Hunting The Hunters

While examining the gear James lifted first the jacket then the bracers. The jacket resembled a trench coat with fur around the collar and somewhat down the back, trying it on james actually wondered how it looked for a moment before shaking his head and focusing on the danger only a few meters away.

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Void Beast Hide (unique)

all stats +2

Void Hide- While wearing this armor the user may activate the skill in conjunction with Void Skin to improve the damage resistance for one minute.

Void Beast Shell (unique)

endurance and strength +2

Hungering Shield- The wearer may activate a shielding aura for five seconds, this aura will absorb attacks inflicting to it and fuel the user based on the power of the blow recieved. Physical blows regenerate health while energy attacks regenerate energy.

Void Beast Claws (unique)

agility +5

Void Step (passive)- The wearers speed is increased by 10%

active ability- the users speed is increased by 50% for one minute.

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After equipping his new gear james stood to leave but something caught him off guard. At the lake he saw all of the wolves were dead except for one, crushed by the large creature from the water that resembled a big crab but the crab was bloody and slow as if near death. Meanwhile the last wolf was battered and bleeding but still managed to stand defiant before the crab. The wolf lunged forward attacking the crabs joints to make its limbs useless, with each bite the crab stumbled as the wolf avoided attacks using its superior speed to weaken each limb until finally a leg was torn off.

After this leg fell away with a gush of blue nlood it was all downhill for the crab. Its balance was forced to spread out wider making the joints larger targets below the limb and the wolf too advantage of this biting at them from below while narrowly avoiding the stomping of razor sharp legs. Eventually the dismembered crab was resting on its stomach slowly bleeding out from its torn limbs, the wolf was busy feasting on the meat inside the legs to recover its energy as it waited for the crab to grow weaker.

This brutal display was all james needed to understand what he was in for in this place, kill or be killed and the loser becomes nothing more than food for the victor. James left the area quickly and vowed he would stay alive and escape when the gate finally opened back up.

~

After an hour of careful travel james found a cave that would be suitable for camp and upon looking inside he saw it was clear if any beasts so he went to work trying to camouflage the entrance. It was barely large enough for him to enter and exit but this helped even and inexperienced teenager to cover it with branches he found.

Inside of this cave james began to experiment with his abilities hoping to get an understanding of how they worked; the majority were self explanatory but the void skin did have an odd effect where it would be visible as black stripes across his body, he hoped they looked like simple tattoos as the more he looked at them the more they resembled the stripes of a tiger.

It took time but eventually he managed to grow accustomed to his abilities, thankfully in this dark gate he could use them indefinitely without fear of running out of energy.

As james trained his abilities he tested his ability to control the darkness but it was not what he expected. He couldn't control shadows he wasnt 'touching' by being in the area, if he was then he could manipulate it similar to how mages manipulate fire.

Manipulation of shadows was odd and even though he could do it all mentally using his hands helped him to focus his thoughts. First he moulded the shadows over a surface to try to camouflage it but the amount he could move could barely cover a square foot before getting so thin it was easy to see the wall. What this did teach him was the hidden property of the shadows.

When the shadows were manipulated by him they gained a corrosive effect.

With no need to sleep or even eat due to his passive abilities james spent the entire next day training his control over his abilities. His control over shadows became finer, his speed with shaping them grew faster, he discovered that his body was immune to the corrosive effect but his clothes were not.

All except for his armor.

While practicing with trying to make armor that would damage weapons hitting him james damaged his shirt, but strangely enough the jacket he received was unaffected and this brought the discovery that his clawed gloves were also unaffected.

By the end of his second day training in isolation james had a way to fight even if it was incredibly dangerous.

~

As quietly as he could possibly be james moved around his cave looking for easy prey. James knew nothing about hunting or tracking but he had great senses which he would take advantage of.

After some time james found a strange sight, a serpent lay on a low branch, it was a dark gray like it had evolved to camouflage itself against stone, the creature has no visible eyes but its tongue flicked out regularly.

James slowly approached hoping to catch it off guard but it suddenly moved lowering itself from the branch. He took this as a blessing and stood in place waiting for it to pass him but as soon as the snake got close it lunged with its mouth open to strike.