was most likely a menace to everyone around him—she almost killed him for it.
Only after she discovered that whatever gluttony (though she mistakenly used the word greed; it's definitely not the fault of the author) he was supposed to have as part carp wasn't there did she start treating him quite kindly.
"But that's not where it ends. This gluttony, that they all had, was a bit special. Unlike normal gluttony, which feasted upon the material, usually flesh, this one fed on one thing. Them liking the meat of their own kind was merely a bonus."
"Do you know what it is?" Bob looked at them silently as he waited for their answer. Actually, you could saying he was priming them; making them anticipate an answer they wouldn't expect to add shock value. Yeah, it's not like I'm the one doing it, it's all Bobs doing.
In the end, however, none of them could come up with an answer; if not flesh then what, rocks?
Bob could only sigh.
"What they feasted on was…"
"Was…" Ran repeated, anxious Bob wouldn't complete the sentence.
"Was… the mind."
"The mind?" Ran thought for a second before voicing out, "do you mean consciousness?"
"Mhm. Yup, they eat people's minds, that's what makes them so powerful."
With the confirmation from Bob, Ran was sent reeling, and only then did he truly understand what Granny meant. If those who are attributed to gluttony can do all this, then it's no wonder she thought what she did.
But he still didn't quite understand, "how does that make them stronger though?"
"It's quite simple really. Basically, what makes an attack… an attack?"
"The juice?"
"Wrong. Soul juice itself is only the medium. The real attack comes from the will that is incorporated into the soul juice. Do you get it now?"
"Aha, I see. So you're saying that when they attack others, they are able to consume the will within an attack and render it without an owner."
"Right and once it's ownerless, it begins to disperse; this is another reason for they're strength. With ownerless juice and their gluttonous nature, they are able to eat the juice at and even above their level. This is basically the same as using the juice within a core, so they're all at least rank-5 and many… many are above that."
Bob once again turned silent.
"So then, how do we beat them?"
He turned towards Ran, then shook his head with his lips pursed.
"There's really only two ways to beat them. The first one, if you want a really good chance, is to be two ranks higher than them."
"The other is even simpler. If you're at the same rank, the only chance you're going to have is to overwhelm them with so much juice, usually all of it, that they won't have enough time to consume everything before you destroy them."
"So… all or nothing then?"
Bob nodded, but said nothing.
After a minute of complete silence, he spoke up again:
"But… it's never enough. Usually, two or three of the same rank need to team up to get one of them."
"Then, once they've run out of energy, they're gone. And sooner or later, we'll run out of those who can protect the weak, the women, and the children."
He took a moment before sighing, patting his clothes, and getting up from his spot.
At that time, Ran stood up too.
"Don't worry Bob, I won't let that happen; you can count on it." Ran had conviction written all over his face and one of his hands was clenched into a tight fist.
They both looked into each other's eyes before the both of them smiled a little.
"I know I just… need some time. All my life I've seen everyone around me get captured, killed, and eaten. I have too many memories and talking about it brings them back. I just need to take a break."
"Guys, I'll turn in first." He smiled a little again before turning around. He then put on his hood and walked back to his room.
Clearly, talking about this subject had taken a toll on Bobuul.
Yet, it was just as freeing as it was burdening.
This… this was his story.
…
But come morning, they would all receive a surprise.