I continued to sprint down the hallway while the grunting squeals of the Bogre’s resounded behind me. I’d found they had in fact been just gathering every single one of them together to assault me. I also was rather pointedly reminded that as far as physical ability I was slightly stronger than what I figured was a warrior for the Bogre’s.
The problem? Well I had no leverage due to my much smaller stature and weight and well... there was a lot of them, far too many to deal with without getting swamped by them.
I was faster than them thankfully and the occasional flare I shot at them every time I had enough distance to aim properly had allowed me to actually gain quite a bit if I was to believe the notifications piling up at the back of my mind as I ran. The partitioned part of my mind however was radiating amusement at the situation which of course wasn’t very helpful to keeping a level head in the situation with every thing else going on.
“RAAAAHHHH!” The Bogre at the head of the procession of pursuers roared. He was the largest of the bunch and his flattened piece of metal actually looked sharp, unlike the dull edged pieces the others I figured were warriors held. Then again with the strength these things seemed to possessed I guessed they didn’t really need an edge normally.
I decided the loud one was the leader given the fire in his eyes and the constant shouts for me to stop and fight him like a proper foe. Whatever that meant.
A sudden swishing in the air had me jump to the side and growl as one of the flat pieces of metal was thrown at me by one of the other warriors. “Will you just stop!” I growled as I stopped and picked the piece up and hurdled it horizontally at the chasing group before continuing my sprint. My mental lips curled into a wide smile at the screams of pain and roars of indignation I heard follow in my wake.
If I wasn’t sure they were too many to face at once I might actually be enjoying myself.
Though I supposed things had to come to an end.
I slid almost on the floor as I entered into a chamber with only a single entrance into at least on the ground level of the chamber as I looked up I saw only one other exit on a ledge of a flat wall. I scowled and turned to hurl as many flares as I could at the stomping throng headed my way before I started throwing any of the rubble along with it as I backed up until I couldn’t any more.
I was surprised at the thinned throng that emerged from the hallway, most sporting some pockmarks from flare damage while others simply looked furious. The largest one sneered at me though, he looked rather pleased with himself to have cornered me.
“Well ya kin't run anymore kin ya? Now ya die!” He sneered at me as he took a few steps forwards and then halted when I scoffed in laughter as more of the warriors stepped forwards to follow. They too stopped at what must have been an incomprehensible action of prey to them.
“This is what you call being a proper foe?” I growled making sure to try pushing a bit of my dwindling energies into my throat as I’d grown more used to moving it about inside myself. “A horde hunting an infant?” I sneered at them and that seemed to be news to them.
“Ya are an infant?” The leader grunted at me in clear confusion. “Wha are ya den?”
“I’m a god.” I growled as I poured every last bit of my energies into a flare and fired it at the leader. Some of the others had fainted or fled at the sound of my voice but those with strong enough minds remained. I hadn’t expected much but the large flare up of black fire that engulfed the Bogre’s side sent the rest of tribe reeling and a subsequent roar that tore through my throat sent the more craven of the bunch fleeing. “AND I’ll DEVOUR YOU ALL!”
The Chief was rolling on the floor to put out the fire while the few warriors came at me. ‘left!’ I heard in my head and I jumped left right as one of the warriors threw his weapon at me as he charged.
He went head first into the wall and I quickly moved in to tear out the dazed Bogre’s throat and retrieve his weapon. I needed something more if I was to survive this and I felt a sudden surge of movements and fighting instincts surge into me from the partitioned part of my mind and I couldn’t help but feel relief.
So even if I didn’t have access it, it still tried to help me how it could.
I was amazed as I moved in a manner that was completely different to what I’d thought I would be able to as my body moved almost of its own accord. Every time I dodged a rather telegraphed strike from the Bogres I took a piece of flesh to eat at the same time.
By whatever providence or perhaps cowardice or even some sense of fighters pride they had, they all came at me one at a time and as their numbers dwindled more fled instead. Most likely not wanting me to eat them piece by piece as I fought them, no matter the bruises and small cuts I got in the exchanges.
