Five hours passed by in the blink of an eye, Fenrich had gotten some shut eye for three of those hours, and when he awoke he felt completely refreshed, more so than when sleeping for 10+ hours. Hunger assaulted him, not the hunger for food. Raw flesh, blood, guts, kidney and heart. Fenrich currently had an unquenchable thirst that could only be filled up by blood.
Fenrich felt his hands twitch and tremor, his hunger made him think of the three tasty morsels that were undefended against himself.
"SMACK!"
Fenrich slapped himself across the face so hard it made his own ears ring.
"Hun….ger" A gravelly voice sounded inside his head. "Flesh. Blood. Organs. Devour them… Consume them, partner! No one would be any the wiser. Those two women, can you smell it? They're virgins. Their blood essence is far more potent than the sullied blood. It will make us stronger!"
Fenrich could feel his heartbeat rapidly increasing, sounding like the fury of thunder being unleashed from the sky above himself.
"Sniff sniff."
A demonic grin split Fenrich's face apart, his eyes gaining in intensity and a visual chaotic red aura trembled causing the air around Fenrich to distort and seem as if the fabric of reality was warping and twisting.
"DEVOUR THEM!"
Fenrich launched himself off from the roof, shattering it in the process as a demonic howl ripped its way out of his throat, announcing to the world that there was a hungry fucking predator on the loose!
"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYAH!"
Alex, Julia and Sasha instinctively reacted, jumping out of the windows avoiding the fallen shrapnel of the broken roof.
"What…. What the fuck was that just now!?" Sasha panicked, when she heard that demonic roar she and the rest of the group got a level 6 Fear debuff, lowering their stats and mental resilience by 30%
Alex could hear the howling of the zombies in the distance, and if he didn't know better it sounded as if the undead bastards were in actual fear!
"Fenrich is gone guys, I can't sense his presence at all right now, he is nowhere near us. And even if I could, my gut tells me I'd die." Alex said as he was most shocked and terrified, Sasha and Julia had been passed out when it first happened. They didn't see Fenrich in an unconscious blood frenzy. Out of 1,000 zombies and the seventy ambushing humans in that group, Fenrich devoured all 1,070 lives.
"Follow me from a distance, we won't know if Fenrich is in a sane state of mind by the time we find him."
Alex was geared up in the Eternal Flame Cape and the Thorns Chest Plate, plus his own Uncommon dual swords that he picked up. Alex had the most "confidence" he could handle and hold down the frenzied Fenrich for enough time to buy Sasha and Julia breathing room to escape with.
"Don't let it consume you, Fenrich!" Alex thought internally, not at all affected by the Fear debuff or mental resilience dropping.
Ten minutes passed as they quietly made their way through the cover of midnight, now they were arriving in an open expanse area. There were zombie corpses everywhere and black thick tar like blood staining the grass polluting the soil. Numerous of them had huge missing chunks of flesh from their throats, heads, chests, whereas the rest were literally torn into ribbon like shreds of freshly butchered meat. The cuts were clean and with the delicate ease of a killers touch.
Then they found Fenrich, he was currently tearing the limb off from a still living zombie, and like a mighty caveman or barbarian in the coliseum, he tore into that fat and juicy morsel ravenously. Both of Fenrich's pupils split apart, there was a chaotic red aura surrounding him that caused the grass to whip and lash about like it was in the middle of 120 kilometer an hour winds.
Fenrich looked like fifty whole pack of red fruit gushers blew up above him and covered him in black chunky blood. All that could be seen of him was that demonic face splitting smile and those pearly white fangs that reflected the moonlight off of them.
Fenrich then killed off the remaining zombies that had kowtowed around him in a circle like a bunch of cultists worshiping the demon they just summoned. Fenrich's jaw unhinged itself, taking out massive quarter chunks out of the zombies. In under four minutes, they watched on with a morbid terror as they watched Fenrich devour thirty entire zombies. But they had missed the heads leaking blood that he left as if they were extra strong motts clamatos. Fenrich sucked those heads dry of all blood before squashing them into oblivion within his hands.
"GASP!"
Fenrich let out a long winded breath of air, his chest rising and falling like the tumultuous waves out in the sea. They watched as Fenrich closed his eyes, and took deep calming breaths.
"I'm sorry you all have had to see me like this, I am… fine." Fenrich said with uncertainty in his voice, the cause for it was unknown to the others. But to himself, he knew full well. He could feel the development of a second heart forming inside of him.
"There's a small creek two hundred meters north of us, I am going to go clean up." Fenrich stated as he soon vanished from his spot, none of them present even being able to see the disturbance or sense the movement of gusting wind.
