Along with new skills that he could use Lucius also felt a great deal stronger compared to when he had just landed in hell. He had a certain control over his perception which was slightly weird but very useful, he could see extremely well, everything was extremely detailed and he could also see at very far distances, if he were to guess it would probably be about 5 miles.
His body also felt tougher and he felt like he could run and strike harder than he could before.
'I should probably check the area more now, I'll make this little hole as my base where I can retreat in case of any danger.' Lucius thought
'I also need to test out these skills.'
Deciding that exploring his new abilities would be both wise and enjoyable, Lucius quickly found his way to his feet and started slowly walking towards the exit as he very quietly and cautiously made his way away from the large volcano and towards the red ocean.
"Let's see what this feels like," Lucius said quietly to himself.
Lucius decided to test out the skill Self-Shadow manipulation first as this one seemed like the one that would draw the least attention to himself.
And luckily or unluckily for Lucius, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
Out of the boiling hot water of hell emerged a large four legged creature with three heads and a single eye attached to each head. Its three mouths were open and three grotesque tongues slowly slithered out as if searching for prey.
Immediately, Lucius slowly started to back away from the red ocean and towards the little hole he had found in the volcano.
'The size of that alone tells me I would die if I were to fight it.' Lucius thought
'I'm not even 5 feet!'
Eventually Lucius managed to reach his base of operations as he once again went into a Meditative stance to think.
His body was small, extremely small, he was barely 4 feet and while he felt strong he didn't think he could beat something like that.
'Let's just test this skill and move on from there.'
'I wanted to get a better view of it since this space is still a little cramped even for me but beggars can't be choosers.'
Lucius took a deep breath, centering himself within the warm embrace of the volcanic rock. He closed his eyes and followed the instinctual instructions he gained upon getting the skill and tried to manipulate his own shadow.
Out of his own shadow, a single dark tentacle slowly creeped out. Lucius gritted his teeth and his brows furrowed as he struggled to manipulate the shadow tentacle, eventually the tentacle fully emerged out of his shadow, slowly wiggling about.
The tentacle itself was still connected to Lucius's shadow; the only difference was that he didn't have to maintain his concentration to manipulate it anymore since it wasn't inside his shadow anymore, but still connected to it.
*sigh*
'That was harder than I expected.' Lucius thought, his chest heaving from slight exhaustion.
'It was a good thing I hadn't tried to use this skill near that creature, that could have been really bad.'
'Now I have a semi-companion, it doesn't seem to be able to act independently but the strain I felt when summoning it from my shadow is gone and I can feel a small connection in the back of mind that I can use to control this.'
The tentacle moved around, still connected to Lucius' shadow but doing odd movements due to Lucius's low control.
Suddenly, the tentacle became sharp at the edges and thrusted out in a random direction causing the air to make a sound as if it was crying.
'That was fast, very fast, but I have to focus a little more to do that and I can feel the drain on my essence from doing that only once. This isn't something I'll be able to spam just yet.'
Lucius watched the shadowy tentacle as it quivered and shifted, now free from his immediate control yet still tethered to him. He didn't dare try to summon a new tentacle unless he wanted to run out of essence and he didn't know what the consequence of running out of Infernal Essence was.
Since he wasn't going to summon more tentacles he decided to just exercise more control of the one he had already summoned rather than trying to summon more.
'With this I should be able to at least defend myself if that creature attacks me. I doubt it's faster than me but it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when I'm in literal hell.'
With a clearer plan forming in his mind, Lucius considered his next steps carefully. The tentacle, although still somewhat erratic in its movements, was a potential line of defense against the monstrous creature prowling outside.
And Lucius couldn't….wouldn't stay cooped up in here forever, eventually he would have to come out and face whatever the creature outside was. He assumed it was a demon since it looked like it was recently born the same way he was but he wasn't sure.
'Im gonna have to find a way to kill it eventually…unless it decides to leave on its own.'
