With great care, he moved muscle after muscle to not be spotted. He could see in front of him, the two previous Spikys waiting for their prey to walk before them. The horde of Bulkys was slowly approaching their place and you could see small vibration under their fur, relaxing their powerful leg before their jump.
Alix had chosen this group of Bulkys because of the presence of the Spikys. Even if he knows it was dangerous, he didn't stand a chance attacking a horde by himself. If his deduction was correct, with the attack of the two creatures with their flashing green eyes, the group of bulky will be disorganized for a short moment, allowing perhaps one or two of them to be left alone.
He was patiently waiting for these two awesome Spikys preferring hunting Bulkys than him. "If all goes the correct way, I should probably be grateful for not only saving my life but also helping me hunt these gigantic creatures!"
He was aware of the inherent threat in this hunt, but the appeal of their meat, if it was equally good than the Spiky's one, was too much to resist.
"For now, Spikys are too much for me to kill, but just one of those big things could allow me to survive for a month! Even if my hunger has increased since I'm here, probably because of my constant regeneration when being wounded..."
"TCHAK"
"STONK"
The two powerful creatures had begun their attacks, each landing on the same poor Bulky, their claws opening a deep wound on its flank, their teeth profoundly anchored on its back.
"MMMMOUUU"
A strange noise was coming from the Bulky's mouth, one of pain and of warning to its horde. Instantly the Bulkys made a bunker-like formation, protecting the smaller one at the center, the bigger began charging toward the aggressor, trying to move them away, without any success.
They were really attached to their poor victims, slashing without rest to probably make him bleed to death. The scene was strangely morbidly beautiful and Alix had to shake his head to detach his gaze of it, looking for another victim.
"Here at the rear, one of the smaller ones had been wounded by the others when they moved, fearing for their lives, it's my chance !"
Moving quickly, no creatures were looking at him with his little stature, letting the whole operation goes smoothly. Not far from his prey, he looked around for the last time, checking that the Spikys were still occupied in their kill.
"I have much more time than I thought, they shouldn't be free for a good half an hour if it doesn't change, well time to show that I'm smarter than these damned Spikys!"
Visualizing the precise location of the little Bulky, he carefully took as much as possible into consideration.
"It's approximately four mater tall with a good eight meter in length, perhaps five times the volume of a Spiky... It shouldn't kill it instantly..."
With this last thought, he propels crudely a ball of Darkness on the Bulky unaware of the threats hurtled toward him. With practice, he instantly covered and relax his concentration when seeing the ball going through. A muffled explosion could be heard with a cry of devastating pain from the gigantic creature.
"MMMUUUUUUUUUUUU"
Instantly five bigger ones surrounded it in a protecting posture. There were questions in there eyes and incomprehension, there wasn't any beast attacking it so why was it sounding gravely wounded?
Alix had quickly hidden in the shadow, not moving an inch, he could see blood streaming down the nose and the mouth of the Bulky, clearly a sign that he would not live for much longer. Its organs must have ruptured and it was probably largely bleeding internally. It was such a gruesome attack but there were no such things as pity when it means keeping his life.
Waiting in a corner for the situation to improve, he was thinking of his attack. "Apparently it's much more easy to hunt with this Darkness than physically with claws if I can hide. I probably wouldn't need anymore a diversion with two Spikys in the background to kill one, it's too dangerous after all"
Noticing the protecting Bulkys slowly returned to their post, one even going to help the agonizing one with two Spikys on its back, Alix slowly came back, making sure everything was going well.
When he was next to the dazed Bulky, not really able to feel or sees his presence, he quickly slashes at the throat with the two sharp claws.
"SLASH"
The claws difficultly pierce through the skin-like shell, cutting a wound deadly enough for the Bulky to crumble on itself, dead in a maters of minutes. "Ok so what do I do now, I didn't think that far... How do I transport this enormous thing..." Thinking for a little while, he tried pulling it out without any success.
"Well, time to not be too greedy !" Slashing the two rear limbs, with more than a dozen blow for each, he walks away as if nothing particular had happened with it in his hands. "With how I killed it, there wasn't probably much to eat in the main body aside from mashed up meat. It should be quickly eaten by other predators lurking around..."
With a last glance on the never-ending battle behind him, he departed with a royal air about him, as if the king of this tunnel. "I didn't catch the Bulky's eyes, but with a hunting method like this one, I'm probably much safer for the first time. It's isn't the moment to be too conceited tho, I must learn from my mistake and never let my attention fall !"
