White Flower, Black Feather

Spite

I’m shaking. Not sure why…

‘Wait! Wait! Wait!’ there must be some kind of mistake- ‘Is The Trickster pranking me again?!’ or that… ‘Sta-?!’

-STOP!!!-

‘Wha-?!’ that message felt like it was pushing my head away?!

-Don’t! Not yet!-

‘…?! What is going on?!’

-You need to calm down, OR! Do you want Strain Resistance AGAIN?!-

‘Ugh!’ deep breaths, deep breaths… my arms are still shaking ‘What happened to my arms?’

-Specify… the scars? Or the length?-

‘The sha-!’ deep breaths… deep breaths ‘The shaking…’ my arms look and feel good… in size, not in appearance… I don’t like the scars… specially the big one…

-One of the things you got. It has been three months, you have a lot of new things…-

‘And why the forest looks…?’ I cover my left eye… blurry, I uncover it and cover the other… ‘What happened to my right eye?!’

-Most of your wounds were healed JUST! Until they weren’t a concern anymore…-

‘Fuck! What did I…?!’ the more angry I get… the shaking worsens… I lie on the ground ‘Is evolving going to fix it…?’

-You have True Body. I don’t recommend it…-

‘Ia… how do I…’ focusing on my organ… ‘I have a lot of magic now… even the void feels bigger…’ I don’t have the organ at maximum capacity… ‘What is happening…? Ia Stop…? What? I have something consuming my magic… but I’m not losing it…?’

-Energy Eater. You have enough magical regeneration now, that it isn't going to drain you completely-

‘Mostly because I’m not moving…?’ that feels like the truth… ‘Ia, Imbue Eyes- ugh!’ the blurriness in my eye gets worse! ‘How am I supposed to use my magic like this?!’

-Your body doesn’t particularly mind it, when it’s killing creatures…-

‘Ugh… Remember how you were before, go back to your peak! Restore!’ my eye itches… but the forest is getting back into focus ‘Ia Stop… better’

Now I can relax a bit… it definitively is a bit-!

SCREEEEECH!!!

‘You piece of…! One… two…’ I didn’t missed that… my shaking got a bit worse with that… jerk…

-It started to do that twice a day, a month ago…-

‘Ten. What happened? Did someone eat its candy…?’

-…-

‘What…?’ it was me the one that did something…? ‘Anything else I need to heal now?’ I don’t feel any other discomfort right now…

-Your body right now is fine, but some of the scars are going to persist even after evolving a few times-

‘Oh… even if I become humanoid…? Can… I become humanoid…?’

-I can’t answer that-

‘Well… I hope that other girls do like scars…’ now I can feel a small drain in my organ… I turn to look at the meat… ‘Did I kill… this…?’ what is it…?

-Yes, you killed this boar-

Hiss!

‘WHAT?! How-?! AH?!’ I have a big scar on my left side, it looks like the one in my arm ‘What happened?!’

-You have killed four of them. You need to relax, eat, calm down. Then, you can check your status… idiot…-

‘I… might just do that…’

I have no idea of what happened to me…

-----

While I ate, I saw the head, I kind of threw it away and landed next to a tree…

‘I’ll eat the rest later…’ I look up… ‘Did I anger the trees?’

-You would be dead…-

‘I know, I just feel like… they are… distant…? Does that makes sense…?’ I move closer to the roots of the tree and place my claws in the ground

-They should have realized that you were mindless…-

‘Ia Imbue… Ia Stop…’ I move back and wave at the tree ‘Hi! I’m back!’

-…-

‘What?’

-Idiot…-

‘Eh?’ what did I do now?

-Are you ready now?-

‘My arms aren’t shaking… what do I need to do…?’

-Keep calm, and relax. Try to not get overwhelmed, read what you got and then, evolve again-

‘Oh, that’s good… right?’ deep breaths ‘How long did it take?’

-You killed and ate over three hundred creatures in the past three months. You have been ready for a while…-

…

My arms are shaking…

‘Fuck… fuck…’ deep breaths… deep breaths… ‘I’m sorry… I’m sorry…’

-I tried to minimize the impact of the notifications, I didn’t kept the name of the creatures you killed and tried to combine, all the screens that I could combine… it’s a mess due to the language barrier, though…-

‘Thanks…’ I really don’t want to see this… ‘Status…’

‘What…?’

