The moment my consciousness returned, I was still in the same white desert, my mind slowly exiting the fog state I was in.
"So I lived." I should be surprised, but I cannot, from being 'reincarnated' into a non-human thing to seeing giant bats, with more muscle than a gym rat, nothing seems so relevant anymore.
Looking at my wounds, my arms stopped bleeding, somehow the hole on my hand from being pierced by that beast was closing up, while my back, I can still feel a burn, but it wasn't bleeding.
Still, I cannot quite move my right arm, the one that should have been twisted beyond repair now looks less twisted and bloodied, also If you don't take into account that it is facing the wrong way would look perfectly fine.
I should feel fear or even disgust at the state I was in, but looking at my twisted arm, nothing came, there is only a sting feeling of hunger and emptiness.
People come and go pleasure does the same, but the motherfucking pain stays, is one of those things that even after dying doesn't leave you, even when looks its gone you know that will always come back.
"Well.." letting out a heavy sigh putting that beast corpse arm in my mouth I grabbed my right arm preparing myself for another daily dose of suferring, rotating my arm to the normal position, the word"..FUCK"escaped my mouth
Now this is bothering.
At least it proves what I've been thinking my sense of pain isn't the same to when I was human, no human, or least the past me would not be able to endure it, the feeling of your bones and flesh being twisted, without passing out nor have the strength to single handed twist a entire arm back in one place like it was just another normal monday.
But not just that, almost every other sense that I should have, can barely be felt except only by my sight.
The pain was there, but it wasn't that intense, I couldn't feel the wind even when there was dust around, flying all over the place. The sounds were well....nothing I am pretty sure I could hear the bat only because it was screaming every now and then, but even that seemed like I was listening to it under the water.
Did I become some sort of a zombie?
Perhaps it's just because it is a new body, or maybe the physiology of this body works differently from humans,can even be my mind and body are out of sync.
Anyway, I shouldn't be so petty, at the end of the day if it wasn't for it I doubt I would have lasted long against that bat, There is no need to overthink it, I just have to find a way to get more information.
"Still...what exactly had I become? "looking at the bloody, half-eaten corpse resting on the ground, where a sense of disgust should have been felt, now only a slight sense of hunger made space.
I knew who did that, and I am not happy with it, even after being 'asleep' for the most part, I remember what my body had done without me being 'here' I could felt how my jaw slowing chew something akin to bones, tasting like a mix of bread and water.
The flavour wasn't good, but by eating a corpse, I expected way worse The good part of it , is that my body healed while I was eating that thing.
In any case, what should I do now?
I doubt I'm even on Earth, I can't remember any white desert from my memories without being Antarctica and I am pretty sure that there weren't any creatures like this flying around.
I have already died once, already made my mistakes, already lived past my regrets, already lived the way I could, it wasn't the best nor even the smartest way ,but.
I did It, I already lived my life, got one of the most prized gifts, and just gambled it away, now I am here, so what should I do now there aren't any books to study, nor can I run like I used to,what is the point now?
University? gone, job also gone, pizza with pineapple also gone. friends and family?, I wasn't exactly close to anyone other than my history books, but even that is also gone, what am I supposed to do now?
SWEAK SWEAK
Looking at where that muffled sound came I could see another beast this highly resembling an ant red and black in color the only difference being that it is much bigger and carries a big white mask on its face.
"Maybe there isn't any point.."I said chuckling, "But even in this defective copy of life"looking at the giant ant coming towards me"I promise I will enjoy it entirely this time."
Feeling all those thoughts disappear
A grin took over my face,my back still burning from my previous encounter with one of these beasts, using all my limbs to balance myself.
FUCK IT
I ran towards it.
BRUMMM
Then it happened without any warning, the ant's body suddenly moved like a flash, the only thing I could feel was my arms getting hit, and my body was smacked away.
By the time I realized what happened,I was already being blown away, falling into the sand, and when I managed to orient myself, I felt pain in both my arms.
I managed to put my guard up in time by pure instinct, the result one of them was broken instead of entirely twisted like the last time, now the midsection was facing the wrong way and I could see a piece of bone, my bones showing up while the other one was literally caved making an arche in my forearm, both of them were bleeding again.
I felt my blood boiling up, and a pain I had never felt before, but my mind was still catching up with the result.
Locking my gaze on at the ant I could see it with its six legs moving towards me rapidly, there wasn't much time to think, so I just acted
Face to face the moment we were a similar distance from before, I moved, and It flashed.
BRUMM
The result my caved arm got absolutely destroyed, close to be removed the only thing bounding it to my shoulder was a fine piece of torn flesh, I could feel something climb up my throat, blood was dripping everywhere, and my head was mess from the shock but I knew it wasn't time for it, right now if I wanted to win,I must make sure I killed that thing
The time we were at a close distance I pushed my elbow to where I thought his face would be the moment it clashed on me.
Seeing it down on the sand, without moving, my grin grew bigger, looks that I 'won' the gamble.
But I knew it better, rather than start celebrating early, I moved as fast I could, to verify the kill I doubt just one elbow is enough to kill that big, and I must make sure that it is dead before losing consciousness from blood loss if such a thing is possible.
With my almost torn arm while the other was broken, I had to force my core and legs to walk up to the fallen ant. I fell a couple of times, but I managed to reach just in time to see him slowly get up with his trembling legs.
