Orym began running back to the village as quickly as he could.

With Tim's superior speed and the fact that Orym was exhausted after their training, he caught up with him before Orym could take ten steps.

Tim tackled Orym to the ground, attempting to pin him down long enough to explain.

"Wait!" Tim yelled.

This only further terrified Orym, as he used his god-given strength to free himself from Tim's grasp.

Once freed, Orym grabbed the sword from Tim's head and pulled, leaving behind a nasty gash on Tim's scalp.

"Fuck!" Tim screamed. "That would have really hurt if I could feel pain!"

Orym was even more confused at this point but just continued his escape attempt.

As the terrified dark elf ran for his life, Tim followed close behind.

Having caught up with the elf, Tim tackled him from behind, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

Before Orym could get back up, Tim crawled on top of him, grabbing his neck in an attempt to stop him.

"WAIT, DAMNIT!" Tim yelled.

Orym desperately tried to free himself from Tim's grip, even going as far as to cut Tim's fingers off with his sword.

Once a few of Tim's fingers were gone, his grip lessened immensely, allowing Orym to free himself, only to continue running once more.

Tim had to do something, anything to stop Orym from telling everybody.

With that in mind, Tim decided to try something risky.

Tim pointed his hands at Orym, fingers or not, and began to chant something.

"May your flesh melt and skin fall."

Shortly after, a flood of black smoke began rushing towards Orym.

Without noticing it in his desperate stride, Orym continued running in his desperate stride.

After a few moments, however, the elf stopped in his tracks, the black smoke beginning to enter his body in the form of waves of pain.

With only a silent scream of pain, Orym dropped to the ground, limp.

Tim quickly began pacing towards Orym's unmoving body. Once he got there, he laid his fingers on Orym's wrist to check for a pulse. After a few long seconds, he took his fingers off his wrist and looked down, partly in sadness, but more in relief.

Orym wasn't going to be telling anybody his secret.

***

On his way to retrieve his things from the inn, Tim was in the middle of town.

Now that he's actually done something to justify the bitter looks he gets, he's not going to stick around and wait for someone to find out, leaving Tim at the mercy of the same people who kidnap you for being in their village's general vicinity.

Tim couldn't help but see a few familiar faces on his way to the inn. He saw Antony out inspecting the fruit stalls. He saw the same man who sold Mr. Gee his enchanted dagger.

Once Tim actually reached the Inn, however, he encountered a few more reminders of his time in the city.

Leah and Alexander could be seen talking to the innkeeper behind the desk, obviously not interested in buying a room.

Tim debated whether he should go in or not, but he came to the conclusion that they couldn't possibly know of Orym's death yet, giving him the courage to walk through the door.

Once on the other side, the two looked at him. Quickly, Alexander smiled and Leah just kept her usual "bitch face" as he liked to call it. It isn't that her face was necessarily "bitchy" at the moment, but it was hard to not have a "bitch face" when one was such a bitch.

So, being forced to make the first move, Tim has to choose between the two kidnappers or the stairs.

He chose the stairs.

On his way up, he heard two voices behind him, but he was unsure of what they were saying, as Tim was too immersed in the fear of being caught at the moment.

Once upstairs, Tim went into his room and shut the door behind him.

Tim began quickly packing his things up into his pack, taking every useful thing he could find.

He could hear knocks on his door, as well as muttering coming from behind it.

Do they know? How do I escape? Can I take them? These were all questions that Tim was asking himself in his head, desperate to know the answers to, but not willing to find out.

Tim had to find a way out of this and quick, lest he ruin this life too.

***

(Alexander and Leah POV)

"There's your guy, Leah," Alexander said, pointing to a twitchy man entering the inn.

"He's not my guy." Leah quickly retorted back with annoyance.

"What is up with you today?" Alexander asked. "I would've thought you'd be happy, considering how much you dislike the guy."

"If this guy getting kicked out is all it takes to make me happy, I wouldn't be this bitter all the time," Leah answered.

'At least she's aware of it.' Alexander remarked in his head.

Seeing Tim quickly rush to the stairs instead of towards them, both stopped for a moment.

"Huh. More than strange behavior right there." Alexander noted.

"He hasn't exactly shown to be a normal guy since the beginning." Leah pointed out.

