Hugo managed to dodge, his instincts sharper than any regular human. His movement was a blur. He felt light, the feeling was exhilarating the speed so stimulating.
The bear slammed into the earth where he had been standing a heartbeat before, the impact cratering the mud and sprays of dirt into the air.
, Hugo noted internally with a sense of slight confusion which then turned into realisation.
Just then...the forest went dead silent. The air grew cold, to the point Hugos breath became visible.
SNICK
A pale, gaunt blurry figure dropped from the canopy. It was a nightmare draped in leathery grey skin. It stood at twelve feet tall. A horror with impossibly spindly limbs, an a head that was nothing but a sun bleached deer skull snapping at the spine bears neck before the creature could even whimper.
It dug its claws into the red spiked-bears heart its claws ripping its heart clean out.
A loud squishy crunching sound was heard as the creature began to devour the bear.
Slowly...the monstrosity turned its skull-face towards Hugo. Inside the empty sockets, two pinpricks of pale yellow light burned with an ancient, bottomless hunger. It let out a shriek that sounded like wind whistling through a graveyard.
Hugo stared at the new monster in front of him with slightly wide eyes, his jaw tightened. Adrenaline coursed through his veins.
He shook his head as he stared at the wendigo.
Hugo muttered in a quiet, tired tone.
"You're worse than the bear."
The creature lunged. There was no running, it simply flickered across the distance.
Hugo didn't flinch. Hugo remembered how he had entered the new world, when he had been deployed. His mind remembered how he had prevented himself from going splat into the ground.
Hugo though internally.
Once more four skeletal arms exploded from his back. The creature paid no attention to this new development it slashed downward, two of Hugos skeletal hands burst forward catching its wrists mid-air. The impact was like two tectonic plates colliding. The ground beneath Hugos boots shattered.
Hugo struggled and breathed heavily as he fought with every ounce of strength he had.
Hugo tensed his left arm and with a surge of adrenaline and ferocity.
RIIIIP.
With a sickening sound of tearing wet leather, Hugo tore the creatures left arm clean off. Black, viscous ichor sprayed across the moss.
Now one-armed, the creature hissed, but Hugo didn't give it room to breathe. He rushed forward with a speed equal to the creatures, his four new appendages acting as additional limbs in a brutal beatdown.
Hugo's fist blurred, his threw a sharp, solid cross striking the creatures gaunt ribs, whilst the skeletal arms delivered a sharp heavy, bone crunching hit to its skull he continued various blurred solid strikes such as these repeatedly. He was in synche he dodged almost every retaliatory swipe, his body moving with a fluid grace that was impossible back in his old world.
Suddenly an opening had been discovered by hugo, Hugo pivoted. He drove his boot into the creatures knee with the force of a hydraulic press.
CRACK
The bone shattered, the monsters leg folding at an impossible angle, It dropped to on knee, letting out a shriek that rattled Hugos teeth.
The scream was a wave of fury that caused Hugo to be stunned, his ears rang a loud deafening sound. Like having a bell rang directly into one's ears.
Hugo groaned in discomfort at the shriek.
"AGGH, You nasty pric-." Hugos insult was cut off.
Despite the predators shattered knee and missing arm, it rushed forward with a newfound burst of immense speed that felt like the resort of a dying animal the creatures remaining clawed hand shot out like a serpent, wrapping around Hugos throat.
Hugo gagged in pain, he couldn't react in time as.
"What the-."
It hoisted him off the ground before he could retaliate and with a venomous jerk of its powerful,twitchy muscles, it slammed Hugo back-first into a massive oaktree.
Hugos vision blurred as the wood splintered behind him. The creatures violent outburst didn't stop. It slammed him into a tree again. And again. The bark was painted red with hugos blood as he struggled to keep his spine from turning to powder.
Then, with a final screeching roar, the monster threw him.
Hugo became a Human cannonball. His body tore through the first tree, snapping it as if it were nothing more then a twig. Then the second.The third, By the fourth and fifth trees, he was a dark blur of a tattered black raincoat and shattered wood. He finally skidded across the forest floor, his momentum carrying him directly into a heavy, wooden slave cage at a nearby goblin camp.
