Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 483

483: Not A Harbinger 483: Not A Harbinger The forest beyond Area 52’s settlement wasn’t dense, but it was old.

Trees spread out with enough space between them that walking didn’t require cutting through undergrowth, though the canopy overhead blocked enough sunlight to keep the ground shadowed and cool.

Diana led one group of three recruits, Sophie another, and Seraleth took the third.

They’d fanned out in a loose formation, close enough to support each other but spread wide enough to cover more ground.

Valencia walked beside Diana, her scanner showing trace readings but nothing substantial yet.

The device beeped occasionally, picking up ambient beast energy that could mean anything from a category one herbivore to lingering signatures from something that had passed through days ago.

“This settlement’s been out here for what, fifteen years?” Valencia asked, breaking the silence.

“And they’re just now having serious beast problems?” “Settlements always have beast problems,” Diana replied, her eyes scanning the treeline.

“That’s why they hire factions.” “Yeah, but organized attacks?

Multiple categories working together?” Valencia shook her head.

“I’ve worked contracts in settlement regions for three years.

Beasts don’t coordinate like that unless something’s making them.” Marcus, the older recruit walking slightly behind them, spoke up.

“Could be territory pressure.

If a bigger predator moved into the area, it might push smaller beasts toward human settlements.

They go where the predator won’t follow.” “Maybe,” Valencia said, though she didn’t sound convinced.

In Sophie’s group, one of the younger recruits was asking about faction hierarchy.

“So Eclipse Faction is independent, right?

Not affiliated with any of the big names?” “Completely independent,” Sophie confirmed, watching her own scanner fluctuate between readings.

“We’re not a subsidiary, not backed by corporate interests, not answering to military oversight beyond basic legal requirements.” “That’s rare,” the recruit observed.

“Most independent factions don’t last.

The big ones either absorb them or price them out of good contracts.” “We’re not most factions,” Sophie replied with a slight smile.

Seraleth’s group moved quieter than the others, the elf’s presence making conversation difficult.

The recruits kept stealing glances at her-the way she moved through the forest with preternatural grace, how her pointed ears swiveled slightly to catch sounds they couldn’t hear, the otherworldly quality to her features that no amount of familiarity could make mundane.

One of them finally worked up the courage to ask a question, his voice hushed like he was addressing royalty.

“Captain, on your world…

did you have beasts like ours?” Seraleth glanced back at him, and the recruit actually flinched slightly at the direct attention of those luminous eyes.

“We had predators,” she replied, her voice carrying that musical quality her accent gave it.

“Creatures that hunted in packs, territorial animals that would attack if threatened.

But nothing like what you call category classifications.

Our threats came from the environment itself as much as from wildlife.” Another recruit, emboldened by the first, ventured: “Is it true that elves can sense things humans can’t?

Like…

I don’t know, energy patterns or something?” “We perceive the world differently,” Seraleth said, a slight smile touching her lips at their obvious fascination.

“Our senses are more acute in certain ways.

We can detect subtle changes in our environment that human senses might miss.” The recruits exchanged looks that clearly said they were in the presence of something extraordinary and were trying very hard not to embarrass themselves.

They walked for another hour, the scanners picking up traces but nothing concrete.

Sophie’s group found plant-type beasts first-harmless organisms that fed on sunlight and minerals, more vegetable than animal despite their mobility.

They looked like mobile ferns, roots pulling them along the forest floor at a pace slower than walking speed.

“Category zero,” one of Sophie’s recruits noted.

“Technically classified as beasts but they won’t attack unless you’re literally trying to eat them.” The forest floor showed signs of animal passage.

Tracks in softer soil, claw marks on tree bark, the occasional scat that suggested something large had moved through recently.

Normal things for an area this close to wilderness.

Then Valencia stopped walking.

“Hold up,” she said, crouching down near something half-buried in leaves.

She brushed debris away, revealing a piece of metal maybe the size of her palm.

It looked machined, with clean edges and what might have been attachment points for screws or bolts.

