Chapitre 1: Chapter 1: Predator And Prey Part 1
It was a dark night in an unknown region of Limbo, the terrain was filled with countless tall yet scattered trees of varying colors. Some had dark small leaves, other large brown ones a few centimeters long and wide.
The land in which the trees were planted was also of a variety with some parts having short green grass, other long and some none at all.
The sky above the land was a beautiful mixture of colors with two large moons of varying sizes and many stars giving light to the land below.
The region was indeed a beautiful sight, a quiet starry night befalling the land. However, the tranquility in a certain part of the region was brought to an abrupt halt as a loud noise echoed through the night.
The source of the noise was a young shirtless child striking a gigantic boulder bare handed. The boy had medium length black hair and cold grey eyes. His body toned from strict training, hunting and discipline.
So much so that despite his fists looking bloody, the boy didn't look to be in pain as his expression remained firm. Instead, the only sound that echoed through the night was that off his fist striking the boulder.
"Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine...." The boy muttered while breathing heavily. He soon calmed his breathing and prepared to strike once again but something had caught his attention and brought him to a stop before he could do so.
"I was just finishing..." The boy muttered in a neutral tone towards the man behind him without bothering to turn around.
The man behind him was of a very large and muscular stature, standing well over three meters in height. He had long white hair and a beard to match with a stern expression on his face.
This seemingly unfeeling giant however showed a smile at the boy in front of him. When the boy was about to turn his head, the man ceased to smile and simply crossed his arms.
"Training is important. But so is resting pup." The man spoke while looking at the child sternly.
"I was just finishing father." The boy replied before turning back at the boulder and giving it a final strike.
His stance was firm and his aura vigorous as he ignored everything around him and struck the gigantic boulder. Not long after his fist made contact, cracks spread all across the boulder before it disintegrated.
"I'm not a pup anymore, I'm a beast monger." The boy declared in a casual manner causing his father to snicker.
"You'll always be a pup in my eyes Aron. That is unless you can best me in a battle one day." Harald declared before walking away.
Aron pondered on his father's words for a moment before eventually following him to a ruined stone building with mats made of leaves and fell asleep.
With time being odd, the duo would always just sleep until they were free of fatigue.
Harald had woken up early and prepared to make his son do the same by using water in a crudely made stone bowl. However, the second Harald threw the water towards Aron, he rolled off the grassy mat he slept on and missed getting splashed just at the last moment.
"Must you do this every time?" Aron asked while letting out an annoyed sigh knowing he'd have to dry his mat which would take long because they were in a region of Limbo currently experiencing a phase of continuous nighttime.
"As long as I wake up earlier than you then yes, yes I must." His father replied while letting out a chuckle before walking out of the single roomed ruined building they called home.
"Now follow me, quickly" Harald ordered as he walked away. Aron dragged his mat out and left it outside and then proceeded to follow his father.
They walked only for a few hundred meters before arriving at a clearing in the forest near their home.
Upon arriving Harald sat comfortably on the lush and green grass that covered the ground all around. All looked to be tranquil in that area. However, Harald's expression soon turned serious as he faced his son.
"Do you notice anything?" Harald suddenly asked his son. Without needing to even look around, Aron immediately answered the question.
"A scent that doesn't belong in our territory." He responded bluntly and his father nodded.
"While you were sleeping, I found that we were being stalked however I've already delt with the majority but l let five get away for you. Take it as training." Harald instructed casually while Aron listened keenly.
"Can I have a weapon?" Aron asked casually, causing his father to snicker whole shaking his head.
"My weapons can only be wielded by the head of clan Limbo Strider. Remember the rule I told you. The best weapons are earned not given." Harald replied before gesturing Aron to go on his way.
Aron could only sigh upon hearing his father repeat one of his many rules. Harald had what he called "Rules that make a man" that he passed on to Aron whenever the situation called for it.
These rules weren't truly rules that Aron needed to follow but instead words of reference. Harald used these as a way to impart onto Aron the wisdom he'd gained thus far during his life. He thought that should anything happen to him before Aron reached an appropriate stage then the boy could at least depend on these rules to survive.
"Just how many more rules are there?" asked Aron but he got no answer from his father.
'He makes them up as we go along...' Aron frowned and thought to himself before going into the forest.
