Devourer

Chapter 19: Worthy Prey

I sped through the woods, heading for the mountains. Now that Lily was obedient and changed they could move on to the next phase of our plan. The plan was rather simple, Cecilia would not be accepted as a ruler if she just killed her father. Regicide would just get her a trip to the noose. So she needed to instigate a rebellion, but of course, your average citizen mob may not be enough to overthrow the king...

Cecilia needed a trump card, something that can smash through any resistance. That’s where I come in. So, Cecilia’s whole plan leveraged on me, if she could pass me off as this wise ancient creature then she might be able to use me as a path to stabilizing her own power. This is because at some point I will have to show myself, as long as I don’t come across as too powerful it won’t arouse too much suspicion of me being a devourer. The devourers now only live in myth and legend so no one will really suspect it unless I change my body in front of them. The overall idea is for me to serve as this guardian beast of Averlon, you know the kind that is reasonable.

After her power is secured then comes another problem, we need to find a way to make sure the people here are willing to oppose Heaven. This is a much more difficult task, as most of the population worships the angels. However, most humans just worship what is sufficiently powerful, and if I am sufficiently powerful who says I can’t make my own cult?

The only problem is… again how do I get the cult going before Heaven comes and chops my head off?

But I suspect the Syndicate is just itching for an official nation to back them. If an organization can be so influential just from hiding underground, imagine what they could do with the backing of a nation? So for the heaven problem, the Syndicate might be able to do something about that…

This, of course, is all conjecture, first things first we need to get Cecilia in power. The last thing I want is for the king to get desperate to eliminate me and he starts spreading news of my existence. Who knows the angels might just get curious and come down to investigate. Best to keep news of my existence localized and contained until I have someone like Cecilia to give a nice official story for the rest of the world to hear…

So with that plan in mind, I am now headed to the mountains near Averlon. Cecilia told me there were many powerful monsters there. Things like Phoenixes, Wyverns and Mountain Trolls. All of which will be very useful, and should give me the traits I need to complete my disguise. Cecilia will be training Lily on how to… use her newfound beauty to her advantage. Cecilia told me it’ll take about a week for her to give Lily the basic rundown, so since I have nothing better to do in the meantime I asked Cecilia to give me the location to some powerful monsters. 

Sure enough true to her word, she showed me where to find some much more delectable prey…

It took me about half a day to get this far and now I’m nearing the base of the mountain. Without worrying about shaking the two girls too much I can go at breakneck speeds. Judging from how fast the terrain is moving past I think at full speed I can move at about the speed of a sports car.

As I zig-zagged up the mountainside I got my first scent rather quickly. It was this foul sour-smelling stench but at least the scent was strong. I traced the scent to what looked to be this rudimentary encampment. I could see a few poorly constructed shacks there with humanoid figures lumbering around. The figures were rather tall at around 4 meters tall, I was taller than them at full height but they looked alot broader. I have a feeling they would beat me in a contest of strength...  

There was this bonfire in the middle of the camp and I saw some of those humanoids roasting meat on the fire. So they have some kind of primitive civilization going...

These must be the Mountain Trolls… Cecilia did mention that they were organized in a crude society. I recalled the book Cecilia showed me and I recalled the page perfectly.

Mountain Trolls, common combat strategies involve Pyromancers and Rogues. Fire stops them from regenerating, severing the spinal cord with a well-placed stab can also disable that regeneration for a period of time while immobilizing the troll. The only sure way to ensure one is dead is decapitation. Regeneration can also be weakened with drugs or venoms that slow the heart rate. Destruction of the heart is also a possibility but due to the extremely hard bones of the troll, it is difficult to achieve. The brain controls the regeneration and the heart fuels it, remove one of them and the body dies. Even then the book does not recommend engaging multiple trolls simultaneously. The strategy for multiple trolls is to have multiple teams split up the trolls into individuals and take them out one by one. If they start defending each other to allow their allies to regenerate then the fight will get alot harder...

There are a few interesting points there, I should definitely consider decapitation or just stabbing it in the heart. From what I recall from the anatomical diagram of a troll, their heart is in roughly the same position as a human heart. They just have more ribs and from the looks of it, the bones in their limbs are thicker as well. Most likely an evolutionary trait that allows them to be more durable in close quarters combat.

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I don’t really have any fire to use and neither do I have any venom… at least not yet… if I kill enough of something I start to obtain a unique cocktail of diseases and toxins that are uniquely tailored to killing that specific species. 

From what I can tell they are all-around silver to gold rank adventurers in strength… maybe even mithril. There aren’t that many of them though, about 15 of them are here from what I can see. Then I spotted a pair of trolls leave the camp, weapons in hand. Behind them followed a smaller troll, probably a child. I think they are going hunting…

Well, I think the best strategy here would be to pick them off, and then sneak into the camp when they are asleep and kill them off one by one…

So with that plan in my head, I began shadowing the hunting party. 

