Spring was coming to an end as the days grew only hotter. This time, Clay dared to dwell a little deeper into the boundary of the forest. Since Mia was safe and sound in the poisonous mists that slowly consumed the city, he was a lot more relaxed when it came to his hunt for heart blood.

Only after she left his side did Clay realize how tense he was around her. There were always chances for ambushes, so he had to keep her in the periphery of his vision. But even then he was still ambushed by the viper or how he realized by now was the reason why he was ambushed to begin with.

He was so focused on protecting Mia that he ignored what was around him. Now that he was alone, his senses absorbed the surrounding nature in a completely different way. Everything somehow seemed so much clearer now.

At first, he struggled a little to properly filter all of this new sensations, but he quickly adjusted to it. His highly sensitive senses were returning to him. Even before this apocalypse and the need to fight for survival, were his senses abnormally sensitive. Especially sound and certain smells distracted him heavily unless he focused on something else.

In the past this distraction was fulfilled by his aura sense. Afterward it was Mia, but now all alone he had nothing to focus on. There was a cracking on the left, then a rustle behind, suddenly a chirp from the front which caused Clay to reach for his sword only to find a small bird that didn’t mutate yet.

All of this was making him rather uncomfortable as he was on constant edge with each little stimuli. He needed a focus point to properly filter out the different sound, smells or even his own thoughts. Maintaining his aura shield was by now like second nature to him, not much different from breathing.

Only after he had expanded his aura several dozens of meters could he ignore most other stimuli. Even if there was little use to expanding his aura, Clay did so anyway just to clear his head of the never ending flow of information and thoughts.

Feeling for his aura, he felt how it endlessly flowed around him in a circular motion like a never ceasing river. Willing with his mind he pushed outwards breaking the smooth structure from before, like a ripple his aura expanded, thinning with each additional meter. He had no idea how far his aura reached he just focused on pushing it further away.

There was no point to mark distance for him, it felt like an endless sea of black filled with nothing except himself, until his entire being suddenly froze. At last there was a response, and one stronger than he ever felt before.

To the northeast, this black sea abruptly ended as something took his place – an aura. One that didn’t belong to Clay and the moment he came into contact with it, the aura stirred like a beast that was rudely awoken, swirling and twitching uncontrollably. He could feel its fury, ferocity and untamed bloodlust. Whatever beast this was, it scared Clay, uncontrollably his breath quickened and beneath all these strong emotions there was something else… pain.

Pain so deep that it awoke memories that Clay had long pushed to the back of his head. Memories that he refused to dwell in, or he may have fallen into a deep hole long ago. Maybe it was his mind protecting him or him running from reality, but there was always something in his mind that kept him distracted from these memories.

They were locked away so that he could continue to function, to be efficient, to survive. Suddenly confronted with these memories, his surroundings distorted as the black sea that was merely a feeling and not reality morphed and transformed into something tangible, something real.

Looking below, he stood in a seemingly endless puddle of water – no, this was no water but blood. He took a step back in fear only to push something with his feet, the hand of a woman which Clay recognized instantly, as the image of his sister appeared in his mind. The person that knew him best. She was dead, just like the rest of his family.

He knew that, and he thought he came to terms with the fact, but the tears that unwilling rolled over his cheek spoke otherwise. Before he could come to terms with the scene, the sword in his right became heavy, the light on the black blade glittering as if mocking him.

There came small bubbles from the poodle that grew in intensity over time, as a two-meter tall monstrosity emerged from the sea. It towered over him and appeared that much larger, as Clay felt how he was only growing smaller with each passing second.

Its expression was unreadable behind the natural exoskeleton that formed above its mandible. It slowly opened its mandibles as if pulling a spring and beneath was a crimson mouth that… smiled?!

*CLANK*

The mandibles shut down on him as Clay closed his eyes in fear. After opening them, he saw Chris standing before him. His best friend the person he trusted like his family, he looked tired his eyes sunken like he hadn’t slept in days, but what was that at the corner of his mouth?

It appeared to be a small black spot, that soon glowed brighter as it's revealed its true color of scarlet red, instantly Chris face distorted in a horrific image of pain as a mouthful of blood flew from his mouth and landed on Clay’s face while the light in his eyes dimmed and his body suddenly vanished with a passing wind that caused ripples to form over the puddle of blood.

His hair swayed with the wind and as Chris head touched the blood it was consumed at once. Following the head and witnessing its disappearance, Clay’s stumbled away in horror. He began to chuckle in panic as he couldn’t make sense of the situation.

