It had been four days since the night where I had forsaken my humanity and committed myself to the path of a monster.

It was a weird feeling. Half of me felt as if I had been liberated, casting off the imposed shackles of my birth while the rest of me felt as if I had been condemned to some unknown fate.

-"I guess only time will tell where this path leads me."

Although it had been difficult at first, my conscience seemingly eating away at my sanity, as the hours turned into days the weight that felt as if it would crush me started to alleviate.

It probably helped that I had let myself revert to an almost beast-like existence as I hunted the scavengers who came to claim the little remains left in the campsite and experimented with my new body during the quiet times, leaving little time for reflection.

The wind shifted direction, now blowing towards me as I resumed my slow, silent crawl to the top of the hill in my bone-like armour.

It was not long after I had finished my gruesome task at the campsite, laying the heads of both Clare and the Alpha to rest, deep in the ground where they would not be disturbed, that I had discovered that the white substance did not stop at creating an exoskeleton of bone around my hands and arms.

While I could not see myself due to the lack of water or reflective material, I quickly discovered through touch that the hardened substance had encased my entire body. The image in my head was terrifying yet fitting after what I had just done and, in some small, unexplainable way, comforted me greatly.

Restraining the urge to swish my tail, a habit I had picked up now that biting my nails was pretty much suicidal, I continued my painfully slow crawl to the summit. If I were too fast, I would likely spook my prey and have to extort a significant amount of energy.

Something that I was way too lazy to do willingly.

At the start, the spike hounds had been drawn in by the stench of blood and been easy prey, almost walking right up to me as if I were nothing more than a fellow scavenger. That golden time of plenty ended roughly after my fortieth kill, the hounds becoming extremely wary of my presence and even started avoiding the area.

Af first I had thought that it might be due to the growing heap of flesh and bone that used to be their kin, the parts that I didn't consider worth digesting, however, after getting sick of them keeping their distance, I gave chase.

The new power of my body was intoxicating; however, when I returned from the slaughter, I discovered six more, as well as a vulture-like creature happily eating, defecating and even sleeping at my makeshift lure. It seemed that the animals were not wary of the place, but of me, which was weird as I had ensured there were no survivors to tell any tales.

From that day onwards, I was forced to leave periodically, using the time to condense my body, get a couple of hours sleep and run around a bit, before returning to slaughter the next batch.

Flexing my sore muscles, feeling a deep ache in my bones, I couldn’t help but shudder at the relentless regime I had undertaken.

Kill, eat, grow, condense, sleep and repeat.

I threw myself into improving my body and reflexes, using the seemingly never-ending supply of volunteers for nutrients and combat experience as I honed my deadly craft.

I spent nearly all my time in my 'combat' form which felt more natural and due to the incredible flexibility of my joints, had significantly altered how my body moved, suiting my new mindset.

While casually travelling, I moved on the balls of my feet, using my tail to balance me as I stalked forward. When I was giving chase or needed to move quickly, I reverted to all fours, giving me a massive boost in speed, agility and precision most could only dream about.

It was while my movements evolved that I learnt the most significant boon to possessing a tail, which had become by far my favourite body part. Even though spikes lined its side and top, making it appear to be a weapon, it was for balance and, if used correctly, could rapidly change my speed and direction as well as be a good distraction.

Much to my dismay, it would fall off when I reverted to my human appearance making that form even more unappealing.

While this was great, there was a problem with how readily available and easily killed, my prey was. I gorged myself until I could barely move.

Initially, I solved this problem by, very painfully, increasing my size as I continued to feast, however, it wasn't long before my body became sluggish and difficult to manoeuvre, making it increasingly difficult to catch the more agile prey.

Instead of being satisfied with what I had, and sleeping it off as any big cat would, I did something radical. If I could grow and shrink, why couldn't I condense and enhance?

The process was agonizing, so much so that I was forced to ask for the voice's help to continue the process before promptly passing out but the results were staggering.

After each iteration, it was if I was an entirely new creature, nearly doubling in speed and strength compared to my previous self. Even my exoskeleton improved drastically, becoming smoother, the spikes and claws sharper and incredibly durable. A small negative was that when I shed my armour, it no longer turned to dust but that actually provided to be a slight advantage as I could eat the remains and regain some of the energy spent.

While challenging at first, then only in large numbers, the spike hounds, giant vulture-like birds and the occasional lone wolf soon couldn't even compete with me.

Soon their numbers slowed to a trickle, the ones left much smarter and more cautious than their overconfident peers.

