Humanity: Evolve

Zhang Long and Winter carefully made their way through the foliage. The wolf's hind legs hindered it greatly and the large creature which was almost as tall as Zhang Long was forced to walk in a see-saw motion, comedically betraying it's predatory appearance.

He held back the urge to laugh at his newly acquired companion. Zhang Long gently ran a hand through the wolf's surprisingly clean mane. The latter shook it's neck in p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e, before l.i.c.k.i.n.g his hand.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone yelling and a corresponding whimper from ahead. Zhang Long widened his strides, speeding up his pace. Winter also seemed to have understood the weight of the situation, moving as quickly as it could.

As they got closer, they could hear more and more sounds of combat.

'I'm surprised that they are still fighting, it's been several hours now.' Zhang Long muttered.

'No wait. Wolves like to tire out their prey, before killing them with minimal effort, that's probably the only reason why Alan and the others are still alive.'

He recalled seeing at least ten wolves the night before, not including Winter who had just switched sides. That was already double the number of humans who could fight, excluding the rookies.

Considering how dark it had been, Zhang Long reckoned that there had definitely been even more wolves, at least ten more.

After half a minute, he reached the edge of the forest, where the trees met the plains. It was only until now did he realise that the wolves had followed them such a long distance.

Zhang Long saw the humans by two trucks, one of which had fallen on it's side. As he crouched there, assessing the situation, he noted that almost everyone had some sort of injury. Alan, Ryan and another senior officer were standing, various melee artefacts and spirit beasts at the ready.

'That'll take me ages to heal, there's just too many people.'

The people had been surrounded completely by white wolves, all the same colour as snow. Each wolf was about half a metre tall, significantly smaller than Winter, who stood at almost 1.6 metres tall.

'Could you be their alpha?' Zhang Long asked, subconsciously rubbing Winter's mane.

It seemed to nod, he could feel an emotion akin to pride through their connected minds.

Although the wolf was incapable of speech, their minds had been connected through a spiritual link, thus they could roughly understand each other.

Zhang Long thought for a moment, before asking, 'Could you tell the other wolves to back off?'

The wolf replied with an ear piercing howl, of which the smaller wolves simultaneously responded to with their own howls, before slowly backing away from the humans.

At this moment, Zhang Long and Winter emerged from the cover of the low hanging tree branches and walked onto the rough path.

He saw the weary and exhausted faces of his compatriots widen in fear and then shock. He walked over to the three senior officers, greeting them with a nod.

Ryan glanced at Winter, displaying various emotions.

Zhang Long noticed this, briefly explaining what had happened. He detailed being flung away by the truck's impact, along with his timely awakening of his talent. Naturally, he also mentioned saving Winter and bonding with it.

As Ryan was still processing the shocking information, Zhang Long took the opportunity to look at his tamed beast.

It was a large dragonfly, almost the size of Winter. It's stinger and long bladed legs were drenched in a shade of red, no doubt blood from the wolves.

He saw that Alan and the other seniors all possessed insectoid spirit beasts, all similar to old Earth insects but with noticeably larger bodies and more vicious looking weapons.

'You did well. I have to say, luck is quite on your side, getting your hands on such a powerful spirit beast only at first grade.' Ryan said, rubbing the dark bags which had formed under his eyes.

'If you had delayed any longer, we wouldn't have made it. Almost all of us are out of spiritual energy.' The other senior officer said, patting Zhang Long's shoulder.

'Alright, I'll report this matter to the higher ups when we get back. Go over and put that talent of yours to use.' Alan said, his grating voice cutting through Zhang Long's slight euphoria.

The latter nodded, his face expressionless, before making his way over to the group of huddled people. A black haired youth stood up, it was Jack Roberts.

'Zhang, you made it.' He said with his trademark cheeky grin, although Zhang Long could see that he was tired from a night of terror.

He nodded in response.

'Who has got the worst injuries?' He asked hurriedly.

'Randall does, he was mauled in the head by one of those mutts.' Jack blurted, before glancing worriedly at Winter.

'No worries, the big wolf is friendly.' Zhang Long reassured, before walked briskly over to the boy who was lying down with several people fussing over him.

