24 Unfamiliar Everything

In an unknown location, a distorted, black void suddenly opened and spat out a white object before contorting into itself and releasing a massive shockwave, brutally throwing the white mass into a jagged rock wall a few dozen metres away.

"That could've gone better." Kasdeya groaned.

She tried to stand up but as soon as she moved sharp pain pierced through her ribs, right arm and right leg, resulting in her letting out a soft moan of agony before she stopped trying to move.

'I think I broke something.' Kasdeya thought as she tried to survey the damages.

'My ribs, arm and leg appear to be the most painful locations, I wonder if I can stabilize them with mana, after all, I can strengthen my muscles with mana so it's worth a try'

Following this thought, Kasdeya started to cycle mana through her body and concentrated it around the areas with the most pain. As she was doing this she noticed the amount of mana that she had access to was getting smaller and after trying this for 10 minutes it started to finally show an effect with her broken bones seeming to start shifting under her skin and realign, resulting in another groan of pain.

After enduring this agony for an unknown amount of time Kasdeya could finally move again with the previous stabbing pain toning down to a very strong aching sensation.

'So, I was right, I can use mana to heal myself, but the process is abysmally slow, it's better than nothing though.' Kasdeya thought as she started to feel her eyelids droop from drowsiness. 'I guess I must be more tired than I first thought, I did face a near death situation though so I guess it makes sense. I think I'll leave finding out where I am as an activity for tomorrow.'

Kasdeya then fully rested her body on the ground and curled up into a ball before falling asleep.

Slowly opening her eyes, Kasdeya stretched out her body, then winced as a spike of pain went through her limbs and after the pain receded she slowly got up from the ground while using the wall beside her to stabilize herself.

'Now, where the hell am I?' Kasdeya thought as she looked around the space she found herself in.

She appeared to be in a wide cave filled with jagged, dark grey rocks and on the opposite side of the cave to where she was it appeared that an explosion had occurred as the surrounding rocks were broken and tossed away. The room only had one path leading out of it that curved around so Kasdeya couldn't see far out.

'Well I guess there is only one course of action here, leave the cave and see what's out there, maybe I'll be lucky and have been dumped somewhere I recognize.'

She started to walk towards the opening when a familiar urge started to build again.

'Oh great, I'm hungry again. How long has it been since I last ate?'

Speeding up her pace slightly she started walking through the tunnel that was roughly 2 meters wide and 3 meters high and made out of the same jagged rock as the rest of the cave.

After making numerous turns down this place the cave entrance suddenly shrunk down to slightly larger than a door frame before opening up into a massive expanse of rock, cliffs and an occasional stream of flowing lava.

'Ok, I think I might need to start worrying now. Where am I!?'

Starting to panic slightly Kasdeya started jogging away from the cave entrance while constantly looking around and observing this place. The location she found herself in was pitch black however she could still see due to whatever ability allowed her to see in the dark.

'If I didn't know any better than I'd think I'm actually in hell, as there is literally nothing, anywhere, but rocks and small streams of lava which provide the only source of light in this place.'

Jogging for a bit longer Kasdeya saw a rather large rock pillar ahead of her so she made her way towards it, however right as she walked around the pillar she immediately froze and quickly hid behind it again before peaking out to observe a small skirmish going on near a lava stream between two bloodhounds.

She was too far away to see their levels but she decided to watch their brawl in the hopes that she could scavenge a bit of food or take down the winner.

Kasdeya watched as one of the bloodhounds lunged towards the other in an attempt to bite it while the other side stepped out of the way and responded by scratching the side of the lunging hound. The second hound succeeded but did not get away quick enough to avoid the ensuing blood spikes that shot out of the wound, causing it to get skewered in multiple locations, to which it responded by also sending out dozens of blood spikes which also found their target, and just like that both dogs were injured and they both backed away from each other before lunging together again with the dog that made the first move being slightly faster resulting in it killing the other.

'These dogs seem really dumb, they basically just traded blow for blow with no tactics involved whatsoever, but that works well for me. Now that one of them is injured, I can go and finish it off.' Kasdeya thought with a devilish grin forming on her face.

Kasdeya started sneaking towards the wounded bloodhound that had started to eat the deceased one but before she could make it she heard a loud shriek in the distance.

'What was that? It sounded like it came from the sky. Please don't tell me that there is some aerial predator in this place.'

As if on cue, a great shadow suddenly swooped down onto the still alive dog and lifted it into the sky before flying away, with Kasdeya only briefly glimpsing a slightly humanoid figure that was much larger than a horse, with two massive, leathery wings which it clearly used to fly.

'Please let me find the exit to this place soon, I would rather not become food just yet, but at least now both predators are gone and they left some food behind.' Kasdeya thought as her gaze was locked onto the dead bloodhound and she started unconsciously taking steps towards the corpse before she started actively jogging to it.

Kneeling down in front of the felled beast Kasdeya started feasting on it, ripping open its stomach, devouring its insides and drinking its blood until there was nothing left but a skeleton.