As the claw came at him... Everything slowed down.
The claw slowly inched towards him, each moment was agonizing to him...
But just as the claw seemingly touched him, it just... passed through him.
Arg blinked a couple of times, he shook his head and got up, making a run for it. But because of the heightened gravity, his movements were awfully slow. Added to his fatigue from walking a long distance made his plight even worse...
'I~ I can't run like this! That thing is faster than me!' He thought as another claw just phased through him.
He felt mentally and... spiritually drained? He couldn't put his finger on it. But right now, his primary focus was on thinking on how to kill this thing before this ability runs out.
The creature, looked confused at Arg's power, and he took full advantage of it. He felt a sudden drain, his energy leaking out of his body, feeding the glowing sword he was holding.
He swung his sword, cleaving right through the creature's skull.
Arg huffed in exhaustion...
Grrrr....
"Huh? I am~ Hungry?" Arg thought...
He looked at the beast. It resembled a furry cat. It's fur pitch black, slightly glistening the light emitted by the red sun.
"I need to eat something... What if I~ Ugh! No! I can't eat~ That thing!" He said, shaking his head in denial. But up until now, he had seen no fruit... no other animal...
"Ugh..." He took out the sword tiredly, swinging it at the trunk of a tree near by.
The tree fell slowly, the other trees' branches slowing its descent.
Arg Managed to carve out a few pieces of its bark and had gotten ready to start a fire.
'This is a bit dry... hope it works.'
Arg thought as he tried hard on trying to start a fire using the old method of rubbing sticks on a dry piece of wood.
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A small spark was created after a vey long time. His bored look turned into one of surprise, he started to rub it harder, finally creating a fire.
He quickly gathered a few more dry barks and added it to the small fire. Taking out his phone, he realised it was now 3:20 am, but it was still as bright as it was before.
'It took about 2 hours to create this?' He thought, not happy about the time he spent on this.
As the fire got bigger, he carved out the meat of the monster and started to roast it.
He hoped no other animal would come here to steal his gains. He was too tired to pull off what he did before...
It took a while for the meat to cook properly. No matter how thinly he sliced it, it took VERY long for it to roast properly.
About 1 hour later, he deemed the meat to be edible. He took out the meat and placed it on the skin of the animal.
He started to dig out a small trench and placed the fire inside. He took out a few dry barks and placed it on top of it and covered the small pit with the leaves and started to eat.
The meat was very tough, not savory, nor had any meaningful taste to it in fact...
"Ugh..."
He soldiered through it, eating it bit by bit.
Surprisingly, he managed to eat about 3 pounds of its meat. He decided to preserve the rest of the meat, so he placed the meat without covering it into the pit so it could smoke.
He finally dozed off somewhere which provided enough shade to him.
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Arg woke up, looking around at his surroundings. It was still bright. He looked up at the sun. It's position moved a few degrees from last time. His eyes narrowed, realising that days in this planet lasted VERY long.
He opened up his pit. The fire had long stopped. He realised he had nothing to carry the charcoal and the meat with.
He spent a few minutes, making a bag and a belt out of the beast's skin.
He took out the meat and placed it on the basket. He covered it with some leaved and placed the charcoal on top of it, masking the smell of the meat.
He then had used the belt to hold his sword.
"Hmm? I barely feel thirsty..." He thought confusedly. He hadn't drunk any water for a while.
"Alright. Priority one is to get water."
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"Grr... where the heck is water?!"
'May be... should I try getting it from plants? Eh, they are pretty dry though.'
"Where… the hell is it…" he croaked, wiping sweat from his forehead.
The trees here were thicker, and a faint mist curled along the ground. It was cooler. That gave him hope. He followed the slope downward, feeling the faint pull of gravity help him along. Then he heard it — a faint, rhythmic sound.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
He blinked, heart pounding. He pushed through the brush, and there it was... a narrow stream.
"Finally…"
He stumbled toward it, dropped to his knees, and cupped the water in his hands. It was cool, smooth, and faintly sweet. He didn't care what it was made of. He drank until his stomach hurt.
When he looked up again, he realized the stream wound deep into a small clearing surrounded by high stone walls. The space felt strangely calm, almost… stable.
"This'll do," he muttered. "If I'm gonna live here, I need a base."
He built a rough camp — bark walls, a lean-to roof made from the massive leaves nearby, a fire pit beside the stream. The sword rested near him, its faint glow flickering softly in the dim light.
For the first time since waking up, he could breathe without fear.
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A few days passed...
He had hunted twice... weak beasts that prowled near the edge of the forest. He'd learned to move despite the oppressive gravity, using short, precise motions instead of trying to run.
And every night, he'd feel it... that power inside him, the same one that had slowed time before.
He'd begun experimenting, pashing through a few trees...
Each attempt left him exhausted, but he got faster at recovery for some odd reason. He had chalked it up to the food he was eating now, probably some mystical power it gave him.
Arg lost count of time. The red sun barely moved, so he tracked days by sleep cycles and growth of plants around him. His once-pale skin grew darker from the constant light. His body adapted to the planet's gravity. his muscles firmed, his movements faster...
He fought monsters constantly... beasts with carapaces like stone, wolf-like things with eyes on their tails, and flying creatures moving at unbelievable speeds. Each battle was brutal, but slowly, made him stronger.
His power grew...
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Nearly a year passed...
Now, Arg was much taller, quite odd since the increased gravity should have made him shorter.
He could hold up his abilities for much longer. He had even learnt how to create lightning charge, fire, and even water from thin air... It took the same kind of magical energy his phasing and time slowing ability took.
On the topic of using his special abilities, whenever he uses the phasing or time sowing ability, his eyes changes into a purple star shape. Also, he doesn't get faster, but the time slowing ability helps him react to stuff faster. Works well with his phasing ability.
Somewhere far away, something howled, long and low, unlike anything he'd heard before. Arg's hand moved instinctively to his sword, preparing for what was to come...