With great difficulty, a bloodied figure finally finished climbing onto a tree branch. The tree has long fallen and a b.l.o.o.d.y smell permeated through the air. Various nocturnal hunters had set off to do their share of hunting. As such, the night was not as quiet as one would expect.
Spring-Autumn leaned against the tree trunk and let out a deep exhale. His shirt was in a tattered, b.l.o.o.d.y mess. He was practically half-naked.
"Good thing my little brother is safe and sound," He chuckled.
Every laugh caused him to cough out a mouthful of blood. There were countless small cuts on his upper body that were caused by sharp shrapnels of tree barks when he was catapulted to this part of the forest.
By his rib, there was a deep cut that was enough to show a bone.
Stuffing his hand into his pants pockets which were not too cut up, he pulled out his flowers. When he finally stuffed them down, he felt a lot better. The smallest of cuts were miraculously healed up while the bigger ones bled a little less.
"Stuffing my face while half-dead, truly a tragic life,"
Now that he felt better, he took a moment of shut-eye. That moment quickly turned into a deep sleep because of how tired he was. When he opened his eyes again, the sun was already rising.
However, even though the day has changed, his situation was not any better. His muscles felt fatigued and it was hard to lift his body up. If he were to go down, he would quickly become a food source if something powerful like a dragon showed up.
As such, he spent the day in a daze, not moving a single muscle. A leaf fell on his face, the wind blew it away. The sun was high in the sky, Spring-Autumn was dehydrated.
A bush rustled and a shadowy figure slithered out. Its colorful scales refracted brightly under the sunlight, showing a myriad of colors. The serpent"s slitted eyes lit up when it spotted its target. After a hiss, it began to slither up the tree, to its target.
Spring-Autumn continued to doze off despite the incoming danger. After another wave of wind pa.s.sed, his eyes flickered open with a green light.
Silent, but deadly. The serpent finally reached the top of the tree. It was a gigantic snake with colorful scales. Its width was as wide as a tree trunk.
[Mutated Snake]
A blue window silently lit up above its head. With a quiet hiss, it leaped at Spring-Autumn, reading to coil its large body around him.
Spring-Autumn calmly observed the incoming serpent. At the last moment, he decisively rolled himself off the branch. The tree was very tall. Even with the gra.s.s underneath to soften the landing, there was a sharp crack when Spring-Autumn landed on the ground.
He let out a loud grunt and cursed, "My f.u.c.king ribs!"
Unfortunately, the snake was not so easy to escape from. With another hiss, it quickly slithered down the tree at an unprecedented speed. However, Spring-Autumn has done his calculations. There were a few piled up rocks around him that gave him a geographic advantage. In his hand, he held a sharp stick.
The Mutated Snake slithered over cautiously. Its yellow slitted eyes were showing signs of intelligence. After doing a quick round of calculation, it headed in a straight line for Spring-Autumn as the rocks around impeded it from going in a zig-zag.
Spring-Autumn was more level-headed than ever in this situation. Ignoring his broken ribs that were sticking out of his body, he struck the stick through the snake"s eye at the last moment.
The snake that had taken a leap of faith has fallen. Its huge body spasmed heavily as if to reflect the snake"s final moment before death. Despite being such a dangerous creature, it had fallen so easily just from a critical strike to its vital spot.
[Skill Acquired: Chrono Vision]
Spring-Autumn let out a heavy sigh. He was in even more miserable conditions than before. Not only was he bloodied, but he also had dirt all over his body. On top of that, one of his ribs was sticking out.
He crawled over to the snake and took a moment of contemplation. After not a very long time, he began to cut the snakeskin with his stick. The skin was very tough and strong. As such, it took a very long time to cut up.
The moment the skin was cut up, blood began to leak like a faucet. Without much hesitation, Spring-Autumn began to drink to hydrate himself.
"I"m going to get some sort of disease from this aren"t I,"
It was surprisingly not too bad. Spring-Autumn began to feel more and more rejuvenated. The more he drank, the better he felt. Taking a step back, he noticed that most of his wounds had recovered with the exception of his rib.
He frowned and decisively struck the rib back into its place and then proceeded to continue drinking the blood of the serpent.
[Vitality +1]
It was getting late and the night was approaching. Spring-Autumn feasted on a portion of the snake and as predicted, his stats increased.
He had almost recovered back to full health now with only slight pain in his rib. Spring-Autumn wiped off his b.l.o.o.d.y mouth and stood up.
The night time hunters were about to come out and it was too risky to stay in a place that leaked such a strong b.l.o.o.d.y smell. He wiped off his body with his torn-up dress shirt and left it behind.
His body was now clean and pristine. It was hard to believe that just a few hours earlier, he was injured to the point of being on the verge of death. It was truly a magical world.