The thick atmosphere was replete with tension as Orion made his way through the forest, with the trees looming like silent sentinels above him. An ordinary day was passing — a day with aggravations of doubt and the nagging feeling of being trivial. The colony itself was harsh on whom they referred to as the weak, and Orion was reminded bitterly of his place in the hierarchal structure by his nickname Whisperer. But today, for reasons he did not yet begin to understand, it was different. The stillness in the air had a sort of energy to it, like a muted hum that sent gooseflesh prickling at the edges of his senses.
Orion strapped his dull blade onto his back well into the woods than ever before. The forest had always been his escape, where the cubical eyes of the colony could not reach him. But something was amiss at this time: The birds were off, and there were no scruffles of the small creatures. A cold shiver scudded along Orion's spine.
Suddenly the earth shook under him. At first, it felt like a mild quake — something quite frequent in the unstable lands around Neon City — and then he heard it, a low guttural growl that seemed to emanate from within the deep bowels of the earth.
Orion was frozen in place, instinctively urging him to run. Out of the shadows there emerged a creature distinct from anything he had ever seen. Huge, its grotesque form appeared was made up of hard scales, pulsing flesh with glowing red veins. Its eyes, which were two molten pools of orange, fixed on him, a predator weighing its prey.
"This cannot be good," Orion murmured and drew out his sword despite the tremor in his hands.
The monster roared--the noise echoed through the forest like a clap of thunder--and lunged. Orion barely had time to jump aside. A massive claw tore through the earth where he had just stood.
"Right, think, Orion, think!" he whispered to himself as the creature snarled around to face him again.
Gripping his sword hard, mind agraid, he knew it was practically useless against something this big, yet he couldn't just remain there. The colony was so close, and such a monster rolling through there was nothing short of a catastrophe.
Back the creature lunged with whirling claw strokes. Orion ducked and rolled, his arm grazing the edge of the claw. It hurt, but there was no time for pain. He spun aside and swiped at the beast's leg. It ricocheted off its armored skin, leaving nothing but light scratches.
"Great," he muttered bitterly.
Roaring, the beast looked equally unimpressed, drawing its tail again through an arc. Orion almost managed the dive underneath the tail, his rear crashing painfully hard onto the ground. He gasped for breath like he'd just completed a full marathon, half an hour ago- no - just now.
Yes, he was going to do it. He let out a shout of pain and anger and charged, burying the blade in the creature's chest, using up all his strength for the blow.
For a moment, the creature was stopped still, its molten eyes widening in stillness. Tube-filled lungs finally released a throaty moan, and then the monster's bulk began to give way. Orion stumbled back, hitting his knees as the ginormous thing crashed earthward with the noise of a boulder thundering into one another.
Panting, he stared at the lifeless creature in front of him. He felt a hollow victory; it was more of luck than skill. But as he moved toward the thing to retrieve his sword, something caught his eye.
The creature's chest began to light up from within, casting the same molten orange hue as its eyes. The glow seemed dynamic and pulsing slowly and steadily, like it was alive. Orion hesitated, his heart pounding.
"What now?" he muttered as he stepped closer.
The glow inside seemed to pulse brighter and then a kind of magnetic pull drew his fingers out involuntarily. When his fingers brushed on the creature's chest, shards of light burst forth from beneath, and with a sickening crack, the scale-armor looked all the world like it split open, through with something embedded deep in its heart.
It was small and ornate, covered in moving engravings and shifting patterns. It throbbed gently, like a pulse, with a sound that reverberated in Orion's chest.
"What...is this?" he murmured, reaching out to grab the object.
With a stroke of fate, when his fingers grasped it, the world came apart. A jolt passed through him, burning and freezing him simultaneously. The world blurred, and the forest around him dissolved into a spinning haze of light and sound.
Something within him stirred. An ancient thing, a thing of raw power. His flesh glowed with power, but not in a painful manner. He had been hollow all his life, and now he was whole.
When his vision cleared, he was on his knees, surrounded by a vortex of dark energy spiraling around him. It pulsed and shifted around him, alive and wild, vibrating in sync with every fiber of his being, intoxicating and terrifying all at once.
The dead animal disintegrated before his eyes, its body crumbling to dust. The aura around him swelled with life, and momentarily Orion thought he could hear it—a voice, hushed and soft.
Then, from somewhere else, a voice boomed, deep and resonant, reverberating through the air around him.
"Congratulations, Orion. "
Orion turned his head only to find no one there. The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
"You have entered the Aura Realm."
He froze, almost choking. It was a heavy note he could hardly bring himself to understand.
"You have killed your first Mutated Beast," the dispassionate voice said.
"Beast Aura: Unknown.
Shard Gained: Essentia Shard."
The object in his hands pulsed yet again; its glow became dim and then eventually faded. The dead silence afterward left Orion alone with his racing thoughts and the dwindled remnants of the aura that had devoured him.
"What... just happened?" he choked out, whispering to himself.
But no answer came. The forest settled back into its freaking silence.
---'Cut to black.'-----