Searing pain grew within her chest, uncomfortable heat grew and the metallic taste of blood assaulted her tongue, mouth dry and a feeling of thirst was prevalent. Breathing ragged, shallow and quick. Exsanguinating crimson fluids from her wound. Alicia’s mind was in a confused state, still through it all she knew that she didn’t have much time. She tried to focus, attempting to use the leftover points she had left, but in daze it was foggy and difficult to grasp. Her sight was blurred, heat was now replaced by a numbing cold and lethargy set in. She felt as if she was getting sleepy.
‘Now is… not the time… to lose consciousness…’ The mental image of her soul was distant and it was quite the effort to focus on it, especially with the pain distracting.
First thing that caught her attention was the newly updated state…
‘Blood loss… too much…’ she hacked up blood filled saliva, followed by coughs that further expelled vital liquids. As a silver lining, she had an influx of added points to use. She placed her hopes on acquiring a skill that might help…
‘Consti…tution… … … ’
‘re...gener… … …’ unfortunately before she could use them her consciousness further escaped her… As she was still, clinging on to her last straws of senses…
Bright light stimulated her blurry vision. A sense of déja vu came over to her… It was almost as though she never left this place at all; disturbing yet intimate…
A woman greeted her. Regaining her sight it was a place familiar. ‘Didn’t expect to be back here again… Am I bad at staying alive or something…?’
A woman, dressed in what appears to be office attire, sitting behind a large executive desk, kept talking on by herself… Though the voice was different than what she remembered, it had the same tone and feeling as…
‘Hasn’t lost the smug attitude though.’
On cue the woman’s figure shifted, appearing to blur out of existence. In her place adorning a black robe, a skeleton, bleached white, old and cracked. The area around where the eyebrows should be on the frontal bone of the skull were thick and exaggerated forming a fierce countenance. The arrival of the avatar of death was accompanied by irrational, primal fear that welled up from within, a fear of death shared by all lifeforms and overwhelmly crushing melancholy that evokes nihilism.
Although not as staggering as expected, the god’s atmosphere still was unsettling. Clawing at the back of one’s mind… Though for Alicia it didn’t faze her…
Was it a blink? Do I even have eyelids? Before anything could be thought or said the entity had assumed it’s previous image.
She had expected this would come. There wasn’t any reason for her to be here again.
The statement came as a shock to Alicia who just had a very real near death experience and believed herself to have died, twice.
‘Still how could I be alive when I don’t have a heart…?’
‘For some reason it sounded particularly malicious…’
It would’ve been easier to have her croak up and make a replacement…”
Catching the ominous mutterings Alicia couldn’t help but to comment against it.
That being the god’s last fading sentence, brightness filled her vision.
Returning to her body she was welcomed back by pain. ‘Right… I’m still gored by this thing… before anything else goes south…’
‘Isn’t that… bad? Gotta hurry then… The bulldozer boar did give me tons of points… though I can’t say I enjoyed the shishkebab experience…’
‘Regeneration please, I’ll go with 5 if that isn’t enough, go all the way… Before I get distracted by the pain again…
Even her thoughts were disturbed due to pulsating ache, plainly shown on her grimacing face.
I’ll pick up Dynamic Nociception too since I have some surplus… before I dislodge myself from this thing… It’s going to hurt like hell without it…’
Effective immediately, Alicia was finally free from the torment thanks to the latter skill. Finally able to draw breath again, metaphorically of course.
‘That’s much better… But isn’t regrowing whole limbs and organs kind of freaky…? Well maybe not that much I know liver can regrow to an extent… Limbs err… lizards maybe I’m not a lizard am I?
As for Dynamic nociception it’s now more like having a nagging ache than being miserable with a tusk driven into you. Though I can’t say I appreciate having to feel phantom pain… but it’s probably better to feel them than to completely shut it off…’
Before anything she inspected the damage to herself. Where she was pierced some clear viscous fluid with a tint of blue was gently oozing out. Touching it with her hands she knew what it was not from any informed opinion but through instinct.
‘Blood…? Not human but… still mine… Ah… of course… I’m not alone…’ Her gaze followed downwards and rested on her other half briefly…
‘I can live without a heart or a lung and maybe few other organs so long as my other self is ‘fine’ and it probably probably works the other way around as well. To what extent of damage I can receive and still live… I hope I won't need to find out.
She is getting better at communicating…’
With some effort Alicia removed herself off the corpse's remarkable canine protrusion. Once free, blood that was pressed in was let loose, freely flowing out of the entry, the crimson liquid pooling underneath her before being cut short by blue fluid coagulating the flow, forming into cloudy semi-transparent clot.
‘It’s like a dried up hot glue mixed with blue paint… Even without taking a breath I don’t feel like I need to… How in the hell spiders breathe anyway? Well I don’t think I can explain how humans breathe to a spider…’
Now at last knowing that she won’t die yet, a sigh of relief left her lips. The putrid smell of partially liquefied remains of the swine's head tickled the nostrils. ‘My venom is kind of scary huh… Ah I need to change from this shirt, bloody and torn, not gonna do me well. Good thing I made some spares back at the tree, they’re going to be useful now.’
With the dangerous encounter settled, Alicia goes to the one place she’s familiar with. Great oak tree that she made home of. Though not before being lost in the woods for a good amount of time…
Styles, Don't mind the things in the parenthesis they're just my metadata info which I can use to recreate that style.
#1 Scribble hub dark (Used this chapter) https://i.imgur.com/ZNqJKNN.png
#2 Chilly (Poster link 4) https://i.imgur.com/LtxTbZZ.png