The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 43 - Instinctual Hunt (Patreon)

                                                                                            Alexander North

A few second pass in silence as I reach behind my head to feel the pale bluish-red blood leaking from the back of it, only to shake my head and begin standing up with a slight sway after also feeling it beginning to heal. But by the time I reach my feet, the wound stops healing, and the dizziness in my head remains. Following that, an alert appears flashing over my eyes from my terminal along with a slight nausea.

/ Alert \

User’s energy levels have emptied out. Any further injuries will not be healed until energy is resupplied.

Recommendation: Absorb more energy or eat the symbiont in front of you.

\End of Alert/

My eyebrows jump up at that last part and I can’t help but glance at the dead captain next to me.

Eat the… symbiont? What the fuck?

A loud roar suddenly echoes down the hall towards us from the direction of the main hangar, followed by the walls beginning to shake, snapping everyone out of their stupor. All of the soldiers from the dead and captured captains’ squads immediately begin to run away, leaving the hangar and rushing down the hall in the opposite direction of the main hangar. Meanwhile the two captains simply knock out the other enemy captain who is still glaring at me before throwing her over captain Andrew’s shoulder.

“Looks like the fight over there is starting,” captain Summers says with a glance towards the wall closest to the main hangar, only to look towards me and narrow her eyes as she asks, “did you have to kill him? You’re gonna likely be court ma-”

I cut her off by stating out loud, “Terminal, you may stop recording.”

She closes her mouth instantly at that, stares at me for a few seconds, then just nods her head without another word.

That recording of him attacking me and continuing to attack me even after being pinned down, along with his blatant admission should all be plenty to clear me of any issues for killing him. Although I get the feeling being court marshalled is the last of anyone’s problems right now, considering that no one is gonna care at the moment, even if they could hear about it in the first place.

It’s nice to have assurance just in case.

A loud explosion suddenly rings out, followed by an even louder crashing sound as a certain worm monster explodes through a newly-formed hole in the wall to smash straight into the other side of the hangar, clearing a path through the aircraft in the process. Then the monster that I saw before – the large one that honestly looks a little bit like a mix between one of those brutes, which I’ve named draugr at this point, and one of the wendigos – flies straight through the hole after it with its hand still raised and the organic vine-like substances sticking out of its chest wrapping the arm.

“Run!” I shout, mostly at Cynthia and captain Andrews, before running off towards the entrance. And once I make it, I turn around to find the others not far behind. But just seconds later, a powerful wave of ice bursts out from the frozen one with the symbiont – who I’m just gonna call a frozen symbiont – and begins to freeze everything in the hangar.

“Damnit!” I swear before jumping forwards and grabbing Cynthia by the hand and physically throwing her back into the hallway, then repeating the process with captain Andrew right as the wave hits us. Fortunately for me, my resistance to the cold seems to help me as the wave only knocks me away into the hallway while freezing the side of my armor closest to the frozen one. But captain Summers isn’t as lucky, nor is the unconscious captain that was on captain Andrew’s shoulder before I tossed him to safety, who are now both frozen solid and losing body heat by the second.

I grit my teeth at the loss of captain Summers as I try to move, only to find my armor too stiff to move due to the armor on my backside being frozen solid.

That’s not good.

Then I feel someone picking me up and carrying me away back in the direction of the main hangar. And when I tilt my head to see who it is, I find it being captain Andrew, with Cynthia running alongside us.

“Uh, captain…” I mutter, my voice beginning to slur ever so slightly as my nausea and dizziness grows worse.

I don’t hear his response though, as I begin to feel my consciousness fade away from being held upside down while having all of the wounds I had taken from being sent flying by the ice and the battle.

The last thing I do hear is the sound of voices coming from back in the third hangar, along with a faint growl building up from my throat.

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                                                                                             The hallway

Captain Andrew looks down and asks, “What’s wrong?” after hearing Alex begin speaking, only to cut off with a slur. But he doesn’t stop until he begins to hear growling coming from Alex. “Alex?”

This gets Cynthia’s attention as she stops as well and turns around while asking, “Is something wrong?”

The captain sends her a concerned look while setting Alex on the ground face up, revealing his face to them both, along with the glowing blue light beginning to shine from his eyes at a much brighter degree than beforehand.

“I don’t know,” he says before turning back to Alex right as a spark of reddish-blue electricity zaps him from the back of Alex’s head and an alert appears in his vision.

/ Alert \

The user Second Lieutenant Alexander North has lost consciousness due to their injuries and lack of energy.
The combination of these three factors – losing consciousness while being injured and without any energy to heal the injuries with – have caused the user to enter an instinctual state driving him to do whatever it takes to receive the energy needed to heal himself. However, amongst these energy sources are symbionts.

Therefore, user is warned to move away from user Second Lieutenant Alexander North immediately.

\End of Alert/

“Scratch that. It’s bad. So bad that if I don’t go now, he’s going to begin hunting me,” he says, just to immediately jump back and begin running to the main hangar while calling out to her, “Keep him safe and away from any captains or higher! And when he regains consciousness, tell him that I went to go find the other members of our squad!”

Cynthia openly gapes at him through her helmet before turning to Alex as his eyes begin to glow brighter and he starts growling louder while getting up, completely ignoring the frozen armor and causing parts of it to shatter in the process.

“Well, shit,” she mutters.

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