Arcen turned, looking at his surroundings. A faint pink color tinted the darkness, but it was fading fast.

  There were at least a hundred people all around him, ducking behind structures as they shot at him with guns that didn’t do much.

  Some others were shooting at him with lights that cut through him. Those were the ones that he had to keep an eye on, but it was hard to tell who threw things that hurt him and who did not.

  The gashes on his face mended automatically, his flesh filling the gaps like meat cement and his skin stretching across the gaps leaving no trace. While this was rather convenient in this situation, the pain was real, and he felt every single blow that breached his skin.

  Several explosions hit him at the same time right as his body finished mending itself.

  Within seconds, he lost a leg, an arm, and a big chunk off his left side. It was all the confirmation that he needed as he stood bleeding from his massive wounds.

  He wasn’t blinded by love anymore.

  Are they trying to kill me?!

  ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL ME?!

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶

  ????

  HATE +1

  [9]

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  He started blinking the pesky gold veins away from his eyes. These letters and numbers didn’t mean anything to him.

  As his eyes cleared, he came to a conclusion. The people trying to kill him were getting in the way of his finding love. Dying now would mean never experiencing any love ever again.

  His lost limbs grew back, and two more fiery blows carved holes through his chest as fireworks peppered him at increased frequency. Staying in one place was a mistake.

  I have to move.

  I...HAV TO MOVE

  He moved, and he was as fast as the bullets that bounced off his skin. His eyes weren’t as fast as his legs, he could only see a blur and all sorts of debris flying off into the distance as he dashed forth.

  He stepped on a man, and he only noticed when he felt it like a pebble under his foot. It was too late to check that one for love because what was once a man was now smeared across the rock like a mosquito that got slapped too hard.

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶

  ????

  DEATH +1

  [9—

  He blinked the letters away as soon as they appeared, trying to focus on everything happening around him.

  It was really hard to see which ones were shooting dangerous lights at him.

  He squinted his eyes in the darkness, willing himself to see better. The world around him rapidly turned dark blue. Orange shapes moved in that darkness, hiding in all directions.

  He could only see this dark world whenever he squinted his eyes. In this dark tinted world, all people had yellow flames around them—their outlines glowing bright against the deep blue darkness.

  Some of them were glowing brighter than others.

  Is that love?

  IS...THAT LOVE?

  He couldn’t remember seeing these flames on the people that he already swallowed because in his impatient greed for love, he hadn’t stopped to squint at them.

  That had to be the problem—he’d just been swallowing the wrong kind of people all along.

  He dashed towards one of the bright flames.

  …and he arrived there in a split second.

  It was a girl, her eyes and mouth open wide in utter surprise. She did something with her hands, and he felt three burns on his chest. He leapt back, sliding over the ground as he checked himself.

  He had three holes in his chest.

  He noticed something about himself as he squinted at his own body.

  Wait, I have flames too?!

  I HAVE FLAMES TOO

  His own flames were bright in his eyes, but it wasn’t as big and bright as some of the others standing around shooting lights at him.

  This made perfect sense. It was because he was the one running out of love.

  He wanted to find people with huge flames.

  He looked around, squinting his eyes at everything. The flame was hiding behind the vehicle that he crushed under his foot. He couldn’t see who it was, but their flame danced really high above the wreckage—the glow clearly visible from where he was.

  In a single leap, he flew high above the ground towards the wreckage, coming to a crashing halt, crumpling the metal carcass of the vehicle even further.

  He was getting to places way faster than he was used to. One moment, he was seeing a tall flame dance behind the wreckage, and the next moment, he was standing on it—looking down at the source of the flames.

  It was a woman wearing a dark green outfit.

  She had fur with markings on her cheeks and eyes that glowed in the dark. Her flame made her stand out, like a lighter in a field of matchsticks. Paying closer attention, he noticed her right arm had a brighter flame than her left hand.

  He had to swallow her. Whoever she was, she clearly had a lot of love.