-Deeds, normally, come in groups of three, and you… kept things varied…-

I’m starting to feel sick…

‘I… have been avoiding poisons…?’

-No… the ANOMALY! Mixed the reward of the poison related one with the venomous and… basically all poisons you eat, now help the venom… thing…-

‘Weird…’

‘Ugh…’ I look away… deep breaths…

-I told you it was a mess…-

‘I… I… it is…’

-The next two are “Special” in a way…-

‘I’m… not evolving that…’

-Do you realize that with evolution things get better?-

‘But why would I…?’

-Upgrade required… Miriam…? Keep breathing…-

Hiss…

Deep breaths… my arms are shaking… deep breaths…

‘What…?’

-Some of those Titles above, combined with others. I’m only showing the combination of new Titles with previous ones you had-

‘Oh… I’m shaking… because I’m… about to go berserk…?’

-Yes-

I need to control this…

‘That… is what Absorb gave to me…?’

-One of the things… but I’m not showing the amount of Traits it gave to you. It looks safe to use, but if you aren’t careful, it’s going to make you hungry, faster-

‘Oh… like with the Sleep Venom…’ that sounds interesting…

‘What…?! Ugh…!’ deep breaths… ‘Why…?’

-You got a few “Nails” while you were sleeping… that happened after the last one…-

‘Was a Nail what woke me up…?’ I did felt a pressure in my head… ‘What is that plus five?’

-If a creature reaches the Level Cap and lacks viable evolution options, it can do two things: breed something that will have a higher cap. Or what you did, and kill until it goes above the cap…-

‘I’m level… thirty?!’ I didn’t saw the number in the “Level up” notification before… ‘I… did I forgot something…?’

-The brain adaptation…?-

‘Right! Is in… not the store right? Is in Absorb-?!’

‘Yes… is there… eh…?’

-Before you delete things: ANOMALY! Did… something to a few things you had hidden…-

‘What?! Are you ok?!’

-… idiot…-

‘What?’

-It didn’t happen to things related to Specialist, or the Magic Fangs, but the rest of things you discarded are… gone-

‘Oh… hmm… did Absorb got stronger with the stuff it ate…?’

-How am I supposed to know…? What I know it did… you’ll see it in Species…-

I look around… need to calm down… but besides the meat that I still have, I don’t feel or smell anything… I got a lot of scars… and I should be around three meters…? Maybe longer…? I don’t want to open that yet… blood… blood…

‘Damn it… what is that smell?! Why do I smell like blood?!’ the shaking gets a bit worse…

-It isn't a true smell, is something that empowers your Terrifying Presence-

‘I don’t…!’ deep breaths… deep breaths… ‘I don’t see a Synergy like that…’ not Helper’s fault… not Helper’s fault…

-And not everything appears in the notifications…-

‘What…?’

-A few things have hidden effects. No, I’m not going to tell them to you…-

‘You just did…?’

-The first one is free, the rest are for you to find out…-

‘Great… so… whatever that gave me Blood Soaked is also an intimidation… boost…? Eh…?’

-Empower is different from boost…-

‘Sure…’ I look back at Absorb… ‘The price is the same…? Not going to complain, but can I get the brain upgrade now?’

-You should survive now, but is going to take the same amount of time as evolving-

‘What…? So I would need two days to be ready…?’ that’s ridiculous… ‘Absorb, one minute after I start evolving Buy the Mammal Brain Adaptation…’ the screen doesn’t change… I get out of it ‘Ah! It worked!’ it took the EP at least…

-…-

‘Yes…?’

-What the fuck…? No, I don’t want to know… this ANOMALY! Is already a pain to deal with…-

‘Thanks for your hard work…’ I nod to the message and it goes away ‘EP Shop’ that way I can avoid looking at the evolutions for a bit…

‘Better-! Gah! Why is your upgrade so expensive?!’ no answers… ‘Fine… any objections about buying everything in my species, and getting a strong torso and tail?’

-What are you going to do with the remaining two hundred and five points?-

‘Good question…’ the eyes are tempting… ‘Wait… is the Water Scale, the thing fishes use…?’

-That is where it came from…-

‘Oh… oh, no… that is tempting too…’ what do I do…?!