The boy had short red hair and fair skin. He was quite tall, around 1.8 metres. Although he had been unconscious and had many short rests, the constant expenditure of spiritual energy had thoroughly tired him out.

Nevertheless, he powered through. Suddenly, the way Zhang Long carried himself changed. Jack felt as if the boy beside him had become serious and more composed.

Zhang Long kneeled down to look at Randall's injury. From what Jack said, the boy had been hit in the head by a wolf.

Although the description had been vague, Zhang Long recalled how Winter had completely removed the back of the truck in a single swipe. Winter was the alpha of the pack and substantially stronger, however even the might of these ordinary grade one spirit beasts was nothing to joke about.

'I don't know how much force the wolf could or did use, the damage could be a shallow surface wound to even a haemorrhage or a more severe brain injury.' He muttered, gently but swiftly brushing away Randall's red hair.

The colour of his hair got in the way, making it difficult for Zhang Long to clearly see the extent of damage. He could tell, however, that the wound was mainly underneath the veil of red hair.

The blood had already begun to clot, dried blood crumbled away just from Zhang Long moving Randall's hair away.

Zhang Long checked his spiritual energy reserves. He felt dismayed.

'Barely enough left for me to activate my talent for ten seconds.'

He sighed internally, before standing up and walking further away from the group.

'Everyone who isn't injured, get out of the way. Put those with serious injuries in front of me, next to Randall.'

Zhang Long planned to check out each injured person's wound at the same time, within ten seconds.

Luckily, only three people had been laid in front of him. Two boys and one girl.

Drawing in a deep breath, he pulled the last of his spiritual energy into his eyes, causing the world to turn into that colourless state which he had been so familiar with the past few hours.

He first focused on Randall, eyeing his head injury. Zhang Long felt relieved to see that only the outer parts of the boy's head were red, meaning that the force the wolf used to claw at him was superficial.

'He probably has a light concussion, the wound isn't actually that bad at all. I guess he actually fell asleep from exhaustion and everyone assumed the worst.'

Zhang Long turned his steady gaze to the other boy. The boy had several c.h.e.s.t and abdominal wounds, no doubt caused by a wolf's sharp claws.

This time, the injury was not as superficial as Randall's, with a sizeable chunk of flesh missing and some damage to the organs.

Finally, the girl. She had blotches of red dotting her arms, back and a larger spot of red on her face.

'She must have been attacked by several wolves at the same time. Her condition is worse than Randall's, but not as bad as the boy with organ damage. I think she's just lost a lot of blood and is subsequently in a comatose state.'

A familiar feeling of exhaustion swept across his mind as he was f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y pushed out of his "spirit vision".

Alan nudged Zhang Long in the side. 'How bad is it?'

'Randall is sleeping, his wounds are negligible. The girl has severe blood loss and the other boy is in the worst state. His organs have been damaged and he has internal bleeding.' Zhang Long reported.

Before Alan could speak again, Zhang Long cut him off.

'I'm out of spiritual energy, I can't do anything to save them. The girl and boy are going to die.'

There was a sudden silence as the others comprehended the meaning of his words. Even Winter shook it's mane and let out a low growl upon feeling it's master's distressed emotions.

Then, Ryan stepped forward.

'I have a medium sized spirit stone on me. It'll replenish all of your spiritual essence and quite possibly promote you up an entire sub grade.'

He fished out a large palm sized stone. It emanated a light blue glow, Zhang Long could feel the spiritual essence that was flowing out of it.

He unceremoniously grabbed it, before pausing awkwardly.

Ryan grinned slightly.

'Put it against your soul stone and pull the spiritual essence into it.'

Zhang Long nodded expressionlessly, before bringing the large stone to his head.

'Wait.'

Alan pulled the spirit stone out of Zhang Long's hands, replacing it with his own.

'It's my fault that they ended up like this. Both as the team leader and as the decision maker who landed us all in this situation. It's only fair that I pay for this.'

Zhang Long suddenly felt a sense of respect for the blonde Westerner who usually had a stern expression.

He nodded slightly, before taking the spirit stone and absorbing it. A surge of energy giving a feeling not dissimilar to that of an adrenaline rush flushed through his system. He felt an imperceptible itch all over his body and even inside his flesh.