  She raised her left arm above her head, and a glowing sphere came into existence out of nowhere. In the darkened world through his squinted eyes, flames rippled around the ball that she threw like a rock thrown into a pool.

  He dashed at her, hands low to the ground, ready to grab her.

  The ball struck him with a lightning bolt. All of his muscles momentarily froze, and he dashed off target, crashing head-first into a boulder.

  That ball above her head was more trouble than he thought.

  The other girl from before took shots at him from far away as he stood off the ground. Three of her shots punched through his right shoulder, leaving his arm hanging limply at his side.

  The green woman dashed over the rocks towards him, her right arm fully extended to her side as she ran. He tried to grab her as she weaved her way behind him.

  Another lightning bolt hit him square in the chest. It passed through him, and the woman changed directions in the split second all of his muscles locked up.

  He felt something cutting deep into the back of his legs as she passed by in a blur. She had some sort of an invisible sword on her right arm. He could only see it in the dark world when he squinted. It was made entirely out of flames and it was attached to her at the elbow—as if the bone of her forearm grew long and flattened like a blade.

  He tried to twist himself out of her way as she swung by for the second time. He was too slow to evade it completely. Her invisible blade went across his leg in a single swing.

  His left leg bent the opposite way from below the knee, crunching his bones loudly. He hopped towards the woman, his other leg wobbling under his weight.

  His broken leg mended back into shape.

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶

  ????

  LIFE + 1

  [8]

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  This is not easy.

  THIS IS NOT EASY

  A man emerged from his left, dashing towards him across the rocks. His flames were slightly less bright than the woman in the green outfit.

  Sounds wobbled and distorted as he dashed closer. Arcen couldn’t tell which direction sounds were came from anymore. It was all muddled, bouncing back and forth between his ears. He turned to his left when a sound was coming from the right and barely managed to dodge something the man threw at him.

  He had to keep all of these people where he could see them. There were too many of them doing too many things, damaging him too fast for his body to heal by itself.

  Another lightning bolt hit him, this time straight in the face. He was blinded by it for a while, flailing around trying to feel things around him.

  He rolled over and dashed away in the direction that felt right to him until his eyes cleared up.

  The man was following him closely, only seconds away from doing something with his hands. Arcen dashed away, willing himself towards the right direction. He couldn’t complete his jump. He went sideways, crashed into the camp’s fence and toppled a huge floodlight that sparked and flickered off.

  The man had tripped him somehow, even if he was so much smaller. Something was tugging at his foot from behind. He leapt again, but this time he was slower. He felt hundreds of lines stretch across his skin as if he was tied to the ground. He couldn’t see these ropes or chains, but his body was acting like they were there.

  He moved against them, pushing his body as far as he could. Despite his best efforts, the invisible ropes pinned him in place. It felt like his joints were glued and his body came to a complete halt, trapping him in the exact pose he was.

  The three people with bright flames burst into view from three different directions. The man dashed forward and touched his stomach. The girl pointed her hand at him, and he felt searing pain as pillars of light punched several holes through his limbs.

  The woman in the green outfit launched herself at his chest, and he felt her invisible sword sink into the right side of his neck. She levered her sword arm with her weight, cutting across towards his throat.

  The man slammed his palm on Arcen’s stomach. He felt tired, and weaker. His flames flickered, growing fainter. Numbness spread from the spot the man was touching.

  They’re going to kill me!

  THEY’RE GOING TO KILL ME

  His body moved on its own. He broke his own bones, twisting himself around in the same invisible tangle of ropes that held him in place.

  He swayed his head so that the woman flew over his head before she could cut his throat, then he brought his knee up and slammed the man on the chest.

  Punctured by the light bursts from the girl, his limbs weren’t working as they were supposed to. He used his mouth, crawling on the ground like a giant snake. He snatched the dazed man off the ground with his teeth, and he dragged him across the rocky ground like a crayon. The man screamed as his arm twisted off under the weight put on him.