“Fight ME!” The leader roared as I managed to skewer one through the underside of its jaw and somehow into the brain of the smallest of the Bogre’s that had attacked me. I stared at him as I gorged myself on the brain matter I’d managed to rip out of the creatures skull.
“Why?” I asked him as I continued to rip off pieces to eat of my newest victim, my new borrowed instincts screaming at me to gather energy where and anyway I could. “I’m eating.” I told the Bogre as it’s face grew more scrunched up and heavy breaths began to dominate the enraged creature.
“Eat Dis!” He roared as he threw his weapon at me before he charged.
I screamed as I felt the weapon slash deeply into my thigh as I tried to dodge out of the way making me stumble. Then the leader was on me, slamming into me harder than anything I’d ever felt before making me bounce off of the wall I’d been hurtled into.
My world swam and I felt so woozy as I tried to unsteadily get to my feet but the leader wouldn’t have it. I felt the foot come crashing down onto my chest as I tried to roll off my back to get up and then those fat fingers found my throat as it raised me up like some trophy. He roared into my face as his fingers tightened.
The thing even had metal wrapped around its forearms making my scrambling claws ineffective to get him to let me go. My legs kicking as my lungs screamed for oxygen and my desperation grew to get free.
“Ya will be eaten an' i'll shit ya out. Ya are no god ya are food.” The leader growled as he drew my face closer with his and I saw he meant it. The bastard’s beady eyes stared into mine and in desperation I felt my face rip open as I opened my maw and let out what little I’d managed to recover in a flare that hurt us both.
The surge of air into my lungs as the leader let me go to clutch at his burning face was only there for me to scream myself as the same fires burned at my lips. I understood why they screamed now as it was a pain that surged through the very fibres of my being but borrowed instinct and spite made me move. I picked up one of the blunt flat metal bars and slammed it into the leaders face.
Twice I hit him square on the snout until he finally fell over.
I knew he wasn’t dead but it was also rather clear to me that I didn’t have the strength nor time to kill him and get away should more of the Bogre’s come along. Already I was starting to hear curious grunting and sequels come from the hallway I’d entered through. I was very unwilling to leave the thing alive but my borrowed instincts drove my battered self onwards. The help the partitioned part of myself had given me hadn’t failed me yet so I heeded it.
It took a while to scramble up the wall with three Bogre limbs hanging from the rags I’d clothed myself in. I needed sustenance and once inside the alcove at the top of the wall I’d seen I managed to dig into one of them as I rested. I still didn’t feel safe yet so I continued down the hallway before I’d even finished half of it, eating as I went.
My gaze darted all over the place and more often than not over my shoulder as I continued, the growing silence of that part of me starting to get to me. It felt tired, and that same exhaustion soon began to affect me as well. I limped along as I made sure the rags I’d tied around my cut thigh still held as I watched the odd grey blood leak out from the wound. It was viscous and slightly thicker than the red I’d seen come out of the Bogre’s and humans but then again I was neither.
When I felt about ready to drop I found a pile of rubbles to crawl into and kept myself awake long enough to devour the other two limbs before I finally heeded the demands of my body for rest.
-
Gorgush came too in agony. That strange creature had beaten him? No it had spit that black fire at his face and then beat him with one of his hunters cleavers. He groaned as he brought a hand up and found one of his tusks had melted off along with half his face, he only had one eye left.
Slowly he turned and shook his head, feeling and hearing the last of his liquefied flesh drip off of him as he coughed and sputtered. He could hear his tribe coming to the chamber they’d cornered the creature inside of. The chase had cost him a lot of his people with its black fire peppering and weakening them as they chased the creature.
What he found the most annoying about the creature was that it appeared to only really grow fatigued after using its fire, like its body alone could just keep going indefinitely. It horrified him to think it was just a babe as it had said.
It certainly looked the part.
“Chief!” He heard one of his people come to him and help him up, the entire tribe squealing in fear and releasing fear musk at the sight of his scarred visage.
“Go gatha da uvva two tribes.” He groaned at them but at their stares he roared. “Now!"
They needed to gather all three tribes living in the heavenly mountain. If that was an infant then he’d just seen the predator that would prey on them, the remains left by the creature a clear indication of that.
It infuriated Gorgush. They were the predators of the mountain, they preyed on the weak skins and the other creatures that called it home.
