After ten minutes of frankly tedious testing and finding a few new strings Feral decided to leave the cave before Rational woke up but first she went over her finding once more. First, she had named the strings in her head after intense testing. Well not really name more of attach a better concept to it

After all, both sides of the girl don’t even know what a word means much less what it is.

The gathering string, she concepted it, Blood Bag. As much as the name describes it does indeed store blood but there are a few intricacies. First, it was a radius thing more of a target as for what the radius is Feral doesn’t measure nor does she know how. Another thing was whatever creature the blood was from had to be dead though it didn’t have to be outside the body.

The opening string was now Wound and the reason for that was obvious to any observer. The way the very air opened up to form an angry red cut that produces a flood of crimson was probably the very image when someone thinks of a wound. The first thing she tested was if the deluge of blood was endless the disheartening fact was that it was not and limited to whatever was picked up by Blood Bag as for how she knew the blood smelled the same. The good thing about it was the fact that none of the blood that left the Wound would dry making it so much easier to have fun with.

Now to her favorite string, the control string now called Veins. This string let her control every drop of blood in her vicinity with a passing thought it didn't matter if it was dried, stuck to her skin, or was in the air as long it was outside a body it was hers to command. As for why it was her favorite just the sense of control was enough, being able to turn a misshapen pool of blood into a sword or hundreds of needles that follow her thought of flight and her favorite part being able to condense or uncondense it making it as hard as steel or changing it back its liquid form.

As for the new strings, she found them but couldn't use them because as soon as she found them all of her strings went out. It was expected as for every second she used any string they dimmed it was barely noticeable in the beginning but as time went on strings became harder to grip, reacted slower, and harder to see.

So with all her strings gone and going over what she learned she left the cave and into the forest that was doing a bad job at hiding sunlight. After spending such a long time in that cave she was momentarily blinded and in a moment of what could only be called a folly she dropped to the ground letting the rock-covered floor dig into her exposed skin from the holes of her frankly ruined leather shirt and pants.

They could barely be called clothes at this point. The rips from rolling on the jagged stone ground and the holes from knife stabs when she was still in the town led the shirt and pants to ruin. They were little more than scraps of leather held to her skin by the stickiness of dryed blood.

After three minutes of picking small sharp pebbles from her front, she got up and wandered into the forest in the hopes of finding something to do before the rational side of her mind woke up.

Frankly, the fact that she got this long was a bit surprising. Usually, after any tough fight, Rational would wake up and put Feral back on a leash. Because as much as that side of her is good at fighting it is not much good at anything else except maybe reading and testing strings. Rational is more of an all-rounder except for fighting she is quite bad at that if you compare her to Feral.

Feral didn't get much more time before Rational woke up. Only about five minutes though with her ridiculous way of travel, she did get quite far. Far enough to hear people. The second before Rational woke up Feral smiled at the thought of people and climbed up a tree to look for them. Mid-step on the way up the tree she falters as everything about her changes because Rational is awake.

Her hair changes back to sliver in a slow fashion though part of it is red with blood. The madness and obsession in her eyes are hidden behind a cold calculating gaze. The too-wide grin becomes a small smile. That happens while she falls off the tree from a small falter. Lucky for her the blood sword is still made from testing and as much as she doesn't know what is going on she does know how to save herself from a 15-meter drop.

She grabs the 2-meter long unrefined jagged blood sword from her back and leans backward to turn her unrefined fall into a single backflip. Once she faces the tree once more she pulls it back with one hand behind the grip and the other on it. She takes a deep breath to gather her strength and pushes the sword.

It whistles through the air and slams straight into the tree. The sword pierces halfway right over one of its teeth and the tree is run through. Though now the girl is confused about how the hell is she supposed to get the sword back and what the hell was she doing climbing a tree. After a moment of searching her memories and thinking she figures out both.

She pulls herself up the handle and stands on top of it then jumps. The tree groans as the sword is forced to cut more of it. With every jump, the sword digs deeper and she keeps going. Though with her tiny weight, it may take a while.