/////

While Miriam was buying her Items, the trees prepared a small test

Rustle!

Squeak!

And scared a meter tall, flightless bird towards her direction

The strong talons of the brown bird left deep marks in the ground as it fled, and while the wings of the creature were useless for flight, it had a sharp and long beak, that gave it another way of defend itself. They also weren’t immediately hunted by the humans, since they still could be tamed…

But some, still found the War Chickens dangerous

The bird saw Miriam at the same time she felt it enter her vibration range, and it charged at her. Causing her pain, as she tried to stay upright while the muscles in her torso became stronger

Squeak!

‘Earth Spear!’ jumping over one of Miriam’s attacks it kept running towards her, making her wait until the bird was closer ‘Earth Spear!’ for another one right where she was

The bird jumped, grabbing the spear with its talons and lunging with its beak for another attack

Hiss!!!

But Miriam forced a spike to grow from the ground and intercept the bead of the creature, and forced a Magic Slash to make a cut in the neck of the bird-

Beheading it

Ding

Hiss!!! Hiss!!! Hiss!!!

And leaving her in a fight to regain control of her pained body

‘AAAHHH!!!’ struggling to not keep attacking the corpse ‘AAAHHH!!!’ her whole body shaking as she tried to move away from it. Trying to stop herself from painting everything red

‘WHY?!!!’

-This is Berserker-

‘STOP!!!’ her whole body was thrashing against the ground and she was forced to sink her claws in the earth ‘IT’S OVER!!!’ with little success

-It activates in combat, judging by how you are reacting, preferably longer ones-

‘IT’S OVER!!! AAAHHH!!!’

After some minutes of her struggling with it, she finally started to calm down… but even if she showed improvement in comparison to before, the trees were dejected with the result…

/////

My head hurts…

‘Ow…’ deep breaths… ‘Status…?’

‘Oh, it finished. Good, ow… I thought it got interrupted… how is that a chicken…? It’s huge…’ no answers ‘How close I’m to getting Strained again…?’

-Good question…-

‘Close, ok… ugh… at least I have more… food…? The Deed gave me nothing…?’

-Whatever Trait is related to, is ready to evolve…-

‘No… if I evolve it do I get the reward?’

-What makes me angry… is that if you hadn't gone Berserk, right now… you would be so much more stronger…-

‘…’ I place my head in the ground ‘Ugh… that is a big no… show me the previous ones please?’

-You mean these?-

‘Yes, thanks…’ I move my head to see the shadow of the fangs… ‘Can’t see a difference like this…’ the same with my scales… ‘I hope I’m a bit more resistant to knifes now…’

-Don’t test that, please…-

‘I won’t… the store is getting expensive…’ and is about to get worse…

-----

‘Maybe I should have waited…? How wasteful I’m being…?’

-You can still get them by training… I guess it depends in how valuable time, is for you…-

‘Thanks… shouldn't I have gotten True Xetnoxraqia by now…? Did I forgot about buying something?’

-Unique Species IS! The discount Deed… if you evolve into something that is not Unique, you’ll start seeing those Deeds again-

‘Oh! Right…! Thanks again’ I look at the head of the bird… ‘Thanks to you and everything in this forest… forgive me for… all I did to you… I’ll carry all of you in this body… I will give meaning to all of this…’

…

…

-You haven't meet or killed a crow-

‘Ugh!’

-Don’t worry, I added them to the Don't Kill List…-

‘Thanks you…’ I look around… ‘I forgot… about…’

-If you explain it to her, your wife should forgive you-

‘GAH!!! You can’t call her that!!! She doesn’t even know my name!!!’ the nerve of…! ‘I really hope she doesn’t knows the thing, those two gave me for a name…’ I start shivering ‘Ugh…’

-That bad?-

‘I rather die, than hear those words again…’ now I know what is going to happen in my next nightmare… ‘Ugh… Status, Species… eh?’

‘AAAHHH!!!’ there is another one?! ‘WHY?!’

-What now…?-

‘I have a new Calamity here!!!’

-I’m surprised that you don’t have ALL! Of them there…-

‘You… always knew…?’ no answers ‘Ugh… why…? Why do I have the underwater thing, there?’

