He felt like his stomach was collapsing into itself and a pain that hadn't rocked his body in nearly a year, was ravaging him.

He could only breath heavily as he looked towards Ash's arm. Only feral sounds exited his mouth as he fought off his instincts.

(“Is it just a side effect of the ki? Oh dammit, I don't know! Ahhhhhh, fuck WHY THE HELL AM I HUNGRY!?!?!!!!”) His thought as the hunger pounded through his body. He felt like if he ripped his stomach out he'd be able to fix his impulses and briefly considered it.

(“What are you doing? You'll die if don't eat up.”)

(“SHUT Up I'm Not gOnnA eat-”)

His mouth was already chewing on the injured arm of Ash.

“What the hell are you doing young man!?” Ash shouted as he tried to struggle against Tibaut. He felt a heat building in his throat and decided to bear with it for now.

His mouth was so weak that he couldn't even bite into the now tough flesh of Ash. He was forced to suck all he could of his blood from his wound, showing no restraint in it. His teeth couldn't pierce his flesh but they were more than good enough to squeeze the blood out of his exposed meat.

He continued sucking away and lapping up any of the blood he saw until a soft blue hue started to envelope, similar to a flame and his eyes grew bloodshot. It soon vanished but he managed to bite a mouthful of flesh off his arm before the blue hue vanished.

Ash tried to grab his head but Tibaut fired a ball no larger than a golf ball against his throat, which had him rethinking his struggle. The blast had him clutching his throat in agony as Tibaut chewed away at the flesh in his mouth. As he chewed it a pale blue hue returned and he managed to bite through it properly. He began swallowing it and his aura flared up once again.

With Ash's throat damaged in the blast, he couldn't even tell him to stop anymore. His screams were wet and he sounded like he was being choked.

“SHUT THE HELL UP YOU BASTARD, YOU CAN SPARE A PIECE OR TWO CAN'T YOU!?” Tibaut shouted as he dug right back into his arm. His aura disappeared before it flared again as he consumed his flesh.

As Ash could only watch as the boy ate away at him like a wild animal, thrashing his head to rip a large portion of his skin off, he noticed wounds he inflicted on him were starting to heal, especially the hole in his side he created, with the bones he burnt through starting to heal.

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(“Isn't that interesting…”) The drake thought to themselves, and only themselves. (“I thought he would have died of hunger before he could do anything. And here I was hoping to torment him about the fact he was reduced to nothing more than a mere animal in his final moments. It's impressive he can start converting food to ki without going too far and consuming his own organs. I'm not sure anything I did to his body would make that an easy task.”)

He continued feasting on his arm with the aura dying and becoming almost imperceptible as he dined away at his arm before completely fading. Blood covered his mouth and he backed away from Ash as he caught his breath.

By the time he stopped his feast, he had devoured in total all the flesh on Ash's forearm, leaving only bone and tendons, the occasional piece of flesh still stuck to the bone. He had devoured about half of his upper arm before he stopped himself, with most of the skin gone.

He slowly breathed as he wiped the blood off his mouth and stared at the devoured arm. His body was still malnourished and looked pitiful but it seemed the paler blue aura allowed him to digest his food quicker than normal and gave him the escape from hunger he needed. The moisture of Ash's meat also gave him a brief solution to his thirst.

(“What happened to me?”) He wondered. (“Did the ki-”)

(“Hehe, yeah, right. That wasn't the ki’s fault Tibaut. That was all you.”)

He clicked his teeth. And got back to his feet. (“Whatever, I'm still alive, so I guess… it wasn't so bad.”) He thought, trying to dismiss his worries.

He had no time to worry about this, he had to get Ash back to Elizabeth or else…

Ash was standing before him, back on his feet. His teeth clattering as he stared at Tibaut but he managed to stop himself when he noticed the boy's gaze. He had several flames surrounding him and stumbled as he walked away before falling on his ass.

He was afraid. Throughout all his life, he had never encountered such an opponent. He met stronger opponents than Tibaut and he had met opponents far more skilled than the boy as well, but he wasn't sure he'd ever fought a man or woman as desperate for survival as Tibaut. In a moment where other men would have wavered, Tibaut immediately took what he saw as the correct choice.

He slowly pushed himself away as Tibaut.

(“No, stay back! Get away from me you demon!!”) He thought as he pushed himself away.

As Tibaut walked towards him and witnessed the fear he wore on his face, he couldn't help but wonder how this was going to end. Ash still had access to his magic and based on his hair, the power still seemed to be effective. While he was barely recovering from starving. He had magic but with his body in the way it was, in addition to losing his ki, did he really have a chance of defeating him anymore?

“I've seen enough.”

Both men looked at each other and turned their heads to the side when they realised it wasn't either man who said those words.