A Flesh Golem's Ascension

by John Domus Cruo

  I guess that means that as I upgrade myself I won't be able to slack on upgrading them, as well, if I still want them to get pregnant.

  Oh, crap. I just realized that Pervy Guy's satyr heritage will continue in my children. My sons are going to be stuck in a perpetual puberty for their entire lives, and what about my daughters? Given the apatites of their mothers, they too will try to breed as soon as they are able to.

  I felt a cold sweat spreading across my forehead as I pondered the difficulties I would be facing as a father.

  I had been thinking while I was traveling and was almost to the small bear's corpse now. Do I risk using Life Sense to check for threats around it?

  I decided to risk it. If it was only for a few seconds it would probably be okay.

  My eyes lit up, and everything took on a yellow color. I saw a large red blob beside the spot where I had marked the bear earlier. It seemed to move as if it had noticed me and was gone in a flash.

  I immediately cut off Life Sense and dove for the bushes.

  I sat there for several moments just trying to use my ears to detect any noises or movement, no matter how small. All I heard was the rushing of water coming from the stream.

  Several minutes passed and I decided it was time to check again. I moved carefully out of the bush and walked closer to the small bear corpse. As I walked I couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was watching me.

  I hid behind the same tree that I had used earlier to observe the bears. I looked out and saw that the corpse had been partially eaten. Its entrails were spread out before it, and one of its legs was missing.

  I crept toward it slowly. It really did smell good. I thought I might have a few bites of it myself, as other than eating a good portion of the parts pile that first day I hadn't eaten much. A lot of my time was spent Fleshcrafting and soul-sorting, which I would do in undead mode so my consumption was small. Other than when the large bear had hurt me earlier today and when I had recovered from the frostbite caused by the wendigo attack, I had not digested much of anything.

  I still had the feeling that something was around. I quietly stood and looked around me, but I saw nothing.

  My feet made noises as I walked along the pebbles of the bank. I stopped to listen. I heard pebbles continue shuffling even though I was no longer moving. I quickly craned my head around to where the noise had come from, but there was nothing that caught my attention.

  I continued walking to the bear corpse and knelt down beside it. I reached down to a large patch of exposed muscle and ripped it off. I took a bite and chewed it slowly while trying to be aware of my surroundings.

  I felt hot breath on the back of my neck. I went to turn but something sharp sunk deeply into my shoulder. I felt my body being slung around like a rag doll before I was tossed into the air. I smashed through several smaller trees before slamming into a large one sideways. I felt my bones crack as my head jerked back and my neck broke from the impact. I lay there in shock. I was in undead mode again already, but it still hurt, especially my shoulder. I reached out to it, but it was gone. My entire arm was gone!

  I sat up. My head flopped to the side. I focused my Fleshcrafting to mend my back and ribs as my eyes feverishly scanned my surroundings. Almost all the bones in my upper body had cracked or snapped. The arm I had left had shattered at the wrist, and even my bone spike seemed to have broken.

  My bones were condensed to a hardness that was superhuman, and something had been able to throw me with enough force to shatter them all. My back itself would probably have been worse if it wasn't for my weapon taking some of the impact.

  I propped up my head with my arm, and I finally saw it. It was huge. A mass of pure shadow. All I could make out were eyes that reflected the moonlight and massive white teeth snarling at me. It growled a low growl that raised the hairs on the back of my neck, and before I could react, it tore into me in a blur of teeth and fur.

  I felt its fangs sink into my neck as my body jostled around.

  Everything went dark and silent as I once again flew through the air. I landed in a heap, the rest of my arm shattered from the fall. In less than a second I felt something continue to chew on my neck, ripping out chunks of flesh and muscle. I feebly reached my shattered arm up to try to push it away only to feel something that caused me to freeze in shock. My head was missing! My fucking head!

  It stopped its frenzy for a moment to rip off my hand before continuing to work at my neck.

  What could I do here? I activated the calming effect; I desperately needed it as the beast kept tearing at me. I thought about what I had available. The only thing that came to mind was the fog. I didn't have anything to infuse it with other than Weakness, which wouldn't do much to this thing.

  I went back to the wendigo's soul and learned Curse of Sleep. I had been saving that for Bob, but this was an emergency.

  I focused and began feebly leaking a constant stream of fog infused with the sleep effect as the creature moved on to eating my upper chest cavity, getting ever closer to my core.

  I felt its movements lose their sharpness bit by bit, then I felt a weight press down on top of me.

  I reached my arm stump up, protruding the still unbroken tip of my bone spike. I made a small hole in its flesh and melded my stump to it.

  I focused my Fleshcrafting on stopping its heart as I continued to produce fog to keep it sleeping.

  I felt it let out one last hard breath, and it was dead.

  I focused all my energy on mending my bones until the ones that remained were whole again.

  I then focused on severing its head from its body. I couldn't do much if I couldn't see or hear anything.

  I awkwardly maneuvered its head to my neck and melded it together. I guess this will have to do for now.

