Kai woke to the sound of a slow, rhythmic beeping echoing inside his brain. At first he assumed it was just his alarm clock and he instinctively reached out his hand to press the snooze button. He felt his hand brush up against a hard surface, yet, doing so made him realize that his hands were wet and slick. The beeping persisted and as Kai opened his eyes he was presented with a bright flashing screen plastered across his vision.

Warning: Health at critical condition, seek healing immediately

“Oh, right. I’m dying.”

Looking down at his body, Kai took stock of the situation. A long, thin metal spike was impaled straight through the upper right side of his torso just under the collar bone. He was also bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose. The whole world looked like a swirling blob of lights and colors that wouldn’t stop moving despite the fact that he was laying motionless on his back. At a glance, Kai could tell he was in the middle of a forest, though the brown and green lumps could very well have been an interpretive art piece. It was hard to tell. It also didn’t help that there was a constant beeping in his ear, either.

“Alright, I get it,” Kai choked. “I’m dying, so you can stop with all the fanfare.”

The beeping stopped, though it was soon replaced with a voice that seemed to echo from inside of Kai’s head.

“If I could make a suggestion,” the voice said. “I would recommend finding some way to bandage the wound in your torso before you bleed to death.”

Kai tried standing up. Pain flared out in sharp pangs from his torso as the metal spike tore into his flesh with his every movement. The blood already flowing from his eyes, ears and nose began flowing in more violent gushes as though a dam had burst inside Kai’s brain. To top it off his whole body felt like it had been hit by a truck. Kai let himself collapse back onto the ground.

“Easy for you to say. Who are you anyway?” Kai asked.

“Your subconscious,” the voice replied.

“My subconscious looks an awful lot like a video game screen,” Kai said as he took note of the way the voice was accompanied by a small screen that displayed his statistics in the corner of his vision.

Name: Kai Walker

Health: 30/50

Mana: 125/100

Class: Empath

Abilities: Empathic Link

Skills: Nothing noteworthy

Magic: Zero magical talent

Collected Memories: Empty

Status:

Strength: Flimsy arms (1)

Agility: Slow as a turtle (1)

Dexterity: Butterfingers (1)

Endurance: Decent (5)

Intelligence: Dumb as a load of bricks (1)

Wisdom: Oblivious (1)

Charisma: Offensive (1)

Debuffs:

Mana poisoning (fake)

“Okay, first off, you’re an asshole. But second, 30 HP out of 50? That’s not so bad right?” Kai thought.

“Contrary to video game logic, missing about half your health points is an indication that you are nearing death. For example, a minor cold would put you at 48 out of 50 HP. 40 out of 50 HP would be a decent beating. 30 out of 50 would be internal organ damage or significant blood loss. 20 out of 50 would be akin to missing a few limbs. Anything below that would leave you in a catatonic state fighting for your life.”

“Great, so what you’re saying is that I’m going to end up dying while talking to an imaginary voice in my head.”

“Yes, more or less.”

With that last statement, Kai began taking off his shirt but thought better of it. It was already too soaked with blood anyway. Instead, Kai took off his pants and began ripping it into strips. The effort left him gasping for breath but in the end he was left with ten long strips of cloth. He then tied and packed them around the spike wound as tight as he could. The spike protruded out from the makeshift bandaging with a jet black gleam.

“Can’t take out the spike without making the bleeding worse,” Kai muttered. “This will just have to do for now.

Next was the blood coming out of his head. After a preliminary search Kai couldn’t find any obvious injuries and he didn’t feel any pain in his head either. Though, there was a curious sense of pressure deep in his skull. Internal hemorrhaging, then? If that was the case then he wouldn’t have woken up at all.

“Hey, voice! Did I take a hit to the head or something? Why am I bleeding so much from my face?”

“You are suffering from Mana poisoning.”

Sure enough, there was a line under the “Debuffs” section of his status screen that read, “Mana poisoning (minor): Raw chaotic energies are ravaging your body from the inside out.”

“But, what does that mean?” Kai asked.

“Nothing. Now that I’m here I can stop the bleeding by keeping you from intaking anymore Mana. But if I wasn’t, well... To use a crude metaphor, your body would have popped like a balloon.”

“Gee, thanks for the image.”

A moment passed and sure enough Mana poisoning disappeared from his status screen only to be replaced by another debuff. Ravenous. Kai didn’t feel hungry, but knew that the debuff was accurate.

By the time Kai was done patching himself up he could see somewhat clearly again, part of the reason why being that he had stopped bleeding from the eyes. Around him there were trees. No, that didn’t do it justice. There were towering colossi the likes of which could no longer be seen on Earth. The tops of the canopies stretched far above into a din of rustling shadows against a backdrop of skyscraping columns. The forest floor was no less impressive as thick swaths of brambles, vines, ferns and mosses covered every inch of available space in a verdant flourishing of nature that looked so alien, so foreign to Kai’s eyes that were used to jungles being made out of concrete and steel.

“Holy shit,” Kai breathed.

“Indeed. It appears we have entered a world as yet unblemished by significant human development.”

