16

I ran. The ground shook, and the dry soil caved in on me, but I ran anyway. My body was tense. My muscles sang, and my speed increased the more pressure came down on me the better I seemed to perform. I'd always failed under pressure before. 

Now pressure pushed me to go all out. My feet pounded on crumbling ground as I ran. The paths the roots had once dug were falling in on me. I smiled as chaos rained down on me. I turned towards the largest path every single time. 

Knowing full well that this sinking feeling in my chest was caused by the massive monster I was running towards. I wasn't thinking. I was running headlong into danger, and I loved it. My speed was increasing as my footing became more, and more unstable. I saw the massive roots moving above me. 

Causing the trenches to collapse even faster. I leapt over a large clump of dirt as it fell in front of me. Another one grazed my back, and caused me to flinch as dirt rushed down my shirt. That minor discomfort was quickly forgotten. I could feel dirt getting in my eyes, but I refused to close them. 

That one second it would take to blink could very easily kill me. I wished I had a better mobility spell besides high jump. High jump was useful, but it wasn't good enough. I needed a better skill. I could complain about that later. 

Thinking about it now wouldn't change a thing. I was forced to use high jump several times to avoid a massive hole that opened up beneath me. I was getting closer to the tree. I danced around the roots using my high jump skill. Aiming for a spot that wasn't branches or roots. 

Needing to find an open space so I could aim for it's eyes. I flew into an open space, and slammed into a wall? It was a wooden wall of some sort. I knocked myself in the head pretty good so I clung to the first spot I could fit my hand into. Multiple growls rang out in the darkness. 

My eyes had adjusted to the dark. I could see somewhat even in the pitch black, and what I saw was terrible. Dozens of those fluffy poodle looking wolves surrounded me in this dark tunnel. This tunnel was moving. We're inside the tree. 

I smiled. Red creeping into my vision as my lust for blood started to overwhelm my senses. All those eyes would be quite a satisfying amount of bodies to make bleed in the near future. I launched myself up through the center of the tree. The soul fangs engulfed in flames as I rushed up through the tree. 

Happily setting the world around me on fire as I went up. That was my intent in the first place. The massive boss tree started thrashing around. It didn't like being set on fire from the inside. I was more prepared for the thrashing then the beasts before me were. 

My muscles sang as the world around me caught fire. I loved it all. I took advantage of the thrashing, and the narrowing path as I rushed to the top. Blood made the walls slick as more, and more blood was added to it I had less footing to work with, but that didn't matter to me. If I slipped then I could use my high jump skill to keep going up. 

Small cuts opened up on my body as I rushed further, and further up the tree. My blades tore through one enemy at a time. Experience started piling up bit by bit. I lost count of how many I'd killed around the time I hit the double digits. Surviving by living in the center of the boss of this floor. 

How funny. Red completely clouded my vision, and any semblance of control was gone. I bounced off the walls of the tunnel within the tree like a wild animal. Psychotic laughter echoed off the walls around me. I loved it all. 

I loved the blood. I loved the danger. I even loved the pain of the many wounds I was accumulating. The more blood I spilled the more power was sent through my limbs. Bloodlust was a good skill, and it seemed to be giving me mana as well as health as I spilled more, and more blood. 

If I wasn't a thrill seeker before I was now. I rushed upwards. Seeking more, and more bloodshed as fast as I could. The bloodlust started to fade when I reached the upper part of the tree. I was running out of enemies to kill. 

That meant my bloodlust wouldn't hold for much longer. No more blood meant no more bloodlust. I knew I would be in trouble if I didn't do something now with the mana I had left. I stabbed both blades into the inner wood core of the tree, and lit it on fire. Pouring every ounce of mana I had left into the flames that were consuming the inside of the tree. 

The thrashing was now throwing me around too much for me to do anything anymore. I withdrew my soul fangs, and fell. Flames seared me as I fell to the bottom. I saved just enough mana to activate my high jump skill when it was time, but the inferno raging below me wasn't easy to see through. I kept my eyes open anyways. 

My eyes were in so much pain. They wanted to close so badly. I couldn't let them. I kept on falling. Watching for that one opportunity. 

The one that would stop me from hitting the ground so hard I would die. I didn't know how long it would take for the tree to burn to death, and I was repeatedly being slammed into the sidewalls of the tree. Flames seared into my body each time I was slammed into the inner walls of the tree. I was getting pretty badly burned each time I was slammed into the walls. I didn't care.