98 Specimen No. 12

"You're telling me you aren't curious at all?" Thomas asked as he walked next to Frey. They were still far from the Virility household. They just talked to distract themselves from the boredom and frigid rain. "He always does these amazing things without reason or common sense, yet you have never asked yourself why?"

"It's not that," Frey whispered back. "I have just learned to live with it. I have taken guesses. I'm not saying I'm not curious. For years I have tried to figure out how he can do what he does, but even if he has magic, that can only explain a fraction of what he can do. My latest theory is that he's the hero in disguise, but he's nothing like my grand…he doesn't act like a hero."

"Have you tried asking?" Thomas glanced back at Doevm, making sure the genius was out of earshot. "You saw him back there. He just walks into the dark without a care in the world, like nothing can touch him. Think about when he matched up against you. He could fight with his hands without a teacher or a trainer. Even my father didn't know where he learned how to do that. He learned to read at age four even though no one taught him how."

"Thomas," Frey sighed. "Some things you just don't ask questions about. I'm sure Doevm has his reasons. He'll tell us when he's ready, or we'll just find out one day. Either way, I trust him."

"I don't believe that for a second," Thomas glanced back at Doevm again. "I'm going to-"

"Will you two shut up?" Jameson growled. As they walked through the rain, it was like he had a personal darker cloud hovering over his head. "I want complete quiet until we get back to the mansion or I will knock both of you on your asses. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Thomas and Frey bowed even though Thomas shouldn't have.

…

Doevm frowned as he followed everyone from the back. 'What was that?' he thought. 'Frey felt it too, but why didn't Thomas feel anything? The reason might have been that I and Frey were closer than Thomas, but the difference was only by a few feet. Magic is out of the question since Frey can't sense it. Similarities between us could explain it.'

'Maybe it was because of our experience in combat, which makes us more sensitive to bloodlust. No, it was something more than that. The second similarity between me and Frey is our use of soul magic yet, he has little practice in it. I doubt he even realizes its full application. Draken's book offers no explanation so far. Maybe I need to reread it.'

He stared at Jameson, weighing in his mind if he should take the creature's head by force or not. 'He seemed defensive of it, like he didn't want any of us to know about it. I didn't sense any mana from it so I doubt it was a magical beast. That creature was strong enough to hurt Jameson.'

'Is the beast intelligent? Has it been hiding in the shadows for so long, or did it appear from somewhere? I didn't feel any disturbances in mana, so I doubt it was a summoned beast. I was too far away to sense anything. I wish I could have been present at the battle. If only Thomas had helped us loot, I could have acquired more information.' He eyed Jameson's spatial ring again. 'Why did he hide it? He looks agitated, like this wasn't just an ordinary fight. It was emotional. To him, he wasn't fighting an animal.'

'If I try to use soul magic to pressure him, he might notice. I need more practice with it on more intelligent subjects to verify whether they detect my soul interfering with theirs or not.' He hit his head a couple times.

'Slow down, think. What were the details of the scene? Trees were uprooted along with bushes. Why would a creature do that? Since they had claw marks, I doubt the creatures used them as weapons.' From his hand, came a ribbon of black mana. It slithered down into the dirt and went the opposite way of the party.

It went over the gravel, finding the dead corpse of a snake and wrapping around it. The snake's eyes brightened as its soul returned from the land of the dead. After a few minutes, it found the area full of wreckage. With its night vision, Doevm could see with more clarity. Shadows became bright.

Deep footprints, at least two times larger than a human's, were everywhere. They were pairs, signaling the creature walked on two legs. As the snake slithered on, Doevm's mana drained away.

The snake slithered through the trees, finding nothing wrong with them or the craters. Deeper into the forest it went until it arrived at the main battleground. The black liquid had already been washed away by the rain. Doevm cursed and slithered to the epicenter of the battle, to the deepest crater. The main body of the creature had steam coming out of it as it shrunk. Like it was being sucked dry by a vampire, only flesh, hair, fangs, and teeth remained. Doevm suppressed a groan, thinking of other ways to gather clues.

While the body was gone, there were plenty of other things left, like the large amounts of hair that was scattered over everywhere, or the claw and bite marks, which hinted at its strength. 'Inanimate objects left behind while the physical body dissipates. Since the time of day didn't change, this doesn't seem to be a vampire variant. With no moon out, it isn't a werewolf variant either, even though the amount of hair and large claw marks suggest so.'

He collected some of the hair by swallowing it. As he slithered down the path, the hair was turning progressively whiter and appearing in shorter strands. When he ate it, the hair nearly broke apart in a few seconds. Cursing again, he grabbed any living plants in the area. 'Maybe I can get Frey to absorb their souls and replay their memories later. That reminds me, maybe I should ask him to teach me that trick.' Just before the snake slithered away, he heard a voice. His connection ceased.

"What?" Doevm accidentally yelled, earning him strange looks from the people around him. 'The snake couldn't sense anything like I can with my mana sense, but I shouldn't have been taken by surprise…that is, if it was an animal that attacked me."

…

Hector picked up the severed head of the Undead snake. It turned to dust in seconds, the pieces fading into the wind. "It looks like someone was curious about my little experiment. Shame that its owner decided to destroy the body. I was close to tracking the owner down. Oh well, I'll find him or her later."

Taking a walk around the area, it wasn't long until he found the corpse of the Flashape. He gently picked the withering corpse up, feeling along its wrinkled body. The hair fell out of the thick bag of flesh that was once so full of life.

'It's a shame. This was my best specimen so far. At least now I know the limits.' Taking out his spatial ring, every tree, hair, fang, and piece of damaged plant, was pulled into it. 'The tournament is going to be soon, so I'll have to stop my experimentation for now. I guess I can call this a minor success. I can always make more.' He walked into the forest, his back disappearing into the foliage.