This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be. It was impossible.

“Impossible?”

Turning around, he was greeted by a girl that threw herself into him. The black sword piercing her heart. Stroking over his cheek with a finger, she whispered, “You killed me.”

Letting go of the sword, Clay stumbled further backwards. “I didn’t, I mean I did – but I didn’t mean to, It was an accident!”

Hunching over, the girl laughed hysterically with the sword embedded in her heart. “NO! It's your fault! Your fault alone! I could have lived, but YOU killed me!”

Pushing her away in fear, the girl fell into the blood and vanished, only for Clay to fall backwards as something hard suddenly stopped him. Leaning against a wall, he found himself trapped, as he was embedded in stone.

In front of him sat Jim’s lifeless body, his eyes unmoving, his face rotted as insects crawled over him and gnawed at his remains. Without his head moving, his mouth opened. “I sacrificed myself for YOU! For what! Sulking around in memories that you refused to come to terms with. You coward! You moron! Do you like to play family with my sister?! It should have been me that survived, not YOU!”

Taking a deep breath, Clay closed his eyes, trying to focus on his aura. This had to be some sort of illusion, a mind trick, no, he knew that this wasn’t real. He just had to ignore it and focus on retrieving his aura. Slowly focusing inwards, he tried to ignore everything around him as he felt for his aura until he eventually found it.

“NO! YOU can’t leave!” came the voice from the dead girl as she laid on the ground.

“YOU want to steal my sister, my family, everything I have!” bellowed Jim as he crawled his way over to Clay.

Suddenly there appeared the hand of Clay’s sister on his lap as the flesh on the back moved and squirmed, morphing into a blood shot eye. With fury, it stared at him, Clay knew it blamed him for the death of his family, and it brought him to tears.

With his eyes closed laid Chris head not far from Clay’s feet asking, “Do YOU want to abandon me yet again?”

Like drums, the voices echoed around him, judging him, insulting him, pleading him, mocking him.

It's your fault. You have to take responsibility. YOU! YOU! YOU!

“ENOUGH”

With rage in his voice, there was silence at last as Clay’s aura swirled like a hurricane, breaking and ripping the black that entrapped him into shreds as his surroundings returned to the forest.

As if awaken from a nightmare, Clay was about to take a breath of relief only to feel time slow down as he interlocked with the eyes of a beast only mere meters away from him. It appeared to be almost entirely black and without time to think much, he moved his body to the left and focused the swirling mass of aura that he just retrieved around his body, forming a shield.

Barely able to snap the shield in place was there a white tusk not much shorter than his blade in front of his chest and while he wanted to avoid it his body refused to move. Unconsciously, he fueled his inner flame to unprecedented heights, as he prepared for the impact.

Clay could clearly feel as his aura rapidly plunged as it tried to absorb the impact of the tusk, and for a moment he thought he might be able to hold on, until he realized that his feet were off the ground and the tusk broke through his aura, his leather chestplate only lasted for a moment before it too was ripped open; the tusk impaling his stomach until he was stopped at its base.

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The great speed at which the beast ram into him resulted in Clay not only being lifted from the ground, but also to be catapulted over its head. Bewildered and shocked, Clay laid on the ground, not yet able to process what happened.

Before the realization came the pain, so sudden and piercing that it jolted him from the ground, only for his vision to blacken. When he regained it, he was kneeling on the ground, panting for fresh air, his heart pumping like a drill. With the shock from the hallucination and the sudden pain, he could only scream at the top of his lungs in the hope that it would lessen the pain.

It didn’t help as he bent over the ground grabbing his stomach, gritting his teeth so hard he thought they may break. By now, his inner flame burned brighter than it ever had before, and he could feel the rush of energy flowing through his body. He could feel it swirling in his stomach as a burning sensation like no other came over him.

It felt like bugs were crawling over his wound, nicking and biting at it, like a thousand hot needles. Not only was the pain incomparable to anything he felt before, but the itch that came along was almost worse.

Taking a quick and short breaths, he sat on his knees and tried to rip the chestplate from his body, but to no avail. God, why had he to build this thing so sturdy? Looking at his hand, it was drenched in a color of crimson. Not able to endure by just sitting, he jumped on his feet. There had to be something to distract himself with.