  I opened my eyes. The world was almost entirely black and white, but I could smell and hear everything in such sharp detail. I looked up at the moon, and the light was almost unbearable. I sat up, rolling the massive body off of myself, and found my hand only a few feet away. I positioned my stump and reattached it.

  I felt up to my face. It was terrifying. I had a massive muzzle jutting out at least a foot and a half with teeth so large they threatened to bite through my lip. The mouth was covered with my blood and its drool.

  I got up and searched for my other arm. I was quite a distance away from the bear corpse I had marked earlier. I walked toward it again and found my arm lying beside it. I picked it up and reattached it, melding and Blending it.

  I went to find my head; god only knew where that went. I smelled around. I could smell several traces of fresh blood, but only one smelled similar to the rest of my body. I walked toward it.

  There it was, bald and beautiful. It had a confused expression plastered on it. It's not everyday you get to see your own severed head. Was this really my last expression back there? A look of huh!? I had a disturbing thought. Did living me have a soul that may be separate from my own? I used Soul Steal, but luckily nothing showed there. I sighed with some relief and canceled Soul Steal. I sat down by my head and placed it in my lap.

  I focused my Fleshcrafting on removing this head, whatever it was. I set it to the side, then I placed mine back on, melding it into place and Blending the skin.

  I opened my eyes again. everything was now in normal colors. I missed my exceptional hearing, but it was still good to be me again.

  I grabbed the massive head by the fur and walked back to the small bear corpse. I used it to restore all my flesh that had been eaten by the massive creature. I also ate quite a bit of it, as now I was truly hungry.

  I dragged the small bear’s remains back to the creature's. I placed the head back on its body. It looked similar to a wolf but had huge bulky muscles in the front, and it was even bigger than the small bear. Its shadow coating was no longer in place, and I could see it was mostly grey and black in color. It was as if you took the size and muscle of a massive bull and combined it with a wolf, then slapped on a larg
e head that was roughly a fifth of its body length while adding the teeth of a prehistoric creature.

  What should I call this thing? A night wolf. No, that's a fighting game character and an offensive stereotype. Shadow wolf? Nope, that’s the name of something else. Is this perhaps a warg? Is it a shadow warg, a shadwarg? No, that's stupid, who would name it something like that?

  "Mors, do you know what this thing is?"

  "Yes, Master, according to orc shaman knowledge, that is a Sha'Dwarg."

  I face palmed.

  Did they think the gap in the pronunciation made it better or something? I wondered now if orcs were as bad at naming things as I was.

  "Any other interesting information about it, Mors?" I asked.

  "They have some degree of magic, but their speed and bite are their primary weapons. Orcs actually ride a smaller, domesticated variant of these for scouting or in battle. The domesticated ones they have no longer have any magical abilities, however, and are simply called wargs."

  Well, it certainly was big enough to ride. I still couldn’t get over just how easily it ripped me to shreds, though. It gave me a great idea: I could definitely use a mount at some point. Too bad I had no idea what soul I could use here to make it obedient enough. I didn’t really want to use a sentient soul, either, as that would be too weird.

  "Thank you, Mors."

  I used Soul Steal.

  I took the creature's soul into me.

  Skills:

  Stalk: The Sha'Dwarg is an excellent hunter and has mastered the art of remaining unnoticed when following its prey.

  Sit: When a Sha'Dwarg is young, its parents often teach it this ability to help in the distribution of food. If offered a treat, the Sha'Dwarg may sit and wait patiently to receive it.

  So, if I had held some meat up in the air this thing might not have attacked me? You've got to kidding me here. No wonder the orcs were able to domesticate them.

  Well I'll definitely take Stalk; it seems better than Hide, at least.

  You have learned skill Stalk.

  Let's check magic.

  Magic:

  Dark Shroud: You cloak yourself in darkness, making you almost undetectable at night. This skill does not work in daylight.

  Mana cost: 1 per minute as long as the spell is maintained. Additional mana may be used in lighter conditions. When in pure or near darkness, this spell has no mana cost.

  Yep, definitely taking that, too.

  You have learned Dark shroud.

  I closed the soul screen and melded my finger to its body.

  "Mors, make a notable parts list please."

  Notable Parts:

  Sense of Smell: The Sha'Dwarg has an exceptional sense of smell.

  Sense of Hearing: The Sha'Dwarg has an amazing sense of hearing.

  Sha'Dwarg Heart: Minor mana regeneration.

  I closed the notable parts list.

  I went about altering my sense of smell and my hearing to match the Sha'Dwarg. I restarted my heart and inhaled.

  The sounds of the night came alive again, and I could smell the rich, earthy scents of the forest once more.

  Well, dragging this and the small bear would be difficult. I fused the two bodies together to make them easier to drag and began my trek back to the cave moving slowly foot by foot.

  Chapter 21: Others — John

  I used my new senses to avoid any strange smells or unknown noises, which led me to walk in strange patterns. I could tell the trip back was going to be a long one.

  After traveling a while, I decided to take a break near an unusually large tree to again gauge my surroundings for danger. I wonder if this is a redwood? It's massive. As I had opted to take the direct path here and back earlier, I hadn't noticed it.

