The Gift of Death

Looking outside, he saw rats. An army of rats was gathering at his tree, and most of them were crippled. But one stood out - the same white rat with red eyes.

That little bastard didn't run away because it was scared, but to call for reinforcements.

The rats poured in 4-5 at a time. Having nothing suitable at hand in this case, he forcefully tore off a horn from his spear and began to puncture each rat. The first one jumped right at him, but he quickly pierced it.

At the same time, the second one leaped towards his right leg, trying to bite. But instead, it received a kick in the groin and flew straight into the wall, shattering down. The third surrounded him and tried to attack from behind.

Not knowing what to do, the black man grabbed the fourth rat by the tail and threw it at the third. He did all this in a matter of seconds. His brain worked at maximum - not at 100%, but at 120%. He realized that he had become much faster at thinking, and there were several reasons for it:

Threat;

The damn system or status that fueled his mind, making him stronger;

A failed ritual from which he gained a tiny bit of combat experience.

But, in truth, it was all bullshit. The third was unnecessary because the army caught me once when I was still young, and they trained me for three months. I also did Kung-Fu, but not for long - just a year.

Right now, I'm trying to gather that smoke again. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I think it's the purest necro-energy. This time, I gathered all the energy 5% faster. He couldn't scratch his head properly when eight rats came in at once. He struck and pierced those rats. But one of them still managed to bite him.

The bite wasn't serious, so he didn't look at the wound. Because of that, he didn't notice that instead of blood, some green slimy substance was flowing out of him. But it quickly hissed and two drops of something black began to drip with it. Falling to the ground, they began to hiss and destroy the black sand or soil. I don't even know what it is now - soil or sand. Or maybe something in between.

Killing all the rats that came, he realized that a new group of rats was approaching and now there were more of them - 18. Again, he pierced and kicked, even grabbing some of them by the tail and hitting others with them. Or against the wall several times. He struck to make sure they died. Looking at the small pile of dead rats, he said quietly with concern, "If I keep sitting in this hole, I'll definitely die. This won't work, I have to get rid of them somehow. That white rat sitting there, still sitting there. Only sometimes making scary sounds... Does she control this whole army?"

His eyes became harder. Taking the stick, he pushed the horn onto the head again, making it a spear, and putting on a cloak, he ran straight outside. Many of the rats stopped and attacked him

One rat was killed, another flew away, and others bit him. Those who tried to bite him from the back were met with a cloak, which prevented them from ultimately breaking through his flesh. And then they either flew away or fell dead. Looking at the white rat, he jerkily ran straight towards her to kill her. But when he reached her, she dodged and ran away, and instead more rats came. He killed them and at the same time was wounded. At the same time, he instinctively did not forget to gather energy.

Time slowly passed, and the rats became more aggressive, and he received more serious wounds.

Looking around, he searched for the white rat with his eyes. But she shrank and hid and did not show herself. How to find this rat? Stop! She was making strange sounds to control this army! Well, to find you on instinct, I must take a risk. With these thoughts, he began to concentrate his attention on hearing. Weakly, but he was able to determine where these strange sounds were coming from.

Ignoring the other rats and his wounds, he began to run straight towards the source of the sound. Approaching the source, he realized that the damn rat wasn't there. But the sound became stronger and the rats became even angrier. All at once they attacked him. But only one black rat sat there slowly moving away. "So that's it. You've been hiding here all this time." - Making a leap, he approached the rat.

He hit the strange rat right on the head, but before he could finish, a little white mouse jumped out of its mouth. Looking at him with its tiny eyes, it ran away from the black man.

Seeing the creature run, he resumed defending himself against the other rats' attacks. At the same time, the white rat turned and ran straight at the enemy. When she reached a distance of four meters, she leaped right onto the fighting man.

Killing and trying to defend himself from the rats, he realized it had become easier to fight the rodents and collect necro-energy faster.

And yes, it was indeed necro-energy. Gathering it in large quantities, I understood slightly less than 1% of its composition, what it was made of. And with that pitiful 1%, I realized what energy I had been collecting all this time.

