Chapter 36: Toast to Survival (1/2)
”Rak! You're here,” Allan raised his voice the second he saw Rakna approaching and caught the attention of everyone. ”We all got the notification you killed Aquila soon after coming out. What were you doing until now?”
”Stuff,” Rakna shrugged and he arrived at the big table they were standing around. He looked at the food displayed and Pronos practically rocketed out from under Sonata before landing on the table with sparkly eyes. ”What about you know who? I don't see him here,” he said while reaching for a plate.
”Over there,” Flavia pointed with her chin as she was eating dumplings with Nyx. Rakna followed her line of sight and spotted Herts' little band huddled to the side of the room with the man in question sporting a dark expression.
Leia snorted as she swallowed a piece of bread. ”He must be pissed off about losing half of the guys he had with him. They never appeared on the platform. I guess that bird was saying the truth.”
”Indeed,” Leis nodded.
Rakna hummed as he placed a full chicken on his plate. Then, much to everyone's shock, he cut it into five pieces, which were still way too big for anyone with common sense, and proceeded to swallow each one of them, bones and everything, after chewing a few times. What they didn't see though was how his fangs had grown temporarily when did it.
When he finished the whole chicken in just a few seconds, Rakna returned their incredulous stares with a lifted eyebrow. ”What?”
”No, it's just… did you always eat like that?” Allan uttered. ”I don't remember you doing that, ever.”
”Werewolf and all that… forgot already?” Rakna replied unperturbed. ”I'm not really hungry right now but my ability to eat has probably skyrocketed. I have a hunch that if I was in my other form, I could probably finish another one of these in just one bite.”
”That's kinda scary, bro,” Allan deadpanned. ”If you ever feel the urge to eat one of us, please tell us in advance. Who knows if one day you'll start craving for humans?”
”Well, hearts do taste good,” Rakna commented indifferently.
”Wait, what?” Allan froze. ”What did you just say? Rak? Rak?!”
Rakna ignored his friend's shouts and turned to look at the other people in the party hall. His eyes, which had sneakily turned golden, swiftly swept over each person. He even got a close look at the appearance of the Host on the opposite side of the hall.
'Their characteristics vary a lot; Asian, South and North American, African, European… Truly we were picked out from across the Earth's surface,' he thought and blinked as his irises returned to their purple color. Then, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a tall man wearing a black trench coat enter the hall while leading a new group of people inside. 'Probably another overseer.'
”What are you thinking?” Leis came up to his left and asked.
”Nothing much. I'm still assessing the situation.”
”I see…” Leis whispered. ”There's something I can't help but notice personally. How many people do you think there are in this hall right now?”
Rakna glanced at him for a second before answering, ”I'd say between two to three hundred.”
”And how many do you think there are left to arrive like them?” Leis continued while pointing at the small group of four people who had just entered the hall.
”Honestly, if we take how our side of things was, I don't think there will be a lot more. Maybe a hundred and a half or so, at best. Truthfully, there are a few things that we had over the other groups in the first place. First; me.”
Leis let out a chuckle at that. ”Can't deny it.”
”Thanks to my Nirvana Skill, as well as Nyx's help, we managed to defeat Aquila without too much trouble or losses but I doubt it was the same for the other groups. Then, there's the fact that your gang, Nyx, Flavia, Allan, and I formed a pretty powerful force from the get-go. It was easy for us to collect and monopolize souls. Incidentally, because of our superiority, we haven't had to face a certain situation.”
”Stealing,” Dan joined the conversation from the side. The others also seemed to be listening ever since Rakna started talking. ”No one tried to steal souls from us.”
”Yes,” Rakna nodded. ”However, there's no doubt that anyone who isn't trained like us will easily fall into despair at the situation. Humans are cowards, especially when it comes to the unknown. For them, it's less scary to kill fellow humans than otherworldly monsters.”
Allan laughed wryly. ”The fact that you're actually not human anymore makes it so ironic. Because I know you would say that even if you weren't a werewolf.”
Dan snickered. ”True. And I can guess what you're going to say after this, Xiorra,” he declared and everyone looked at him. ”In this kind of situation, it's very easy for the mundane folks to develop a psychopathic behavior. In conclusion…” He trailed and shot a sharp glare at the crowd. ”You can fully expect this place to be roaming with freshly born serial killers.”
Everyone fell silent at his words and the many voices in the party hall drowned their area. Only Pronos wasn't paying attention to anything as he stuffed himself with fish and meat.