Anecus POV
I hadn't remembered falling asleep, the silence here made it easy to fall into a rhythm that let the mind drift. 'has it been a couple seconds or a couple hours?' Stirring his feet, Anecus looked around. The blue glow under the archway hadn't changed, neither had the air or sky.
Malice was still there, "no surprise."
my neck and fingers cracked as I rose, my bones groaned but not weakly it was unexpected by my body had a surprising amount of strength and lightness to it. 'Is this what enlightenment does to you?'
Anecus shakes his head "I'll think about it later." Looking to that thin line him and Malice never crossed, only danced around.
He moved to it.
Stepping close enough my shadow overlapped that line and fell into Malice. "I guess in a way…I owe this breakthrough because of you."
No reply, never a reply. "Let's get this over with."
Breathing in and out "ffssh" letting everything come to a halt getting rid of everything only leaving instinct and the world.
I let myself bleed every drop of soul, emotion, presence, letting it slide outward. Until there was no line between me and this hollow place. The air rippled with a deep audible thrum the world itself seeming to acknowledge a new technique.
but every good technique needs a name and it came to Anecus naturally ."I think I'll call this technique SoulBleed."
with that his presence integrated so deeply into the surroundings he disappeared. 'I bet to Malice it's like watching a blazing star go dark.'
Malice POV
'Gone. Gone. Gone! The warmth and shine! Gone!'
Anecus POV
It was like watching a beastly child throw a tantrum, its howls and thrashes were woes for the prey that had dissolved.
I didn't stay to watch.
The air was still thin and hot but it no longer stung when my skin got blasted by sand. It welcomed me, almost like it had recognized what I'd become. It was so surreal that it felt dangerous to stay like this for too long, like I could turn to dust.
Passing the dunes and walking through the open expanse I finally saw a Vinebeast. Lethargic, half sunken in their sleep with two others clustered inside of a hole where the wind hollows out the sand around a pillar of obsidian.
I'm not really sure what they are capable of, maybe one for now. Luckily I was able to find a spear like shard of obsidian, heavy at the base narrowing to a find point. Testing the balance "Good enough for a starving boy's weapon."
They didn't react, completely unaware of Anecus as they slept.
The vine beasts lay coiled together their tendrils rising and falling like slow breaths. Around them the sand was darker, patches of sand stained black as jagged shards punched through the ground like lighting frozen in time.
'...I only need one.' The spear in hand was smooth and cool, its weight settled firmly into him.
Walking forward like mist brushing the desert floor Anecus now stood over the smallest of them. Its core was barely pulsing under a veil of roots and vine fibers.
'Is this how easy it was for Malice?' To watch, to strike without fear. Anecus didn't feel proud or cruel at this moment. He was just hungry.
The spear found a soft space beneath it plating and then shank!
No cry. Just a twitch and a shudder then the beast unraveled into a limp pile of cords. Anecus withdrew his weapon, wiped the edge clean and knelt seeking out the core. It was still warm and humming faintly with lingering soul essence.
Putting the core aside Anecus found one of the creature's outer stalks and split it along a seam with an obsidian edge. The interior was pale slightly translucent almost like a cucumber but much more dense like a slab of meat.
The scent drifted to his nose. It was earthy, humid and slightly sweet. Anecus cut a thin strip held it and examined the fibrous grain.
"...if this makes me hallucinate I swear." He took a bite…firm, cold, chewy. It did not resist the teeth giving easily to Anecus's chewing. It did leave a strange tingling on the tongue.
'I can eat this.' The realization washed through him like guilt followed quickly by relief. Anecus ate more and waited.
No cramps.
No blurring vision.
He cut another strip and devoured it. "...sorry" he said between bites to the thing that once was.
He cooked nothing but he ate.
Because he had to.
Pulling away strands too hard to eat like cordage finding them could be useful. The biggest find was the bulbous joints of the creature. They were hollow and dry. It was perfect for making gourds.
Finding a secluded ridge Anecus got to work weaving and stitching what he could with what he had. Even daring to go back to the archway and collect water into the gourd.
"Water skin…check." Malice was gone by the time Anecus returned but when he reached the lip of the jagged threshold Malice was waiting again.
Gripping his spear and activating soulbleed he stepped behind it. 'I could kill it, maybe.' In the end he didn't care to.
Quietly Anecus looked back one last time "Well this is goodbye Malice."
No ceremony, no threats left to say just a radiant star vanishing into the sand.
----
Soulbleed had kept me safe but it was like holding my breath in a thunderstorm. The longer you do it the more your body screams.
I let go.
Presence returned along with the feeling of being watched. The landscape had shifted, the dunes were steeper here, taller. The slopes were like frozen waves and each jagged crest was pocked with holes.
Carved into the earth like giant burrows. Releasing theses were made by something
My steps slowed.