Divine Beast Ascension

“Almost... There...” out of breath, Vloz mumbled to himself.

Finally, he reached the clearing.

As he burst through the undergrowth he found a vibrant fire, many young beasts, and Ania laying in the campfire’s light. Upon closer inspection, Vloz noticed the worry and the sorrow painted on her face.

“Is–”

“I don’t know...”

Without another word Vloz warily walked to her side. He too laid down and stared intently at the fire.

.....

“And the other teachers?”

“They’re still looking.” Ania groaned as she rolled over to her other side. “I’m too weak to...”

Vloz suddenly noticed the many rhinos coming in and out of the camp. And since Ania didn’t want to talk, the leopard looked over toward the familiar lynx. “What’s up with the rhinos?”

“Apparently some assassins forced them to scatter the camp. All of their elders died thanks to that and the rest are trying to help,” explained Karos.

“I see...” Again Vloz turned to Ania. “I hurried over as fast as I could. Rathe returned early... But with some bad news...”

Someone intrigued Ania turned to look at the leopard but still said nothing.

“He was in a pretty critical condition but he should be fine now. Fontu lost an arm and one of the peak elders was killed on the road. If Fontu hadn’t been willing to lose his arm, then the other peak elder would have been murdered as well.”

“... Is that how you got here so fast?” Mumbled Ania.

“Yeah... I just wish I had known sooner.”

Silence gathered around the campfire. No one dared say another word to either Ania or Vloz. Both were ragged, bloodied, and exhausted.

The fire crackled. The wind rustled. Time passed.

“Have you figured out who is behind this?”

Vloz shook his head. “Not exactly. But I may have an idea. Do you remember the mysterious man who took control of Karos during the tournament?”

“Him? Did we ever figure out why even did that?” Asked Tanya.

“No, we never did. But I met him again while facing the assassins responsible for this,” stated Vloz. “Thanks to him, I couldn’t kill the last assassin. And again he got away without me knowing any better.”

“Could this have anything to do with that Dragon that fought Dioro?”

“Possibly,” replied Vloz. “The beasts responsible for hunting down Rathe and the others were all Frost-mane Lions. According to Rathe, there shouldn’t be any of those in the region. If that dragon is involved, then it would explain a lot.”

“How strong do you think that the mystery man is?”

“... No clue... But I’m guessing he’s at least a king since I couldn’t even scratch the guy.” Looking at the students around Ania, the leopard asked, “How come we’re not missing any adept plane students?”

“Because they were attacked,” stated Ania. “Hurdo showed up late because the other camp was untouched. Now, Hurdo and the other instructors are gathering the scattered novices while I stay back to rest and guard them.”

“They weren’t targeted? Then...” A grim feeling came over Vloz as he started to connect the dots.

“Yeah... that means they were targeting the novice class, or possibly someone in the novice class. And I can only think of two people that would interest other people,” explained Ania, trying to hold back the water building up in her eyes.

“Ania... I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”

Vloz quietly mumbled, “So, now we wait? You know how crafty Oli is. If there was ever a novice who could escape from bandits, it would be Oli.”

“True, but only if the bandits were adepts. We both know that it would be impossible for him to escape an elder plane cultivator,” reasoned Ania, not trying to get her hopes up only to have them come crashing down.

“Ania!”

Both Vloz and Ania looked to find Hurdo and Warlon walking toward them. Behind the two gorillas were over a dozen novice students, with faces scarred by fear.

“Ania, we...”

“Say it.”

“We... couldn’t Oli or Netra,” replied Hurdo, not daring to meet her gaze. “They’re the only ones not accounted for.”

“O-okay...” whimpered Ania. Tears burst past the floodgates that were her eyelids. “T-thank you for searching.”

The last of the rhinos returned as well, unable to find either of the last two students.

With the first and second seats of the novice class missing, the other students had a somber mood fall over them. It made many of them fear for their lives and made most students wonder if the school would be able to protect them in the future.

