I moved through the forest like something born to it.

No longer cautious. No longer afraid.

I could feel it—the change. The System didn’t just sit inside me like tech. It wasn’t some implant. It lived. Every breath I took felt sharper. Every scent in the air separated cleanly—sweat, blood, ozone, moss. I could hear the trees sighing as the wind passed through their twisted branches. I could hear my own heartbeat.

And something else.

A second heartbeat, faint but steady, echoing just behind mine.

The Blood God.

It was like standing next to a furnace that hadn’t been lit—silent, cold, but waiting. Always waiting.

I found the hunter near the ravine.

He was alone, sweeping the area in a wide arc. Tall. Kargali elite. His mesh cloak flickered with active camouflage. He carried a neuro-lance and an arcblade at his waist, both charged. His collar glowed blue—not a slave, but a noble combatant.

I should have run.

Even armed, even with this power pulsing beneath my skin, I was nothing compared to him.

But I didn’t move.

Not because of courage. Not even hate.

Because I was starving.

The System pulsed. Text burned faint red in the corner of my vision.

BLOOD STATE: PRIMED

Nearest viable source detected.

Do you wish to feed?[YES] | [NO]

I didn’t speak. I didn’t have to.

I thought yes.

And the world changed.

The colors of the forest dimmed, turned gray. The only color that remained was red—lines of blood pumping beneath the hunter’s skin, bright and throbbing like a map of his life. I saw his weak points. His artery flow. Even the micro-delays between thought and movement in his nervous system.

He turned, as if sensing something.

Too late.

I moved.

I didn’t know the technique. I didn’t need it. The System moved with me, through me. One step became three. I was in front of him before he could fully raise his lance.

He struck—a wild, trained arc. I twisted. It nicked my side. Blood sprayed.

And then time stopped.

The System reacted before my brain could.

Pain was devoured. Blood reabsorbed. The wound sealed itself in seconds.

The hunter's visor flickered. “Unauthorized healing protocol. You’re—”

I drove a stone dagger—crafted moments earlier from sharpened debris—into the base of his throat. Right through the exposed tendon the System highlighted in red.

The light in his eyes dimmed.

His body collapsed.

And then, the System fed.

TARGET LIFEFORM EXPIRED

Blood harvested: 41%

Vital Core absorbed.

Progress to Trait Evolution: 1/5

Active Trait Unlocked: [Blood Sense Lv.1]

Passive Integration: +10% Strength, +10% Agility

It was euphoric.

Not like a drug.

Like awakening. Like remembering I had been something more before the chains. Before the mines. Before I ever learned to keep my head down.

The Blood God didn’t speak.

But I could feel its approval.

I stood over the hunter’s body for a long time. Watching the blood steam as it soaked the moss. My collar—my prison—was gone. His still blinked.

A thought came to me, unbidden.

I wonder how many of them bleed like this.

And just like that… I knew what I was going to do.

I wasn’t going to survive the Hunt.

I was going to end it.