Chapter 40: Rave Beast—Kjallar
"Father's in trouble?" Dullip was stunned in shock, for a moment rooted to the spot, flabbergasted. He hurriedly gathered his bearings and recalled the situation from before, calming down as he began to think, 'Is this why father didn't reply to me before?'
The oddities he encountered recently played in his head. Rapid degradation of the soil while giving out an excessively bountiful harvest, but the last of its kind. Spirits that weren't wholeheartedly committed to their job, and Keyn's unnatural aggression.
The Spirits Vhiny and Stunra tried to kill him, something forbidden by the Sickle Deity. And most worrisome of all was the lack of response from the Sickle Deity when in truth, he should have been able to have an omniscient perspective through the Faith shared with all the Spirits and the Apostle.
Adding all that, and Merku Garobu's plea at the end, Dullip arrived at a worrisome conclusion, "A fearsome Devil has set its sights on Garobu City. And father has already fallen victim to a trap."
'Considering how I'm still able to use my Faith without issues, it seems father has only been trapped. His powers are still functional, which is why everyone is still wielding the power of the Garobu Faith.' Dullip thought things through and grunted in rage, 'This means…even at his full power, father is unable to face this Devil's schemes.'
Dullip sighed as he stared at the unconscious face of Iota, 'I wanted to interrogate him further, but the situation is messed up as is.'
He walked out of the cave and stared at the sparsely green land that stretched from the foot of the hill to the river. The land was semi-arid, not suitable to grow crops.
This was one of the reasons why people lived in cities, under the protection of Deities. The lands beyond the city were unforgiving, teeming with enough dangers to kill pretty much everyone that tried to survive without the aid of a Deity.
Dullip was silent, observing the landscape as a gentle wind blew past, faintly ruffling his clothes. He was standing headwind, and having arrived twenty metres to his back, positioned atop the peak of the hill in silence, stealthily, was a bipedal beast.
Despite spanning a height of 2.5 metres, it had a fairly flexible spine, allowing it to crouch forward while in wait. Its legs conformed to a mountain goat's, allowing it to nimbly climb rocky mountains like they were child's play.
On its chest was a naturally forming armour, resembling a sea shell in the material. Through the feline eyes of its tiger head, it gazed at Dullip calmly. The lion's mane draping from the back of its head to its shoulders gently danced in the wind.
Its body sported grey fur akin to a bear's but had yellow stripes similar to a tiger's, giving it a menacing appearance. After all, it had one extra limb other than its pair of legs, measuring a length of three metres.
The limb was flexible like a scorpion's tail and situated at its end was a construct resembling a hammer, made from the same material as a sea shell, but harder.
Rave Beast—Kjallar!
Rave Beasts were creatures that populated the wilderness of their world, each possessing terrifying combat power, beyond what a normal human could ever hope to handle, even while armed to the teeth.
When an animal developed a single aspect of its body to the extreme and conceptualised it into a definite biological trait, it became a Rave Beast. Immediately upon becoming a Rave Beast, it experienced a growth spurt, causing this biological trait to develop further.
This biological trait was termed 'Extreme Capability.'
A Nasp was one such Rave Beast, possessing the Extreme Capability of scent tracking where they sought a single scent until the end of their lives. This extreme response was why it was termed an Extreme Capability.
Similarly, a Kjallar was a Rave Beast that grew a shell and used it as an appendage. It was a Mollusc that took its predatory means to the extreme to grow a limb-like appendage that possessed potent impact power.
The Kjallar stared at Dullip as its sole arm poised upwards, ready to strike as it observed him, waiting for the wind to die down, unwilling to create any sounds during its approach.
Time passed as seconds turned into minutes. The Kjallar waited patiently as soon, the wind died down. Immediately, its spring-like legs leapt forth, causing it to rush down the peak and appear before Dullip within two seconds.
Its arm lashed down as the hammer shell aimed for his head, intending to splatter it. But, right before its attack was about to land on him, a blinding light flashed out of Dullip's body from multiple locations.
And immediately after, a dozen sickles shot out and stabbed into the Kjallar, forcing it to stop due to the injury. Dullip condensed a sickle in his hand and enlarged it, lashing out with it as he used the blunt side to make contact with the target's head.
Gong!
Followed by a sonorous sound, the Kjallar fainted. Dullip dragged it back to the cave and observed Royl gaining consciousness just then, "Good, one of you woke up."
He threw the Kjallar within the cave and spoke curtly, "Tell Iota to make preparations for a battle. This Kjallar is a bribe for it. I'll be returning in a day. Be here until then."
His pupils slowly dilated as he stared at Royl, "If any of you dare escape, I'll make it my mission to destroy you. Besides,"
He began to walk away slowly, "You know what kind of place the wilderness is, do you?"
"I won't do anything foolish, Lord Dullip." Royl bowed in a hurry, "Even we can't survive beyond the city."
"I'm not talking about you," Saying so, Dullip shot a glance at Iota before vanishing from view.
Haah!
Royl sighed in exhaustion when Dullip left, relaxing only after that, "He's terrifying."
Royl then stared at the unconscious figure of Kjallar in shock, 'It's hard enough as is just to kill a Kjallar, even for a Spirit. But he knocked it unconscious with minimal injuries? Just how much of a monster is he?'
Royl hurriedly unleashed his Fear and condensed a string that he used to bind the Kjallar, ensuring it wouldn't break free. Following that, he stared at the bump that had appeared on Iota's head, "Was he knocked unconscious by Lord Dullip?"
"What relationship do they share between them?" He frowned, "It doesn't seem like they're enemies, since they haven't tried to kill each other. But,"
"They definitely aren't friends either."
---------------------
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/Q544Bxu
---------------------
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone