Jungle - Heat

After a day of continuous walking, Osirus arrived in front of a jungle, its size infinite and depth immeasurable, it stood like a wall cutting the world in half.

Without much thought, he delved into its depths, trekking past trees standing taller than the clouds themselves like pillars to the high heavens and thick foliage that hid its many mysteries, he came across many fantastical creatures.

From insects to mammals, from branch swingers to floor scourers, from 4-legged to no-legged, everything one could imagine and one couldn't, existed in this jungle.

Using his injured body, Osirus pushed forward while Boulder carrying Reinhardt stood just behind him, as he forced open a path through the myriad of plants and vegetation, it would slowly close up behind him.

After walking for an hour, Osirus was able to see the sun start to drop from its high position in the sky through the thick canopy, pushing through more thick bushes, he came across a small hill.

Very little light broke through the canopy to begin with, so looking into the cave, you could only see an endless darkness home to unknown danger, even after feeling a chill spread down his back, Osirus still carried forward, had to find a place to rest, his injuries in junction with walking for over a day had brought him to the limit of his exhaustion.

With the very little Mana that he had managed to regenerate instead of using it to heal himself, he summoned a small {Fire Ball}, and sent it into the maws of the abyss.

The blazing red sphere lit up the darkness, revealing what lay inside, "Hahh, of course.", Osirus was just fed up as he looked at the tens of snakes covering the ground floor like moving vines made of rock.

"Sss!", "Sss!", "Sss!".

Awoken by the blinding light and burning heat, numerous hiss erupted, looking closer, he was able to differentiate the individual snakes, they possessed a 4m long body covered in tough grey scales that made it seem they had faced the wrath of medusa, but what he found most interesting, was their eyes.

10s of emerald orbs glowed from the darkness, reflecting the flame, Osirus was mesmerised, it was like looking into the night sky, and seeing hundreds of emerald stars look back, however, remembering his circumstances, seriousness wiped away any fascination, they had to die.

Using what little control he had, he directed the ball of fire downwards, into the very centre of the snakes.

"Boom!"

In an enclosed space, the power of the fire increased exponentially as it collided with the walls before circling back into the middle, cremating the snakes further.

After only 1 {Fire Ball}, over 80% had perished, the only ones left had been protected by the corpses of the others, unfortunately, that wouldn't work again as Osirus sent Boulder in, its tough body making it impossible for their fangs to sink in, and even if they did, their poison would do little damage to an inorganic being such as a Golem.

Their strength was decent, at about the 7th Level of {Body Cultivation}, if Osirus was on his own, he might not have been able to kill them in his current state, however with Boulder's strength it didn't take long before their heads had been crushed and bodies ripped in half.

{User Killed 34x Emerald Eye Snake- 54SP Gained}

After moving the Emerald Eye Snakes corpses out of the way, Osirus laid Reinhardt down against the cave's no warm walls, while he left the cave and with the help of Boulder collected sticks, making sure to stay close to the cave entrance in case a creature took advantage of Reinhardt's weakened state.

After searching for a small while, he had collected a selection of different types of firewood, using the smallest {Fire Ball} he could make, he lit the kindling, once that got started, he slowly added larger and larger pieces of wood, before long, a full fledged campfire had been created.

After a long day, Osirus felt his stomach rumble in hunger, looking at the dead snakes, his mouth started to water, but at the same time, he realised something.

"Ahhh. Of course, I lost my sword."

It seemed during the massive explosion, he dropped his sword, and was too distracted to even notice.

In the end he could only use his brute strength to rip off the snake's skin, leaving him with a mangle mess of meat and scales, not that he cared considering how hungry he was, plus he had enough snakes that it didn't matter if he didn't perfectly skin one of them.

He had long realised that the higher the body cultivation the hungrier he got, and after what he just went through, he had never felt hungrier, removing the organs he stuck a stick through its body and began to roast it on the fire.

1 by 1, tens of snakes were skinned, skewered and roasted.

Soon a pleasant smell of roast meat began to waft through the cave, "Agh.", whether it was because of the food or he had recovered enough, Reinhardt released a painful groan as he slowly woke up.

Looking around, his eyes shot open, shocked to be inside a cave with…Osirus?

"Where am I? Osirus? What are you doing he-."

As he tried to remember what had happened, foggy memories began to surface, the Jacks death, that eruption of rage, that power flowing through his veins, and his fight with Lord Invon.

"That bastard! Is he dead?!", to no-one in particular, Reinhardt instinctively asked.

"No."

"What!"

Reinhardt stood up in anger after hearing Lord Invon was somehow still alive, however his body had not nearly recovered enough as his legs gave way.

"You don't understand."

"What don't I understand! Although we didn't spend long together, did you really not care about Simon, Annie or Elisa at all!"

"Lis-"

"Listen to what! What excuses could you possibly have! I know how strong you are and how weak that bastard wa-".

"Shut up and listen!", Osirus had enough of Reinhardt's shouting as he shouted back, surprising Reinhardt and causing him to fall silent, realising he was jumping to conclusions and being inconsiderate.

"Lord Invon has some extremely powerful people behind him, although they don't care if he gets hurt, they won't let him die. That Sir Elijah, he's one of them."