“That’s not natural,” Diana observed, kneeling beside her.

“Looks like it came from some kind of equipment,” Valencia said, turning the piece over.

“See these markings?

That’s a serial number.

This was manufactured, not scavenged.” Sophie’s group found something similar fifteen minutes later-a broken compass, the kind hunters carried for navigation when electronic systems failed.

The glass face was cracked, the needle missing, but the casing showed teeth marks too large to be human.

“Something bit this,” Sophie said, holding it up for the others to see.

“Hard enough to crack the casing.” “Beast?” one of her recruits asked.

“Or something carrying it got attacked by a beast,” Sophie replied.

She checked her scanner, which was showing slightly stronger readings now.

“We’re getting closer to something.” The groups converged near a clearing where sunlight broke through the canopy more directly.

What they found there made everyone stop and stare.

Bodies.

Beast bodies, scattered across the clearing in various states of decomposition.

Spider monkeys, their dark fur matted with dried blood.

Dire wolves, the distinctive ridged backs making identification easy even in death.

Something that might have been a stoneback behemoth, though it was hard to tell with so much of the body missing.

“What the hell happened here?” Marcus muttered.

Valencia moved between the corpses, either oblivious to or deliberately ignoring the captains’ exchange.

Her expression grew more disturbed with each body she examined.

“Their cores are gone.

Every single one.

See these cuts?

Something extracted the beast cores after they died.” Diana’s jaw tightened.

She looked at Sophie, found Sophie already staring back.

Neither said the word, but it hung between them anyway.

*Harbinger.* The systematic slaughter.

The calculated precision.

The sheer number of kills.

It matched the pattern.

And if something like that was operating in this region…

“Can’t be,” Sophie said quietly, but her voice carried an edge that made it sound like she was trying to convince herself.

“A Harbinger doesn’t just pass through an area.

It doesn’t leave settlements standing.” “Unless it’s testing,” Diana replied, her voice equally low.

“Learning the terrain.

Building strength before-” “We don’t know that’s what this is.” Sophie cut her off, aware of the recruits starting to notice their tension.

But her hand had moved to her weapon, and her eyes kept scanning the treeline like she expected something catastrophic to emerge at any moment.

Diana felt the cold weight of dread settling in her stomach.

If they were wrong, they were overreacting to organized beast behavior.

If they were right…

She pushed the thought away.

They couldn’t afford to assume the worst.

Not yet.

“Settlers?” Diana suggested, forcing her voice to sound more confident than she felt.

“They said beasts have been attacking.

Maybe they’ve been killing them and harvesting the cores for sale.” “Look at the wounds though,” Valencia pointed to a spider monkey that had deep lacerations across its torso.

“These aren’t bullet holes or blade cuts.

These are claw marks.

Fang punctures.

Beasts killed these beasts.” Sophie crouched beside the dire wolf corpse, studying the damage.

The kill wounds were brutal but precise, targeting vital areas with the kind of accuracy that suggested intelligence rather than animal frenzy.

“Beasts kill each other all the time,” one of the recruits said.

“Territorial disputes, hunting, that’s normal.” “Normal beasts don’t extract cores,” Sophie replied.

“That requires tools, knowledge of anatomy, understanding of what a beast core is and why it’s valuable.” Seraleth had been walking the perimeter of the clearing, her height and elven senses giving her advantages the others lacked.

“There are more bodies beyond this clearing.

I can see at least three more clusters from here.” She paused, tilting her head in that distinctly non-human way.

“And something else.

The forest is wrong here.

Too quiet.

Even scavengers are avoiding this place.” The recruits in her group looked at each other nervously, clearly unsettled by their leader’s assessment.

They spread out carefully, documenting what they found.

More dead beasts, all missing their cores, all showing signs of being killed by other beasts rather than human weapons.

The pattern repeated across multiple kill sites, suggesting this had been happening for a while.

“The settlers said things were going missing,” Diana said, pieces clicking together in her mind.