He was following a scent that seemed unfamiliar to the forest while keeping his focus on his weaker side in case of an ambush. As he did so he's eyes stopped on the bottom of a nearby tree.
There laid a wounded rabbit that was twitching its leg, said leg had what looked to be a long scratch on it, Aron didn't show any abrupt reaction and calmly walked over to the rabbit.
He crouched down near it and ran his hands across its fur gently before lifting it up into his hands. With that he finished inspecting the rabbit and figured out just what was stalking them upon remembering one of his father's lectures.
[ Normally hunting in groups and native to mana rich forests. Large frame with viciously sharp claws and strong muscles. Very rare but only a danger level of tier one rank C. But what makes them so adept in killing is...]
Aron furrowed his brows and his expression turned grim before he ripped the rabbit in half using his bare hands. Dark red blood splattered on his hands, chest and face but his expression remained the same.
'Their ability to shapeshift....' He thought just as an irritating sound reached his ears.
One came from a bird up on a tree while the other two came from a bush. The bird let out a loud cry before its body began to deform and morph.
Its frame continued to grow larger and larger while its feathers fell off. Its wings became large muscular arms. Its tiny legs grew and bent at odd angles. As for its head, it too continued to grow upward while its eyes were nowhere to be seen.
The transformation soon ended and Aron's targets soon revealed their true forms as they began to wander around him slowly.
"Death Stalkers. They used one of their own as bait...but father mentioned they were five..." Aron began scanning his surroundings for any oddities while showing the three-meter-tall beasts circling around him he wasn't the slightest bit intimidated.
They had large front muscular limbs with clawed hands rather than paws while their hind legs looked much smaller in proportion compared to the rest of their body.
One of the beasts soon grew impatient and pounced towards Aron. As it came close to striking him with its claw, Aron dodged to the side before striking it in the face with a hard punch.
It let out a pained shriek but didn't seem injured. The other two beasts took this as an opportunity and came rushing behind Aron. He showed a small frown before launching a kick behind which struck one of the beasts right in their chest bony chests.
He didn't stop there however, he followed up the attack by rotating his entire body to land another brutal kick to the beast's chest. This time the sound of its bones cracking could clearly be heard.
When the other tried to claw at him while he did this, he simply caught its arm and struck it hard with his elbow, shattering the bones in that creature's arm.
Although still a pup, Aron's physical prowess was already superior to many lower tier beasts because he was already a tier two rank D existence.
Another shriek followed as it pulled away but Aron didn't let up. He charged towards it and struck its chest with a kick and climbed on its oddly shaped head before grabbing onto it and twisting with immense force.
Another cracking sound could be heard followed by yet another shriek from the creature. Aron used this chance to land punch after punch on it until it's skull caved in.
The moment he pulled his bloody fists away, another death stalker tried to catch him off guard but he caught it by the arm before tossing it towards the other beast.
The two beasts collided against a large tree with extreme force and before they could even get up, Aron appeared in front of them at a frightening speed with his bloody fist ready to crush even more of their bones.
Hit after hit landed on the now immobile beasts. Aron didn't stop even when their shrieking stopped. He was only sure after he forced his bare hands into the death stalker's chests and crushed each of their oddly shaped hearts.
Aron didn't relax after doing this, his gaze instead shifted back to his surroundings as he looked for the fifth beast. Seeing nothing odd where he was, he caught his breath before leaving the scene. He soon began to investigate another area looking for any animal that seemed out of the ordinary.
The death stalkers were known to be able to maintain their forms for up to five hundred heart beats and could become as small as a few inches and up to twenty feet tall. They had both an upper limit and lower limit of what they could morph into.
Given the oddity of time in Limbo, beast mongers used their heart rates to measure certain intervals of time especially during hunting. It was crude but for the most part effective.
Aron was looking for an animal neither too small or too big. A few animals present in the area fit this criteria but they didn't have the scent he was looking for.
'If it's not in the open then...' Aron stopped wandering and looked towards a cave in the distance.
Upon getting close to it, he could see small trail marks on the ground as if something had been dragged into the cave. Then a bit further ahead, right at the entrance of the cave he found drops of blood.
Aron shifted his gaze from the ground to the cave's entrance and muttered to himself...
