V-00000.6 - Nothing Left To Lose
Stepping forward, my instincts screamed in my ears again.
LEFT, I raised my left hand into a backhand motion as the thug struck out with his blade in an attempt to stab me; the back of my hand slapped hard into the broadside of the knife, wrenching it from his hand and sending the hunk of metal flipping end over end away.
His nervous Face twisted into shock and fear, his teeth bit down into his lower lip, drawing blood from his dry, cracked skin. He backed up a step, and I circled maneuvering myself between the doorway and him once I blocked his only means of escape. He lashed out, throwing his fist forward in a punch. Instead of dodging as my senses demanded, I twisted my body as if throwing a punch and grabbed his wrist with all my might, feeling the bones in his delicate body shifting under my grip. Twisting back, I pulled him forward and palmed his elbow straight up. I kept pulling forward and down on his wrist until his arm broke at the elbow.
Grabbing his elbow tightly and leveraging my strength, I twisted my body into a judo throw, slamming him down onto the ground by the broken arm. I stomped my boot into his chest. He desperately dug his nails into my calf, scratching and shoving at my leg with his still functional hand, but I felt nothing except greater rage that this animal would dare even try to survive what was coming his way.
Strengthening my grip upon his shattered elbow and wrist, I groaned, heaved, and twisted his mangled arm until the joint popped in his shoulder, and with a growl, I dropped his hand and stomped down on his shoulder, hammering his skeleton with my heel, his shoulder crunched, splintered, and finally tore through the meat of his arm.
Looking down and staring straight into the eyes of this living pile of waste brought no remorse or empathy from me; his tear-filled eyes, his stuttered begging, the piss stains in his pants—none of them made me consider forgiveness; in fact, quite the opposite. As I stared upon him, I felt the calm that had covered each of my actions and kept me level-headed, fading away, replaced with primal animal rage.
My breath quickened and my pulse picked as I leapt and fell upon the broken stain using my knee. I broke the fall with his stomach as my heart rate climbed higher in anticipation of the workout. I lashed out, punching and twisting with the hits again and again. I hammered him, my fists beating into his jaw, cheek, eye, and collarbone. I felt his fingers snap in my right hand as he tried to reach up, and I reflexively grabbed and broke his hand before returning to my savage beating.
With every punch I held back, not yet willing to let him fade, I prolonged his suffering until my knuckles were raw and red, with gore having beaten him until the skin on his cheeks was missing.
Interlocking my fingers, I held my own hands firmly together as a mace of flesh and bone. I raised my arms high, hands above my head, biceps and forearms taught like iron.
“YOU’RE THE MONSTER.”
I screamed, smashing down and twisting my upper body with the blow. His jaw broke, and a segment of gum with its teeth still attached flew out of his mouth. Hearing him break filled me with a primal delight, and eager to feel my rage deeper sated, I kept screaming, unloading my frustrations.
“IT’S ALWAYS BEEN YOU PEOPLE... YOU KEEP RUINING EVERYTHING.”
Again, my hands smashed him, crunching his nose and breaking it flat into his face. I separated my hands and dug them into his eyes. I felt him shudder under my grip as I dug my thumbs deeper.
“I’LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU... YOU FILTH, YOU TOOK AWAY MY EVERYTHING, AND NOW IT’S YOUR TURN.”
He stiffened and relaxed underneath me as I relieved his wretched soul from its corporeal form.
Exhaling hard, I let the stress go and pulled my shaking hands back. My strength was quickly fleeing me, and being replaced with the pain I felt at all times mixed with the abuse I had suffered recently, I was racked with spasms, and I trembled terribly as my nervous system went into an utter meltdown. I felt hot and cold, exhausted and wired simultaneously. My skin burned with the bite of a million fire ants, and every joint in my body felt shattered and worn.
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I slumped and fell sideways off the victim of my rage. I laid there shaking, simply trying to endure the pain and adjust.
Haha…ha bold words, Viktor, but it’s over. You’re going to die here alone and cold, like the emotional dumbass you are. Your spent, broken tried to tell you, you’re not so young anymore. You made the matchsticks worth of life left in your blaze, and now you're burned out.