Fuck
He shook his head a few times before locking his gaze into mine, and I could see, a face, not a mask but a human face beneath it, blue eyes and eyebrows making a frown.
Nonetheless, I was already close enough, pushing as much force as I could into my legs, I jumped over his head, falling onto the top of his body, crawling like a worm, I managed to be close enough to take a bite off the backside of his throat.
AAAAAAAACK
I could hear him screaming, as he started to move rapidly in hopes of launching me off, he started to fucking spam his ability, I bit the hardest I could and endured the rush barrage.
BRUMM
BRUMM
BRUM-...CRACK
Until we clashed against one of the white trees, making it fall.
The moment it happened, my arm that was already close to being torn off, flew over while my entire body moved forward, almost being launched over the tree, still, I refused to release his throat and endured the aftershock.
The pain I could feel in my entire body reached beyond what I could take, and it was simply maddening.
Bite after bite, tearing his flesh off, I ignored everything else, focusing only on making sure his head was separated from his body while the human ant was quiet, hopeful dead after shocking againstn't the tree, even if wasn't I won't save any effort and I will make sure it meet the after-after life.
The moment I thought this would end, it regained consciousness and on its last effort to kill me. He started to turn over, intending to crush me with his body.
How the fuck it was still alive after half his throat was gone it was a mistery but I knew what was coming and I took the biggest bite I could manage to in hopes it finish that thing life before mines get squished like a mosquito.
BAM
I could feel something again climbing up my throat, before I spat blood, somehow, I was still conscious after that last shot, while everything was hurting, I couldn't move one of my legs, everything was dark.
My body went numb, using the only thing I could do, I started to desperately devour the ant from the inside it was hard to move with that beast above me and the numbness, but I used the only leg I could move to squeeze myself.
Bite after bite, while feeling that I had taken a bath of blood, I could feel a liquid all over my body. I slowly felt my strength coming back, and I continued to devour the ant until I could see the moonlight again.
Squeezing, biting, and struggling, I managed to climb the ant's body, and as the numbness was leaving, and a sense of pain took its place.
Now, at the top of the ant's body, I could see it with clarity, one of my legs was crushed, and one of my arms was gone, while the broken one was way worse than before.
As I felt the need to scream, my mind started to go wild, distracting me. In this state, I won't be able to fight again and if any of these beasts come now, there is only one way to guarantee my survival, don't fuck it up.
Turning everything off, I started to devour the ant's body The last time my body healed by eating the bat copse,I don't know if I can regenerate lost limbs but now is all or nothing. A mix of bread and water entered my mouth as I continued to devour it.
The body was bigger than mine, almost 3 times my length, while his height was a little bit smaller than mine, and somehow, no matter how much I had eaten, there was still always a space for more, and I couldn't stop.
It wasn't the flavour, it was just something addictive in this, my wounds were healing, and I felt the emptiness that I sensed earlier disappearing while eating it, at some point my broken arm had healed, it was sensitive, but it had grown at the right angle, without needing any further assistance.
As interesting it was, the only thing on my mind was eating this corpse with the assistance of my arm I started to cut pieces of flesh using my claws to more easily devour until I started putting chunks of meat directly in my mouth.
[If any piece of you gets eaten, you stop evolving]
Knowledge came to my mind, it was just a sentence, but everything started to click.
I stopped eating and started to look for my other arm, the one that had flown off.
"So I had become a hollow." my mind was still processing this knowledge as I found my arm not too far away from me in one of the fallen tree arms, which was almost split in two, one of the parts caved in, while the other was missing some meat.
Looking at my shoulder, where I could see a piece of new arm growing slowly, I saw the arm on the tree slowly becoming dust.
"Interesting.." I continued to eat the ant corpse, seeing my leg growing, new flesh and muscle growing from nothing before my own eyes.
_____
"This world feels empty."
A vast desert of white sand carrying some dust along the way, there were small mountains made of sand, dunes, a lot of them that enough would make a beautiful scene, but everything was completely barren and dark except for a few crystallized white trees here and there everything looked dead The sky was void of any start almost looking like black,hole if was for the only source of light, the shining moon.
It would look completely dead if it wasn't for a few presences carrying some type of aura. my sight has grown, I could see it from far away, in the midst, the dunes and dead trees, I could see them
Hollows
After eating the ant, some changes started to happen in me, and more information came touching the middle of my chest, there was a hole, I don't know how I never noticed it but it was definitely a hole and wasn't a small one, as my hand could pass it.
Now looking back, the bat also had a hole in its chest, and the ant, too was by that hole that I passed through.
From what I could make up, hollows are some sort of beast that can evolve and all of them have many diferent forms, and that means.
I could, by theory, find a hollow dragon, also many of them have some sort of skill or perk, the bat could freeze me up with its scream and fly. while the ant could run over other hollows and had good resilience, even half its throat was gone, that thing was still kicking.
I could feel happiness take over me, my second win against a fellow hollow. It was a nice brawl but I should start making feedback of my fights. There were a lot of things that had gone wrong, and I could have done better.
If I didn't say fuck and run up to the hollow without any information about what it could do I wouldn't had lose both of my arms also I got lucky it didn't managed to finish me off in one go with that perk that ant could become an assasin,
Anyway, my body has got a completely recovery I could move my whole body without any problem. Also, I should mark my objectives for now on.
Objectives
-Tame a hollow Dragon
-Find what hell means, 'Menos Grand'
-Find more information about the world
-Get stronger
-Have more fights