Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

Roland pointed toward the water.

"There could be more."

"Probably."

"And you still want to go down?"

Raven looked at him.

"The Mirehorn went down."

Valeria added:

"And it’s been bleeding for eighteen minutes while something hunts it. If we wait too long, we might find a corpse without a usable Core."

That settled the argument.

They descended.

---

The first terrace was covered in blood.

Not splatter.

A drag trail.

The Mirehorn had passed through here, and something had forced it to change direction.

Raven found marks in the stone.

Large.

Four toes.

Nothing like the Blood Leeches.

"Another predator."

Roland crouched.

"I don’t recognize these tracks."

Valeria examined them too.

"Neither do I."

Raven studied their size.

"Bigger than the Mirehorn."

"That doesn’t mean stronger."

"No."

Raven pointed at the depth of the impressions.

"But it does mean heavy."

They continued.

The quarry descended in a spiral.

Water on one side.

Vertical rock walls on the other, broken by dark openings where old mining tunnels disappeared beneath the stone.

Every entrance could hide something.

Raven hated the place.

Valeria looked fascinated.

"What?"

She looked at him.

"Nothing."

"You’re smiling."

"I like seeing you uncomfortable."

"Healthy."

"You enjoy watching Garrick get nervous."

"Garrick steals money."

"I don’t."

Raven looked at her.

"You’re a noble."

Valeria placed one hand against her chest.

"That was discrimination."

"Statistics."

Roland pretended not to hear them.

They reached the third terrace.

Predator’s Instinct reacted.

Raven raised a fist.

Everyone stopped.

A sound.

Stone scraping.

Right.

One of the tunnels.

Raven tilted his head slightly.

Roland understood.

Two guards spread out.

Valeria remained behind them.

Not because she was weak.

Because she had range.

A sensible formation.

Raven noticed without commenting.

The sound came again.

Then wet breathing.

Something emerged.

Not a Blood Leech.

Quadrupedal.

Large.

Dark gray hairless skin.

Small eyes.

A jaw divided into four plates.

Several recent wounds covered its torso.

Red blood.

No.

Mirehorn blood around its mouth.

The creature saw them.

Valeria spoke quietly.

"Mawcrawler."

Roland cursed.

Raven looked at it.

"Level?"

"Depends. One this size could be fifteen."

"High Common."

"Or a young Awakened."

"Wonderful."

The Mawcrawler growled.

It didn’t attack.

It was injured.

That mattered.

Its attention shifted toward Valeria.

No.

Toward the blood floating around her.

Raven saw its head turn.

"Get rid of the blood."

Valeria understood.

The spears dropped to the ground and returned to liquid.

The Mawcrawler kept staring at her.

"It can still smell it," Roland said.

Raven studied its snout.

"Not the blood."

"Then what?"

Raven looked at Valeria.

Blood mage.

Mana.

Maybe the creature fed on magical blood.

"Your magic."

Valeria raised an eyebrow.

"That’s offensive."

"Probably literal."

The Mawcrawler attacked.

Not Raven.

It ran past him.

Straight toward Valeria.

Raven had expected that.

Kinetic Acceleration.

His body surged forward.

Not a full Burst Step.

Something more controlled.

He came in from the side and slammed his Stonehide-covered shoulder into the creature.

Bad idea.

The Mawcrawler was too heavy.

Raven managed to shift it a few inches.

Enough for Valeria to move aside.

Her hand rose.

Blood pulled free from the creature’s own wounds.

Not all of it.

Only a small amount.

The Mawcrawler roared.

Valeria pulled.

The blood hardened into needles from inside the wounds.

The creature convulsed.

Raven saw the opening.

Knife.

Under the jaw.

It didn’t penetrate.

Thick skin.

The Mawcrawler turned.

Raven retreated.

Claw.

Stonehide.

Impact.

His arm went numb.

"Ridiculous skin."

Valeria smiled.

"Your tactical analysis remains brilliant."

"Thank you."

"That was sarcasm."

"Arrived too late."

The Mawcrawler attacked Valeria again.