  I sat next to the two bodies and looked up at it, trying to estimate its height. As my eyes traveled back down I saw a strange sight. From the bark of the tree, a body started to form. It was tall, maybe only a few inches shorter than me. As it took shape, I noticed it was female.

  Finally the body emerged from the tree and before me stood a very well-endowed green woman. Her head sprouted long, hairlike leaves and vines, and her skin smoothed out as she smiled invitingly at me.

  I sat there slack-jawed as I stared at the absurdity of this spectacle.

  She raised her arms and began to sing.

  It was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. I felt like I was experiencing the full spectrum of the life cycle all at once. I was transfixed by this beauty and had a tremendous urge to embrace her.

  Wait a minute here. This is a damn dryad, isn't it, and this is an obvious attempt to lure me in. Pervy Guy seems to be lured, but I'm not. Though when I look at her just right...

  My mind started wandering as I stood up. The dryad licked her lips as I approached.

  Nope! I'm not letting this happen. I stopped my heart and went undead. The song lost its charm and her face turned to one of annoyance as she lowered her arms and glared at me.

  "Tsch, oh, it's one of you things,” she said as she gave me the shooing gesture with her hands as if trying to scare off a small animal. The language she spoke in was almost melodic sounding; I guessed this was forestkin.

  "It's not nice to attempt to eat people, you know." I replied in fluent forestkin while taking another step towards her.

  Her face changed into a look of surprise, as if she didn't expect me to talk. She seemed to regain herself, however, and continued to glare at me like I was something gross she had stepped in.

  All right, let's see how she likes this. I restarted my heart.

  Her eyes lit up and she smiled widely at me.

  I stopped my heart.

  She curled her lips in revulsion.

  I started my heart again.

  Her smile returned as if it had always been there while she licked her lips as if trying to entice me.

  I had heard different versions of the dryad story. One was that they were the peaceful and gentle spirits of trees that wanted nothing more than to make the forest flourish. The other story I knew of said they would lure men to them so that they could drain their life essence to sustain their own and grow their personal trees. This one seemed to be behaving like the latter.

  I was curious, however. I wanted to see if Fleshcrafting would work on her, or was she more tree than person? She looked soft enough.

  I got closer as she held her arms out invitingly. I wrapped her in an embrace. Sure enough, vines immediately shot out of her, piercing my skin and traveling through my veins.

  Before the draining could start I stopped my heart.

  She started struggling to get away. I picked her up; she was heavy. I dragged her away from the tree as she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her hard arms hit me, and it was like being hit by a thick branch. After that didn't work, her fingers tore at me and her legs flailed in her desperate attempt to get away.

  As I carried her away from the tree she gradually stiffened and hardened in my arms until the struggling stopped. I looked at her, now a solid object. I ripped the vines from my skin and attempted to Fleshcraft her.

  Nope, she was indeed just a tree. I took my weapon from my back and struck her in the neck. It connected with a dull thud. I began sawing until her head came off.

  I then brought it closer to the tree. Its mouth opened in complete horror. It seemed to be trying to speak, but no words came out.

  I guess this thing is technically unkillable. Maybe fire would work, but I didn't have any of that. I activated Soul Steal. I saw nothing. Well, this is a bust. I dropped her head.

  I grabbed her body and returned it to the tree. I did the same with her head, and both parts melted back into the giant redwood.

  A few minutes passed and she reformed.

  "Damn you!"

  She screamed at me while stomping her foot with as much force as she could muster. "Damn you to the abyss, you foul monstrosity! How dare you do something like that to one as perfect as me!" She continued berating and
threatening me for several minutes until she ran out of steam and stood there once more, her arms crossed. She looked at me just seething in rage and disgust.

  "You did try to eat me, I believe." I said calmly.

  "Of course I did! But at least I would have had the decency to make sure you enjoyed it! What you did to me was something else entirely! Never have I been treated this badly. You sawed off my head!" She was grinding her teeth now, just looking me up and down. "The whole time you did it don't think I didn't notice your little friend there poking at me. You're sick! You make me sick!"

  She finally stopped talking, but her eyes remained glued to a certain spot between my legs.

  Pervy Guy twitched in acknowledgment of the attention he was getting. No, I will not be pulling splinters from there. I don't care how hot she looks — I have zero desire to screw a tree.

  "Okay then, it was nice to meet you and all, but you can't eat me, and I can't steal your soul, so I think we're done here."

  She seemed to shake herself out of her trance. "What, you're just going to do all that and leave?"

  "Yep." I replied before walking over to the fused corpses.

  As I dragged the bear and Sha'Dwarg away, she continued to hurl obscenities that I didn't know this world had in my direction until just before I got out of eyesight. She then screamed something unexpected: "Come back to chat every now and then; it does get boring out here, after all."

  If she wasn't entirely green I would have sworn she was a redhead. I marked her tree on my map; I might need to talk to her again at some point.

  My newly acquired sense of hearing and smell allowed me to navigate my way back to the cave in relative safety. I had to take a detour once or twice to avoid an unfamiliar smell, but by the time I could see the clearing, the sky was already starting to brighten.