Looking around, himself, he finally got a proper view of the beast that attacked him. It appeared to be a boar, if you could call the brown mass of fur and muscle before him a boar. It loomed over him even while standing on all fours, the eyes were close to black, its two tusk were comparable to blades, the left was drenched in Clay’s blood as its thick tongue licked over it. Stomping with its right hove on the ground, it prepared for another charge.

Looking at this truck of a beast, Clay straightened himself, his mouth involuntarily turning into a wide smile, before a small chuckle escaped his lips only for it to grow into a full outburst of laughing. God, what became of this world? What else were you supposed to do but laugh.

Pushing some of his essence out, Clay regenerated the aura that he lost from the attack, putting his shield back at full force. The wound was still stinging but bearable, he had to survive. Reaching for his left hip, he grabbed air. Quickly surveying the surroundings, he found his sword laying not far behind the boar. Wiping his bloodied hand over his jeans, he slowly moved backwards without breaking eye contact with the boar.

The moment he took a step, the boar snorted, only to begin its charge. Seeing this, Clay tensed his leg muscles and shot off to the side, moving as fast as he could. From the corner of his vision, he saw the boar shooting behind him, while he felt the wind that came from the charge pressing against him.

He intended to prevent at all cost to be even grazed by that monstrosity. Using the time the boar needed to halt and begin a new charge, he sprinted to his sword. Just barely able to grasp it with his fingers, he moved on, feeling the wind rush behind him only moments later.

Damn, that thing could turn surprisingly quick for its size, but it wasn’t nearly enough to match Clay’s mobility, so the moment the boar passed he didn’t ran away but instead confronted it directly.

He could tell from its eyes that it seemed startled to be challenged directly, further angering it as it took the challenge with a fierce glare. Fully concentrating, Clay perceived his surroundings as if time slowed down, his eyes being able to see each individual hair on the boar, the spit coming from its mouth or the drop of blood falling from its tusk.

Only mere centimeters away from the tusk, he moved his body to the right side, ducking slightly as the tusk brushed past his cheek before the truck that was the boar followed. Clenching his sword, he sliced the side of the boar, intending to cleave it open, only to feel the strength of his attack leaving him – no, it wasn’t leaving, it was being absorbed.

When he finally broke through the aura shield of the boar, there was no gaping slice in its side, but a mere scratch that barely caused the beast to bleed.

They both halted their charge and before the boar could even turn, Clay was once again up and close. Preventing the boar from properly charging, he was circling around it, slashing at it at every given opportunity. He took full advantage of its bigger size and slow movement to make several more attacks, but they were all only superficial, with no real damage being done.

He had to use something with more force that could break through its shield and thick hide. With only one arm, he couldn’t generate the force to pierce both of it. This fight couldn’t drag on as he had no idea in what condition his body was in, by now he was only registering the pain and couldn’t determine how severe his injuries were.

Normally he would go for the skull, but this was too dangerous with the tusks being as lethal as they were. After avoiding a sudden bite to his wrist, Clay finally became an idea. If he couldn’t break the trough the defense of the boar, then he would just let it do it for him.

Moving away he gave the boar some distance which it immediately used to move backwards and prepare another charge. Doing the same, they stared at each other for a moment before moving. Once again Clay was able to barely avoid the tusk and with his body lowered he threw himself into the chest of the boar, using its momentum to drive the blade up to its hilt, causing the boar for the first time to squeak in pain.

Not able to move out of the way, he let himself get pushed away by the charge, using his shield to absorb the impact. Without it, he may have broken some bones, but fortunately he came relatively unharmed from that encounter.

Turning around, he saw the boar crashing into a tree, ripping into the trunk, dirt and roots being lifted at once from the ground, as the tree creaked and cracked, before slowly falling to the side. With the thumping of his heart in his ear, he waited in anticipation. Was it dead?

Before the embers of hope could even grow came a load of dirt flying in Clay’s direction as the boar broke its head free from the ground, staring at him with a hateful gaze. Looking at the blade still embedded into its chest, he froze.

There was no way he could retrieve his blade without getting pierced by a tusk once again, and he would like to prevent that if possible. Damn, he knew he needed some secondary weapon. Desperately looking around, he didn’t see anything that could be used as a proper weapon. Should he run?

Not having much time to decide, he trusted his instincts and ran off deeper into the forest. He had to put as many obstacles between himself and that boar as he could. Hearing the bellowing of rage from behind only motivated Clay further to move on.

He never before moved as such speed, and if his senses weren’t enhanced, he would have run into a tree long ago. Quickly rushing through the forest, he skillfully avoided every obstacle in his way, a feeling of freedom spreading throughout his whole body. Without knowing where to, he just ran as fast as possible for what felt like minutes before reality suddenly came crashing down on him.

