Ria was ripped from her restful oblivion by an intense pain coursing through body. A dealing tearing roared like a fire from her leg, making her whimper. The cries of birds pushed on her ears, making her tear her eyes open.

The morning was lighted by the rays of sunlight sparking in the sand, reflecting in the water, illuminating the birds that flocked her. They looked like vultures, circling the air around her, their cries a carrion call from hell.

Ria jumped at the two birds resting beside her mangled thigh. She opened her eyes just in time to see one of them dip into the wound, its beak tearing away a chunk of bloody flesh.

She screamed, kicking her hood leg straight at the damn bird’s head. With a crunch, her foot impacted, sending the bird tumbling with a surprised cry. The second bird flapped its wings, pulling out of the reach of the food that suddenly attacked.

“Fuck!” Ria screamed in anger, glaring at the bird she’d sent tumbling. It looked shaken, but it was rising back to its feet. Its beak was still bloodied by ichor, her ichor, and it made her blood boil. “Dumb bird!” She yelled, grabbing a handful of sand and hurling it at the stupid vulture.

The creature let out a surprised and somewhat painful cry before flapping its large wing and rising to the sky. Ria glared up at the stupid scavenger birds circling around her. She counted a half dozen circling her, including the two she’d already sent packing.

An agony like liquid fire pulsed from her leg. She spared it a glance, almost throwing up at the sight. In the moonlight the wound had looked bad, but now, under full light of the sun? It looked horrific. She choked back a sob at the sight of her poor limb.

Blood coated her entire leg, reddening and clumping the sand beneath. A dark trail of crimson ran through the sand leading from the water to where she now lay. Her limb was devastated, looking nothing like a limb should. Her head spun, the dizziness hitting her like a bomb, making her head spin. She wanted to curl up, she wanted to cry, she was terrified, but somehow more than that, she was angry.

She was angry at everything. She was angry at how the sun reflected too brightly off the sand, angry at the world for being so dangerous, angry that her afterlife was so rife with pain, angry at the damn fish that did this to her, crippled her, but above it all, she was angry at the birds for waking her up. “You couldn’t have just let me rest in peace!” She screamed.

The birds seemed confused, unsure if they should attack or stay away. She had no doubts that she practically looked like a carcass, a nice meal for the carrion eaters circling on high. But she refused to die, if only to spite the stupid birds.

She panned her gaze over the beach, searching her surroundings. The ocean stretched as far as she could see, a deep blue hiding an untold amount of horrors. The beach stretched out far as well, the sand running along the water’s edge. After what she assumed was a few hundred yards, the sand gave way to a lush forest. It was the only destination she could think of. “Beautiful forest, probably filled with countless animals that want to eat me. Why not?” She muttered, beginning her slow crawl to the forest’s edge.

A couple of times during her slow journey, one of the birds would grow bold, diving down to attack her. A few loud choice words and several handfuls of sand was enough to scare them back, and she crawled on.

Might as well check out my weird invisible tablet while I crawl. She decided, splitting her attention between the glowing holoscreen and her surroundings.

[Arienna Dubrai

Age: 18

Race: Human

Vitality: 10

Strength: 8

Agility: 9

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Determination: 15

Unallocated stat points: 10

Influence: Unchosen

Please choose an influence at your earliest convenience!

I wonder… She mused, focusing on her individual stats.

Vitality: the measure of your body’s resilience and recovery.

Strength: the measure of power within your body’s muscles, and the measure of how well you can exert that power.

Agility: the measure of your body’s flexibility and capability to respond to commands.

Intelligence: the measure of your mind ability to affect the world around you, increasing the power of all magical effects.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Wisdom: the measure of your capability at storing the world’s energy.

“Huh?” Ria’s mind drifted as she crawled. Her lapse in perception cost her as one of the birds dove onto her, raking its razor talons over her bare back. Blood erupted as she screamed, the terrible pain burning her entire back.

[Pain resistance has reached level 2.

Ria felt the blood running down her back, the precious little ichor she still contained fleeing her. In a burst of, possibly misguided, genius, Ria willed her change, pushing the unallocated points into vitality. My body’s resistance and recovery. Sounds good to me!

[Stat increased - Vitality is 20

That tingling sense of life clouded her body, sending a wave of relief and pleasure through her.

“Haaa…” She sighed, releasing a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. When the energy washed over her wounds, a feeling of numbing relief spread, pushing away the crippling pain. “Mmm.” Ria moaned, the relief so good she couldn’t help it.

Sadly, the relief only seemed to be momentary. As the energy faded into her body, the pain returned, but it was far less severe than previous. The pain in her back had shifted to a burning itch, like an army of fire ants were crawling over her skin. It was uncomfortable, extremely so, but not painful per se. Her leg was much the same but, much to Ria’s elation, she could feel and mover her toes again.