  Arching his back, Arcen gulped him down. The numbness faded, and he started hearing sounds from the right directions again. Something about swallowing this man sent a rush through his entire body. It felt like a shot of whiskey on a cold winter day. He squinted and saw his own flames return quickly, filling up the holes in his limbs.

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶

  ????

  LIFE + 1

  [9]

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  The green woman screamed, dashing away from him. Arcen stopped chasing her. The girl behind him was causing more trouble. Three more holes appeared on his lower back. His new flames flickered lower as flesh filled them up. He leapt back, hand swinging in an arc to slap her to the floor.

  His hand stopped mid-air before it reached her. Looking closely, Arcen saw another man in front of her. He hadn’t paid attention to this one before. Of the four people with the biggest flames, this one had the least.

  He had the face of a rodent, with fur on his cheeks and thick armor on his forearms. He’d stopped Arcen’s hand with what looked like a shell of blue light.

  The girl fired another burst from within that protective shell. Arcen was used to her attacks now, and he managed to dodge half of her bursts. He dodged and weaved around this shell, trying to find the right angle to crush both of them at once.

  The shell seemed to be open at the back. He leapt over them in a single dash to get behind them.

  He got shot with a burst on his right hip just as he landed, but he didn’t wait for it to heal this time. He used the other leg to propel himself directly at them.

  The girl dashed out, but the man couldn’t. Arcen slammed his fist directly into the shell, and the man got crushed like an insect. He dug into the shell with his big hands, found the flaming corpse and swallowed it whole.

  He felt a smaller rush this time, but it was a rush, nonetheless. He wondered if that was their love.

  The chamber didn’t look pink or felt pleasant anymore. He clearly needed more people with bigger flames. His punctured hip fixed itself, his flames growing brighter instead of dimmer this time.

  The girl was screaming on his right. He nudged himself that way. The green woman had joined her, and they were both trying to run away from him. The girl’s light bursts hit his ankle, obliterating his foot. The green woman somehow did the same rope thing the man did. Arcen felt lines tighten around his body.

  This time, he had a plan. He grabbed a rock as his body slowed down and he flung it at them as fast as he could. It grazed the green woman and hit the girl on the back.

  They scattered in two directions, the girl took a few steps, coughing blood, and crashed onto the floor. The woman leapt far away, landing somewhere around the center of the camp.

  Arcen did the same thing he did to escape the ropes again. He broke his own bones and crawled out. He grabbed the bloodied girl from the ground and he swallowed her at once.

  Now she’s gone!

  NOW SHE’S GONE

  He felt a stronger rush as she went down. It felt like these people had something on their bodies. Something like sauce, but a very strong one.

  He felt it rub against the inner walls of his mouth, and he could taste it on his tongue. It tasted like metal, but it felt like liquid. Wherever it touched, it sent sparks through his whole body. The girl gave him a bigger rush, way more than the man who tried to protect her with a shell.

  His flames grew brighter, beyond what they used to be when he first saw them.

  These people with bigger flames were delicious like that. He couldn’t tell if this was their stored up love or not, but he wanted more of it. There was no difference.

  Just like love, all the power in the world belonged to him. No one else deserved to have it. Only he did, because he was King.

  He wanted to swallow the green woman. She still had the biggest flames. Luckily for him, she was coming directly at him. A ball of lightning popped into existence.

  He dashed back as a lightning bolt hit him. She dashed forward in the split second his muscles froze and cut across his forearm. She landed, and another ball of lightning came into existence. Her flames dimmed slightly.

  He got hit with two lightning bolts this time, and he couldn’t hope to dodge either of them. He didn’t get a moment to leap away from the two balls. The woman had a bigger window to cut across him.

  He felt her digging into his chest, landing three cuts across as she flew over his head and landed on his back. Another ball of lightning came into existence.

  Wait! This is-

  WAIT THIS IS

  He barely got a second to move, but it wasn’t enough. His muscles were seizing up faster than he could get his body to obey him. He felt her sword on his spine. She cut even more, she didn’t have to dash anymore. She took her time. He lost the feeling in his legs. His wounds couldn’t heal anymore, between lightning bolts from three balls.