He paused then as his mind started working.
“Fekk'n' weak skins must've summoned it.” He growled as he remembered the strange chanting weak skins that lived in the upper centre of the mountain at the great heart fire of the mountain. They always sent those strangely changed weak skins or other creatures they were said to summon down to bother them.
“Yeh, Dey always send those weird stuff an' monstaz down at uz. Don’ey?” Mitch, the runt of the tribe said and Gorgush couldn’t help but smirk his new grizzly smirk at the young Bogre. Weak but his head swirled with ideas, most bad but he did have his moments. It was the only reason he hadn’t been eaten after failing his first hunt with a weapon no less.
Bogre’s valued their own above others, if there was no value in a member of the tribe they fed the tribe. Simple and easy to live with.
“Once we finish it we go afta them! It will make us prey an' we kin't have wot! we need da tribes ta come togetha so we kin hunt it down an' then we warh wit da weak skins! We eat em!” He bellowed at his tribe and saw the shining excitement of a mass hunt. There hadn’t been one in a generation.
Many would fashion themselves new wrappings or even tents once they were done of that Gorgush had no doubt.
His deceleration echoed throughout the entire chamber and carried down the hallways as his booming reverberating voice. With that done he needed to get some skin on his wounds and speak to the other chiefs.
Though before that he got an idea. “Brin' da hunt'n' blots. Send them up there an' send a marka afta them too.” He grunted as the hunting dogs of the Bogres were sent after the blood trail leading up the sheer wall that the creature must have climbed to escape their clutches. The creatures were the size of small horses that the weak skins called mutant ratdogs and after them they sent a marker.
The long centipede like creature’s favourite food was a blot and its rank smell was easy to follow. With the blots on the hunt for the creature with their superior noses, the Bogres would follow behind the stench left by the marker as it hunted for the blots.
He took a seat and made sure they kept a small pack of blots around so that they could make them resume the hunt if what they’d already sent after the creature failed. He was loathed to do it as breeding blots was a difficult job and their numbers hard to replenish at times.
The large litters the creatures had did offset it a bit but the difficulty ramped up with the markers given that their stench made a tribe unable to really live with more than two of the creatures and thankfully they had two pups back at the tribe chamber so he could use the other marker without too much loss to his tribe.
The problem might be convincing the other chiefs though. He ruminated on that as his runners went to the tribes while he was being fussed over as his wounds were bandaged.
It took half a wake period for the three tribes to gather together. To Gorgush’s surprise though the other chief’s looked grim as he told them what had happened and the reason for his summoning of them. While they might have strained relationships Bogres valued their own above all others and a threat or even a possible one to them was met with the severity it deserved.
“Aye.” Kulicht the chief of the Blood teethz nodded gravely after Gorgush had finished his tale. He already looked to be ready for it, his grey fur still covered his body but the ageing Bogre would have to retire after a hunting season or two. The glint of going out in a blaze of glory shining in his beady blue eyes, a rarity for the usually black eyed Bogres.
“It said it wuz a god? We kin't have wot runn'n' around just wait'n' ta hunt us. I'z 'n.” Ormich of the Heavy hides nodded. His tribe used the metal they took from the walls or from the weak skins to make secondary hides around their thick bodies and made clubs instead of cleavers. A tradition the Rot Tusks took up for the legs and forearms of their warriors due to the lesser quantity of metal they had.
All three chiefs gave one another wide feral grinns as they let out war grunts and squeals the other Bogres took up. “We hunt, we hunt, we hunt!” They all chanted as they started to pull in rubble and stones to build a ramp so they could follow their prey and the scent of the marker they’d left behind.
The chiefs waited to the side as their tribes worked, Gorgush still feeling the stinging pain of his wounds but he continued to breathe in the ancestors breath around him. It eased the pain and even a bit of his skin started to look a little better but it was all the breath could offer him.
The shamans of the tribes even fussed around him, placing the rare ointments they had on hand to prepare him for the hunt and following slaughter the tribes had planned.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Then again it was a long time coming given the troubles the increased activity of those strange weak skins living near the mountains heart fire. Their demons, mutants and other creatures they summoned and made with their strange chants up there had more often than not been seen as a challenge for their warriors to hunt in a world of weak prey.
