Rose sped through the forest as if she had been born for that purpose.

Over a bush, between trees, dodging a branch right before it hit her head—all without slowing one bit. She was breathing clean air, and she was alive.

But this wasn’t a wonderland for her to enjoy. This was a newly integrated realm to fight over. To become strong enough, she would have to find monsters to challenge, dungeons to raid. Rose saw many things as she ran: birds chirping in the sky, deer running through the forest, mice skittering in the underbrush, but those were not what she hunted for.

They were part of this place, part of nature. What right did she have to spoil them? Her whole goal was to stop this place from getting torn into a barren waste like all the realms eventually did, after they were fully integrated into the Immortal realms. She ran past all of them, until finally—

Wrongness.

It was a sensation at her core, near the same place she had felt that wall blocking Var’s contact. A reaction from my divinity? Rose came to a stop gently, careful to not make any noise. The sensation felt… forward? And a bit to the left?

Like a hunter seeking dangerous game, she began creeping forward. The feeling intensified, a sensation of something twisted out of its natural order, until she finally peered from behind a tree and saw it.

It had used to be humanoid, but now it was a twisted caricature. A mouth had stretched from the jaw all the way to the stomach, forming an eerie, gaping maw. Hands and legs had twisted until the creature stood on four even legs, sniffing at the ground like an animal. A jagged spiderweb of burnt skin marked its whole body, but the eyes were too normal, even if they glowed with a red hue.

Paslamm Shrine Guard

One of the honoured who were selected to guard their people’s sacred shrines. Even though it was mainly a decorative job, they took great pride in maintaining their training.

Rose retreated behind her tree, unnerved. In their training, monsters were only mentioned as dangerous spawn of the devil, that needed to be cleansed from the lands before their integration, but that system description… It used to be a person? Are all monsters like this?

She shook her head, answers could wait for later. Right now her main objective was figuring out how her new skills worked in combat. How should she approach this? So far, she had only really used her melee-range thorn, which was sharp, yes, but not much more useful than a sword. Can I do something at range?

Feeling for her ability, Rose tapped into Blooming Blood, trying to sense something. There was blood all around her, yes. She could even feel it inside the creature’s veins, but as she reached for it—no good. Can’t use something inside them, not yet at least. I should try to open a wound and see how that feels.

Her body felt a lot stronger than it had been before, so she was relatively confident in running away if it didn’t work out. Trying to make some sort of… blood beam ranged attack was a possibility, but it would be using her own blood, and would ruin her chance at surprise if it failed. Best start with the one attack I know works.

Carefully, Rose felt for the wind, making sure her scent wouldn’t go towards the monster eagerly sniffing at the ground, and began sneaking towards it. Easy, easy, no silent moves there, keep looking that way—

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Moving on all fours, the creature was still tall enough to come to Rose’s chest. But it didn’t sense her. Summoning a thorn into her palm, Rose got right behind the creature, reached back, and then—

Stab.

Aiming for a vein she sensed, she thrust her thorn deep into its back. It jolted forward, roaring in a garbled voice, and kicking its rear legs back, but Rose had already jumped back, dismissing her thorn.

It turned, slobbering and snarling with that twisted mouth, and red eyes filled with hate focused on the young woman who had just stabbed it. Rose smiled. It was bleeding now—a lot.

She turned and ran.

The shrine guard chased after her, a fury of twisted legs and snarls, kicking right through every bush. It was fast—but so was Rose, and it wasn’t gaining on her at all. In fact, she was consciously slowing down to stay the perfect distance away. Right in the range of her bloodsense. Let’s see if this works.

Once more, she reached out with Blooming Blood toward the blood she felt in the creature’s body, and this time she pulled.

Rose could almost taste it. Her strike had been bad already, but now blood was pouring out, no sign of slowing. The creature roared in panic, feeling the life fleeing its body, and then turned. It began running away. But Rose had already turned too—she was right behind it.

“Can I make you bleed even more?”

She reached for the blood spraying out, holding it in the air around the creature in a rotating ring, constantly growing. Blood itself was just a liquid, it wasn’t much of a weapon. But controlling blood was only one thing her ability did. Rose was grinning wider and wider.

She pointed a hand at the creature and commanded. “Bloom.”

Instantly, the ring of blood around the monster transformed, drops of blood transforming into crimson petals—with razor-sharp edges. For a brief moment, it was as if the creature was running through a ring of beautiful flowers. Did it feel a sensation of beauty?

Rose closed her hand into a fist, and commanded the petals. Like a cloud of vicious hornets, they enclosed on the monster—and began slicing.

They were small, they were not that sharp. But there were so many. She had head the phrase “death by a thousand cuts”, but that was only half of it. A petal cut, then faded away. Drops of blood came from the new wound, turning into more petals. The monster lasted two seconds, roaring out in a horrible cry of pain, then collapsing to the ground.

Approaching with careful steps, Rose dismissed her cutting storm. The creature wasn’t dead yet, but she was starting to understand her power. Blood that was once transformed, lost its power. Once the petal storm was gone, so was the blood used to create it. Instead, Rose kept up her siphon, pulling out the rest of the creature’s life through a thousand wounds.

“Hmm… I see. I must draw more blood with each strike, or I’ll start to run out.” She mused.

But that wasn’t the only thing. Rose narrowed her eyes, pulling out the last of the monster’s blood and holding it in a blob in front of her. It wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t slow either. The power in it was fading. Only fresh blood too.

It meant she would always need a blood source at the start of a fight. Was her own blood enough? And then after a fight—Rose stared at the crimson pool floating in the air. She licked her lips. I could… have it now. But then it would be used up, and I would start the next fight weaponless again.

She could wait. Blood was her weapon, now that she had some of it, she should find a place to use it. But where was the next fight? Rose sighed, pulling the pool of blood into a rotating ring around her. The nascent goddess cast her gaze around, looking for a direction to go, then jumped.

There was an ornamental wooden gate right in front of her, and through it, she could see a mountain range and more gates. Completely at odds with the forest around it. The monster had been running right towards that gate. Just in time, a system prompt appeared.

Paslamm Shrine: C rank dungeon

A sacred mountain dedicated to the spirits of the Mennväeg people. Some say this mountain holds over a thousand holy gates, through which the spirits pass on their way to the top. The shrine guards make sure that visitors do not get lost on the myriad trails around the mountain.

“Well, that’s convenient.”

Blood swirling around her, Rose stepped through the gate.