Redmane and Lugoj clashed, retreated, circled each other and struck again.

He tried not to use Lion's Lunge, satisfying as it was to feel his claw strike with such force. There was no telling if Helmold the Magister would be willing to feed him more Gnosis. And if he couldn't, or refused to, he didn't know where else he could acquire any.

So he decided he'd use it in one of two situations. One, if he had no other option because he was desperately losing the fight.

Two, if a golden opportunity presented itself.

The battle would tell him which it would be.

Lugoj the Lurker shrieked curses at him, swiped his iron bar around like a crude fencing foil. Until Redmane caught it in his teeth, bit it in half.

Then Lugoj picked him up bodily and hurled him at the wall, launching him like a cannonball. His impact cracked the stones.

Redmane forced himself to recover and got out of the way of the followup charge.

He had the edge in speed, but only barely. And Lugoj was vastly stronger. At least that's the way it felt.

The two of them collided again and again, claws and teeth rending flesh, stone cracking and iron bars denting wherever their bodies struck. Lugoj's paws hit like Caslav's hammer, only twice as fast. Redmane barely evaded them, again and again, certain that one solid hit would carve off a chunk of Corpus he'd rather not have lost. But he was too busy watching those weapons to notice the shoulder ram that blasted the air from his lungs and sent him rolling across the dank floor of the gaol.

He had to gain an edge somehow.

As Lugoj predictably bounded at him again, howling, Redmane noticed his injured ankle. That bite had slowed him down a bit.

Perhaps he could slow him down even more.

When Lugoj was close enough he lunged. But this time Redmane rolled toward him, underneath that leap. He came up onto two feet and swept a claw at Lugoj's ankle, the one he'd already bitten.

There was a wet snapping sound. A shriek of sudden pain.

Lugoj stumbled and dragged his injured foot, glaring at Redmane. The tendons were completely and cleanly severed, and a fountain of dark blood flowed from the wound.

Now he was hobbled. That would help.

He leapt at Lugoj and exchanged claws again, and again. His speed advantage grew. Before it was barely enough, now it was significant. Redmane could swoop out of reach of a bite or claw, lunge in and answer with a flurry of his own and escape before retribution found him. It would be a death of a thousand cuts.

Or so he thought.

As it turned out, an opportunity would present itself after all.

The battle thus far had been brief but explosive. The cell had taken damage. But nothing had disturbed the neat stack of cadavers in the corner of Lugoj's cell. Not until Redmane found himself standing in front of it, facing the charging beast. He leapt to the side to avoid being bowled over and Lugoj collided with the bodies, knocking them everywhere.

He screamed.

"Wh-what have I done! I'm sorry! S-sorry! Gods forgive me!"

Immediately he began to stack them up again. Stammering apologies to the dead as he did so. He completely forgot Redmane was even in the room with him.

For a moment Redmane simply watched with a raised eyebrow, and thanked the Gods he'd been spared from whatever madness befell these people with the Blight.

Then his eyes narrowed. Calculating the distance. He took a few quiet steps forward...

There. Close enough for a head shot.

Lion's Lunge

Gnosis poured into Redmane's muscles as he sprang into the air, a claw held high.

Lugoj the Lurker looked up at the last possible second, anguish on his face.

And then his face could no longer make expressions, because the stroke of Redmane's claw shredded it into petals of gore.

Lugoj the Lurker has been slain

Tasks Completed: 3/4

Level Up

Level 13 --> Level 14

Level 14 --> Level 15

Level 15 --> Level 16

Quality points awaiting allocation: 3

Breathing heavy, the savage thrill of the kill aflame in his chest, Redmane dumped three more points into Might on a whim.

Might 13 —> 16

But the System had another message for him this time.

—

Skill Rank Up

Omnivore

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)

Rank 2 - Evolution Possible

Passive

(Rank 0) The Monster derives sustenance from anything, and its digestion produces no waste. Its teeth and jaws can chew through most substances with sustained effort.

(Rank 1) The Monster's consumption of flesh restores its Corpus, and consumption of magic restores its Gnosis. All caps for Corpus and Gnosis, regardless of source, are removed.

(Rank 2) The consumption of refined metals (cast, wrought or forged) will permanently increase the rating of the Monster's Armor and the damage of its physical natural weapons, such as its claws, bite, talons or spines. Damage and Armor gains are proportionate to the amount and purity of the metals consumed. All such gains are cumulative.

—

Redmane stared.

He read the message again, carefully.

Eating metal would make him tougher? Make his claws and bite stronger?

His eyes darted to the section of the iron bar he'd bitten in half in his battle with Lugoj. He picked it up off the floor and chomped it down like it was an especially long strip of jerky.

No change. He didn't feel any different, and the System didn't give him a message. Perhaps he'd need more.

He found the other half of the bar and ate it. Then he tugged another bar out of the wall and ate that. Then the next one, and the next one. He'd eaten about half of the bars in the cell when the System sent another message into his mind.

Armor +1

He could feel it in his body. A cold durability in his bones, his teeth, his claws. He didn't feel any heavier, fortunately. tougher.

Without hesitation he ate the rest of the iron bars on the cell. And then the ones upstairs on the smaller cells lining the hallway.

