31 What happened to me?

"What the hell!" Adam exclaimed in shock and fear when he turned his head toward the beast. He didn't see just one as he had expected but dozens. The whole area was swarming with worms.

He quickly jumped to the closest tree branch. Then he inspected his enemies carefully. "I don't know if I can win against all of them at once. But If I do, it will benefit me greatly."

Even though the risk was very high, Adam was tempted by this enormous feast. His brain was begging him to flee. But at the same time, he felt a mysterious power urging him to kill.

He knew that to find such a large number of D-rank beasts would take him several weeks if he misses this chance. Yet, It wasn't only his greed that was driving him to stay. It was like a sort of an unusual desire.

Unable to wait anymore, he bounced on his first victim like a hungry beast. He thrust his enchanted black sword with both arms on a worm's head, making it fall dead on the spot.

Soon, another five worms attacked him with their mouths' fully opened revealing several rows of arranged sharp teeth. But a few casual swings from his sword were able to kill them.

"These worms seem very fragile. Even though they are all D-rank beasts yet their bodies are not stronger than E-rankers." Adam noticed.

Six shadows arose from the dead bodies and were instantly swallowed by Adam, filling him with energy, stamina but also a little bit of uncommon pleasure. It was good but also weird.

He quickly stopped thinking about those sensations as there was another batch of worms dashing toward him. He was waiting for them to come near him to slash them. But suddenly, he felt something behind him.

He tried to dodge quickly as he knew it might be a worm that came from under the ground like last time. But he didn't make it as the worm was faster and larger than the others.

"AWHHHH" Adam screamed loudly as he felt the worm's teeth sawing his left arm and tearing it from his body. Seeing his limb flying away made him shocked for a moment. Then his vision started to blur as warm blood flooded from his wound. But the overwhelming pain that he had never experienced before socked his body with adrenaline. Thus making him awake again.

The worms at the front also tried to bounce on him. But he quickly filled his legs with inner energy then he activated the rocket burst technique to launch himself far away.

As soon as he landed on the ground he made another jump to a tree branch to avoid another surprise attack. When he looked at the place where he was attacked he found a large black worm four times bigger than the other ones that he just killed. It was the one that took off his arm.

"This must be a C-rank beast that is leading all these worms and making them work together," Adam said while clenching his teeth from pain, fear but also rage.

He was still bleeding and if he doesn't heal his wound soon he will die from blood loss. He started inspecting the battlefield looking for a way to kill the worms as quickly as possible so that he can take back his cut arm. "I think that the healers of the white lotus family can reattach my arm if not too much time has passed," he thought.

Soon he noticed the black worm opening its mouth, then launched a green sticky liquid toward him. He managed to dodge it in time as he jumped to another tree nearby. But when he turned his head, the tree where he was standing on before had completely melted. "The green liquid is acid," he realized.

The black worm spat out the sticky liquid again but Adam dodged it easily. Then he jumped off the tree as he thought of a way to defeat the C-rank beast. He put his sword on the ground and picked three small stones nearby.

He kept waiting until the black worm splat the green liquid again, only then, he dodged and threw the three stones that he quickly infused with his refined inner energy toward the beast mouth.

As soon as the big black worm closed his mouth, the three stones detonated inside his body, making it fall flat on the ground like a sack of meat.

Adam grabbed his sword again, ignited it while dashing toward the other worms. Then he started butchering them with astonishing speed. He activated inner energy legs as he danced around his enemies while swinging his sword rapidly in all directions.

Soon dozens of worms' shadows arisen from the bodies and were swallowed by Adam making him faster and fiercer. He no longer felt any pain, only pleasure and strength were filling his body. His open shoulder was quickly healed. Thus his life was no longer in danger. But he didn't take his fallen arm as he had planned, instead, he kept killing the worms and absorbing more shadows.

He couldn't stop, no, he didn't want to stop. He felt a huge appetite that can't be satisfied unless he ate more shadows. He was like a starving beast that finally found his prey. His black pupils had changed to a bright yellow color. The fingers on his right arm started to grow longer. While his muscles seemed bigger and visible. Even his frame started to get taller.

Adam was oblivious to all the changes that were happening to him as he was killing to worms like a mad beast. All he cared about at that moment was to swallow more shadows. He was starting to lose control over his body with every additional shadow that he ate while his bloodlust grew stronger than ever.

He only regained his consciousness when he annihilated all the worms. When he looked around him, he was shocked: He was in the middle of a blood lake surrounded by torn bodies, while his clothes were stained red. Then he noticed that some of the dead worms weren't slashed by the sword but torn by claws.

As to confirm his worries, he looked at his bloody right arm but he couldn't believe what he saw. There were long black claws instead of his fingers.

"What the hell had happened to me?" he shouted in fear and disbelief.