Demonic Devourer's Development

The beast noticed my presence and turned its beak to me. Its ugly hand-like appendages shifted like a wave, and the beast slowly turned its fat body towards me. Well, I knew what this phase of the fight would be all about. Would be nice if I manage to kill it, but one thing I didn't know yet, is how to do exactly that.

I would just have to kill it till it dies. I could already feel the steel resolution rising in me, together with the power to follow it. Nothing less than death will stop me now, and I was also resolute about avoiding that.

Before the monster had enough mind to spit acid at me, I did two things. First, I commanded Pest to cast magic armour at me. Second, I threw wind blades from both hands at the beast's beak.

It exploded in a fountain of blood and meat, filling the entire cave with its nausea-inducing smell. Good thing that I was a whole dozen meters away from it, and even so, the stench forced me to breathe through my mouth.. Then, I did even better, and morphed my nose into my body, removing it entirely together with my sense of smell.

The monster's hands flailed in the air as it coiled on itself in pain. I could see already how its fat form began to slim right before my eyes and didn't wait for it to enter the second phase. As soon as my wind claws grew back, I threw them at the beast again, and again, and again, and again until it dodged in a lightning-fast movement and lunged at me. Thin and deadly now, and as healthy as it was in the beginning.

But I wasn't the me of the past. I was lightning-fast too, and I was ready. I dodged with a graceful jump, regretting only that the cave's ceiling wasn't tall enough for me to fly, and shot more wind blades at the creature. It dodged, but my icy projectiles cut off one of its 'palms'—they were more akin to a rat's paws, but with fewer fingers, but I already called the appendages hands.

That didn't stop the creature, but it made it pause. Only for long enough to spit three globs of caustic acid at me. Another set of wind blades stopped their approach mid-way, freezing some of the acid and dispersing another in a burst of droplets. Some of them dropped on the creature, forcing it to jerk its hands unhappily.

I grinned. This was going much better than in the past. Just a little longer, and I will have my magic armour, too. Not that I needed it at that point. Too bad the beast was still fast, and its thin frame made it a hard target. I would have to get closer to wound it seriously, and I suspected that nothing less than quartering would stop it.

I brandished my claws. Melee it was, then. But first, I'd like to cut off as many of its hands as I could, because doing it in melee would be much less convenient and much more dangerous. The claws on these appendages were small, but if a dozen grabbed me at once, I would be in a sorry state.

Good thing that the size of the cave allowed me to dodge freely. The beast could try to get me, but I was better. Faster. Stronger. It could dodge my wind blades—somehow it just knew where they were coming from past a certain point—but it couldn't do that without catching some nicks here and there, and most of them landed on its hands.

After a while of me throwing barrages of wind blades at the creature, its hands were in a sorry state. It decreased its mobility, too—in that form, instead of slithering, it preferred crawling like a centipede, but couldn't do that as well with a third of its hands cut off or wounded.

My hands hurt too, by now. The magic stone inside me filled me with tingling power, but it did nothing to stop the numbness that filled my fingers. I felt hungry despite having eaten just recently, and how hungry one could tell from the fact that I looked at the beast, whose disgusting taste I knew from experience, and thought about eating it soon.

It was time to finish it, either way. Time for the final, decisive strike. My magic armour was ready, my orichalcum carapace was covering my entire body, and my claws were brandished and long and deadly.

I charged right ahead.

The creature was winded, too. It wasn't spitting acid at me anymore, though neither did it try to flee. When I charged, it met me with a charge of its own. Beak against claw. The beast had an advantage in reach, but all I had to do to stop it was to cut that beak in half. Lengthwise.

My claws went through the creature's bone and flesh like a hot knife through butter, leaving gashes in the beast's "head" so deep that I could stick my entire head in it. Its beak was completely broken and unusable now.

But it was still alive, so I slashed again, deeper, and again, mangling the creature's body without caring for anything but its death. Again, and again, and again, until finally, it stopped twitching.

A front third of its body was mincemeat by then, and I spilt enough blood for a bath. But I would prefer to path in a cesspool with Gi than in this creature's blood. I breathed heavily—though mouth—as I stood over it and thought.

I had to eat it. So many powerful abilities… But now, I had a deathly serious question.

Would I be able to escape its taste if I molded my tongue into my body? It would be so inconvenient to eat without one… but much more pleasant.

The option of not eating didn't even stand. Too much resolution was burning in me.