There was no man anymore, barely any rational thought. Not even the instincts of the spider survived the blistering wrath that seared my mind. In the expanse of my mind, there was nothing but barren desert scorched by blazing, burning winds.

  There was nothing left.

  Nothing but Absolute Rage.

  Lost in that rage, I didn't feel my newest Class Skill activate purely by instinct. Conforming to my Will driven by rage.

  Muscles swelled with power, much the same way the yeti had when its own boosting Skill had activated. A roar escaped me as my newly enhanced body was forced to endure even more power surging into it. I could feel my body shuddering under the massive influx of power with no time to prepare or adapt. It was like lightning and fire surged through my veins rather than blood, burning into my muscles and bones. At the same time, my aura senses dimmed, and my vision was reduced to a tunnel with only a single target at the other end.

  My body was out of the wreckage of the chamber wall in a fraction of a second, hurtling towards the yeti like a missile. My human body rocketed towards the yeti's face, propelled by the combination of my new stats and my boosting Skill. Even lost in the rage, my aim was dead accurate.

  I smashed into the yeti's face with all the force that could be mustered with over 200 stat points between my Strength and Dexterity, working to fuel the movement.

  In short, I hit the fucker like an artillery shell fired from a cannon.

  The yetis head snapped back under the weight of the impact. I clung on only with a mixture of inhuman rage and determination, my dagger digging into the yeti's forehead, even into the bone, driven by my increased stats. I howled, pounding my dagger into its eye socket over and over again as a demonic sewing machine mounted to the monster's face by sheer will and wrath. Every blow delivered a new dose of venom. It was like trying to refill an ocean with a thimble. I was willing to give it a go. The yeti howled in anger and pain, its screams soothed my soul, yet my rage burned all the brighter. The monster's pain only added fuel to the fire.

  A hand came towards me as if to swat me like a bug. I growled in response, face locked into a wordless snarl, spider limbs replaced human hands. I skittered around the yeti's head and down its back as its hand slammed into its face. The impact didn't prevent me from digging and tearing at its flesh as I crawled around its body. My spider limbs punched holes in its torso wherever I went, my stats surging further under the influence of the transformation.

  My legs rent deep gashes that gushed blue blood everywhere I went. Web lines flashed out from my legs, anchoring the monster at various points as I dragged them tight. Preventing it from doing something as foolish as trying to crush me against a wall while I rampaged.

  I leapt free as its fists slammed into its body where I had been. I bounced off the ground, altering my trajectory. Web lines fired off at the remaining ice pillars as I used them to manipulate my path. Whipping around a pillar, I was pointed at the yeti again. Flashing past faster than it could react, my legs cut deep into its side and left behind thick strands of web. The speed provided by the combination of my current Dexterity and Strength completely eclipsed the monster's reaction speed. More web lines fired off, dragging me away from the monster. I whipped around the chamber, barely a blur, just a black streak of violence and pain as I carved into the monster, leaving behind more and more webbing with each and every pass.

  Seizing my web lines, I hauled on every line with the ridiculous amount of Strength I currently possessed due to the combination of my Bloodline, Transformation Skill, and Class boosting Skill. The yeti tumbled back from where it had been standing and slammed back against the ice pillar I had been weaving my lines around. Every strand, every line of web, had been building towards this trap. To drag this bastard down to the ground and tear it to pieces. The yeti struggled and strained against the webbing. I kept moving, adding more wounds and more lines of webbing. Every move carved away from its ridiculous pool of Endurance. I could feel the stacks of [Bane] beginning to pick up as its resistance weakened.

  The fight was nearing its end. That wasn't enough. Not nearly enough for what it had taken from me.

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  Everything vibrated: the chamber, my limbs, my teeth, the inside of my skull. I was cold fire, an engine of hatred that could not be stopped, a vector for every scrap of pain I'd been made to feel in this world. It was almost funny, in a way, how so much pain— every wound, every hardship—was a pale aftertaste against the screaming wound in my soul.

  Vipera was gone. The other half of me had been annihilated, torn up, erased from the world in one brutal instant. And I would scorch the earth to get her back. Failing that, I would send this monster back to its maker after it had howled in bitter agony until the very last moment of its existence. Send it back in pieces, shreds.

  I carved into the yeti again and again, every pass shaving flesh from its body, every wound gouting more of its impossible blue blood onto the ice floor below. It was beyond reason that it still lived. Such was the nature of the world of stats and monsters; it was beyond reason and sense.

  Enough, Aiden, let it die. Even if I do appreciate your fervour. It is good to know I am appreciated and cared for.