Fenrich stripped his clothes off of him in a hurry, and dived into the creek's water without any fear, for with his heightened senses he knew there was nothing "alive" lurking inside that could be of any danger to him. Fenrich began scrubbing the luckily still mostly damp blood off of himself, otherwise if it had dried up and caked onto him, it would be a real son of a bitch to scrub off.
After feeling like an entirely brand new man, Fenrich let out a sigh of relief and then entered the farm house not too far from himself. He quickly cleaned up the three zombies that were inside the house, presumably a family once upon a time. Then began the search for a set of clean clothes.
Being fully clothed, bathed and having a scrumptious feast, Fenrich could now let go of some of the smaller concerns, it was now time to begin making their way to the Rideau Carleton Casino.
Fenrich regrouped with Alex and the others, they had also chosen to find shelter in the nearby barn, whatever animals were there once, were now nothing but splatters of blood and meat paste.
"We should get a move on, I have a feeling that I can keep my control for the next 8 hours. I don't know if there's anything that can trigger me outside of hunger, but I should be fine. And even if I do get triggered, I can wrestle back enough control to stop myself." Fenrich said while scanning his motley crew, Julia avoided his gaze, still shaken up as he could hear her thundering heart pound like a hammer on steel. Alex and Sasha kept their gazes locked on Fenrich's eyes, searching for anything that could counter what he had just said. They quickly gave up and nodded their heads.
"You're the leader, we follow you willingly and without any fear in our hearts." Alex stated, this caused a soft whimper to come out from Julia as tears started to stain her face.
"Fenrich, I'm sorry. I don't fear you or have any disgust or any kind of hate towards you. I fear the unknown, I fear this new life we are living."
Fenrich approached Julia, causing her to tremble but she did not move away. Fenrich hugged the woman, with one hand wrapped around her head and the other her lower back, pulling her into his chest.
"You're not wrong, Julia. There is a lot I also fear, there are an uncountable amount of horrors and terrors awaiting for us, this is just merely a small part of the game. I promise that I will not let myself hurt you or the others, you all are practically extended family, the good kind that I actually give a shit about." Fenrich gave Julia two soft pats on her shoulders, pushing her away gently and with his thumbs, wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Dry your eyes girl, you're one of the tomboys of our group. What would you do if the others knew that you have cried like a little girly girl?" Fenrich flashed an easy smile, this time not exposing any of the fangs.
"Alright ladies, and presumably a guy, because we can't assume anything anymore. We've had enough setbacks, time waits for nobody! You either move with it, or you get swallowed up by it."
Fenrich and the group made their way to their destination, unaware that they were all walking into the crossroads of Fate. The swirls of Fate surrounded the four of them and swirled up in the sky, gathering the Fate of other individuals as their group acted like magnetism that would attract numerous other key players and future betrayals that left mankind weakened and slaughtered.
Another hour passed and they had finally stood on the outside perimeter of the Rideau Carleton Casino. All the lights were on and looking inviting for a deathtrap in plain sight. Loud and shitty rave music could be heard playing on the high quality speakers, there was also an azure blue Mana barrier not allowing them to enter the premises of the casino. The sound of which affected Fenrich making him unsteady and irate. Or well, the Abyssal Symbiote was irate and started sounding like uncle Ruckus in his head.
"Abyssal God King Azh'Kirantu damn it! What in the fuck is that foul sounding hellspawn I hear!?" The Abyssal Symbiote roared within Fenrich's head, "It sounds as bad as when you're trying to go down on a female Abyssal Symbiote only to find out she's packing a cock! You know, some Jack and Jill went up the hill kind of vibes, partner!"
"Too much information mate, tmi!" Fenrich winced, as he got some nasty ass images he couldn't un-visualize.
"That's right, partner. Picture that shit some more. Don't forget to look for a bathroom to jack of-" Fenrich cut connection with the other voice in his head, bringing him temporary peace and quiet.
Fenrich's ears twitched and he looked to their southeast position, another group of people were approaching and stood about seventy-five meters away from them, looking their gear and members up and down. Snickers and catcalls came as they acted like punks who didn't know their place. And before long, several other groups and individuals began appearing en masse.
There was now one hundred people outside of the Mana barrier, when they reached the required numbers, the Mana barrier went down and a series of prompts filled their visions.
[Welcome, humankind to the very first Mini Game since your Integration Period has started. You all will enter in groups of 10 for a total of 10. Your objectives are simple, survive and evolve. As the very first Mini Game and also Dungeon combined all into one. The difficulty setting has been upgraded to Hard difficulty. You will be fighting against of course, your new denizens, the zombies and also some other races that are widely found out in the greater Omniverse. All loot has a 300% increased drop rate, Survivor Coins has a 200% drop rate, Experience Points has a 200% increase.]
