Food chain

Later, as the sun rushed behind the mountains, giving way to the dangerously cold night.

Five people were sitting, each on a piece of wooden sticks, surrounding a campfire.

Cliff had taken his piece of meat to his mouth, as soon as he put it in, he was quick to chew to swallow.

"Damn, it's so good.!! »

Right in front of him, a blond man sat, his mouth watering as he waited for his portion to be cooked, of course it was Dahlias who took care of it.

- "You seem to like the spices of the Ibara clan sir" he asked Cliff, his long ears seemed to move.

"Yeah I really like it, I also like the way it's prepared too" Cliff said "the well-maintained texture gives it a very strong taste"

The elf held out a bowl containing a liquid with which he dipped his meat before eating it.

"Here sir, I don't think you would regret having tasted it" he said staring a little at Rakahn or Dahlia gauging their reactions "it's one of our specialties, we, the elf clan"

"What is it?" Cliff had asked, stirring the suspicious liquid in his hands a little. "It tastes really good."

"It's a stew of horned rabbit intestines and some fruit we grew, this sauce is even better when you dip the bread produced by the Orion Clan in it it's just pure deliciousness" declared the elf licking his fingers.

Without waiting Cliff had plunged the rod from which his meat was impaled, delicately macerating it in the sauce.

He quickly took a bite…

"But it's really good!!" He declared with his eyes wide. "It melts in your mouth."

The elf had a smug look on his face, he looked like he was proud, he enjoyed his few moments of 'pride' until Cliff spoke up.

"This young man there uh...Akumu, told me that the elf clan was present during the massacre of the Dhakat clan" Cliff had asked "how could this happen to them?, do you know the reason for the waves?"

A heavy silence weighed on the atmosphere, the elf did not even try to hide the dark look that had taken over his face, while the reflections of the flames danced in his emerald eyes.

"Where to start... the Dhakat clan was our neighbor, there was no real distance between us, when the waves started a week ago, together we defended ourselves until the worst happened."

"The worst ?" Cliff asked confused, trying to get a picture of what could be worse, capable of wiping out an entire clan.

"Yes sir, a horde of two hundred ogres led by a mutant ogre, can be considered the worst" he replied "they invaded us massacring everything in their paths, they simply saw us as prey, they sorted among us what they should capture or eat" he declared while a horrified look appeared on his face.

A mutant? Cliff repeated in his mind, with a dark expression on his face, these words seemed scary even to him.

Rakahn had explained to him that there was a large list where he was nicknamed like that, but originally he was called; the food chain.

The food chain brought together several varieties of creatures grouped in ranks and classes, this practice was created a thousand years ago during the war, it continues to perpetuate since the monsters were not annihilated but rather pushed back...

The classes of creatures designated a set of characteristics due to their evolution or degrees of refinement of their essence and their faculties as well as their advancement in ranks in the hierarchy.

And apparently an ogre was classified as a "monster" and its strength could vary depending on its rank, individually they were as strong as the demonic rat.

"Damn, I wish I didn't meet them too much at the moment"

"Hey wait...! How did you get here?" Cliff asked, cutting off the young elf who continued his explanations, "isn't your clan the least suited for combat?"

"Forgive me sir, but it's not that my clan isn't suited to fighting, it's that we elves do what is called 'summoning elemental spirits' however the rank of the spirit too high for our unawakened essence stones, the result was that after casting two or three spells we found ourselves completely drained and completely vulnerable" he retorted with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Dahlia had frowned a little annoyed at the elf's behavior but Cliff had gestured with one hand to calm her down.

He lingered for a moment and gestured for the young elf to continue. He simply nodded and did so;

"All we know is that several high-ranking rifts have opened in the surrounding area, we have put forward two hypotheses; perhaps it is because of the arrival of high-ranking creatures that had pushed the most weak to migrate in our direction? Or rather that they are attracted to some random things because during our confrontations we could notice that they were devoid of any suspicion of intelligence even if they act by instinct, their behavior becomes more and more bizarre"

"Like they're being controlled?" Cliff asked as his eyes searched for answers.

"Yes sire, it was as if they were being controlled," he said.