Dead mud pig
"Pluk."
The stone colliding with the flesh bones created a muffled sound.
The skull of the creature caved in as the stone pierced through the flesh around its head. Blood sprayed out like geysers to the area around. Instantly, the snow got covered in blood.
For a second, nothing happened. The mud pig was stunned. Having lost half its brain, it couldn't even move itself. It almost looked dead to Aru.
But immediately after, he heard a horrifying squeal.
"Kleeeeeee…"
The sound of its cries was unlike any other. It was so different from the usual cries of the mud pigs that it felt more like the cry of the parasite rather than the mud pig.
The creature tried to stand up startling Aru. But luckily it failed. The injuries were deep enough to paralyse it.
But before Aru could relax, he saw something horrifying.
From the injured head of the parasitised mud pig, tendrils of blood began to emerge. They extended outwards and wrapped around the injuries trying to heal the wound.
Aru felt a chill crawl up his spine watching this.
Fortunately, he was not the kind that would jump into a battle without thinking.
Even if the brain of the mud pig was damaged and it was almost dead, the parasite was still alive. That spelled trouble for him.
'What should I do to kill it? Even a brain injury wasn't able to instantly kill the creature.'
'And what would happen next? Would the parasite emerge from the creature and try to infect something else once I kill the host? Or will it die with the host?'
'Shit, there's no time to think.' Aru found the tendrils of blood jumping around faster and faster and thought.
'If it can heal the injuries from the fall, it might be able to heal that wound.' Aru recognised the fact immediately.
'I need to kill it before that.'
Without wasting a single second, he began to lift the stone using the rope.
Underneath, he saw the horrifying injury the stone had caused.
The mud pig was almost in a dead state.
It was not actively strengthening its body with spirit energy, that might be why the stone caused that much damage.
Once the stone was lifted, he saw what the blood tendrils were doing much more clearly.
In the dim moonlight, he saw the flesh and blood around its head being rearranged. The wounds were being sewn together to stop the bleeding while the bones were pushed and moved to join together.
'No, you won't.'
Aru dropped the stone again from above the mud pig's head.
He was not going to allow it to heal.
Whatever he had done seemed to have paralysed the creature. It could do nothing but scream and wreath around in the ground. Before it fully healed, Aru decided to end it.
The stone fell again with enormous force.
"Thuck."
The blood splattered again.
But the tendrils were still moving.
"Once again."
Lifting the stone, he dropped it again.
"Once more."
"Thuck."
"Once more."
"Thuck."
"Once more."
"Thuck."
…
Aru felt fatigued. He had lifted the stone and dropped it almost half a dozen times at this point. And yet, the tendrils were trying to repair the body.
"System. Link with it."
He called out to inspect what was happening.
[Rank 1 Mud Pig (parasitised) <Spirit energy 10.9>]
The spirit energy had dropped to 10 units, but the thing was still alive.
"How is that possible." He said with an astonished face looking at the bloody mess below.
The entirety of the head, above the neck, had completely turned into a mush. Flesh, bones, brains and body fluids were crushed and merged into the consistency of a meat patty.
If a burger joint had seen it, they would have mistaken it for a burger patty and made a burger out of a 'living' thing.
That was how crazy it looked to Aru.
Nonetheless, the spirit energy it had was slowly decreasing as it healed the body. That was the only plus side Aru could see once he inspected its details.
'But I can't wait for its spirit energy to be consumed.' He thought once he realised that his body was also aching due to the continuous action of lifting and dropping the stone.
'I need to end. So, I need to locate the parasite and kill it.'
Aru decided to drop his passive way of fighting. He quickly climbed down realising that there was no immediate danger to his life.
He took out his cooking knife and went behind the creature.
'Usually, in zombie films, you have to destroy the head to kill the zombies. But that not working. So, I presume the parasite is not in its head.'
'Then where else can it be.'
'The thoracic cavity, the abdominal cavity or even the spine or blood vessels.'
It can be anywhere but he decided to begin his process of elimination.
He was pretty sure that the parasite wouldn't jump out and infect him considering the abuse he had done to the mud pig.
If it was in a position to leave the host body, it would have done it already.
Taking the knife, he slowly approached the creature. He was just inches away from the mud pig.
The slowly trickling snow had created a thin layer over its body. It was also freezing the tendrils that were healing the body.
Aru noticed this fact as he closed in on the creature.
His confidence rose as he realised that the creature was in an extremely weakened state where even the environment was unfavourable to it.
"All the nerves that are related to motor functions pass through the spine. It is the best place you can infect if you are a parasite after the brain."
Aru thrust the metallic knife into the spine of the mud pig which was lying on its side. He began from the topmost part near the neck and began poking.
The knife was less than six inches tall and sharp. It plunged into the flesh effortlessly and stabbed into the gaps between the spinal column.
'I don't know animal anatomy that much. But I think I stabbed the spinal cord.'
But nothing happened. The creature didn't move or react.
The wounds leaked some blood and tendrils also emerged from the site of the wound trying to heal it.
But he didn't stop there, he began to slowly stab all over the spine starting from the top.
*Tremble*
Suddenly, when he reached about halfway point, the creature trembled.
"Ah!" He was astonished by the change.
*Stab*
Again it trembled.
He was onto something.
The knife was stabbing right through the spine and to the point just below the lungs and above the intestine.
To clear his doubt, he moved around the knife and little.
"There."
He felt something catching on the knife.
In a body part where there shouldn't be any solid or hard objects, he was hitting something.
"System link."
[Rank 1 Mud Pig (parasitised) <Spirit energy 10.3>]
There was no considerable drop in spirit energy. But he knew that there was something there.
Aru began to stab around wantonly.
When he met with obstruction, he stabbed harder.
The body of the mud pig quivered, but Aru was focused.
It plunged again and again, until…
[Mission complete.
Rank 1 creature defeated. +5 link.
Nemesis lifeform killed. +1 link.
]
[Do you want to absorb spirit energy?]
"Finally it's dead."
Aru was pleased.
And the system was now asking him to confirm if he wanted to absorb spirit energy.
'Of course I want to.'
"Yes."
He confirmed and a burst of spirit energy began to travel from the corpse of the mud pig into his body.
His body began instantly full.
But the absorption of the spirit energy didn't stop. It continued even when he was full.
However, it didn't heal his body, unlike the time he absorbed more energy from his link, the oak tree.
"System show status."
[Symbiotic links available - 8]
[Spirit identity - Seed form, Elemental affinity - Water 70%, Earth 10%, Lightning 1%, Wood 1%]
[Spirit energy - 3.9]
[Missions:
Daily mission - Share all of the user spirit energy with the linked lifeform. Reward +1 link.
Challenge mission - Defeat a rank 1 lifeform. Reward +1 link.]
'Huh! My challenge mission changed from rewarding me with +5 links to +1 link. And most importantly, my maximum spirit energy increased by 0.9 units.'
While he was looking at the display.
Spirit energy changed from 3.9 to 4. He could see it update live as he absorbed the energy from the corpse of the nemesis lifeform.
'Freaking awesome.' Aru was elated. His lips widened into a grin as he looked at the corpse of the creature