She took a tiny moment as she lay there to marvel at the small motion. Something so miniscule thing bringing her such a feeling of happiness. It was a call from above that returned her, making her roll in the sand. Razor sharp talons raked the air where her back had just rested. She managed to avoid most of the sudden attack, but the claws still managed to gouge into her breast as she rolled.

Ria’s blood splashed onto the sand, the tiny grains sticking to her as she tumbled. “Fuck! Right in the tit! You stupid bird! When I get my hands on you, I’m gonna wring your ugly chicken neck!”

Seemingly daring her to try, the bird swooped down again, its talons lashing toward her skin. She fell back at the last second, shooting her hands out to grasp the bird's legs beyond its talons. Her right hand fell true, her fingers grasping like a vice on the leg. Her left hand fell short, the talons taking across her hand and spraying blood onto her face.

She screamed, all the rage transferring to strength as she used the bird’s own momentum to smash it into the sand. The fine grains exploded as the bird’s form impacted but Ria didn’t hesitate, she dragged herself on top of the vicious bird. Using her hood leg to pin the bird’s talons, she wrapped her hands around its throat.

The bird’s neck was long, sparsely dotted with dark feathers. From so close, the stench of rot was revolting, making her gag. The bird really did seem like an oversized vulture, but as it cawed, she saw razor sharp teeth lining the inside of its beak.

That sight sent a shiver down her spine and she redoubled her efforts, wringing the bird’s neck with all her strength. The bird thrashed and cawed, her full weight being the only thing that kept it down. She could feel the power in its body as it writhed beneath her, trying with all it could to free itself, but she had no plans of freeing it.

Her blood coated the vulture’s neck, running from her hand like a stream. It made holding a difficult task and the pain she felt made her curse and grit her teeth. Her bare breast dropped blood onto the bird as well, making it even more difficult to pin it under her.

Finally, the bird’s struggling began to ebb. Its vicious assault fading with its life, and then it was still. Her raven hair fell in messy strands over her eyes, sticking to her face with her sweat and blood. The horrible rotten smell of the bird flooded her nostrils making her wretch beside the corpse, but she kept her hands clamped firmly against its throat, still squeezing with all she had.

[You have killed a Razor-clawed Vulture. You have earned experience.

[You killed a creature ten or more levels above your own, bonus experience has been granted.

[You killed a dangerous creature while without an influence, bonus experience has been granted. Two free stat points have been granted.

Ria huffed, finally releasing her grip on the vulture’s throat. She rolled off the creature, looking up to the group that circled over her.

With a cry, the rest of the vultures broke away, flying off to find other prey. She fell onto the sand, huffing for breath, her body coated in sweat, blood, and sand. So much fucking sand. Wet, bloody, and naked is not how you want to crawl and wrestle across a beach. She had sand everywhere, everywhere, she could feel it grating parts she did not want sand.

“Haaa… I hate the afterlife.” She groaned, inspecting the damage to her body. Her hand was mutilated, blood coating her skin, but already, the flow was ebbing as she relaxed it. Two massive gashes reached her bone, but most horrifyingly, her pinky was completely missing. There was only a gory stump where her little finger should’ve been.

A pressure built behind her eyes as she squeezed them shut. “Poor baby finger. Fuck.” She cursed. As the pressure faded she opened her eyes, inspecting her chest. The creature hadn’t gotten her too badly, only leaving two relatively small gashes in her soft flesh. She whimpered, tapping the tender wound with a sigh. “Is nothing sacred anymore?”

But still she dragged on, leaving the scene of death behind with the carcass. That creature smelled so badly of rot and decay that she’d be dead in the ground before she ate that thing.

“Fuck!” She cursed. Spinning back to the corpse, more specifically to the dagger-like talons on its feet. She bit her lip, she was so close to the forest, but she couldn’t justify leaving the tools.

With a rueful pout she hauled herself back to the carcass, taking several minutes to smash its claws away with a rock she’d found.

The appendages came away sickeningly, the horrible clotted ichor dark as it dripped away. But the talons were sharp, each claw containing three of the knife-like digits. The claws were as long as her fingers and felt like metal in her hands. The realization of how dangerous this creature really was made her swallow nervously. Her gaze fell to her slashed breast, seems she’d come pretty close to being a one-tit-lass. She shivered at the thought, grumbling. “Damn birds have no class.”

Still, she had the claws and the bird was dead, that was a win. Again, she crawled to the edge of the thick forest. She was exhausted, her blood loss doing her no favors there.

“Fuck, being crippled sucks.” She cursed as her leg caught on a large fallen branch not even 10 feet past the tree line. She scooted, propping her back against a large tree trunk. A distant roar rose all the hair on her arms, a prickle running down her spine.

Her face turned ghastly, her already bloodless skin losing all color. “I’m so dead.”