Now Raven was certain.

It preferred her.

Not because of position.

Because of her mana.

Valeria understood too.

"It wants me."

"You attract strange admirers."

"Look who’s talking."

She extended one hand.

A circle of blood appeared in the air.

Not physical blood this time.

Red mana.

The Mawcrawler accelerated.

Valeria waited.

Too long.

Raven watched the circle.

She was probably planning to fire once it got close.

Then something moved beneath the water.

Predator’s Instinct reacted so violently Raven turned.

Another threat.

Behind them.

"Valeria."

She didn’t hear the warning.

Or she was too focused.

A gigantic Blood Leech exploded from the water behind her.

Not the size of the others.

Ten feet long.

Its body bloated, almost black from all the blood it had consumed.

The circular mouth opened.

Valeria was watching the Mawcrawler in front of her.

Roland shouted.

"My lady!"

Too late.

Raven made the decision before he finished calculating it.

Burst Step.

Mana exploded through his legs.

The world jumped.

He appeared behind Valeria.

Stonehide covered his shoulder and forearm.

The Blood Leech hit.

Its mouth closed around him.

Teeth scraped stone.

Some found flesh where Stonehide hadn’t finished spreading.

Pain.

Raven shoved his arm deeper.

Not to push it away.

To keep its mouth from closing completely.

"Now would be a good time."

Valeria turned.

Her eyes changed.

Not fear.

Something worse.

Fury.

Every drop of suspended blood around her responded.

The Mawcrawler reached them from the front.

Roland intercepted it.

The guards joined him.

Raven still had a monstrous leech attached to his arm.

Valeria raised both hands.

The Blood Leech froze.

Raven felt something strange inside it.

All the blood stored within the creature began to move.

Backward.

The leech swelled.

Then swelled more.

Valeria closed her fingers.

SPLASH.

The body burst.

Dark blood covered the stone.

Part of it covered Raven.

He stood perfectly still.

Looked down at his clothes.

Then at Valeria.

She was breathing faster.

"Are you okay?"

Raven looked at the blood.

"You had to make it explode."

"It was the fastest option."

"There were less wet options."

"I just saved you."

Raven raised the bitten arm.

"After I saved you."

Valeria opened her mouth.

The Mawcrawler roared.

They both turned.

"We argue later," Raven said.

"Agreed."

Now they cooperated without pretending they weren’t.

Raven attacked first.

Burst Step was too expensive to use again immediately.

Kinetic Acceleration.

A fast step left.

The Mawcrawler followed.

Valeria attacked from the right.

A blood spear struck one of its existing wounds.

The creature turned.

Raven moved in.

Knife into the same opening.

Deeper.

The Mawcrawler roared.

Valeria pulled at its own blood.

She couldn’t control all of it while it remained inside a resistant living creature.

But she could manipulate what was already escaping.

The wound opened wider.

Raven saw tissue.

Struck.

Stonehide around his fist.

Once.

Twice.

The animal turned.

Raven moved out.

Roland attacked the rear leg.

The guard with the injured thigh stayed back but threw a javelin.

It entered the neck.

The Mawcrawler turned toward him.

Mistake.

Valeria extended both hands.

All the spilled blood surrounding the creature rose.

Six spears.

No.

Eight.

Raven moved aside.

"Now I’m impressed."

Valeria smiled.

"Only a little?"

"A little."

The eight spears struck.

Two bounced.

Three barely penetrated.

One punched through an eye.

The other two drove into the open wounds.

The Mawcrawler convulsed.

Raven ran.

Kinetic Acceleration through his knife.

He drove it directly through the destroyed eye.

Resistance gave way.

The blade entered.

Raven pushed until the hilt struck flesh.

The body trembled.

Collapsed.

Silence.

Raven kept the knife inside for five seconds.

Ten.

Predator’s Instinct calmed.

He pulled it free.

Valeria was breathing harder than normal.

Not exhausted.

But she’d spent a significant amount of mana.

Raven looked down at the Mawcrawler.

The interface appeared.

«"Compatible defeated organism detected."»

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