Chapter 82: Blood sea
Almost everyone gasped at the sight.
"There’s another one?" Chloe asked, her voice filled with alarm.
It was of course a rhetorical question; the evidence was right in front of her.
This parasite, Miles had no recollection of any event that might have gotten it onto him. But he’d first felt the cold when he’d entered the canopy. It might’ve gotten on long before then.
He shook his head.
’Focus.’
All of that could be sorted out later. Right now he had to deal with the creature draining the life out of Sarah.
Steadying his hand, he hit the card against the point where the creature connected itself to her. It didn’t take much effort to slip his card under its mouth.
Then, mimicking the manner that Ryan had dealt with his, he used the card to pry it off. It fell off with a pop, landing softly on the floor. It left a wound shaped like a three-pointed star in the now bluish skin of the area it had bitten.
Instantly, Sarah’s breath eased, and the movements beneath her eyelids calmed down as well. Her body still shivered violently from the cold, but it was nothing her new [Cold resistance] skill couldn’t solve with time.
A normal human being naturally had a temperature limit they could take before their body lost its self-heating function. But this skill, the warmth in his chest, told him that as long as it remained active and he could get to a safe place, somewhere away from the cold, his body would never stop warming itself.
It had been initially limited by hunger, but now it all depended on his nebulous EGO. He had no idea what the exact limits of that were.
The creature on the ground let out a grotesque cry, drawing his attention back to it. Just like before, it was trying to connect back to Sarah’s body.
He grabbed its warm, soft, and squishy body.
"Don’t kill it in here."
Chloe hastily stopped him before pointing towards the open door leading back to the kitchen. Considering what the last one had done to the wall outside, it likely wasn’t the best idea.
Miles nodded slightly before chucking it out the room. It landed with a splurt somewhere outside, exploding on contact with something there.
He had no need to go confirm the kill himself. The new notifications floating before him told him all he needed to know about it.
[You have slain an anomaly.]
[Soma-class Larva slain: Drift worm.]
[You have been awarded 10 points.]
With the immediate threat gone, exhaustion, dizziness, and the multiple aches around his body fused into a pull that dragged him towards the dark sanctuary of sleep.
He blinked, trying to get rid of the urge, yet it clung stubbornly to him, weighing down on him in a manner that made the cold floor suddenly look very appealing. Biting his lips did nothing.
"Check yourselves for any Drift worms, that is the creature’s name; they could’ve gotten onto anyone of you."
Chloe and Ryan gave faint sounds of affirmation.
Most had already begun patting their bodies down the moment they’d found a second drift worm.
"Nothing."
Grimm was the first to finish. Brandon, Chloe, Ryan, and Mia soon followed. They were all clean.
Nodding his head a little at that, Miles pushed himself off the ground, or at least attempted to. His arm gave out midway, sending him slumping to the ground.
He barely managed to reposition himself on time, preventing him from falling directly on Sarah as he collapsed. He landed beside her, bareback directly on the floor.
The ground chill seeped into his skin, but it helped numb some of the pain from the bruises there, so he couldn’t say it was entirely a bad thing.
Miles looked at Sarah’s face as darkness spread across his vision. He could hear the others rushing towards him, talking over each other as they approached.
Yet it all sounded so far away.
An odd numbness settled in him staring at that peaceful face. There was an undercurrent of apprehension as the last traces of consciousness slipped away.
Something in the darkness changed. A crushing force pressed down on him, pinning him to the sandy ground below. It pressed his eyes shut and seeped into the gaps in his shut mouth, filling it with the heavy taste of metal.
It hurt even trying to move. Miles didn’t even dare breathe, even as he used up what little air remained in his lungs. A searing pain slowly rose from it.
Gritting his teeth silently, he forced his eyes open, only to have them flooded with a dark red liquid. The liquid only stung him for a moment before he shut his eyes again.
Even then, the stinging pain remained, only worsening his agony.
What little he’d been able to see in that brief moment of sight was a world drowned in blood, an endless sea of blood.
The pressure on him only seemed to increase the longer he remained there; more blood forced its way into his mouth. It wasn’t long before it filled to the brim and started trickling down his throat.
He almost gagged, just barely suppressing the urge with sheer will. It wasn’t helped at all by his now overwhelming need to take a breath, his lungs burning and craving desperately for air.
Yet even as his body screamed at him, Miles felt his mind calming down, settling with a familiar numbness and resignation.
Right as he was on the verge of giving in, on letting the blood sea flood his lungs and drown him beneath its endless weight, he heard the faint sounds of feathers rustling.
The world dissolved around him. The blood, the pressure, the heavy taste it left in his mouth. All of it vanished in an instant.
Leaving him in a dark void.
It was hard to tell if his eyes were open or closed, or if he even had a body here to begin with.
Yet, standing silently in the darkness, was a familiar crow, elegantly feathered and staring at him with the warmest of eyes.
’Miss Ros-’
He woke up.