THE DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD

"But," he paused for a second to make sure what he was feeling was correct, "Only the bad parts. I only absorbed the negative aspects of its personality. I know it was able to feel emotions like love for its partner but all I have is worry, pain, uncertainty, and a lot of fear. It was deathly afraid that something would happen to its newborn and...it was right."

Hao Xuan looked over towards the female's cold body. It was waiting for its mate to come back because it needed his energy to deliver the cub safely.

"But then he met me while out gathering spiritual herbs...that's why his body had so much energy, it was being saved up for the cub. I think I just wiped out the last of these creatures man..."

,m Sensing the somber mood Baracus did something that he would never be able to explain himself. He tried to console Hao Xuan.

"That information was not available to you beforehand. If you knew perhaps things would have turned out differently but that would not change the fate of these beings. In the long run, they would have still perished in a few days' time."

"The nest's close proximity to the City of Argham means it would have been caught up in the flames of battle sooner or later. As of right now, this entire planet is en route to total annihilation at the hands of a number of beings."

And strangely enough, that did seem to help raise Hao Xuan's spirits.

"In short, get up off your ass and go fix things. Is that what you're saying?"

*Beep*

"Crudely put but in essence, yes."

Hao Xuan stood up and began walking out, 'And back to the grind we go- hmm?' but was distracted by movement from the corner of his eye.

"Did she just...move? I could have sworn I saw something...."

He circled around the female's body, stopping around the back where he had seen it. Getting down on his knees and Hao Xuan noticed the creature's tail was tightly wrapped around something.

By gently unfurling it he revealed what was inside.

"No way...how did you survive?!"

A snow-white little kitten dropped in the palm of his hand. It barely weighed more than a few grams and could easily fit inside his hand with room to spare but it was definitely alive...by some miracle.

Its long tail wrapped Hao Xuan's wrist and it held onto his thumb with its tinny front legs. It was breathing with a fair bit of difficulty trying to nibble at him.

Unfortunately with its strength, Hao Xuan couldn't even be tickled by it. The cub had two very thin antlers above its eyes just like its parents but they were colorless right now.

Seeing the cute little thing flapping its arms around Hao Xuan was reminded of another instance.

"I almost forgot about that damn octopus and cat. Where the hell have they been?"

But before he could further investigate on that matter the cub's breathing slowed down drastically. Its movements became lethargic and its grip loosened.

"Oh fuck, I almost forgot. You need to feed on spiritual energy right? But unlike your parents, all I have is my own to give. I hope this works instead..."

Hao Xuan closed his eyes and quickly regulated his breathing. Bits and pieces of chaos energy began to gather towards his chest before being pulled towards the mouth.

It would have been better to use the other hand for this but right now Hao Xuan's right hand was all but useless until he could expel the foreign energy.

When Hao Xuan opened his mouth a ball of concentrated black energy had materialized at the tip of his tongue. He brought the cub closer and slowly breathed out.

The ball of energy floated off like a snowflake and gingerly landed on its face, popping like a bubble. The chaos energy was instantly absorbed by the antlers as one of them turned pitch black while the other turned milky white.

A surge of spiritual energy ran throughout Hao Xuan's own body in the meantime and he felt a bond being formed between them.

The cub almost doubled in size right in front of his eyes but it was still only a tad bit larger compared to his hand. But while Hao Xuan was watching all these changes take place the cub opened its mouth again and bit down on his thumb.

Only this time its needle-like fangs managed to pierce his skin and draw enough flood for it to suck on.

Hao Xuan was obviously shocked by the sharpness of the fangs but more so because, despite their appearance, these creatures were herbivores. Or at least they were supposed to be but-

"Looks like the chaos energy mutated him somehow."

😉