The vines holding Jasper in place only grew tighter with every second as he was drawn closer to the creature caught in its vile embrace as his blood was slowly drained from his body, he could feel his very life force leaving him with every second and yet at the same time his body was being saturated by energy in return. The wounds he had left on the creatures may not have been severe enough to kill them, but it was enough for now to be keeping him alive as his wounds repeatedly opened and closed as his body rapidly healed and subsequently tore once again.
It was a horrific form of torture he would only wish on his worst of enemies as teh pain from ebing continuously drained and healed endlessly was quite agonising to say the least but at least he was still alive to suffer this fate, anyone else would likely die in his situation pretty quickly but given the rate of this divine punishment he would be here for some time unless he did something soon.
He tried to raise his arm to stab into the creature some more but he was powerless against its terrifying strength. How strong were these creatures anyway? They had to be at least Demons or maybe even devils in order to break through his defences but from their senses they seemed no less intelligent than a beast or maybe a monster, they failed to align with anything he had seen so far, back in their travels Jasper and Damian had encountered many creatures and had learnt a thing or two about how they acted based on the 'class' assigned to them.
Beasts seemed no different than feral animals who solely wished to devour the flesh of every living creature which wasn't a horrific creature from the depths of a nightmare, but even that wasn't always the case.
Monsters were more intelligent than beasts, much like pets kept by only the richest of families with a level of intelligence on par with that of a small child, they could form basic plans but were susceptible to being tricked which honestly made them easier to deal with than beasts for the most part, despite them being stronger on average and were the most common class of creature they had encountered.
Demons were some of the more fearsome enemies they had fought, having a keen mind capable of greater thought not unlike humans, they are cunning and have been seen to form basic traps and plans when the situation suited it, they typically lead smaller hordes due to their superior strength and intellect.
Devils were a rare sight to see, so far they had only encountered two, but both of them possessed intellect which surpassed an average person in terms of planning and foresight with terrifying strength to match, but what made them stand out was the fact that they all seemed to possess abilities closely resembling the Aspect abilities of survivors which made them all unique threats in their own right.
Finally there were the Tyrants, they had only encountered one so far and from what they saw they were truly terrifying, to the point that Jasper shuddered every time he thought back on the creatures gaze, they seemed to not be too much more powerful than devils in terms of power and intellect but what stood out to him was the fact that they controlled something much more insidious, domination. Based on its name and the memory it left behind they seemed to be born leaders for hordes or more accurately, were able to create personal hordes to follow them around and do their bidding which the two of them almost fell into if it wasn't for Damian's quick thinking.
They had guessed there was at least a few more classes they had yet to discover and hoped they never would but the life of a fool is always filled with twisted humor, these things didn't fit the conventional model Jasper and Damian had created, having the strength of a strong Demon or a Devil yet having the mind like that of a beast or perhaps a very stupid monster. However there was another possibility which made Jasper feel even more anxious of the forest, him and Damian had both defeated an awakened creature in their nightmares so the possibility of these creatures being awakened could be possible, however in their nightmares the awakened creatures seemed insurmountable and were like forces of nature, yet here they were mere scavengers on the forest floor, ambush predators who picked at the loose scraps at the bottom of the food chain.
Jasper didn't want to think about what that meant for the other inhabitants of this place, if the once unkillable monsters of their pasts were relegated to mere scavengers, what ranks were the predators of this place, during their travels they had learnt of only a handful of ranks,
The dormant rank was the one every infected monster seemed to possess so far, as well as this Damian had talked about how mundane people in his nightmare were also classified as dormant which suggested they were the bottom of the barrel, the lowest possible strength that life could take.
The next rank was dreamer, this was the rank which all survivors possessed yet Damian seemed to believe that rank was unique and shouldn't be counted towards the rest as he hadn't heard the term anywhere else, Jasper had disagreed with him on this one and they agreed to disagree until more evidence was found for either side.
They had speculated that the next rank was Awakened based on what they had seen both from their nightmares and from Jaspers Aspect, it seemed that the rank of creatures shared the same names as those of aspects so they were using them as guidelines for now, these creatures were far more powerful than dormant creatures whilst being highly resistant to most forms of rudimentary attack.
The next ranks they knew about were Transcendent, which was the rank of Javier's aspect as he had mentioned during their…feast when they first met and Sacred which was the rank of Damians aspect, these names didn't provide much on what they meant for the creatures which likely possessed the same ranks but they did show that there was at least two levels above the strongest creatures they had ever personally seen. Jasper had also heard of the title of supreme from his nightmare but he wasn't sure if that was just an honorary title or the actual rank but the leader of his fleet possessed such a title so it was worth a thought.
However he had pointed out that the difference between the Ranks seemed too much in terms of grandness and or importance so he had suggested that there were ranks in between them which they had yet to encounter which Damian had agreed with. So by filling in the blanks they assumed there were at least six or seven ranks at least, if they decided to include dreamers or not. Despite all this knowledge none of it would be useful in this current circumstance as he still had no meaningful ways of escaping from this creature's grasp, his only saving grace was the fact that the creatures were replenishing his energy at roughly the same rate in which it was being drained.
This was good since it meant he wouldn't die immediately but bad since it meant that his time was limited, the creature which was draining him wasn't falling any deeper under his influence as time went on as it was constantly replenishing the energy which was being taken away but the first creature he hit was slowly being broken down bit by bit until it would eventually fall, but that was going to take some time.
He knew he had to act, the other two creatures had gone strangely passive since he was taken into the others grasp, seemingly not wanting to interrupt its meal, his mind was racing as he was trying to come up with a solution until a stupid plan popped into his mind, it was probably the dumbest idea he could think of but if it was him it may just work.
With everything to lose he concentrated on his armour, and as he did the blackened leather released into a cloud of sparks as he shifted his body to the side as the thorns dug into his skin, the ones embedded in his armour suddenly had been released from their hold causing the grip on his body to loosen enough for him to fall to the ground free, his body covered in scratches with streaks of blood staining his skin as he fell into the mud before quickly scrambling to the nearest tree.
The creatures all turned to him as he pulled himself up and started to climb the tree, using his dagger to create handholds where none were available if needed, all of the creatures gathered around the tree with their whip like tendrils snaking up the tree like inverted vines in the hopes of catching his back into their grasp. With so little light shining through the canopy he thought it would be more difficult for him to climb but by using the senses of his hunters he knew exactly where to go, as he approached the nearest sources of blood to him