The Coward In The Snow

Ram!

With full force, Zero fell straight into the Face's mouth. He had climbed up the tree to borrow gravity's help. He needed to get inside the monster. And he needed to do so without getting chowed down.

The only choice was a quick descent.

The creature opened one of its many mouths, excited for the delicious yin Spirit to fall into its void. By eating Zero, it could grow stronger and stand a chance to become a sentient beast at least. Its innate nature was to consume.

So it swallowed Zero.

Its bone counterpart wriggled in displeasure but did nothing. It retreated to the camp to feed off what remnant human parts it could find.

Meanwhile, Zero had found himself in quite a dilemma. He was inside the sticky, burning insides of the monster and he had no idea what to do. The smell was repugnant but weirdly enough, it called out to him to eat.

The boy gritted his teeth. ' Either I die here a coward or eat this blasted thing alive! '

He grabbed hold of the nearest fleshy, sticky bulk, opened his mouth wide and...

Screech!!

The Flesh of faces roared into the sky. The food it had eaten was turning against it! It thrashed about, breaking down trees in its path. Nothing it did, however, stopped the bites inside.

Zero was drenched in acid. It didn't hurt his skin, he found. Instead, it was absorbed in, fueling his need to feast on this abomination even more.

He had bitten into the shadow beast a few times. The taste was beyond horrid. But each time he swallowed, a warmth sweeter than any food he had ever consumed washed over him.

The feeling drove him.

He ate away, biting into pulsing veins carrying rotting black blood. He could feel the giant being moving this way and that, trying to shake him off.

' Huh...if I was being eaten from the inside, I'd react that way too.'

Zero dug in more, finding himself growing hungrier by the second.

The hunger, much to his utter dismay was growing worse. It felt like the more he ate, the more he wanted.

He was mortified by his own actions, but he physically could not stop. His body trembled from within and his skin was deathly cool to touch.

Yin energy was the cold. Yin energy was the night. Yin was him. A scrawny silver headed boy drenched in the blood of a monster he fed on.

Zero did not know how long he ate. He did not know when he had chewed up so much flesh that his face emerged from the monster's skin. He could not tell the exact moment the Faces on the flesh monster melted into goo, the spark of life in them gone forever.

He didn't even know when he had pounced madly on the other bone adorned flesh creature, in dire needed of more food.

He only knew that he was hungry. He only knew the taste of rot and blood on his tongue.

Slowly, the moon faded from sight and the dazzling sun rays came upon the scene.

If the sun could express its feelings, it would be appalled by the sight that greeted it. A young boy no more than fifteen of age, built like a tooth pick lying in a pool of blood that drowned the snow.

He was covered in black blood with pieces of chewed flesh on his body. A pile of vomit full of undigested skin lay next to his head. There was a pained smile on his innocent looking face.

Zero lay there for a long while.

He didn't move until the clouds had grown dark and gathered low, signalling a blizzard ahead. The winter was getting deeper.

When the soft flakes began to fall, he rose, shivering.

The smile, however, had not left his face.

He limped forward. The skin of his calf had been ripped off in his struggle with the bone monster. In his moment of madness, he did not even realize the injury and how extreme it was. It went to show how desperate he was to survive.

The so called second chance at life was turning him to a monster.

Zero bit his numb lips and grunted softly as he walked forward. The cold and pain did not go well together. As he walked a small distance from the pool of blood, he came upon the collapsing tent of the dead head trader Li.

' There has to be a coat in there, ' he thought, moving towards it.

The snow had started falling in thick clumps and the wind was howling. Zero needed to find shelter soon.

Inside the tent, were a few chests filled with miscellaneous items. Parchment paper with funny looking inscriptions, old calligraphy work and some dusty lamps. To his relief, he managed to find a thick hanfu robe lined with a thin layer of fur on the inside. It was a crude fit, swallowing his tiny body, but it instantly shut out the cold.

Along with this, he found silver coins and some jewelry which he had to wrap in a fraying leather pouch. He kept this pouch in his bloodied inner garment. In the same place he tucked the mysterious and damning scroll.

Zero tried his luck once more, searching for any relevant items but could only make do with the straw hat, boots and short knife he found.

He limped to the entrance of the tent then, taking a peek at the malicious outside world. The clouds were dark.

A storm was coming. Somehow, Zero knew this storm would bring much more than just snow.

He shut the tent back, breathing shakily. He didn't want to go back out. He was an orphan now. Deserted by his last family and thrown into a game in which he had no say.

His resolve was too soft. He was a coward.

' If I could stay in this tent forever...'

But Zero knew he couldn't. That would be torture. Flashes of his battle with the monsters from the night before teased at his mind, reminding him of the thrill.

A face flashed in his memory. The face of the Three Armed Woman he had smashed to death. He remembered how good it felt.

' Am I a bad person? Why do I....why do I enjoy this?'

He gulped.

The winds howling outside gave no answer.

The only way to know was forward. He had to know what this second life entailed. His first life was a sham. His second life had to have something more to offer.

Whatever it was, he had to first find what the scroll wanted him to find.

Who was this Yanluo and why had he chosen him to eat the eye?

And the liquid shadow? Was it the same as the Corruption or worse? Rumours of a certain mad cultivator opening hell. That had to be a fable! But how could he explain all these events?

To this, the wind had an answer.

Forward.

Zero knew what he had to do. The Imperial Jin city. He had to go there. If there was any place he could find anything remotely out of the ordinary, it was there.

The boy gritted his teeth and pulled on the straw hat that shielded his face from view and the snow. He reached down and tore a piece of old cloth before wrapping it around his wound. It hurt to do but he had to.

After this, he took a breath and stepped back out, ready to brave the wind.

The next instant, his hat went flying off.

' Well, if it isn't the damned wind making fun of me.'

He grunted and limped his way to the hat, tying it tighter around his face this time.

Then he set off. A scared boy. Alone, cold and with a thousand odds stacked against him.

For this young one, what did the future possibly have in store?