Darkness
New upgrades? I wonder what that's about, perhaps it might be something related to more efficient hands. I can figure that out when I make it to a safe spot, though, which is outside of this wall. The wall is fine, but not a place I can trust sleeping in.
Looking down at the fragments of the ghost, I decide to gather them. How this thing works is a mystery to me. They function off of some weird white energy, and manage to float without any sort of visible propulsion. I decide this is food for later thought, as I pick up the dead remnants of the ghost. I would also like to study the Guardian, however, he's too much to drag around, so I'll just have to find another one later.
After collecting all that needed to be gathered, I turned and continued in the direction I was heading before the fight. I took caution to be stealthy as I'm not in top fighting condition right now. Ahead of me was a large room, with several Fallen patrolling it from side to side. How they weren't attracted by the earlier battle, I don't know. All I know is that they all seem to be holding large electrified spears, a weapon that I could easily dodge even in my injured state.
Creeping forward, I make my way to the doorframe, but out of nowhere another two Fallen jump out from behind a corner with their guns pointed at me. It seems like I can never catch a break.
With a quick step forwards into one of the Fallen, I swipe my right claw at it and slice its throat clean open as their body drops to the ground completely dead. The second Fallen has a short period of time to act, as my offhand is currently holding the dead fragments of the ghost.
The Fallen lets off three blue shots of energy, two of which land somewhere behind me and one burrowing into my abdomen. The bullet does little damage and causes little pain, it seems I've evolved way past these small guns.
Having much less fear than before, I charge in while keeping a strong hold on the ghost. My right claw pierces straight through the forehead of the Fallen, as its body falls to the ground limp. The Fallen in the other room sense the battle that had just occurred, and four of them charge me with their spears pointed outwards, radiating blue electricity.
Two take wild swings at me. Wherever these guys were trained, they weren't trained well. I am able to nimbly dodge their sloppy attacks even with the considerable amount of damage dealt to my body.
With a duck, I uppercut the chin of one of the Fallen, my claw piercing completely through its head and out the other side. One down, three to go. Quickly retracting my claw from the dead corpse, I step to the side as another one of them swings at me. I'm lucky they are absolutely terrible with weapons.
As it stumbles by due to its horrendous swing, I slash at the spine of the enemy, causing it to shriek in pain as it falls to the ground. It isn't completely dead, however it is definitely immobile and useless for the rest of the battle. Two down, two to go.
The remaining two who had joined the battle dash in, each attempting to slash at me from opposite sides. I'll give them credit, they suck at fighting but they can create decent battle plans. It's just a shame they can't execute them at all. With a quick step backward, I'm able to completely avoid the swings of the electrified spears.
The remaining three Fallen who hadn't rushed towards me before head in my direction. These ones are the red and white ones, the stronger Fallen. They carry slightly larger spears as well, however I doubt they will be able to do much different than what the others have done.
As they hold their spears outstretched, one of them takes three rapid strikes at me each aimed towards vital positions. I was wrong, these guys know how to fight. It seems that they have superior combat skills as well. Luckily, I'm still able to keep my momentum as I duck and weave two of the strikes, however the third lands right in between two of my ribs, sliding into my ribcage and electrifying what's inside.
"Crii!"
I let out a cry of pain, even with Pain Suppression at second level, it hurt like a bitch. The other two red and white ones close the distance between us. This is terrible. I thought that I had evolved enough to take on these guys with ease, but it seems like I was wrong. The other two red and white Fallen take their spears, aiming them at me and throw them, causing me to be forced backwards onto the ground. I feel the extreme amounts of pain I am now in as my insides start to become completely charred.
Pain fills my head as several messages flood my brain.
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[Pain Suppression 2 has evolved into Pain Suppression 3]
[Pain Suppression 3 has evolved into Pain Suppression 4]
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The pain seems to fade, however the burns are so intense that I can practically feel my flesh melting away due to the electricity. My vision begins to fade as I feel my blood leave my body and drip to the ground.
The other two Fallen, the ones who seemed to pose no threat before, lodge their spears into my legs, completely restricting my movements. I'm really fucked now, there's no coming out alive from this one. The pain from the wounds assaults my nerves as a new message fills my mind once more.
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[Pain Suppression 4 has evolved into Pain Suppression 5]
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As much as I like this ability, the pain isn't my biggest worry right now. In fact, it's the one thing that leaves me any hope of staying alive. Once the pain stops, I'm gone. I don't want to die of electricity a second time, I can't allow it. Unfortunately, there isn't anything I can do to stop it. I only wish that I be brought back as a Guardian next time. As I send my prayers to whatever brought me here in the first place, my vision turns black, and the pain finally begins to fade. I hear the celebration noises of the Fallen as they stand over my dying body. Goddamit, why couldn't I have hands? This wouldn't have happened if I did.
Whatever, just let me die already.
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[Imminent death detected]
[Forcing a premature connection with the darkness]
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As another message forces itself into my brain, I feel one final thing before my brain fully shuts down, a weight being lifted off of my left hand, along with a strange noise. I can't tell due to my lack of, well, everything right now, but it sounds like something getting reassembled. I don't sense anything after that, as everything in my mind turns to null, as I slowly fade.
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Am I dead? Am I in another egg? Both of these questions are shortly interrupted with another sharp pain. And another message appears in front of me with dark green letters.
