A savage twisting in Kal’s thigh almost made him fall as he felt his health drop suddenly as something beneath his skin writhed. The crimson light of Flames of Wrath washed over the room as it radiated from his left fist.

Kal grunted with disgust as he saw the area around him. It was like he was standing in an open wound, blood running down walls of meat and bone, the entire place pulsating. The fluctuations of the mana churning around the room continued to speed up and Kal could see the walls beginning to shift even as he watched.

Still feeling the thing inside his leg, Kal focused his mana sight onto it, easily seeing the thing digging through his leg. Kal didn’t waste any time activating Edge of Malice before stabbing the now sharp blade into his own leg but at the same time skewering the disgusting thing in his leg.

You have slain [Gorefiend Flesh Burster | Abyssal Spawn 21] no experience awarded due to the entity’s lower level.

Kal had figured this one was stronger than the others since he seemed to want to dig around a bit first before breaking free. With his free hand, he stuck his fingers into the new wound and fished the thing out, throwing it to the ground with a splat.

Where the burster landed a sudden concentration of the red–green mana made Kal leap backward as the floor tore itself open, devouring the dead gorefiend before exploding into motion as twisted muscular limbs appeared from the converging flesh to lash out at him.

Kal was ready though and was able to avoid one strike and block the other with his sword. The limbs were human-like in shape but they seemed to completely ignore the normal limitations of a human’s joints. The arms snapping back and forth at the elbow to grab at him.

Dodging again Kal countered with a horizontal strike in an attempt to dismember the disgusting thing before him, his blade cut deep and the limb fell as the muscles and tendons keeping it upright failed but like the flesh burster as it fell the floor devoured it with a splat and spray of blood.

Still fending off the other limb Kal took another step back but again he noticed a surge of the sickly mana rush to his location, forcing him to leap aside as even more limbs burst from the floor. Kal tried to identify the new set of limbs that stretched out of the floor to reach for him but it returned nothing.

Confused, Kal deflected another attack but the limbs were vicious and seemed to be trying to adjust to his actions, slowly beginning to work in unison. As one struck his sword the others pounced. Kal was fast so dodging was possible but the limbs started attacking from weird angles and eventually one grazed his shoulder.

The moment the limb touched him a lance of pain went through his shoulder as the limb transformed instantly into a blood-red bone. Kal felt the flesh burster begin to form immediately but he ignored it while he pivoted to hack down another limb.

Disturbingly he hadn’t received any experience from either of the limbs he had cut down, not even a kill notification. He also couldn’t sense anything affected by his fear aura so Wrath Incarnate would not be cheaper to use in this fight. Kal tried activating Slayer’s Intent targeting the limb that was swinging towards his head but nothing happened. He felt the skill trigger but nothing was targeted, What the fuck is going on?

The next two limbs fell easily enough but again as the bodies fell the flesh of the floor devoured them and was building up for another surge of vile mana and likely more limbs.

This time the flesh burster had had enough of digging around and decided to burst from his shoulder, Kal spun and caught the disgusting thing as blood poured from the open wound. He didn’t give it a chance to do anything but get crushed in his fist. Kal didn’t throw this one to the ground, instead putting it in his pocket before leaping towards the passage ahead just as half a dozen limbs burst from the floor, walls, and ceiling of the cavity.

He wasn’t about to stand around while more and more of the bloody things came with every kill, they were clearly multiplying so apparently killing them wasn’t the way to go. Kal didn’t know if he was fighting one giant demon and was in fact running through its guts right now or if he was fighting some kind of skill used by the butcher. Either way, he didn’t like it, no-kill notification was a bad sign and meant he had no easy way to generate wrath.

The wounds from the flesh bursters weren’t too severe but it was still annoying to heal anyway. He went with the cheap method for now but if any got into his chest or did enough damage while beneath his skin he may be forced to spend the extra wrath or risk badly healed organs.

Kal sprinted down the passage as it moved like a giant snake, slick with blood and bile. Kal didn’t stumble but was constantly forced to pause and fight off more limbs that had burst from the flesh ahead of him. The vile mana continued to follow him with his every step, it was almost like it felt his location as he ran through the passages.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Running through the passages of flesh constantly assaulted by twisted, mutilated limbs was forcefully bringing to mind Kal’s nightmares, flashes of things he couldn’t think about constantly appearing in his mind’s eye.

For now though his will held true, as battered aside another twisted limb before severing it at its base. As before the limbs were adapting, displaying his ease at overpowering them with brute force was apparently a mistake as they quickly began to form thicker and thicker muscles, easily doubling in size to counteract his strength.

