With his hunt successful, all that remained for El was the preparations and eventual cooking of the meat.
However,right at the start of the trial he had being lacking any type of spices or seasoning,meaning he would have to prepare this meal plain too,just as his past ones.
Roasting the meat poses a subtle challenge as it is clear that with the snow all around him that lighting an open fire seemed with this weather seems impossible.
Yet, he recalled his previous discovery that essence was somewhat flammable and If he could possibly find a location nearby, he could potentially create fire using the essence licking out of the already dead creatures.
As he expanded his senses, he spotted a cluster of trees in the distance, partially buried under snow.
Seeing no better option, he decided to make use of that area for the preparations, dragging both carcasses across the ground, leaving behind a trail of blood,he walked towards the area.
Upon reaching the trees, he noticed there were over twenty plus trees, each not too tall and spaced closely together.
But he had to focus on the task at hand: preparing the meat. He found a long branch which extended slightly downward from one of the trees,using it he hanged the corpses on it,the blood still dripping from the bodies and summoned his artifact [essence arrow],he activated its only enchantment.
This time, El poured all of his remaining essence into the creation of the arrow.
And as the binding seal activated, his essence energy depleted to nothing–an empty tank,but leaving him with a glowing arrow of pure essence.
Wasting no time, he aimed at one of the corpses and released it. The arrow struck one of the open wounds on the body, igniting it in flames that quickly engulfed the whole body, filling the air with the aroma of roasting flesh.
While the meat sizzled, El summoned his final runestone and performing the "Añjali Mudrā", the hand-sign for enforcing binding seals symbolized with the joining of both palms together.
As he completed the ritual,the oppressive feeling came and left,leaving the runestone's yellow hue faded to colorlessness, its essence completely absorbed.
Knowing that the blood trail would attract predators,he had to use the runestone in getting enough essence if he needed,in battle,after absorbing the essence,he felt a surge of vitality spread through his veins and muscles,he could feel that his mastery and efficiency over essence had slightly improved—with perhaps a 2% increase in control and that just because of absorbing essence from a runestone, sighing that his understand of essence was soon going to go through a huge change.
And with this he could keep his expanded senses to catch anything disturbance in his vicinity without any mental burnout for sometime.
Turning his attention back to the sizzling meat.He saw that it was ready,and he doused the flames with a handful of snow,from the ground extinguishing the fire.
With fingertips coated in essence, he tore off a piece and savored it, continuingly until only scraps and bones remained. This ample portion should be enough to sustain him for several days.
Turning to the second body, he pondered his options. He should have enough food for sustainance,but ultimately decided to also prepared and roast the second corpse too, just in case.
Using the same method, he ignited the meat and left lt sizzling and settled nearby,the already torn pieces of meat devouring the first pieces eagerly.
However, after consuming about six pieces, he felt a strange sensation. He felt two things actually,firstly he felt as if he hadn't eaten at all even with the already eaten pieces,reinforcing his choice to prepare the extra meat as a correct one.
And secondly, he sensed a gradual enhancement of his grasp on essence with every pieces the meat he consumed, despite his essence reserve remaining unchanged.
The improvement in his control and efficiency was unmistakable and though the increase was minuscule,if compounded over time,it could translate into a significant overall boost for him.
Not much time had passed before he could devoured over half of the torn pieces of the meat and began to feeling a faintly amount of satisfaction,but he could feel,that the whole first batch of meat would not to fully satisfy him and he could be wanting more.
Sensing that the second batch was close to completion,he walked towards it and using the same method in extinguishing the flame,it then only required tearing.
As he was about to begin the tearing process of the second carcass, a strange disturbance prickled at his senses, sharpening his alertness.
But he couldn't pinpoint its source with his senses,but felt undeniably that something was near.
A memory of the hybrid creature's peculiar ability to invade his senses made him wary.
Suddenly, a wave of instinctive fear washed over him, a deep-seated terror for an unseen threat.
Convinced it was the hybrid, he ducked just as a sharp sound sliced through the air toward him. Unable to sense the creature despite his King's Eyes, he relied on instinct and shielded himself with the meat still hanging from the trees.
The creature's claws shredded through it like paper, bones and flesh torn apart in an instant. Wasting no time at all, El sprinted away, channeling controlled essence into his legs to propel himself faster.
Yet, it was insufficient to evade the hybrid; the trees around him splintered under its aggressive pursuit.
Realizing that he would soon break free from the thicket into open terrain. He pushed himself to greater speeds as he neared the end of the trees, utilizing the trees as barriers against its direct charges,but now that he thought about it,it felt as if peace was against him–his life had always been chaotic, anything but peaceful,his birth,his living, been pressed by the responsible of being a bloodline holder,then just by luck,a war had to happen in his lifetime and not just a normal war, but one that could very well be the ending of the world.
For now, these thoughts were irrelevant. He focused on escaping the landscape,as he saw,he was about to pass the end of the tree line into the opening and quickened his pace not having any other choice than running.
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