I unceremoniously threw the branch on the ground of my cave, it stopped writhing a while back, and appeared to have withered. I was not bothered however, for I could sense the intense life force still throbbing inside it.

The same phenomena was happening to the beast, it was shrinking, turning Into a substance that had the consistency of wood, I frowned in thought, it had only been a short while from my departure from the forest, before the carcass became mummified.

Apparently whatever power was making these creatures insane, was in a weird way sustaining them. There was no way the animals were breeding fast enough to maintain that amount of carnage.

They were also from various species entirely, each possessing distinctive traits and features, my introspection was cut short by the low hissing sound coming from the wasted corpse, as it slowly broke down into brown sand. Something glinted inside the sand, and I sifted through it with my fingers.

It was a crimson gem, with swirling grey patterns inside it. I picked it up, as steam escaped from the hand I held it with. The gem was scorching hot, it was hexagonal. I studied it fascination colouring my gaze, apart from the impressive amount of heat it was giving off, the patterns when viewed in certain ways by rotating the gem, swirled into the shape of various animals.

That looked like moose, was that a fish with wings?, all of these were mysteries to me for the time being, I had certain conjectures but that should be left for a while yet.

I cocked my eyebrow at my rising hand that was attempting to stuff the gem inside my mouth, it paused as if ashamed. Good grief. This thing has a mind of it own.

Before I had more information, I had to slow down stuffing everything down everything down my mouth, I wondered where I got these instinct from. Dragons where gluttonous creatures. But not by this much. Granted I doubt most dragons ever got past three sheddings, and also had freaking spikes pierced through their hearts by their sires. I had to be given a little leeway for some of my excesses.

The tree limb (I had decided to call it that, instead of branch) still kept it shape, though it was now extremely dry, the wave of vitality still exuded from it.

I set the gem carefully aside, as I picked up the limb, carefully scrapping away the dried bark, I saw a line of red, like a tendon, inside the limb, and indeed it pulsed like it was alive, almost like a snake. Picking it up with two fingers, it quivered in my arm, then with a sudden viciousness it attacked my hand.

It grew teeth on both ends and wrapped around my hand, both side latched to my hand, I felt little pin-pricks of pain, as both ends dug into my arm, I guessed given enough time, they may be able to drill into my arm. A worrying observation. I sensed extra burst of energy leave my stomach, the pain rapidly ended, as my defense was bolstered. Alarmed I attempted to pull the leech off, however it was stuck like glue.

My concern abated when I realised it could not penetrate my skin, and even if my energy consumption increased, it was not by much. I chastised myself in anger for my carelessness, quickly that anger shifted to the crimson leech on my hand, I frowned “ prey should know its place.”

My teeth flashed as I bit the quivering leech in two,muttering “you are my meal". My teeth worked to efficiently cut, and chew the quivering mass inside my mouth, grossness aside, it tasted fantastic, this should be because of the amount of energy held by it. In a short while I gave a small burp, this limb alone gave me two petals of energy.

My hearts beat accelerated a little, how much energy can I get if I ate a whole tree?, there were tens of thousands of trees in a forest, that would mean a feast for me of unknown proportion, and unknown dangers also

I sank deeper into thoughts, too aware of my fragility under my seeming invincibility. I could surely charge inside that forest like a blood lusted dragon, and slay scores of foes, but if I could not keep a fine line between my absorption of energy and its utilisation, I fall the risk of death. I shuddered as I tried to remember the weakness that came over me when I had no energy. My bloodline was proud to a fault. It abhorred weakness, most of all from itself. It tried to block every memory of my weakness, I forced it to oblige my request, this was no game with a reset button. I was no longer an absolute soul. Death for me now is final.

If a tiny leech from a tree limb can drain my energy, then I was not assured enough to charge inside all gung-ho. A little more investigation was needed before I could feast to my heart content. Danger usually accompanied opportunities, and I would be foolish not to utilise every one given to me.

I retrieved the page of Millions Of Night, that I placed in between a seam in the cave wall, I was excited to see the transformation that was going to happen when I gathered a hundred pages, perhaps it would be of great assistance when I entered into the forest of madness. I kept it aside, took in a deep breath and prepared to dig.

Carefully, I dug my hands into the wall, making sure to keep a tight reign on my petals of energy. I only had to use the strength of my flesh. There was a passive amount of energy always flowing through my body. I discovered that trying to dig with that energy passively flowing in my hands was just asking for trouble, I lost a petal when it disintegrated that section of the wall. The only silver lining was that I had the presence of mind to make the disintegration spread on a larger section of the cave wall, exposing five more pages.

It took a while but I pulled the energy flowing in my hands down into my core, I attributed the success of that endeavour to the sheer stability of my soul. It ruled my body, and this body of mine would obey my will. This was also good practice for the hunt ahead. My body was powerful, bit with a calm, calculating mind behind the wheels, it would brush my lethality up, exponentially.

Digging through the rock was a surreal experience, as holding back my energy from permeating my flesh, and using only the strength of my body was akin to me attempting to run, yet chaining both of my feet together and my arms behind my back, so I could only use my mouth, as a means of locomotion, digging through the dirt..... mouthful by mouthful...... inch by inch. You get the picture, I hated it.

When my finger touched the page, I was shaking in exhaustion, not of the body, but of the mind. I had underestimated how hard it was, not to allow my energy match my actions, I felt I had been holding my breath for an eternity, I sighed in annoyance as the energy rushed to fill my hand, and over spilled. The air around my hand quivered. The raw potential of that power squeezing reality itself.

I pushed aside that mental hindrance - my exhaustion, with a flick in my head, and got to work, it became easier by a smidgen pushing the energy back inside my core and focusing on digging. I went at it like a dragon on a mission that is treating the walls like my next meal. Many times I had to catch myself from using energy, pausing for a while and readjusting my condition.

Nonetheless my effort was worth it. Slowly but surely the manipulation of my energy got smoother and less strenuous, holding the energy back was now a matter of gritting my teeth and forcing it down with my entire hand, before it was with my finger tips.

The night crawled towards dawn and the cave walls had turned into a virtual beehive, except for the floors I have gotten every page of Millions Of Night from the walls.

According to what I infer from the pages, each of them carried a specific technique, I could only pick one, and sacrifice the rest of the pages to strengthen that particular technique, of course I could choose more than one technique and divide the sacrificial pages among both, but this path was not encouraged, it would make it weaker than just one supercharged technique.

How do I know all this? Chill went down my spine. I had just been :&#%#&@%[email protected]&@%@#*¤•~`

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Okay, I choose the Spirit Of Slaughter. It was the perfect complement for what was ahead. My mind thought of the forest. I smiled as I took the page and kept it aside carefully, I could now barely read the words, the sacrificed pages were not enough for the entire technique to be revealed... I would need more.

The nights was upon me again. I needed to hunt