  A voice broke through the rage that shrouded my mind. It was familiar, but not. Something in it demanded my attention. I froze for a long moment, standing on the chest of the yeti as it heaved up and down, rattling with breath as it bled into its lungs. On the edge of a realization. Of hope? Of madness? There was no way of knowing.

  It can’t be. You’re gone. You died… I responded mentally purely by instinct.

  A woman's laughter echoed through my mind, rich and deep. Throaty in the way I expected a lounge singer's voice to sound. I didn't dare to let myself hope. Perhaps I had gone mad, lost what little sense I had left.

  Not quite, Dear. You forget we are bound at the Soul, not the body. The failure of the container does not change where my essence resides. I won't be gotten rid of so easily. There was laughter hidden there under the surface of the voice that echoed in my mind.

  I barked out a laugh, bitter and triumphant and ragged. If I had gone mad, then. Fine. It changed nothing; if anything, it only made me more dangerous.

  If you’re staying, you might as well help, I thought, or shouted, or sang—I couldn’t tell, the boundaries between internal and external had blurred, and my words to Vipera were indistinguishable from the wordless howl tearing out of my throat.

  That’s the spirit. Now finish this, Dear.

  The remaining ice pillars in the chamber shattered as the yeti thrashed against the webbing, its titanic body slowly winding down, like a dying engine. With a flex, I yanked my web lines tight, jackknifing its back and peeling layers of fur and sinew away along the lines. My spider limbs stabbed in the gaps, each strike deliberate, surgical. The stacks of [Bane] and venom now overwhelmed the resistance its pool of Endurance offered; the blue blood pouring from its wounds was laced with black.

  I was done with this. I just wanted to be done with it.

  Taking aim with my right eye, I intentionally overcharged three [Edge Glares]. It would cost me those eyes for a time, and it would hurt like hell. That was a price I was willing to pay. The first arc took the yeti's right arm at the shoulder, carving through its torso, the second its left arm. The third and final arc of force ripped through the yeti's neck, sending its head tumbling from the stump to the ground with a thump that rattled the chamber. I ignored the System notifications that whined for my attention with the yeti's death, focusing instead on the presence of Vipera in my mind. I couldn't describe how soothing it was to be able to feel her again.

  Well done, now, loot big ugly over there, so we can make me a new body, Vipera’s voice echoed in my mind.

  "I can do that?" I asked, dumbfounded, I could practically hear the smug grin curled through each word. I huffed a laugh that would've frozen any therapist dead in their chair and released the web lines before shifting back to human. The laugh of a man exhausted not just physically but in spirit. I still burned, but with each second the rage hollowed, and something like clarity crept back into my head. It left behind little but cold ash in its wake, and now I was just tired. I was wrung out mentally, emotionally, and physically.

  A little more work and then you can rest for a bit Dear, so hop to, and get it done.

  It didn't take a genius to recognize the stamp of Vipera's smug, mischievous personality on the return address of that mental missive—I'd known her long enough by now to recognize it. Even if it came with a voice now, where before we had communicated with feelings and images. There was something indefinably her that the new voice carried along with it.

  The blue blood of the yeti steamed and hissed on the ice. I reached out and touched the fur, triggering [Spirit Forge] as I did. The Skill responded instantly, golden light leaking from its physical remains while they began to dissolve. As always the golden energy streamed towards my open hand from the corpse of my enemy. This time, though, something slightly different happened. I felt a nudge from deep inside my soul, and let Vipera take the lead. This time, rather than form an object in my hand, I felt the golden energy moving into, then moving on as if I were just a way point on its journey to its destination. Through me and then towards Vipera, where she was nestled within my soul. I felt it coalesce around her, suffusing her presence with a new vitality.

  I could see her, the shape of her—Vipera—crystallize in my mind's eye. It was nothing like the old her: she was more vivid, more solid than any memory I’d ever held. New roots and lines knotted themselves into being, a blue-black lattice growing in the space behind my eyelids. She coiled around my thoughts, a warm and electric pulse between every beat of my still-raw heart. I had never believed in reincarnation, but here she was, reborn from the body of my enemy.

  You’re damn right I am, her voice teased, a half-hiss, half-cackle, even as the last motes of gold spun around her form. Better than ever, too.

  Within moments, she was fully materialized and wrapped around my torso once again. I patted her head roughly; she felt solid, real. In the end, she'd barely needed a quarter of the energy that [Spirit Forge] had produced, and I ended up stowing the forged soul core formed from the rest in my [Inventory].

  So, you can talk now, that’s new. I pointed out.