[Calculating...]
Before Nazurak got a chance to read the ranking he realized that directly in front of him stood a parasite. Feeling something rapidly wrap around his right leg he couldn't stay quiet anymore.
"Guys! A parasite is-"
Too quickly for him to react, the unknown parasite yanked his leg shifting Nazurak's whole body. Seeing this Dylan shot up and dashed to the location of his scream.
"Nazurak!" Dylan yelled.
Unfortunately he was not fast enough, with ease, the parasite lifted his prey and swung Nazurak around in the air releasing him towards a tree.
"Augh!"
The tree didn't break, but it was more than enough to knock the air out of his lungs. After making impact he then fell to the grass groaning while gripping the ground.
Dylan could vaguely see the silhouette of the creature but that didn't stop him from charging in. Dashing to the location of the noise with his shoulder facing forward, he collided with the parasite making both of them fall over.
Getting back up as quickly as he could, he shift his weight to his arm and curled his fingers into a fist. However before the punch landed, something wrapped around his chest and flung him to the side making him tumble a few feet.
Sora didn't know what to do, her trait only worked on things she could see. That's when she heard Nazurak shouting.
"The scanners! Use the scanners!" He called out.
Catching onto what Nazurak was saying, she pulled out her monocular and brought it to eye level. What she saw made her shiver. Standing a distance away from her was a beast that stood on two legs and had no arms. Its head and torso were deformed with many protruding tendrils that flailed in the air.
Bringing herself back together she focused. The feeling of deadeye flowed through her body as she stared at the parasite through the scanner.
Walking closer to Dylan who had just recovered from the throw, the beast's tendrils extended reaching out to him. However before it could, a rock crashed into the side of its head, then another, and another.
"Over here ugly!" Sora taunted, trying to hide the fear in her voice.
The beast turned to her and another rock slammed straight into its face, causing it to stumble.
Taking this opportunity to attack, Dylan lunged forward tackling it down to the ground. This time he didn't bother winding up an attack. He wanted to do damage before the tendrils wrapped around him.
Throwing a quick jab quickly turned into a barrage of light attacks. The parasite tried to wrap its tendrils around him but he was getting stronger with each hit due to his trait, which gave him the strength to pull them off.
The beast did not give up. Countless tendrils seem to spawn from its body shooting into the ground to push itself back up on its feet.
Startled by the abrupt change in its behavior, Dylan tried jumping back but there were too many. The tendrils circled around his neck lifting him off the ground.
Away from the fight, Nazurak regained himself and looked at the situation. Dylan was being lifted several feet in the air by the neck, he didn't know for how long, but he was still struggling to break away. Sora was still desperately throwing rocks at the beast but it stood there indifferent to the rocks.
He had to think of something and it had to be done now. Looking at the ground around him, he picked up a stick that had a pointed tip. It wasn't sharp at all but still had the potential to pierce. He grabbed it and then closed his eyes to focus on his life essence.
[Life essence 5/100]
'It's not much but...'
Circling life essence inside his body, then to his hand, he began to transfer. The stick acted like a sponge, soaking up every bit of essence he gave it, and he gave it all.
Still holding onto the stick, he made sure the life essence transferred.
[Harmless Stick 5/10]
After depleting all his essence, Nazurak felt extremely lightheaded and weak, finding it hard to stand. Still, he got up and hurried over to Dylan tripping a few times but regaining his balance.
"Dylan use this!" He said tossing the stick to him.
Nazurak had no idea if this would help, but with the harmless stick being halfway to full, it was 50% closer to being as strong as the next tier up, which was hostile.
He experimented with his trait back at the farm and found out that all things from nature or inanimate objects have a cap of 10 life essence that can be poured into it.
Dylan didn't know why Nazurak was tossing him a stick, but what other weapons did they have laying around?
He extended his arms and caught the stick then wasted no time jabbing its pointed end into the head of the parasite. With his extra strength gained from conditioning and the stick enchanted with life essence, there was no resistance to stop the piercing blow.
The beast flinched and its tendrils slightly loosened up from Dylan's neck. But to his surprise, it still had enough strength to fight. Spinning him around as it did with Nazurak, Dylan was thrown towards Sora. He bounced and rolled on the grass until coming to a stop.
"Dylan!" Sora yelled as she ran to him.
The parasite was losing blood quickly, Dylan held onto the stick before he was thrown leaving nothing to block the blood from seeping out of its body.
By his side, Sora grabbed the pointed stick from his hand. She stared at the stumbling parasite through the monocular and fired up deadeye. In hopes of finishing this battle once and for all, she got into a stance and hurled the stick toward the beast. With the precision of her trait, it was a direct hit to the head.
