5
2 years later
It's been 730 days or 2 years since I first discovered mana, and these two years have been very fruitful. I unlocked my Ukaku ,(upper kagune above shoulder)beautiful bat shaped wings long enough to reach my ankles, while I fell from a rock cliff when I was running away from a rampaging black boar the size of a jeep. Thankfully it allowed me to glide awkwardly, but I was safe from a fatal fall. Which was more than I could say about the boar. I was able to eat magical pork that day.
I was able to unlock rinkaku with practice easily,and it came in quite handy at the time I got cornered by a heard of rats the size of a corgi. My rinkaku looked and worked like the ones of Kaneki's . They just kept stabbing and slashing in lightning speed at the whim of my thoughts,and the ones that got through , I dealt with my koukaku or just by stamping them.
But my Bikaku awakening was a complete disaster.
(Flashback 6 months )
I had just taken down a bus sized giant bull covered in black scales from horn to hoof for my meal. It weight more than a ton, and it's skin had a defence akin to the compared defensive ability of six kevlar vests, but I was able to kill it in a frontal fight in a couple of minutes. After numerous months of hellish training, being beaten till reaching an inch of my life, exercising past limits, free falling from great hights and loosing limbs , I was able to get rc cells in every corner of my body. I gained higher regeneration ,defence and strength as a result. Due to my higher level abilities I was able to become a high level predator within the area. So catching the bull was quite an easy task,even with it's special characteristics. Of course there's no need for me to eat everyday, the ghoul body is built with great energy efficiency, and my digestive system is capable of melting down even bones. So I can survive on a rat (corgi sized) for a week without fighting.
No I fought and killed animals to increase my skills and kagune strength. like the existence of mana, there are bound to be many unknown dangers untold dangers outside the Quileute mutt territory. That aside, there were so many animals of many ecosystems that the amount I killed barely put a dent in their numbers.
After engaging in fights for so long my confidence grew ,so much so, I reduced my wariness. Being undefeated for a long time made my fear of the beasts had reduce quite a bit.
Sometimes I accidentally came up to high level predators by and still managed to come out unscathed. Thus my lack of fear was somewhat justified.
I pulled the bull to a river bank because it was convenient for cleaning up. I removed my mask completely and set it aside on a rock ,then I started my meal unaware of watchful eyes at proximity.
Living alone in a forest with beasts for a year and half reduced my manners to nothing,. Without washing hands or even skinning the beast as I did in the past, I dived teeth first onto it tearing it apart with just my teeth . I had discovered this method had high efficiency than using hands from experience.
The bull was a mutated creature, thus it's body held higher mana concentration than other beasts I had recently eaten.
After eating mana imbued meat and meditating on increasing the absorption of mana from surroundings, I was able to feel the energy inside me, and after reaching to a certain amount I could feel my intellectual and physical increase by a certain amount. By concentrating on certain parts of my body very strongly, I could even temporarily increase the performance quite a bit. Of course this didn't give me the ability to make fireballs or magical sword slashes. However lately mana absorption had stagnated till it's almost nonexistent. My theory was that I had reached the maximum amount of mana that can be contained in my body. I reached this conclusion after sensing mana in my entire body. I could feel each and every one of my cells which was not something I could do before. I felt full,like a bottle filled to the cap, suddenly I was lost on how to move forward.
Feeling the mana inside, I noticed it was not entirely controlled. I tried pushing out the uncontrollable parts out of my cells. They quickly got dissolved in my veins and moved towards my lungs. Feeling sudden pressure in my lungs my eyes flew open as a sneeze made of soot black smoke blasted out of my nose and mouth. After suffering from a coughing for a couple of minutes I felt my mana energy and to my delight I found even though the energy level had dropped drastically it was easier to control. It moved quicker with less concentration.
So to make-up for the lost energy, and increase my mana level I needed to absorb as much as I can from the bull.
After eating organs with the highest mana concentration (heart, brain, liver,spinal fluid) and meat as much as possible, I put my hands on the hunk,I also stabbed all eight of my koukaku spikes in it and start to absorb the mana it's body contained. I discovered this method when I first killed an animal I couldn't finish eating. This method while slower than eating was faster than gathering mana from air. Only downside was,I need full concentration for this.
I kept my eyes closed and felt the mana flowing slowly from the giant mammal's cold body to mine oblivious to the world around me, when suddenly something clamped on my legs with an impossible strength,piercing my highly defensive ghoul skin. Before I could figure out heads or tails of the situation, I was rag dolled a few times, then I felt myself surrounded by water.
Air bubbles floated up from all around me obstructing my vision completely. I quickly unleashed my koukaku,using the right side blade to sever my legs at mid thigh easily. Then using my arms, I clawed the river bottom moving towards the bank with all the strength my muscle fibers had. I quickly breached the surface near the river bank. Taking a deep breath, I started crawling away from the river as fast as my arm and halfway regenerated stumps allowed me. After moving about ten meters my legs had fully grown to their former selves, I got up thanking the god for the umpteenth time for giving me a ghoul's physique and praised myself internally for increasing the regenerative and pain resistive ability by going through hell on earth.
I barely had time to turn towards the river when a gargantuan crocodile, thrice as big as the bull I had hunted breached the river surface, quite like how a whale breach the ocean. It jumped twice it's height from the water surface completely blocking the sun, it passed over me in mid flip and landed behind me essentially cutting off my escape route.
I turned back and looked at the creature in its eyes to find a tiny hint of intelligence. It had me cornered, I can't go back because I would be in water. And if the strength and speed it displayed by breaching the water was anything to go by I can't run past it without being chomped.
I had to fight and this time there is no escape. It's me or him. And only the better would survive.