Kion's eyes shot open. He hurriedly stood up, unearthing his longsword from the soil.
He glanced to his side. He had foolishly left his brother to sleep.
Kai wasn't there, or anywhere around him.
"Fuck!" Kion said as he peered through the trees, looking for any sign of where his brother would have gone.
Soo enough, he noticed a faint flicker in the distance, like a golden drop of sunlight. He remembered reading that an indicator of the Egovore's feeding was a bright yellow light shining above the victim's head.
The Egovore had already gotten to Kai.
Kion riled a piece of fabric off his poncho. He steadied his breathing as his hands worked to wrap the piece of fabric tightly around his nose, creating a makeshift face-mask.
The pink mist still hung in the air, and Kion couldn't risk falling prey to the Egovore's tricks again.
He jumped through the trees, squeezing and slashing his way towards the golden light.
***
Kai's eyes were rolled up in white.
He was brought down to his knees, and behind him, a tree-like figure stood menacingly, its branch like arms worming their way into his skull.
Above his head, a golden ball of light grew gradually in size.
The creature was already feasting.
If Kion did not stop this now, he would lose his brother.
He stabbed the Egovore in the chest.
The creature squealed.
It let go of Kai, ripping its branches free of his skull. It turned and raised a hand to strike, but Kion was already on top of the situation, slicing through its wooden arms like clockwork.
In the end, what was left of was a pile of sticks.
Firewood.
Kion remembered the promise he had given the monster midway through their battle.
Kai collapsed to the ground.
"Kai. Brother!" Kion shook and tapped at his brother violently. There were hole-shaped burn marks on his head where the Egovore had touched.
"Hrmmm…" Kai muttered rubbish words that Kion couldn't make any sense of.
"Wake up." Kion prodded.
"Hrrmmm…hmmm…"
Same response.
Kion realised that his brother may have been too far gone, driven to a mentally vegetative state.
The Egovore may have not had enough of him to completely kill him, but it was sure to do some serious damage.
"Hrmmmm…my subjects…urghh."
Kion had to do something.
A memory suddenly surfaced in his mind:
"That's a detox potion. It should cleanse the lingering effects of the storm-pill quite nicely"
Kion remembered his visit from Shaman, and the potion he had given to him.
It erased the effects from the storm-pill. Would it do the same for Kai? Erase the effects of the Egovore's mind-feeding?
Kion could only give it a try.
"I don't know if this will help," he said as he brought out the little that was left of his potion, "but it's your only chance."
He parted his brother's lips and forced the liquid down. When he was sure he had swallowed it, he corked his potion bottle and covered his brother's nose with a piece of his stripped poncho.
He stood up, taking a quick look around.
The battle was over, so why were they still here.
Kion suddenly sensed something, or rather, smelled it.
It was his burn mark, lingering somewhere in the trees.
Kion raised his sword. The Egovore had somehow managed to fool him once again.
In this rose-tinted world, he would have had trouble seeing his [Smoke Trail], which was why he hadn't been able to track the monster.
And given that he was already distracted with the possible demise of his brother, he failed to realise that what he had killed had no burn mark of his.
And of course, it had been too easy.
Kion scanned the clearing. He sniffed at the air, soaking in the dry crisp smell of burnt wood. He turned north. The smell dulled. He turned east…
The smell intensified.
There.
Kion launched himself into the air.
[Smoke Form]
He dissipated into tendrils of smoke, blowing through the air and weaving through the trees until he located his target.
He changed back to human form and slashed his sword downward.
The Egovore looked up, spotting him before he got within range.
Kion's eyes widened. It had been expecting him.
This was another trap.
THUD!
A huge tree trunk slammed into his side, smashing his ribs.
"Urgghhh" Kion groaned as his body flew to the side, slamming the ground and rolling through the dirt.
He burst into a clearing, his flailing body finally coming to a stop.
COUGH!
Kion spat out blood, bright and crimson red.
He looked up…
And saw the monster right in front of him.
"What a clever child you are." It said.
Kion didn't believe it.
"You thought I couldn't talk?" The Egovore asked, as if reading his mind.
"How did you—" Kion sputtered as he spoke, but the Egovore interrupted.
"I am much smarter than I appear, human," the Egovore said in layered voices, "and it turns out, that you are too. So I'll allow you to tell me. Why is it that I can talk, and why did I choose to not show it all this while?"
"Because…" Kion wheezed. He didn't want to be playing the Egovore's games, but he was in not much shape to fight.
His best option was to bide his time, and hope that his brother got himself just in time to lend him a helping hand.
"You are not what we expected." Kion said in a slow, deliberate tone. "You are not just any Egovore. You're different, aren't you? You evolve, you adapt, and work best when put in danger."
"Very good." The Egovore said as it crouched down till it was eye-level with Kion. It stretched out its arms and raised his head by the hair.
"But that does not explain why I can talk, does it?"
It pulled.
Kion winced at the pain. The Egovore could finish him off, but it was slow, savouring its final precious moments with its prey before devouring.
"You can talk because…" Kion thought deeper. He had read about monsters and all they could do, and he had seen somewhere that higher class monsters were not just more powerful, but very good at adapting to situations.
This Egovore must have been higher in class than he and and his brother anticipated.
But that didn't explain the full story.
Kion suddenly remembered something. While he was reading, he had seen some scribbles about a secret class, the highest of all. A class that many had disregarded as myth due to how exceedingly rare it was.
A class that belonged to very few specific monsters that adapted within minutes, evolving from basic mindless creatures to a level of intelligence higher than that of any man.
The Egovore didn't talk earlier because it didn't know how to. It had watched them fight, watched them strategise…
It had watched them talk.
And that was how it had learned. That was how it had, despite making a lot of mistakes, lured them into its hallucinations. That was how it had tricked Kion not just once, but twice.
An orc's greatest asset was their great strength.
An elf's greatest strength was their affinity for magic and the arcane arts.
A bird-folk's strength was their flight and agility.
While a human's strength, and possibly the greatest of them all, was their intelligence.
Interestingly, there was only one class rumoured to possess a human's greatest asset, and even more, provided they had the time to adapt and evolve to whoever they were fighting.
"Because you're an SSS-Class monster."
The Egovore smiled.