"RAAAAH!"
The lion looked towards the origin of the shout and saw a small beast charging at him clumsily.
More food had appeared.
The lion was a Low-Rank Demonic Beast, and it had realized that weak beasts appeared from the direction of the earth walls in random intervals. These beasts had no experience and became easy food for the lion. Staying here had proven quite fruitful.
The lion righted itself and charged at the approaching attacker. This fight would end quickly, just like all the other ones. As the attacker neared the lion, the lion lifted one of its claws to strike the opponent.
BANG! CRK!
The swipe hit, but for some reason, the lion wasn't powerful enough to throw the attacker to the side. Additionally, its claws broke on the attacker's scales. The lion had never experienced anything like this!
BANG!
The lion was thrown into the distance as a huge gash nearly tore its right front-leg off. The lion panicked, and after sliding for a couple of meters, it got up again.
BANG!
But not before the attacker reached it and started wailing on the lion with all kinds of random attacks. Yet, all of these attacks proved effective as chunks of flesh got thrown into the distance. The lion couldn't do anything as it was reduced to chunks by the attacks.
In less than a minute, the lion's life ended. Aris had made his first kill, and it had proven incredibly easy. After seeing that the lion stopped moving, Aris calmed down again and looked at the corpse. For some reason, he wasn't satisfied. He somehow felt disappointed.
Aris didn't know why he felt this way. He wanted food, and now he had food. Something inside him told him that he shouldn't eat the corpse. Yet, his hunger disagreed. So, Aris dug in and began to consume the corpse, but he didn't feel happy or fulfilled while doing so.
Surprisingly, Aris managed to eat the entire thing in just a couple of hours, even though the lion had been even bigger than him. Additionally, his size hadn't even changed. It was almost like the lion had disappeared from the world.
Aris felt some tiredness return, but he didn't want to sleep now. He wanted to hunt more! Something inside of him told him to find more powerful food. This lion had been too weak!
Because of this feeling, Aris started walking into the forest in search of more prey. His hunger hadn't disappeared, and he wanted more!
Aris saw some small animals on his travel through the forest, but he ignored them. For some reason, he despised eating these small and weak things. He wanted something more powerful!
CRK!
A heavy thing fell on top of Aris and bit him in the neck, but the attacker's teeth broke on the scales. Aris became panicked as he was attacked and wildly flailed around.
BANG!
His tail hit the attacker, who got flung into the distance by the powerful hit. The attacker hit a tree and broke it with the impact. Aris stood up, his panic replaced with fury, as he charged at his attacker. He quickly found his attacker and could finally see what they looked like.
It was a black panther who had already received major injuries from the tail swipe. Aris arrived quickly and ended the panther's life before it could stand up again.
Yet, in comparison to last time, Aris didn't eat it. He was still hungry but not so hungry that it overwhelmed his inherent disgust for anything weak. With that thought, Aris left the corpse behind as he continued walking in a random direction.
More attacks appeared as the hours passed, but Aris never ate the corpses. All of these beasts were too weak! He hated that they were all so weak!
After a fruitless journey, Aris stopped. Now, his tiredness was stronger than his drive for finding powerful prey. Without looking for any kind of shelter, Aris simply laid down and began sleeping.
Yet, that had proven to be a bad idea. It wasn't because Aris had been ambushed by something powerful, but that he had been ambushed by too many weaklings! His sleep has been interrupted several times as weak beasts just kept jumping on him. Luckily, Aris was able to fall back asleep quickly.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sounds of heavy footsteps awoke Aris as he looked into the distance. There, he saw an over ten-meter-long centipede. The centipede had already noticed Aris, but it ignored him. In the centipede's eyes, this beast simply appeared too weak. The centipede required prey on its own level. After all, it was a Mid-Rank Demonic Beast.
As Aris saw the centipede, his blood began to boil. This centipede looked powerful! All tiredness vanished from his mind as battle-intent took over.
BANG!
Aris shot forward as he charged at the centipede. By now, Aris had gotten used to walking and running, and he wasn't clumsy anymore. He had already realized that he could also use his legs and tail as weapons.
The centipede noticed the attacker and turned to him. Then, it snapped its gigantic pincer-like teeth at him.
Aris felt that this attack wasn't as weak as all the others he had experienced. His brain scrambled to find a way out of this situation. Fortunately, he managed to come up with a solution and simply jumped over the attack.
The centipede's teeth snapped shut, but it hadn't caught anything. Surprised, the centipede looked upward and saw the falling Aris. Aris had used way too much power in his jump and jumped too high. He was well above the head of the centipede, giving it enough time to react. After a second, the pincers already pointed towards Aris again.
CRACK!
Aris couldn't evade in the air, and the pincers closed around him. Some of his scales cracked, but the attack hadn't injured him. Yet, he felt a crushing pressure on his chest as the teeth tried to break him apart.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Aris hit the pincer-like teeth with his hands in an effort to break free. The pressure increased on his torso, making him feel more panicked. His mind went wild as he tried everything to get free.
CRK!
One of the pincer-like teeth cracked as Aris hit it with all his power.
"SCREEE!" the centipede screeched as it threw Aris to the side. It had felt the sting in its weapon and decided against keeping Aris in its grip. Yet, its pincer-like teeth had been its most powerful weapon. If that didn't work, what would?
Aris righted himself and charged at the centipede again without any fear.
Meanwhile, the centipede quickly turned around and fled into the distance. This prey was too hard to kill. There was no point in continuing the fight.
Aris chased the centipede for several minutes, but it was just way faster than him. In the end, Aris had to abort the chase as he lost track of the centipede.
Even though Aris didn't have any food right now, he felt great. This brief brush with death felt exhilarating! He had never felt anything so amazing before!
This was a prey worthy of his hunger!
Yet, he had to keep his prey from fleeing in the future.
After this experience, Aris finally knew what he wanted. He wanted to consume powerful prey that could endanger his life. This was his purpose! This was his goal! This was his calling!
No beast realized it, but this was the birth of the Black Demon who would terrorize Area A 1 in the future!
Nothing in this region would be able to stop him!