While spirit essence represented the metaphysical soul signature that defined what a being was, it could not accomplish anything by itself. Power required another component.
This was where the importance of spiritual energy came in. Unlike spirit essence, spiritual energy was not fixed. It flowed constantly from one’s soul, shaped by emotions, conviction, and willpower.
By channeling that energy through one’s Patron Spirit, individuals were able to draw out the supernatural traits unique to that spiritual companion.
Every awakened individual was evaluated according to the potential of both their Patron Spirit, the spiritual energy they could wield and their overall threat to the Biomes.
Those evaluations formed humanity’s universal classification system. The lowest Class was known as Epsilon, followed by Delta, then Gamma, Beta, Alpha and Omega being the highest. The last was a designation so extraordinary that its limits could not be properly measured. In other words, they had immeasurable power.
Unfortunately, neither of the two Rangers belonged anywhere near those upper ranks.
Red Deer Rhos belonged to Delta. Being the second lowest, there was nothing remarkable about being in this Class.
It was considered to be below average by Ranger standards. Individuals in this Class possessed enough control over their spiritual energy to consciously draw upon the natural traits of their Patron Spirit, but not enough to manifest abilities beyond instinctual ones.
They remained fundamentally human, only borrowing fragments of another creature’s nature. For Rhos, those fragments came from the red deer.
His hearing could distinguish the snapping of a twig hundreds of meters away from the countless sounds of insects and rustling leaves. His sense of smell could follow scents that had already begun fading into the air hours ago, separating one creature from another despite the overwhelming mixture of scents surrounding him.
His territory awareness allowed him to instinctively construct a mental map of everything within range and recognize the smallest disturbance inside it.
Then there was his speed. As expected of Prey, Rhos had explosive acceleration that propelled him away from danger with astonishing bursts of movement.
Lastly, there was camouflage. It allowed his presence to naturally blend into his surroundings whenever he remained still. It was not nearly as effective as Nimra’s ability to suppress her presence, but it was still useful against ordinary wildlife. Though he could not use this as much because it was very dependent on situational conditions.
These were useful traits for surviving and he appreciated them as they are what allowed him to get this far, but against the horror of Wraths, they rarely made enough of a difference to change the outcome of a battle.
Well, he was in luck because right now...a Wrath was not his opponent.
The monkey that lunged toward his face received an elbow straight into its jaw, before its body had begun to fall, he twisted around to grab another attacker’s arm and shoulder, throwing it headfirst into the trunk of a nearby tree trunk.
A third monkey came from behind but was met with a backward heel into its ribs. The creature screamed as it tumbled across the dirt.
Two years of serving outside the Biome had taught him a lot of things. One of them being – against humanoid opponents... technique mattered.
Losing one’s weapon during an expedition wasn’t uncommon. This was why every Ranger who survived graduation from the Academy possessed respectable hand to hand combat skills.
As long as the monkeys came one at a time, Ros could handle them. However, the issue was...
’There’s too many!’
He barely managed to block another pair before a tail was wrapped around his waist. He tore himself free with a grunt.
Behind him, the young woman Nimra exhaled.
"I’ll have to use my Totem Art. I really didn’t want to use this yet in my current state..."
As she said this, green spiritual energy erupted from her body. It danced across her skin like streams of emerald flames before rapidly condensing. She lowered her posture, bent her spine slightly and relaxed her shoulders.
Her flaming green energy formed a pair of cat ears on her orange hair, a long tail unfurled from her rear and curved claws lengthened from her fingernails. Markings spread across her arms, neck and cheeks, resembling the rosettes decorating a leopard’s coat.
Nimra’s pupils contracted into thin vertical slits. And finally, a crazed smile enlisted itself on her round face as she said.
"Beast Totem Art: Cat Hunt!"
Leopard Cat Nimra’s Class was Gamma, the first true threshold and the standard expected of every professional Ranger. Individuals of this Class were able to awaken their signature Patron Spirit’s ability known as a Totem Art.
It was basically their ’magical power’, a supernatural expression of their spirit essence, the ability that made one Ranger fundamentally different from another.
It was part of the reason why Gamma Class and above individuals were required by law to enlist into the Corps, because only Totem Arts gave humanity a realistic means of confronting Wraths.
In the face of this power, the surrounding monkeys hesitated. Something buried deep within them recognized the predator standing before them and wanted to flee.
That moment of hesitancy lasted for 2 seconds before the troops screamed together and began their assault. This time however, they seemed to attack simultaneously as a group.
But it was too late for a change in strategy now. From ordinary sight, it seemed as though she had just disappeared. That was not it, she simply moved too fast to track.
Almost immediately, the heads of three monkeys were spun completely around mid-motion, some had their chests split open in five perfectly parallel lines, others had their throats slashed.
Blood sprayed and painted the surrounding trees and splattered onto the ground. In mere moments, Nimra had killed more than 10 monkeys effortlessly.
However, she was not done. Green streaks blitzed between the trees with every slash being followed by another corpse.
She moved with impossible agility, rebounding off trunks and tearing through the troop with savage speed and precision.
When she landed on the back of one that was trying to flee from her, she plunged her claws into its spine before dragging them all the way up to its head, shredding its skull to silence its scream.
Rhos punched another monkey away before looking towards her savagery.
"Cat!!"
She dropped the dead monkey’s arm she had torn off the moment she heard his voice. But she did not look his way, instead she stopped her advances and slowly raised her blood covered forearm.
With a sombre expression, she extended her tongue and licked it clean before looking over her shoulder. Within those emerald slit pupils locked onto him, Rhos saw sadness inside them....and something else.
"You..."
Something far more primal.
"...need to get away from me"