It mattered little. It wouldn't save them.

That wasn't the only change my body had undertaken. I had proven my theory, at least in part, about my ability to 'steal' skills of others.

My suspicions were first aroused when I was somehow able to communicate with the Alpha before she succumbed to her wounds, the feelings eerily familiar to what I felt when the Crawler had used to speak to me.

Unfortunately, the process, like everything else in my life, was nothing but a pain.

After consuming the man named Frank, I nearly doubled over in pain as I felt something, or more specifically seven things, forming around my body before releasing worm-like tendrils that connected themselves together. Not long after the last one connected, somewhere near my chest, my muscles started tingling and the thought that if I squeezed the newly formed object, I could force my muscles, no my body, to move at a much higher speed.

Trying it out, I was ecstatic with the results. It was almost worth the pain, however, after four or five bursts, I knew it was spent and would need to regenerate the energy somehow.

After calming down from the adrenaline rush that had taken my mind away from what I had been doing, I moved onto Mark.

Although I didn’t feel anything new being created in my body, the sensation of my muscles changing and developing, slightly reducing the effectiveness of the speed improvement in exchange for increased strength was apparent.

Frank had used his speed to get behind me during our confrontation while Mark has used his strength to send me flying. The Crawler has spoken to me through its mind. The pieces of the puzzle started to come together.

However, with the sensation that I would never be able to move as fast, at least without improving in other areas, as I had done before I absorbed Marks ability, I knew that there was a balance to be met and that I didn't have any control in what the end result be.

I also instinctually knew that it would only work on areas that I already had the potential for, that the objects that had seemingly been created were already there, just in a near none existent state and forced to awaken as my body realised this through the consumption of another.

As if to prove my point, when it came to Clare and the Alpha, I didn't notice a single change. While this was relieving, it also troubled me as I started to wonder if there was a limit or unusual conditions that I had to meet.

My sombre mood was replaced as my head peaked over the hill, my lips twitching in anticipation, spotting a few spike hounds milling around the edge of the valley.

Looking up to gauge how long it would be before nightfall, I slid down slightly and settled in.

Due to the white colour of my exoskeleton, if I tried to approach any closer now I would be seen long before I reached them. It was a personal point of pride, as well as practicality, that made me take the cautious route. There could be no survivors as I knew they were intelligent and could communicate.

The last thing I wanted to do was to walk into the same fate as those from the visions.

I shrugged, it was still a few hours from getting dark and even then, instead of returning to wherever they came from, the spike hounds would, more than likely, bury themselves in the sides of the nearby hills. I suspected that this wasn't only so they could sleep somewhat safely but so they could ambush any potential prey that wandered by like I had done when I first arrived.

At that time, with my vastly improved senses, finding and dispatching them would be child's play. So much so, that I had consciously started limiting my strength and speed. This wasn't because I was conceited, but because I always wanted to struggle so that I could improve.

The theory was, that not only would I increase my workout, improving my muscles naturally, but it would force me to improve my movements and gain much-needed experience.

I didn't know if it worked, but I definitely felt better for it.

Closing my eyes, which didn’t seem to do anything as I could somehow see through the solid lump of bone in front of my face, I focused inwards and started to condense my structure further.

I knew I was coming to the limit of what I could do, at least in this environment as, although my size shrunk considerably, my weight didn't.

At first, it seemed like a good problem to have, the extra weight making my charges much more devastating. However, I quickly revised my thoughts.

At full speed, it took over ten meters for me to stop or change direction, killing any momentum and resulting in a few, almost comical escape attempts by my prey as they ducked to the sides.

That wasn't the only problem. When it rained, it was if I was thrown onto a frozen lake with boiling blood coursing through my feet.

Not only did I find it extremely difficult to find traction to move, thankfully due to my clawed feet I somewhat mitigated this problem, but the moment I attempted to turn, I would slip and slide off until I had built up enough dirt or hit the side of a hill.

I quickly decided that I was a fair weather preditor, and during the few times it had rained since, I hunkered down and slept. My exoskeleton doing an excellent job of keeping me dry and warm.

My tail flick in annoyance. It wasn't as if I had instantly given up.

Due to the seeming flexibility of my bone amour, I had tried making the surface area of my foot more substantial, but it only resulted in a less than satisfactory conclusion.

My form was set, and I could not change it.The only things that I could manipulate, excluding the overall size, were the elevation of the spikes on my back, tail and arms.

It was a weird sensation, like a muscle but at the same time not.

