The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 66 - Up close and Personal
Added 2023-01-31 00:28:56 +0000 UTCAlexander North
By the time I make it to the monster, it resumes its pain-filled roars. But no matter how much it tries to move, it can’t get the poles out of it. So all it manages to do is dig its own wounds even wider as I rush up to it, slowly making ribbons out of its flesh with my claws.
My grin grows wider at how well things are going, and I continue ripping up the monster. All the way till it lets out one last weak roar and falls limp onto the poles.
Even after that, I continue tearing my way deeper and deeper into its body until I reach the center of its chest, where the energy source is located. Which I think I’ll just start calling an energy core to make it simpler.
The instinctive impulse rampaging through my body, driving me to absorb the energy within the corpse makes me look past the fact that the creature’s energy isn’t automatically entering my body despite its death as I reach for the now exposed core. But moments before I touch it, I feel an impact in my side that snaps me out of my fog and makes me turn to look at it. Just to find a blade sticking out of my waist.
I stare at it for a second.
Then I cough out a mouthful of blood and collapse onto the core, which dissolves and enters my body a moment later.
A strange feeling fills me up, one both euphoric, and painful at the same time as the pain of the wound and the energy of the monster fill my entire being. But it slowly begins to fade away, with my vision fading to black along with it.
That is, until I feel a strange pulsating sensation flow through my body, and the fading of my vision halts. It then begins to revert back to normal, with my body regaining all of its sensation as I gasp for breath and shoot straight up.
I immediately look down at the blade in my-
Wait a second, where’d it go?
I blink in surprise, only to turn my gaze on the corpse I am currently leaning against to find that it’s now missing an arm.
Uh… what?
/ Notice \
Exterior energy source has been absorbed.
\End of Notice/
What?
I stare at the notice for a few seconds before asking out loud to my terminal, “What happened to the frozen one’s arm? And why am I healed? And what was that notice about?”
The terminal doesn’t respond for over an entire minute. Only when I’m about to get up from the floor after moving away from the corpse does it finally respond.
/ Notice \
Answer to User’s Query – The frozen one’s arm was absorbed by the user. This, along with absorbing the frozen one’s core, has increased your healing speed and recharged your energy.
\End of Notice/
The arm… was absorbed by me?
I’m not sure how I feel about that.
“Why did I absorb the arm?” I ask the terminal as I climb up to my feet, still with my eyes directed towards the corpse.
/ Notice \
Answer to User’s Query – The arm in question was partially made up of energy and was absorbed into you the moment it touched you without being attached to any other being’s signature.
\End of Notice/
I frown at that, but right now might not be the time to continue asking questions. Not when Snow and the girl might be in trouble.
So I immediately turn around to head back to the building where my little game of chase with that monster originally began. But after just a couple of steps, I notice something. Something incredibly annoying, and rather shocking.
Why are my gloves frosting over?
I repeat the question out loud for my terminal, and the answer is both a good thing, and a bad thing.
/ Notice \
Answer to User’s Query – User has reached 3 total points in energy and has therefore had their energy related abilities enhanced.
\End of Notice/
Which means I’m going to start freezing everything I touch now. Although thankfully it only seems to be lightly frosting it over, and not completely freezing it or something like that. So it’s not ruining my clothing. And it’s not even reaching my armor through it, except for the few areas where I don’t have any under armor between my skin and the armor.
Deciding that I don’t need them anymore, I take my gloves off and toss them.
Normally I’d keep them in case someone else needed them, but they wouldn’t be of much use anyways considering how damage they are. Particularly the holes made by my claws.
After that, I place my hand on the rubble next to me – which had had a lot of the frost that had been covering it shattered in its landing on this floor – to find a light layering of frost beginning to cover it the moment my hand makes contact. But despite that, the frost doesn’t extend past about a radius of about a foot around my hand. And it doesn’t move to any of the other rocks touching it.
Interesting.
I just wish I had a way to turn it off.
My eyebrows suddenly lift at that thought, and I ask the terminal if I can do that. Only to get a negative in response.
Well that’s not helpful.
Maybe there’ll be a way to turn off the power in the future? After my powers have advanced more?
Either way, the faster regeneration is always a plus.
I look at the elite wraith’s corpse for a few more seconds before looking up at the snowy sky as a thought comes to mind.
Is it just me, or are there fewer and fewer shards as time goes on? Because I don’t think I saw a single shard in my entire chase with that frozen one. In fact, the last time I saw one was the one going for the girl.
Oh, right. The girl.
I quickly begin making my way back to the building that I found her in.
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