Quietly peeking out of the small hole he was in Lucius's eyes basically zoomed in on the newborn demon. It continued to randomly walk around in search of what Lucius assumed was prey or just something to murder? He didn't know the behaviours of demons or really anything about them other than the usual most people knew about them. The newborn demon continued walking about randomly until suddenly it stilled, then turned in the exact direction that Lucius was hiding.
'Of fucking course it somehow knew I was here!'
If Lucius was human still he knew for sure from just that he would already be neck deep in adrenaline. As soon as the demon had stopped moving Lucius had already backed away where he could still see it but also at the same time, nothing outside could see him.
The demon kept staring in the direction of Lucius without moving much to the slight and growing panic of Lucius. Deciding that enough was enough Lucius decided to bait the demon into coming over where he was without it actually knowing that another demon was where he was moving towards.
He calmly looked around the hole he was in, searching for anything he could use to his advantage until his eyes landed on the many rocks he could use. Quickly picking up one of them Lucius went back into position and aimed, making sure the rock would be seen by the creature and that it would also make as much noise as possible so as to attract its attention.
He took a deep breath, the acrid air of hell filling his lungs. This was a gamble, a dangerous one, but staying hidden forever wasn't an option. He had to learn, to adapt, to survive.
With supernatural ease, Lucius hurled the rock out of the opening. It sailed through the air, a small projectile against the vast red expanse, and landed with a sharp clatter on the ground a short distance away from his hiding spot.
The sound, which should have been insignificant due to it being a mere rock, was amplified in the eerie silence of hell, and not even a second later, the newborn demon's heads instantly snapped towards the noise, its single eyes widening with a predatory and curious gleam.
Its grotesque tongues slithered out further, tasting the air, sensing the disturbance.
Suddenly, a low growl rumbled from the demon's three mouths, a sound that vibrated through the ground and into Lucius's bones, causing him to nearly throw up blood. Slowly, the creature began to move, its four powerful legs carrying it closer to where the rock had landed. It moved with an unsettling gait, a mixture of awkwardness and raw power, like a creature still finding its footing in this new world.
Lucius watched intently, his enhanced vision allowing him to see every twitch of its muscles, every subtle shift in its posture. He noted its speed, faster than he had initially thought but nowhere near close to even his own jogging speed, much less his own speed when he was running at full speed.
The demon reached the spot where the rock had fallen, its heads bobbing as it sniffed the air, searching for the source of the noise. It circled the area, its eyes scanning the surroundings, its movements becoming more confident now that it thought it was actively pursuing a threat.
Lucius remained perfectly still, the demon literally just a couple meters away from him and his shadow tentacle was coiled and ready to strike at its fastest speed. The strain of maintaining the tentacle in this state for so long was real but manageable, Lucius only needed the demon to come just a little closer and he could strike.
The demon's search brought it closer to the volcano, closer to Lucius's hidden sanctuary, and that was when Lucius striked. As soon as the demon turned slightly away from Lucius to continue looking for its 'prey', Lucius jumped out of his hiding spot and unleashed his shadowy tentacle onto one of the creature's heads.
The air once again made a sound as if it was crying due to the sheer speed at which the tentacle moved, and before the creature could even react in any way, the middle head was nearly blown off as a large hole appeared in the creature's center head.
"RAHHHHHH!." The creature growled in pain and surprise as it suddenly lost one of his heads.
Lucius quickly moved, managing to avoid a quick swipe of the creature that would have probably severely injured him in one hit. Lucius quickly backed away, putting some space in between himself and the creature as he attempted to once again put his shadow tentacle in that coiled, pounce-like state that allowed it to attack at incredible speeds.
The newborn demon was having none of that, however as it charged straight at Lucius, its mouths opened wide to reveal sharp black teeth and two long tongues. Lucius quickly moved out of the way, doing so with relative ease due to how slow the demon was compared to Lucius, he tried regularly attacking with the tentacle without it entering its coiled state but it barely did damage and only slightly pushed the newborn demon away.