Even though Zaro had an excellent ability to hide from enemies, he couldn't cover his tracks no matter how hard he'd try. Thus the orcs were always able to follow him even at extremely long distances.

The orcs were now nearing their target and could see the end of the trail which led to an open graveyard with numerous creatures scattered around berry bushes. Upon seeing this butchery, the orcs became startled as they feared that they walked right into a wolf pack rather than a lone wolf.

One of the orcs didn't want to risk his life and began retreating away from his party which made him a perfect target for Zaro. While the other orcs continued into the camp to investigate, the one that remained behind suddenly saw a flash before his eyes and the little vision he had left inside the dark was now gone completely.

Zaro had clawed his face with all he had so that the other orcs wouldn't hear any screams and then camouflaged himself once again.

The ogre with the ruby core, or the chief, signaled one orc to stay behind and stay behind in case of an enemy attack. Once the order was followed, Zaro swiftly took care of the orc and jumped back into the shadows.

"Two down, ten more to go, if I can keep this up I won't have to worry about fighting the ogre by myself."

Zaro pounced once again and lunged straight at an orcs throat and ripped it out mercilessly which alerted a nearby ogre but before it could call out for the others, Zaro had begun his attack.

His body spun around, his hind legs touched the ground for half a second and then he sprung straight at the ogre and tore its throat apart once again. Ogres had thicker skin than orcs but it wasn't harder or anything which meant that Zaro would just have to claw deeper than he would for an Orc.

After taking care of those two, Zaro noticed that his claws were getting drastically weaker with every orc he killed. He figured that if he kept up with this level of essence output he would eventually become too tired to fight the ogre chief.

'Essence Channeling' was incredibly strong but just like anything that can give you great power, it had negative consequences for using it too much. Since he had not even developed a core, he couldn't keep channeling as he would be draining too much essence.

Realizing that he couldn't use his claws as much anymore, he decided to try to get rid of the chief with hopes that the rest will end up running away. Thus, he had to use his strongest weapons... his fangs as they were clearly the most threatening part of any carnivorous beast.

With that in mind, he circled around to the front of the hunting party and set his eyes on the ogre chief. He waited briefly until the other orcs realized that their comrades had fallen behind them and immediately, they all began trembling.

It was quiet, the moon was rising in the sky and visibility was incredibly limited... to put it simply the orcs placed themselves in the most vulnerable position for any beast attack. The ogre chief suddenly saw a flicker inside the forest, eager to find out what it was, he separated from his group and approached the area.

Meanwhile, Zaro channeled essence into his claws and fangs and set his body up into a perfect pouncing position. Once the ogre got close, he used everything he had and launched his body forward like a catapult and sunk his claws into the ogre's chest.

The ogre moved its hands up to protect its revealed chest but he was too slow. Zaro then opened his mouth as wide as possible and snapped viciously at the ogre's neck then started tugging it around rapidly hoping to tear something off.

The other orcs spun around and watched as their chief was currently being torn apart.

The ogre's flesh was extremely tough even around the most vulnerable part of its body, however, Zaro repeatedly tugged at it while continuously channeling essence into his fangs.

Unfortunately, the ogre was too powerful and it grabbed Zaro's body and smashed it against a tree.

Zaro was so surprised that he couldn't defeat a ruby-core ogre that he snarled with hatred. When he looked up at the ogre he was clenching his neck and Zaro could see blood flowing from behind his large hand.

With an evil smile, Zaro slowly camouflaged himself and disappeared in front of the ogre's eyes as if he evaporated into the air. The chief signaled to the other orcs to retreat and they all began running back to their fort with their chief moving awkwardly.

Zaro remained close behind and never let them leave his sight as he followed, he was hoping to bleed the ogre out. However, his attack took up a lot of energy and he was getting really exhausted and felt like if the ogre didn't collapse any time soon he would collapse from exhaustion not to mention the damage he received when he hit against the tree!

The moon was now at its peak in the dark sky, the ogre was on the verge of collapsing as the other orcs helped carry it back to the fort. Zaro was getting extremely tired, he couldn't continue for much longer and was depending mostly on his determination to get the ruby core.

The ogre suddenly cried out with a weak groan and collapsed onto his knees and began breathing heavily and its eyes were half open. Blood covered most of his upper body and he required some immediate medical attention.

Zaro could finally rest, he laid down not too far from the ogre and watched what the ogre was going to do now. With a few mumbled groans he must've told one of the orcs to keep going to the fort as one of them separated. He then looked over at another orc and placed his hand on the orc's head.

Unsure of what he was doing, the other orcs and Zaro watched carefully as the ogre tore out the orc's core and consumed it without hesitation.

"That's it! He can replenish his energy and perhaps treat his wounds with cores!"

Realizing this, Zaro forced himself to continue running and headed straight for the orc that separated! Since orcs had larger bodies they would obviously move slowly which meant that Zaro could catch up with him very easily.

With the last few drops of energy, Zaro launched forward and went straight for the orc's core on the top of its head. Due to Zaro's ability the Orc didn't see him until his fangs were already an inch away from its face.

Zaro snapped with all he had and crushed the orc's head and consumed the core. He could suddenly feel essence replenis.h.i.+ng a bit of his energy and filling up the gaps in his wound, treating it.

The core was weak but it was just enough! Zaro then slowly walked back towards the ogre as he didn't want to use up more energy and wanted to save it for the ruby core.

When he approached the group, he noticed that two orcs were missing, as if he sent them away as bait while he could recover his strength. Thus the only ones left were the ogre chief, two orcs and another weaker ogre.

Zaro approached them really close with his ability and inspected the ogre chief, he was still bleeding and breathing very heavily. The other three were looking away from him and keeping alert for Zaro but little did they know he was right beside them.

Zaro needed to tire the ogre even more so that he wouldn't be able to recover is wound or have any bit of rest. So, he carefully walked in front of one of the orcs, jumped up and aggressively lunged at its throat, killing the orc immediately.

After alarming the other three, he walked back into the shadows without looking back and sensed them moving forward once again. It was only a matter of time until the ogre wouldn't be able to stay alive any longer!