The Purple Evergrowth forest covered an incredibly large stretch of land located within the boundaries of the Thorne Empire.
It existed at the empire's extremeties, and was filled to the brim with all manners of horrors beyond human comprehension. It covered a large portion of the Northern and eastern edges of the empire and travelling right through it would lead one all the way to the Sunrise Mountains.
Of course, with a large and incredibly diverse population of Abominations, it was only sensible that there would be a caste created based on the power and age of the beasts within.
The stronger and older an Abomination was, the closer towards the center of the forest its best or den would be.
Compared to the beasts living on the fringes, those deep within the forest could be very well classified as ungodly terrors. And the worst part, was that compared to red areas, those Abominations that dwelled in the depths of the forest seemed paltry in comparison.
Keeping his breathing to a minimum, Nero calmly observed the small clearing before him.
The trees in this clearing were scanty and lacked the signature purple leaves. In fact, they were completely barren— a rather sore spot in an otherwise lush forest.
The stumps were twisted, dried out, and gnarled. They had been dead for centuries, perhaps.
Laying in this clearing at the edge of the forest, was a herd of Corrupted Scavengers.
After harvesting the hind quarter of the first Corrupted Scavenger he had found, Nero had decided to continue his hunt.
By tracking the footsteps left behind by the first Scavenger, he was able to find this spot. Here, eight Corrupted Scavengers were nestled.
Compared to the one he had faced earlier, these ones were larger, their tense black muscles robust and viril as their large extended jaws ripped into the carcass of a much larger Abomination.
'That must have been the runt of the pack. It could survive only my scavenging for fruits.'
Compared to actual flesh and blood, the fruits of the Purple Evergrowth, despite being intoxicating, contained less of the nutrients needed by the Abominations.
As such, it was not a very good sustainable food source. Creatures that got used to eating only that would eventually die of malnourishment and tehri corpses would be devoured by the forest.
'I can't take on all eight of them.'
Nero quickly came to that conclusion and prepared to turn around.
However, something caught his attention that made him pause.
From where he was hidden, he could see something stalking the group of Scavengers.
He felt fear wash over him.
'W-what is that thing?'
It seemed to blend in with the shadows and the darkness, itself presence almost completely absent. He had only noticed it by chance after seeing a shrub move unnaturally. He had no idea how big it was, or if he was still seeing things.
For some reason, he decided to wait and see what would happen next.
The Corrupted Scavengers were rather focused on their meal.
They were clearly unable to bring down a creature as large and powerful as this one had been. True to their name, they were scavengers and thrived on the leftovers of more powerful Abominations.
There were dozens of nests containing these wretched creatures scattered all across the borders of the Purple Evergrowth forest.
'The creature that fell this one must have had its fill and left already. These guys swooped in right after to claim the remnants. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be the only ones eyeing the prize.' Nero thought to himself.
Suddenly, his eyes twitched.
Something shot into the clearing.
Something moving so fast, all he could see, was a shadow.
His body jerked back instinctively, but he froze in place the next moment as he got to witness a terrible, grizzly sight.
The head of a Scavenger was sent flying through the air, a fountain of blackened blood gushing from its severed neck as its twitching body fell lifelessly to the ground.
The rest of the Scavenger's screeched and hissed in confusion as they all leapt back.
The form of the attacking creature was revealed.
Nero trembled as his body went cold in fear.
The creature that appeared was something he would expect to see only in the worst of nightmares.
Its body was a twisted mix between some large feline and an insect. It was covered in plates of dark carapace and violet fur.
Its tail tapered off into a vicious looking sting. Around it, dark shadows seemed so swirl. Nero's eyes widened. He had never seen something like this before.
Its skin neck was long, and on its face, it possessed a single large eye and a mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth that bled a rancid acid that sizzled as it dropped onto the ground.
He remembered that most of these Abominations were born of the twisted creations of the Fallen Angels, further profaned and corrupted by the evil Ein Sof that permeated the mortal world.
This was an abomination by every sense of the word.
He stayed completely still, afraid he would draw the thing's attention. For what it was worth it seemed significantly stronger than anything he had ever faced up until now.
The Scavengers seemed to sense the difference as well as they all instantly took off.
The maw of the attacking Abomination opened and it let out a piercing screech.
Then it shot forward, faster than a shadow. Its stinger pierced through the posterior of a fleeing Scavenger. Its black ichor was sprayed on the grass. Flicking the corpse onto the ground, the beast pounced in the closest Scavenger, tearing its limbs off its body before biting into its face and crushing its skull.
Its mouth filled with the viscous dark blood, it let out a shriek into the grey heavens.
Then it froze.
Its neck snapped around.
Nero felt all the life drain away from his body.
For whatever reason, the Abomination was staring right at him.