Seafood ?? No Just Zombies...

It turns out a little morning exercise could really hurt someone. Especially the gelatinous blob of flesh and teeth that was currently attempting to waddle full speed across a small stone courtyard. Smashing through a few crumbling pots and breaking through several crumbling walls, the mass of flesh ran for its life. Unfurling a toothy snout the aberration paused to sniff the air. The only thing it picked up was the heavy smell of iron and blood, and a slight headache too. Letting out a high-pitched squeal the aberration threw itself back onto its three legs sprinting off as fast as it could into the distance.

The toothy zombie was going through quite a rough spot in its miserable existence. Nothing quite went right for it in its long life, or afterlife for that matter. It was born a slave, lived the life of a slave, and died a slave. The creature couldn't even enjoy the embrace of death for very long, for soon after its passing it was rudely dragged back into the living world as a zombie.

From being resurrected from the dead to getting corrupted by eldritch powers, to being killed by some knights, to being resurrected again, to being chopped up by a psychopathic child, to being accidentally resurrected by said psychopathic child. It was painfully clear to all, especially the aberration, it had been through quite a bit.

At this point the poor thing did not even look remotely human, having grown a good thirty new toothy limbs and organs, it had completely lost its sense of self. Most other zombies would at least look somewhat like what they did before death, possibly a little withered. But that was to be expected.

But nooooooo the creature lamented. It just had to be unlucky enough to go get corrupted by some strange ungodly unexplainable force a few times. Mixed in with some cosmic horror and now it looked like Cthulhu and a sawfish's lovechild. The aberration had long ago decided to hide immediately if it ever encountered any other zombies to preserve its own self worth and dignity.

No other zombie with a good head on its shoulders would ever allow itself to be seen in public with such a strange figure. It was just un-zombie-like.

Turning a corner the creature desperately attempted to lug itself up some stairs in a last-ditch effort to drag itself over to the big scary temple in the middle of the stone village. Before its third resurrection, it had felt quite scared of the looming pyramid, but after it had risen once more it had felt a strange attraction to the large structure. A calling that reminded it of the hazy memories of last night during the moments it was still trying to piece itself together.

---------------------------------

" Heins !!! "

*stab

" HEins !!!! "

* stab Stab stab

" HEINS !!!!!!! "

* STAB STAB STAB STAB

" HMm.. no luck... Maybe I should just go down to the river to see if he's okay "

Stabbing his way through a crown of extra toothy zombie aberrations, 15 continued his search for his favorite floating skull. Although it was only one of the many forms Heins had taken up, compared to the blood river it felt very much more personal. After all, it gave a wicked toothy grin.

15 found it quite unusual that Heins's floating skull was nowhere to be seen after he looked around for a bit. It was usually never floating too far from 15. Of course, Heins could also use the blood river to talk, but like 15 he preferred talking to his friend through the use of the floating skull, it allowed him to be a little more expressive while talking. After all, have you ever seen a river smile? It was also a matter of practicality as Heins couldn't move the blood river everywhere 15 wanted to run off.

Making use of his knife's shape-shifting properties, 15 increased its length to about a meter to make it a little easier to deal with the swarm of tentacles that constantly attempted to bash him to death. Slicing a strange another strange zombie in half 15 ran off just in time to avoid the thing exploding a few seconds later after its torso fell to the ground, sending chunks of rotting meat everywhere releasing a putrid stench.

" Well that was nasty, urghhh makes me wanna puke. You guys ever heard of deodorant ?"

SCREAAACHHHH

" Well... You guys really need it,"

SCREEEEEEAAAAACHHHHHHH

If there was anything these strange zombies got right, it was the smell. According to Hollywood, zombies were supposed to smell absolutely horrible, and these things had the rotten meat smell down perfectly. Although, 15 could still pick up a slight whiff of seafood mixed in with rotting flesh. He assumed it was probably from the tentacles that sprouted from the torsos of all the zombies.

