3 Chapter 3

I returned to my cave carrying the carcass of a large boar on my shoulder.

The smell of my own blood oozing from a deep puncture wound on my stomach stimulated my appetite. The thick and heady metallic scent of blood, even my own, was simply too delicious to resist.

Opening my jaws I tore off a huge chunk of flesh from the boar's side.

'Oh that taste never gets old.'

I savoured every mouthful with primal delight. The wolf's appetite was endless, every creature in the forest was an opportunity to sample a new flavour.

Swallowing the boar's flesh I closed my eyes and brought my awareness to my chest.

A tumbling red force swirled within my heart, hungrily extending tentacle like vessels to my stomach which devoured the boar's flesh as if it had never existed.

Alone and trapped within this forest, I had ample opportunity to explore the mystery behind my resurrection.

I did not know the origins of the strange red force, but I knew that it was a part of me, just as a tail was to a monkey or a trunk to an elephant.

The red force was simplistic in use. Upon consumption of organic matter, the red force would convert flesh and blood into an unknown red energy. This red energy would then accumulate within my heart.

The influence of the red energy brought several changes to my body.

The cold nightime winds could no longer the restrict wolf to his den. With every beat of my heart a small amount of red energy was pumped through my veins. This red energy continuously maintained my optimal state and allowed me to ignore cold and heat.

The red energy could also act as nourishment. The stored energy from the boar could allow me to go more than a month without food while maintaining a moderate level of activity.

However while both these effects were of great practical benefit, they paled in comparison to the true function of the red energy.

I considered the red force to be a kind of essence extracted from living things.

Whether other creatures also held mastery over this red force I did not know, but something within me told me that I was the only one of my kind.

Upon my initial death, the red energy within my mortally wounded body had awakened. Without direction or guidance it had surged forth instinctively and used the wolf's corpse and my own to create a new lifeform. This was the secret to my resurrection.

The formless nature of the red force also meant that I was no longer killable by conventional means. So long as even a trace of the red force remained, I could not be killed. Age and disease no longer held the power to destroy me.

Regardless of my semi-immortality, I held my safety above all else, having died twice already I had no intention to do so again.

The red force also had another application, one that was far more exciting than eternal life.

Evolution.

The red energy was able to splice together the anatomy of a man and a wolf and create something stronger than both of them.

In this regard I could not be considered a true werewolf. I was a hybrid between man and wolf, my appearance held nothing to do with the supernatural.

My form reflected that of a perfect predatory organism, utilising biological structures and learnt behaviours from two races to superceed them both.

Had the environmental stimulus on earth been different, then perhaps my current form could've become a common predator.

The red force's power of evolution was far beyond the realm of human comprehension.

Even so, there were still strict limitations.

Change came at a cost, I could not create something out of nothing. Without sufficient biomass to replenish and gather red energy, I was unable to alter my form.

I was also not a shapeshifter. The process of evolution was complex and carried numerous risks. Rashly altering my genetic structure would kill me more quickly than any weapon could.

The wolf-man hybrid form I currently held was a good example of a powerful and stable genetics.

I had attempted to incorporate wings into my body and found the cost to be staggering. In order to accumulate enough essence I would need to slaughter hundreds of deer herds.

Part of this huge cost was related to my lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms of flight. For example the cost of adding a fifth arm to my body was perhaps a hundred large deer.

I had only a very basic understanding of human anatomy but this didn't matter. The red energy already had the entire human genome at it's disposal and could create an additional arm with little difficulty.

The challenges of evolving or modifying my body had little to do with actually creating the structure. The issue and primary consumption of emery lay in stabilising the new genetics.

For example I could choose to forcibly build a fifth arm on my torso. The red energy was a master of biology and could easily build neurones and receptors to make the arm functional.

Perhaps for a time, maybe a minute, maybe an hour, the arm might function well. It's strength would be no weaker than my other arms and it could allow me to be more flexible in combat.

The minor combat advantage would be of little use when my ugly and forced fusion of flesh began to destroy itself from the inside out.

My cells would lose all sense of friend and foe. My immune system would launch a desperate attack on itself and the consequences of my idiotic actions could begin to spread to other areas of my genome.

'I must be careful.' I reminded myself for the hundredth time.

Initially I had thought that my lack of knowledge regarding the structure of wings could be solved by simply consuming a few sparrows and crows.

It didn't take me long to realize how foolish this was.

The evolution of a blackbird had taken place over millions of years. Its body was a masterpiece of biological engineering precisely designed to soar through the skies.

Unless I chose to ignore all reason and increase the size of a small bird's wings until they were large enough to carry a half-ton wolfman, there was simply no way that I could stably graft the required genetics for flight onto my own.

I had found a little more success in obtaining compatible genes from a few kestresls and an unfortunate eagle that had stayed too long on the forest floor, but the cost was still astronomical.

'Soon.' I thought to myself.

Over the past weeks I had meticulously mapped out the area for hundreds of miles around.

During this time I was constantly accumulating red energy in preparation to begin my first planned evolution.

I had discovered in my exploration of the forest that this world was not as simple as I had once thought.

My resolve to strengthen myself as quickly as possible became even firmer thinking back to the glimpse of the horrifying aberration I had seen.

The joy of the delicious boar in front of me faded swiftly. The cold and cunning nature of a wolf swept through me once more.

I placed my palm on the boar's head. The red energy responded immediately to my call.

The air hummed with invisible power as the red energy gathered in my palm. Countless squirming red vessels emerged from my hand and inserted themselves into the boar's skull.

The boar's corpse began to shrivel. It's plump body draining of blood at a rate visible to the naked eye. Once it's blood was no more the red vessels moved onto it's muscles and organs.

Finally, once only shiny white bones remained, the red vessels bulged wildly before piercing into the marrow and sucking out all that remained.

I chose not to digest the bones. The process was slow and cumbersome. The time was better spent hunting for prey.

Looking up at the grey skies I judged that several hours remained before nightfall. There was still time to gather more biomass.

I heard my bones click like stones clashing together as I straightened my back and stood to my full height.

Under the constant influx and stimulus of the red energy, my cells had instinctively begun to improve themselves.

Muscles began more compact and contained even more explosive force. My spine grew by several inches over the weeks and my stature became increasingly monstrous.

Fangs sharper than any blade, still coated in crimson blood glinted in the sunlight when I opened my jaws.

The black bear that had once posed me some danger was no longer worthy of being my opponent.

I turned to look at the mountain of bones that stood like an altar to some unknown god in the depths of my cave.

The bear's skull rested atop the mountain's peak.

I stared into it's empty sockets and opened my mouth. Words like thunder rumbled from my throat, "Soon I will kill one even greater than you."

'Soon.'