[WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SCENES OF SELF-MUTILATION OF A MINOR THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTURBING! DISCRETION IS ADVISED!]
"That form is still as unsightly as ever," Rowan Walker smiled in a cat-like manner as he eyed Daniel's bloody form.
"I'd appreciate it if you did not speak about my ward like that," Eron said. He smiled back at his brother but there was no mirth behind his lips.
Rowan raised his hands in submission to Eron's will. Eron turned his attention back to his student with worry in his eyes. Whenever Daniel used his Revel Art he could not help but feel concerned. He had done his best to teach him restraint over the years but he could not help but worry he would take things too far and hurt himself and the one he was fighting. His worry reminded him of the worry a father had for his son. In a way, Eron had become Daniel's father. He still recalled the day the two had met.
There had been reports that some kind of creature had been sneaking into the city's livestock fields from the Osarv Forest. The situation had gotten so bad it had begun to tank the meat production in the city, having them rely more on imported meat. The Walkers could no longer turn a blind eye to the matter and sent Eron alongside a few hunters to find the creature. They had no trouble finding it as the beast made no efforts to hide its tracks, breaking trees, leaving chunks of farm animals and leaving bloody tracks that led to wherever it was hiding. However, it was the bloody tracks that it left were the most disturbing thing of all.
"Look," One of the hunters said. "These tracks... They're human,"
The tracks were inconsistent in pattern and shape. The upmost tracks were the shape of a hand and the backmost were bare footprints. From the size of the tracks, they deduced that what they were tracking was some kind of humanoid child. But how could a child do so much damage to the livestock of an entire city? They would inevitably find out as they drew closer to the den of the beast.
The group came upon their target at last. They found the blood-soaked form of something cloaked by the darkness of the night resting in a large nest made from broken bones. They were unable to get any closer to the nest as their steps alerted the sleeping figure of their presence. It shot up to all fours as its yellow eyes darted across the forest until it came upon them. The beast growled deeply before biting into its arm and pouring its blood all over itself.
Eron deduced this had something to do with a kind of Revel Art due to the large amount of Revel exuding from the beast's boy. Its form began to contort as his bones cracked and skin ripped under the cover of darkness. A sickening downpour of blood squelched onto the ground as the beast's form seemed to grow. The hunters could only watch in horror as the thing they came to hunt morphed into a monstrosity right before their eyes. Before any of them could raise their rifles to shoot at it, the beast leapt at them.
The only one who could react in time was Eron Walker. He cloaked himself in his Revel and tackled the beast out of the air and into the ground. The creature screamed horridly as the two clashed in the darkness far beyond what the hunters could see. The hunters could only wait in fear as they listened to fists against fangs and punches against claws. After a while, the darkness fell silent with only the song of crickets and owls. Eron came forth from the dark covered in scars and ripped clothes with the unconscious form of a naked boy in tow.
"K-kill the Bloody Beast!" One of the hunters screamed. The others jeered in agreement.
"No," Eron said. "He is just a child. We have no right to take his life,"
"Then what do you want to do with him?"
"I'll take care of him,"
The hunters' eyes widened.
"You want to take that to the Walker Household?!"
"Is there a problem with it?"
The group had no choice but to accept Eron's request. He assured them that if anything happened to the boy because of him. With the issue resolved the group dissolved and Eron returned home with the boy. The boy came to the following morning to find himself cleaned up, covered in lavish clothes in an unfamiliar house with an unfamiliar man.
"...Who are you?" The boy asked.
"I should be asking you that question," Eron replied.
"...I asked first,"
"I am Eron Walker. You?"
The boy furrowed his eyebrows as he looked down on the ground. He tried to recollect something, anything, but his mind was foggy.
"I, I can't remember..." He muttered.
Eron did not know why but he saw himself within this boy. The situation he found himself in was reminiscent of the time he was adopted by his uncle after his father had disappeared. Without hesitation, he took the boy to the city's adoption centre, registered himself as his legal guardian and named him Daniel East with his last name referring to the part of Osarv Forest where he had found him. It was later when Daniel was undergoing a medical that they found out about his Thirio descent. It was from then he had started training him in how to use his Revel Art adequately and raising him to be a respectable young man.
That was five years ago but seeing Daniel fight right now made it seem like it was happened yesterday. Though the boy had grown more human over the years, the beast was always lurking behind his eyes, waiting in anticipation for his next battles. Beast or not, that boy was still his son, and though his participation in the tournament was not under the best of circumstances, it did not mean he could not root for his victory.
"Fight Daniel," He said to himself. "And come back whole,"