Chapter 8 008

The Redmaw Dominant moved first.

It did not charge the way the Gravelhorn had. It did not lunge or scream the way the Ashwalkers did. It simply stepped forward with one enormous foot and the ground shook from the weight of it. Then it raised one of its four arms slowly above its head, the too-long fingers spreading wide, and brought it down toward Silas like a falling tree.

Silas threw himself sideways and the impact hit the ground where he had been standing a half second earlier. The earth cracked and compressed into a shallow crater. Soil and rock fragments sprayed outward in every direction and one chunk caught him across the cheek hard enough to split the skin. He rolled twice and came back to his feet immediately, already moving laterally before the creature could redirect.

His mind was running fast and cold.

Tier five. Four arms. Enormous reach. The ground itself was a weapon when something that heavy decided to use it. Direct confrontation was a fast way to die. He needed to stay mobile, stay unpredictable, and find the same answer he had found with the Gravelhorn — the place where the armour ended and the vulnerability began.

He activated Resonance Sense at full intensity and let it wash over the Redmaw Dominant completely.

The information came back in a rush. The creature's essence was concentrated heavily in its chest cavity, a dense burning core of red energy that pulsed outward through its body like a second heartbeat. Its six eyes drew directly from that core, which was why they burned so brightly. The arms and legs were powerful but essentially mechanical — the real source of the creature's strength and endurance was that central mass of compressed essence in its chest.

If he could reach the chest, he could use Essence Absorption directly on the source.

The problem was reaching it.

The Redmaw Dominant swung its second arm horizontally across the clearing in a wide sweeping motion that would have taken Silas completely off his feet if he had still been standing in its path. He had already read the motion coming through Resonance Sense half a second before the arm moved and dropped flat to the ground, letting the massive limb pass over him with centimetres to spare. The displaced air from the swing hit him like a wave and pressed him against the soil.

He pushed back up instantly.

The creature was fast for its size. Faster than it had any right to be. But it was not faster than Void Step.

Silas waited for the next swing, tracking the creature's rhythm through his Resonance Sense. The Redmaw Dominant favoured its upper two arms for wide attacks and used its lower two for close-range grabs. It was establishing a pattern without realising it. Upper right, upper left, then a pause while the lower arms repositioned. That pause was approximately one and a half seconds long.

He needed to be inside its reach during that pause.

Upper right arm came down. Silas dodged right.

Upper left arm swept across. Silas dropped and rolled under it, coming up closer to the creature's body than before.

The pause began.

He activated Void Step.

ESSENCE POINTS: 12/20.

The world froze. Six red eyes stopped mid-blink. Four arms hung suspended in the cold still air. The Redmaw Dominant was enormous up close, its chest at eye level, dark matted fur rising and falling in a breath that time had temporarily paused. The dense red pulse of its essence core burned through its chest like a coal through paper, visible to his Resonance Sense even through fur and muscle and bone.

Silas placed both hands flat against the creature's chest.

He had never used Essence Absorption before. He did not know exactly what it would feel like or whether it required a specific action to trigger. He focused on the ability the way he had learned to focus on Resonance Sense, reaching inward for it, and spoke quietly in the frozen silence.

"Essence Absorption."

Something responded.

It began in his palms. A pulling sensation, not painful but immensely powerful, like standing at the edge of a current and feeling it take hold of you. The red energy in the Redmaw Dominant's chest began moving toward his hands in slow threads at first, then faster, then in thick rushing streams that made his entire body vibrate with heat and pressure. His vision filled with red light at the edges. His teeth clenched involuntarily.

Void Step released.

The world snapped back into motion — and the Redmaw Dominant immediately knew something was catastrophically wrong. All six eyes blazed brighter in panic. It threw its upper arms inward trying to grab him and peel him away from its chest, but Silas locked his legs against its lower body and held on with everything his strengthened muscles could produce. The creature thrashed and roared, a sound so deep and loud it felt less like hearing and more like being struck.

Silas held on.

The essence poured into him in a torrent now. He could feel it rebuilding things inside him, not just filling his own essence pool but restructuring something deeper, adding layers to his core that had not existed thirty seconds ago. It was overwhelming and brilliant and violent all at once. He tasted blood from biting the inside of his cheek without realising it.

The Redmaw Dominant's movements slowed.

Then slowed further.

Its roar dropped in pitch and volume, becoming something closer to a groan. The red light in its six eyes dimmed from burning to flickering to almost nothing. Its enormous body began to sink downward as the legs lost their ability to hold the weight. Silas rode it all the way to the ground, keeping both hands pressed flat against its chest until the very last thread of red essence passed through his palms and the creature went completely still beneath him.

Silence returned to the clearing.

Silas sat on the chest of the dead Redmaw Dominant for a long moment, breathing in ragged pulls, every muscle in his body trembling from the effort and the absorption. Then the system panel erupted in front of him.

DING. DING. DING.

TIER FIVE BEAST ELIMINATED.

ESSENCE ABSORPTION SUCCESSFUL — TIER FIVE CORE INTEGRATED.

MASSIVE ESSENCE POOL EXPANSION UNLOCKED.

LEVEL UP. LEVEL UP. LEVEL UP.

NAME: Silas Kane

LEVEL: 4

VITALITY: 40/40

ESSENCE POINTS: 50/50

Strength: 44

Speed: 34

Agility: 28

Willpower: 9

Reflexes: 34

Available Points: 45

NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED — ESSENCE SIGHT: See the true essence composition of any living target. Passive ability. Always active.

Silas stared at the panel until his breathing steadied. Three levels from a single absorption. His vitality had more than doubled. His essence pool had expanded far beyond anything his daily missions had produced.

He looked down at his hands. They looked the same. Scarred knuckles, dried blood, torn sleeve wrapped around his left forearm. Nothing visible had changed.

But everything had changed.

He distributed his available points methodically. Fifteen into Strength. Fifteen into Speed. Ten into Agility. Five into Reflexes. He felt each allocation settle into his body like weight being added to a foundation, making it more solid and permanent with every point.

Then he stood up, stepped off the creature's chest, and looked back toward the direction of the academy wall in the far distance.

He still had forty hours remaining on the mission timer.

He turned back toward the deeper forest instead.