Devourer

Chapter 113: Unexpected Fun

I circled the beast as it cautiously did the same. I could tell I was slightly stronger than it but when the difference was this close, victory was not clear. Abilities could counter each other and personal skill could make or break a fight. I have no idea what it could do and it had no idea what I could do.

Cecilia was safe and being spirited away back to Averlon, Mahaila was going to escort her back to Elysia as planned. So it was just up to me to either kill this thing and run my experiment or retreat and come back when I’m stronger.

I started by leaving a decoy behind and commanding it to continue circling the beast. This was the weaker [Ether Decoy] that was just a magical construct. The other one I had was the one the phoenixes use which was [Solarite Decoy] that actively split a piece of themselves off. It’s closer to a weak clone than a magical construct. However the moment I did the beast pounced and I ordered my decoy to attack. In the meantime I circled around and got ready to strike. But then I noticed one of its eyes darted to me and it suddenly turned away from my decoy. Its claws flashed and I instantly split off a [Solarite Decoy]. The beast could tell something was wrong but [Solarite Decoys] although significantly less durable was still able to hit as hard as I did normally.

The beast had no choice but to go on the defensive as both decoys attacked it. The beast managed to land a hit on the [Ether Decoy] after taking a hit from the [Solarite Decoy]. The [Ether Decoy] shattered into motes of light. In that opening I pounced with my blades extended. They were already enchanted with the [Void Cracker Enchant] so they would definitely do damage. The beast whirled and used its long tail to bash me back. I landed a slash on its back but the cut wasn’t deep thanks to its quick movements.

As much as I was angry, my mind was still clear. This was one of the perks of my body, I get the aggression and killing intent while still being clear headed.

The beast turned and instantly chose the right one between me and the decoy. I smiled internally when I realised that this idiot was going to take the bait. I let the beast pounce on me and I fell back onto the ground. Its jaws snapped an inch for my face and I smiled as I swapped to my clone. It’s a little trick that I have which allows me to swap positions with my [Solarite Decoy], another trick was that I could command the decoy to use that explosion ability that phoenixes could use. I watched as the beast flinched once it noticed something was wrong and my decoy wrapped itself around the beast locking it in place. Then there was a flash as the beast was caught in the blast.

The blast didn’t kill it but that was to be expected it barely scratched me last time. However, I could tell this beast was less durable and sure enough I could sense a decent amount of damage on the creature. Now to see if it can regenerate…

I saw it stumbling about it in the cloud of smoke and then I noticed something. It looked to be regenerating but yet it didn’t look like it was regenerating properly. The body was healing but it looked like it was healing incorrectly. I'm starting to understand why its body was covered with strange growths. Healing and regeneration relies on the body remembering what its true form was. It looks like this beast’s body couldn’t fully remember what the original form was, so its regeneration was haphazard.

Then I saw the beast raise its head and let out a howl. The howl echoed out across the font and I felt a slight chill go up my spine. I really hope this one wasn’t calling for help…

There was almost nothing written on the beasts within the Primordial Font. Given the nature of this place few were willing to come to study it. After all, why would they? Even if they could survive the danger from the area itself, they still had to deal with the monsters. If they could do all of the above, judging by how the creatures here are based on accelerated random mutation I doubt anything anyone does find would be useful for long. Plus why would they want this information? It’s not like there were any resources that they were capable of exploiting. I wanted the font’s power for flesh crafting and most humanoids can’t flesh craft. They just didn’t have the fine control necessary to do it.

I needed to finish this fight quickly in case more showed up. Although I still had a few tricks up my sleeve in case things got dangerous but I rather not be put in danger at all. With that thought in mind shot at the stumbling beast, I saw its scales crackle with ether and I sensed a power surge. I instantly switched both my left arms into a shield and held it up. Just in time as I felt an impact and ether shot up my arm, most of it was absorbed by the shield but I still felt some pain.

Then I heard the voice in my head sound out.

Repeated [Ether Lightning] Damage Detected

Triggering [Adaptive Resistance]

Resistance adaptation successful

Proceed with combat…

I guess that first surprise attack wasn’t enough to trigger my resistance. But now that I have adapted to it I noticed the residual ether shocking me seemed to do quite a lot less damage. I lowered the shield and charged, the beast was still weak on its feet from the blast. I could see its legs were damaged. Rule number one of a fight, stay mobile, slow monster dead monster. That must be why it resorted to ranged attacks…

The worrying part was that my senses were so muted that I probably wouldn’t be able to tell if more are on the way.

“Nafas unburrow the hive and set up a perimeter.” I said as I slashed at the beast in front of me and

By your command

It’s obvious that the hive’s senses are muted here as well, I can’t trust their tremor sense. They will have to rely on their eyes.

