Dimensional Descent

"We need to run! Now! The Titan Hyena is the favored mount of the Oryx Tribe. You don't understand how rare it is for this species to have a complete skeleton of metal!

"Originally, I didn't think much of it. Titan Hyena's with incomplete skeletons are still rare, but it wouldn't be impossible to run into. But, one with a complete skeleton is a completely different story. The full metal skeleton genes are all recessive alleles. If even one is missing, the Titan Hyena will have an incomplete skeleton. There's no way the Oryx Tribe would mistakenly let such a pure bred Titan Hyena loose without reason!"

The freshmen was so agitated that he spoke out everything in a single breath.

Leonel frowned.

This Oryx Tribe… It wasn't the first time he had heard of them. During Raylion's speech, many of the worst sins toward the end involved the mention of this Tribe. But, that was about all Leonel knew. He wasn't aware of anything else about them.

A recessive allele wasn't complicated, at least not on Earth. There were only two types Leonel was aware of. The dominant allele and the recessive allele.

When a baby is conceived, it will receive one allele from each parent for every gene expression it might need in the future. A dominant allele only needed one of itself present to manifest. A recessive allele, however, would need both from both parents.

This essentially meant that for the Titan Hyena to have a full skeleton, both of its parents would have to also share this trait.

Well, that was as long as genes were expressed in the same way across worlds, something that Leonel wasn't exactly sure of. For all he knew, the process was more complicated than this for Titan Hyenas.

Technically, if things worked like they did on Earth, two parents who each had one dominant allele and one recessive allele could still come together to produce a child with two recessive alleles. But, from the words of the freshmen, it seemed that the Titan Hyena needed multiple sets of recessive alleles for multiple gene expressions rather than just one.

In that case, the luck that would be involved for the spontaneous creation of a perfect Titan Hyena would be astronomical. It was no wonder this freshmen was panicking.

In all likelihood, a member of the Oryx Tribe was definitely nearby. Or, at the very least, they were scouting in preparation for a mission and just never expected that there would be anyone in this region who was capable of taking down such a beast.

Thinking it through, the likelihood of it being the latter was incredibly high.

This was a region where freshmen were deployed for population control missions. Logically, there shouldn't be danger on this level here.

Leonel's gaze sharpened. 'What an interesting opportunity… Seems lady luck is on my side.'

Leonel looked toward Aina, their gazes seeming to have come to a tacit understanding. It seemed that things were getting interesting.

Leonel stood from his kneeling position by the Titan Hyena's corpse, taking out a spear with a long blade. It was a weapon those of Valiant Heart Mountain would drool over, yet he seemed to always use it to dissect corpses now.

With swift movements of his wrist, Leonel sliced all the flesh off. If it wasn't for the sparse droplets of blood that still remained on the corpse, one would have never guessed that the skeleton had ever been attached to any flesh at all.

"Have you run into other teams in this region?" Leonel asked, putting the skeleton away.

"… Yes, there should be quite a few." Irolana replied. "Ever since freshmen began to need merit points to train, this has been one of the most popular regions…"

Leonel nodded. He had been focused on Aina and finding their next target, so Leonel had functionally ignored everything else.

"We're going to need to start getting everyone to retreat. Is there some sort of signal you all learned?"

Leonel was aware that until just recently, only freshmen who had joined Peaks were allowed to leave the mountain. Logically, there would probably be some life saving measures Valiant Hall taught to decrease the casualty rate.

"… We have flares, but they only call for help." Irolana explained.

Hearing this, Leonel shook his head. He only needed to remember the reaction of those four who ran away to know how that would go. Even if he lit the flare under the guise that they needed help just to attract everyone over, who knew how many would come? Plus, wouldn't the signal flare also alert the Oryx Tribe?

"The Oryx and their Titan Hyena's only see in infrared and the warmer colors of visual light. They basically only see in reds and everything else blends into it. The color of the flare was chosen to easily blend into their vision and fuse with everything else. Even if we shoot it, unless the Oryx are specifically looking for it, they won't notice."

Leonel paused. Considering this was likely a plot by the Oryx, it was still possible that they'd be looking out for such a flare. But, this was better than nothing.

"Let's do it. Light up the first flare.

…

"Wait! Wait! I can't run any further!"

Deep within the thick forest, a group of four gasped for breath. You would think that as Fourth Dimensional entities they would be able to run for much longer. But, no matter what strength level you were at, going all out was going all out.

Plus, this was a Fifth Dimensional world. The fact they could even stand in this place without falling to their knees was a testament to their talent.

"It's not chasing us, is it?"

"I think we got far enough away."

"… The others…?"

The three looked toward the one who had spoke these words before looking toward each other. A hint of guilt in their eyes.

Eventually, a young man amongst them steeled his resolve.

"Staying would have only gotten us killed. We didn't have the strength to be of any help, what good would it have done to throw our lives away?"

The three felt somewhat better hearing this.

Right. Wasn't it better that some of them survived? Would there even be a point to sacrificing themselves? What a joke.

"Hm? Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?"

A slight tremor shook the ground.

The four froze, looking in a certain direction.

The trees seemed to bend out of the way, the foliage snapping and flattening under the presence of this humanoid.

At first, all they saw was a simple shadow.

The ground trembled once again. But, this time, it made their knees quake. The vibrations traveled through their feet, reverberating throughout their chests.

What the four saw next was a sight they would never forget in their lives. Though, for how long said lives would last for beyond this period… Maybe that was something they knew well wouldn't be long.

The figure could barely be considered to be humanoid. Its frame was incredibly wide and its legs were inverted at the knees and covered in coarse black fur.

The digitigrade legs of the figure ended in bestial feet with curling sharp claws that dug deeply into the ground.

The torso of the humanoid was bare, but it bulged of muscles that seemed constructed from steel cords. Its individual muscle fibers were so clear from every minute movement that it looked as though it was flexing as hard as it could constantly. But, the reality was very far from this…

Even with the height of the humanoid being almost three meters, the eyes of the four weren't drawn to its fur covered legs, or its steely torso… Rather, they couldn't take their eyes off of its face.

Two tusks so long they nearly pierced into its chest hung from its mouth. Its horns were thick and rounded almost like a sheep's, but it radiated with a light that made it look like polished steel.

The humanoid had three eyes. Two placed normally and a third running a vertical slit between its brows. Each was a furious shade of red that made it look as though they had been dyed in blood.

Crisscrossing scars danced across the humanoids body, its vision expressionless as it locked gazes with the four before it.

"… Or… Ory…. Oryx Tribe…"

The four stuttered. But, the humanoid walked by them as though it had seen and sensed nothing. If they hadn't been so racked with fear, they would have noticed that within the eyes of the Oryx, there was an absentminded, one track thought that had taken over its mind.

The four stood frozen. The stench coming from the Oryx was so palpable that it made their eyes water. Yet, they didn't dare to move from start to finish, even as the Oryx disappeared into the distance.

The four held their breaths even long after the Oryx had disappeared, not daring to move a single inch.

Minutes later, their heart beats began to return to normal. Had they really survived?

They looked toward each other with excitement and happiness before their expressions immediately became one of horror.

SHIIING!

Not a single one of them got the chance to speak another word. Their bodies were sliced and diced apart, their remains being minced into such fine paste that they appeared like a crimson fog.

Their last thoughts were filled with grievances. Not a single one of them seemed to understand how it is they had died…. Not a single one of them had noticed the massive crimson halberd on the Oryx's back move.

[I've begun to commission art work for DD on my instagram. Just posted one of the Oryx, check it out at awespec_ on instragram (mind the underscore)]