ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 8: Down With The Sickness

Chapter 8

Down With The Sickness

Of all the times to experience a true life and death battle; during those moments when Alexa could feel emotions would have to have been one of the last times, she would have wanted to have this experience.

Yet, with these moments of clarity being what they were, she felt something break. She felt the moment her fear shattered, and gave way to something deeper, something primal. With a wave of euphoria, she found a slight smile creeping onto her lips. This was wrong, this was so wrong.

Logically she knew that she shouldn’t be enjoying this moment. She knew she should be listening to her fear and trying to run from the predator. But feelings and emotions were so rare for her, that she long ago vowed to enjoy every emotion that came to her.

As it was turning out she didn’t feel fear. Not even in her current emotional state, instead she felt something akin to fear mixed with adrenaline fueled lust for violence, mixed with so many other emotions she didn’t know how to describe them all.

The werewolf before her was a predator, one who came about from some of the earliest dungeon delvers. Since their discovery, they have been roughly defined into one of three categories: the progenitors, or the beings who first entered and were turned in dungeons. Natives, those who existed in dungeons and have since ventured out to the world. Natives could also refer to the child offspring of an original progenitor. Then the third type were the turned, the third type. Those who gained a partial transformation from either the progenitors or the natives. No one can exactly explain why, but those who are turned recently are always weaker than either the natives or the progenitors.

This one, if Alexa had to guess was a werewolf from the third category. Its magic was faint and looked like it was spreading from a wound on the neck. The only reason Alexa could see this, was because of the way the ambient mana of the creature seemed to originate from the neck and slowly work its way out from the neck to the rest of the body.

Alexa watched the beast and smiled.

Her smile and lack of fear caused the werewolf to pause. It had never experienced this before. In all the humans it had hunted down until this point, all had shown intense waves of fear before it dug its fangs deep into their tender flesh.

This one on the other hand, smelled like honey. She had been waiting in the forest for so long, never moving that the wolf half expected her to be asleep. Imagine her surprise when she started sneaking up, only to find that its prey was hurriedly devouring some type of sweet-smelling food. A sweet scent that radiated from the target’s body in waves.

That scent alone was enough to keep it moving forward, to see what this meal tasted like.

Once someone became a werewolf, they switched from being a human. Instead, they were reclassified as an awakened beast. This meant that their whole system of leveling was flipped on its head, their previous class was removed and replaced with Werewolf. At which point they would only gain levels from killing humans.

While awakened humans were the best for leveling purposes, they were also among the hardest to target due to their naturally higher resistances and powers. This was why all werewolves were taught, or rather had their instincts changed to target children first. Children, particularly older children offered more energy from their kills. Older children, particularly those close to their awakening, were the ripest for the taking, as they had nearly all the energy of a fully awakened human, without any of the natural defenses.

These instincts were what originally brought the sleeping girl to the werewolf’s attention. The only problem, this girlwas all wrong. First their power level was high, higher than some of the awakened beings she had been told to avoid by her very same instincts. Then there was the fact that rather than cowering in fear, as most humans would, even the awakened humans would. This one bared her own fangs in a rite of challenge.

There was a momentary pause, as the two took the measure of each other.

The werewolf was in its pure wolf form, it was so new that it still couldn’t control the changes wracking its body and was forced to maintain its pure beast form for the moment.

The girl on the other hand was still dressed in her dungeon delving outfit. Granted, this was the lighter material bodysuit meant for speed rather than true protection, but it was better than being in regular civilian clothing.

Grrr!

A low rumble reverberated from the werewolf’s mouth, as it slowly began psyching itself up into a killing frenzy. At least that was the way the werewolf thought of this process. It was still new, but right now it had to build up anger to charge forward, anger to gain the full strength and speed of the wolf. Only through anger could it realize its true potential.

Finally, after a few seconds of the human daring to stare at it, an apex predator, did the wolf finally have the anger needed to strike.

Thump, thud, thump.