-That is what the ANOMALY! Did with the things it “Ate”-

…

‘Absorb… figured out one of the requirements…?’

-It’s more complicated than that…-

I try to focus on the evolutions, but they say the same thing about “Balanced” and “Obsessed” so… I close all the screens and look around… deep breaths…

‘I don’t like the one that says “Obsessed” I…’ I cannot avoid this… ‘As long I avoid… things that let me live underwater I should be… I’ll avoid that one… I have no idea about the others… oh…’ I was digging without realizing…

Looking at the ground around I see some herbs, moss… not enough clean dirt, to make another hole to evolve… not without disrupting the plants…

‘Sorry, Ia Imbue Eyes… but I don’t know where I am… I’ll make a shelter…’ I look up… ‘A big one, this should be enough food for today and tomorrow…’

-Not going to check Venom Control?-

‘Remind me tomorrow… I’ll fill “Five” and “Six” to test them…’ my other glands are still making the ones I wanted before… ‘The Sleep one is full…? I’m an idiot…’

-I know…-

-----

I get inside the shelter… again…

‘Status… Species…?’ my options appear… ‘YES! Finally! That warning message was annoying…!’

-But required…-

‘I’m not denying that…’ I tried to make another dome, while not damaging the plants above… I have no idea of how successful I was, because I had to make it bigger once, to get the bird inside, and bigger two more times, because it was too small for my evolution…

The sky is a bit reddish, I already ate the… boar… meat, the bird is inside. I had to cut its claws, but they are in the shelter with the head too…

‘Ready to evolve… wait… Trait evolving?’

-That one CAN’T! Be done while evolving…-

‘Tomorrow then… while I mess with the venom’ I move inside the dome, turning my body in a spiral to let my head be near the entrance ‘Earth Shape… Ia Stop’ now the entrance is smaller… ‘Hope this one is better… Status, Species… anything to add…?’

-Nothing in particular…-

‘Then my evolution is… Xetnoxfimraqia…’ the windows close… I start to get sleepy…

-Good luck…-

‘Ah…?’

/////

Miriam fell asleep… and in a moment to her, she was puking blood surrounded by glowing trees, not long after she was jumping on top of a War Chicken and constricting it, until its body was ripped apart

KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT

She saw herself eating many things, she remembered what she ate, she remembered how she killed. Like when she fired a dart that pierced the skull of a red feathered raptor-

KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT

Or when her body figured out how to swim underground, holding its breath until it was below the vibrations of a larger prey

HISS!!!

O-OINK-?!

Ripping its throat with a bite, while sinking a blade on its stomach. Constricting the boar until it bleed to death

KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT

Miriam saw herself bleeding next to a cliff, while waiting for the vibrations of the thing that had hurt her to get close

HISS!!!

Impaling it and moving to eat it, angry at being unable of maiming it further, just because the body needed it to heal…

KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT KILL EAT

She saw everything she did in the season she was gone, feeling the anger and hunger that moved her body again

Until she tripped and grabbed to a shelf to not hit the ground

“Ow!” making all the trophies on it shake

She tried to recover her balance, but the legs she had were trembling

“Careful! Those are mine!” and a voice that filled her with hatred boomed in the whole house

“I fucking know!” all of them were reminded of that at least once per month

“Then be careful!”

“Or you can just get rid of all this worthless shit!” how she felt, slipped from her mouth and was laid out in the open

Both of the adults in the kitchen glared at her, and he stood up grabbing her by the shirt she was wearing

“Don't you FUCKING say that about my things!!!” he shook her while she was trying to break his grip on her

“Stop it!” but he only stopped when his wife screamed “He needs to take the certificates today!” worrying more about material things, than the health of the kids they had been maintaining

Miriam shoved him away once his grip relented, but couldn’t move his massive frame much

“I don’t NEED to do it!” her anger had bloomed and she couldn’t control it. The last few weeks had been extremely frustrating for her “You can go next week! All of this is just something you want for yourselves!”

“You are supposed to do this!” the woman, that Miriam refused to call mother, screamed at her

“I’m NOT a checklist! I’m a human!” she struck her own chest “You cannot say what I’m supposed to do!”