I heard the soft muted sound of my Praetorians emerging from the ground in the distance. They weren’t exactly subtle creatures, when Praetorians emerged it was usually to conduct a full fledged blood bath. I raised my blades and slashed at the beast. With its legs in ruins there was nothing it could do to evade, its weak sideward jump only managed to stop me from burying my blade into its head. Instead my blade found its side and it cut deeply, snapping several of its malformed ribs. This was a grievous wound and it staggered to the ground. I was about to strike down at it when I felt something tackle me from the side. I went sprawling into the grass and I saw another beast appear out of invisibility. It was right on top of me and the first thing I saw was its reptilian face, with its yellow eyes with narrow slits for irises and its multicoloured scales.

I felt pain in my chest as the new beast ran what I assumed was its claws across my chest gouging gashes in my armour. I was about to respond but I felt a jaw close around my tail, it’s fangs sinking in deep. Crap at this rate I’m going to be pinned. But just as I was about to open my mouth and fire a [Solarite Beam] into the new beast’s face I saw a Praetorian emerge from the ground in the corner of my vision. The Praetorian tackled the snake headed beast off of me and I rose up slightly to see this bird-like creature with stunted wings sinking its beak into my tail. It looked like a cross between a pigeon and a chicken with multicoloured feathers that would make an artist weep at the sight of its horrible colour palate.

I took aim and was about to fire a [Solarite Beam] at it when I saw a shadow behind me. Then I felt something hard strike the back of my head and I nearly fired the beam onto myself. I shifted my gaze to see this time it was this strange six legged horse. Its legs were arrayed on its side like a weird insect but I could clearly see the equine face and the legs that were tipped with hooves.

MY GOD HOW MANY OF THEM WERE THERE IN THIS FUCKING PLACE?

I felt my tail being released as I saw another Praetorian emerge and it got the weird rainbow turkey off my tail. The mutant horse raised its hoof to try and stamp on my face but I fired a [Solarite Beam] right at its belly and it was blasted back a charred hole now in its body.

I got back up and I saw one of my Praetorians now a mangled mess on the ground. The Praetorians were far weaker than I am so they stood no purpose in this fight other than being cannon fodder. If these beasts could cut through my armour the Praetorians might as well be naked.

Then I spotted the snake heading one charge at me. I could see this one was perhaps the most cohesive looking beast. It had the head of a snake but it looked like the body was that of a crocodile. However, its tail looked like it was supposed to belong to a scorpion

It opened its mouth as I pounced at me. I raised my blades expecting a bite attack but instead of a bite it spat a mouthful of green liquid right into my face. I immediately saw my vision blur and as I felt this burning sensation all over my face.

Shit I just had acid spat at me, then I heard the voice sound off in my head again.

Venom detected

Adapting…

Looks like it was poison too, I felt my head go a little hazy for a moment but it soon snapped back to clarity. Now all I felt was a slight fatigue. I saw my vision sharpen back just in time to see the scorpion fly at me. I kept moving throughout the time I couldn’t see clearly just in case and it looks like it was a good decision. I dodged off to the side and the stinger grazed me but I could still feel the venom get into my body.

Things were looking bad but I felt something strange from within me. It was kind of feral anger and it was building quickly.

My king the perimeter has been broken

Advise retreat…

Hell no… I’m not leaving until all of them are dead. I can kill them all, I know it…

Warning combat stress exceeding acceptable thresholds

Activating [Metabolic Frenzy]

??,`°.???.?.???.°`,??

Mahaila cursed under her breath as she ran down the tunnel. She was supposed to be escorting the unconscious Cecilia. Mahaila knew if something happened to Cecilia the Great Beast would be angry beyond belief. Yes Cecilia was invaluable but not nearly as valuable as the Great Beast. He was actually tolerant and interested in what humanoids had to offer. The original plan was to keep the Great Beast in line by using reminders of the past. But honestly she doesn’t think it’s necessary at this point.

He could actually become a good ruler for the world and not like the ravenous beasts that the old Firstborn were. But knowing the unpredictability of the Primordial Font she could not risk him getting killed.

Cecilia was already a decent way down the tunnel and Mahaila had even dumped one of her rare potions on her head to heal her up just in case. Those potions she had didn’t need to be ingested to work so just jumping it on skin was fine. She ended up dumping it on Cecilia’s face, it ruined her makeup but it would mean now she just needs to sleep it off.

When Mahaila got close to the exit of the tunnel she could hear roars and yelps. The yelps didn’t sound like it was coming from the Great Beast but those roars sounded kind of like him. Yet somehow it sounded more… feral…

Right as she reached the entrance she saw this shape fly past the hole. Mahaila paused for a moment when she saw it. Was that a piece of a corpse?