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[Connection established]
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As this message fades away, I feel my senses slowly restore. My vision slowly recovers as I feel my wounds closing and my body recovering from the extreme amounts of damage I recently took. The electrified spears that once covered my body were now gone, nowhere to be found. All that I can see is a small floating object above my head. A green sphere, covered in four strange grey spikes that spin around its center.
It floats closer to my face, before whispering in a deep, distorted voice.
"Kill those who killed you."
As it says this, a dark green aura spreads throughout my body before disappearing. Afterwards, a sharp pain takes its place in conjunction with another message.
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[Darkness Control 1 Unlocked]
[Weak Corrosive Ability 1 Unlocked]
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With that message, a spiral of the same dark green color circles around me, pushing me on to my feet. My body brims with an unknown source of power. Is this the darkness my ability has mentioned before? The corrosive ability that I saw before has just been granted to me, does that mean I can evolve abilities without Biomass? Perhaps this may be a one time thing. Pushing the thoughts away, I focus my attention on the three red and white Fallen, their bodies looking even more delicious than they ever have as I charge at them. The black bone springing me forward at a remarkable pace.
As I rush in, they all turn to look at me. Letting out a cry of battle, some of them ready their spears. One of them is too late, however, as I ram straight into it with my claws outstretched. My claws contort to become covered in the same dark-green aura as before.
When I slash into the chest of the Fallen, its wound doesn't seem to bleed, rather it radiates the same dark-green color only much fainter. The green spreads along the wound, seeming to eat away at its flesh for several seconds before stopping. So that's what the corrosive ability is. It doesn't seem like it did much, sadly.
The Fallen that I had just slashed at lets out a blood curdling scream as it punches towards me, however, I slash my offhand claw at its arm, chopping it clean off as the dark-green once again appears to devour the flesh of the Fallen.
Two other Fallen start to approach me, letting out one more stab at the Fallen I have with me, it falls to the ground, lifeless. The two approaching Fallen let out cries and swing their spears at me. My high agility allow me to duck under and around their swings as I close the distance between me and one of them before letting my claw fly into the chest of the Fallen. My claw once again cuts straight through as the body convulses before following the same path as those before it, death.
Turning to look at the second Fallen, I notice the two red and white Fallen start to come closer. They're next. Ignoring the weaker Fallen right next to me, I leap towards the approaching red and white Fallen and open my hands. My speed blows me straight through the body of the enemy as I knock it to the ground. The Fallen beneath me lets out a slight cough before attempting to push me off of it. This comes with no success as I let my claws slice through the soft neck of the Fallen, cutting it clean open as a stream of blood sprouts from the wound.
One of the two remaining Fallen throw their spear directly at me. Seeing the spear the spear rapidly approach, I outstretch my hand, attempting to catch it. As I am on the ground right now, I can't evade the oncoming attack, however my hand manages to mostly halt the speed of the spear. Unfortunately, it left behind a small gnash on my hand that drips with a small amount of green blood.
Miraculously, I watch as it heals at a rate visible to my eyes.
"Do not get injured, I only have so much darkness available to heal you"
The same deep and distorted voice sounds once more as I turn my vision to the floating object. It looks like a ghost, however, also like me? Almost as if it were a ghost made out of my body.
Forget it, this can be thought on later. For now, there remain two Fallen in front of me. Standing up quickly, I discard the spear to my side and launch myself at one of the Fallen. My claws soar straight through the right arm of the Fallen in front of me as it flies completely off, landing on the ground next to me with a wet splat of blood. The wounds on both ends begin to decay as the dark-green consumes it.
Rearing back my claws, I let out a second slash at the second arm of the Fallen. This arm follows a similar path as the first, flying off and landing far away. The Fallen enemy in front of me lets out a painful scream, which gets promptly cut off from my claws burrowing into its throat, the green returning to devour that as well.
I can sense my energy being drained. It seems that the repeated use of this corrosive ability is wearing me out. I cannot sustain it for much longer. I doubt it matters as there seems to be one remaining Fallen in front of me.
Terror fills the eyes of the final Fallen, as it shakily readies its spear. The distorted voice sounds once more.
"Kill!"
The strange ghost hums behind me. I was already going to do that. With a quick dash, I find myself directly in the face of the final Fallen, just in time for my swing to reach its apex as my claw forces itself straight into the final enemy's temple as it flops to the ground. The dark-green corrosiveness returning once more for a few seconds before dissapearing. Seven dead Fallen lay around me at the moment, their bodies looking feast-worthy. Lucky for them, I'm insanely hungry.
The dark-green aura fades from my claws as I drop to one knee, the weight of exhaustion and death finally catching up with me.
I need sleep, and I don't think I will be able to make it out of the wall before my mind shuts down from exhaustion. Fuck... well, there has to be somewhat of a safe location around here.
As much as I want to pass out right now, I don't want to waste a night of sleep, so, I force myself to crawl to the dead corpses and begin to devour them. One by one their bodies get reduced to nothing but bone.
Slowly, the exhaustion creeps further and further up to me, as I barely have enough energy to take the final bite. Seeing the bones of several bodies, I'm almost about to fall asleep right here. However, I resist with as much willpower as I have right now and slowly crawl to a small isolated corner between two crates.
This will have to do, I don't think I can move any further right now.
As I let the exhaustion overcome me, I see more messages appear in my mind.
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[Biomass Gathered]
[Upgrades Unlocked]
[You have 9.3 kg of mass to allocate to your body]