His feet suddenly left the ground, and he felt like a puppet being thrown to the side. Raising his right arm he tried to cushion the fall, but the momentum was too great, causing him to roll on the ground before a tree roughly stopped him, while the air was pushed out of his lungs.

There was a limit to how much abuse his shield could take before breaking, and the after the initial impact there wasn’t much left. He lay sprawled at the foot of the tree, his legs hanging over him like flowers. Letting himself fall to the side, the pain returned to him, by now it was so omnipresent that he couldn’t even tell from where it came from, everything just hurt. This fall must have broken several of his bones.

Just as expected, the burning sensation and the unbearable itch soon followed, with the difference that this time his whole body was affected. Groaning in pain, he slowly rose from the ground, only for his left leg to convulse and move before a sudden shot of pain caused him to straighten his leg before a loud crack followed. Did his leg just put itself back into place?

As if answering his question, Clay felt himself forced to straighten his right arm, seeing it more clearly he saw how the flesh moved and squirmed as if it had a mind on its own. Another shot of pain followed by another loud crack and his arm was back in place. Baffled by his regeneration, he couldn’t dwell too long on it, as the boar was charging once again.

Throwing himself to the side, he worked relentlessly to recover his shield, not wanting to test his regeneration capabilities further. Upon seeing the trail of destruction the boar left behind, Clay knew that running wasn’t an option. Everything in its path was trampled down or pushed aside with no regard for injuries.

After taking a closer look, Clay realized that the boar didn’t get unscathed from that mad rush, as it was covered from top to bottom in blood. Wait, could it be?

Desperate for anything he grabbed the first thick branch he could find and with a kick from his leg broke it at the top causing a sharp and uneven tip. With another deep breath, he ran at the boar, his makeshift spear prepared.

By now the boar seemed visibly tired, as its charge was slower than before, making it that much easier to avoid the attack. Again he combined his own momentum with that of the boar and pierced the branch deep into the boar, after only losing a little power.

Seeing the branch embedded into the boar, Clay couldn’t help but smile. Its shield weakened substantially after destroying everything in its path. Not wasting any time, he grabbed the next branch and repeated the process.

Again and again, the boar threw itself at him, not knowing of a better strategy to kill its prey. Each time it only got slower as another spear bore itself into it. After the fifth one its rage died down, and he could see its muscles trembling, while its aura was completely used up. Suddenly the hunter became prey and with fear taking over the boar tried to flee, but it was far too late for that.

Following the boar Clay continued to pierce it with spear after spear, and finally after the ninth one it finally gave in and broke down to the ground, with eyes barely open it was clear that it would die. There was just too much lost blood, and one of the spears must have hit the lungs, judging from the way it was straining for air.

With a seemingless endless flow of energy running through him, Clay didn’t feel tired yet, his senses still sensitive to every twitch of the beast. Carefully moving from the side, he pulled a spear free, causing a trail of blood to gush from the wound. Seeing that there was barely a reaction after retrieving the spear, he was sure that it was on its last leg.

Moving over to its head, he looked one last time into the black eyes of the boar, they appeared to be glassy, almost sad. It closed them and slightly moved its head as if accepting his fate. Confused by the behavior, Clay just put it out of its misery by pushing the spear through the eye socket and killing it for good.

After letting go of the spear he broke to the ground focusing on reducing his inner flame. He never had to burn it at full force since surviving Mia’s poison, and he was fearful of how much heart blood he had lost. It took him months to recover it to the fullest and was his trump card for such encounters.

Slowly diminishing the flame, it was again reduced to mere embers, with him focusing to circulate the essence inside of him to help him recover. Well, that was the idea, but after carefully checking his body he found it to be in perfect condition with no trace left that his stomach was pierced and several of his bones broken.

Observing the reserves of his heart blood, he noticed that after burning his heart blood at full force for several minutes to continuously recover his shield, strengthen his body and heal himself, he only lost about a fourth. Not nearly as much as he expected, not that he complained.

Not wanting to provoke another encounter with beasts that could be lured by the chaos and the smell of blood that the boar left behind, he wanted to retreat. Retrieving his bloodied sword, he wiped it clean on the fur of the boar before turning to run away.

Suddenly halting in his steps, he looked back at the boar and then at the trail that it left behind. Taking a deep breath, he sighed before changing direction and ran back along the trail of chaos.