Deep in the night, when the moon was suspended high in the sky, casting a soft, silvery glow over the land, with the air cool and still, while the sound of crickets and frogs could be heard in the distance. Along the bank of the river, where rows of trees stood tall not far from the bank, their leaves rustling gently in the breeze, camouflaging the steps of a predator. A cat like animal as dark as night was silently stalking what seemed to be a human body. It was a panther that glowed with a purple luster, it's black fur peppered with whites spots. This was a magic beast known as a Nightstalker.
It typically moved around at night, however the Town had wards that kept all manner of creature away from it. With this in mind, humans didn't travel alone at night, and that's why at the first sign of the setting sun. The Townrs would make themselves scarce from the river.
The Nightstalker drew closer after confirming that the human wasn't moving. Were it not for the slight movements of this human's stomach area. It would have thought it dead. It drew closer, slower and much more silent. Until it was within striking distance and went for the human's neck with its powerful jaws and sharp teeth. With this action there was no movement, but only for a moment.
"AAaaggghhh." Ray woke up to the worst kind of pain he had ever felt in his life, with jaws on his neck, disoriented he could not even look around properly let alone think. The Nightstalker having anticipated the struggle bit down harder, and the human screamed intelligible sounds barely human.
However to its shock the human's neck seemed to snap back and with this weird occurrence, the Nightstalker saw a sudden twist of its sight before feeling a great amount of pain on its face and before it realized it was now sliding some paces away from the human.
Of course Ray had never been as confused in his life as he was now. Last thing he remembered was that he was trying to leave the river bank and he couldn't even properly remember what happened after. And now he woke up to a Nightstalker attempting to claim his life. But the most shocking thing for him were how fast his injuries were healing, in his thoughts he had also neglected the fact that his flimsy punch had sent the Nightstalker a distance from him.
The night stalker didn't even give him a moment to continue processing his situation. As aggressive as they were, they weren't adverse to struggle. This was just another Tuesday for them in the jungle of life. It's body started glowing with a purple color and soon after it moved, the Nightstalker moved far more faster than before. To Ray it looked like a purple blur.
Having been an experienced military man, Ray knew about Nightstalkers, during military campaigns magic beasts such as these were a threat to the soldiers and it took a squad of normal soldiers to bring it down, while elite soldiers trained in magic or who had abilities could take it down single handedly.
Ray jumped back to make more space between him and the panther. Before offering it his left arm when it seemingly came into existence from the blur it was, at that moment he smashed it with his right hand sending it twisting in the air. The Nightstalker landed on its feet gracefully and seemed to sneeze towards its side, gazing him with eyes that said 'heh, is that all you can do human?' The punch only seemed to annoy the Nightstalker.
Ray was a trained man, in combat and self defense. He was a strategist and through his strategies - his combat skill had never if barely ever been tested and that was many years ago. He rose to a high position for this reason alone. Realizing that he wasn't getting anywhere he quickly formulated a plan during the moment when the Nightstalker crouched and went in for another attack.
Ray jumped and skipped back towards the river as the Nightstalker approached, only this time the beast thought and remembered that this human could just offer it an arm again. So instead of lunging at him it simply shot forward like a bullet, caught off guard Ray couldn't react to it in time and the Nightstalker managed to grab onto his torso with its claws. The pain caused him to stagger and be pulled by the inertia of the attacking beast.
Originally he was going to have it bite his hand and then he would use that to toss it towards the river but now that things were at this point he could only grab onto it, and pull the beast with him into the river. The moment they fell into the water the beast was disoriented and could not swim properly. As for Ray he simply swarm back to the river bank and climbed up to safety. With his clothes tattered and his wounds healing, he was victorious. Night stalkers were from the cat family and therefore struggled to swim.
He didn't even wait to see the results of his victory or rather expose himself to further danger. He simply wiped away the water on his face and flattened his hair causing water to drip at his back, then he headed towards the Town hurriedly.
His House that was at the edge of the Town meant that no one saw him when he went into his home. Rayleigh collapsed onto his bed and asked himself 'what has happened to me.' But no one could answer his questions right now.
In the morning when Ray woke up, he only had one question that he needed an answer to. What was happening to his body? There were no wounds from his battle yesterday. While sitting on his bed he searched for one of the needles he had lying around the house, obtaining one he took a closer look at his skin and poked it. However his expected outcome did not happen, he expected some blood but nothing happened. And after trying a few times he stopped feeling pain all together. He didn't want to do the next test but he had no choice. He took a knife and hesitatingly slit his arm. He began bleeding and to his surprise the cut proceeded to mend together. As he continued to slit his arm again he noticed that the healing was getting faster and faster each time.
Rayleigh dropped the knife in horror, unable to imagine what in gods name was happening to him. He then went outside, he wanted to test his strength. Fighting a magical beast wasn't something simple. It was a big deal, it meant that he was just as capable as the elite fighters if he wasn't already one. Magic beasts came in all shapes and sizes, however a majority of these animals were stronger than a human, faster and some being even more intelligent. And bloodline beasts were even capable of magical feats still being studied by humans today. Luckily the truly powerful beasts cared not about humans. Along with the low level magic beasts they simply co-existed with humanity.
Rayleigh washed himself and changed his clothes before leaving his house and heading deeper into the forest. After spending some time searching he finally found what he was looking for. 1 Ashenwood tree could be seen in the distance. When he reached the location of the tree, he pulled out his trusty Axe. Got into stance and with both arms swung hard. His posture perfect, he cleaved the tree in half with tremendous ease. Rayleigh stared at the tree tilting and slamming down. He got the bold idea to just pick up the tree, at first he wasn't able to. But in his second attempt when he really tried and put for all his effort he managed to lift the tree up. The Ashenwood tree, one of the most heavy tree's in the continent. Not only did it require time & effort to cut down but picking it up wasn't as simple too.
Having learned all this, he tried some more tests and then headed home. When he got home he sorted his thoughts together and proceeded to list what he knew.
Right now through some tests he understood that he had a great amount of regenerative ability, superhuman strength and superhuman endurance. To better understand himself he would have to visit an old friend in a city quite far from the Town of Riverpool.
Ray came back from his flashback.
"I don't know how i got these abilities Marco but i need your help understanding what i'm working with." Said Ray as he glanced at the part of his arm where he had cut him self but was now healed as though nowthing happened.
Marco was shook.