"Found you."
....
[ RULE #326: The best weapons are earned and not given]
[BEAST INDEX #1: Death Stalker]
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
God_Of_Brutality
God_Of_Brutality Images available on my discord along with a beast index, check my profile.
Also, although this is a spoiler I should probably note it down since many readers have mentioned it. The tiering system is largely for beasts and beast mongers, Aron does realize this in much later volumes when he encounters societies with different systems to measure power, it’s an error on my part so I ask that you don’t give too much attention to tiers unless it’s a beast or beast monger.
Chapitre 2: Chapter 2: Predator And Prey Part 2
"Found you."
Aron muttered with a small smile on his face before standing up and going into the cave. Once inside, he found it to be dimly lit only because of the moonlight penetrating through the cracks and deadly silent.
"It's useless trying to hide from me in the dark." Aron declared in a confident tone as his eyes began to glow a misty gray.
This was an inherent aspect of the Limbo Strider which made its vision near perfect even in the dark since it was found in a region overcome by a long cycle of night.
He soon began scanning his surroundings for anything useful as he continued going deeper into the cave. Aside from insects and fungi however, Aron was yet to see anything, only depending on the faint scent he caught for surety.
'Death Stalkers can't morph to become as smaller than 1 meter nor can they become any form of vegetation...' Aron assessed mentally as he continued to be on the lookout for anything.
Soon though he reached the end of the cave and still found nothing. This almost led him to believe it might have escaped but the thought of it getting past him didn't seem possible especially with the foreign scent still lingering around.
"Then just where are.... you" Aron muttered while looking around before soon trailing off when his gaze was focused on the cave's ceiling. What he saw were a multitude of bat like creatures covering the cave's ceiling above him.
Aron looked at the creatures for a moment but couldn't notice any features out of place. What he did notice however was a scent that was out of place among them. This small little detail was enough to tell him the death stalker was among them.
With this confirmed, Aron crouched down momentarily and picked up a small stone from the ground. After doing so, he gazed back up at the ceiling before throwing the stone he held with immense force.
A loud boom could be heard as the stone made contact with the rocky ceiling above and almost immediately the creatures began to fly away hurriedly.
Aron stood in place as they began rushing out of the cave with great speed.... all except one that fell to the ground near Aron.
'Although the shapeshifting capabilities of death stalkers are incredible...they don't inherit the abilities of the creatures they morph into...so in such a case the death stalker can only be the one that can't fly.' Aron thought to himself as he remembered the information, he knew about them to the very detail.
"Kreee...." The one fallen creature let out a strange noise as its body began to vibrate rapidly. Seeing this Aron narrowed his eyes while his muscles grew tense.
Less than a heartbeat later, one of the creature's wings morphed into a gigantic hand that immediately reached out to grab Aron.
The speed at which it did so was terrifying but just as it was about to grab hold of Aron he jumped back instinctively and avoided it by a small margin.
'It morphs and moves incredibly fast...the Alpha.' Aron concluded before quickly rushing out of the cave before it could morph again.
The strange noise it let out however only seemed to grow louder and louder as the entire cave began to rumble. Upon exiting the cave, Aron retreated a few meters from the entrance and assumed a fighting stance with a serious expression on his face.
'I can't fight it in an enclosed space but here...' Aron's thoughts trailed off as he noticed the strange loud noise it let out had now stopped.
With a large boom, the cave's entrance suddenly got broken with intense force. Dust covered the scene but even that wasn't enough to hide the cause behind the cave's destruction.
Infront of what used to be the cave's entrance stood a Death Stalker almost two times the size of the ones Aron faced earlier.
"Definitely the Alpha, but..." As the dust began to clear, Aron could now properly analyze it. What stood out most about the death stalker in front of him were the many injuries that covered its large body.
The more he looked at them the more relaxed Aron became. The injuries it had were nothing to scoff at, which explained why it hadn't attacked him yet but instead observed.
It's hands and legs were bloody and covered in claw marks all over. It was clear to see that the injuries it had were serious as the creature could barely support itself up.
"So that's how it is..." Aron muttered aloud after coming to a realization. He then began walking towards the creature casually without any caution.
"Kreeee!" It once again let out a strange noise and clawed at the ground but Aron wasn't the slightest bit fazed.