Once they were a decent distance away from the camp I waiting for the right terrain to fight. I needed something like an arena, with walls around them to prevent escape and enough open space to utilize my superior agility. Judging by their bodies I don’t think they are that fast, their legs are short and they have large arms. Their weapons, blunt wood maces with sharp black obsidian-like stone embedded at the mace’s head. Weapons that favor brute strength, not speed and precision…

One of them is clearly stronger than the other, it had a nicer mace and it wore a mantle made of some kind of animal skin. It also had this headdress made of what looks like a wyvern skull. My best guess is this one is both stronger and more skilled. From what I could tell this one looks to be stronger than gold rank but if it’s just a high gold rank or it has crossed into mithril I’m not sure... 

I should try to take him out first with my first strike, the strike from stealth is always the most deadly. If I manage to behead that one at the start of the fight the other should be easy…

Finally, they arrived at this area of the mountains that fit the bill. An open area with two openings at the opposite ends. There were steep cliffs on sides of the clearing, it looked too steep for them to fight on… but not for me…

I have no issues with fighting on steep surfaces or even inverted surfaces for that matter...

I waited for them to reach the middle of the open area and approached while invisible, creeping up on the stronger one. When I was finally on top of it I raised a hand prepared to cut its head off. As I swung my blade I saw the troll flinch and it ducked. My slash missed and instead slashed it across the back of the head. The troll immediately whirled and delivered a hard hit to my side with its mace. I was thrown back but I easily landed back on my “feet”.

That was the first real hit I’ve ever taken, the other attacks I suffered were all weak which did barely any damage. I actually felt this one... However, it was just a dull throbbing ache in my side. I felt the pain but I found it didn’t bother me much, it was more like an acknowledgment that the area has been injured. I looked down and saw the armor plate on my side was cracked but as far as I can tell it’s just a bruise, no bone fractures or internal damage.

The other trolls turned to face me weapons raised. 

“Defend… young…” the stronger troll grunted at the other troll, who grabbed the smaller one and put the smaller one behind it. So they could talk… they seem reasonably intelligent, in a caveman sort of way…

That big one had sharp senses I’ll give it that… I guess you don’t get all those fancy clothes by being lucky. My best guess he brought the other two out to teach them how to hunt. If I can’t kill the big one easily then maybe I should divide and conquer…

I watched as the stronger troll slowly approached as he imposed himself in front of the other two. If I take out the weaker one, then the stronger one will have to protect the child… 

Alright let’s try that, my wound has already healed anyway, I should be able to win this on attrition alone. I don’t tire, pain doesn’t affect me and I can take just as many hits as they can…

I turned invisible while seamlessly leaving a decoy in place. I mentally commanded the decoy to act aggressively but not to engage. I began circling around them giving the stronger troll a wide berth lest he senses me again. I watched as my decoy roared as it dodged the strikes of the stronger troll. The troll was obviously trying to press the decoy further away from the other two… big mistake…

I delivered a hard slash from behind at the neck of the weaker troll. I noticed on my first attack the flesh of these trolls was quite tough so I needed a lot of power behind my strike to get a clean decapitation. So I used the momentum of my entire body to deliver the slash.  The troll sensed something was wrong but it didn’t react fast enough and my blade carved through his neck like a hot knife through butter. The stronger troll at the same moment smashed its mace into the decoy as it shattered into motes of light.

The child let out a scream of terror as the lifeless body of the weaker troll slumped onto the ground. The stronger troll spun around eyes wide in surprise. I turned my head to the child and raised one of my claws as if I’m about to cut the child down. All the while I was looking at the stronger troll out of the corner of my vision. This 270-degree vision was pretty useful to say the least.

The stronger troll then did exactly what I wanted it to do. It charged me, if I could fight it near the child then the stronger troll would be fighting with a significant handicap. After all, it’s much harder to fight while you are protecting something.

The child wailed as the stronger troll closed the distance. In an instant, I turned and fired a wave of spines at the troll. It had its club raised over its head and was not expecting a ranged attack. So most of my spines hit exactly where I wanted them to, right into the troll’s face and throat. The troll staggered back and I pounced on it. 

The troll did a wide swing with its mace forcing me to back off briefly. The troll immediately grasped the spines in his throat and tore them out. I saw the open wound in its throat immediately start to close as it glared at me through its one remaining eye. 

Hmm not bad… this is oddly… fun…

A kill I have to work for…

I lunged at the troll as I did the decoy trick again. I didn’t expect to completely fool the troll, I just wanted to make it react a second slower. This time I didn’t bother going around the troll. I just ordered the decoy to attack and when the Troll swung its mace at the decoy I struck. I delivered a slash towards the troll’s neck but the troll realized at the last second and tilted its head just enough to prevent me from cutting his head off. 