“Tools, metal parts, electronics.

And now we’re finding dead beasts with their cores harvested.” “Something’s using the tools to extract the cores,” Sophie finished the thought.

“Something intelligent enough to understand their value.” Valencia’s scanner suddenly spiked, the readings jumping from trace levels to active signatures.

“I’m getting multiple contacts.

Category two, maybe three.

They’re close.” The groups reformed, weapons ready, scanning the treeline.

The forest had gone quiet, that unnatural silence that came when predators were near and everything else was hiding.

One of the recruits, a younger guy named Chen, stopped walking.

His eyes went distant, like he was listening to something the others couldn’t hear.

“Chen?” Diana asked.

“What is it?” He didn’t answer, just stood there with that focused expression people got when using sensory abilities.

“Chen, what do you sense?” Sophie pressed.

Still no answer.

The recruit remained frozen, his enhanced hearing or whatever sense he was using apparently detecting something important.

Then, from directly above him: *thud*.

A mass of excrement dropped onto Chen’s head, splattering across his hair and shoulders.

The smell hit immediately, animal waste mixed with partially digested meat.

The other recruits burst into laughter despite the tension, the absurdity of the moment breaking through their combat readiness.

“Oh man, that’s disgusting!” Valencia managed between laughs.

“Should’ve kept your head up, Chen!” Marcus called out.

But Chen wasn’t laughing.

He was looking up, his face gone pale under the layer of filth.

Right then, the others followed his gaze and saw what he was seeing.

Ape-like creatures perched in the branches overhead.

Long limbs that seemed too thin for their torsos, faces dominated by fangs that protruded even with mouths closed, fur that was matted and dark.

They clung to tree trunks and branches with the casual ease of animals born to climb.

One of them opened its mouth and screamed, a sound that was part howl and part something mechanical, like an engine failing.

The others joined in, the forest filling with overlapping shrieks that made everyone’s hair stand on end.

Then they moved.

Not dropping down but swinging, branch to branch, tree to tree, coming from every direction at once.

More kept appearing, dozens of them, their movements coordinated in a way that shouldn’t have been possible for animals.

Valencia’s scanner went insane, the readings spiking so high the device started beeping warnings about system overload.

“Why the hell didn’t you warn us?!” Diana shouted at Chen, who was still wiping waste from his face.

“They weren’t there!” Chen shouted back.

“The scanner had nothing, I sensed nothing, and then they were just…

*there*!” Sophie was staring at the apes, her eyes were catching details the others were missing.

Each creature held something in its hands or had something strapped to its body.

The objects looked wrong, organic but shaped with purpose.

Curved pieces that might have been ribs, sharpened into points.

Skulls with cores embedded in the eye sockets, glowing faintly with stored energy.

Long bones wrapped in sinew to create handles, with other bones attached to form crude but functional clubs.

Beast weapons.

Not metal or manufactured, but beast parts fashioned into tools.

“Noah’s first academy year,” Sophie said, something finally clicking..

“The Cannadah mission.

He mentioned encountering beasts that used tools, organized beyond what their category should allow.” She looked at the bodies they’d found earlier, understanding clicking into place.

“The humans didn’t kill those beasts.

These apes did.

They’re killing other beasts and making weapons from the parts.” Diana saw one of the apes raising something that looked like a forearm bone with a core embedded in the wrist joint.

The core was glowing brighter now, building energy.

“Nobody move,” Diana commanded, her voice cutting through the chaos.

The ape pointed its makeshift weapon at her.

A blast of molten energy shot from the core, compressed fire that should have required a category three beast to produce.

Diana’s ability activated instantly, her momentum nullification spreading in a sphere around her.

The blast hit her dead zone and stopped, frozen mid-air like someone had paused reality.

“Run!” Diana shouted.

The apes descended from all directions, screaming, swinging their crude weapons, moving with purpose and coordination that marked them as something far more dangerous than standard category two beasts.

The Eclipse Faction’s first mission had just turned into a fight for survival.