Xukai awoke to smoke and heat, dizzyness in his head and blurred vision that indicated some sort of mild head trauma to him. He lay this way for several minutes, head shaking as he tried valiantly to bring himself to his feet, a truly extreme force of willpower as much as muscular work. It was only partially effective however, Xukai only managing to get himself leaning halfway against a piece of bent metal, the sharp edges causing blood to bead from a newly created shallow cut on his hand but his disorientated mind not seeing the merit of taking it away and losing the hold that kept him standing. It took a few long moments before he felt the warm crimson dripping from his hand properly and a few more for him to move it, taking a few shuddering steps on his own strength as his head cleared up and his vision sharpened.

The wrecked ship smoldered, small fires heating up the interior with Xukai still trapped inside with the corpses around him that had before the crash been the crew piloting this vessel. Spinning on the spot he could see no exits, the exit on one side now being crushed against the floor and the cargo door being far above his head, he was stuck in the wrecked ship unless he could climb up and hope the cargo doors had been slammed open. That or blast his way out. It seemed that he had two difficult options, he still hadn't much recovered physically that he figured he could climb so high as to reach the doors, but to form a blast capable of creating a hole he could escape through would take more power than he was currently willing to use.

A few more precious moments ticked by before he made his choice, Xukai reached out one arm in a clawed motion towards the corpses of the former crew, the gesture being fully unnecessary but giving him a physical foci for his power. Out of each of the six corpses rose a small red marble, each flying towards Xukai and being absorbed into his outstretched hand. Almost as soon as all were absorbed anyone nearby would feel a strong taint of death, Xukai quickly redirecting the energy and forming several shadow blades that tore a ragged hole in the side of the ship that would allow him to exit. 

As soon as the blades dissapeared Xukai dropped to his knees once again, sweat beading on his forehead as he gulped air back into his lungs. Each time he used his power he had to resist the corruption of the dark magics, the more he used the more the effect, and with the necromantic power of the six corpses in him it had taken nearly all of his mental willpower to resist it.

Xukai stared out at the dark sky, it being night time on the planet. He had no idea how long the night would last nor what awaited him on this planet, luckily he'd retained his knives through the crash and they hung on the side of his armour so he wasn't fully without any mundane forms of protection. If he was lucky this planet was outside the scope of humanity and instead occupied by animals, but he was rarely that lucky, nor was he in a state to face any being that would usually be of a strength with him without resting. And for that he'd need to find somewhere safe to rest first of all, large open plains were not the most ideal of places for him in his current state, he'd need shelter or a position of strength. 

When he squinted, in the distance he could vaguely see a large grouping of trees, a forest of some size if he could view it from this sort of distance. Staying near to the wreck was tempting, but something such as it on a land that at first glance appeared unblemished was likely to draw the kind of attention he was seeking to avoid. Xukai ducked back into the wreck and grabbed one of the weapons that had been formerly used by the crew, a simple pistol and machine gun. While he was useless with anything particularly technological he'd been shown how to pull the trigger and reload once it was empty, what more could he need than that. He might not be comfortable with the more advanced weapons but he'd seen their merits now and they'd increase his chances of survival, he wasn't shy of stealing from the dead so slotted several clips for each into his belt and moved out into the grasslands.

Once into the grasslands he prioritised speed over stealth. In open plains there was no point trying to be stealthy, with little foliage to hide him whether he tried or not it'd still be painfully obvious to anyone searching that he was there, with speed at least he had a chance to clear the area before anyone began looking or got too near. It started as a slow jog, slowly picking up the pace as his muscles warmed until eventually he was loping along in large strides that carried him the maximum distance with minimum effort, sprinting would cause him to lose energy too quickly.

Time passed peacefully as he loped along the planes, nothing came towards him and he made his way almost to the treeline. Unfortunately the peace wouldn't last as on a head on collision course towards him out of the brush came an incredibly oversized bull, it being the size of an adult elephant. 

It took a moment for Xukai to register what had happened before he dove sideways, rolling out of it's linear path before making a dead sprint for the trees only a few metres away, two raised arms in front of him mimicking a ramp of shadow that grew out of the floor and he proceeded up at a sprint. Xukai leaped as he reached the end of the ramp and pulled himself up onto a tree branch with much grunting and struggle, he still wasn't fully recovered and had just run more distance than he probably should have in his state. The bull pawed the ground beneath and looked up at him sitting on the branch with his back against the trunk of the tree. He was safe up here as far as he could tell, unless the bull could grow wings, which after a peek back down he could confirm that it likely could not or would have done so already. 