CRUNCH
The wooden bars exploded as Hugo slammed right through them. He groaned, shaking his head. Around him, a dozen terrified demi-humans-fox ears and feline tails twitched in horror and confusion as they stared at the broken cage.
They didn't wait; they scrambled out of the wreckage and vanished into the trees like scared animals.
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Hugo managed to stand up, his chest a mess of blood. A massive blood red gaping gash ran from shoulder to waist, his ribs visible. He looked back at the monster.
The creature was already walking towards him, its right claw was drenched in bright red colours.
The stump where its arm had previously been was heaving grey skin knitted over muscle in seconds. Its shattered knee clicked back into place, the bone reforming instantly.
Hugo stared at it, he analysed.
Hugos eyes narrowed as he spotted a roaring goblin bonfire nearby.
Hugo grinned, a hideous bloody grin as he coughed out a bit of blood onto the green grassy floor.
"But you can still feel pain can't you? You're not a God." Hugo spoke aloud to the creature in a weak voice.
The creature ignored Hugos remarks its sharp jaws drooling as its hunger only grew.
Hugo stared at the monster as it finished regenerating, its deer-skull head twitching with a predatory clicking sound. The gash on Hugo’s chest burned, an icy fire that told him he was reaching his limit.
"Lets see how much you can take," Hugo whispered through blood-flecked teeth.
The creature lunged, a flicker of grey movement. Hugo met it halfway. They collided in a blur.
There clash led them to burst into the center of the goblin camp.
The goblins, recovered from their initial shock, they all surged forward with rusted spears and jagged daggers squealing in a frenzy to protect their camp.
The monstrosity stopped for a fraction of a second. it unhinged its jaw and let out a shriek so loud and foul it felt like physical weight. The air hummed with a lethal frequency.
Hugos ears bled, but the goblins suffered worse. Three of the nearest creatures dropped to their knees, their eyes bursting into rest before their heads detonated like overripe fruit under the sonic pressure.
Hugo, teeth bared, pushed through the sound with an iron resilience. he ducked just in time under a wide, sweeping claw that would have decapitated him, the wind of the strike whistling over his hair.
He stepped into the creatures reach, delivering two pistol-like punches to its sunken chest followed by a roundhouse kick fueled by a surge of adrenaline.
The kick landed with the sound of a tree snapping. the monstrosity was sent flying, its gaunt body crushing two goblins into green paste as it skidded toward the edge of the camp.
Snarling, the creature reach out a spindly hand, snatched a fleeing goblin by the leg, and stuffed the screaming creature into its maw.
Hugo watched with disgust as the monsters wounds knitted even faster, its strength returning as it feasted on the living essence.
Hugo spoke aloud in a mocking tone. "You seriously are one nasty bastard."
The wendigo tilted its deer-skull head and drooled a string of blood from its red maw as if to taunt Hugo.
Hugo Stared at the creature with a raised eyebrow, he raised his left and did a rude gesture.
Just then, the camp's leader a massive, hulking Orc roared, charging Hugo with a heavy iron cleaver.
"Get out the fucking way," Hugo spat huffing and puffing with anger and distaste.
One of his skeletal arms shot out, wrapping around the orcs thick throat. With a violent overhead heave, hugo swung the half-ton Orc like a flail, launching him directly at the staggering monstrosity.
The creature reacted with instinctive violence. It didn't dodge. it caught the flying orc with its remaining clawed hand, but the momentum was too much. The orc slammed into the monster, and for a second, they were a tangle of green and grey.
The monstrosity let out a guttural hiss. It gripped the orcs shoulders and waist, and with a terrifying display of raw, supernatural strength, it ripped the orc clean in half as if it were nothing more than a stuffed teddy bear.
Blood rained down on the campfire, hissing as it hit the coals. The monster tossed the two halves of the orc aside, it yellow eyes locked onto Hugo, its jaw dripping with fresh green gore.
Hugo didn't wait for it to recover. he lunged through the spray of Orc blood.
"My turn to use that fire," Hugo growled with a venomous outburst.
His four skeletal arms surged forward, moving like a cage. They bypassed the monsters claws wrapping around its torso and the stumps of its shoulders with an iron grip. Hugo planted his feet, his boots cracking the earth, and heaved.