Reinhardt thought silently and realised he was being disrespectful, he knew Osirus cared at least somewhat about the Jacks, and wouldn't just let their murderer live, thus he knew he wasnt lying.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, I understand your hurt, come and eat, the snake is almost cooked."

Reinhardt slowly limped over before sitting next to the fire, even though Osirus's skinning ability left much to be desired, the amount of snakes meant that they both had a large amount of food to enjoy.

After 30 minutes of eating, the snake was entirely devoured, filling the 2 of them with Mana that helped repair their injuries.

Looking towards Reinhardt, Osirus thought about those crimson runes that gave him such immense power, noticing Osirus's stare, Reinhardt could guess what he was thinking.

"I'm not sure why that happened, but something fundamentally changed about me. I, I seem to have gained a connection to blood."

Both Osirus and Reinhardt were in the dark for the mostpart when it came to the new changes, they could only experiment and try things until they discovered the true potential of his new power.

However, there were still some noticeable changes that Osirus now noticed, Reinhardts eyes had gained a permanent deep crimson colour, although not as powerful as before, it was still there, along with his messy hair that had gained a shade of crimson as well, he was now quite handsome, but it wasn't an elegant and kind handsome, but a rugged, manly handsome that exuded strength and confidence, but not arrogance.

But his face wasn't the only thing that had changed, his body had too, his height had increased, almost reaching 8ft, towering over even Osirus who had a strong and impressive build.

Furthermore, his muscles were much more refined, all his fat seemed to have disappeared, revealing an impressive 8-pack, however he wasn't muscular to the point of becoming a mountain of muscles, rather they were in perfect proportion to his size.

Suddenly, "Sniff. Sniff. Somethings coming.", Reinhardt's nose twitched as spoke, he didn't know how but he could smell with much more precision and distance than before, and right now, he smelt a creature coming, no multiple creatures.

"Be careful, there is more than one."

Osirus didn't question how he could tell, he only chalked it up to the changes he had experienced.

"Just our luck. They probably smelt the roasted snake."

Unfortunately Reinhardt was still too injured to be of any help, which left Osirus to face them on his own, well not entirely on his own. After an entire day of recovering, his Mana was enough to repair Boulder and summon Guardy along with his new addition, Mushy throughout the day.

Thinking quickly, Osirus decided to stay inside the cave, if they were truly large in number, he could use the small entrance to stop himself from being over run while also being able to protect Reinhardt, however this also ran to risk of him getting cornered in the cave, bu he felt it was worth the benefits outweigh the risks.

Suddenly ape-like screechs began to rapidly approach, eventually reaching their loudest as they arrived at the cave.

"Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thu-."

10s of thumps reverberated at the entrance of the cave as 6ft bipedal apes-like creatures landed in front of Osirus, their strong muscular bodies were covered with thick red fur, they only place left bare was their faces, hands and feet, revealing grey, tough leather-like skin.

He tried to count them as they arrived, '1, 2…4…9….14…23', however he soon lost count as they slowly blocked the entrance, leaving the only source of light as the fire next to him.

Sweat began to drip from Osirus's bare body, however this wasn't out of anxiousness, but because of actual heat, looking at their crimson fur, he noticed that there was a slight haze surrounding them, revealing the heat exuding from their bodies.

Furthermore, with how many there were, the heat built on top of each other, increasing the temperature of the small cave exponentially.

"Grrr."

The largest of the apes, standing a head above the rest, walked forward as it let out a low grow while looking at Osirus and the Golems.

However Osirus only glanced at the leader monkey that seemed to be threatening him, before watching the other apes behind it, specifically that excited look in their eyes as they stared at Reinhardt, some even drooled.

Reinhardt had also noticed the hungry stares pointing his way, realising that they had not come for the food, but for him.

"Uhh, Reinhardt, are you seeing this?"

"Of course I am, but, I don't know what to tell you."

Osirus and Reinhardt both felt that this weird situation once again had something to do with his recent change, but they didn't have much time to think about it as the leader monkey grew impatient with Osirus blocking his way.

"Screech!"

With a horrible ear-grating screech, the leader monkey leapt forward with impressive agility, this seemed like a sign for the smaller monkeys as they also leapt forward into the cave.

Seeing the large monkey aiming straight for him, Osirus left his Golems to deal with the smaller monkeys while he dealt with the leader.

It barely took a second before it was in front of him, its long, muscular arms acting as clubs as it swung them downwards like a hammer.

Without a sword, Osirus was able to use his fastest Skill ,{Quick Slice}, and he wasn't given enough time to use his other Skills, thus he was forced to dodge to the side, letting the crimson arms brush past him, bringing with them a wave of heat.

"Boom!"

The cave slightly trembled from the attack, followed by a boom that reverberated in the small cave, the weaker monkeys felt their ears ring as they were momentarily distracted, unfortunately for them, their opponents did not face the same issues.

Even though the monkeys were only distracted for a moment, it was enough for the Golems to gain the upper hand as they began to use their far superior strength to cut down their numbers.

Guardys arms fired forth like cannon balls, smashing into their chests, instantly crushing their organs and killing them, Boulder would throw them at the walls, and if they didn't die straight away Mushy would put them out of their misery.

Osirus looked back at the leader monkey, its fist having created a small crater on the cave's floor.