After a few minutes of it still lingering Xukai held onto the trunk and leant to one side, the other arm flinging out and releasing three spikes of shadow that embedded themselves in the side of the bull. It showed no real reaction other than pain, it seemed that it's hide and musculature prevented him from doing enough damage with small attacks such as shadow blades. It seemed he'd need to come up with some other way to hurt the great beast, that or hope it went away, although that seemed quite unlikely now that he'd injured it, in retrospect not the greatest idea.

It took almost a full half hour for him to fully recover from his travelling and magic usage, a ration pack and canteen of water taken from the ship aiding his recovery till he was back to optimum efficiency. It was at this point that he began to tackle the problem of the boar. While he'd rested it had remained below him, having fought off several other questing animals and having seemingly received very little damage from any. If anything it now looked in better shape than when he had initially seen it. It was still dark outside, for that he was grateful as his shadow magic worked far better in the darkness than in the light, although the bull's hide and muscle had turned the first offense of his shadow magic, a fair feat for a bull even were it only the tip of the iceberg when it came to his powers. 

Reaching down to draw his knife Xukai's hand hit the metallic barrel of the pistol he'd picked up earlier stuck through his belt, upon realisation he reached to his back and drew the larger gun he'd looted from the wreck. it was an option, a noisy option but an option nonetheless, it would definitely pack more of a punch than his light shadow magics and leave him less drained than were he to use a larger one, although it'd likely attract the attention of anything else in the area. It was quite a weigh up of stealth compared to ease, and in this foreign environment where he could encounter anything should it be attracted to him he chose stealth. Well...relative stealth....

Xukai focussed for a moment and sheathed both hands in shadow, the shadow flowing outwards and ending in talons there the fingers had been. Leaping from the branch with a sudden start he landed on the bull's back with a hard thud that momentarily knocked the wind from his lungs, only the fact that his talons had embedded into the bull's flesh meant that he was able to remain on top of it and not be flung off as he recovered from the impact. Once he had, Xukai gathered more shadow and watched it pour onto the already made talons, elongating them and digging them further into the bull's flesh, slowly inch by inch reaching deeper into it's body and wreaking more and more damage. Each talon was detatched from his hands and the glove faded from each, the talons still slowly growing deeper into the bull, feeding on it's life energies to power their growth. Xukai placed one arm onto each shoulder of the beast and sunk a deep spike of shadow into each, essentially crippling it's front legs and causing it to drop to the floor, back legs still flailing as both knives were drawn and struck several times each across the spinal vertebra, now that it was lamed and unable to push him off he could easily sever it's spine and put one knife into the windpipe to kill it. 

Xukai half climbed, half rolled off of the creature's corpse and lay on his back for a few moments, breathing heavily and near covered in it's blood. A few more passed before he moved towards the creature and removed his knives from where they'd scored their blows, if he'd had a few more blades he could likely have harvested this creature, it's hide was quite tough and tanned would likely be even harder. It took him more work than he would have liked but he eventually managed to remove the entirety of each horn from the bull's head, gaining him two horns each near the size of a human in length. Bone was a useful material should he find himself able to work it, especially with his usage of necromancy.

If all of the creatures of this planet were as large and vicious as this bull had been then he was going to have a hard time of himself. He needed to create some distance between himself and the carcass before it began to attract other predators or scavengers, although he hadn't sustained much damage from his encounter with the bull he wouldn't be happy to get into another fight quite so quickly. Xucai with a beckoning finger drew the soul from the beast, he lacked the power necessary to turn the beast undead or he'd have brought it, but it's soul was enough of a prize and the encounter had served to show him one manner of threat that he could expect from this planet.

With the two horns strapped to his back and some slabs of meat wrapped in large leaves he'd found nearby, Xukai headed along the outskirts of the forest, he'd wrapped the leaves as many times as he could to prevent the smell from escaping so hopefully he'd be fine once he gained some distance from the corpse. If only he had the power sufficient to animate such a soul into such a body he could have had a fine method of getting around easier, but there was no point worrying about what ifs for now, he had to focus more on his present and future. Both knives were still kept in his hands and shadows trembled and drew slightly towards him as he passed, but he did no more than ready himself and hope that it was for nothing. The state of constant awareness he was maintaining would drain him physically quite quickly, but it was necessary to prevent another surprise attack from the population of this planet, if he could find somewhere safer to stay and rest then he would but otherwise his best bet was to keep moving rather than stay all in the same place.

