I blinked, shaking. The world tilted. Every muscle screamed, every nerve caught fire. Then came the sound. A crack deep inside my bones, like something breaking free.
I fell to my knees.
The last thing I saw before the blackness swallowed me was Mason's face… pale, terrified and the reflection of my eyes in his.
Yellow.
Alive.
Predator.
The pain didn't build. It hit.
Like lightning straight through bone.
I tried to scream, but the sound that tore out of me wasn't human. My spine arched; muscles twisted, tearing and healing in the same heartbeat. The world fractured into flashes of red and silver, movement and hunger. My skin burned, reshaped, stretched. Every sense exploded: sound, scent, taste, life. All crashing into me in a storm of instinct and fury.
Then, darkness.
No time.
No thought.
Only the hunt.
—————
When I woke, my throat felt raw, my clothes damp with cold sweat. The tent walls fluttered with the faint morning breeze, and a thin beam of light cut through the slit in the canvas. For a moment, I couldn't remember where I was, or who.
Then it came rushing back.
The dig. The artifact. The pain.
I sat up fast. Every muscle screamed, but not from exhaustion, from power.
My arms looked leaner, harder, veins faintly visible beneath the skin. My nails were broken, but the dirt beneath them was dark, not earth-dark. Something else.
Outside, the camp was quieter than usual. No machinery. No shouting. Just wind.
I stepped out.
The pit looked like something had torn through it. Shattered equipment. Deep claw marks in the dirt. Tracks, large, uneven, animal. My chest tightened. There were blood trails too. Not fresh, but enough to turn my stomach.
Mason's bunk was empty.
"…Mason?"
Nothing.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears. I touched my chest the same faint glow pulsed once, then faded. And then, in my vision, a faint panel blinked to life again, floating in front of me like an afterimage.
—————
[ System Online ]
[ Host: Terry Holt ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[Experience Points: 0/25 ]
New Daily Quests Unlocked:
1. Consume 100g of Protein – (Reward: +10 EXP) "Feed the flesh. Sustain the form."
2. Strengthen the Body – (Reward: +10 EXP)
"Test your limits. Break to rebuild."
I stared at it, my mouth dry. The words pulsed faintly, as if alive.
Each time my heartbeat thudded, the text shimmered, like it was in rhythm with me.
"What the hell is happening to me…"
The memory of last night came in fragments: flashes of motion, the scent of iron, a growl that wasn't my own. I touched my jaw and felt it ache, as if I'd been clenching it for hours. My hands still trembled.
Something inside me had changed. Not just muscle or bone, deeper. Instinct.
I exhaled slowly, trying to steady myself.
If this "system" wanted me stronger… maybe that was the only way to understand it.
And if I didn't… whatever was growing in me might take the reins again.
Feed the flesh. Sustain the form.
The whisper brushed the back of my skull, soft and certain.
I looked out across the quarry, the place where I had died, and something else had crawled up in my skin.
In the distance, a horn sounded. The morning shift bell! Do I run, and hide?
I didn't know what I'd become.
But it wasn't human anymore.