Once Aron reached a few meters away from it, it tried to attack using its large claws. However, its movements were very slow as compared to the earlier death stalkers, most likely due to its injuries so dodging the attack wouldn't be hard but instead Aron blocked it by grabbing hold of the claw.
"You're even weaker than the ones I faced earlier" Aron pointed out before pushing its hand to the side.
The creature was made to slightly stumble from the force Aron used and this created an opening. Aron lunged forward and grabbed its oddly shaped head firmly before forcefully slamming it down into the ground.
"Graaa!" The creature let out a pained growl as the ground shook from the impact it caused.
Aron looked down at the creature as if he were disappointed by the lack of challenge it provided.
"Far too easy..." He muttered confidently as he watched the creature try to stand with its injured hands.
When it finally managed to raise its head a bit, Aron grabbed it once again and slammed it right back into the ground. The only difference was this time he didn't stop but instead continued to do so until the creature stopped moving.
"I hope it's mana is at least dense." Aron pressed his right hand firmly on its head and closed his eyes. A moment later he opened them and they began to glow brightly along with the eyes of the beast below.
Aron wore a serious expression with his brows furrowed as the glow in eyes began to slowly go dimmer and dimmer. As this happened, one could easily notice the size of the creature rapidly reducing.
By the time the glow in the eyes had completely faded, the creature looked to be only skin and bones. Aron however retreated back a few steps whilst holding his head as if in pain.
"Grr..." Aron let out a growl similar to that of the creature as he moved his head side to side. His muscles began to slowly grow larger and his teeth began to grow sharper.
'I'm the predator, not the prey.' Aron thought to himself before taking in a deep breath.
When he exhaled, his body slowly returned to its original state. He quickly scanned his arms and legs before rubbing his jaw just to be sure.
"Tsk, if father knew one of his rules was actually helpful, he wouldn't let me hear the end of it." Aron muttered before grabbing one of the beast's limbs and dragging it along as he left the scene.
It didn't take long for Aron to return to the clearing where his father laid while dragging the bodies of the death stalkers behind him. When he got close to his father, Aron stopped dragging them and looked at his father with crossed arms.
"I'm done." He stated as if having completed a chore.
"Hmm? Already? Did you kill the Alpha as well?" Harald asked with one eye closed as he still laid on the grass in a relaxed manner.
"No. How can I kill something you already killed? The real Alpha was killed by you and this caused the remaining death stalkers to battle each other to find a new Alpha."
"They probably started by attacking the largest one among them but failed to bring it down with one getting injured in the process. The large stalker escaped to nurse its wounds while the injured one was set up as bait to draw out some prey. That's what I think happened at least." Aron explained in a serious tone causing Harald to simply close his eyes and go silent.
'I initially left the large one to make him think he had defeated an Alpha. That would have boosted his confidence and made him more eager to grow but...to think he'd not only easily realize that but also decipher the events that took place between the beasts....' Harald's thoughts trailed off before he finally opened his eyes once more.
"You're definitely as clever as your mother, I'll tell you that much." Harald told Aron in an annoyed manner.
"That's the first time I've heard you compliment my mother, are you feeling well?" Aron asked in a genuine tone of concern but Harald simply scoffed at him.
"That's because she's a witch who denied a hard-working warrior of his needs." Harald complained as he slowly began to sit upright.
"How is any of that relevant to me?" Aron replied bluntly while shrugging.
"As a man it's important you know how to handle, treat and act around women." Harald responded while confidently patting his chest.
"Power comes first, everything else is secondary" Aron stated whilst imitating his father's serious voice.
"Don't use my own rules against me pup." Harald warned with furrowed brows but once again Aron only shrugged.
"I'm going to train." Aron ignored his father's warning and began heading back towards the forest he had just come out of.
"That leaves me to cook...again. That damned pup just had to have his mother's attitude." Harald cursed before grabbing the bodies and leaving in the direction of their home.
...
[RULE #150: You're the predator, not the prey]
[RULE #1: Power comes first, everything else is secondary]
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS
God_Of_Brutality
God_Of_Brutality
A/N: Minor unimportant beasts will be described using references to real life animals because describing every little creature is just a waste of word count.
Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
Cadeaux
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