Reiji Kurozuma rolled through the blood plants until he fell into the blood river.

  He quickly got his head out of the river, gasping for air.

  This time he didn't let go of his katana, taking a gamble. In his head, either he gets stabbed by his katana or gets killed without it.

  Since his gamble paid off, he had a weapon.

  He quickly stood up, wiping the blood from his face.

  He then saw the red creatures, that he categorized as smaller, creepier Frostgnashers, running at him.

  The first one pounced at him. Thanks to the terrain it was very high off of the ground.

  Reiji's reaction was to go forward, getting under the creature.

  With a quick cut he slashed its stomach. It landed into the river and rolled before getting back up on its feet.

  Another pounced right after it, too fast for Reiji to attack.

  But there was enough time for Reiji to duck under the creature as it flew over him.

  And the last one of the group ran at him through the river.

  Reiji ran through the river directly at it, jumping into the air.

  The creature pounced as well but Reiji jumped higher and was more agile, allowing him to sever the creature’s spine and smoothly landing into the river.

  The other two stopped, looked at Reiji and ran away.

  Reiji let out a breath before something massive landed behind him. It was that three meter tall humanoid again.

  Reiji swiftly turned and got faced with the humanoid. It already had its blade ready and brought it down on Reiji.

  He quickly moved to parry, but his sword cut through the flesh blade of the humanoid.

  Reiji reacted faster than the humanoid and repositioned his blade, jumping forward.

  He wanted to pierce its head but the humanoid dodged and used its other arm to push Reiji back.

  Reiji flew away until his back hit a tree. He dropped down to one knee when he hit the ground.

  The humanoid swung its blade at Reiji who rolled into the opposite direction of its swing, avoiding it.

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  When Reiji looked back he saw that the tip of the blade cut a clean line through the wood of the tree.

  Reiji gripped his katana like a spear and threw it at the humanoid. It stepped to the side, avoiding the sword.

  Its head turned, watching the blade fly past. Once it missed, the humanoid turned to Reiji with a grin.

  Almost instantly it got a direct punch to the face, making it stagger back. Before it could come to its senses it got hit with a left hook.

  It turned to the side from the force, its left shoulder hitting a tree.

  But before anything, it got hit with a right upper cut from Reiji, making it drop to one knee.

  Reiji quickly ran after his katana. When he found it he had to rip the blood vessels attached to it off.

  The blade was a bit rusted but that was fine. It'll only hurt the monster more with a rougher cut.

  The humanoid ran at Reiji, gripping its blade with two hands and bringing down a vertical strike.

  Reiji stepped to the right, avoiding the blade.

  He delivered a quick swing of his blade, cutting the monster's head in two.

  He started walking as if nothing had happened. The body of the humanoid falling onto the ground, lifeless.

  He started looking around as he walked. Shortly after he put his katana away.

  Nothing here can stay in one place except the creatures adapted to be here. Who knows what happens when these blood vessels attach to you and start pumping their blood into your body.

  He then heard a scream, something like a human but way more disturbing.

  Reiji turned his head into the direction of the scream, never stopping.

  The screams persisted, creating a nice melody. It made his heart rate pick up and he struggled to breathe.

  Subconsciously, the direction Reiji walked changed towards the sound. A creature, no, a beautiful being came into view.

  The figure was tall and humanoid made entirely of exposed muscle, with no skin.

  Two of its arms were raised outward, as if it were conducting an orchestra.

  Its second pair of arms were just dangling down. It had four legs planted on the ground.

  One of the heads is elongated and distorted, with a wide, open mouth full of sharp, uneven teeth. It had no eyes and faced towards the side.

  Its second head, fused into the shoulder, has small glowing, orb-like structures instead of eyes. One colored yellow and the other purple.

  Its hands and feet were long and thin, with stretched fingers and toes.

  It was truly the most beautiful creature. Reiji got hit with a head splitting headache as cold sweat ran down his back.

  Reiji's arms felt heavy and he entered a dream-like state.

  It was as if he was falling asleep before he heard a voice.

  “You need to WAKE UP!”

  Reiji quickly broke out of the trans. He found himself on his knees in front of the creature.

  Reiji looked up in confusion. After a moment the monster realized it wasn't controlling him.

  It stepped back but Reiji was faster and tore the orgs from its eyes and proceeded to rip its other head off.

  It was about the size of a normal human but its extra legs, arms and head gave it more weight.

  He looked around in a panic.

  “What the hell was that? Ow, shit.”

  He gripped his head. It hurt like someone hammered it flat or something.

  He checked if his katana was still in its scabbard and it was there.

  He took a look at the monster and saw it had a hole in each of its palms.

  What was that voice?

  He thought as he inspected the corpse. He leaned his head against his hand. It still hurt like hell.

  He got up and cleaned off the blood vessels from his boots and haori.

  As he did so he heard a sound, making him duck just before a stream of blood cut through the trees and bushes.

  The attack went over his head and he started running.

  Reiji's pain and shock turned to anger. He hated that the creature tried and succeeded in controlling him.

  He hated it. He hated it! HE HATED IT!!

  Reiji's jaw clenched and he changed direction, running to the thing that attacked him.

  He ran in-between the trees at top speed, being fueled by his anger.

  Another attack came. From his right and going to his left, cutting through a large area.

  As the stream cut straight through the tree in front of him he jumped on it, causing it to fall forward.

  Reiji crawled up and as the falling tree got more level he started running up its length.

  Reiji jumped before it impacted the ground and he smoothly landed on the ground.

  He spotted the creature that kept attacking him.

  It turned towards him with an open mouth. It didn't move so Reiji's best guess was that it was charging up another attack.