Chapter 20 - New Body, New Powers.

I woke up with a jump, the last thing I remembered was me going through the new notifications but as soon as my eyes landed on that last message. Something about eating a vital organ? does that mean that eating something like the heart or brain grants me a better chance of gaining stronger abilities? these are the kind of questions that were going through my brain, however the only way to figure that out was to conduct an experiment.

"You finally wake up Vexsus how do you feel."

I look up to see Master Lucan walking towards me. "Yea, I guess but I feel a little weird I feel odd. I feel like I'm being weighed down but at the same time light and I feel a jolt of energy is rushing through me."

"Look at your body I think you'll be surprised."

Listening to him I stare down but I instantly freeze because under me was an unfamiliar leg, but the thing that shocked me even more was that there was not 1 leg but 2. How the hell did this happen? Is this the result of eating that heart? No I can feel that the reason wasn't because of the heart solely, it was because of my skill, it not only gave me all of the abilities but it also forced my body to transform. I could see now that my body as a whole had changed. I was extremely happy I was overjoyed at what happened I couldn't believe that I was able to regrow my leg. I started jumping up and down to make sure this wasn't a dream.

With me having a mini freak out I guess had woke up the others. I looked over to them with a smile on my face but I quickly stopped as I remembered what happened last night aswell. I look over to Stoney and with a solemn face I bow down and with a tone as sincerely as I can make it. "Stoney, I can never forgive myself for what I did to you I may have been under the control of my sin but that does not excuse me from what I did to you. I can only ask for your forgiveness and strive to do better in the future."

He had a look of anger in his eyes mixed with pain. Long had the thoughts of fear left. "You are a monster Vexsus, yes we may all have a sin within us but at the start of us celebrating defeating something that was that dangerous with minimal Damage taken, you go ahead completely change and not only start to devour what should have been divided between us all and then have the nerve to attack me. Did you gain any new powers when you ate my flesh? huh Vexsus did you gain power from attacking your companion like some savage beast?"

"Stoney, His sin has awakened where yours has not, he may not have been able to control himself but he still bowed down to you and asked for forgiveness. He was born into this world with his sin awakened, yes his sin was weakened and restrained up until recently he nonetheless had a awakened sin that from day one attempted to shape and take over his mind. You must realize that he has come along way he told you himself that he lost his leg fighting with his father against the very thing I am training you to fight against. Remember that out of the 4 of you Vexsus is the one with the most experience in Fatal fights where as you 3 had protection and a safe environment to hunt in, he was forced into fights that could have cost his life."

All I could do was stare up at Master as he said those things. My heart shook and my eyes started to water at the thought that I was actually being defended by someone. My parents might have done it back home while I was unconscious or maybe even Gaia, but to be here in the moment while it happened was something I thought would never happen. I got up and without a word I activated my new skill [Lightning muscle] and with a surge of static electricity zapping my legs I bolted into the forest surrounding us, leaving the others behind.

"VEXSUS WA....." I heard a shout but I was to focused on leaving to hear clearly I ran and ran until my lungs burned then the feeling of being shocked left and without warning my body received a massive shock that stopped me in my tracks. 'What the hell is this.' I think in between gritting my teeth trying to resist the pain and struggling to breath.

[Warning] User has over used a low level ability that inflicts a debuff upon usage. User will now be inflicted with a Paralysis.

[Time until Paralysis over]

2:00 minutes

1:59

1:58

The timer counted down as the only light at the end of this shockingly painful tunnel. I just grit my teeth and bore the pain until finally I could feel the shocks lessening more and more until only a few twitches were left. I laid there on the ground until the shakes and twitches got easier to handle then I finally started to look at my surroundings only to find that I was underneath a wooden covering spanning from a few trees it looked like what the survivalists of my old world would do it looked like a makeshift shelter.

"Hello little dragon. Glad you woke up."

I jumped up but immediately regretted it as my muscles were still sore, I grunted but acted tough nonetheless to not show weakness in front of whoever or whatever this was. "Who are you? Where am I?"

I heard laughing from the mysterious being. "Little one you were the one who charged into my camp, I was sleeping rather peacefully until I was rudely awakened by a young thunder dragon Zapping me awake. But now that I got a good look at you I can see that your not a thunder dragon, so that begs the question" At this I felt a presence close in on me as out of a shadow near me a huge bulking man walked out like it was a door and leaned it. "What are you little one?"

