After I had drank enough water to my my stomach twist in pain I climbed a tree to wait for an animal to come by. I bounced a sharp stone in my hand as I felt my eye go heavy with exhaustion

My mind fell into a haze as an hour passed by until a dozen small hares hopped into sight. I focused on them and saw that a few of them has small wisps of light coming off them while others didn’t. So those were probably illusions. Or the other way around.

I summoned my two ethereal hands, they moved silently through the air encroaching onto the unsuspecting bunnies from behind.

Each one went after a bunny, one with the wisps of light and one without. Like I suspected the glowing one disappeared on contact. I had the real one by the neck with the other hand so I redirected the first hand to aid in killing the bunny. While one hand held the bunny down by the neck the other wrapped it’s hand over the head and twisted.

A slightly wet crack later and I had my meal. If Cleanse could take away an infection from my eye then it should help to make sure that any meat I ate was completely safe. Even for something like beef it would be better to be safe.

I had set the Meta card to be the one to absorb the life essence of the rabbit. And I could feel more than see it ever so slightly fill up. I honestly didn’t know if it would be better to let my Lotto

The rest of the rabbits had already fled, leaving their brethren to die. I picked up the dead rabbit and brought it up to me, opening up its skin with the sharp rock and then pulling the whole fur off like a sock.

Using Cleanse I hopefully took away any harmful parts of the meat and started to eat the flesh raw. To put it simply, it was disgusting. I almost vomited when the first mouthful of bloody muscle slid down my gullet. Still I made sure not to eat any of the internal organs of the bunny. Without a proper tool or a fire I didn’t want to risk anything even with Cleanse.

After I had gouged enough on the rabbit I stripped off more meat from its legs and hung it in the skin of the rabbit that I then tied to my belt. The food wouldn’t be good for long, but I would be able to snack on it as I moved for a few hours.

Again I saw a red thread form behind me. This time it moved quicker. Either he was still far behind me and was moving at insane speeds or he was a lot closer and was still moving well above comfort.

I took another drink of water before using the Far Away Hands to help me re-climb the wall. I moved quicker, I had been trying to conserve my stamina for as long as possible but I couldn’t afford to any longer.

The helplessness of my situation burned at me. I was running from one of the ones responsible for killing my sister. Yes I had killed the main culprit, but this man had helped herd my sister like cattle. If I had a Card capable of actually doing real damage to the guy I wouldn’t run.

But I didn’t have that Card, and I was injured, and tired, and still hadn’t properly processed my sisters death. I didn’t even have time to know if I wanted to continue living. Only base instincts from years in the Labyrinth have kept me going.

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As I hung from the top of the wall with the tips of my fingers and a giant flying wasp flew overhead I decided that I did want to continue living. There were still people to kill. I wanted to watch them weep as I swept through their homes and slaughtered those they loved like they had done mine.

There was also a childish wonder to see how far I could go with the Evolve Meta Card.

With it the dream of killing the ones who had slaughtered children could become a reality.

I climbed back onto the top of the wall once the terrifying wasp had gotten far enough away. Taking out a piece of still raw rabbit meat I chewed on the disgusting flesh as I looked around. I would need to take a slight detour to avoid a huge collection of spires where the giant wasp, along with probably a thousand others, made their home.

Looking the other way I saw a slight shadow off in the distance. I thought it was a pillar so far away that it looked like a person, that was until it leapt over a chasm, running straight for me. A red thread connected us, keeping any doubt from my mind.

My heart leapt to my throat and I spat out the rabbit meat. I ran, I needed to find something to help me survive against the knight.

A trap, a monster, hell pushing him off the ledge, wait no he could walk on walls from what I remember.

I continued to run for almost ten minutes. When I turned to see how far back he was behind me I could make out the separate joints of his armor. He wore a helmet so I couldn’t make out his face, but I imagined it was filled with rage or some similar emotion.

When I did so he used the red thread ability and the line appeared to connect us once again. Then the man used his other ranged ability. A ball of pure white light hovered behind his head and a dozen arrows shot out.

Like how my Smokey Hands and Far Away Hands could be used with one another his abilities could too. Every arrow ran along the red thread that connected me to him, aiming straight for my heart.

I leapt off the edge of the wall, and looking up I could see the stone from above explode as the arrows made contact. My Far Away Hands once again holding me up so I didn’t become a pile of human paste on the ground.

However, I had been looking up at where the arrow hand landed and the line that connected me and Tario so I didn’t pay attention to the tree branch that I smacked into. My summoned hands fizzled away as I lost concentration.

My body tumbled down branches and vines as I desperately tried to remake the Far Away Hands to slow my fall.

It felt as though every bone in my chest broke as my back slammed against the ground. It felt as though the entire world was shaking from the power of my heart slamming in my ribcage.

After almost a minute of being unable to breathe and the pain being so bad I couldn’t hear I realized that the ground was shaking wildly.

What monster’s lair did I come across? My arms felt like noodles, but I still tried to crawl away. It was only when turned behind me to see if any more light arrows were heading my way that I realized something much different was happening. About fifteen feet behind me a line in the dirt appeared. It was perfectly straight and widened with each second. That was when I realized it wasn’t a line but a gap. The earth was splitting in two.

Tario the knight captain appeared like a falling star. He landed on the other side of the gap and slammed his hand forward. It hit an invisible barrier that rippled ever so slightly. The red thread that connected us was still there and he tried to make more light arrows go down the length of it to skewer me. Like the fist they stopped against an invisible barrier shattering like a clay pot.

I felt a slight drop in my gut and the gap between us widened considerably, then my half began to rise above his.

The Shuffling was happening now, I’d be safe, for a little while at least.