It had been entertainment but now? Well they’d shown they wouldn’t stop throwing these strange creatures at them until they’d killed the Bogre’s or made the mighty people into prey. Gorgush wouldn’t have that happen, not while he lived.
Unbeknownst to him, his one remaining eye had begun to turn red as he breathed in more of the ancestors breath than he’d ever done before. The ointments somehow aiding in the endeavour and filling his body with the strength his ancient blood offered him.
He greedily accepted and felt his body swell slightly, his melted tusk healing before he grew a new pair earning four tusks as his body grew taller and stronger.
“By da ancestors! Gorgush?” The other chiefs asked in amazement as Gorgush stood, his fur turning from a rich brown to a deep black as his eye shone a baleful red. If it weren’t for his half melted face he’d look like one of the ancestors they revered.
He let out a bellow that made all the other Bogre’s halt and stare in wonder at the living ancestor that Gorgush had turned into.
"we hunt! an' we eat!” He bellowed and raised his arms above his head, his cleaver clutched in one hand when he used to need two to wield it properly. The strength coursing through him intoxicating but he knew were to direct it and he would.
-
I flinched awake as I heard a roar echo through the hallways of this strange place I’d found myself in. I shuddered at the roars contents and got ready to move, feeling the several notifications waiting for me. I wondered if I couldn’t just combine them into one for easier viewing.
The notification tablets seemed to take my mental thought as a command and absorbed one another so that with their combined weight they slammed through the back of my mind and forced themselves into my vision demanding to be noticed. Leaving my head ringing rather heavily.
[Void spawn level up! Level 4 > 6 achieved!]
[You’ve gained the following for level 4. +4 (+5) stat points and +1 (+1) skill point gained!]
[You’ve gained the following for level 5. +6 (+5) stat points, 1 bio point and +2 (+1) skill point gained!]
[You’ve gained the following for level 6. +4 (+5) stat points and +1 (+1) skill point gained!]
[Your growing mastery of Eldritch energies has gained you a rank in mastery! 0 > 1]
[Reaching the required level has made evolutions available. Choose what you’ll become with care.]
I blinked dumbfounded at the notifications before another slammed into my mind and I fell from my crouch in my hideout. My legs swept from under me as I was locked out of my own body with only these tablets for interaction with the outside world. Making me realize that these Bio points had to be spent when I got them which made me a little nervous.
[The Seed has taken it’s nourishment. The skill [Manifest Physiology: Basic] unlocked. The seed has taken root.]
My body’s previous aches and pains exploded into agony as my very insides twisted and squirmed. I was suffocating, my bones were on fire and vibrating within me and my insides turned to a furnace. I couldn’t even scream from the sever pain until just as suddenly as it came it left, leaving my taught body to go numb and limp as I panted from the exertion.
I’d seen it before on my status. [Manifest Physiology: Basic lvl. 0 (The Seed)] As it had been, now it had gained a level and I felt as if I’d opened up something that was supposed to have been open since the beginning. I felt the energies of this world I’d stumbled into open up before me and I recoiled.
One I could manipulate but the other I couldn’t, in fact it almost recoiled away from and snapped back at my mental touch. I figured one of them was one I didn’t have access to while the other felt strangely resistant… was this Aether? I did recall I only had minor access to that energy and with how ephemeral this energy felt to my mental manipulation as compared to the eldritch energy within me made me draw that conclusion. At least I hoped I was right.
It did beg the question of how I could use it? But I looked on at the evolution options I’d unlocked as it occurred to me I’d almost missed that, leaving the study and mastery of Aether to a later time when I could do so at my own leisure and wasn’t being hunted as I felt I was.
[Available Evolutions earned.]
[lvl. 5 – [Riftling], [Voidling] & [Deep one] available]
I narrowed my eyes at this tablet before I opened my status and a I felt a mental grin emanate from the partitioned off part of my mind as I believe we both came to the same conclusion. I could still level my race… did that mean I could unlock better and rarer evolution options for myself? I felt both of us decide to seek the highest rank evolution I could manage while I also felt it that part of myself warn me I needed to be safe to evolve. A warning I intended to heed.
