Kamcy

  I failed again.

  Blood and gore surrounded me—my blood, my flesh, my mistakes—painted across the stone in violent, uneven patterns. Chunks of meat clung to the ground where my body had colpsed inward and then exploded outward. Twice now, each failure left behind another obscene reminder of how close I’d come and how violently I’d fallen short.

  I sat there in silence, breathing through the ache that lingered even after resurrection.

  Twice.

  Twice I had felt it. That edge. That moment where the energy almost obeyed, where the spinning compression inside me felt right, aligned, like I was seconds away from locking something permanent into pce. And then it slipped. Always slipped. Like trying to grab smoke with bare hands.

  I tilted my head back slightly as sunlight brushed against my face.

  That made me pause.

  Actual sunlight.

  Warm and real—well, as real as the simution allowed, anyway. It wasn’t the gray, miserable downpour that had haunted this pce for days. The rain was gone, at least for now. Sure, it had helped a lot in my fight, but I wasn’t particurly feeling grateful. I looked at the light filtering through the thinning clouds in pale beams that illuminated the carnage around me far too clearly.

  I exhaled slowly and pushed myself up from where I sat.

  “Alright… that’s enough for today,” I muttered to myself.

  I could stay here. Keep trying. Keep tearing myself apart and coming back until something clicked. But my stomach twisted painfully, reminding me that hunger didn’t care about breakthroughs or pride. And stabbing myself to self-delete—no matter how efficient it was—never stopped feeling horrible.

  Pain didn’t dull with repetition. It etched itself deeper, a scar I wasn’t sure a lifetime could heal.

  So I decided it was time to move on.

  I turned away from the gore-stained stone and started walking.

  The path back to my cave wasn’t clear in my memory. When the creature had kidnapped me, it had been almost pitch-bck, emotions hammering wildly enough to blur the world into shadows and motion. Trees, rocks, slopes—it had all blended together into fear and instinct.

  I sighed and pressed forward anyway.

  The forest felt different now.

  Rainwater pooled everywhere, turning dips in the terrain into thigh-deep channels I had to wade through. Cold water soaked my legs, tugging at my clothes with every step. The ground beneath the surface was uneven—mud sucking at my boots, hidden stones jabbing into my shins.

  As I moved, I decided to gather what I could.

  Long, flexible branches from young trees, testing their bend carefully before cutting them loose. Tough vines wrapped around trunks and roots, stripped free and coiled over my shoulder. Ft stones with sharp fractures, useful for cutting and shaping. Broad leaves with thick veins that could be dried and yered ter.

  More than once, I had to double back, retracing my steps when the terrain grew unfamiliar or my instincts started screaming at me to stop.

  Haaa… this isn’t going to be an easy journey, huh?

  The rain had reshaped the nd, and having to wade through water that slowed my walk, combined with the constant rumbling of my movement, caused exhaustion to creep in slowly. The feeling of being all alone didn’t help my paranoia either, tightening my muscles and sharpening my focus on every little sound, putting me on alert.

  That’s when I heard it.

  A sound.

  Heavy. Fast. Water being dispced in rge, violent surges.

  I froze instantly.

  My energy masked itself on reflex, my presence dissolving into the ambient rhythm of the forest. My breathing slowed until my chest barely moved. My muscles loosened just enough to keep me from tensing.

  Then I saw it.

  The four-armed, ape-like creature burst through the trees, snapping branches like dry twigs as it rushed forward. It was massive—thick muscle yered over dense bone, its hide scarred and tough. A single huge eye dominated its face, glossy and alert.

  The same one that had hunted me earlier.

  It leapt.

  The ground shook as it nded directly in front of me, water exploding outward in a wide spsh that drenched everything nearby. I stood face to face with it, unmoving, watching as it tilted its head and listened.

  Its nostrils fred.

  Its ear twitched.

  Watching it caused something to twist inside me.

  A funny idea formed.

  A slow smile that would have made the devil proud spread across my face—wide, sharp, and ugly. The kind of smile that contained all the devious energy in the universe.

  Energy surged through my body. Muscles hardened. Bones reinforced.

  Swish!!

  I ducked low as the creature swung one massive arm toward where it thought I was, having sensed my energy signature. At the same time, as I ducked, I masked my energy again, vanishing from its senses completely.

