Humanity: Evolve

Zhang Long felt a sharp pain in his back, his mind clouded with pain. Although both his leg and back had been injured, his entire body felt as if it were on fire.

He tried to recall the previous events in order to regain some clarity.

'After the wolf grabbed me... Oh, the truck behind hit it.'

Even though Zhang Long was covered in pain, he still managed a sardonic grin.

He remembered what Alan had said on the truck, he remembered the lance corporal's seemingly despondent tone when speaking about how many odds were stacked against modern humans in Pangaea.

'Eh?'

Zhang Long realised that when he had been taken by the wolf, the truck must have been swarmed by other members of the wolf pack.

Although he hadn't really been spoken to at all, he still felt an instinctive urge to go and help. Maybe it was because he was a doctor, or he was just naive.

'Either way, I need to sort my own situation out first.'

As soon as his body began to tone down on the pain, his mind became clearer and clearer. Zhang Long felt a heavy sense of pressure against his lower half, directly on his injured leg.

He realised that the large wolf which had landed him in this predicament was lying on his legs, in a comatose state, it's hot and rancid breath making his hairs stand on end.

Zhang Long panicked, reflexively inching backwards and eliciting a flare of pain from both his back and his leg.

The wolf hadn't reacted to his shuffling, which was good. He still had a chance to escape.

This time, he attempted to move in a more gentle manner, perhaps to sooth his own nerves or lessen the pain.

Zhang Long's injuries flared up in complaint, but he kept on moving. His lower body seemed unable to move, thus he had to use his arms and c.h.e.s.t to pull himself away from the wolf.

However, even after what seemed like several minutes of pulling, he had barely moved a few centimetres.

It wasn't that his upper body was weak, far from that actually. The two year training had imparted good muscle memory and strong muscle fibres across his body, yet he could barely move.

A deep sense of frustration built up in Zhang Long's c.h.e.s.t, he felt useless and angry at the same time. Even if he was a victim of circ.u.mstance, he still felt disgusted by his own weakness.

Had his entire 21 years of life been wasted?

Had the deaths of his parents been in vain?

Even though he had been conscripted by the government to come to Pangaea, he still thought that he could do something in this new life!

The soul stone on his glabella seemed to react to his whirlwind of emotions, although Zhang Long didn't know it had activated.

Suddenly, a sense of dread crept up into his mind.

'It couldn't be that... I'm paralysed from the waist down?'

His pupils constricted, glowing a light blue. Coupled with his naturally dark coloured eyes, it looked like a torch lighting up a dark room.

Zhang Long glared at his waist with a surge of anger.

'What kind of injuries are these? I must have damaged by spinal cord upon hitting the ground!'

His vision flashed and suddenly, everything turned grey scale. The colours seemed to drain away like rain into a gutter, into the speck of blue light in Zhang Long's pupils.

His own body began to emit different colours, his leg a dangerous red, whilst his arm was a moderate orange.

'W-What's this?' He stuttered.

A word surface from the back of his mind.

Talent!

'Is... Is this my talent?' He asked, a rush of excitement overwhelming his other wild emotions.

All of a sudden, Zhang Long felt strangely calm, as if he were a spectator watching through someone else's eyes.

With this new cloak of tranquillity, Zhang Long began to examine this strange new world. The different colours that were layered across his body seemed almost like infrared vision.

Some parts were extremely red, whilst others were lighter shades and even bright green.

'Could it be that the different colours represent the status of my body?'

'If I work off of the assumption that red is injured and green is healthy...'

Zhang Long felt a hint of surprise.

He looked at his waist, specifically, the part where it joined to his leg. It was a bright red, pulsing like a heartbeat. Each time it pulsed, Zhang Long felt a slight pain in the back of his mind.

He bent his neck slightly further, he felt as if someone had stabbed needles down his back.

'Not good, my lower backside is red, from the spine down to both of my legs.'

Zhang Long's emotions had long been reigned in, however he still recognised the hopelessness of the situation. He had awakened a talent perfect for someone like him, a doctor.

Instead of lengthy and repetitive checks on patients, he would've been able to simply activate his talent and look at the other party.

The title of miracle doctor seemed so close yet also far, a smooth and easy life seemed to disappear just like that.

He stared at his glaringly bright red leg.

'Even if I did somehow manage to get away from this situation, it's not like I can do anything to that huge pack of animals.'

'I wish I could just...'

'Hmn, heal?'