  Another ball of lightning came into existence. He got hit by four bolts in a loop. There was only a split second gap between them. Arcen wanted to yell for the first time in this fight.

  He opened his mouth, his throat moved, and it felt weird. It was like moving a muscle that he forgot he had. He moved his jaw in the split second gap between lightning bolts.

  The green woman was climbing onto his back. Using her blade arm like an ice pick.

  Thinking about the strange sensation of opening his mouth to speak, Arcen realized he’d mixed up thoughts with speech all this time. He could always hear another voice repeating his words every time he had a thought.

  Suddenly, the dull world around him turned blood red.

  “STOP!”

  STOP

  He yelled in a dragged out screech. He sounded unpleasant to his own ears. His voice was different and dangerous. There was a huge difference between the voice in his head and the voice that came out of his mouth at the volume of a disaster siren.

  “DON’T KILL ME!”

  DON’T KILL ME

  It was different from the pleasant pink, but better than rocks and darkness. All the people around him stopped what they were doing. The lightning balls zapped him for a few more seconds and then eventually collapsed.

  Huh? They listened to me?!

  HA THEY LISTENED TO ME

  The green woman climbed down from his back, and she stood by him without moving at all. He grabbed her and squeezed her in his hand. She had no reaction. She stared at him completely unfazed.

  He swallowed her.

  She gave him the biggest rush by far. In this red world, he could see everyone’s flames without squinting. His flames flickered higher as the woman joined her friends in his stomach.

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ ATTRIBUTES INCREASED ╰︶

  ????

  DEATH + 1

  [10]

  ????

  DESTRUCTION + 1

  [7]

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ SKILL ACCQUIRED ╰︶

  ????

  ATTRIBUTE [DEATH] REACHED

  THE FIRST THRESHOLD OF [10]

  ??

  DRAIN [1]

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  All this fighting had been beyond tiring. He was hungry now.

  He needed to find more love. He had an idea. The people around him had flames. They were listening to him now. He wanted them to come to him. He was bound to find another one with love eventually, and every little bit would add up, anyway.

  “EVERYONE, COME TO ME”

  EVERYONE, COME TO ME

  They started walking towards him like ants towards a sugar cube. There were more people than he thought. They emerged from their hiding places beyond the rocks. Almost a hundred bright flames of all shapes and sizes.

  This was such a wonderful gathering.

  He swallowed them one by one.

  Some gave him a little rush, some didn’t. He imagined even their small bits of love would add up to a considerable amount. He wanted to feel like he did before.

  His wounds healed as he swallowed people.

  A familiar face appeared in his hand at some point. Wide blue eyes and a beautiful face. She was in a daze, like everyone else. Her flames were nowhere as bright as the green woman, but she was special.

  He knew her name.

  “Miss Jenna?”

  MISS JENNA?

  Her dazed face came back to life. She started screaming for some reason.

  “No! No! No! Let me go! No, please! Please! Henwick! Please!”

  What is she scared of?

  WHAT IS SHE SCARED OF?

  He looked around him. There was nothing behind him to spook her. Poor Jenna was seeing things.

  “It’s alright, don’t be scared.”

  IT’S ALRIGHT, DON’T BE SCARED

  Her face softened immediately, as if she realized things were indeed alright and always has been.

  “You must have love.”

  YOU MUST HAVE LOVE

  He swallowed her slower than he did others. He had to be sure. She tasted a bit different than everyone else, a combination of a sour grape and the bitter tang of a lemon peel. Her dress snagged on his teeth, but she went down easily.

  He picked her ripped dress from his teeth and spat it out. He was sad now.

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶

  ????

  DESPAIR +1

  [10]

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ SKILL ACCQUIRED ╰︶

  ????

  ATTRIBUTE [DESPAIR] REACHED

  THE FIRST THRESHOLD OF [10]

  ??

  INTIMIDATE [1]

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  Beautiful Jenna didn’t have much love to give him either.