Armor +2

Armor +3

After munching down the last iron bar, his mind raced around trying to think of the nearest place he could get his hands on more metals. His claws felt like hooked steel daggers. His skull was a helmet, on the inside. Redmane chuckled to himself at the thought.

But then he shook his head to clear it. He was down here for a reason.

Find Letha's cousin, Sven.

He frowned when he realized where he ought to check first.

The pile of corpses Lugoj the Lurker had been so carefully tending sat there, freshly re-stacked. Redmane frowned at it. Since he didn't know what Sven looked like, he couldn't say for sure whether he was here or not. But being that the only bodies down here at all were dead ones, it would be safe to assume he was one of these cadavers. Unless there was some other gaol in the castle he didn't know about, which didn't seem likely either.

He'd better not eat these. in case.

Lugoj the Lurker himself, however, was fair game.

Corpus: 1250

Redmane rose from his crouch, wiped his mouth clean of blood.

He would go and tell Letha to come down here and have a look at these bodies herself, once it was safe to do so.

But first, he had to find the castle smithy. Or even better, the armory.

There would be more than one of the latter. The keep had its own armory for sure, but there was another in the cellar beneath the barracks.

Redmane went to that one first, since he happened to know the barracks was already clear of enemies. Underneath he found a room lined with weapon racks bearing swords, spears, hammers, mail shirts, steel bascinets with mail coifs, iron and steel in every shape relevant to the killing of men.

A feast.

Armor +4

Armor +5

Armor +6

He ate tirelessly, and as quickly as possible. Though he was a little dismayed at how much more metal he seemed to have to consume to get from four to five and then five to six. The gap was widening quickly.

But he felt incredible. Like he wore a whole suit of armor that weighed nothing. And he carried ten steel sickles, five in either hand.

He was about to leave the now empty armory behind, but on a whim he decided to rummage through the quartermaster's desk and cabinets, in case there was anything of value. In the bottom drawer, all the way in the back, Redmane found a small pendant on a silver chain.

No sooner did he hold it up to look at it, did the System helpfully describe his find.

—

Charm of St. Alexia

Talisman (Neck)

Passive

Increases Evasion by +2

Aged bronze medallion depicting St. Alexia, one of the first Imbued.

Alexia was a dancer before her land was Blighted. She took up the sword and received Astral Communion, and her natural Grace was the last thing many a Monster would behold.

—

Redmane carefully unclasped the chain and put it on. The moment he re-clasped it behind his neck, he felt a subtle tingle of power.

Evasion +2

It was difficult to quantify the difference. But simply standing there, he did feel more alert. Like he could respond a bit faster to something sudden, should the need arise.

As for precisely how much faster, he'd have to experiment on live prey. With the undercroft, the gaol, the walls and battlements, barracks, castle yard and gatehouse all cleared of foes, there was only one place left to go.

The keep.

It sat at the rear of the castle yard, in the center, a squat rectangle of mighty stone containing the great hall, the forge, another armory, and then on the upper floors were the apartments of knights, a small library, and above those were the quarters of the Lord himself. A squat tower jutted out from the roof of the keep, he'd been told it was built as a study for a prior Lord, but hadn't been used in some time.

Redmane felt a little surprised that he remembered all these things. He hadn't seen beyond his cell in so long, let alone the rest of the castle, let alone the rest of the world outside.

As he strode across the yard toward the keep's great oaken doors, he considered that.

It would be a fine thing to be a Lord. But it meant one would have to stay put, to rule and administer, to look after one's possessions.

He found a competing instinct stirring inside him, however. It wanted him to walk through the gatehouse, across the drawbridge, and into the dark of Midva Forest. And never come back. To live like a wild thing, wandering, slaying and devouring as he pleased.

The strength of those simple drives roiled in his belly. The drive to mate. Feed. Kill. Rest and repeat.

Could these things be reconciled?

Redmane didn't know. But the question wasn't relevant yet anyway.

He still had to confront Lord Morholt and prevail.

It would be a shame if he failed. But even if he did, this one night of bloody freedom had been divine. A kingly gift from the strange god of the Numantians. Their System. If he could, he'd throw a banquet for it in gratitude, but it didn't seem like the feasting type.

It would be a bigger disappointment if the Lord didn't put up a good fight.

Redmane climbed the short staircase to the huge doors of the keep, placed a hand on each and pushed. They didn't give at first. They weren't mean to be opened by one pair of hands at all. There was a procedure for this, involving a small team of men.

But he was already stronger than a small team of men.

The doors gave way with a deep, echoing creak. When they slid open far enough to admit him, he let go and stepped inside.

Everything looked normal in here. As if nothing had happened to the outside world. The fine rugs and furniture were all intact and clean. Warm candlelight came from chandeliers made of elk horn hanging from the ceiling, candelabrums on tables and stands.

It was so orderly and quiet Redmane didn't notice the guards until they moved.

He thought they were two empty suits of armor standing guard at the opposite end of the foyer, the finely wrought plate mail and the weapons they held polished to a mirror shine. But as it turned out the suits were not empty at all. Their heads turned toward Redmane and they turned, brandishing swords and raising shields.

Beastman Knight Captain

Monster Type: Corrupted

Level 15

Redmane grinned and flexed his claws.

Here were the training dummies he'd been looking for.