I could push the spikes out, almost making them stick at 90 degrees, relax and let them point out naturally at around 45 degrees and pull them flush with the bone. It even seemed there were little grooves in the bone, allowing the spikes to catch so I didn’t need to concentrate on keeping them down all the time.

Of course, I needed to expend extra effort to push them out again, but it was a welcome change as the spikes got in the way more often than not, especially when stalking my prey or trying to lay down.

Releasing a deep breath, I tried to get comfortable as I felt the suns warm rays on my shell, another welcome change but the best one by far was the waste I produced had been pretty much eradicated.

Yes, I still needed to relieve myself from time to time, the concentrated toxins almost nauseating if you were unlucky enough to breathe in, but it meant I didn’t have to keep breaking off parts of my armour multiple times a day, especially with the amount I was eating, so I considered it a good thing.

The silence of the plains echoed around me, letting me listen to slow, rhythmic heartbeat, gently putting me to sleep.

-”Umm, Al?” A warm, encompassing feeling enveloped me as the feminine voice of the parasite that called my body, or if what she said was true, home, spoke yet unlike before, hostility did not burst forth from me.

Two days ago, during one of my more painful transformations, she had tried to distract me by telling me that she could separate from my body for a short period of time and eager to get rid of her, I jumped at the opportunity.

As soon as I had finished, I forced the subject, and after some very heated words, she relented.

Initially, my plan was to gain as much distance from her as possible, the thought of a parasite infecting my body with the ability to control my thoughts and emotions almost too much to bear but, when it happened, it felt like my world had ended.

I felt empty and, for the first time since arriving here, alone. It was as if a part of my soul had been torn away.

Despair threatened to overwhelm me as what appeared to be water, seeped from my shell before forming into a three-foot water snake, wrapping itself around my arm. A much larger version of the creature who bit me back in the clearing.

My body and soul shook as I forced myself not to scream out in pure misery. This made the pain from my body seem like lovers kiss in comparison and I wanted to do nothing more than make it stop.

The snake didn’t show the same restraint, flailing around as its pained, sobbing screeches echoed in my mind, what it felt a perfect sync for my own raging emotions.

However, nothing prepared me for the sensation when it’s struggles resulted in it falling from my arm. The moment I lost contact with it was honestly the worst moment in my entire life, being locked in a box and dropped onto an alien planet included.

My armour clacked together as I shuddered violently at the memory, my body and mind not wanting to recall how it had felt.

Not even a moment has passed since we lost contact but my hand was already on the snake, and I instantly pulled it to my chest, squishing its body into mine.

As the creature was seemingly made from water, it flowed around my fingers, but as if suddenly understanding my intent, it started seeping through the bone and back into me.

I lay on my back, alone in the dark, convulsing for hours. The warmth slowly returning to me as the voice and I mentally latched onto each other and refused to let go.

I finally understood what she meant. We were one and my position on the subject of her occupancy completely flipped as I realised that I would never force her to leave as that would be like throwing away part of myself.

Not only would I never force her to leave, but I also would never allow it. I would burn the world and everyone in it before I would feel that sensation again. No, not only burn, I would destroy everything.

Such strong emotions and sentiment were foreign to me, and I felt irritated at myself for feeling this way, but I quickly accepted it. It wasn't the strangest thing to happen to me, and honestly, it didn't feel too bad to need someone, even if they were technically a parasite fused into your very being.

It was at that moment, I decided to give the voice a name. I know it was unoriginal, but it felt right. I didn’t know if she had a natural gender or if she selected it due to my biases in sex, but she was female and a talking snake. To me, there was only one thing name that suited her.

-”What do you want Eve?”

Even though I had changed my mind so drastically, I couldn't alter my attitude too quickly, my pride wouldn't allow it.

Not that it mattered anyway. I could sense that Eve knew how I felt about her now and, in her own way, she had become extremely clingy since our few seconds of separation, often attempting to talk to me even if we had nothing to talk about.

-”It's silent.”

-”And?” I asked, even when the answer was already forming in my mind and I pushed myself back down the hill and into the long grass.

The grasslands were always noisy, especially with my enhanced senses. Mainly insects and birds but every now and again you could hear the larger creatures that called this place home, however, at the moment, even my heartbeat sounded like thunder.

There was only one reason a place like this went silent. Something dangerous was nearby and it wasn't me for a change.

I couldn’t help but grin. I had been getting bored of the spike hounds and needed to challenge so I could measure my progression.

Sadly, that bitch called Fate wasn't quite bored of me just yet.