The ground shattered, debris sprayed and dust engulfed the place. A trail of blood escaped the dust-covered location as the beast's gaze remained firmly fixed on the dust cloud when he appeared.
Like a mad beast who had lost everything, driven by the desire to drag his enemies with him to the grave.
Boom!
They crash-landed, shaking the forest once more. Amidst Elias's roar, there was one sentence.
"I WILL NOT BE HUMILIATED!"
"What is that?" The girls reached the hunter and asked. They had just heard the fourth boom.
"He lost himself. Run east and don't stop. I will reach you!" He ordered before he vanished in streak of lightning.
'He is enraged. Good. But it will take a toll on him.' He reached to the crashing site, a deep hole with spreading cracks.
'Not super strength. Not force explosion.' He thought, 'Gravity!'
He flashed toward the possible destination, a boiling red river. The Calamity Beast air-roared in a direction and propelled itself from the river.
'It dragged him here. Calamity Beasts are extremely dangerous because of their intellect!'
The water bubbled and something was rising but never came out. Then, a jet of boiling red water shoot toward the descending Elias.
His stumped arm punched with force that shattered the water jet, and he crash-landed on the river.
Boom!
The water exploded outward and was pushed away for tens of meters, revealing the riverbed. It no longer boiling and red, but cold and refreshing.
The beast had run away.
'Grimhammer, Worldbender, or Stray Gravity user!'
'He is out of juice!'
The hunter flashed behind Elias, a thin tendril lightning touched his neck and he fainted. The hunter flashed back, as red boiling water began to rise.
***
"He is strong!" The girl said after ten minutes of silence in a small cave carved by the Hunter.
Elias's laid on the hunter's thick coat, breathing deeply, eyes squeezed shut as if in pain and having a bad dream.
"What… talent is that?" She hesitated to ask a young man, not older than 25, but with an aura of finesse in his ability.
"I assume Gravity," he answered her. His gaze never left Elias's red charred body, feeling him with his unique lightning perception.
"He must be at least S Rank!" she whispered. Fear still in her eyes, she twitched at every wind blowing or slight insect movement.
Elias stirred, then rose. As his eyes flew open, they were unfocused, his head shifting around, blinking in confusion. Then he reached to rub his eyes, the stump poke, and he recoiled back.
His lack of vision returned and he stared at the stump blankly, confused, then realization hit, then pain—not of body but of heart.
Another expression went through his face, when his attention was on his left arm, the limb unmoving and couldn't even feel it. His face twisted in anger and agony.
"My hand..." he reached with the stump and nudged it and there was no reaction, as if it were a dead man's hand.
"No. Impossible. My hand..."
His talent energy began to rise as his mental faculties failed again, but a smooth hand reached toward his shoulder, and a whisper pulled him back to the outside world.
"Calm down." Elias's eyes snapped toward the man, then darted toward the girl behind. "Blood still flows into your left hand. It's not dead. The nerve movements are fatigued but can be reawakened. Okay?"
Elias wasn't the best in academics for nothing; his gaze back to the hand confirmed what was told, but he also knew many conditions where blood may flow but the limb not usable.
However, with the world's advanced technology and unusual talents, that could be fixed. Though expensive, it was doable.
Having thought this through, he calmed down, his eyes drooped, and the tension in the air vanished. He recalled everything—his rage, his despair—and he sighed.
That reaction was unlike him at all. Not once had he ever lost his mind like that. It was like he was taken over by something else.
"Mental breakdown is common when an awakened comes in contact with a Calamity Beast without guidance."
Elias returned his attention to the Hunter.
"Calamity Beasts are not just physically destructive but mentally too. That's why the unawakened can't even perceive them without special tools. Your confusion, emotional turmoil, and power outbursts are all a result of the Calamity Beast. So, calm down. If you are here alone, it means your Gravity is at least S rank. S Rank Talents have gradual development against this kind of effect."
Elias knew that. His suit had told him that. With difficulty, he adjusted his sitting position and leaned against the stone.
"I'm Platinum Rank Hunter Elias Thunderspark!"
Elias looked at the man and said "Elias!"
"Yes, my name is Elias," the Hunter repeated.
"I'm Elias too!"
"Oh. Namesakes, I see. Nice to meet you!" The hunter smiled.
"Okay, Elias. You are quite a tough guy. You seemed to have clashed with that creature in the river before!"
"I escaped it," he said.
"I wish to touch your red skin. Is that okay?"
Elias had forgotten his skin had been injured. He looked down; the blisters had long dried, and new skin was forming underneath. Now that he thought about it, his heart beat with a bit of pain, and his skin was a bit tighter and thicker due to the healing burns.
Elias looked at Elias Thunderspark and nodded. A touch, but he didn't feel it; he was numb.
"It's healing, but you need a professional to fix the unevenness of skin thickness."
"Are you from Six Leaf?" the girl asked from behind the hunter.
There was a resemblance between her and the hunter, even their hair was similar in a way, but the give away sign was the mark on their foreheads of a streak of thunder spark.
A birthmark of some sort.
"Yes," Elias answered.
"Worldbender or...?"
"We don't ask questions. It doesn't matter who he is or where he's from. What matters is that we are deeply close to one of the great chasm, and we need to move away from it."
Elias too wouldn't want to give his family name just like that.
True, Worldbenders and Grimhammers are the Noble Bloodlines that are associated with Gravity, but there are those called Strays.
Strays are random people among commoners or other families that awaken Gravity. Though, the two Noble Families will end up recruiting them or inviting them to join the family.
Hunter Elias's head snapped back toward the cave entrance. "It's coming. We need to leave!"
Elias stood, grimacing not out of pain but due to the feeling of being armless.
"You will run east and—"
"Wait. Where is my book?"
"What book?" the girl asked in panic. "We don't have time. We need to escape this place!"
"No. I can't. I need—I will go get it!" Elias stepped out of the cave with conviction; he wouldn't leave the book.
"Sasha, run east and don't look back."
Before she interject he flahed, grabbed Elias and moved at high back to where the battle occurred.
High temperature had engulfed that part of the forest, and mist increased the heavy humidity in the air.