Soon she gets into a rhythm and focuses her thoughts on other things. Like what is she going to do about the people around her? They had gotten farther away from her but she could still hear them. On one hand, free blood bags are walking near her, and on the other hand, she has no idea what they are doing or how trained they are, or if they are carrying weapons.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Soon her mind goes so deep into what if and what to do that she didn't even realize she was at the base of the tree. With one more jump, she realized she wasn't going anywhere and left her head to get to work on removing the sword. The tooth of the blade was a real problem. With it on the other side of the tree, she couldn't just pull it out on the other side. So she gets off the handle, lays down on the floor, pushes the handle up then pulls back.

With that the sword is free and she can finally take a good look at it. As much as she knows what it looks like from Feral's memories her memories don't really focus on details. What she could tell was that it was a two-meter-long sword with jagged teeth and as much as it looks like that it really wasn't an accurate description.

First, there were only two jagged teeth a big one at the edge of the blade from a little past the halfway mark and the small one from the end of the big one to the handle. Second, only one side was sharp while the other was a flat edge though that could be changed on a whim with Veins if she could use it. Finally the grip was no more the a jagged cillinder that when held wrong it would bite into your skin.

Normally those tiny cuts wouldn't be much of a problem to a trained warrior but the fact is the sword is made of blood from beasts not the healthiest thing to be cut by.

With her look over of the sword done and her mind made up she heads to the sound of people, to the sound of free Blood.

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Grant, his two brothers, and a bunch of other hunters were in the forest hunting creatures for their pelts. Like everyone else in this kingdom, they know a war is brewing but unlike most people, they used that fact to make a profit. War cost resources a lot of resources too much for a single kingdom can make so they rely on merchants.

Because as much as the kingdom loathes to admit it they have a lot more freedom than themselves. A kingdom can't ask a lowly hunter for all his leather nor can they have their knight hunt down creatures for their pelts and they most definitively can not travel to another country and buy out a town of all its resources.

So that's where the hunters come in after all merchants have to buy their stuff from somewhere. That is why they are out here to gather as many pelts as possible so they can sell at an increased price when the next merchant shows up. Of course, their plan is not foolproof but it was better than having their household starve this year.

Unfortunately, they hadn't had much luck in finding a lot of creatures. They had gotten two rabbits and a single jackalope though one couldn't really tell what it was after what they had to do to kill it and its pelt was pretty much worthless with all the holes in it even if it was from a magic beast. Which wasn't fair if you ask them it was a pretty tough fight and it was a lightbender kind which is pretty rare.

Since they didn't have much luck finding a lot of creatures they decided to split up in groups of three till dusk then they would set up camp and see if the forest gave them enough pelts. A couple of the hunters were scared of splitting up, after all, there are magic beasts in this forest and not all of them are as weak as a jackalope but they stayed so they could feed their families.

Grant was not one of those people. He is a confident man that has been hunting in the forest for years. He knows the forest like the back of his hand he knows how to avoid the tough magic beast and he knows where the territory of every magic beast are. Grant is strong too just last fall he killed a dire wolf with his battle axe.

It was injured and alone but still, he beat it. He beat it and he isn't even a Broken or a Taker. That was why he is leading his group of hunters through the forest. He didn't even have to use a show of strength to get them to follow him they just did. He was glad he didn't because showing them he could cut a full-grown tree in one stroke of his axe was sure to scare more animals away.

At least he didn't have to worry about the magic beast if he did it. For some reason, they never come around these parts well more like they never stay long. The fact that they found a jackalope in these parts was quite lucky though most of them wouldn't agree with that statement. The fight was tough. Grant was glad he wasn't there.

Not because he was scared but because he know how much of a pain those things can be and that was not including it was a lightbender. Grant held no doubt he could beat one it would just not be worth it when he can just hunt a bunch of animals for the same amount of money without breaking a sweat.

