A deep resounding thud rang out as Jason soared through the air, before crashing into a steep rock wall behind him.

“Gahhh!”

Jason wheezed and coughed out mist, as the world spun around him. That blow was the hardest he had ever been hit, feeling more painful than literally being torn in half by a spider. He was on his hands and knees, choking as he felt his insides roil with pain.

He tried to get up, but the ground around him started spinning again, nausea and pain swirling into an unpleasant mix in his head. ‘Fuck, fuck fuck. Get up!’

Through his dizziness, he felt the ground shake and the sound of an elephant charging as the devil rushed towards him again.

‘Fuck it!’

His head snapped up as his four black and red eyes seemed to glow a menacing red. The devil, a centaur-like beast bulging with muscles, hesitated, stopping for a moment before resuming its charge. In that short period, Jason barely managed to roll to the side, flinching as the devil crashed into the rock wall head on. It stumbled back, shaking its head from the small crater it managed to make with its horned head.

In the short respite he managed to gain, Jason formed his claws and managed to get up steadily enough to sweep at its black-skinned body, only to find that his claws barely managed to pierce its tough muscles to tear at its vulnerable flesh. It bellowed in pain, rearing up on its two thick, reptilian hind legs to claw at him with its front ones. He managed to stumble back in time to dodge it, saving his life judging from the gust of air coming from the powerful strike.

Jason gazed intensely at the devil, trying to form a plan as his nausea faded a little to his relief. He surmised that riding on its back was the only way to not be smashed into paste. He breathed heavily, his body wracked with pain as he clumsily dodged left and right from its sweeping blows.

‘A chance!’

His eyes glowed once more and the devil froze for a moment again, its humanoid upper body bent right after a strike. Jason leapt up, digging his claws into its chest as he scrambled to its back, much like one would ride a horse. A very angry, muscled horse.

His legs clamped onto his sides as he started tearing into its back, thankfully with less thick muscles to serve as a defense. Meanwhile, it unfroze, bellowing with rage as it bucked to and fro like a horse, hands trying to smack the weakling that climbed onto its back.

Ironically, its greatest strength, its tremendous physical strength stemming from its bulging muscles, became its weakness, as said muscles prevented him from reaching backwards.

Jason continued to savage its back, his claws catching onto something. The spine. Jason grinned. He hoped that the devil’s spine worked the same way as a human, as he dug his claws into its joints one by one.

“RAAAAAGGGHH!!”

It did.

. . .

“Hmmmm, hm ,hmmm hmmm”

Jason hummed a soft tune as he gently skinned the devil with its claws. It whimpered in pain, its spinal cord having been cut, losing control of its body yet still allowing it to feel pain. It had been tricky trying to find the specific nerve to cut, but thankfully he incapacitated it before long. A minute longer and he would have been thrown off and beaten to death. But now the roles have been reversed.

It was an interesting thing, the devil. It closely resembled a centaur in that it had a four legged animalistic body, with a humanoid torso, but that was where the similarities ended. It did not have the lower body of a horse, but rather that of a reptile. Hue muscles bulged under hard black scales, and its four legs were thick like tree trunks. No doubt he would have died if it had hit him once more.

Its upper body was like that of a man, with the profile of a bodybuilder. Thick, sturdy muscles encased most of its body, and its boulder-like fists that nearly killed him in one blow. He studied it thoroughly, as he traced his claws along its contours, yet still struggling to slice through the muscle. It whimpered once more, and little butterflies of giddy excitement fluttered in his stomach. He giggled like a child as he slowly dissected it alive. It would do well to learn to judge the anatomy of an unknown creature.

“Shhh, be quiet now. It will be over soon.” He gently shushed the devil as he removed its muscles. He was getting better at it already. A pile of skin lied to the side, its quality far better than the ratty, sorry excuse of leather he excised from the first devil he slew.

. . .

Time passed as he removed its muscles, then its organs, one by one. Its whimpers, begging for mercy from the being it thought a weakling, grew weaker and quieter. As Jason snipped at some veins connected to what he assumed was its lungs, its rather large twin hearts finally gave out. He grabbed the soul that floated away from its corpse and swallowed it.

[ a being to death. +10 Essence of Sin.

a being. +5 Essence of Sin.

Grant to a being. +100 Essence of Sin.

Skill learned.]

‘Oh? How very interesting. I learned a skill. So it is possible to learn skills, by completing some unknown parameters related to the skill I assume. Perhaps I need to demonstrate adequate skill in the skill?’

Jason chuckled at that.

‘Well, it’s nice to see that my efforts are being recognized.’ He smiled brightly, as he finished dissecting the devil, new instincts guiding him to do it in a slightly more efficient and neat manner. It appeared that the skill granted him knowledge, though he would have to test its applications and limits.

He tried to remember that strange feeling he just felt, that feeling that he simply knew what to do. It was as if he had dissected that devil several times before, knowing where to trace his claws to cut through muscle and flesh in an efficient manner. It was not as if he knew how to perfectly do it, but he had a vague sense of where to cut.

‘Very interesting. If this knowledge of where to cut extends to devils I fight for the first time, knowing their weaknesses will be extremely useful.’

Jason was no fool. He knew that despite ending up the dominant winner, he had barely won by a fluke. Had the devil bothered to charge at him immediately, he would have died.

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well, I am alive and he is not. Simple as that.’

He cleaned up the scene by kicking dust over the blood, hoping that the smell wouldn’t attract any devils while he rested. He gathered his harvested materials, wrapped them up in the leather, and looked around the large rock outcropping for a place to rest.

After walking around for a while, he found a small crevice where the massive rock outcropping stuck out of the ground. A stone slab rested against the massive rock, forming a small but secure space. There was only one entrance, so he could not get ambushed from behind, yet he himself had only one exit to escape, should another devil find him. He put his materials and his bag inside.

Looking around at the small, dusty space, he smiled. ‘Humble beginnings, huh.’ He looked around for another rock to cover the entrance. Finding one, he cursed and groaned as he lifted it and carried it to his entrance. Despite that, he noted that it was extremely heavy, and would probably four very fit human men to even lift it, yet he managed to carry it all by himself. He certainly couldn’t do that before.

‘So the soul power does improve my strength, at least somewhat.’

He lifted up the slab, and walked in his little cave, setting the slab down over the entrance.

The adrenaline from the fight earlier had worn off, and his weariness now pulled him down like iron chains. Making sure the slab over the entrance couldn’t easily fall open one last time, he laid down on the stone floor and fell asleep.