However, previously when I fired the spikes, his other eye didn’t survive because I missed it. I intentionally only took out one, if I took out both of its eyes it would retreat and attempt to pull our the spines and try to regenerate. So seeing as this troll is right-handed, I took out his left eye... 

I just wanted to create a blind spot and I attacked from the left. My slash opened up the left side of his neck. The troll without a moment of hesitation grabbed the arm that delivered the slash. The troll turned and tried to raise its club to deliver a smash down onto my head, but he had two arms and I had four…

I used one arm blade to parry the mace strike before it could build up enough momentum and I drove my other two blades that were attached to my lower arms to stab into the chest of the troll. I doubted this would be fatal but it will weaken the troll for a period. 

I found my blades stopped by something I looked down and saw that they were only slightly embedded into its chest. I as I attempted to shove my blades in I realized what was stopping it, its ribs…

I realized my mistake, no matter how hard or sharp my blades are, it’s useless unless I can build up enough momentum behind the strike. Its ribs must be very tough, it made sense, of course. If the heart was a weak point then the trolls with more durable rib cages would have a higher chance of survival. 

The troll then tried to bring its mace up again but as I strained against the arm of the troll that grasped my blade, I realized one thing. The troll may be stronger but not strong enough to be uncontested… 

I could still lock one arm down for a while with one of my own and probably overpower it with two arms…

I transformed one of my left arms back into a hand and I grabbed the arm swinging the mace. It slowed down the strike and I turned my head so the mace would hit my armored shoulder. It hurt but it didn’t do any significant damage. I then turned my long snake-like head and bit down hard on the arm that was holding the mace. The troll roared as it tried to pull its hand free but the more it tried to pull away, the harder I bit down.

I could still see what’s going on thanks to my wide cone of vision and I felt the troll release my other hand. Immediately transformed the blade into a hand and grabbed the other hand using my two right arms. The troll tried to break free with his other hand but I had other plans.

The troll’s chest may be protected by tough ribs but there were no ribs in the belly… I used my one free lower left arm and stabbed it as deep as I could into its much softer belly. I felt my arm go a decent way in. Immediately I felt the flesh around my arm close as if the body was trying to heal the wound shut. 

I suddenly got an idea and I transformed my blade back into a hand. I reached out and grasped onto what I assume are the troll’s entrails. I pulled my arm back with as much strength as I could muster. I looked down to see I was right, I could see the troll’s pink entrails being dragged out of a hole in its belly. 

The troll roared in pain but amazingly its arms only faltered for a brief moment before the strength returned. This one had quite the will to live…

I thought the pain of having its entrails dragged out would be enough to weaken the troll to the point where I could overpower it. I saw the troll’s one-eye gaze at me hatefully as its arms held fast. I needed to find some way to weaken the troll…

Hang on… if I recall muscles need oxygen to exert strength…

Getting an idea I released my one free hand and let the entrails be pulled back into the troll’s body by its regeneration. I transformed the hand into a blade and drove it into the bottom of its ribcage. I angeled the blade upwards so it would enter the troll’s lung from below. The troll shuddered as I saw it cough and blood begin to bubble from its mouth.

The arms began to weaken as the troll gasped for breath. Sensing this is my chance I released one of my right arms and turned it into a blade. I did the same thing to the other lung and the Troll coughed out a spray of blood. The troll began to weaken and I forced it onto its knees. I released my jaw, I looked down and saw the troll’s eyes were growing dull as it slowly drowned in its own blood.

I smiled as I opened my mouth and bit down hard on its neck and tore open its neck. I released both of the troll’s now weak arms. I grasped the sides of the wound and pried them apart to keep the wound from closing. I felt the troll’s arms grab my lower arms as it weakly tried to pull the blades out. It was too far gone now, it no longer had the strength to resist me. 

I saw what I was looking for, the white bone of its spine now exposed with its neck now torn open.  I thrust my gaping maw towards it and bit down hard on the bone. Then with a twist of my neck and with a sickening crack, I ripped the vertebrae from the troll’s body. The troll’s limbs immediately went slack as I cut off all signals from the brain to the body. Finally, I transformed my two upper arms into blades and I put them on either side of the troll’s head like a pair of scissors blades. Then with one swift motion, I decapitated the troll.

I turned to look at the child who was sitting on the ground, back against the steep cliff. It was trembling as it held a miniature wooden club in its hands. I reared up to my full height and the child flinched as it began to sob.

Well, might as well finish this one up too…

Well, that was fun…

I should fight things like that more often…

Now that is what I call worthy prey…