For the next following few days, Alix was eating the Bulky's thigh, increasing his life force and so his strength, resting, trying to understand Darkness. With this many occupations, he was trying to not think too much of the lost time in this damned place, focusing on benefiting from all the treasures lying in it.
"The Bulky's meat is less incredible than the Spiky's, but it contains a more gentle force, I think my body stabilized a little even with all these foreign things coursing in it. I checked and my blood is indeed greener than before, I hope it won't affect me too much, for the moment, besides an increase in my strength, my healing potential and of course my vision, I didn't see anything more. These are all great upgrading for my body, I believe it will come unfortunately at a cost..."
Munching on a piece of it, he didn't really care, a little prideful feeling somehow told him that with all that he survived against before, he would come up with a solution for this problem.
He made great progress with Darkness, but not really as he wanted. He remembers The Art was using esoterics construct in one way or another but he didn't know any and coming up with one proves to be particularly difficult, after a hundred or more tests with all the figures he could come up with, nothing seems to work.
He was able to use it to kill but just by relying on its destructive potential when not mastered enough. He couldn't use this all the time.
"I made triangles, circles, stars, lines, a lot of lines, but nothing made sense, the only thing that I found was when consuming it like the first time. It greatly increases my affinity with Darkness, I'm now able to sense it without much trying, and I think I'm capable of blending with it more easily, using it to dissimulate part of my body, making one with the shadow..."
Black lines were now slowly covering his body as if veins made of ink pulsing under his skin. Under it, green veins shining with this peculiar sparkle, which could be seen in the eyes of abyss creatures, were following the same course.
"If anyone sees me now, they would think I'm no longer human and they would probably not be far from the truth, even I think this way..."
Having absorbed Darkness during four days straight, he could sense it in its body. He became more sensitive to this kind of magical things, and right now, he could feel it in the green blood, an ancient and powerful primal energy, something beyond what he had in mind with the term "powerful".
He could not pinpoint exactly what it was, and he was feeling it just in its blood, not in one of the creatures he killed and ate. It was actually in a battle against his dark veins and it was clearly winning, the Darkness was like a subdued little pet in front of a mastodon.
His overall strength had more than quadrupled from the moment he falls in the abyss, and now he could probably kill Big Eyes with his bare hand like he always did before coming here.
"But nothing is set in stones, I'm sure there are at least a fourth species here and I didn't saw even a trace of it, I can't be complaisant! I didn't even explore a tiny fraction of the canyon, the more I understand it, the more I found it bigger than anything I could imagine..."
Willing Darkness to come to his palm, he made it surround his palm and when his fist was completely black, he used his Kata to hit the wall beside him.
"THUD"
A muffled noise echoed dimly, but a little hole like an imprint of his palm had clearly taken form in the stone. There wasn't any rubble, as if the rock was destroyed or swallowed.
"It seemed pretty powerful and kind of frightening even, knowing I have this power running under my skin... It's really improving my strength in all kinds of domains so I won't give up on my Darkness assimilation !"
Walking out, tendrils of black Darkness following him he began his journey to understand the Never Canyon, hunt its beast, assimilates them and this Darkness surrounding everything. His bronze eyes were now a translucent emerald green emanating a dim light, his hair ad taken a tinge of green at their roots, veins of black and green were streaming under his skin.
He looked like a powerful demon with the Darkness following him, caressing him and answering to his command. Taking a powerful inspiration, he began his walk with great stride as if owning this abyssal domain, three one meter's claw in his back adding to his terrifying features.
A Big Eyes passing not too far stopped and slowly retreat seeing this creature of approximately its stature giving off this stressful, demoniacal and even bloody feeling. He was out for blood, and all who raised against him in his path of destruction would suffer.
"Time to eat all this delicious food at disposition, I just have to rip all the benefice that I can during the time I'm staying here!" thought Alix, his tongue licking his lips without him noticing it. His demeanor had changed but he remains oblivious to it, in his own little world of sarcastic remarks and sometimes improper optimism.
Taking a claw off his back, he launches it with a powerful motion, in probably under a second, the Big Yes that was retreating far away had its head sliced in too, dying before being aware of it.
"You thought I would let a creature that had seen where I sleep, with its life? You are gravely underestimating me, you all will see how I would claim this domain as mine before returning to the surface, ahahah"
His laugh echoed in the tunnel, alerting some creature nearby which run away quickly, not bothering to be next an abyss creature making noise without caring of the danger, clearly a sign of a powerful existence.
A dangerous glint of madness was slowly developing in the depth of his eyes, corroded gradually by the lonesomeness, the proximity of death, the obscurity and probably a little growing Darkness...