I could feel an intense aura bombard me from this human so I jumped back and shot out my reliable smoke blast, only to see in fear as the human simply held up his hand to swat away my most powerful skill like it was a fly. "Please little one don't be frightened, I am not here to harm you, just think of me as an overly curious friend who is trying to figure out just what your made of."

"I do not like the way you said that whatever you are I have heard enough stories to get the sense that you are not a human contrary to what you appear to be. I am going to leave now." I start to leave and was able to get atleast 20 feet away from the creepy shadow using human-like creature. Before I could take another step an overwhelming pressure forced me to the ground and held me down like chains.

"ohohohoh my apologies young one, I have a bad habit of leading people on only to destroy their hopes. But lucky for you I only want to study you, I ate recently and have no need to make a young dragon my meal. So it would be in your best interest to just be a good little dragon and assist me in my studies." Closing in on my face I could see its head start to enlarge and the closer it got the wider and longer its mouth would get as sharp yellow teeth sprouted from its mouth as a sickening wave of decay and death wash over me as its mouth open to reveal skeletal limbs and half decayed remains stuck between its teeth.

All I could do was shiver in fear and after seeing that I start to scream until my throat goes hoarse. "HELP ME, MASTER LUCAN PLEASE COME SAVE ME." Over and over I would scream but after a while no words would come out as the creature waves its hand and all around us everything goes completely silent. Not even the wildlife like birds or insects dared to make a sound.

"Little one, Tsk Tsk Tsk I assure you that is a waste of your time I can not only control the shadows as you observed but as a matter of fact I can control the entire space around the area which I reside. Since you have no willingness to help me I will just have to use other, rather forceful, methods of persuasion."

My eyes could only widen with fear at the thought of what this monster could do to make me cooperate.

'Vexsus this is Lucan where are you I can sense you near me but something is blocking me from coming any closer.' My heart started pumping as I heard my masters voice sound off in my head.

'Master please save me there is some kind of monster who says that he can control the space around me and said that he will do whatever it takes to 'study' me.'

'Dammit I knew we were to close to his territory but I thought he would be in hibernation, Listen to me Vexsus buy as much time as you can do whatever you need to buy me enough time to break through and rescue you. What you see before you is one of the Progenitors of the Shadow Eaters, He has the same insatiable hunger as the others but as one of the firsts he is able to maintain his sanity.... to a certain extent.'

My once beating heart that was starting to fill with hope instantly froze after being told the true identity of what had captured me. 'Master please hurry his power is to much to handle I can't defend against this.'

But the words didn't get through as I felt the connection was cut before I even spoke. I then looked up at the creature who just sat there and stared back. "Did you have a nice conversation with that Human who imagines himself a wolf?"

"I do not understand what your saying I wasn't talking to anyone there's only me and you here and I didn't open my mouth once."

"listen here you little bastard do not think for a single second that I cannot feel that little boy outside my barrier right now trying to break in and save his precious little apprentice. I have lived for far longer than your oldest ancestor, I am responsible for the creation of the greatest plague to ever wash over this world." With each word I could feel the oppressive aura getting stronger and stronger until the ground started to crack under me. I started to groan under the weight of the invisible force until I got to a point where I heard loud cracks and an unimaginable pain flashed across my body as my legs give in to the pressure and break.

I started screaming without control not being able to handle the pain silently anymore.

[User's mind has experienced a threshold breakthrough. Now initiating temporary Potential to attempt escape.]

[Sealed skill: Life burn has been granted. 'Alert' usage of this skill will sacrifice the lifespan of the user. Use with extreme caution.]

The next second My body bursts forth with a billowing fog of red hot embers and ash covering everything in suffocating darkness.

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Vit 4.5 -> 8.5

Spd 4.5 -> 10

Health 120 -> 400

Stamina 140 -> 420

Lightning muscle 0/10 -> 1/10

Smoke Blast 4/10 -> 5/10

'New' Sealed Skill: Life Burn - 0/10 - User sacrifices lifespan to greatly increase power to phenomenal levels potentially rivaling the gods themselves.