Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

The Skygrave Wyvern dropped straight toward Raven.

There was an important difference between knowing that several hundred kilograms of monster were falling toward you and having enough time to do anything about it. Raven had the rifle ready, but he also had only one projectile loaded.

If he missed, there would be no time to repeat the process he had just completed while the Wyvern was gaining altitude: open the breech, take another round from the case, load it, close the mechanism, let the pressure system reset, recover his stance, and acquire the target again.

The Mk.I’s greatest advantage and greatest weakness were the same thing.

One shot could completely change a fight.

After that, Raven needed time.

A Level Thirty-Nine Elite falling from nearly two hundred meters had no intention of giving him any.

[Skygrave Wyvern.]

[Estimated Level: 39.]

[Existence Rank: ELITE.]

[Target Velocity Increasing.]

[Estimated Impact Trajectory: OPERATOR.]

[Recommended Action: EVADE.]

Raven kept the rifle against his shoulder as the distance collapsed from one hundred sixty meters to one hundred forty.

The creature continued accelerating. Its Wind Mantle compressed around its body and transformed the descent into something far cleaner than a simple fall, splitting the air ahead of its snout while its wings remained folded almost completely against its sides.

Raven could fire.

He didn’t.

Valeria understood why before anyone else.

”You need it closer.”

”Yes.”

”It’s coming directly at you.”

”That helps.”

”Your definition of ’helps’ remains terrible.”

Valeria moved without stepping in front of him. Blood Threads shot from her fingers in six directions, anchoring themselves into the partially collapsed watchtower, the low stone wall, and one of the new support beams of the main building.

The threads tightened into a wide net across the Wyvern’s possible descent.

Roland reacted at the same time. He ran toward the side of the courtyard, raised his bow, and fired one arrow deliberately low.

The Wyvern ignored it.

His second shot climbed much higher. It never would have penetrated the scales at that velocity, much less broken through the Wind Mantle, but it passed close enough to the creature’s left eye to make the protective eyelid snap shut.

That single reflex was enough.

The Wyvern corrected slightly, only to find Valeria’s Blood Threads crossing the space ahead of it. Breaking through without changing course would cost speed, so the creature partially opened its right wing and shifted away from its perfectly vertical dive.

Exactly what Raven needed.

One hundred ten meters.

Ninety.

Raven followed the correction through the sights.

He could fire again.

He still didn’t.

The first projectile had struck the Wind Mantle with enough force to destabilize the entire defense, yet the remaining energy had only produced a shallow injury near the wing joint. The second shot needed to accomplish more.

His ammunition wasn’t unlimited, his time was even worse, and Raven had no interest in discovering how quickly he could manually reload while an Elite tried to eat him.

The Wyvern spread both wings.

Valeria pulled the Blood Threads tighter.

”Now would be an excellent time.”

”Not yet.”

”Raven.”

The creature shrieked, and the Wind Mantle changed.

The mana surrounding its body surged forward instead of continuing to shield it. Air compressed beneath the Wyvern and slammed toward the courtyard like an invisible hammer.

”Down!” Roland shouted.

Raven didn’t try to absorb it head-on.

The Matriarch had already taught him enough about pressure.

Force didn’t become less dangerous because it was invisible, and meeting it directly only turned his body into whatever absorbed the energy.

Stonehide spread across his right shoulder, flank, and part of his neck.

Then he activated Burst Step.

Raven vanished from the center of the attack a fraction of a second before the pressure wave struck.

BOOM.

Cracks spread through the ground where he had been standing.

The edge of the blast still caught him, but Stonehide absorbed the worst of it as he reappeared nearly nine meters to the left. His footing failed on landing, sending one knee sliding across stone while his recently repaired ribs protested the movement.

Painful.

Probably not broken.

Good enough.

More importantly, the rifle was still in his hands.

The Wyvern passed over Raven’s previous position, opened its wings, and began climbing again. It had sacrificed too much altitude during the dive to immediately recover hundreds of meters, leaving it only thirty, then forty, then fifty meters above the courtyard as it banked.

Its eyes found Raven again.

Valeria released the Blood Threads and formed three Blood Lances.

”You have it closer now.”

”Yes.”

”Then shoot it.”

Raven kept watching.

The angle was wrong.

Its chest and one wing were exposed, but the Wind Mantle was already reforming. Even at this distance, another shot into the frontal scales could lose too much energy before reaching anything vital.

He needed something softer.

Roland reached nearby cover.

”Please tell me you aren’t waiting for it to try dropping on you again.”

”That’s exactly what I’m waiting for.”

Roland closed his eyes for a moment.