Staying in the forested area still seemed his best plan, as at least then he could flee to higher ground should he need to, just hopefully none of the other animals could as well, or then he was really screwed in what he'd have to do to stay alive. If anything he'd been lucky with the bull being the first he'd thought, simply in that it wasn't a particularly difficult opponent and gave him a reminder to be more wary and keep a better watch on his surroundings. Still, it was likely that this planet contained greater danger than just the bulls, and if it didn't then better, in Xukai's mind it was better to expect the worst and get nothing than expect the best and get the worst.

It wasn't long before he came to the ruins, a building of metal plating that soared above the trees, yet the metal was rusting and broken and the building as a whole looked more like a ruin. Leading with pistol and knife Xukai scouted the whole ruin and found it empty of any life bigger than a rat or small bird, it seemed as good a place as any to settle down, but not on the ground floor of course. After climbing several flights of stairs he found one floor that was relatively intact and placed the horns down in one corner. It wasn't particularly large, but large enough that he wouldn't likely be strugglign for space anytime soon. The slabs of meant fell next to the horns and Xukai fell next to them, after blocking up the stairwell with the biggest pieces of intact furniture that he could find, there was no saying what might come crawling up the stairs while he slept, or for that matter down them. Rolling to his feet once again he scoured the floors above, filching several eggs that looked similar to those eaten in his past that he knew would allow him some sort of a meal other than the meat. 

The building appeared clear, causing Xukai to wonder what must have caused it to become the ruin that it was, not a single thing within the place worked and every floor was caked in an (un)healthy layer of dust. Still it provided him good shelter from the elements and somewhere to store things he wouldn't need on him. For now he'd use it as a base camp of sorts while he explored the lands, it seemed to be undisturbed so he doubted the denisze of this planet came into it all that often and so hopefully he' d remain safe from whatever was attacking.

It wasn't the best of places but so far it had worked out as a simple base of operations, or at least a fairly defensible position where he could sleep without quite as much issue as he would have out in the open or in some simple cave. As far as he'd seen the animals couldn't get up here, and he was careful to clear his tracks and remove all of his waste so that he attracted none. Plus barring the stairway at night helped, though it seemed unlikely that anything the size of the bull he'd previously encountered could have made it through such a narrow stairwell, but better safe than sorry. That and he had no idea if there were more than just bulls around, he'd not encountered any other creatures since nor had he sought any out, the bull's meat cooked over a small smokeless fire sustaining him quite well, it tasted like regular meat and so far he hadn't been poisoned so he'd been eating what he'd brought since he got here.

How he was going to get off of this planet was a concern, but not an immediate one, he had food and there was plenty of water in a forest should one know where to look. He had basic requirements to survive, and that was all he would need for now, although staying here didn't help tremendously with his goal of gaining power the occasional combat against animals and time he could use to train himself did allow him to slowly progress. All in all he wasn't really sure how he was going to get off of this planet, if there were no human civilizations then that meant no useable ships, and the one that he'd come here in could definitely not be considered useable anymore. Maybe if he had someone here with the know how to fix it it'd be different but he only had himself and his very vague idea of even what a single part of a ship was.

Still, there were things he could do to pass the time should he desire something other than simply resting. Night had fallen while he'd eaten, rested and sharpened his knives and now was the perfect time for him to go out, the night hid all and empowered his shadow magic. Xukai took both knives off of the floor from beside him and moved to the stairwell, moving some of the debris he'd placed there and dislodging it enough for him to slip through and lazily descend the stairs to ground level, peaking out of the door carefully and ensuring he was alone before stepping out and melting into the shadows underneath the trees. 

It was simple for him to glide through the forests like a wraith, took very minimal effort to simply enhance his stealth with a slight stream of power when already he knew how to move quietly and quickly through forests, with this he'd be near impossible to spot for most. He was running out of meat, and so far he'd only mapped the area in the vicinity of his ruin, tonight he'd be going further out and looking for more prey so that he'd have food to eat. Berries and nuts and the like he could easily forage from such bountiful lands but meat was by far preferred if he had to live out and survive by himself for a long period of time, although it did mean he could only hunt as he hungered as he had no way to store the meat. Either way he would glide across the forest floor searching for his next meal.