“How do you know that? For all we know this could just be an unexplored portion of this world.”

“Over there, on the trunk of that tree to your left.”

Kai looked at the tree. On it there was a crude carving of a skull with a cross over it. Red paint dripped from the eye sockets.

“I don’t know, looks natural to me.”

“I can only hope that whoever lives here appreciates your sarcasm half as well as I do.”

“Hey, people love sarcasm. Just ignore the spike in my chest.”

The voice had a point, though. If there were other people around, then Kai couldn’t afford to waste time. Kai tried standing up again. His heart drummed a heavy, resounding beat that reverberated in his ears. His legs wobbled, unwilling to move, like two pillars of jelly trying to lift a sack of bricks. Needles pricked his heaving lungs and the flesh around the spike burned hotter with every passing second.

It took a moment, but he was able to lift himself to his feet, pushing past the combined fatigue, pain and discomfort racking his entire body. However, Kai knew that if he sat down again he wouldn’t be able to get back up. It wasn’t just the blood loss. Kai was out of shape. While he had a mental image of what he needed to do to center himself, his body didn’t move or act in the way he wanted it to. Kai had to admit that the status screen was right; he was severely lacking in any physical capability. The only redeeming quality he had was his perseverance though he couldn’t tell how long that would last for.

With a better vantage point Kai surveyed his surroundings. The forest floor was dim, with only a precious few shafts of golden sunlight piercing the canopies above. The scent of earth and loam filled his nostrils, wet with petrichor. Birdsong and the rustling of leaves tickled his ear. The air felt damp, the ground muddy. Foliage brushed up against Kai’s skin as he turned in a circle. Every direction looked the same with countless colossal spears stretching ever upwards. Though, if he strained his ears, Kai felt like he could hear the sound of rushing water.

“What now, captain?”

“We’ll need tools, fire and shelter. Same as it's always been since the dawn of mankind. There might also be some wreckage that came through the portal with us. It’d be nice if we could find some metal scraps.”

“I was referring more to the black box, although those are important concerns, yes.”

Kai looked down at the spike protruding from his chest, the memory of its entering still fresh in his mind. Had it hit him at a lower position or from the side it would have pierced his lung and killed him. Kai shuddered at the realization of how close he came to death.

“Mr. Wannabe Vlad the Impaler has it and I’m in no shape to fight him right now. If he so much as looks at me, I’m dead.”

“Well, I’d hope you’d at least put up a fight. You owe the both of us that much for getting yourself into this mess.”

Kai shook his head. That was easy for the voice without a body to say. At any moment there was the possibility that a metal spike could just pop out of the ground and skewer him like a pig on a spit. If Kai was to have any hope of standing a fighting chance then he needed to find Vlad first before he found him.

With that in mind Kai started off towards the direction the sound of water was coming from. On the way he collected vines, sticks, tree bark, stones, thick leaves, mushrooms, anything he could get his hands on. After just ten minutes of walking his hands were already full.

“Hold on, let’s be smart about this.”

Kai put all his loot on the ground. First, he cracked stones against one another until they broke into protruding jagged edges. He then grinded the broken stones against one another until he was left with two somewhat sharp stones. Using the sharp stones he cut vines into usable lengths of string. The string was used to tie two long, solid sticks together near the top at an acute angle so that they flared out into the shape of a lopsided X. Kai then tied more sticks in the gap on the larger side of the X so that he had a platform to put things onto.

When Kai was done he was left with a travois, albeit a poorly constructed one. Still, with it Kai was able to travel with a small arsenal of raw materials trailing behind him as he made his way further into the forest.

After a few minutes of walking the sound of rushing water became louder and a stream popped into view in front of Kai. The water was wide, yet shallow and cut a rock laden path through a dense thicket of smaller sized trees than the ones that Kai had passed before. There were plenty of places to hide in the underbrush on either side of the bank while the stream itself provided an unobstructed view of the area. A branch stuck out of a tree to Kai’s right and Kai bent it back as far as he felt it would go. Then Kai let go of the branch and it whipped through the air with a satisfying crack as it hit an adjacent tree.

“Perfect.” Kai thought. “This I can work with.”

But before any work was to be done, Kai needed a drink. He felt himself sweating even though he had only been walking for no more than an hour. The cool flowing water was a sweet relief against his hands as he brought it up to his lips. With each subsequent gulp of water Kai could pretend that the feverish heat in his chest was subsiding.

“Is it wise to drink untreated water?” the voice asked.

“I don’t care.” Kai murmured. “I’m thirsty and burning up. Besides, this isn’t Earth. I’m pretty sure this stream is cleaner than the tap water in my apartment.”

“Hm, yes, cleaner. Well, I suppose at some point our ancestors just had to make do with their fair share of waterborne illnesses and parasites.”

Kai rolled his eyes and looked back at his travois. There were a few weapons he could make with the materials on hand. One was a simple stone club. Stick plus stone. Done. He could also make a sling staff which was easy enough to make with pieces of flexible bark, a stick and some vines. The only problem was that Kai wasn’t proficient with it at all. A few test shots resulted in stones being flung way off mark. Still, it was technically a ranged weapon that could be used in a pinch. If push came to shove then he could always just throw stones with his hands.