As if on queue, a flash of light was emitted from his eyes. Spiritual energy was pulled from his soul stone and it seeped into his wounded leg.

The red colour started to lighten and fade. The damaged flesh and bone slowly correcting themselves.

A wave of exhaustion flushed through Zhang Long's body, as he fell back against the ground limply.

His body seemed to have acted on it's own, using some sort of power to heal his leg.

'Could that be part of my talent as well?'

Zhang Long slowly sat up again with the help of his arms. He looked at his leg again, noticing that the red colour had greatly reduced.

'How did I activate it before?' He mumbled.

'Heal?'

The soul stone glowed again, albeit dimmer than the previous attempt. Spiritual energy flowed out of his eyes and into his leg, repairing it at a speed visible to the n.a.k.e.d eye.

Then, an even heavier wave of exhaustion cut off Zhang Long's concentration and the flow of spiritual energy stopped.

He frowned.

'Heal!'

This time, the soul stone refused to respond.

'I guess it ran out of energy or something.' He thought, gingerly lying back down again.

After some time, Zhang Long attempted to heal his leg again, being relatively successful. From then on, he had spent all of his time either healing his body or resting and trying to recharge his soul stone.

After healing his entire body, he had been thoroughly exhausted. The hard ground behind his back felt like the most comfortable bed in the world.

Zhang Long deactivated his talent with a deep exhale, his flesh still itching from being repaired.

Although he didn't know what time it was, the sky was bright and the rain from the night before had stopped.

'Luckily I managed to awaken my talent now, otherwise I'd be properly screwed. My medical kit is all the way over there in the truck.'

Through this unforgiving and painful experience, Zhang Long had learned several things about his talent.

'Both the strange vision and healing requires energy from my soul stone. The energy runs out slowly if I only use my vision ability, but runs out quickly when I use my healing ability. Furthermore, my healing ability only works in addition to my vision, not independently.'

'My soul stone recharges over time. I'm not sure where it gets the energy from, perhaps it's from the spiritual energy in the atmosphere. Of this, I can't be certain but I'll keep this assumption for now.'

'Using my healing talent, the bones and flesh correct themselves naturally, there doesn't seem to be any possibility of deformations occurring. Of course, once again, this is just an assumption and I can't be sure.'

'With a large leap of faith, I'd guess that spiritual energy, which my talents require to activate, has the quality to maximise the body's potential. I remember that Benton's ability maximises muscle potential, could it be that my ability stimulates my eyes and induces healing?'

The influx of alien knowledge gave Zhang Long a sense of fulfilment. He truly felt like a pioneer, delving into tomes of brand new knowledge.

After a short rest, the itching of his flesh died down and he began to shift his mind to more important things.

'Now with my talents unlocked, I should be able to help the others more.'

'The problem is... It definitely won't work on dead people and I don't know if it can regenerate limbs.'

'Worse than that, I don't know if everyone has died or if the wolves are still there attacking them.'

At the thought of wolves, Zhang Long's eyes warily rested upon the large white mutt in front of him.

Upon healing his body, he had naturally made distance between himself and the comatose predator long ago.

'I wouldn't be able to fight off those other wolves, unless...'

The pure thought of capturing the bulky creature in front of him sounded so absurd that his thoughts trailed off.

'I don't even know how to tame them, let alone summon them. Even if I do use my powers to heal it, would it be intelligent enough to feel gratitude, let alone recognise me as it's benefactor?'

'However... Spirit beasts are still beasts right? Dogs are generally recognised to be an intelligent species that are capable of recognising emotions through facial expressions and loyalty. Wolves are a slightly wilder cousin of the dog, they must definitely have some similar traits.'

Zhang Long fell into deep thought.

'Although I wasn't really an expert in animals, I can still make some intelligent guesses.'

'If dogs are domesticated versions of wolves, what traits would they have lost and gained?'

'I'd say that in order for humans to have any possibility of gaining them as allies, they must have had a common goal. On top of that, wolves must be capable of weighing up benefits against losses. They must be able to reason, which is definitely the mark of an intelligent species.'

'Although the spirit beasts here are vastly different from those of Earth, there definitely must be some sort of semblance here. Reasoning is an extremely important aspect in human evolution, one of the things that made us as successful as today.'

'This means that it's not something natural selection would get rid of from a species if they did posses it in the first place.'

Zhang Long's brain began to hurt as he made several wild guesses. Even after reaching this far in his trail of thought, the question came back to the beginning.

'To heal, or not to heal?'

