I slowly lifted myself from the ground, feeling exhausted. Resting had helped a little but not as much as I had hoped it would. I looked around, at the chaos that I had caused. There were dead bodies everywhere. The bodies of old people, young adults, teenagers and even children. I thought that I would puke but for some reason, I felt no revulsion, I had no feelings inside me besides hunger and... fulfilment? Or something like that. It felt strangely satisfying to look at these corpses, to look at the blood. A slight tingle went all over my skin.

Food... I need food.

The village was strange, I didn't really think about it before but it is one of the only places in this forest that gets a lot of sunlight, most of the forest is hidden beneath bushes and especially the strange trees with the dark tree bark and those strange blueish orbs that glow.

I looked around... the houses all looked pretty much the same. None struck me as something like a food storage like we had in the village... I slowly dragged myself along the dirt path that led through the village. When I looked at the corpses I felt strange. Somehow I felt wrong for not feeling bad. I still remembered feeling bad when I saw Acil and his gang kill people in front of me... but now, now I didn't feel anything. Humans had a strange, almost disgusting feel to them, remembering it made me shudder a little.

After a while, I finally found what I was looking for. I had rummaged through multiple buildings, some partially broken, and had finally found something like a food storage. There was meat, some vegetables, wine and some clean water, bread and also some strange looking fruits. One was like an apple, but blue... or purplish something, with strange swirls on it and a green stem. I sat down on the ground, crossed my legs and began stuffing my mouth with food.

Where do they even get this stuff? I thought as I held up a potato. It looked a bit strange but was still unmistakably a potato... even tasted like one. The dried meat had a leathery taste and the strange apple-like fruit tasted strange and was... rubbery?

As I was eating I felt the wind picking up... and then I heard them again, echoing through the now more or less empty village. The voices returned. They tried to mock me but... it didn't have the same effect.

"Coward!"

"Little cockroach!"

"Fucker!"

"Just die!"

Being called and told these things felt... strange now that I was responsible for slaughtering an entire village... but they still annoyed me, I hated these voices. They reminded me of pain and suffering. And I felt that pain. I felt as if something was burning me. My eyes widened from the pain I imagined... or remembered or whatever. My meal was ruined but I didn't eat for fun right now. I knew what I needed to do, if I want to survive in this world I would need to become strong. My first objective: Kill Terror!

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Once I was full I stood back up and looked around. The only way back to land seemed to be a series of boats and rafts. One was already on the other side, tied with a rope to a thick rock that stuck out of the water.

Wonder if there are any black fish in here...

A smile crept across my face, I didn't quite know why but maybe it proved the point that I was starting to go insane.

I activated my warp magic mark and stepped to the other side, where I was sure Terror was waiting. Apex predators in this world seemed to have the habit of playing with their prey... or maybe just specific prey.

"This won't end as it did with Grudon... you're mine, Terror!" I said or rather whispered to myself.

I felt strong, stronger than I had felt for some time. Months had passed since I fell, which also meant that months had passed since I had eaten properly and also since I used magic a lot. I still felt it. I don't know how long I laid on the ground, possibly for a day, and that was right after waking up and sleeping for hours.

Must be the feeling of running out of mana or something, not something I want to get used to.

You're lucky, you know. You have a lot of mana, use it smart.

Sure, sure.

I activated my wood elven magic mark and enhanced my instincts, which seemed to be the right move. With enhanced hearing, that for some reason came with this technique, I heard the bushes rustling. But something was strange, the bushes to my right rustled differently to those to my left.

I smiled and tilted my head down slightly while enhancing both my strength and my agility.

"Come out, Terror!" I yelled.

He appeared from the bushes to my right... the problem with that was that I expected him to come from the bushes to my left. My guard was down and I was hit in the side with enough force to hurl me into the next tree.

Well shit!

I felt the tree bark crack, then the wood. I fell to the ground along with most of the tree. As soon as the glowing blueish orbs cracked open on the ground like glass. My breathing was heavy. I just recovered and was already in a pretty shitty state... of course, my life can just never be good to me, it just loves to push me...

And then there were the voices, calling me weak and pathetic. It just all made me angry... but I felt like this wasn't the right time, I didn't even know what I had planned... maybe lure him into the water? That might have worked, but right now I just lay there, on the ground with burning pain in my body.

I looked up at Terror, I watched the white tiger-like creature move closer to me. He looked at me with his bright blue eyes and his sabre-like teeth slightly reflected the light from some of the orbs.

How does something this large even hide in these bushes? I asked myself as I looked around for something to use but only seeing bushes.

Terror was now right above me.

Do something! Ira urged.

Maybe just a short burst of power... I need to focus on this shit... but focusing is pretty hard when a fucking elven metre long tiger lizard is trying to eat you...

I slowly got up from the ground. Terror observed me.

"Alright wrath... just a bit, give me a short bust, just enough to punch this thing once," I whispered.

I heard groaning in my head. It didn't sound like Ira tho.

Wha- Was the last thing I heard before I launched myself towards terror, one first pulled back and the palm of my other hand pointed at Terror. For a second there was confusion in Terror's eyes. That was the moment when it felt a surge in power. I saw some mana burst forth from my arms and swirling around them. When I punched Terror right in the face it felt like I was hitting a concrete wall or something like that. The beast barely even moved and I just seemed to have made it angrier.

Well fuck...