Mahaila cautiously poked her head out and saw that the shape was indeed a corpse, or perhaps what was left of a corpse. It was a snake like head attached to… something that used to be a body…

What was left of the body looked to have been eviscerated and torched, the flesh was pulped and charred. Whatever did this really wanted it dead…

Mahaila then turned and saw a glowing fifteen metre tall raging Firstborn, it appears the Firstborn has gone all out. Shedding its size limitation for raw power. She could see it chasing this oversized bird-like creature and this horse-like creature. There were two more circling one was this technicoloured ape with oversized arms that looked like they were covered in this insect like carapace. Another was this giant crab… thing, it’s head was like a crab but it’s lower body seemed closer to a scorpion. It was like someone glued a crabs head on a scorpion’s body but took off the tail.

She watched as the Great Beast finally caught the bird-like creature and with one slash it took off one of its stunted wings. At first Mahaila thought the Great Beast was going to just finish it off but to her surprise it grabbed the severed wing and started to try to beat the bird to death with it. She could hear the sickening crunch and splattering sound as the Great Beast bashed its skill in with its own wing. When the wing inevitably fell apart the Great Beast then proceeded to slash mercilessly at the torso before finally reaching in with its hands and started to pull everything out of the torso.

Mahaila gulped as she looked at the scene. She had heard of this before, if you pressure a Firstborn too much they enter this frenzied state and then the real fight begins. Battles between Firstborn often devolved into this and the end result usually involved levelled cities, mountains cleaved in two and forests burned to ash. Not many know this but the Elven forest actually had to be regrown in its entirety once because of one such battle. They say the Wood of the Ancients was as powerful as it was because the land was filled with the leftover ether from that great battle.

Another darker rumour said that the Elder Tree that the elves worshipped was filled with the souls of all those that died when the forest was turned to ash. Judging by how the Elves basically jumped at the chance to kill the Firstborn Mahaila suspected there may be some truth to that little rumour.

As she looked at the mutated ape jump on the Great Beasts back and he just tore the ape off its back before carving it up into pieces she could see there was truth to those legends. As the Great Beast was attempting to turn the ape into wine the horse from before decided to try again. Mahaila could only watch as the Great Beast pried the horse’s mouth open before firing one of its beams right down its throat. The horse’s body ended up exploding as its internal fluids boiled.

The only thing left of it was its skull which had all its flesh burned off. Its six legs on the other hand had gone flying off in random directions from the blast.

The final beast was the crab and perhaps this was one smarter because it was trying to run away. Mahaila knew the Great Beast wasn’t going to let it get away and sure enough he spread its half ruined wings and shot at the crab. The crab didn’t last long, the Great Beast ripped one of its arms off and used the tip of the pincer to stab into the bottom of the crab’s head. Then the Great Beast used it as leverage to detach the head from the rest of the crab’s armoured body.

Mahaila winced as the shell separated from the body leaving this twitching mass of flesh that was once protected, the insides shell was promptly smashed to a pulp by the crab's other arm. If there was one thing Mahaila was sure on, it was that the Great Beast was only using blunt force because it liked the violence.

At last there were no more enemies to kill and Mahaila decided to approach him. She needed to be sure, if all of this humanoid sympathy was a facade then she needed to be far more cautious. In the back of her mind she had tried to believe that this Firstborn was just different, however as she saw the aftermath of his rampage she was having second thoughts.

“Great Beast?” Mahaila asked cautiously.

Mahaila tensed as she saw him turn to look at him. At first he didn’t respond, instead he turned to look at the ground and almost immediately Nafas emerged from the ground. Mahaila could tell she was nervous judging by how she was fiddling with her fingers.

“Is Cecilia safe?” the Great Beast asked calmly, it was an odd sight considering he was covered in blood and offal.

“Yes my king, she Mahaila gave her a potion and she is safe now.” Nafas replied.

“Good…” the Great Beast said as he turned to look back at Mahaila.

“So what potion did you give her?” the Great Beast asked, Mahaila could hear the concern in his voice. It was eerie how calm he was, just moments ago he was this frothing raging monster but now he was calmly asking after the well being of his dearest friend.

“One of the few I have left that was made by my master. It would save her even if her insides were outside.” Mahaila replied.

“That’s good.” the Great Beast said with an audible sigh of relief.

“So why did you come back?” the Great Beast asked as he tilted his head.

“I was worried you would be killed. I saw Cecilia was fine so I decided to come back just in case.” Mahaila explained as she avoided the point that in her mind Cecilia was expendable.

“I’m touched…” the Great Beast said heavily as he sat down onto the grass seemingly out of exhaustion. “Are you alright?” Mahaila asked in concern as she approached.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired, that metabolic frenzy ability is no joke. No wonder it’s a last resort.” the Great Beast said as he waved away her concerns with a very chipped and cracked blade.

The Great Beast honestly looked like a mess, his body was torn up and she could see some of the ruined armoured plates were falling off as his body regenerated. The feathers were doing the same and it honestly looked like he was moulting.

Mahaila could only look on in mute surprise as the Great Beast just laid down on the grass and started to laugh.

Ah that was fun…

I should ask Cecilia for some roasted cows when I get back…

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