Its feet began clopping across the ground as all four legs moved in perfect harmony. The wolf didn’t have to think about moving when the beast took over. Instead, the wolf just let their instincts rule over their every movement.

Then when the beast was ten feet away, the werewolf leapt into the air. This was too far of a distance, at least that is what the human portion of the animal’s brain would have said. But the human who had been turned trusted the instincts of the predator that have overcome its body. It trusted the instincts to act accordingly.

Still the slight moment of doubt caused the wolf to blink.

Only for a second, and only while in the air. Normally blinking at this time meant nothing, the werewolf themselves were committed to the jump. Regardless of whether their eyes were open or closed, would change nothing about their current action. Besides, most people just cowered in fear, at most raising their arms to protect their body from a direct blow. The werewolf anticipated this, and thus allowed the human the slight control over their former body, this blinking.

Thud.

Pain erupted in the wolf’s face as it felt its body spinning about wildly in the air.

Roll, tumble.

The werewolf found themselves spinning about once on the ground before their predatory instincts kicked in, forcing them back to their feet quickly. A slight blur filled their eyesight, as they took in their surroundings. Then quickly circled around, to find that their prey was standing there, staring at them.

As soon as their eyes met, the meal spoke.

“Heel.” The unawakened female said.

The word made no sense to the instincts of the predator. Only when the predator queried the human portion of its mind did the word make sense. The human was mocking it. The human had used its heel to attack, then used the alternative meaning to tell the werewolf to submit.

Rage.

GRRROOOWWWLLL!

Anger filled the beast as let loose a bestial roar, before it began charging forward at a rapid speed. This time it didn’t blink. This time it didn’t jump, it had learned its lesson the first time. This time it would barrel into the creature and drive it down with its sheer mass and weight.

This time it saw the spinning heel kick, not that seeing the attack changed anything. The creature was fast.

Wham!

“Heel.” The female said, in a mocking way. The way one would use to train a particularly bad puppy. The smile on the prey’s lips only seemed to enrage the primal side of the wolf more.

Charge.

Blam!

This time as it charged, the swift foot swiveled up directly overhead, then slammed down into its head. Before it knew what was happening, the werewolf was sliding forward, its head being used as the initial point of impact with the ground.

Of course, these wounds meant nothing to the beast, these were mere damage caused by an unawakened being that didn’t even have silver. Which meant this was a losing battle for the human, over time it would wear out. Over time the human would tire and drop their guard. That was the moment when the endless energy of the wolf would show its true value.

Even as it stood, the wounds and abrasions it suffered were already healing.

When the wolf turned to lock eyes with its target once more, the human still had that same defiant smile on its face.

“Play dead.” The human said mockingly, its mocking smile causing anger to well up within the beast.

Once again, the wolf part of the brain had to query the human part to understand what was being said. Again, the words came as a mocking testament of what one would tell their beloved dog to do. The play dead part no doubt had to deal with the way its body was forced to lay flat on the ground after the strike.

Grr!

The werewolf continued its charge ever onward. Each time it charged forward, it was met with a quick disorienting strike. It was clear that this human had experience hunting monsters. The smell of it indicated that it had just been in a dungeon as recently as today. Still, it was committed to the meal, to this meal. Should it turn away now, it would still need to find proper sustenance before its body consumed itself. The wolf spirit said, it was committed to the hunt, that it now needed to continue to see this whole attack to its natural conclusion.

Besides, it knew that even while starving it could go all out, unlike the human. Humans, especially unawakened humans, were not meant for prolonged combat. Normally a human would need an Endurance in the high thirties to even be able to keep up with a werewolf, even a newly turned one like they were.

The two sparred with each other, at one point the werewolf managed to get a passing swipe at the arm of the human, it wasn’t much. But it was a sign that it was finally wearing through the defenses and supernatural speed that this human wielded.

Also, the wolf waited for the moment the human would cower or alter its defense to adjust to its injured limb, but nothing.

If anything, the monster of a human just smiled wider, as if it was excited by the prospect of pain.

