Ominous crimson light flashed from what was supposed to be a corpse, driving away the darkness of night.

I stared, paralyzed. My muscles tensing. One false move and those muscular tendrils holding up the old lady's body could pierce my guts.

"...So...?" the creature asked, its muscles spasming as it took a step. "...Before I devour you, tell me, what are you?"

I lowered my center of gravity, preparing for her next move. I took a deep, calming breath, my quivering vision stabilizing, cold sweat dripping down my chin.

"That's not something you need to know," I said softly; a tense, twitching smile lifting the corners of my lips. "You'll be dying here... Again."

All the thick tendrils stopped moving with a sudden jerk, stiffening, and swelling.

Then.

It happened in an instant, one of the creature's blood-red tentacles lashed toward me. Before I could fully realize what I'd done, my body responded. I side-stepped, the appendage whistling passed my ear, narrowly missing.

The next one whizzed toward me, shooting for my chest. I dropped to the ground, my cloak fluttering, then lunged sideways — away from the creature.

I began sprinting, cutting a sharp turn, barely dodging another attack. I was confident in my fighting skills, but first I needed time to wrap my head around what I just saw and, more importantly, find out the exact measures needed to kill it.

The thing just survived getting its skull caved in, after all...!

The hairs on the back of my neck perked. I could hear loud footsteps just behind me, by the sound of it, she was getting closer. Fast. If I kept running, I'd die.

Spinning on my heel, I stopped to face the creature. Perhaps noticing my intention, it let out an intense, jovial shriek, pouncing at me.

Six tentacles whipped through the air at once, by observing the way the sinewy muscles making up the grotesque limbs spasmed and glowed, I was barely able to predict their paths, dodging four. But the final two managed to hit me. Light flashed behind my eyes as a sharp pain burst from my chest and shoulder.

I gritted my teeth, clasping both the tentacles piercing my body, and pulled the creature towards me with all I had. It yelped out, surprised.

Ignoring the noise, I hugged her contorted body and sunk my teeth into its neck; biting and chewing through the dense flesh.

A pungent, metallic taste molested my tongue. I felt nauseous. And my bodily injuries tripled as more tendrils drilled through my back.

The creature writhed, trying to get out of my hold. "Off...!"

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‘That's not happening,’ I thought, cringing in pain. I could feel my back turn into a fleshy sieve, blood — both the creatures and mine — clogged my throat, but I kept eating.

Until,

[You have devoured the skill: Soulsparking.]

something changed.

I fell to my knees, my vice-like grip loosening. The creature let out another shriek, kicking me on my chin, shattering my lower jaw.

The back of my skull smacked painfully against the ground, my lucidity flickering. And yet, in spite of the intense pain reverberating through my very being, I smiled.

I could feel it. Something changed within my body, more specifically my heart.

I opened my eyes, staring at the screaming creature through cloudy vision.

It clutched its neck, clumsily blocking the blood oozing from its injury. Though, I could make out the wound was healing, her tendrils filling the gaping hole. As if she completely forgot about me, she tended to the wound...

Let's deal with that, shall we?

I felt my heart relax, then contract tightly, pulsing a violent burst of blood throughout my circulatory system.

The luminous blood spilled out of my wounds. But instead of simply pooling on the ground, it began coalescing into tangible, muscular appendages.

Realizing my metamorphosis, the creature jumped back, surprised, flinging all her tendrils to my head.

But it was too little, too late.

I responded respectfully, lashing her with all my newly formed limbs.

There was no competition.

More than twenty tendrils shredded past her attack and plunged into her body, impaling her. The air trembled as she let out a blood-curdling scream.

"...H-, how?" A low, growling voice echoed, the creature shaking morbidly as it spoke.

I stared at the sky blankly, bemused — a section of a large cloud was lit up navy blue, probably by the moon. So that's why it was so dark. A blanket of thick clouds covered the sky. But wasn't the sky clear during the day...?

‘Let's forget about that for now,’ I thought, standing. The wounded areas around my body twisted and spiraled with fine, thread-like tendrils.

I groaned, all I felt was pain. Especially as my heart lurched erratically. It was as if someone was pounding my chest with a sledgehammer with each pulse.

"...How?!" the creature screamed, dangling helplessly in the air. "...I was sure of it, you weren't one of us, so how...? Don't tell me...?"

"Sorry." I averted my gaze from the tesselating crimson runes on the back of my hands. "What was that?"

"...Are you one of the Nine?" she repeated, her voice barely a whisper. That scary vitality must have been running out.

"I'm not," I responded flatly. "What are they?"

There was a brief, unsettling silence.

"...Kill me."

I nodded. "Before I do, can you tell me what direction the nearest town is?"

The beast roared, struggling once more. Her body tearing apart as she did. "You bastard...! Kill me!!"

Sighing, I splayed my tendrils in different directions, ripping her body into chunks of flesh. Blood, guts, and viscera rained down.

I stared at the remains for a while before relaxing, my inverted heartbeat stopping, then returning to normal. The glowing archaic runes on the back of my hands dimming out.

With swaying steps, I slowly walked to a nearby hut, leaning on it. All the invigorating energy I had when 'Soulsparking' was gone, and my wounds were gaping open and leaking blood once more.

I slumped to my butt, unable to stand any longer. On the bottom right of my vision was a message:

Congratulations! You've slain a Corrupted Hearthborne.

Enemy Class: D+

Reward: 500 XP

Note: 100 experience points can be converted to 1 SP.

...I really am in a fantasy world, aren't I? I thought rather humorously, adding all the SP into the Vitality stat with a mental command.

Bringing my Vitality stat to 397; the Sloth skill's perk must've kicked in. I was definitely relaxed, but that wasn't intentional. It was because I was hanging to my lucidity by a thread, exhaustion washing over me.

‘Huh, what a pathetic display,’ I thought, as I began nodding off, the final thread snapping and my eyelids draping over my eyes…