Like he was doing now. He and his group had been tracking a deer and they finally caught up with it. It was going well until one of his group tried to attack it. He may have forgotten to tell them the one they were tracking was currently in its Awakening. So when the thin stick of a man tried to stab it in the neck and succeeded after dropping on it from above he was quite understandably surprised when it didn't fall over dead.

He was even more surprised when it doubled its size and shook him off its neck. "Damn it we missed it," Grant tried to whisper under his breath. The third man of the group heard and hissed, "Missed what?" Grant looked away and said, "Nothing." The third man looked at Grant then the three-meter-tall deer and hissed," You knew you knew it was Awakening and didn't tell us fuck why didn't you tell us."

"I thought we could get to it before it finished."

"And then what a partial Awakened is worse."

"I was going to kill it before it could do anything."

"Why didn't you do it then."

"Because I could tell it was finished when we got here I was going to tell you then but he had already gone and stabbed it."

They kept talking while slowly inching toward the second of the group who got thrown off. He was lucky and got thrown into the dirt and not a tree though he was unconscious when they got there so they pulled him behind a tree and looked at the three-meter-tall deer.

"It hasn't seen us yet."

"Great we can fight it then."

"What!?, I am not fighting a Berserker Deer."

"Why it hasn't seen us and the stab wound in its neck has already sealed."

"You know why plus their pelts aren't worth much."

"Yes but if we kill it and get even some of its meat and bring it back we can work harder tomorrow."

"Fine but if it fails we retreat immediately."

"Okay but what about him he is still unconscious and we can't not outrun the deer if we carry him."

"It is fine I gave him some of my salve it doesn't do much for wounds but he should wake up soon."

"Soon enough to run if we fail."

"Probably."

"Okay, good enough for me."

"I will go for organs and you try to decapitate it."

"I know how to kill that deer so shut up."

Third quickly climbed a tree while Grant hid behind a tree. Once on top of a branch, Third pulled out a bow from his hood, knocked an arrow, and put two more in his hand. Grant waited for the whistle of bow fire then jumped out from behind the and took a leap toward where he was sure the deer's neck was.

It was over quickly. Grant's battle axe bit through the deer's neck hitting an artery while Third's arrows hit its heart, a lung, and one of its eyes. With that much damage taken suddenly the Berserker Deer was no more. With the deer dead Third jumped out of the tree and Grant pulled his axe out of the deer's neck while trying to find a good spot to start butchering it.

They were almost immediately interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. Both of them jumped and turned toward the tree they left the second guy at. They looked at each other and Grant nodded then started to walk toward the tree. When he got around the tree the sight that was beheld to him confused him. For the life of him, he couldn't understand it at first glance.

There was a small girl that was basically skin and bones standing over the awake Second. She had a blood-red sword that easily surpassed her height and was holding it outstretched to her right side like it weighed nothing. He couldn't see what her other hand doing nor could he see the girl's face or Seconds

Then he heard Second scream again only for it to get cut short. "Hey, little girl what are you doing!" Grant yelled. The girl turned to face him while revealing the body of Second. Second's face was covered in scratches all of them oozing blood and there was a long slit going across his neck also oozing blood.

Grant then turned to the girl that had an unnerving smile and haunting purple eyes," Did you do this?" The girl didn't answer. Grant took a step forward toward the girl and repeated his question. She didn't answer. Grant did it again and still, she did not answer. Grant did it one more time and this time the girl responded with a kick.

She dropped the sword, crouched, leap towards Grant's face, twisted her hips, and slammed the top of her foot into his jaw. That move put him out cold. As soon as her feet hit the dirt she got low to the dirt and began dashing from tree to tree while on all fours. In a manner of seconds, she was behind Third who was currently butchering the Berserker Deer.

"Grant hurry on and tell me what happened with him do I have to give him some more?"

In response to his question the girl dash out from behind the tree and leaped on Third's back. Then she tore into his back with a torrent of claws till his back was painted red and unconscious from blood loss. With Third unconscious, she got up from all four and grabbed his wrist, and began dragging him towards Grant.