Then all that I had to wonder over is how I’d spend this windfall of stat points. I mentally grinned happily as I got to work spending my points.
Name: Kainaat Mors Alta’farud
Titles: [The Dweller from the Void]
Minor titles: [Father Death] [Mother Life]
Physique: 15
Agility: 13
Wisdom: 12
Toughness: 14
Reflexes: 13
Willpower: 12
Resilience: 14
Perception: 12
Presence: 12
Free Points in reserve: 29
Race
[Void spawn lvl. 6 / 5]
Classes (0/4)
[Locked]
Professions (7/7)
[Alchemy (b) lvl. 0] [Blacksmithing (b) lvl. 0] [Necromancer (b) Lvl. 0] [Druid (b) Lvl. 0] [Smith (b) Lvl. 0] [Shadow Adept (b) Lvl. 0] [Tailoring (b) Lvl. 0]
Skills: Skill points in reserve: 9
Racial Skills (3/5)
[Eldritch energy Manipulation: Basic lvl. 1] [Manifest Physiology: Basic lvl. 1 (The Seed)] [Eldritch Brain: Basic lvl. 1]
General Skills (03/05)
[Invocation: Basic lvl. 0] [Void Flare: Basic lvl. 3] [Mental Fortitude: Basic lvl. 1]
Class Skills (0/0)
Profession Skills (0/0)
Traits:
Racial Traits (1/3)
[Alien mind]
General Traits (3/6)
[Threshold of The Caliginous Sanctum] [Profane Soul – locked] [Esoteric Knowledge – locked]
Energy Mastery
Aether
Chi
Eldritch
Mana
Mastery Rank
Basic rank 0
Basic rank 0
Basic rank 1
Basic rank 0
Internal Stage
N/A
Core (b) – 0
Heart (b) – 0
Pool (b) - 0
I stared at the status for a long time as I decided on going with my plan of brining everything up to twenty. I could put four of the stats to that point with ease or if I shared them out there would be at least a gain of three in each but it didn’t feel correct to me.
In the end I spent all but two points to bring my stats up to a collective of 16 and my body squirmed at the swelling, itching and crawling sensations that took up the entirety of my senses as it took effect.
I felt taller as I stumbled out of the little hideout I’d gotten myself into to rest. Arching my back as I looked around. I had decided to save the last two stat points for later but I took a chance with my skills and poured points into [Void Flare], spending six to bring it up to level 9 before I paused at the new notification tablet that popped up.
[Do you wish to spent 2 skill points to rank up the skill [Void Flare] from Basic to Apprentice?]
It would leave me with one skill point left which I could save for [Invocation] when I could take it. I still felt that part of my mind telling me it wasn’t time yet, though not with words I still understood. I was starting to wonder if I should take [Invocation] when I evolved which got me a thrum of approval from that part of me. I could only chuckle as I stared at the tablet offering the rank up and decided to allow it.
It didn’t take a second for me to wonder if I’d made a mistake as the inside of my chest lit up and I saw the black fire of the [Void Flare] burst from my chest. I managed to scream before I was engulfed in the fire as it burned its way into me.
All I could do was scream.
[Skill [Void Flare: Basic lvl 9] has changed to [Void Fire: Apprentice lvl. 1]!]
-
Ezekiel was in high spirits as he looked at his flock. Barely a day out of the Maelstrom and they had already managed a great haul. A human ship barely defended on some diplomatic mission for the knight holds that kept the scourge at bay at the eastern fringes of the galaxy. They’d even gotten an infant scion, the lords of humanity of all things through the information aboard that ship.
He looked at the child being held by his sitter, they’d managed it at just the right moment.
When the child's parents had been called to the front lines they had come in hard and fast, using the very ship they’d taken to great effect. He was a bit disappointed they hadn’t gotten any of the knights, but an infant scion would work as the greatest of sacrifices.
“High priest?” One of his flock asked as they were adjusting the armour they’d gotten from their lightning raid. He smiled and nodded for the man to continue. “Do you think we can kill those boar mutants with these?” He asked hesitantly.
