Adrian strode silently through the barren landscape of the Earth Elental Territory, his footsteps crunching against the coarse sand beneath him.
His figure, cloaked in the guise of a fearso earth elental monster, blended seamlessly into the desert's rugged terrain. The disguise was both masterful and terrifying: a creature with skin like cracked stone, ridged with jagged, mossy veins that glowed faintly green.
His face was a nightmare—a hollow mask of rock with gleaming, crystalline "eyes" that shimred like shards of erald, and his limbs, though humanoid in structure, were grotesquely elongated, with clawed, talon-like fingers. This was the guise of the
Zeraphage
, a rare and infamous earth elental said to haunt everything in many ruins.
The brown, earthen robes draped over his shoulders shifted with the hot desert breeze, and his slow, deliberate movents made the cracks in his "skin" emit faint, unnatural groans.
A faint, chilling aura emanated from him, a supernatural coldness that felt out of place in the sweltering desert heat. It wasn't enough to harm, but it carried a warning that sent even the boldest creatures of this realm skittering away.
As Adrian walked, his crystalline eyes scanned the horizon, taking in every mound of sand and jagged rock with a predatory sharpness. Earth elental monsters—hulking golems of sandstone and skittering beetle-like creatures the size of wolves—would occasionally erge from their hiding places, only to freeze in place the mont they sensed his presence. Their instincts told them to run, and they did, vanishing into the desert's shadows without a second glance.
Adrian barely noticed. His focus lay elsewhere.
"Where are my preys?" he muttered, his voice low and guttural, distorted by the enchantnts of the Zeraphage disguise. The unnatural tone was unsettling, even to his own ears. He tilted his head slightly, listening to the faint whispers of wind moving through the rocks, as if the desert itself might answer.
His role in this special exam was clear: as one of the Predators, his mission was to hunt the examinees. But it wasn't a true hunt—not in the lethal sense.
No, the second-year Predators had been instructed to hinder, steal, and intimidate, testing the strength, wit, and resolve of the first-years without crossing the line into outright harm. Adrian found the task amusing. It wasn't often he got to flex his darker instincts under the guise of training.
His boots crunched over a cluster of scattered stones, and he crouched low, his "clawed" fingers brushing against the rocky surface. He could sense faint traces of aether lingering in the area—evidence that soone had passed through recently. His lips curled into a small smile beneath the hollow mask.
"Getting closer," he muttered, his voice carrying a hint of anticipation. Standing, he began to follow the trail, his movents eerily fluid for sothing that looked like a living rock.
As he moved deeper into the desert, he spotted the faint outline of a group in the distance. Three figures, their silhouettes barely visible against the shimring heat waves of the horizon.
They were examinees, no doubt about it.
Adrian's eyes narrowed, and his aura seed to intensify, the faint chill in the air spreading outward like a creeping fog. The group's laughter and chatter ca to an abrupt halt as they felt it—the unnerving sensation of being watched.
Adrian stepped forward, making no effort to hide his approach. His towering figure, illuminated by the harsh desert sun, cast a long, grotesque shadow across the sand. The examinees turned, their faces pale with shock as they beheld the Zeraphage.
One of them, a boy wielding a spear, imdiately took a defensive stance, his trembling hands betraying his fear. The other two, a girl clutching a staff and another with daggers at her sides, exchanged nervous glances.
"W-what is that thing?" the girl with the staff stamred.
"I don't know," the boy with the spear replied, his voice barely steady. "But it's coming straight for us."
Adrian stopped several paces away, his towering form looming over them. He tilted his head slowly, the crystalline eyes of his mask glowing ominously. For a mont, there was only silence, save for the faint howl of the wind.
Then, without warning, he raised one clawed hand and struck the ground with a thunderous impact. The earth trembled beneath the examinees' feet, throwing them off balance and sending small cracks rippling through the sand. It was a calculated move—not enough to cause real harm, but enough to send a ssage. Read the latest on empire
"F-Food," Adrian growled, his distorted voice resonating like grinding stone.
"It's the P-Predator!"
"R-Run!"
The examinees didn't need to think twice.
They bolted, their earlier composure shattered as they fled into the desert, their footsteps kicking up clouds of sand. Adrian watched them go, his smile returning beneath the mask.
"Haha, too easy."
A deep, rumbling chuckle escaped Adrian's stone-like visage as he watched the examinees scramble away, their fear palpable in the desert air. Their tokens jingled frantically against their tracking bracelets as they fled, the sound carrying clearly across the barren landscape.
"Perhaps I played the role a bit too well," he mused, his distorted voice tinged with amusent. "They'll probably lose points for that reaction. The academy values courage, after all."
The wind whistled through the cracks in his rocky form as he watched their retreating figures grow smaller on the horizon. His crystalline eyes glead with an almost nostalgic light.
"Reminds of the Survival Training course's first day," he muttered, absently running his clawed fingers across the sandy ground. "Old man Doo's 'Pet' had us all running just like that." He paused, rembering the terror of facing an actual monster. "Though that one wasn't playing around like I am."
His smile slowly faded beneath the hollow mask, replaced by a more solemn expression. As entertaining as terrorizing the first-years might be, he had another purpose here. The academy had tasked the Predators with testing the examinees' resolve, yes, but Adrian had his own mission to complete.
He squinted his crystalline eyes, scanning the vast expanse of the desert territory. The boy with the scythe was out there sowhere. The one who would be the cause of the Dinsional Disturbance incident.
He would need to watch out for the boy's every movent and action. And he should absolutely not let the boy act earlier, outside of the non-elental center zone.
"Where are you rampaging right now?" Adrian murmured, his voice dropping to a gravelly whisper.
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