It wasn't until I started slowing down that I realised something was wrong with the body.

With the one-sided massacre towards the bandit group, my shade wolf body became worn and riddled with cuts that I couldn't dodge completely. I never thought about the body I possessed, up until this point in time when my movement began to feel hindered and sluggish.

I saw the raise of the morning sun as a new day began since the previous night's event and decided to inspect my new found body more in detail before any negative consequences happens.

The shade wolf body had cuts as stated, though mostly in the rear area in my blindspot. I dodged most of the slashes by smell and the body's own natural instincts which came to me so naturally that I never realised I had since the beginning; that is so until last night. The body was also splattered with blood, yet none of them were this body's own blood. I tried to look deeper into the wounds and discovered there were not a single drop of blood circulating even when large veins were fatally exposed.

This prompt a hypothesis that the body I'm possessing was in an undead state: a state of living via mana, spirit or otherwise not of the core body's functionality. This thought also surprised me, not due to the contents, but the fact that I suddenly knew what 'undead', 'mana' and 'spirit' mean as well as many basic knowledge about humanoid and beast biology.

Did I gain memories of knowledge from my past? I wasn't too sure. The only thing I could confirm was that the knowledge I gained was true enough, correct, and helpful to understanding what I am and can do.

I inspected the body with my new found (perhaps better to say return?) knowledge, and just as I predicted, this body had no heartbeat, no life despite its raw strength and instincts. It could potentially be my own power as a spirit entity which is providing this body an artificial lifeforce, sustaining the functionality of muscles and brain. I had no way to confirm.

Yet, whether unfortunitely or not, as I inspected the shade wolf's body, I sensed a group of creature trying to surround me intentionally in that moment.

The total presences numbered around eight. They hid among the spreading flora, barely out of my sight. I caught glimpses of dirtied dark grey hair or fur and edges of solid weapons, prompting intelligent beings capable of basic reasoning. Although through my sense of smell, I could identify their positions vaguely, they moved with great cooperation to circling me evenly, cleverly spreading their scent to hide their actual positions, meaning they are experienced hunters that had done this before and knowledgeable on how to approach beasts. I coudn't make out what kind of creature they were, but it didn't matter.

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Since they were actively trying to attack me, I was going to be the first to strike.

Surprising the ambushers, I lept to my left and caught one of them off guard. I singled it out as I open my mouth over its head and bit down with full force, crunching the creature's skull as I flung the rest of the body into the other creature nearby to my right. At the same time, I spit the remains of what was once a head towards the opposing creature to my left. In an instant, the circlement became an arc.

The ambushing creatures, ratman hunters, were stunned. By my guesses, they thought I was injured, making me an easy target despite being a shade wolf. They would've had a tremendous gain if it wasn't for the fact that this body was not living and were only controlled by me.

Taking this opportunity and turning to my right, I lept past the fallen ratman under the headless corpse I threw and struck the next one in line. The other ratmen that saw this reorganised themselves to face me as one and charged. Their movements were harder to dodge than the bandits, possibly due to their experience with wild beasts instead of humans as more seemingly fatal wounds appeared on the shade wolf's body as time went on.

I employed the same strategy I used in the bandit's cave: backing, striking, repeat; simple but effecient enough to finish off most of the ratman hunters.

Nearing the end of the fight, the shade wolf's body was too damaged to move properly. The last two ratmen alive saw their chance and dealt the final blow through the neck of the shade wolf. The body fell to the ground, its condition now worse than the first ratman that died.

I blanked out.

Then, I immediately became conscious.

My prediction was right. I don't die when the body is defeated.

Meanwhile, the two ratmen fell to their legs, exhausted from their life-threatening battle. They had won against the monstrosity that is the shade wolf, but at the cost of six ratmen hunters. They must've felt so joyous from their gain, yet so sorrowful from their loss.

When they recovered however, they saw one of their comrade raising up from under the only corpse that is headless. They thought he was dead from the heavy collision breaking his neck or something similar. They were happy that at least another one of them were alive.

They didn't realised it was aiming for them until it swung the sword it picked up nearby across their necks.

The last two actual ratmen died under the hands of another ratman.

I was possessing the dead ratman.

As the head of the two headless ratman corpses fell to the ground, I ran westward once again immediately to avoid any nearby creatures that would swarm the bloodfilled battleground. Until I was absolutely sure no creature could bother me again, I kept moving.

When I felt it was safe, I finally inspected the new ratman body.

As it was a ratman body, my strength and sense of smell was not as well as the shade wolf's and the level of vision was clearly lower. The honed instincts on the other hand was more complex and stronger in a sense due to its level of intelligence.

I checked around the body for any external injures and discovered something shocking instead.

What surprised me this time was that the heart of this body was still beating!