“Ania!”

A shout cut through the somber mood. Vloz, Ania, and everyone else looked to the figure emerging from the undergrowth surrounding the camp.

“Klor? Is that–”

“Ania, I’m so sorry!” The wounded Netra scampered down from Klor’s back and limped to Ania as fast as she could. “I’m... I’m so sorry! I couldn’t–”

The mother gorilla forced her exhausted body to run and grab the young fox. “Netra, tell me what happened. How did you get away?”

“We spit up from Karos and Yeter... But then we were attacked and this happened.” Netra tried to lift her dangling leg. “Then... Oli hid me at the top of a tree. The bandits couldn’t sense me because of my essence nature I guess.”

“And Oli?”

“I’m... I’m so sorry!” Netra cried. “He... He ran north but I saw three more bandits go after him. And they... They were stronger than all the other bandits. I couldn’t sense one at all... but the other two should be stronger than the other we faced.”

Ania tried her best to remain strong in front of the crying Netra. But she let her tears loose all the same as she hugged the fox. “It’s... It’ll be okay...”

“No, but what about Oli?! Will he be okay?” shined Netra.

“Try to calm down, you two. I understand your tears, but it’s not like Oli is dead,” stated Hurdo. “If they planned all of this just to go after him, they wouldn’t just kill him. They would capture him alive. Who knows, maybe they just wanted him as a subordinate?”

“Hurdo, you–”

“Ania, he’s probably right,” added Vloz. “It wouldn’t make sense for them to kill Oli, so that means he’s probably alive.”

Then, the tired leopard stood up and stretched his aching back. “Klor, take me to where you found Netra. We’ll head north to go investigate.”

“Yes, sir!”

They took off into the jungle, leaving the other behind.

Ania glanced at the rhinos, as she finally showing more willingness to talk. “Tell me everything that happened to your tribe and why your elder plane cultivators got in our way.”

A young but large rhino stepped forward, frantically nodding. “Yes, ma’am! A human assassin wielding dark essence showed up at our tribe last night. He demanded that we help him scatter your camp, but we rejected him.”

“In response, the man planted some of his dark essence in each of us younger rhinos. With that, he could kill us within seconds. The older rhinos fought the man but quickly lost, proving all efforts futile,” explained the rhino. “In the end, the assassin agreed to free us if all the elder plane rhinos participated.”

“Then, he used some strange technique to force the four strongest rhinos into the divine class. But their energy seemed weird and unstable. Those were the four that you fought. In the end... We lost every elder plane rhino because they were forced to face you gorillas and stop you from helping your students. All so that me and my friends could live...”

Hurdo walked over and put his arm around the young rhino. “It’s not your fault, so don’t take the blame. Those men planned everything so that we all would lose something. I’m sure we would’ve done something similar to your tribe if the roles were reversed.”

“But... But...”

“Are you guys still under that man’s threat?” When the boy shook his head, Hurdo continued, “Then move on. Use this as motivation to get stronger. If your tribe had a perennial already, then you wouldn’t be in this situation, right?”

“R-right.”

“Then remember this and become the perennial your tribe needs,” stated Hurdo. “Without any elders, your tribe will be vulnerable. I think it would be best if you all followed us to Iron Town.”

“Can we really?” asked an elderly rhino. She didn’t look to Hurdo, but to Ania. “Ma’am, I’m sorry that we aided in the kidnapping of your son, but please help our tribe, at least the young ones. I offer the rest of my life to serve you.”

“I as well.”

“Me too.”

More and more rhinos stepped forward and knelt before Ania. With heads bowed, they all offered their servitude in order to protect their children.

“... If your tribe commits to servitude under our clan, then I’ll discuss it with the others...”

“Then we’ll join you in Iron Town.”

Neither side said another word. It was clear that Ania didn’t want to talk about it at the moment, as her mind was on other things.