While the Undead Beasts don't have much intelligence, thanks to their instincts they sensed that something about the man in front of them had changed.
When the man stopped his laughter, he looked at the Beasts.
-"Did he really have trouble with these rabid dogs? He's weaker than I thought." He commented in a neutral tone.
- "Never mind, I'll take my time and strengthen this body."
*CRAAACK* In what seemed like an instant, the man moved towards one of the Beasts and ripped it in half.
He threw the corpse to the ground and approached the next one, this time walking slowly, as if he was taunting it.
- "GRAAAARRR!!!" Both the Beast he was approaching and the remaining one jumped on him with their jaws open, ready to devour him.
- "Hehe" He let out a chuckle in mockery, reached out his arms, and firmly held the Beasts by the head.
*Creak* His grip was so tight that the sound of their skulls cracking began to be heard. He smashed their bodies against each other, causing them to explode. A bloody rain covered it leaving nothing but organs and bones scattered everywhere.
- "Haaa..." A small sigh of exhaustion escaped from the man's mouth.
- "This body is still weak, I can't use it for more than 5 minutes...."
Feeling that at any moment he would lose control of his body, he quickly concentrated on his left hand. Black smoke formed again, spreading into the surroundings and completely covering the corpses of the Beasts.
- "Mhmm..." The corpses slowly began to disappear, as if the smoke was sucking them away, and at the same time, the wounds on Kael's body were slowly healing. After a few seconds, everything in a 5 meter radius died, both the vegetation and the nearby trees.
- "That's all I can do for you, young man." Said the man, even though Kael couldn't hear him.
*thud* Just like that, he fell backwards, eyes closed.
◈ ◈ ◈
The next morning, Kael awoke, still confused about the events of the previous day.
- "How my head hurts... And my whole body." As he complained about the pain, he noticed that his left hand was still completely black, confirming that yesterday's events were real.
- "So it was all real, huh. I survived, but I still don't know what the consequences of that favor that voice asked of me will be."
- "Well, right now my priority is to get out of this damn forest. I'll worry about that later."
That's when it hit him.
- "What the fuck?" As if something was holding him really tight, he couldn't move his left arm at all. Even worse, when he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, the "black glove," which had reached up to his wrist, now reached up to his elbow.
- "Shit! I knew something would happen after I accepted his offer, but I didn't expect it to be so soon!"
He took some time to breathe and calm down, then made up his mind:
- "Better get out of here as soon as possible and find someone who can help me cure this."
Finally, he stood up and started walking. Since he didn't know where to go, he simply followed the sun, east. As he went along, Undead Beasts were attacking him and despite not being able to use an arm, defeating them one at a time was no problem.
The problem was what happened when he defeated them; black smoke began to form from his left arm, "devouring" the Beasts.
- "I didn't notice it at first, but after killing several of those things, my fatigue and wounds began to heal a bit..." But it was still a big problem to be unable to move his arm.
He spent several hours walking, so much so that by now the sky was full of stars and the surroundings dark.
Deciding it was a good time to stop and rest, Kael searched and climbed the tree that seemed most stable and decided to spend the night in one of its branches. Finding one strong enough to support his weight, he lay down with his hands behind his head.
"Haaa... I feel like I haven't made any progress despite walking all day." Although killing the Beasts helped him recover, it wasn't enough; after all, many wounds still hurt despite being healed.
- "I'd better get some sleep at once, tomorrow will be another long day..." *Yaaawn...* Before he fell completely asleep, very faintly he could hear a voice;
- "Hehe. It's finally my turn, young man." With that, Kael fell into a deep sleep.