"Touché." Alexander said.

Heading up after their evictee, Leah and Alexander approached Tim's door, listening in only to hear the frantic rhythm of things being tossed around haphazardly.

Alexander called from outside the door.

"Tim? You okay in there? It's been a while! We need to talk with you!"

No response.

Leah shook her head in disapproval before raising her foot in front of her.

"Wait, what are you-"

Alexander could barely get the words out before Leah kicked the door down with brute force. It was a fairly simple feat with the door being so old and flimsy, but it was impressive nonetheless.

What happened next surprised them both.

Tim was nowhere in sight.

***

Tim was frantically running through the streets of the village with his belongings, often bumping into a bystander, knocking them to the ground.

A young elven man with a tall frame saw Tim's behavior and rushed towards him under the assumption that he was a thief.

Tim had no time to waste struggling with the man, so he quickly used his one and only active ability, not in the attempt to kill the man, but merely to distract.

So, before the man could get too close, Tim whispered an ominous chant.

"May your flesh melt and skin fall."

As black smoke arose all around the good samaritan, it wasn't long before it began entering into his body, quickly incapacitating him.

Tim was beginning to see why people might be afraid of Death magic. It's way too deadly!

But he had no time for celebration, as he was certain there were suitors hot on his tail.

After Tim escaped the boundaries of the village, he continued running some more until he felt it safe enough to stop.

Once he reached a stopping point, Tim quickly got his mind back under control. If he didn't want his efforts to be wasted, he must get himself together long enough to secure his chances of survival, if only for the night.

With that in mind, Tim quickly searched for a sufficient spot to look around before settling on climbing a tree for a vantage point.

As he climbed the tree, his view became wider and wider, eventually expanding on the entire forest he was in.

This was not good.

As long as he was still in the same forest as the village, he was not safe. He wasn't sure just how far the Bermuda Village's territory expands, but he wasn't taking any chances until he became strong enough to deal with the consequences.

As he climbed back down from the tree, he heard the distant scream of a woman.

Instead of rushing in the direction of the scream, he quickly dismissed it and planned a course around the origin of the sound.

"Like I would fall for that," he whispered.

Looking around for anything he could use to further increase his chances, Tim began collecting twigs and rocks to use as materials for a campfire.

While he had never been camping before, that didn't mean he was completely useless outside. What had all his years of watching survival T.V. shows been for if not to teach him completely accurate tips and tricks on how to survive in the wild?

Adding the final few rocks to the campfire, Tim looked down upon his masterpiece with pride.

"She ain't pretty, but she gets the job done," he said in a heavy western accent.

Soon after, while Tim was busy collecting more twigs for his campfire, he heard another scream, this time of a man.

Tim looked up to the sky, completely ignoring the horrors that were apparently happening around him.

"It's almost dark..." he muttered before looking down at his campfire.

He had made it out in the open without regard to location when he should have found someplace safe to build it.

Suddenly, something caused Tim to stop in his tracks.

His eyes widened, breathing quickened.

He had forgotten one very important thing.

"I'm a zombie! I don't need heat!"

General Information

Attribute Property

Name Tim Hodgins Vigor Death 1/1 Race N/A (Undead) Agility Flesh 1/1 Rank Normal Convalescence Hunger 1/1 Spirit Dominion 0/1 Progress to (Copper) rank: 75% Evolution Progress: 26/100

[Vital Hunger] (Passive)

Cost: N/A

Cooldown: N/A

Increases health and stamina regeneration when food with high magical concentration is consumed.

(Bound to Convalescence)

[Feeding Frenzy] (Passive)

Cost: N/A

Cooldown: N/A

Increases Agility attribute effectiveness whenever living tissue is consumed.

(Bound to Agility)

[Whisper of Rot] (Active)

Cost: Very Light Mana

Cooldown: 30 seconds

Releases a small amount of death energy unto the target, dealing a minor amount of necrotic damage. Effective against enemies with flesh.

"May your flesh melt and skin fall."

(Bound to Vigor)

Traits

Affinities

Rebellious Soul

Foreigner

Deathborne

Death Attuned

Hybrid

Death: 100%

Holy: 85%

Celestial 66%

Hunger: 12%

Flesh: 12%

(Raise affinity with other elements to view them.)