Narrowly dodging a purple-ish blob of bubbling liquid 15 continued his zombie stabbing spree. 15 was quite confused by the fact that the zombies he kept running into this morning seemed to be a little more feisty than the ones he cut up the day before. Not only did these new ones come with a few special effects ( One was even breathing fire in the distance ) they even had a few more tentacles than the ones from yesterday. With some extra teeth as well. But even with all the strange changes and extra add-ons, the system still vehemently described the creatures as zombies. Something that 15 entirely disagreed with.

" I mean zombies are supposed to look like what they were before they rose from the dead, "

*Slash

" Were you a giant blob of flesh before you died ? "

SCREAAAACHHHHH

" I guess not. "

*Stab

SCREAAAACHHH

" You sure ?? "

Punching away an extra toothy tentacle 15 stabbed the thing it was attached for a bit. And after a good forty-five minutes of stabbing some poor zombies, * cough * " Intense morning exercise " 15 felt quite refreshed and ready to start the day. Of course during his entire " morning exercise routine" 15 kept an eye and an ear out for Heins in an attempt to find his newest friend.

Gingerly stepping over a pile of teeth 15 continued his search for Heins gradually making his way through the stone village. Occasionally picking up something from the ancient village that he found interesting and playing with it for a bit. A good hour of walking around the outskirts of the village later and 15 was almost about to head over to the blood river to scold his friend's other body when he heard a rather annoying high pitched screech coming from near the center of the village.

Frowning 15 threw down a rusted pot he was playing with and started sprinting towards the center of the village, directly towards the strange temple. Originally 15 had planned to explore the weird pyramid with Heins, but it appeared that something interesting was going on. As he got closer and closer to the marble monument 15 the actual height of the temple itself dawned on 15.

Although he had gotten quite close to the thing yesterday while he was playing adventurer he really didn't pay it any attention. But after actually giving it a good look the thing was quite impressive. A towering Aztec-styled pyramid made entirely out of black marble with some red highlights. Amazing.

15 was actually quite interested in how the temple was built as well. After all, it must have taken a lot of manpower to build such a huge temple without any modern technology. The temple was about half as tall as the surrounding jungle trees, but in such an overgrown gigantic jungle that was quite the achievement.

Soon enough after climbing a few flights of stairs and running through quite a few interesting stone houses, 15 found himself just at the base of the pyramid, standing in front of a gaping black entrance. Interestingly enough it seemed as if something had already beaten 15 to it and had burst through the round door, destroying it completely. Leaving only shattered rubble behind Judging from the way the rubble fell it was obvious that something had charged its way into the temple, not out of it.

Bending down 15 picked up the half-destroyed head of a destroyed lion statue and sniffed the air.

Something rotten... with a strong undertone of.... seafood?

Gently placing down the head and inspecting the rubble 15 came to a conclusion. It seemed as if one of the newly mutated zombies had decided to charge into the temple for whatever reason. And due to how intense the seafood smell was it appeared to be quite strong. Something 15 had figured out while he was slicing up the other zombies earlier. The ones with the most tentacles and who were the most troublesome tended to have a stronger seafood smell.

Holding his blood knife at the ready 15 slowly approached the dark temple entrance, waiting to see if anything was going to jump out at him from the dark. Sadly, his expectations were disappointed. Nothing happened. After a few minutes of waiting for something to attack him from the dark, nothing jumped out at him, nor did he hear any screaming from the depths of the temple, nor was he pulled into the dark by some mysterious force.

Boring.

So, 15 gave a slight sigh and walked right on into the temple. Taking a rather large step to clear the rubble from the destroyed door 15 stepped right into the darkness. Although the lack of light couldn't bother 15 for long because as soon as he stepped over the threshold hundreds of lanterns banished the dark away revealing a rather large room adorned with hundreds of intricately carved statues and murals.

-- You have entered the - Temple of Flesh - prepare for battle challenger --

Scanning the room for any dangers 15 checked to see if the entryway behind him was still useable. And like he expected... it was completely sealed off. Not that that bothered him at all. In fact, it almost excited him a little. Almost.

" Hey, there we go, Just like the movies. Now let's hope this isn't... too disappointing, "

Turning back around 15 was unsurprised to find several hulking figures charging in his direction. After all the system did remind him to prepare for battle.