Ascenders: Rising From Zero

The Hunting Order

Bayo tore along the rocky plains, flanked on both sides by IronSpike Tailed Dogs, barking eagerly. In Front of them,some few meters was a horned Hind Bear growling as it thundered towards them. 

The bear closed in on Bayo, lifting a paw to smack down but he crouched, avoiding the paw by inches. Another IronSpike Dog leapt over him, homing on the Bear's face with a crunching bite, pulling the head down as it was flung off by a paw. 

Whining, the dog landed on the soft fur of a nearby dog, both of them whimpering. The alpha, Bayo spared a glance towards the dog before swirling around for a head smack with its tail. 

Growling, he infused over 20 points of energy into his tail, heating it up before ramming hard on the bear. 

Being an Alpha was hard! 

Being an alpha, meant that sometimes you had to take things by the horn, close your eyes to sympathy and home in. With that in mind, he crouched, as the other dogs swarmed the bear, biting and ramming its body with their tails.

Bayo pawed frantically, howling out a call. At that, the dogs retreated, leaving a munched up and furious bear bellowing as various bites marks and slam points started closing up. 

'Not so fast, Bear. You're food for the pack.' Bayo whispered, charging forward with a blur as his tail began to take a distinct hue of hot red.

'Yasmin, add another 30 points to the initial 20 and give me the heat to roast a bear.' Bayo commanded , his paw pounding heavily in the ground.

He was infusing 50 points of energy. Not that it mattered much to him now. Over the time he had been able to ascend into Ground Class and even pushed his energy limit higher allowing him absorb more energy without significant drawbacks. 

So, giving 50points of energy to roast a bear with law affinity wasn't too much.

No, not when he was Alpha.

He twisted his body, turning a complete ninety degree left, avoiding a paw swipe as he presented his hot business zone.

Then...

KRASSSSHHHHH...

Bayo's spike clubbed tail smacked heavily against the snout. The force at which it landed, crushed the snout in, roasting flesh and sending out little flickers of heat. 

The bear growled in pain, as it staggered about, pawing frantically. Without wasting time, Bayo lunged for the neck, piercing with his claws for a better hold as he bit into the soft region.

CRUNCH! 

'Bloodline Detected. Absorbing Bloodline.' Yasmin interrupted with a prompt.

'Yasmin, Can you just not absorb the bloodline? I feel bad already that I had to spend over 300 energy points to grow the horned Hind Bear bloodline. So don't make me feel worse by absorbing it now when I have no use for it.' Bayo raved. 

The Horned Hind Bear shuddered, it's raging aura dying off as the entire pack of IronSpike Tailed Dogs set themselves upon it, biting, clawing and smashing it furiously.

Finally, the bear fell,hitting the ground with a heavy thud. 

'About time, Bear. We've got a whole big meal on ground.' Bayo muttered mentally. But he wasn't however looking forward to the bear meal. Being the alpha of a fast growing pack, he knew he had to sacrifice some times for the pack. Maybe it was his beast instincts or maybe just a part of him that really wanted to care for something.

But whatever it was, he had come to embrace it as part of him. Grunting, he trotted off, thoughts of where to find his own meal in his mind. 

Usually, he would visit the energy resource pool but over time, the pool had run dry of fishes leaving him empty. He had planned to find another pool but never did he once set himself to do that. After all, he had a pack now so why bother?

Trotting further, he soon left the plains as taller trees began to appear, the vegetation becoming thicker. He moved on, looking left and right continuously in search for something big and luscious. 

He had expended a lot of energy. 50points? That was really something. Actually it wasn't earlier but without the pool, it was something now. 

The vegetation rustled to his right making the Latent Stealth Dog's ears erect. Slowly, he turned, accessing the vegetation at the right.

"I tell you, I tell you. This whole hunt thing is nothing but a waste. Find the lightning fist chimp as at now? What a joke!" A thick, croaky voice shot up, rising in crescendo.

Bayo's ears flexed. Lightning Fist Chimp? The one that he found poisoned and he attacked? That rare type monkey was actually important? 

"Oh shut up! Are you all Grakons this noisy? We are in a hunt, remember?" An irritated voice retorted.

"Oh yea? Grakon or not, is there any sense in all of this?" The same thick voice sounded with a lower tone now.