After killing another rat, he saw the other rats stop. Suddenly feeling threatened, he looked to the source and saw the white mouse jump. No, it began to change. Its head grew to the size of a wolf's, while its body remained the same. Approaching at high speed, it opened its mouth. The mouth was toothless, but the teeth grew before his eyes, like those of a shark with multiple rows of teeth. And it flew straight at me.

It was already too late, and the rats left no place to dodge the attack. Grabbing the spear with both hands, I was ready to use it as a shield. But the rat grew its right paw and, in the next moment, hit the spear. I felt a strong blow and shock. Without thinking, I used my left hand as a shield, which ended up in the monster's mouth and was bitten. But before being severed, the tattoo with a triangle and a book glowed and moved to my right hand.

It all happened so fast that almost everything was done intuitively. And now the rats, which had refrained from attacking for a few seconds so as not to interfere, began to attack again.

The disgusting creature held a hand in its mouth. It was ready to eat it as soon as it spat it out, and began to growl like a dog. Where the left hand had been, there was now a terrible wound. And where blood should have been dripping, a few drops of black substance were dripping, which began to hiss and destroy everything it touched like acid.

The angry gaze of the mouse with a wolf's head, without a nose and ears and with only one paw, looked at its enemy, who was fighting with all his might. At the same time, the surprise on his ugly, wrinkled face did not fade.

What is running through me? What's wrong with my hand? What about the book? These questions swirled in his head. But he didn't stop and continued to fight off the new wave of rats.

The mouse with a wolf's head was ready to attack again. But it quickly stopped, grew long ears, and began to wiggle them. After a few seconds, it looked at its enemy. Then, through the pain, it became normal again. The little white mouse ran away, leaving the rats to attack him.

After half a minute, there was the sound of someone flying. And then a loud roar that lasted more than 7 seconds.

A strong sense of danger rang alarm bells. Looking around, he couldn't even see a trace of the mouse. The bitch ran away. The feeling warned of danger, looking again where that scumbag had been, he saw his hand.

Mentally preparing for a few seconds and fighting off rats, he ran to his hand and immediately moved the spear under his torn left arm. Grabbing his hand, he ran with all his might towards the hole. The rats, meanwhile, did not give up and attacked him constantly. But they all stopped at the cruel aura that bound them.

At the same time, he grabbed his hand and ran towards the hole near the tree. When he reached the entrance, he couldn't take another step. A deadly aura enveloped him, and the roar was sometimes audible.

Realizing that he could die, he made a few steps with all his might and jumped into the hole, clinging to the wall so that he couldn't be seen.

A loud crash enveloped the place as a huge gray creature fell to the ground. It was covered in torn wings and had many small wounds, some old and some new. It had a long and powerful neck, and at the end of it was a huge mouth with protruding teeth.

Watching this scene, Tanya had new questions. What is it doing? Why is it spitting out its prey? And why is it doing this?

Watching as this wonder began its hunt once again, he felt some doubt. Watching the beast, he felt that something was missing. It had devoured and then began to emit some sort of necro-energy. Wait, where was that strange mist? Was it hunting for that misty smoke, who knows? But it was definitely after it.

At some point, there were no more rats left. Logically, it should have left, but it didn't. It sat there, its mouth moving as if it had smelled something. It shifted its mouth to the stone tree where another snack was hiding.

With a running start, it slammed into the tree. But it was stronger and apparently tougher than other trees. Seeing that nothing happened, it became more furious. How did this creature sense me? It only has a mouth. But it moved as if it had ears, nose, and eyes.

But that's not important, it wants to eat me. What should I do, whom should I pray to? I don't know if this universe is real, but everything is like in anime. So I'll pray not only to everyone I know but also to you, Anime God Kadzima.

He began praying to all the gods. At the same time, the dragon-like creature was achieving its first successes. But suddenly, a new roar was heard from the forest, like that of a cheetah.

The creature stopped, hitting the tree, and as if looking with its mouth at the place where the cry came from.

A three-meter black panther emerged from the forest. But it was not entirely identical to the panthers on Earth. This creature had long fox-like ears, and its tail was long and fluffy. Its length was twice as long as its main body.

Looking at the dragon-like creature, the puma leaped and jumped right onto it, causing new wounds where there were recently old and new wounds.

