Ethan continued on his seemingly peaceful stroll, moving along the river.
The water flowed lazily beside him, quiet enough to almost feel harmless. He stayed close - close enough to drink, far enough that he thought nothing would reach him.
He quickly came to regret that assumption when a sharp hiss split the air, and something surged out of the river in a blur of motion.
Pain exploded in his arm as teeth sank into his forearm before he could even react.
"-Shit!"
His heart dropped.
He grabbed the slick, thrashing body on instinct and wrenched it off him, staggering back as the creature hit the ground and recoiled instantly.
It was a snake.
Thick-bodied, dark-scaled, its wet hide glistening in the filtered sunlight. It was bigger than any snake Ethan had seen, coiling and preparing to strike again with terrifying speed.
As it did, a window flashed into existence above its head.
{Beast Status}
{Race: Water Snake
Growth Stage: Mature
Beast Rank: E
Strength: 10
Speed: 15
Stamina: 8
MP: 5/5}
'So the wolf has a weird race like Ulfen, but this beast is plainly a Water Snake?'
Ethan didn't waste any time dwelling on it; there was something much more pressing on his mind.
'Am I going to die? Is it venomous? I mean, it looks like it. It's a fucking snake!'
Ethan had no way of being sure, but he couldn't feel anything, at least not yet.
But then why did the beast bite him?
Either way, he couldn't run from it, so he had to face it.
'Beast Assimilation.'
The energy inside him surged.
His body lightened, muscles tightening as Wolfy's traits bled into him. His senses sharpened, the world snapping into vivid detail.
Just his luck, that's when the snake used its MP.
Pssshhhhh!
A foul, overwhelming stench erupted from the creature's body like a physical wave. It was faintly visible, a thin green mist that assaulted his senses.
Ethan immediately gagged.
His enhanced sense of smell turned the odour into something monstrous. Rot, decay, stagnant water, and something chemical and wrong all slammed into his nose at once.
His eyes watered violently, his head spinning as nausea rolled through him.
"Urgh-!"
He staggered, fighting the sudden dizziness and urge to throw up.
'So that's what this damned snake uses MP for…'
Even without Beast Assimilation, the smell would have been awful. With a wolf's nose layered over his own, it was borderline incapacitating.
'Is it a snake or a fucking skunk?!'
The beast hesitantly lunged again, using the moment of disorientation to its advantage.
But unlike the Ulfen…
This thing wasn't a predator.
It didn't hunt creatures like him, probably sticking to smaller prey, like fish in the river. From its seeming lack of venom to its defence mechanism of emitting a repugnant mist, it wasn't built to kill, at least not a human-sized creature.
That was something no Status Window could capture: the nuances of true combat and physical attributes.
Ethan clenched his teeth and forced himself through the haze.
His reflexes were faster now, and his instincts sharper; his body moved before panic could take hold. He twisted aside as the snake struck, its fangs scraping past his ribs instead of sinking in.
In that moment, he brought the rock he carried down hard.
Crack!
The blow landed just behind its head - the timing was perfect.
Immediately, the snake began thrashing wildly, and it released another wave of that nauseating musk as it tried to retreat toward the river.
"Not happening."
Ethan pressed the attack.
Each movement felt more natural now, almost effortless. His reactions were cleaner, his strikes heavier, his balance surer. He didn't flail and fight to live as he had against the Ulfen...
He fought to kill.
Two more brutal swings caved in the creature's skull, and its body went limp.
Ethan stood there, chest heaving, blood dripping from his arm and knuckles, the stench slowly dissipating into the forest air.
A notification appeared.
{Beast Eliminated!}
Another followed.
{Would you like to acquire this beast as your own?}
He stared at it for a moment, then shook his head decisively.
"No."
The Water Snake Beast had MP. That alone was tempting. But it wasn't a true threat - just dangerous in the right circumstances. And right now, he could only assimilate one beast at a time, so he wouldn't get any immediate benefit.
There was nothing that stood out to him or enticed him about it, so he listened to his gut.
'Better to save the slot.'
{Beast Capacity: 1/2}
As the adrenaline faded, the pain returned in full force.