The beast's head shot back from the impact and fell to the ground. Hearing the commotion settle down, the group looked through their scanners to find the beast still squirming on the ground.
'This thing is persistent...' Nazurak thought as he noticed text appear on the screen.
[Calculating...]
[Threat Level: Hostile]
'Hostile!? This thing is only a hostile? It took all three of us to bring it down and in the end, it's still alive...'
Nazurak walked over to the beast, it was near death so he wasn't afraid of being attacked. Pulling out the stick that was lodged into its head, more blood began to leave its body until it stopped moving.
Because he was the last one to inflict damage on the parasite, he felt life essence being absorbed into his body.
[Life essence 2/100]
'So hostiles give me 2 essence while harmless parasites give me 1'
Gathering his thoughts Nazurak held his scanner to eye level and located his comrades. Dylan seemed fine other than some bruises and scratches, Sora didn't get hit at all. Checking on himself, he was relieved to find nothing broken, his body though, was aching from crashing into the tree.
Walking over to them he made sure they were fine before scanning the area for more threats. Luckily the only thing that popped up on the screen were harmless parasites here and there.
"I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to stay here for the rest of the night." Sora said in a low voice.
"Where would we go though, Just keep walking in the dark?" Dylan replied wincing from his bruises.
The group sat in silence thinking about their next move until Nazurak spoke up.
"If we're going to find another spot we can use the scanners to keep an eye out for threats, so wondering at night shouldn't be too much of a challenge."
Looking at the enhanced stick in his hands he continued.
"What I'm more concerned about though, is that we don't the have proper weapons or strength to fight another parasite so we'll need to be extremely careful."
Since the topic of weapons came up, Dylan stared at the stick in Nazurak's hand.
"Hey, where you get that stick from anyways? And why is it so sturdy?" He questioned.
Nazurak tossed the stick to Dylan so he can take a closer look at it.
"It's my Soul Trait called transfer, I'm able to pour my own life essence into just about anything, making it stronger in most cases."
Dylan and Sora both found this interesting.
"You're able to transfer life essence? What a unique trait. How much stronger can you make a weapon or object?" Sora inquired.
Back on earth, there were no parasites, which meant there was no way to get life essence. He didn't have the opportunity to use his trait until he was sold off to the farm. Even then they only gave him enough essence to speed up the growth of the crops.
"Uhh, everything I have poured essence into has a cap of 10. I've only reached the cap once back on the farm and that was with a stick. The company found out the progress on my part was slowing down so I stopped experimenting."
'I'm pretty sure it's still there somewhere...'
He thought for a bit then continued.
"I'm still not entirely sure how my trait works, but I'm guessing the cost and reward increase with threat level. Maybe I can confirm this if I get my hands on an armament."
Armaments are weapons forged from parasites and gain strength corresponding to their threat level, there's even a chance of obtaining a special trait the parasite had if you go to the right blacksmith with the right body parts of the parasite. However this is just what Nazurak heard online back in his school days, according to public knowledge, the only people that would wield armaments would be frontline soldiers in the war against the aberrants.
"Wow, what an incredibly valuable trait. I've heard of people having the ability to enhance weapons but only for a limited amount of time. Pouring life essence into objects and weapons, that's unheard of..." Sora said with a shocked face.
Dylan handed the stick to Sora and asked a question himself.
"That's awesome dude, does that mean you can enhance our gears and weapons in the future?" He asked excitingly.
"I can yes...but I want to keep a good amount of essence so I won't be so weak, after all, the more you have the stronger it makes you."
The group became silent for a bit until he sighed and assured them.
"Don't worry, I know our survival will strongly depend on what we have to defend ourselves with. I'll do my part to help us. But I'll need last hit on most of the parasite, I know you guys need to get stronger as well, so just give me the kills you want to be transferred."
Dylan and Sora's eyes lit up, enchanting their gear was surely going to help them survive in this hell. Having a support to enhance your group was a blessing not many could have, permanently nevertheless.
Nazurak turned to the harmless beasts they killed and went over to pick up one boar, leaving the other boar and rabbits on the ground.
"Sora you should carry your catch, I don't think we should have Dylan carrying anything, he's not in the condition"
She nodded her head and jogged over to the rabbits picking them up. Dylan tried to convince them he could carry the other boar but the group denied it.
Gathering themselves for what's to come, they stood side by side and pulled out their scanners, bringing them to eye level. Then took a step into the dark unknown.