After a moment of internal silence, he decided.

'Screw it. The only people who know the way to the base are those senior officers. In order to be able to save them, I need a guard. My only options are to take my chances in the wild, or take an uncertain path. That is, to heal and bond with this wolf, before going over to save everyone.'

Zhang Long breathed in deeply, before opening his eyes. Within, one could see a steely resolve.

'Let's do this. Every second counts.'

He activated his talent, quickly scanning the wolf for injuries.

'Severe internal bleeding, damage to the skull, both hind legs have been broken. Most likely, it's rear had been hit by the truck whilst it landed on it's head. That means it's probably damaged it's spine or neck area too.'

The wolf was a mess, perhaps even worse than Zhang Long had been. It's body was a canvas of messy colours, mostly bright flashing reds.

He cracked his knuckles, before channelling spiritual energy through his eyes and into the wolf's skull.

Zhang Long made an internal checklist, prioritising saving the wolf's life first, before correcting it's limbs and extremities.

Thus, he went straight for healing it's cracked skull.

'I don't know whether my talent can heal permanent conditions such as brain damage, or if there is a limit to the damage it can repair. If I go off of one of my guesses, my ability relies heavily on bodily potential. That means that if the injury is too severe, even my miracle talent won't work.'

Sweat trickled down his forehead as he felt the spiritual energy pouring out of his body like a bursting dam.

Soon, the wolf's skull and brain had been completely healed, whilst Zhang Long's spiritual energy had been exhausted.

He rested for a few minutes, before getting back to work.

'I guess I should heal it's spine next instead of anything else. Even if I fix it's legs, it won't be able to move with a busted back.'

'If I have some left over energy, I'll heal it's internal bleeding too.'

He activated his talent again, making quick work of the wolf's more serious injuries.

In the middle of the "operation" the wolf stirred and woke, it's two beady eyes staring at Zhang Long like a predator sizing up it's prey.

Although he felt quite shocked internally, he didn't display any emotions externally. He kept his concentration and healed the wolf's bleeding insides.

Despite feeling slightly frightened, Zhang Long couldn't help but soothingly pat the creature's mane.

'It's alright buddy, you'll be back in shape soon.'

Much to his surprise, the wolf seemed to acknowledge his words of kindness and his efforts, rewarding him with a lick on the hand.

For Zhang Long, spiritual essence seemed to go as quickly as it regenerated, forcing him to stop after healing the internal bleeding.

He looked at the wolf's two broken hind legs with a frown. Although on the outside, they looked fine, save for some blood splattered across the fur, Zhang Long knew better.

When he had surveyed the wolf's body before, he had realised that the hind legs were completely incapable of supporting any serious weight.

Whilst this wasn't really much of a problem, time was of the essence. He didn't know if the moments he spent healing the wolf's hind legs would be the time taken for his companions to die.

Luckily, his talent seemed to passively calm his emotions. Something minor yet so helpful. It helped him make rational decisions even in a situation where he felt like the gravity of the situation could crush him into the ground and through to the centre of the Earth.

Zhang Long hesitated briefly, before rushing over to the nearby trees. He had been flung into the forest by the truck's impact previously, thus there were enough resources to make splints.

He collected a few decent sized branches, along with several strands of tall grass, before making his way back to the large white wolf.

Zhang Long slowly made his way behind it, making soothing voices as he gently bound it's legs to the branches, using the thick strands of grass to tie the legs up.

'It'll only hurt a bit.' He murmured.

The wolf whimpered uncharacteristically as he handled the broken hind legs as gently as possible. He tied the strands of grass above each joint, where the bones had broken.

After a bit of trial and error, mainly due to his unfamiliarity with the wolf's legs, he succeeded in making somewhat decent splints.

The wolf slowly stood up and looked at him with a kinder gaze. Zhang Long flashed it a warm smile, before patting it's muzzle.

Suddenly, he felt something tugging at his consciousness, in the dark space of his mind, a small flicker of light emerged.

Another smaller yet more powerful conscious had emerged within Zhang Long's mind. He sensed several emotions from it, the dominant one being gratitude.

He looked at the wolf with shock.

It seemed to understand his confusion, gently nuzzling his outstretched arm.

'Well. If we're going to be companions, you're going to need a name.' Zhang Long said with a slight grin.

He eyed it's snow white fur.

'How about... Winter?'

Winter nodded with approval, letting out a high pitched yip.

'Alright then. Let's go save some people.'