"Of course! This just goes to show to the Adzes that we don't just take orders from anyone. Forget the fact that Lord Meados is being diplomatic, the center for forest reserve is not so diplomatic however." A shrill, feminine voice sounded, much closer than the others.

Bayo shuddered, shaking his body. What did he think he was doing here? 

Boy, hit the road.

With that thought, Bayo's limbs shook as he gathered momentum. 

"Hey, look at this doggie here. We could have it for camp food, guys." A rough looking bearded figure of a Giant with scales under his eyes wearing a dull orange robe pointed.

"Ah, yes. We should camp here. Uh. It's running off?" A slimmer and nearer figure with a blue jeweled forehead replied. The figure donning black leather armor with a hood frowned, watching the Dog tear off with frantic energy.

SMACK! 

"Don't be stupid, Arenae. Iron spike Tailed Dogs are literal cowards by themselves." The rough looking figure smacked the shoulder of Aenae with his large palm. 

"Heyyyy..." Aeneas protested, wincing.

"Quiet, you too. That's choice meat getting away. We must not allow it get back to its pack." The female drakon amongst them rose her two hands up.

"Allow me, Ronke. My dragon wants to play." 

Ronke turned towards the rough giant humanoid.

"Alright. Prove your Grakon worth, Denre." Ronke said with a smirk. 

With a brief nod, Denre plummeted a feet into the ground, before boosting up into the air. The air swirled, whistling around the grakon, inadvertently creating a cloud of fierce winds around him. Thundering on, the grakon reached its maximum height and dropped heavily down.

THUD!

Denre landed, crouching into the earth to lessen drawback from his landing. With that one jump, he had lessened the distance between his prey immensely. Denre stretched, extending to his full height of 8feets, he stretched his hands up, weaving some symbols. 

Behind him, various inscriptions appeared, burning into pure white energy as the silhouette of an even larger creature.

Startled, Bayo howled. He had been thrown off the ground by the tremendous crash behind him. While scrambling to his paws, he watched, warily the giant of a creature weaving symbols.

And now, he whimpered even as the air shimmered, the cloud of dust clearing off to reveal a dragon.

'Yasmin, scan them both.' Bayo ordered, his heart thumping furiously in his chest.

What was it with these people? 

He only wanted to live, to live his new life to the fullest, but...

The dragon flexed it's neck as it took a cursory look at its surroundings. Two large horns sprouted from the red scales dragon's skull forehead, three spikes of bones also sprouted at strategic points on its wings with a fish like tail, the fin entirely composed of razor sharp bones. All together with its red scales and somewhat orange figure ,the dragon looked ghoulish.

And fierce!

————

Name: Denre 

Specie: Grakon

Soul Status: Elite

Energy: 53 490/ 56 000

Ability: Bulk Smash

-

An evolved variant of the dragons crossbred with Giant bloodline. The hulking dragon humanoid in its evolution lost its Fire breathing ability but gained the ability of bulk smash. A smash move where it condenses energy into a part of the body and uses it to strike critical damage

—————

Ragore

Specie: Striker Dragon - Mythic Type

Soul Stage: Omni 

Energy: 440,000/440,00

Ability: Flame breath, Vicious Claws

The Ragore Mythic Type dragon is a vicious beast known for it remarkable prowess  at using its wings, claws and tails as weapons via the special placement of offense focused sturdy but sharp bones. 

—————-

"Ragore, Hunt, you have my order. Bring it alive." Denre spoke, pointing at the stunned Bayo.

Just then, a howl sounded off. And another, followed by the furious pounding of paws, towards the scene.

At that, Bayo's tail wagged.

His pack was coming. 

Which was bad! 

'Think, Bayo, Think. How do I save my pack?' Bayo mentally struggled.

"Wait? How come we hadn't noticed since?" Ronke muttered, eyes widened. They were standing at a considerable distance away from the main scene, watching as IronSpike Tailed Dogs graced the horizon.

"That it's an Alpha? Come on, who would have known?" Aeneas replied, rubbing his jeweled forehead.

"Look carefully, Aeneas, that dog is not an Ironspike Tailed Dog but yet it is the alpha of an ironspike pack. Something just isn't adding up." Ronke replied, frowning slightly.