Eyelessly, it watches as I basically limp over from where I’d fallen, trying my best to take as quick and shallow breaths as possible. A quick look back tells me that its dad got his horns stuck in a tree. A brief but vital pause. I can feel a grin rise to my lips.

Its breathing is heavy as it lays there, mutely watching me approach, seemingly unable to bring itself back to its feet. A spool of blood has lazily unfurled from its slightly opened neck. And it smells so, so good. Even from a metre away, its sickly sweet aroma entices me. I know I shouldn’t, it’s probably a horrible idea, but… Are a few drops really so bad?

No, they’re not. It’s like only having one beer, right?

And so, I press my clawed hands against the neck of the downed deer. It makes a miserable little sound, inbetween a whine and a huff. But who cares about that? Like a faun putting its mouth below a fountain of wine, I press my lips against the small wound on the deer’s neck. It whimpers again and I start gnawing at the flesh, tearing it off in little threads of muscle. A few metres away, I can hear the other deer make that weird, hoarse-throated sound.

I hit the carotid artery. Blood gushes inside my mouth and I swallow greedily, every gulp taking the screams of the deers farther and farther away. In the end, I can’t hear anything at all. I can only taste the red on my lips. And, god, is it sweet.

Title Bloodhungry gained

It’s so good. It’s so good.

It takes less than a minute for the blood flow to recede, the breaths of the deer turning quick and, eventually, gone.

240 Exp gained

Level up!

You have reached Level 13

Normal Skill Sharp Teeth has Reached Level 7

Level up!

You have reached Level 14

Normal Skill Sharp Teeth has Reached Level 8

Normal Skill Stab has Reached Level 7

I remove my face from the wound of the deer. No blood flows out. Is it empty? It can’t be empty. Where did it all go? I didn’t drink it. Not all of it. Just a bit. Not a lot. I want… I want more. I really do. I really, really do. My chest is cramping up. I need it.

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It feels like I downed five red bulls and two five-hour-energies. And an espresso. Two. Two espressos. I could run a marathon like this.

But I need more. It isn’t enough. My stomach is growling and hungry and wasn’t there a deer nearby just moments ago? One more deer. Deer blood is so tasty. It’s great. Deer blood, deer meat, deer intestines, deer brain, deer bones, deer ski-,

Something big and hard smashes against the side of my skull and my closing eyes only barely catch a glimpse of a massive, large-horned deer before everything goes black.

…

..

.

Where… am I? What happened?

What is-,

A burning shock of pain courses through my entire body and I spasm violently, which obviously only makes the pain worse. Saying that every single bone in my body feels broken just isn’t enough. It’s more like they’ve all been crushed into a fine powder, my muscles mashed, the only thing keeping myself together being my skin. And beyond all of that, in the pit of my stomach, I only feel hunger.

Lilltroll(E) Lv.14/30 Stage: Juvenile Health: 4/43

State: Mangled, Pained

…What the fuck does that mean?...

Holding one eye open to look at my own status is basically all I can handle. The light from above the treetops hurts my retinas. The grass below my back feels like steel daggers pressing into my spine. And that’s not even mentioning my limbs. Now that I think of it, I don’t think I can feel a single one of them. The headache pounding into the back of my head like a jackhammer is nothing compared to all of this. It’s a wonder I’m not screaming my lungs out.

…But at least the status doesn’t say I’m dying. I’m damn close to it, but since I’m not dying, it must mean I’m recovering, albeit slowly.

I try to glance at my surroundings, squinting as hard as I can to avoid the lights from above. To my side lies a sweet-smelling deer carcass. Around me lies flesh and broken bones and one or two smushed kidneys alongside littered limbs that appear as flat as an empty sock.

Those are mine, aren’t they?

Lifting one of my arms makes my entire body tremble with agony, but I need to see how bad this is.

What meets my eyes is a torn-off, flattened stump.

Trying to lift my head is equally impossible. Considering everything, I’m probably about the same flatness as a pancake.

Lilltroll(E) Lv.14/30 Stage: Juvenile Health: 5/43

State: Mangled, Pained

Strength: 12(+1,2) Dexterity: 7 Grit: 9(+0,9)

Racial Skills: Absorb, Strong Body, Tail Lv.5, Lesser Hamnskifte Lv.3, Lesser Regeneration Lv.6 Normal Skills: Stab Lv.7, Stomp Lv.2, Choke Lv.4, Lizard’s Tail, Claws Lv.4, Sharp Teeth Lv.8, Mark Titles: Oknytt, Bloodthirsty, Natural Deviant, Hunter, Bloodhungry

…Thanks, kid. This is…

My level went up? Oh, yeah, I killed that deer, didn’t I? That might explain a few things. In that case, I can probably attribute my current state to that other, bigger deer. Oh, and my own stupidity and hubris. Can’t forget that one.

Aside from that, it looks like my state is so bad that my regeneration hit level 6. Nice, I guess? Considering the state my body’s currently in, it’s really no surprise he thought I was dead. I can barely breathe my neck is so crushed, not to mention my chest. It must have come down to singular points of health. If my regeneration had been only a level lower, I might not even have survived at all.

Considering the headache and memory loss, this can all likely be attributed to another, uh, slip of will.

That’s all it was really. And it will, erm, never happen again. Ever.

My stomach growls.