Chest

Cough!

My body crashed into the wall, and I coughed up blood, the impact a massive strain on my body. I heard cracking sounds coming from my back, affirming to me that I had broken some ribs if not my spine. However, my pain receptors were shut down by my brain —the intensity of the pain must have been too much, and as such, I was unable to be sure.

"ACK! Fuck." I whimpered.

Being smashed against the wall was not part of the plan, and as my body crashed onto the floor, rolling about from the momentum, I found that I had broken most of my ribs due to them moving about inside me. My sense of pain came back to me, and suddenly I couldn't think.

"AAARRGHH! OWIE! OUCH! FUCK!" The pain was unlike what I had felt before. Compared to this, cutting myself open with a blade was child's play, and awakening an Element was only a little worse. The only difference was that this would last, much, much longer.

In my overconfidence, I had forgotten to buy a potion. The sleeping powder was meant to take effect almost immediately, if not instantaneously. There was surely a good lesson to be learned there, but I was in too much pain to take note of it.

The crocodile that kept thrashing about the sewer finally calmed down and looked around to find me.

Its bulbous, yellow eyes landed on me, anger in its eyes. 

'You don't like what I've done, do you?' Although the crocodile had yet to be hurt, it was clear through its eyes that my accomplishment had tarnished its pride. Even if the beast couldn't speak, it had emotion like any other. It would have been a top predator in the sewer, so my actions were degrading.

It charged at me, intent on crushing and maybe eating me, so I hurried to get up.

The pain in my chest took most of my attention from me, so I had little to focus on steadying myself to get up. Luckily, however, I hadn't rolled too far from the wall. I placed my hand against it, using it to push myself up.

I went from lying down to my knees, but the effort drained me. Exhausted, I stared at the beast that only needed a few seconds to reach me.

'No, not yet! I don't have a real reason to fight, but do I need one? NO!' I thought, pushing through the strain, forcing myself to rise.

I propelled off from two knees, lifting my left leg to place my foot on the ground. However, I leaned further against the wall as I did, requiring more aid to stand. Then, I put pressure on my left leg, lifting the right.

Once I stood, I forced myself off the wall to stand alone. My breathing was weak, and I was close to losing consciousness, but that didn't matter. The crocodile would fall soon, I just needed to live long enough.

'Move goddammit, move!' One foot in front of the other, I walked, teetering left and right. A breeze could have knocked me on my ass at that moment.

'Haha, yeah! I'm gonna make it!' I thought, looking ahead of myself. Suddenly, a doubt appeared. I only had a few seconds last I looked, right?

I turned my head to peer at the crocodile, only to find it was mere meters from me.

'Ah, fuck.' The last thought that ran through my head was, 'It was a good run.'

I closed my eyes, waiting for the beast's jaws to close around my body, aware nothing I could do would get me far enough away. 

THUD! SKRR-

Hearing a sound, I opened my eyes to see the crocodile unconscious, skidding the last meter toward me.

It stopped just ahead of me, tapping me with its snout, causing me to topple over. 

'Thank god!' I thought, falling unconscious myself.

---

'Urgh.' I stirred from my slumber, awakening only to be met by pain.

"ARGH!" I cried, coughing up more blood. 'So, my lung was punctured too? Makes sense, I guess.'

I wasn't sure how long it had been since I had fallen asleep, but it couldn't have been too long.

Exerting as much strength as possible, I tilted my head to look at the crocodile. 

'Still asleep, huh? Good.'

Now, all I had to do was get up and zap it, frying its insides until it died.

For the second time in however long, I hobbled to my feet. It was arduous, much more than before, requiring several breaks and the help of the wall, but I did it.

Once on my feet, I limped over to the crocodile's mouth, searching for the thin metal string that would carry the current to its stomach.

'Where is it?' I looked around, spotting the string coiled around one of the crocodile's teeth, only a small portion left outside.

I bent down to grab it, knocking the wind out of myself, and unwrapped it from around the tooth.

Soon, I held the cable in my hand and was ready to kill the beast.

'God I'm so over this fight.' I thought as I released Lightning through the cable, envisioning it being as hot as possible, and imagining that it traveled to every inch of the beast. Lighting killed by inducing cardiac arrest, but it could also kill through the heat; it was 5 times hotter than Earth's sun, and as such could easily burn the beast to a crisp.

ZAP- CRACKLE! POP!

Due to the crocodile being asleep, none of its internal defenses worked, and so it succumbed quickly.

Quickly, the room began to be suffused by the smell of both fish and chicken, which I assumed was the smell of roast crocodile, so I enjoyed what I could.

The smell was much better than what I had been smelling for the past ~3 days —the smell of rotten, putrid waste alongside the smell of decay.

Every so often, as I breathed, I would cough up blood, but I wanted to be sure that it was dead, so I used all of my Energy. It took me a while, 3 minutes of constant use to be precise, as my control over Energy had improved so much.

'If I ration it, I could easily fight for 15 to 20 minutes.' I noted in my head.

Once I was completely drained of Energy, and I knew the crocodile wouldn't get up, I turned to face the path that the crocodile had blocked.

'Finally.' I walked along the passage, limping and occasionally coughing up blood. I also checked to see if I was bleeding outside my body, but there were only a few cuts.

'Great, so it's mostly internal.' That was not good. Internal bleeding was much worse than external, so I had hoped that it was external. It would make my life much easier.

I kept a slow pace toward the chamber that held the chest, and soon I was there.

The chamber was just as it was described in the book. The sewage between the passageways cut off, and the tunnel opened up into a dome made of the same brick as the rest of the sewers.

Two lanterns looked too advanced for their design; whoever made them hadn't thought too much into using accurate materials, leading to them looking rather odd. they were too sci-fi.

In the middle of the room sat a chest, the chest.

I stepped toward the chest, beaten and battered, but full of excitement.

Kneeling down, I opened the lid.

Out of the chest came the ghostly presence, barely visible in the light, tinting the air it occupied with a milky white. Suddenly, the thing flew at me and entered my body. I could now hear it.

"Finally, a body to take! You're mine now!" It screamed in my head before a gut-wrenching pain came from my body and soul.

The tattoos on my chest, arm, and back began to glow white just like Alexander's had, amplifying the pain that I felt.

"ARGH!" I cried aloud, still sore all over and now in more pain, but it did nothing.. Minutes passed as the being tried to wrest control of my own body from me before it finally gave up.

"Strange, why can't I possess you?" The ghost left my body, hovering around before its eyes fell on the crest that sat on my chest.

"Haha, get fucked." I said. The pain I experienced was solely from the soul, but it felt as if it came from the body as well, which combined with my injuries, made it worse.

"Ah, motherfucker! WHY!?" It yelled, doing what I assumed was its version of stomping the ground. "Tell my parents I loved them."

Suddenly, the tattoo glowed an ominous black, and the air began to swirl. Gales were created from the force, and I watched as the ghostly being was sucked in alongside the air. It entered my body once more, but this time, I couldn't feel its presence.

Due to all the pain and fatigue, I fell unconscious for the umpteenth time. 'Not again.'