It was at this point that the werewolf got a two-word definition from its human brain. Two words that defined this creature, Battle Junkie.

After feeling the thoughts of its human side, the wolf portion of the mind had to agree. This human was not natural and had clearly had a lot of physical augmentation. This was odd, as most humans couldn’t stomach the process of augmentations. While this human seemed to be an extreme case.

Only once they were nearing the end of their battle rage, did the human begin to show signs of changing.

The werewolf itself was starving. Even now the wolf could feel its ribs pulling in deep along its sides, as its body was eating away at the vital muscles it needed to continue fighting.

But there was hope, the human too was showing signs of finally wearing down. Blood coated its front right paw, and the smile that had been wide on its face slowly began to fade.

Then almost as if a switch had been flicked, the look of absolute monstrous joy on the prey’s face changed. In its place was the dull lifeless face of someone who lost all energy.

Joy.

The wolf had won. The tremendous killing intent that had been radiating from their prey over the past hour had evaporated, leaving behind only a weak frail human body. The wolf knew that its relentless endurance would pay off, and it had.

Steadying itself for one last pounce it once again rose to full height. Then just before it made its final charge, to deliver a death blow, the creature spoke two words.

“I’m done.” The words were cold and hollow, as if death itself had suddenly overtaken the body of the prey. Prey that was by all rights, its own.

Snap.

There was an intense popping sound that seemed to echo in the crisp night air.

Only after a second, when the pain receptors of the wolf kicked in, did the werewolf realize that its neck had been snapped.

Tumble.

The wolf felt their body collapse to the ground. Then they felt the moment their regeneration tried to kick in, only for the neck to remain snapped apart.

Spasms.

The werewolf began to spasm and wiggle about on the ground as the wind in its lungs was unable to be released. Simultaneously the regenerative process of the wolf caused the last vestiges of mana within the werewolf to drain at an excessive rate.

Until finally the wolf stopped spasming.

***

Alexa just stared at the dead werewolf. Once again, she had no feelings, only memories of her feelings. She remembered the thrill and exhilaration of battle, the way she thoroughly enjoyed every moment of battle, The way she could have ended it at any time, by using her newly acquired Telekinesis, just as she had at the end.

She did have to admit that watching the wolf desperately try to cling to life was a bit much, and would have likely caused problems had her lack of emotions not fully kicked in.

It was at this point that Alexa made a note to carry around silver of some kind on her. As silver would have made some of the wounds impossible to heal from.

Speaking of healing, Alexa looked to the gash on her arm. The wound had mostly healed by this point, her high Endurance making such a minor wound almost negligible. The only problem she had or figured she might have was the possible contamination of the wound.

At first, there was a foreign glow to the wound, one that denoted some of the alien mana had been pressed into the wound. Fortunately for her, the mana in the wound went away.

She didn’t know if this was a sign of the mana of her attacker fading, or if there was something else at work. Regardless she made a note to patch the wound and monitor for any signs that she might have a magical infection. While such infections could be treated, they had to be done so early on.

With everything going on, Alexa almost missed the moment a light green stream of liquid mana poured out from the bones of the creature. She watched as the energy pooled into crystal right next to the still broken neck of the monster.

Seeing the ambient energy of the stone, Alexa went up to the crystal, then picked it up.

It was a green body enhancement crystal.

Seeing the crystal a slight gleam filled her eyes, as she wasted no time in letting the wave of energy fill her. Only after absorbing it, did a system message appear in her mind.

Endurance +1

In addition to the bonus, she felt a slight wave of euphoria fill her as her mind was once again alive with emotions. It was so close to the battle, that if she focused, she could relive and fell the joy of combat wash over her. Fighting while feeling emotions was so much better than fighting regularly. Then she remembered the pain that was currently in her arm, and realized that if she did fight while on crystals, she would need to remember to take few risks.

In all the emotions she felt from absorbing the crystal ended in just under a minute. Only now that everything related to the night was over, did Alexa turn and begin her run home. This was enough training for one night.