  The creature roared in confusion, rearing back and lifting two arms high to smash the ground where it st sensed my presence.

  It’s pretty smart, I mentally complimented it.

  I strengthened myself again and raised one arm overhead, bracing.

  The impact was catastrophic—way beyond what I had expected from it.

  Its fists smmed down with crushing force, driving me into the ground as I sank into the earth up to my ankles. The earth buckled. Water bsted outward in a violent ring, the shock rattling my bones. I couldn’t stop the groan that tore out of my throat as pain fred through my arm.

  Yet my smile remained as I gritted my teeth and punched.

  My fist went straight through its single massive eye.

  There was no resistance—just a wet, rupturing give as the socket colpsed and my arm kept going. Bone shattered. The back of its skull detonated outward in a spray of blood, brain matter, and fragmented bone that spttered across nearby trees and leaves. The creature convulsed once, then colpsed with a heavy spsh.

  I stood upright and exhaled.

  Reinforcing my legs, I leapt into a nearby tree and nded lightly, then looked down at my hand.

  It was badly bruised. Swollen. The bones beneath the skin felt wrong—probably fractured.

  “Damn, it’s nothing like its counterpart, huh? Well, that makes sense given their build.”

  I tried healing it.

  The energy responded differently, knitting tissue together far slower than I liked. Nothing close to the creature’s near-instant regeneration. I frowned, watching the bruise fade only slightly.

  I wasn’t sure why yet. I had theories. That was all.

  Turning back, I watched as the creature regenerated—muscle twitching, bone realigning, flesh crawling back into pce as if nothing had happened. It rose, roared into the air, then paused.

  After a moment, it leapt away, moving from tree to tree with an agility that made no sense for something that rge.

  I shook my head once it was gone and finished healing my arm, at least as best I could.

  Then I gathered my things and continued on, senses spread wide, careful to avoid running into more of those creatures.

  Eventually, I caught a bird.

  Small. Fast. I snapped its neck cleanly and tied it securely before moving on. After more wandering—more guesswork—the familiar shape of my cave finally came into view.

  A smile tugged at my lips.

  I hadn’t spent long here, but the sight of it felt like relief.

  Going inside, I found a few dry sticks tucked deeper within, protected from the rain. I cleaned the bird carefully, roasted it over a small fire, and ate slowly, savoring the warmth and fullness that followed.

  After resting, I got to work.

  No more getting caught off guard.

  So I started putting my skills to work, designing a few handy weapons. The energy I found empowered me, but the strength that creature dispyed meant I was hardly a match for it. With weapons—reinforced by energy—I could tilt the scale in my favor a lot better.

  So first came the bow.

  I selected the most flexible branch I’d gathered and tested its bend gradually, careful not to snap it. Using a sharp stone, I shaved it down, thinning the limbs evenly while leaving the center thicker for grip. I heated it gently over embers, bending it little by little and holding it in pce until the wood set.

  For the bowstring, I twisted pnt fibers together, rolling them against my thigh, braiding multiple strands into one reinforced cord. I notched the ends of the bow and strung it carefully, testing the tension until it hummed faintly under strain.

  Next came the arrows.

  Straight sticks were trimmed and smoothed. I shaped stone arrowheads, chipping them into sharp points, binding them to the shafts with fiber and sticky sap scraped from trees. Feathers from the bird were split and tied to the rear for stability.

  Then the whip.

  Long vines were stripped of bark and soaked briefly to increase flexibility. I braided them tightly, reinforcing the handle with yered fibers and a short bone core. The tip was hardened with resin and sharpened fragments, turning it into something capable of tearing flesh.

  Bone weapons came st.

  From my own corpse remains—dense leg and arm bones—I carved daggers and short swords. I split the bones, scraped them clean, and ground the edges against stone until they became wickedly sharp. Handles were wrapped in fiber for grip.

  Spears were simpler.

  Long shafts, fire-hardened, tipped with sharpened bone or stone, secured tightly and banced for thrusting or throwing.

  By the time I finished, my hands ached and my muscles burned—but the cave was filled with weapons.

  I sat back, surrounded by tools of survival. Seeing my skills being put to work brought a proud smile to my face. Knowing that if I one day left this simution, I was basically a bag of skills.

  It was time to move on.