Next were traps. These Kai felt much more confident about. Snares and sharp sticks were all Kai needed to convert the surrounding area into a death trap. The next three hours Kai spent whittling sticks into sharp points and crafting triggers for the snares. Though he did set up a few traditional snares with a line meant to latch onto a passing leg or neck, Kai instead opted to simply tie sharp sticks to low lying tree branches and bent them back as far as they would go. He then tied the tree branch to a trigger connected to a tripline. If someone touched the line or activated the trigger then the branch would swing forwards and impale anyone in its path. Simple, yet effective.

But the snares weren’t what Kai was betting on helping him take down Vlad. Not by a long shot. His robes could shrug off bullets after all. At best the snares would help him spook the spike flinging man. The real trap was much more devious. It just needed one last component...

The sound of splashing water shattered Kai’s focus.

In an instant Kai ducked into the underbrush and swerved his head to meet the sound. He wasn’t ready to confront Vlad, not yet. Kai’s eyes scanned the banks of the stream. Nothing seemed to indicate the presence of anyone else in the nearby area. No movement, odd shapes or abnormal disturbances. Nor did there seem to be a man prowling the thicket, ready to send a spike whirling into Kai’s head. Then where had the sound come from? Kai couldn’t tell, not with his eyes, at least.

Though, there was a way for Kai to sense living things, even if they were hiding.

Kai looked at his status screen. There was one entry under the abilities section. Empathic Link. However, Kai already knew what was going to happen if he used it. Still, it wouldn’t hurt too bad to try...

Kai closed his eyes and whispered, “Empathic Link.” A screen appeared out of the dark in front of Kai.

Do you wish to turn on Empathic Link? Y/N

Kai accepted and immediately regretted his decision.

A thread formed in the center of Kai’s head that began pulling outwards towards the surrounding area. Lights lit up in the dark. At first it was one or two, then all at once hundreds, then thousands of lights blazed into sight. There were plants, insects, birds, all manner of creatures with thoughts, feelings and sensations that melded together to create a sonorous cacophony threatening to split Kai’s mind apart. Images leaped into his mind one after the other in rapid succession. One moment he was flying weightless through the sky and another moment he was burrowing blind through soil. He could taste the sweetness of a crushed berry inside his beak and in that same moment there was rotting flesh being torn to shreds inside his jaws. Kai severed his thread outwards. The images disappeared in a flash but the sweetness and rot lingered in Kai's mouth.

It was no good. That was his ability as an Empath. If he sent out a probe he could share the senses of anything in the nearby area. But more often than not his ability was a double edged sword that left him reeling after using it.

The voice sighed. “You’re like a sponge! Don’t just absorb everything that is thrown at you. Limit your area of search. You’re looking for a specific thought, image or idea. Focus on that first, then send out your probe.”

“But-”

“No buts, just do it.”

Kai closed his eyes again. This time he created an image of the stream in his mind. The feeling of the cool water, the sound of the stream breaking across the rocks, the fresh mineral taste of it. With these sensations in hand he once again reached out with his mind. Numerous lights flashed in the stream itself. Water circled around a scaled body as gills on the sides of Kai’s neck flapped in and out. That wasn’t it, he was looking for something on the stream bank itself. Kai searched up and down the stream bank until-

Ah! There it was. A brown ball that smelled of crushed leaves. Kai looked down and found that he had white, elongated claws and in them was a fish. He seemed to be a lithe version of a bear, less round and more flexible. This was what had disturbed the water, then.

Satisfied, Kai was about to release his connection to the creature but stopped himself. Something the voice said made him want to test his powers out further. Kai created an image of the mushrooms he had collected earlier and then created an image of taking a heaping bite out of them.

Revulsion. No, not just that, utter confusion and the tingle of fear. The animal was confused as to why it was suddenly thinking about eating the poisonous nubs that dotted the forest floor. Kai got what he needed and more. With that he released his grip on the animal and returned to his own two legs.

“Hm, not bad. Thanks for the advice, voice in my head.” Kai said.

Kai looked at the mushrooms that were sprawled across his travois. There wasn’t a single one that wasn’t poisonous. That made things easy enough for Kai. Kai began grinding up the mushroom into a paste. He then applied the paste onto sharpened spikes. When he was done he had about twenty or so poisoned spikes.

Would it be enough? Kai had no way of telling, but nonetheless he went further into the forest and began setting up his final trap. By the time he was done dusk had fallen over the forest. Shades of red and orange danced along lengthening shadows as Kai made his way back to the stream. There was no time to set up camp, nor did Kai think it was wise to construct a fire that could give away his position. Instead, he found a spot in the underbrush by the stream and laid himself flat against the ground. This would have to do for now. The spike still stuck in his chest burned ever hotter, but he could worry about that later. For now, the traps were set and in the morning he could focus on finding Vlad.

The hunt was on. It was just a question of who was the hunter and who was the hunted.