”I miss the days when we only had to worry about monsters underground.”

”Liar.”

”Completely.”

The Wyvern shrieked again, but this time it didn’t climb.

One powerful beat of its wings sent it forward at low altitude.

Predator’s Instinct reacted immediately, though Raven didn’t need FORGE to tell him where the threat was coming from anymore. The creature had already decided that he was the primary danger.

Perfect.

Raven backed into a more open section of the courtyard.

Valeria noticed.

”You’re turning yourself into bait again.”

”It’s working.”

”That does not make me like it.”

Raven didn’t answer.

The Wyvern dropped from forty meters to thirty-five and continued closing.

Roland fired toward one eye.

The Wind Mantle deflected the arrow.

A second shot forced the Wyvern to jerk its head away.

Valeria followed with two Blood Javelins, neither intended to kill. One passed over the left wing and the other beneath the right, forcing the Wyvern to correct directly between them.

Its trajectory straightened.

Raven raised the Mk.I.

Still, he waited.

Then the creature opened its mouth.

Teeth filled most of Raven’s sight picture, but behind them were the tongue, palate, throat, and other soft tissues that had none of the armor protecting the rest of the body.

The Wind Mantle shielded the outside.

Not the inside.

Raven exhaled and settled the sights deeper into the throat.

Twenty-five meters.

Too close for the wind to matter.

The target was large enough that imperfect calibration mattered far less than it had at two hundred.

The Wyvern opened its jaws wider as it prepared to bite.

Raven pulled the trigger.

BOOM.

The Mk.I slammed into his shoulder as both rear exhaust ports released pressure almost simultaneously.

The projectile crossed the remaining distance too quickly to see.

Only the result was visible.

The Wyvern’s head snapped backward.

The hardened-steel round entered through the mouth, tore through the soft palate, and continued into the rear base of the skull. Its eyes immediately lost focus, and the wings stopped making the small corrections that had kept the body stable throughout every previous attack.

The projectile continued through the cranial structure and into the cervical junction, destroying enough tissue to sever meaningful control over the body.

The Wyvern was dead.

Its momentum wasn’t.

”Move!” Valeria shouted.

Raven was already activating Burst Step.

He vanished as the dead Wyvern tore through the space where he had been standing.

One wing struck the low stone wall and ripped most of it apart. The body continued another twenty meters, hit the ground, bounced once, and carved a long trail through the dirt before crashing into the remains of the watchtower.

CRASH.

Wood and stone erupted into the air, followed by a rolling wall of dust.

Then everything stopped.

South Relay went silent.

Raven reappeared near the edge of the courtyard and kept the rifle raised while the dust settled. Predator’s Instinct detected no further movement.

FORGE confirmed the rest.

[Combat Live-Fire Data Acquired.]

[Moving Target Model Improved.]

[Ballistic Calibration: 43% → 54%.]

[Wind-Mantle Disruption Data Integrated.]

[”PROTOTYPE RIFLE Mk.I” Combat Validation: SUCCESS.]

Another notification followed.

[Skygrave Wyvern.]

[Level: 39.]

[Existence Rank: ELITE.]

[Target Deceased.]

[Experience Acquired.]

No Level Up followed.

There was no DEVOUR prompt and no HARVEST prompt.

Raven hadn’t killed the Wyvern because he needed something from its body. He hadn’t tracked it across the mountains, studied its organs, or come to South Relay searching for another Trait.

It had simply decided to become a problem.

The rifle had solved that problem.

That was enough.

Six standardized rounds remained in the ammunition case.

Raven finally lowered the barrel.

Valeria reached him first.

”Are you injured?”

”No.”

She looked at the Stonehide receding from his side.

”Your ribs?”

”Sore.”

”That wasn’t what I asked.”

Raven took a deeper breath and felt the familiar protest from the recently repaired area. Uncomfortable, but nothing sharp enough to suggest new damage.

”Still intact.”

”I’ll accept that.”

Roland approached much more slowly, staring first at the dead Wyvern, then at the rifle, and finally back at the corpse.

”Well.”

Raven opened the breech, releasing a thin stream of vapor.

”What?”

”Now I understand.”

”What?”

Roland pointed toward the corpse with his bow.

”Where the money goes.”

Raven looked toward the Wyvern’s open jaws and the dark wound inside.

”Yes.”

”I completely respect the rifle again.”

Valeria folded her arms.

”Until Raven buys more ammunition.”

”Then I’ll hate it again.”

”Reasonable.”

One of the guards approached them.

It was the same man who had asked whether the Mk.I was a crossbow.

He was still staring at the weapon.