Wait, where were those old wounds? Due to the whole situation, he couldn't see how his wounds were healing as he chewed on the rat.

With each passing moment, the puma became faster, until she became a black lightning bolt. New wounds appeared, but like the old ones, they healed. The dragon tried to attack, but the puma was too fast, and none of his attacks hit their target. He roared furiously, his anger boiling inside him. This creature had been bothering him for some time now, making it impossible for him to hunt properly.

For over five minutes, he tried to strike the puma, but to no avail. He roared powerfully again and began to run away. As he ran, he spread his wings and flew away.

The puma stopped and looked in the direction where the dragon had flown away. Looking around, she fixed her gaze on a tree at its roots. As she prepared to approach it, she heard the roar again. Growling, the puma ran after the dragon.

After sitting in silence for over five minutes, he saw something black crawl out of the hole. Sticking his head out of his burrow, he looked around and noticed pieces of meat, bones, and spoiled blood being thrown out by necro-energy.

His tattoo on his right arm began to burn, and he felt an intense desire to gather all of this harvest, if you could call it that. He was ready to come out, but then he stopped and sat down again. He fought against the desire that was obviously not his but from the book. Then he began to look at his severed hand, sadness and regret evident in his eyes. He would no longer be able to use both hands. He became disabled. Besides, it was too dangerous to go outside at the moment.

The desire to gather all this energy did not stop whispering to him. But after some time, he couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to hit his tattoo with his hand... but why, it was unclear, he had definitely lost his hand. Not that he had lost it, but he surely wouldn't be able to use it anymore if it was gone.

The desire to gather began to scream in his heart. He could no longer contain his anger. Someone wanted to control him.

Growling softly, he said, "You monsters, do you want me dead? Do you think that if I can do something when I'm incapacitated, I can protect myself from all these creatures?"

Having said everything that was on his mind, he calmed down. Just like the desire to gather energy, seeing that it had a shred of consciousness and could understand what he was saying. After a few seconds, he started again.

"Are you kidding me?... Hmm, that's not that damn feeling... You can connect my hand back. But for that, I have to become a full-fledged necromancer. Do I understand everything correctly?"

The tattoo blinked once, confirming that he understood everything correctly. That's why he wanted so badly to gather all this energy... But it's too dangerous. If I'm not mistaken, it's been more than three minutes since those creatures left. And as far as I know, after some time, when the main hunter hunts, scavengers come. They're weak, but there are a lot of them.

"I have to run... No, I'm good at running. I just run and run. And only when I have no chance to run, I fight. If in the beginning I couldn't do anything, then now..."

Looking at his right hand where a weakly pulsating triangle tattooed, with a book inside, he said, "With it, I can become what I dreamed of since childhood. Yes, it disappeared after those scenes from that illusion. But I cannot refuse. Refusing means death in this world... Mm."

He felt the book sending difficult but understandable thoughts into his brain again.

"So, you mean you're on my side? And if I want to survive in this... I didn't understand the last part?"

But no matter how much he asked, nothing else answered him in return. It seemed to say, "Stop beating around the bush and get to work."

With great effort, he managed to connect the stick and horn again, making a copy. Taking it in his hand, he tried to strike a few times. However, he realized that he could only deliver light blows.

"Ugh, I can't get used to it," he began to touch his left shoulder. "Well, goodbye Anime."

As he walked out, he saw the same familiar scene. Gathering his thoughts, he began to gather energy in his right hand. Slowly, in pieces, necro-energy began to gather. The book greedily absorbed every drop.

Slowly but surely, he walked across the battlefield. With each passing minute, the energy gathered faster. His previous experience and current skills helped a lot. If at the beginning he gathered all the energy in one place for 30 seconds, now he did it in 18 seconds - almost twice as fast.

When he was almost done, he heard barking. Turning to the source, he saw creatures walking between the trees, resembling wolves. They had cat paws, a tail a meter long, and a needle at the end like a bee's. Teeth came out of their mouths. They were slowly approaching.

Quickly realizing that they were scavengers, he turned around and ran as fast as he could.

Fortunately, they were moving slowly, as if they lacked the determination to approach the field. Maybe the cause of the battle was still there.