The words of the voices haunted me once again, not content to let me even die in peace yet; it managed to reignite the flames of rage in me just enough that my mind raced trying to find any way to keep me going; maybe it was my self-preservation instinct finally realizing It was meant to do something or just the spite, but I realized when I bit that asshole back at my apartment, my vision cleared up, and I found the strength to stand again.
PARASITE… It says it heals me... Maybe this guy’s still fresh enough to count as living...
I leaned over, fighting against the staggering amount of pain that made each breath feel like a curse, and opened my mouth wide and bit down, digging my teeth into the throat of the dead thug, looking less like a sexy vampire and more like a cannibalistic ghoul. The sweet fermented liquid rolled over my tongue, although it had a wrongness to it, like the smell of meat as it was about to go bad.
With every gulp I felt slightly better. Mouthfuls of blood washed the spasms and shakes away. A subtle itch had taken hold all over my body, and in my joints I felt needles. I could see the skin on my knuckles stitching itself closed over scratches, and patches of scarred skin bloomed from the center of my knuckles like a flower opening in real time, my fresh skin spreading out to connect with the rest of me. The pink fresh flesh rapidly shifted in color, changing to pale white.
Once the blood ran dry, I bit down harder, tearing out the cadaver's throat—an action that surprised even me, but he tasted so good, and the feeling of my body setting itself to rights was addicting—the feeling of rejuvenation mixing with vindication after all the times I’d been told there was no way to fix me.
My teeth broke down his flesh, and he slid down my throat with ease and tasted damn good, almost like honeyed pork with the texture of steak. His flesh carried the same sweet fermented taste the blood had but was more gamey.
If the blood was Tylenol and bedrest, his flesh was like panacea. I felt my shoulders and fingers start to pop, pulling into alignment, and the older injuries on my body began to fade as I dug into his cadaver, laying my teeth into his neck and muscle.
My stomach burned through the flesh like an engine being revved, demanding nothing but more fuel. Examining my body, I saw I barely had a scratch on me; the bruises, skinned palms, and dislocations were a memory. I felt amazing, better than I had in years; I was full of energy and almost pain-free.
Red flashed over my vision in a wave as the system screen projected itself unbidden.
[The Ikarus Protocol has deemed you worthy of a Quest.]
QUEST: NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE
OBJECTIVE: [hunt down and destroy the urban reapers. 1/31]
REWARD: [+ 1 all stats, 500 EXP, 1 general perk, Hidden Title.]
OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE: [Break the Urban Reapers, bring them low, and make them know despair.]
OPTIONAL REWARD: [Unknown]
A grim, blood-filled smile crept up my face as I read the quest.
Perfect… I was going to murder them all regardless, and considering it says only one and not two, that means it wants me to kill them, not defeat them.
I turned back to my macabre meal after reading through the quest and made short work of the rest of the man whom I learned was named Adam after I pulled his wallet out along with the rest of his clothing.
Fuck you, Adam.
Deciding to look through the rest of my status brought a small flurry of notifications.
[Trait Eater: Mutation Genus
[Human slain, experience acquired]
[Quests page unlocked]
[Parasite: Human Consumed + 1 Intelligence]
[You have gained a skill through repetitive action.
[Unarmed Combat has leveled]
[Unarmed Combat has leveled]
Name: Viktor Bloodstone
Level: 1
Age: 18
Species: Human – HYBRID
Archetype: Occultist
Classes:
==== ATTRIBUTES ====
Strength: 7
Agility: 5
Dexterity: 7 (-1)
Vitality: 6 (-1)
Sense: 10 (+3)
Wisdom: 11
Intelligence: 10
Glamour: 5
==== SKILLS ====
Animal Instinct – 1
Mana Sense – 1
Unarmed Combat – 3
==== SPELLS ====
==== ABILITIES ====
Parasite – 1/7
==== MUTATIONS ====
SELFISH GENE (UNIQUE)
TRAIT EATER (RARE)
IMMUTABLE (UNCOMMON)
MUTAGEN (UNCOMMON)
“I think it’s about time we start looking at those mutations and skills, wouldn’t you say so, Viktor?”