[The overseer and current owner who has bought Earth and activated the Integration Protocols will be watching, please make sure to excel and show that your humankind has the potential and will to survive. There will be no infighting allowed between members of the same race inside the Mini Game Dungeon. There will be leaderboards with all kinds of goodies and rewards for the top performing teams and individuals. Good luck, don't die you cute little critters.]
[You have been injected into the Mini Game Dungeon: Evolution Royale - Hard]
Fenrich looked around observing his surroundings and his allies, thankfully Alex, Sasha and Julia were present. The other group were mainly unknown to him as they had either died, or never crossed paths. All except for one single person, Lukas the future to be War God. Fenrich decided it was time to put his begrudgingly obtained political and networking skills to good use.
"Good evening to you all, I'm Fenrich and this is my group, Alex, Sasha and Julia. Since we're all in this together and have become a combined group, why don't we start off with some introductions?"
This caught the attention of all those present, nobody was willing to come up to the plate and take bat with Fenrich's offer.
"I'm Lukas, my only goal here is to fight strong opponents and grow stronger." The future War God stated bluntly and said no more afterwards.
A meek voice sounded out like a quiet squeak, "I am Isabella, I am not good at combat but I have healing magic, and group buffs. I do have some weaker spells that are highly effective against the undead."
"Hey all, you can call me Ryan. I am purely a glass cannon. If you want to clear hoards or strong zombies, I'm your guy, but don't ask me to tank or fight in the frontline, I'm not your guy." A lanky redheaded youth said.
"You all can call me Jackson, I'm a retired sniper for the military. Since we have no guns, I chose the next best thing, bow and arrow. I can claim headshots within 350 meters on moving or stationary targets, it matters not."
"Garen, I'm a fisticuffs up in your face kind of guy. High Strength, Vitality and Endurance build."
"Laura, I practice Kendo and was a ballet dancer for 17 years before I got bored of it. I much prefer the sword as it has never failed me once. All my attribute points are in Strength, Agility and Endurance. I'm a triple stat Awakener in Strength, Agility and Endurance." Laura was a tall athletic and fit woman. She had long cascading black hair, hazelnut eyes and the aura of someone who has killed before. The others could not recognize it yet, but to Fenrich, she was like a solitary flame in the darkness that could not be engulfed.
"It is a pleasure to meet you all and make your acquaintance. I am about to send you all party invites, as I have a pretty neat buff that will help give us an edge over the other groups and our enemies.
[You have sent a Party invitation to Lukas, Isabella, Ryan, Jackson, Garen, Laura, Alex, Sasha, Julia.]
[Garen has joined your party]
[Alex has joined your party]
[Sasha has joined your party]
[...]
"Now, with that over and done with, what do you all say we raise a little hell?" Fenrich smiled the kind of smile that only someone like Laura would recognize, her gaze lingered on him before she too let out a smirk. Her hazelnut eyes intensified as the unkindled killing intent within her began stirring. Fenrich gave Laura a knowing look and winked.
[Your group has been deemed to be the strongest out of all of the gathered groups present. You will be crowned as the King, you will have the crown icon on the Minimap for your fellow humankind, and for your enemies you will be constantly highlighted giving away your position at all times.]
[Ding! You have received the Mini Game Dungeon Minimap.]
"It looks like we have just become public enemy number one." Fenrich said as his eyes intensified and the jovialness he showed was overtaken by the killer's calmness.
All those in their group felt the hair on the back of their necks raise, unknowingly the aura that Fenrich leaked out was that of an Emperor. His aura alone demanded subservience, the only ones unaffected were Lukas and Laura, instead their gazes landed on him as both nodded their heads in approval. Whereas the others were visibly shaken and began kneeling as they let their heads touch the ground towards Fenrich's position.
Fenrich brought out his Steel Greatsword and slung it over his shoulder as he began walking towards the exit of the safe room they spawned in, "What are we all waiting for? We have leaderboards to dominate!"
Fenrich licked his lips as he reread the previous prompts he had, "There will be no infighting allowed between your own race." Well, wasn't that just something. My race happens to be a bunch of question marks. This was a perfect opportunity to prematurely set off the ticking time bombs.
"The Dark King, Emperor Alexander, Warlord Anderson, Empress Yasmine, Thunder Magus Alannah, Apostle, Nihility, Midnight Reaper. You are all on my shitlist!" Crimson aura began emitting out from Fenrich's body as he led his group that would later on be known as the Flower Of Seven Sins.
AN: This is the end of the chapter dump (please do not be shy if you spot any grammatical errors, one is only human.)
The next chapter can be expected on next Wednesday, due to working multiple jobs this will sadly not be a consistent upload basis. Whatever time I take to write is taken away from sleep and other priorities. If you like the story so far, please let me know!
Song recommendation: Obey The Kraken - Haunting Echoes Of The Sea