The snake's bite wound, as well as the others from the Ulfen, were bleeding badly now. Its saliva seemed to contain some form of anticoagulant that was doing exactly what it was meant to do.
It literally made one's blood thinner, which had its medical uses, like preventing blood clots, but could be fatal to those with open wounds.
He hadn't noticed it in the heat of the moment, but now it made sense.
'So that's why it bit me to begin with...'
Ethan grimaced and retreated from the river, sitting down with his back against a tree.
On one hand, he was glad that it wasn't venomous; on the other, he was losing a lot of blood because of that damned snake.
'Ulfen and Water Snake, I wonder what else this shitty trial will throw my way.'
He kept Beast Assimilation active as long as he could. The MP drain left him feeling weak and tired, but he made use of the toughness and enhanced recovery while the skill was activated.
Remaining alert even after the skill deactivated, he rested carefully.
Every sound made his heart race, but so far, no other beasts had come his way, almost as if he had reached a checkpoint.
After a little over an hour, he finally stood again.
His bleeding hadn't stopped, but it had slowed and no longer felt life-threatening.
Any normal, untitled human would've been dead by now, or at least bleeding out, delirious, and begging for medical attention.
Especially after an anticoagulant bite like that.
But he was still alive... well, barely.
He would be an idiot not to notice his superhuman level of recovery. It wasn't at the level of other Titled, some of whom could recover from wounds instantly, but it definitely wasn't normal.
That was his biggest saving grace, which he thanked God for as he scanned his surroundings.
The river no longer felt safe, who knew what else might spring from it, but neither did the forest.
Still, remaining still and waiting to be hunted felt worse.
As such, he stuck to his original plan and resumed walking downstream, rock clenched tightly in his hand.
When he checked the timer again, a dry laugh escaped him.
"Less than two hours have passed," he sighed, looking ahead at the endless trees as he continued on his way...
-
Time bled together.
Ethan was trying to avoid thinking about it, a habit he developed in prison.
'It'll feel like time's passing faster this way,' he tried to convince himself, but he ended up cracking, and what he saw...
Let's just say it wasn't exactly encouraging.
21:15:56
21:15:55
21:15:54
'I've been walking for only an hour!? It feels like I've just completed a fucking marathon.'
Remaining calm was a strong suit of the blue-eyed rebel. But even he was struggling to stay composed, given his condition, which was much worse than he had thought.
The world was tilting as if he were walking after spinning around a hundred times. His head felt light, but his limbs heavy, almost like his bones were replaced with lead. Even his MP was now recovering much more slowly, stuck at 7/10 for a while now.
'I can't continue like this...'
Even a normal animal would be tough for him to face now, let alone a savage beast.
He needed to rest badly; the time he spent earlier after defeating the Water Snake wasn't nearly enough.
Biting down on the dizziness, Ethan climbed a small, scraggly tree near the river with shaking hands. He hauled himself onto a thick branch and collapsed onto it, chest heaving.
It wasn't much.
But it was above the ground, and that gave him a better vantage point, and maybe passing beasts wouldn't notice him or would leave him be.
'How long will I be safe up here? Whatever sadistic bastard made this place won't let me have it easy. Will I even recover much by resting up here?'
Ethan's stomach twisted painfully.
'And I'm starving!'
The constant MP drain, the physical exhaustion, and the blood he'd lost had left him running on fumes. Even as a Titled, even with Beast Assimilation, his body was reaching its limit.
'At this rate…' His thoughts trailed off.
He didn't finish the sentence.
He refused to.
Dying here, after finally seeing a path forward, after tasting what it meant to be Titled, was unacceptable.
That was when a notification appeared.
{Beast meat can have healing properties. As long as the beast is not venomous or poisonous, consuming it can also speed up Stamina and MP recovery.}
Ethan blinked.
Then laughed weakly.
"Couldn't you have told me that earlier?"
Food.
He needed food, not just river water and stubbornness.
His first instinct was to go back to the Ulfen and Water Snake, but retracing his steps meant danger, and the idea of eating either of them wasn't exactly appealing.
'So what do I eat…?'
As if the forest had been waiting for him to ask that question, something moved between the trees beneath him...