He just scoffed, while she turned angry

“You are my son!” that word, sent all her emotions haywire and she struggles to contain them but-

“SHUT UP!!! You both are screaming like women!” she reached her limit

“I’M A WOMAN!!!” and exploded

As both of them recoiled, Miriam saw malice in their eyes, but didn’t saw the kick to her stomach

“Ugh!” he had always been deceptively fast, specially with punishment, as she was reminded once she struck the ground, barely avoiding hitting her head on the floor in front of the stairs

Her glasses fell from her face and Miriam saw Max frozen on top of the stairs, even without them, but couldn’t say anything before the woman screamed again

“How could you do this to me?!”

“I owe you… nothing-!” she managed to cough out, before he lifted her by the shirt again

“Listen here you little shit…” he meet Miriam’s glare with one of his own “You are going to shut your fucking mouth. Get-”

Crack

Everything cracked, like it was made of glass

‘…?’ she could see a smiling plastic face between the cracks, before everything joined together-

And he punched her stomach again, letting her crumple on the ground “And we’ll ‘talk’ later… freak…”

Both of them moved back to the kitchen, with hatred in their eyes

Max tried to go to her, but Miriam gestured no. Coughing and crawling to the stairs, getting away from the kitchen

-Stay away from them and…-

Crack

She started to wake up, full of regrets and hunger…

‘I… need to apologize to my mother in this world…’ her awareness was coming back from that memory ‘I made a mistake. She was just scared… of me being a snake… her eyes weren’t full of spite like hers… something… is… off… who was the one with a broken leg…?’

Miriam’s eyes got into focus and saw a long pincer entering the hole she had made

‘Earth Grip!’ and forced another spell to sink the weapon into the ground, not noticing how her arms and eyes became Imbued ‘Earth Blade!’

She pushed up, destroying her hideout as part of it became the weapons on her arms-

HISS!!!

Clashing her blades against the remaining pincer and stinger of the scorpion in front of her, before jumping on top of it. Her torso coiling with the creature’s tail, to keep it still even with the legs of the creature flailing wildly

The other claw was pinching her, but she just felt pressure coming from it, not pain. So she looked for a gap while on top of the scorpion, and when she found it-

HISS!!!

She sunk her blades on it, only one of them managed to go deep, but the creature just trembled under her for a few moments, and its legs gave up

Ding

Hiss…

‘Ia… Stop…’ Miriam was shivering, but managed to untangle herself from it and moved away, taking deep hissing breaths until she was calm…

The trees now approving of how she had reacted during the fight

/////

What a nasty way of waking up…

‘This shivering… I think I can control it a bit better…’

-You sure…?-

‘I don’t want to paint the trees with its fluids… not as much at least…’ a big shiver goes through my body

-I… yeah… that is an improvement…-

‘See…?’ I look at the… over a meter long scorpion… not counting the tail… ‘Is this the giant version…?’

-…-

‘Oh… Status…’

‘Ah…?’ there is something… odd… ‘Wait… fifty?!’

-The consequence of breaking the level cap-

‘Oh… damn… Free Upgrade…?’

-You can check the Shop and get one of the selected items for free…-

‘That is good…’

‘Ugh…’

-Before you do something you might regret… to evolve a Trait, go into that list, pick the one you want to evolve and pay the cost. All the ones you have (Except for Terrifying Presence) cost 50 EP (Terrifying Presence cost 100 EP)-

‘Why you didn’t told me that before…?’ how many things I could evolve while fighting the Maw…?

-The Trait is disabled while it evolves…-

‘Ah… do it at night… got it!’ I nod to the message ‘Thanks… I suppose that I should-’

HISS!!!

‘NO!!! WHY?!!! NO!!! NO!!!’

HISS!!! HISS-?!

‘…?’ the previous notification peeled… of this message… ‘Was that…?’

-A prank… if you actually get one of those, it would be called hemipenis…-

HISS!!!

‘YOU DON’T PLAY WITH THAT KIND OF THINGS!!!’

HISS!!!

-But in this case it was a good thing…-

…

‘How…?’ is the helper insane…?

-That prank would have Strained you before…-

‘Ah…? Wait…’ I shiver… ‘Don't tell me this mean this kind of things are going to become common…’

Rustling!

‘Yes…?’ to the north…?

‘Oh…? This feels… important…?’ good thing I have time to eat the non-sharp part of the stinger and the bird…