Unprompted, the ethereal whisper spoke into Nameless's ear, with glowing runes appearing to his serpentine eyes, floating over the bloodhungry creature's head.
[Demonic Knot: Detected!]
[Phase: (Feral)]
[Stage: (Savage)]
Not knowing what they meant, while his life was on the line against the earless beast, Nameless ignored the runes.
The wolfish creature's bony grey-furred head was matted with the blood of the guard it'd just mauled as it approached Nameless with his fangs bared.
A guttural growl reverberated through its sinewy collarless neck.
'Curse it all.'
For the first time since his rebirth, Nameless felt too weak to extinguish a life.
Following its primal challenge, the bloodhungry creature instantly lunged for his throat, trying to rip it out as well.
Knowing turning back now would only be surer death, Nameless met the earless beast's charge head-on, a desperate clash of raw muscle against unnatural sinew.
His heart pounded in his chest when he felt the overpowering strength of the creature.
Ducking under a snapping maw, then twisting away from its raking claws, Nameless lashed out with his own attacks, scaly knuckles smashing into the beast's hairy hide.
But the scarlet-eyed hound didn't feel any of them.
Nameless was too slow to keep it off him, too tired to push it away.
And every thrown punch or kick sent waves of agony through his own battered frame, while evading its teeth and claws only cost him more precious stamina that was now vanishing quickly.
'Can't keep up with it,' he realized in a panic. 'But I have to survive somehow!'
Nameless grappled with the bloodhungry creature for another moment or two.
But as its teeth sunk into the scaly skin of his shoulder while its claws raked his rag-covered back, the grim realization struck him with the force of the earless beast's powerful attacks:
Nameless was simply too spent to win this fight.
His primal strength, no matter how lethal, was limited.
He was going to die here, in this dark forest on some high hill, after tasting freedom with his forked tongue for less than an hour—
'No!' Gritting his teeth, Nameless rejected that grim fate. 'I have to fight. I must! For my brothers and sisters, I'll live through this!'
He'd already died with them in that accursed prison.
He refused to die again now that he'd finally escaped it.
To survive against the earless hound, Nameless concluded he could no longer keep his Vital Specks conserved.
He needed to use the primal powers granted to him by the Basilisk Venom: the vicious abilities his being could now harness instinctively.
As the bloodhungry beast bore down on him again with a guttural snarl rumbling from its sinewy throat, Nameless focused on the lethal energy coursing within him.
His mind remembered the scenes from the cold experiment room, of how he'd frozen all the assistants with a single stare after executing Dr. Threl—
A fleeting, pale green shimmer flashed from his serpentine eyes, as the ethereal whisper spoke again and the glowing runes appeared before him.
[Petrify even Light: Unleashed!]
[Vital Specks: (10/100)]
[Divine Spark: Dulled!]
Nameless had done it: He'd successfully channeled one of the Basilisk Venom's blessings at will!
However, this time it wasn't as potent as back then.
The creature didn't freeze where it stood as the white coats had, only momentarily flinching after a shudder surged through its sinewy body.
But that split second was all Nameless needed.
"Go!" Nameless commanded himself, the desperate need for speed tearing through his mind—
[Slither through Silence: Unleashed!]
[Vital Specks: (8/100)]
[Divine Spark: Dulled!]
The ethereal whisper and glowing runes answered again to his desperate need, granting him a sudden burst of agility, which was fast enough to put some distance between him and the staggered beast.
Nameless darted through the undergrowth of tangled roots and slick leaves, plunging deeper into the unknown wilds in the direction opposite to where the engines had roared.
Within a couple moments, the fatigue returned and he slowed down.
Then he heard a guttural growl right over his shoulder.
The bloodhungry creature had regained its composure, and now it sounded vexed.
Without wasting another instant, it came after him with renewed hostility.
The weakened Petrify and the brief Slither were far from enough to get away from the predatory pursuit of the earless hound.
Its enraged snarls echoed behind him, drawing closer—so close he could smell the blood on its sharp snout, the froth on its deadly maw.
Nameless's enhanced senses prickled as the scarlet-eyed beast closed the desperately created distance between them with horrifying speed.
It caught up in half the time he'd taken to get away.
Lunging at Nameless's back, the earless hound slammed against him with an impact so heavy it sent them both tumbling down the slope in a desperate grappling match tangled with tooth and nail.
Curved claws tore at Nameless's side as he clenched his jaw against the piercing pain, pointed teeth gnashing near his neck, threatening to rip his throat out.
The searing stabs made his mind scream, making him lose all his calmness and composure.
The bloodhungry creature would not be satisfied as long as Nameless breathed.
This morbid realization seeped a black hatred into his heart toward the earless hound. 'What did I ever do to you?'
Mind numbed from brutal pain, Nameless's primal instincts took over as the beast continued its predatory assault.
And his instincts wanted nothing more than to end his pain at any cost.
Which meant butchering the bloodhungry beast.
Without creating an opening against its busy claws and teeth, or even finding any vulnerable spots in its thick hide amidst their flailing limbs, Nameless gathered the last of his strength, forcing the lethal energy coursing through him outward.
His hands instantly flared with power, a dark, viscous substance secreting from under his fingernails.
The ethereal whisper announced his final gamble, the glowing runes revealing he'd lost everything to make it.
[Venom for Vengeance: Unleashed!]
[Vital Specks: (4/100)]
[Divine Spark: Dulled!]
With a wild roar, Nameless jammed his enhanced hand deep into the scarlet-eyed hound's earhole, his fingertips shooting out the deadly toxin gathering under his nails.
The wolfish beast shrieked within the next moment, a high-pitched, unnatural wail of agony that ripped through the night.
Nameless tried untangling himself from its spasming body as it thrashed violently from the Venom invading its skull—but he failed to do so.
After his desperate gamble, he'd nothing left in him to even move a muscle.
So, they continued stumbling down the slope of the hill, falling over each other, slamming into trees and rocks and rolling through shrubs and thickets.
But as the bloodhungry hound's shrieks died down to pained whimpers, Nameless's enhanced ears caught the sound of something moving rapidly below them.
Not a being, but a force. Rushing swiftly close by—
The scarlet-eyed beast lurched, its movements erratic and uncontrolled, nothing but a dying struggle.
"Get off me…" Nameless huffed into its poisoned earhole when his serpentine eyes caught the end of the slope cutting off into a craggy cliff. "I deserve to live—"
The whimpering hound's dying convulsions led to a final slam into Nameless, a deadly impact that sent them both careening backward.
Nameless's breath caught in his throat as earth vanished below them. 'Curse… the damned… Doomed Gods—'
They plunged down the rocky cliff, their tangled bodies turning over each other through the air.
But they never hit land again.
Their terrifying fall ended with them slamming into the rushing water of the cold stream Nameless had heard just moments before—
The frigid impact knocked the last of the air in Nameless's lungs.
His vision swam as he drowned, the relentless current immediately seizing his broken body.
Beside him, the earless beast thrashed once from the coldness of the water, its panicked struggle weakening as the Venom finally claimed it.
[(Savage Feral) Oblivion Scion: Slain!]
Finally, the bloodhungry hound went limp.
And so did Nameless.
Utterly spent from the past hour's struggle, his muscles froze from the cold stream as it pulled him deeper into it.
His bones ached from the hot exhaustion of fighting his way out of the facility that had been his prison.
Losing consciousness, no matter how desperately he tried holding onto it, Nameless couldn't resist the merciless current as it swept him downhill alongside the wolfish creature.
'So close…' Everything went dark. 'So far…'