Now Kal was forced to stop every time they managed to block him from continuing down the path. He was forced to fight more defensively than normal, not being able to generate wrath at all was a problem and reminded him of when he had just gained Wrathful Regeneration and as he wandered wounded through the passages of the plateau.

He could get a small amount from killing the flesh bursters each time he was struck but if he healed the wound it cost more than he got from the kill.

Continuing to hack his way through the never-ending limbs Kal was forced to reactivate Edge of Malice several times as after a dozen or so “kills” he found it went dull again. It seemed to be happening faster than it had in previous fights.

It was a waste of wrath, he would only be able to activate it a few more times before its wearing drained the last of his wrath.

Breaching through another wall of thick limbs Kal came to an intersection of passage that went off in nearly every direction, twisting and pulsating like the one had just come from. He was running out of wrath. There were two flesh bursters burrowing around his leg and stomach and the pain evoked a continuous growl from Kal as he tried to ignore it while trying to pick where to go.

The flesh burster in his leg burst from his leg and Kal chopped it down before it hit the ground. He didn’t bother healing it, he needed the wrath to give him options. How could he stop the things from coming? Whatever they were they could clearly detect him even without eyes so they must have some other method of detecting him. He had let his Flames of Wrath dissipate several times during his sprint through the passage but they hadn’t stopped coming so he didn’t think it was some kind of mana sense.

Could it literally feel him through the flesh-like ground? If that was right did that mean he was right about being stuck inside some demon? Or was it a feature of the butcher’s territory like the seeker shadow’s mist?

Kal wasn’t about to just pick a tunnel at random, the last thing he needed was to run into a dead end where the rest of the limbs could trap him. So he did the next thing that came to mind. Kill it with fire.

Using up the last of his wrath Kal ran his hand along the flesh walls and floor spreading his crimson flames as he went. The effect blew him away, literally.

It was like Kal had thrown a torch in pitch, the passage exploded, and crimson flame rushed through the entire place like a tsunami of fire. For the first time since gaining the skill, Kal felt it burn his skin and hair as it was fueled by a different source. Kal fell backward as pressure pushed him away, the light completely blinding him.

When his vision came back Kal stood and reactivated his mana sight, while patting out the flames on his cloak and pants. The limbs were gone and so was the sickly-looking mana, well at least in the close vicinity.

“That was intense. Why didn’t I try that before?”

For whatever reason the Flames of Wrath had reacted with the flesh somehow. Kal had noticed that the gorefiends seemed particularly weak against the skill but he hadn’t expected that kind of reaction. Now Kal stood on solid stone, the flames had cleansed the majority of the intersection but there were still small scraps of meat stuck to the walls. It reminded Kal of fungus growth that he occasionally found in the mines back home.

Now that Kal could see that the flesh was only coating the walls of the tunnel he was in he wondered if that meant there was something like the dark serpent producing the mists around the seeker shadow’s territory. It would make sense but where were the demons that were producing all the flesh? The flesh tunnels seemed way more powerful than the mists since they could attack and wound him surprisingly easily.

Kal suspected that the butcher was directly involved with this but the question was where was it? Since these tunnels were here it could just as easily be beneath the conduit somewhere down here. Kal sighed, he wanted to just go and climb back up to the surface. He’d had enough wandering through dark passages for a lifetime but he knew that he wouldn’t be that lucky.

Sitting down Kal siphoned enough to bring his wrath back up to just under his max. He figured that if he wasn’t going to be getting many actual kills down here he could risk having his wrath this high for now.

Kal kept an eye open as he siphoned and in the time it had taken for him to nearly max it out the flesh had begun to slowly crawl its way back into the intersection. It grew by bursting open at the edge and clotting the blood that spilled over the floor then once the blood had hardened it slowly began to thicken into flesh.

It was disgusting but at least Kal had a way to deal with it. He just hoped his clothes would survive the coming incineration that he suspected he would be performing for a while. The flesh had begun to adapt to his tactics and strengths before, hopefully that adaptability didn’t also apply to its resistances.

Kal got back to his feet and picked the passage that looked like it was leading down. If the butcher was down here it would be at its lowest point if Kal had to guess. Spreading crimson flames over his hand again Kal walked down the tunnel and as he expected the moment he got closer to the flesh the sickly mana began to converge. Kal didn’t give it a chance to be used, however. He reached into his pocket drew a stone and tossed the now burning rock about thirty feet into the tunnel.

He couldn’t hold the smile off his face when the satisfying boom and rush of fire and air surged through the tunnel.