Ezekiel thought for a while before he smiled and nodded. “Yes, I think its time we get rid of those vermin who think themselves our betters. Make sure to divvy up the armour and weaponry among the flock. We will scour them from our haven before we hold the great ceremony. I’m sure our gods will manifest one of their number for the grand sacrifice we have for them now.” He said giving the teenaged maid, they’d kidnapped alongside the infant to take care of it, a vicious grin.
His flock all looked eager as the creatures had taken most of the labyrinthine haven’s lower half for themselves. He looked down at the revolver in his hand and patted it affectionately. Just gilded enough to look fitting for his station and deadlier than it looked, perfect for him.
“Why are you doing this?” The maid squeaked in fright as she clutched the silent babe protectively. She’d made sure that there was as much space as she could create between herself and the blessed flock, sending them glares of such immense hatred Ezekiel thought she might make a good follower. Well if she wasn’t so clearly wishing for all of their horrible deaths that was, he didn’t have the inclination of breaking the girl so she’d just be sacrificed as a meal to whatever they would summon with the infant.
“The gods demand sacrifice girl.” He sneered at her. “The purer and more powerful the sacrifice the greater the rewards they grant me.” He chuckled at her look of disgust.
“You should just hope that you die as quick as the child.” He then said with a dark smile of amusement at the draining colour of her face and the falling expression. Her screams would be the cream on top of a grand ceremony to celebrate his accension. He just knew it.
The infant scion would grant him enough favour for such a boon and once he’d shed the pitiful trappings of his weak human flesh. He would rule it all at the side of his gods, one among their number at last.
-
I came to in a conflagration of black fire. My vision flickering with the fire before it parted before my eyes to allow me to see better. I was curled up on the ground from pain and I could feel the ache and creaking of my joints as I moved to get up. The fire though covered my skin as if my naturally obsidian skin had just turned to black fire.
I felt amazed at the sheer change the skill had undertaken though the agony of the upgrading process would never happen again, preferably at least.
Around me were a quartet of six-legged dead creatures, too melted to really identify. It appeared to me at least that they’d tried to lunge at me while I was covered in [Void Fire]. A living avatar of black fire. The partitioned part of my mind thrumming in joy at the changes.
I looked around myself and breathed in, feeling as the fire receded into my skin leaving no mark on my taught obsidian skin. I felt it now, I could bathe myself in [Void Fire] along with firing either the bolts as the previous flares had been able to as well as… breathe it?
I heard a familiar scrambling sound and turned to were I suspected the creatures had come from and growled. Another of the foul long things was scrambling towards me, more frantic than the previous one.
Foam dripped from its snarling maw and its eyes shone with malice.
Deciding to see just how the skill had changed I raised a hand and funnelled energy into my hand alongside stirring the skill to life. I felt I could contain the fire and fire it like the previous bolts or I could just let it flow, I let it flow.
All that could be heard was the gurgling shrieks of the creature as the stream of black fire engulfed its front. It’s skin bubbling and sliding off of its melting bones. I felt giddy at the sight.
This would make those Bogre’s think twice. My thoughts of ravaging the population of Bogres and feasting upon them were interrupted when my own stomach rumbled once then it felt as if it started to devour itself.
Grimacing as I looked at the remains of the long creature I moved on to the others and tasted them. They weren’t as good as Bogre meat but better than the foul long things so I continued till I was sated. I didn’t leave much of the creatures once I was done and had even had to devour a bit of the long thing which left me grunting a little as I walked down the hallway away from were I’d faced what I suspected was the chief of the Bogres.
If they left me alone I’d leave them alone… at least until I was hungry again and if they happened to be close. They were prey the fact I wasn’t going after them to end their race should be as considerate as I could be to the things.
The humans on the other hand. Oh they wouldn’t want me to visit them again. So I decided to do just that.
While I made my way there I used the minimal amount of my recovering energy to play around and figure out the skills new limits and uses. I couldn’t wait to grow now if this was but a taste of the power I’d wield.
I started to feel a thrumming hitching sound come from my throat as I thought of what I intended to do to the humans. Only realizing after a bit that I was chuckling at the reintroduction I intended to have with them. I’d get my answers or they’d all die.