System
Hayden Droven
Title: None
Class: None
Race: Human
Level: 0 - 0.50%
Strength: 1 (1-2 damage)
Vitality: 1 (9.5/10 health points, per point = 100 years of lifespan)
Intelligence: 2 (20 mana)
Wisdom: 1 (1 mana regen per min)
Agility: 2 (7 mph)
Stamina: 0.5 (32/50 stamina)
Health regen: 0.5 + 0.2 per minute + 0.2 per minute (due to cauterisation)
Stamina regen: 0.5 per minute
Skills
Appraisal Level 1 - 0.03%
.....
Looking towards the horizon, Hayden watched as the sun began to dip below the distant landscape. The sky was growing darker, and almost pitch-black clouds were gathering overhead.
Hayden wasn't particularly pleased. A frown formed on his face as he watched the approaching clouds. If it rained tonight, his makeshift shelter was about to face its first real test.
Moving towards the fire, he threw a few more sticks and twigs into the flames before heading back to his shelter.
Luckily, being in a weird rainforest meant there were plenty of enormous leaves he could use as a cover. They might help protect him from the cold, although he doubted they would do much more than attract creepy crawlies.
Still, a little protection was better than none.
Or so he hoped.
As the moon rose into the sky, cloaked beings could be seen floating among the black clouds above. They slowly began descending towards the world below, hidden by the darkness that night provided.
One of the cloaked beings separated from the group.
It had spotted a source of light below and began drifting towards it.
The being sought flesh to devour, something that would complement its powers and allow them to reach even more horrifying heights.
As it drew closer to the clearing, Hayden felt shivers running through his body.
He had been tossing and turning inside his shelter, struggling to get comfortable enough to sleep. Something about the night made him uneasy, though he couldn't explain why.
Eventually, he slowly cracked open one eye and peered through one of the many gaps between the leaves.
Thanks to the moonlight, he could see something floating in the clearing.
At first, his mind struggled to process what he was looking at.
It was a skeleton, but not one that belonged to anything remotely human.
Maggots writhed inside its eye sockets, while blood constantly poured from around its yellow bones. Six spider-like appendages extended from its body, serving as legs, and its hands ended in sharp claws.
It floated silently through the air, its skeletal frame hanging beneath a dark cloak.
Hayden began shaking even harder.
He tried to move slowly, inching towards the furthest point of his shelter from the creature. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to get up and run, but another part of him knew that moving too quickly might attract its attention.
And if that happened, he was almost certainly dead.
{WHAT IS THAT?! It looks like a... well, I don't even know what to call it. If I had to describe it with one word, I'd say something crawled out of hell and forgot to bring its skin.}
System
Warning: You are in the presence of a high-level being. Please leave the area immediately!
{OH, NOW YOU TELL ME?!}
Hayden clamped his mouth shut before the thought could turn into an actual shout.
The skeletal being continued towards the fire in the centre of the clearing. It raised one of its bone-like legs and slashed at the flames.
The resulting strike carved a trench into the earth.
The cut was roughly ten feet deep and stretched hundreds of metres across the ground, as though the earth itself had been nothing more than soft mud beneath its claws.
The fire was extinguished instantly.
Darkness swallowed the clearing.
The creature paused, seemingly searching the area for anything else unusual. It appeared to be drawn towards sources of light, and with the fire gone, there was little left to attract its attention.
For a moment, Hayden thought he might be safe.
Then the creature moved closer to his shelter.
It stopped just short of the makeshift structure, its attention drawn towards a glint among the leaves surrounding one of the nearby trees.
Hayden watched through the gaps in his shelter and flinched.
He pulled his knees closer to his chest, curling into a tight ball and dragging a leaf over himself, shivering like a child hiding from the monsters beneath his bed.
He knew it was pathetic.
He didn't care.
Looking into those eye sockets had filled him with a feeling he couldn't describe. There was nothing inside them that he could understand, only a darkness that seemed endless.
A void.
An abyss that should never be looked into.
Hayden couldn't tear his eyes away, even though every instinct told him that he shouldn't be looking.
Suddenly, the creature moved.
It slashed at a silver squirrel that was climbing down the nearby tree towards Hayden's shelter. The animal had a mouth full of sharp fangs, with a strange liquid dripping from them that looked disturbingly like acid.
The creature's attack landed.
The squirrel exploded into a gruesome spray of blood, organs, and shattered bones.
Blood splattered across the clearing, spraying through the gaps in Hayden's shelter and pooling among the leaves around him.
At the same time, the shelter collapsed.
The creature's strike had cut through the tree supporting it, severing the knot that held Hayden's carefully constructed shelter together.
The frame gave way, and sticks, leaves, and branches crashed down on top of him.
Hayden barely had time to react before the debris buried him.
A tremendous thud landed nearby, close enough that he felt it through the ground beside his head.
He lay motionless beneath the leaves and twigs, desperately trying to keep himself quiet.
He didn't dare breathe too loudly.
He didn't dare move.
{Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me. PLEASE DON'T NOTICE ME.}
The creature remained in the clearing for a little longer.
Then, apparently satisfied that there was nothing else of interest nearby, it turned away from the ruined tree and began ascending into the sky.
It rose towards the black clouds, where its brethren waited, until the darkness swallowed its skeletal form.
Only when it was certain the being had gone did Hayden dare to move.
He slowly pushed aside one of the leaves covering his face and peered out from beneath the wreckage.
His entire body trembled.
The fire was gone. His shelter was destroyed. Blood had soaked into the ground around him, and he had no idea whether the creature might return.
Still, he was alive.
Somehow.
As the being drifted away into the sky, Hayden cautiously raised one hand and pointed it towards the retreating figure.
Barely daring to whisper, he used his skill.
"Appraisal."
System
Blood Being
Level: ????
A being hidden in shadow.
Hayden stared at the message.
{What the fuck have I gotten myself into?}