It was in this vein of thought that he resumed his sitting position and began a new line of experimentation. Reed took control of the magic and directed his focus towards his right arm. Taking inspiration from the monster with conjoined arms he encountered so often, he pictured the creature’s unnatural speed and strength that belied its lanky form.

Reed willed his magic to transform his arm, attempting to imbue his body with said strength that defied the laws of science. The moment he began to do so he felt uncomfortable shuddering within his arm and promptly stopped, remembering what had happened the last time he had tried to push his body too far in transforming. It took several seconds after stopping for the shuddering to stop, at which point Reed inspected and moved his arm around to make sure he had not damaged it. Everything seemed fine.

Treading with greater caution, he once again began trying to strengthen his arm, this time pushing through the discomforting sensations within his arm. He was prepared to stop at any time should something go wrong, however, not only did that not occur but the shuddering eventually ceased. At that point, Reed decided some testing was in order. He released control of his magic and began to swing his arms through the air, performing all manner of odd movements with them trying to distinguish whether his right arm had become any stronger. He came to the conclusion of probably. It seemed to him there was a slight difference, but it was so minuscule he could have been imagining it.

Therefore to gain more substantial results, he once again used his magic to imbue his arm with strength. He did this for hours on end, only taking occasional breaks to sleep and alleviate his need for food and water. By keeping track of said breaks as well as his level of exhaustion, Reed was able to estimate that around five more days had passed. All the while he worked at magically strengthening himself, he periodically tested his results and was finally able to conclude that it was indeed making a difference. Said difference was still quite small, but it had grown enough to be definitive. Reed couldn’t help being overcome with dread at the thought of how long it would take to make a meaningful difference with this avenue of magic. But it appeared time was of little consequence in this world, so he would make progress… eventually.

When Reed used his magic in the same way on his other arm, he was ecstatic to find that it took mere seconds of transformation to reach the same level of strength as his right arm. And with some testing he confirmed it to be the same with the rest of his body. His proficiency in magically strengthening himself applied to every part of him, thankfully. With the promise of inhuman strength before him, Reed dove into training his magical ability with an enthusiasm wholly different from his relentless drive for survival. The prospect of it actually made him excited.

His enthusiasm began to dim after weeks of relentless training. Or perhaps months. As he had started to go stir crazy, Reed made it a practice to stop counting the days and focus solely on his goal. He was pretty sure he had become a good deal stronger, but the increase had been so gradual he couldn’t be sure how much. He felt completely normal.

“I’ve gotta get out of here.” He said, standing up.

Reed made his way out of the building and down the street until he came upon the alleyway the creature had emerged from previously. Only there was nothing there, of course. He had seen that the creature had a habit of roaming this area of the city, so Reed began wandering some of the sidestreets looking for it. After hours of searching, coming across nothing other than more houses with bland interiors, he returned to the main street and sat down on a small flight of steps. It took several more hours before the thing finally emerged from one of the many paths he had not bothered searching. Like several times before they both made eye contact at the same time and the creature charged towards him at an insane speed.

Reed drew the sword at his waist and awaited its arrival. Like it had so many times before, the creature’s trailing arm amalgamation whipped forward to spear him through the center. With a light hop, Reed dodged to the side while swinging his sword in an upwards arc. As the appendage extended through the location he had just been to, his sword swiftly sliced through the center of it, a familiar inhuman wail followed. The creature barreled towards him, to which Reed responded with a wide, powerful, and unskilled swing of his own. The blade was headed right for the creature’s head, and yet it showed no signs of adjusting.

Right before contact, what remained of the conjoined arms slammed into the bottom of the sword, causing it to veer upwards and miss the creature entirely. Reed had just enough time for his eyes to widen before it slammed itself into him, both bodies tumbling to the ground. Before he could recover the creature was on top of him, its vicious mouth snapping and neck craning trying to get ahold of him. The only thing in its way was one hand braced against the bottom of its jaw and another against its forehead. For a moment the two were in a stalemate. Until one of Reed’s forearms found its way into the creature’s mouth, which he then used as leverage to twist his way out from under it. He yanked his arm towards him, causing his forearm to be shredded to ribbons as it escaped the creature’s mouth. Reed scrambled towards the fallen sword and, grabbing it with his functioning arm, swung it wildly behind him. The creature, directly behind him and about to hurl itself at him again, was bisected by the swing. The bottom half of it crumpled to the ground as the top flew just far enough to impact against Reed, covering him in blood and viscera.

Reed stood at the ready, breathing heavily as one arm dangled uselessly by his side, observing the creature’s remains. No warping of flesh took place, the two severed halves merely continued to deflate as blood and organs spilled out and onto the stone street. As it became clear no healing was going to take place, a burst of astounded laughter escaped Reed. His enthusiasm at surviving the encounter soon diminished, however, as the pain stemming from his mangled arm made itself known.

He made his way over to the stairs upon which he had been sitting earlier and began fixing his gruesome injury. His left forearm was in far worse a state than any of the wounds he had inflicted on himself to practice, but his training in other aspects of his magic proved to have benefits when it came to mending himself. Reed’s flesh and tissue began to warp as the spilling blood weaved its way into the crevices and tears of his arm. It was quite a disturbing sight.

Mere minutes later, what had previously been catastrophic damage now appeared as nothing other than fresh, unblemished skin on a perfectly working arm. Yet again, Reed couldn’t prevent himself from smiling as his torturous training was shown to produce results. His victory over the arm monstrosity was a welcome surprise, but he desperately needed a respite from this horrific place. Which meant that Reed would have to find another way to get himself killed.

He walked in the direction of the gate where he started every iteration of this nightmare and proceeded through the building of caged beasts and into the courtyard. Reed peered at the dormant flesh giant and then at his sword. He slid the blade into its sheath and approached one of the many weapon racks littering the area, from which he grabbed a longsword of similar make. It was bone-white of course, and the blade had an unwieldy length of around five feet. Although perhaps it wasn’t quite so unwieldy to the tall and lanky race that had inhabited this place.

Reed was able to heft it without any difficulty, likely thanks to his recent gain in strength, and proceeded to grab another short sword off the rack as well. He set his feet, facing the giant, and hurled the short sword towards it with all of his strength. It flew spinning towards the monstrosity with a speed that left him amazed, reaching the giant before he could blink. The handle of the weapon impacted against its shoulder, resulting in a thud so loud Reed heard it clearly even at his considerable distance.

The giant awoke with a grunt and curiously examined the object that had disturbed its rest before broadening the scope of its examination to the surroundings. The monstrosity spotted Reed and let loose an ear-shattering bellow. Springing to its feet, the flesh giant hurtled towards Reed to the sound of the violently clattering chain embedded within its back.