Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 135: Rude Awakening

The night passed quietly. Oli wasn’t on edge, nor was he complacent. He kept an eye on everything and watched the surrounding with both his eyes and essence. Though he was merely an adept, at least his sensory skills with essence were average and could catch any mistakes a late-night thief would make. Adding his bestial senses and experience, Oli comfortably guarded the dark campsite.

When the full was high in the sky and beginning its descent, Oli nudged the lone bedroll outside of the tent. “Hey, Johan, it’s your turn.”

“Hmm...” Johan didn’t argue or complain as he rolled out f bed. Getting to his feet, he nodded to Oli. “Get some rest. We’ll wake you up at sunrise.”

“Thanks, but shout should anything happen or seem off. Don’t hesitate to ask for help.”

“Fine...” grumbled Johan.

Oli sighed and walked toward the tent whale pointing toward the ring of small logs. “There’s some melon and jerky left for you.”

“... Thank you.”

.....

Once the short conversation was had, Oli stood beside the tent. Rather than go inside, he took out a bedroll and rested under the night sky as Johan had. Should something happen while he was out, Oli would be able to immediately leap into action in such a position.

But nothing bothered Oli’s rest. Not until later.

Through his thin bedroll, Oli’s short slumber was interrupted. Slight tremors alerted him as Oli leaped out of bed with vigor and seriousness in his eyes.

“Hmm? Oliver, what’s–”

Before Johan could say anything, Oli bolted into action. Only after Oli came to a grinding halt on the edge of the campsite did the tremors get stronger, enough to wake the others and alarm Johan.

With a steady gaze, Oli tracked the origin of the tremors and frowned deeply. They were much closer than he’d hoped.

“Deer?!”

Johan gasped, retrieving his two swords. Leon also exited the tent with a sword in hand, followed by Shadur who held his staff tightly, both still in their casual sleepwear. All three of them followed Oli’s line of sight and spotted dozens of Tri-horned Deer charging toward the campgrounds.

“How can we–”

CRUNCH!

Both the swordsmen and the young doctor were startled further as Oli pounded his fists into the ground, crushing it and leaving a mark where each fist landed. But they weren’t his actual fists. All three of them were amazed to see abundant yellow essence calmly swirling around the bulky young man. That essence quickly took the form of a powerful beast known for its dominance and raw strength. Essence gathered around Oli’s upper body and arms, allowing his reach to grow and his already-incredible strength to increase drastically. For a split-second, all three of the young men trembled as if Oli had become a beast himself.

Pounding his fists once more into the ground and taking a deep breath, Oli acted fast.

“RROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRR!!!”

The guttural roar echoed and chilled the young men to their spines. It took a moment for them to look away from Oli and again notice the herd of deer, which had suddenly changed course and ran to the side of the camp away from Oli and his gorilla-esque presence.

The moment the deer diverted off course, Oli took a deep breath and dropped his essence. Oli stood up straight and turned back to the others with a disappointed look in his eyes. Immediately, he focused on Johan and the small fire that sat between the fallen logs.

“Why did you start a fire?”

“What did you just–”

“Why did you start a fire?!” Oli repeated, stomping into the ground to mimic the small tremors of the disappearing deer.

“I-I–”

“Perhaps you slept through my warning last night, but I’ll repeat myself this one time. No fires. We don’t want to be found out or targeted. For all we know, those deer were led to us in hopes of leaving us incapable of defending ourselves. Do you understand?”

“Y-Yes...”

“Good, now smother it and pack up. We’re moving out immediately,” Oli ordered, staring back at the two by the tent. “Shadur, I’m carrying you whether you like it or not.”

“Oliver–”

“We have no time to waste and we don’t want anyone finding us,” Oli reasoned. “We’ll need to be fast and take a different route back to the city but we should still make it in time. Leon, Johan, you’d better keep up without excuses. If you’re too slow, no one will be sleeping tonight. Got it?”

“Yes, Oliver!” Leon hurried back toward the tent, changing clothes as he did so. He showed the utmost urgency and scrambled to pack up the tent and store the bedrolls.

Johan used water essence to dowse the fire and the remaining coals while Shadur silently changed his clothes. Both were extremely curious about the skill that Oli had just shown but neither was willing to confront Oli’s unquestionable gaze and confidence at the moment. They each concluded for themselves that Oli was indeed stronger than them and likely had more unusual skills or battle arts tucked away for emergencies.

Oli waited cautiously, scanning their surroundings continuously with his unblinking eyes. “Hurry up. We’ll follow the trampled path the der have made to muddle our tracks, then we’ll adjust later.”

“Ready...” Leon took a calming breath as he finished packing everything up. As Johan finished around the same time, Leon asked, “Should we have swords at the ready?”

Shaking his head, Oli replied, “There’s no need for that. It will only slow you down. If you want to be ready, then you should train with beginning your strike without a weapon and retrieve the sword mid-swing. But for now, we run!”

Oli hunched over as Shadur swallowed his embarrassment and climbed on without question or hesitation. He desperately didn’t want to anger Oli in his current state.

The powerful young man then took off, almost leaving Leon and Johan behind. The swordsmen dashed to catch up, running into the green carnage left behind by the stampeding Tri-horned Deer.

Despite their worries and realizing that they may have already been found but not yet encountered, three out of the four young men had the same question at the forefront of their minds. Who was Oli, really, and what kind of battle art did they just witness?