The monster thrashed, its skull-head snapping at Hugo's face, trying to bite his head clean off.
Hugo leaned back, the teeth grazing his lip, and slammed the creature backward, directly into the massive,roaring goblin bonfire.
The smell of burning it was instantaneous and nauseating. The creature shrieked as the flames climbed its giant frame.
Hugo didn't let go; he used the skeletal arms to pin it into the white-hot centre of the fire. The grey skin bubbled and turn to black ash. The once instantaneous regeneration only seconds ago stuttered. The heat was cauterising the cells, burning the magic out of the meat.
Realising it was losing its ability to heal, the monster gave on final, desperate surge, it kicked Hugo straight in the gut, sending him tumbling toward the riverbank, and followed him, its body smoking and charred, leaving a trail of ash as it whimpered in agony.
They hit the chest-deep water together.
The river hissed as it cooled the monsters scorched flesh. Hugo's skeletal arms wrapped around the creatures neck once more. They were both broken,bleeding, and exhausted. The water around them turned a murky, dark brown.
he monsters thrashing slowed. It stopped trying to claw, Its skulled-head tilted, those pale yellow pinpricks staring into Hugo's grey eyes with a cold, ancient clarity. It No longer was an animal. It was now a witness to its own demise.
Hugo stared back, his expression one of pure anger and annoyance, and venom.
"I told you," Hugo said, his voice a low rasp over the rushing water. "You are not a God."
He planted his feet into the riverbed and twisted his entire body.
SHHH-TUCK.
The sound of the spine snapping was like a dry branch breaking underwater. Hugo grabbed onto the creatures antlers with both hands on each side and yanked upward with a final burst of adrenaline, tearing the skull clean from the shoulders. The headless body slumped into the current and was swept away into the dark.
Hugo stood in the river, the heavy skull clutched in his hands, water dripping from his ruined blood-soaked coat.
He looked at the massive scar forming on his chest.
Hugo grimaced
"Well that was one hell of a welcome, I seriously though I was gonna die there," Hugo muttered, tossing the trophy onto the muddy bank. "A total disaster."
He waded out of the water his breathing still heavy, his skeletal arms retracted with a wet, heavy click.
Hugo stood on the riverbank, his chest heaving. The adrenaline was beginning to recede, leaving behind a cold, hollow ache. He looked down at the horned skull of the creature at his feet, then back at the charred, smoking wreck of the goblin camp.
Suddenly, the space in front of him fractured.
A swirl of oily, black smoke coalesced into the physical form of the Ancient Grimoire
Unlike the previous pages, this one was scrawled in a wet, visceral crimson
The air grew thick with the smell of sulfur and old graves as a raspy, demonic voice
"A... sacrifice... accepted...""The ash... of the starveling... feeds the flame..."
Hugo stared at the page as the red ink began to glow with a sickly light.
PATH:Ancient Necromancer
[ TRIAL OF THE HUNGRY DEAD: COMPLETE ]
[ ASCENSION: BLACK DECAYING FLAMES UNLOCKED ]
- Nature:The Void-Fire. A primordial flame that does not provide warmth, but absolute entropy.
- Properties:
- Sanctity Negation:Actively dissolves Holy and Light-based mana on contact.
- Malignant Decay:Rots organic and inorganic matter alike. All biological regeneration is halted indefinitely.
- Mind-Eater:Victims engulfed in the smoke suffer vivid, terrifying hallucinations of their own demise.
- Requirements Met:
- Immolate a High-Rank Cursed Entity:(Wendigo burned in the Great Pyre of the Wood-Goblins.)
- Shed the Blood of an Apex Predator:(Spine-Bear Heart extracted .) (Indirectly by wendigo)
- Survive Fatal Trauma:(Ribs exposed; massive thoracic gash sustained.)
[ HARVEST STATUS ]
- Available Vessels:
- Command Limit:
Hugo’s eyes flickered with a reflected black light as the book snapped shut and vanished into his shadow. A lick of jet-black fire, rimmed with a sickly violet aura, danced across his knuckles. It didn't flicker like a normal flame; it flowed like ink in the wind.
"Well," Hugo whispered, his mouth twisting into a bloody, jagged grin. "I guess I'm not as helpless as I thought Id be."