The strange feeling disappeared quickly. Zhang Long guessed that it was the feeling of promoting a sub grade.

Now, his spiritual energy reserves had doubled, providing him with more leeway with how many wounds he wanted to heal.

He quickly got to work, entering spirit vision and beginning to heal the boy's wounds. The boy had the highest risk of death, in fact, Zhang Long wouldn't have been surprised if the former passed away right on the spot.

He still had to heal the girl as well, thus he had to ration his spiritual energy wisely.

'I can completely heal the boy and slightly improve the girl's condition, or I can do the opposite. The former is definitely the best choice, as the boy will be fine afterwards and the girl will have an improved chance at survival. If not, it'll be the other way around, but the boy has a lower chance at surviving.'

Zhang Long steadily pulled spirit energy through his eyes, slowly stimulating the boy's flesh to regrow, as well as heal the damaged organs. It took ten whole minutes for him to finish.

Then, he spent the last of his energy on improving the girl's chances at survival.

He stepped back, exhaling deeply.

'That's the best I can do. The boy will live, but the girl's chances are on a balance scale.'

Zhang Long announced, gently rubbing Winter's mane.

Ryan patted his shoulder.

'That's the best you could do. I'm already impressed. Now we'll just leave it up to fate.'

Zhang Long nodded.

'If there's a Pangaean deity, you should pray to them. The girl's chances aren't high.'

Alan rubbed his chin for a moment.

'Alright everyone. Gather round. We can't make our way back to base just yet, we'll need to wait for Senna to recover before moving. That could take any amount of time, so we'll set up camp now.'

He turned to Amanda.

'Help us unload the second truck. When we've done that, I'd like you to go and request help from base.'

The latter nodded, before briskly making her way over to the second truck.

'Alright everyone, get to work.'

Zhang Long decided that recovering the rest of his spiritual energy was more important, thus he sat down and leaned against Winter's fur.

It was only then did he realise that his white double b.r.e.a.s.ted coat was drenched in blood and covered in mud.

He frowned, before taking the coat off and laying it on Winter's back.

'The weather's pretty warm, I won't catch a cold or anything. Then again, I'm not sure what kind of illnesses run amok in Pangaea. Perhaps bacteria and viruses have evolved due to the spiritual essence in the atmosphere.' He mused, eyes closed.

Zhang Long let his mind wonder as he waited for his soul stone to recharge.

'I'm not sure if my talent is able to cure illnesses, similarly, I'm not sure if it is able to treat problems like bone density and the like. Well, it's already good enough as is, maybe it'll get better as time goes on.'

Soon, the sun began to set, cloaking the plains in a blood red glow. Zhang Long had already healed Winter's hind legs completely, removing the makeshift splints on either leg.

The wolf was eager to run and test out it's legs, much to it's delight. The camp had already been set up, an orange glow pervading out from inside the several leather tents.

Amanda had also already left, after unloading large quantities of supplies from the truck. Apparently, the modern humans in Pangaea weren't completely primitive.

They were able to use solar powered electronics, however the difficulty in setting up radio towers and pylons had been difficult. When modern civilisation had first arrived in Pangaea, setting up a network was one of the first things they tried.

This was because humanity would be at a greater advantage with modern weapons, tools and so on. The problem was that whenever they set up any key infrastructure, hordes of spirit beasts swamped the place.

Even worse, the only real reliable source of energy that humanity could employ was solar power, but there was a scarcity in man power and available domesticated land for solar energy plants, not to mention the cost.

'What's worse is that the more things we send through the warp, the more energy it costs. That's why we have to go without using thermal weapons- the quantity of ammunition required to arm several troops is just too much. We can't have the best of both worlds, thus we have to stick with infrequent drops of people rather than ammunition.'

Alan said in his gravelly voice.

Zhang Long nodded.

'Actually, there was a relatively successful attempt to convert spiritual essence into electricity, or some other usable source of energy.

Whilst we didn't manage to set up a large scale plant, the emergence of artefacts is one of the byproducts we created by accident.'

Just as Zhang Long was about to ask about the manufacturing process of artefacts, a long shrill shriek reverberated through the air.