Entering the hole, he quickly started moving the rat corpses towards the entrance with one hand. Not the most brilliant idea, as they could notice and approach us. But I needed time.

Not long ago, the book warned him that he had gathered enough for the first time. And now it was more important to light his way. Finishing up, he took five somewhat undamaged rats.

Taking one in hand and leg, he extracted the guts from the corpses, managing to extract not only guts but also eyes, brains, and everything else. Then, following the book's instructions, he created a circle. A demonic circle, and inside it, he created a complex symbol, or otherwise known as a rune. Next to the circle, he made another one out of rat eyes. Nodding, he said, "Done."

Crossing his legs, he sat in the center of the circle. The book's tattoo on his right hand disappeared and appeared next to his feet. Opening itself, it began to flip pages on its own until it reached the desired page.

The book was called "Acceptance of the Gift of Death." It had everything written on how to know and create a ritual circle. All of this had already been done, completing the first stage, and the next stage was the spell itself.

"Calm down, calm down!" - he began to get nervous, and he began to calm himself.

Closing his eyes, full of anxiety and nervousness, he opened them a few moments later, full of determination. Clearing his mind of extraneous thoughts, he began to recite the spell aloud.

"Life and death. Beginning and end. Everything has its own path. Life grants beings the opportunity to start their journey, to rejoice, to think, to live. And death takes away, closing the path ahead. It takes away and purifies them of sins. But I am ready to reject the path given by life and accept the path where they are both intertwined. Where death dominates and life is only a servant, a slave. I am ready to give my life and accept you, DEATH. I am ready to embody you physically. I am ready to become the embodiment of death. I am ready to become a NECROMANCER..." After that, he began to recite ancient words that he could not understand. It was the language of death, which only death itself could understand.

***

At the same time, the scavengers began sniffing around the battlefield. Toppled stone trees, corpses of thousands of rats. It scared them, the fallen trees scared them the most, even if they were small. Only the most fearsome creatures could have done this.

But by the looks of it, he had already left this place for some time. Meaning they could feast, unfortunately this creature left nothing but this rotten meat...

One of them started barking, and all the others stopped and looked at the culprit. And he, in turn, barked next to a huge pile of rat corpses that were sitting right next to a giant tree. The tree was almost completely destroyed. It was a strong one...that tree. Looking at the pile of corpses, many of them looked at the one who was still barking, as if he was an idiot, and their expressions read "What does this moron find interesting in this pile of rats with no food?"

But as they got closer, they felt what they were all looking for...food. But the country seemed to emit a dangerous aura that only grew stronger every second.

Looking at each other, they began to drool. They only needed a few minutes and they would be inside. If this creature was either wounded or weak. Which was good for both of them. Emboldened, one began to bark loudly, and then the others began to bark loudly as well. The alpha looked at them as if they were retarded and began to growl to get them to shut up faster.

A bird's cry could be heard from afar. "Oh no," thought the leader, looking at the source of the sound. Then he looked at the culprits. If they had just worked, they would have something to eat now. And now they began to whimper like dogs, feeling their guilt.

From afar, a flock of gray and white birds could be seen. As they approached, they all descended onto the trees and began to stare intently at the herd of idiots.

These birds did not have a single feather. They were rough, full of pimples, and where there should have been feathers, there was gray ash that helped them fly along with the feathers on their wings. They had a smooth head without a beak, and instead, an illusory beak.

The birds began to survey the ground. They didn't see anything interesting except for the corpses of rats. But the fact that these competitors were sitting near a tree with cracks in it intrigued them the most. The leader of the bird flock was larger than the others. He flapped his wings a few times, catching the attention of the rest who were playing peek-a-boo.

Making sure that everyone was ready, he began to emit his strong voice, sounding like a dying tractor. As he shouted a few times, the alpha of the flock looked angrily at these bastards and began to emit a strong howl. The whole flock gathered behind the leader, making several circles. When everyone had gathered, the leader barked loudly at the main bird several times. She looked at the alpha with surprise a few times, but his surprised gaze turned to anger. Then he shouted and flew away, as did all the others. They flew in a circle, with the flock in the center, preparing for battle.