Bloodline

Kai walked through the forest, uncomfortable at how strangely silent and inactive it was. He could hear bird song and the scurrying of the occasional tiny animal as his sneakers crushed foliage and branches, but he could not actually spot anything.

The birds were far too high up, probably living atop the unnaturally tall trees, and the critters were too small and quick for him to barely even glimpse.

He could not catch anything, and as he stepped into a sudden clearing, he felt an intense sense of danger prickling at his skin. The trees did not grow as thickly packed together in this part of the forest, but where there was more space, there were craters in the dirt.

Big craters. Probably six feet deep, some smaller, some bigger. Roughly circular and topped with crushed branches, rock and leaves, as if something immensely heavy had fallen in them.

And there was no end to those craters, extending ominously into the distance. Whatever had made those craters could probably turn him into a bloody pulp in a single instant.

Better not to risk it. He did not like losing progress, but he had no qualms about being safe and turning around, retracing his steps.

It was incredibly difficult to tell what time of day it was in this forest because the towering and clustered trees and their thickly leaved tops utterly clouded the sky, veiling the sun. But a difference as stark as that between night and day was noticeable both temperature and light wise.

The forest became colder, quieter, and, most importantly, darker. If the environment felt unwelcome before then, well, it felt like deathtrap now. Not that there was anything there actively hunting him, but that creeping, crawling feeling of being unwelcome latched onto his spine and made him hold down shivers.

He did not like it one single goddamn bit. He needed to find shelter soon, but where? His first instinct was somewhere along the treetops. There were grooves and lower hanging branches here and there that could work. But what if there were creatures there?

No, he needed first to have a definite plan to consume a bloodline and get some strength. It was a risk to keep travelling the forest even during the midst of this hostile night, but it was one he took.

At the least, he did not have to deal with basic needs like hunger and thirst.

He could eat literally anything due to the nature of his system, so he ate leaves and branches and, surprisingly, a batch of mushrooms he recognized from their gray hair peppered brown heads as shiitake. He absorbed their nutrients at a hyper efficient rate, slaking his thirst greatly as well.

This raised his biomass level over the day but eating plant matter without 'power' as the system described it raised his biomass stock minimally. He even braved eating one of the glowing blue mushrooms, but that did nothing for him either.

No bloodline. But it did boost his biomass stock a little more than regular plants.

Right now, as he reached what he sensed was another clearing, his biomass stock was completely replenished. That gave him a little bit of reassurance, but not much. He had to eat something useful.

Hopefully, he would find it here, where he could sense the sound of roughly rushing water nearby, indicating not only a clearing, but also flowing water.

Before he stepped out, though, he circled the area, analyzing his environment with careful, silent-as-he-could-make-them steps from behind tree trunks to find somewhere to hide and observe from. He did not want to go out to this clearing without seeing it first.

He decided on a growth of thick bushes, some of them thorned, that made a good enough spot to look at the clearing from. He first pricked his fingertip on the thorns to make sure they did not harm him greatly, and when he saw they were regular thorns, he waded in.

The thorns dug into him, tearing his hoodie and cutting into his skin, but he just gritted his teeth and swallowed down the pain.

The system would heal the injuries anyway. He got far enough in a prone position to peek his eyes out of a bush, seeing the clearing.

What the fuck was what he immediately thought, even considering everything he had seen, because this was a whole different level.

Under the bright moonlight, he would make out a flat, grassy clearing speckled with bushes and flowers flanking a wide stream. The stream linked into the distance to a massive waterfall that snaked up a sizable cliff face.

The sound of the crashing waterfall was almost deafening even in this distance, but that did not distract him from the fact that there appeared to be turtle people around the stream.

They were short, hunched over humanoids with slimy green, frog-like skin. They had long limbs with curled and webbed digits ending in dangerously sharp claws.

Plated turtle shells of green or brown covered their back and their faces were vaguely human with wrinkly features, big red or black eyes, short and wide yellow beaks, and mops of messy, kelp-like black hair with dents at the top of their head where little pools of sparkling, clear water gathered.

They seemed to be intelligent, communicating with each other in a language Kai had zero comprehension of. It sounded like short grunts occasionally marked with peals of raucous laughter.

The creatures looked to be rather happy and friendly, at the least among themselves. They shared strange, three tailed fish from a bloody pile and played games with each other.

Some of them sat down in pairs and moved pebbles of varying sizes to and for between them in some sort of strategy game. Others were more active, drawing circles in the dirt and pushing each other in what looked like mock sumo.

Kai knew what they were. He recognized them from somewhere, something he had seen or read or known at some point online. They were kappas, mythological creatures from Japan, though aside from their general appearance, he had little idea of what they were like, and he did not want to risk anything.

Their claws were deterrent enough, and there were ten of them. If they wanted to brutalize him, they could.

He sat still in that bush and watched them because once they left, or once there were not many of them, he could get their bloodline. Not that he was going to fight them, he was not stupid enough to try and fight without knowing what he was getting into.

No, he was going to try and steal a fish, a bloodstain, a broken piece of shell from one of their roughhousing sessions, a piece of skin, anything.

He waited.

And waited.

And waited.

He saw the kappas eat their fill and go to sleep, snoring as loud as they could. He waited until morning when the early rays of dawn woke them up and they took turns diving into the stream, going downstream to catch various types of fish and clams.

They never moved without leaving at least a few of them guarding their catch and camp.

He kept his attention razor focused on them, analyzing their every move. He took only light bouts of sleep, never wanting to stay in this compromised position unconscious for long. It was an odd thing to be thankful for, but at the least, he had to thank his system for taking care of his body waste, because now he could just sit here and wait for an opening.

And it did come. He initially thought about making a dash for it when there were three or fewer of them around, but circumstances changed. Early in the afternoon, the kappas came out screaming bloody murder from the water, pointing towards the forest with wild and panicked gestures to the others on shore.

All of them sprinted out, their strides fast but still clumsy, a few of them tripping over themselves as they awkwardly balanced the unwieldy weight of their shell.

Kai made himself as quiet as possible as he tried to see what they were running from. Soon enough, he realized he really did not have to try. From the water emerged the biggest lizard he had ever seen in his life.

It must have been the size of a small truck. As it emerged from the stream, huge volumes of water displacing from its sheer bulk, he realized it was a salamander. It had sleek, nondescript brown skin and a huge, flat head with no eyes, making it look strangely alien in a rather horrific way.

It surged out the water with a slap of its fat tail, pushing it forwards as it shambled through the clearing like a rolling boulder with massive jaws open.

Though the jaws had teeth that were comparably tiny to its bulk, it was so large that one snap of it could probably kill any of the kappas, let alone Kai.

Kai, however, remained absolutely still, hidden as much as possible. This was his chance.

One of the kappas tripped, planting its face on the ground, and it croaked, reaching a hand out for his brethren that rapidly left him behind. A few of the others turned around, but when they glanced at the enormous salamander rapidly approaching, they did not return a second look.

They ran, some of them passing by Kai close enough that he could smell the stench of watery brine on them.

The salamander snapped up the kappa in its jaws. The jaws closed on it, stopping for a second at its hardened shell before the material gave, shattering and splitting the creature in half.

Pieces of shell and blood spattered from the salamander's mouth as its fleshy tongue flitted out, sucking in the mangled kappa into its throat.

It licked its lips once before turning around, making its way back to the water.

Kai waited a good ten minutes before he left his hiding spot. He sprinted to the site of the bloody massacre and ate like a starved madman, even though he was not hungry.

No, he thought as he ran his hand through some blood, licking it while swallowing a chunk of shell whole. He was hungry. Hungry to survive. Hungry to become stronger.