CHAPTER 63: Feral Behemoths

“Feral Behemoth [12]” showed above the heads of both the creatures as they stepped out of what must be the portal. The soldiers had already been forming up, and at seeing the tags above the beasts several of them laughed.

The feral behemoths stood upon four legs, reaching fifteen feet tall at their heads. They looked like the Terrenidon slashers, with jagged bits of stone protruding from all over their limbs and back. The protrusions might not have seemed large, but that was only in relation to their own size. Each one was probably the size of a man. Their mouths were still those tight skin flaps that could fly outwards like a net and they had no eyes, the typical weak point when fighting larger monsters in games.

The claws of the behemoths had three talons on the front, with the center one being a straight blade, very much like a sword. The claws on each side were shorter, more curved, and blunt for pinning and crushing. The toes that faced backwards were the sharp curved talons like the tunnelers used to climb.

“Only level 12s. These big boys should be easy enough,” someone said at the same time Adam bellowed, “RUN!” Everyone froze when they heard the concern in Adam’s voice. Level 12 shouldn’t be that much above their own level. Their numbers could overcome the level difference.

Adam knew better though. Both the lower level and the more specific name meant there was more to these creatures. They had evolved more than once, being at least Tier 3 already. That put them at a power level that Adam considered himself to be at. Definitely not something these soldiers could face. Or anyone from Earth. Adam cursed internally and agreed with Tom, they needed a manual or tutorial for this damn apocalypse.

Upon hearing Adam continue to yell for them to run, the soldiers started looking at each other and then to the captain. The beasts seemed to notice the looks as they turned to observe the captain too.

“Retreat! Into the tunnel!” the captain ordered quickly, seeing how serious Adam was as he ran towards them.

The behemoths didn’t waste any time though, as if coordinating with each other, one leapt straight towards the tunnel to block their escape, bowling over the soldiers in the way. The speed was faster than the soldiers could track, faster than even Adam had run.

Shouts filled the room as the soldiers went flying, slamming into the ground far from the tunnel due to the strength of the beast. Two soldiers were crushed under the monster’s paws, while others struggled to move due to broken bones or the blood pooling under them.

Adam didn’t have time to take in all the damage as he saw the second behemoth lunge towards the captain. Making an instant decision, Adam opened him hand as it to slap someone then used his teleport step to arrive in front of the captain just before the behemoth’s sword claw. The teleport step required a serious attack to use, so Adam used his own palm to hit the captain in the shoulder. He felt the captain’s bones crack as he went flying away, while spinning from the force. It was all Adam could do before the sword claw arrived and punctured through his own abdomen.

Adam let out a scream as his right abs and obliques were torn through from the back, the claw sticking out from the front. He grabbed the claw to keep it from tearing to the side. Without the muscles to balance him he collapsed to his left side. His grip was able to hold the claw still, showing that his strength was at least equal to the behemoth, however this was just a single claw.

The beast turned its face towards Adam and made an unpleasant quilling noise. The way they moved and had chosen their targets seemed to indicate intelligence. It didn’t seem capable of full thought, just enough to understand the reactions of those around him.

Slowly Adam was lifted up. His blood was pouring down his body. This was even worse than when he had been shot in the neck. His insides were staying in due to the claw, but everything in his abdomen was almost fully destroyed. There was no way Adam would survive long in this condition. He would need to regenerate, and that would require a lot of blood.

Turning his head as he was lifted by the claw, Adam saw the soldiers and the mess they were in. The behemoth guarding the tunnel hadn’t moved towards the other men. Two were dead, and a good many were bleeding. Adam only had three options for blood. Each behemoth and the soldiers. He frowned at himself for even thinking it.

His heat had spread out as soon as he had seen the behemoths stepping out of the ripples. The river was flowing and boiling. With the additional blood loss his thoughts had been getting hazy and his consciousness was trying to slip into the river, to embrace the fury and the violence. Conquer! it shouted to him. What did a few low-level soldiers matter to one who would conquer everything?

If only he could strengthen his class! If only he could level up more! Adam raged, both in the river and in his thoughts. There was no way to understand what was happening and now he either needed to consume his own men or die.

There was no fairness here, no justice. There was only life and death. If he died, then his men would die. If he consumed them then most would survive. There was only really one answer.

The heat swelled inside himself. The river pushed past its boundaries, trying to push out of Adam. The anger intensified at Adam’s self-loathing for allowing this to happen, and knowing he had to sacrifice his own men, combined with his hate for the invaders and the [System]. The heat burst from his skin, once more incinerating his clothes. His skin began to burn away.

As he began to bleed from his self-inflicted burns, he reached for anything to keep him from being pulled under. Fear was mixed with everything, destabilizing it. This moment was the most scared Adam had felt since the [System] hit. He had always thought it was weird that he wasn’t more scared of everything, but at this moment the fear jolted his consciousness, keeping it from submerging into the river.

It wasn’t a fear of death. Unsure why, but Adam knew death. His very soul had nothing but disdain for it, his own or those around him. What he really feared was becoming a monster. It was the actions he would have to take to ensure the survival of as many people as possible. How many humans he would have to leave behind. How many he would have to sacrifice or kill himself to keep the rest moving forward.

How many lives would he wade through to conquer?

The fear had started in his thoughts. It had spread through the river. The boiling fury and heat forced it away. The fear went to the only place left for it, the small place in his mind that remained cool.

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As the fear hit the coolness, Adam used the fear as a connection between his fading thoughts and the other power set that he didn’t understand. Body and mind. Both were linked to his soul.

Adam pulled on the coolness. He knew it couldn’t coexist with the heat, but it became a channel, a connection from his soul to his body. Sensations he hadn’t felt before grew in Adam. He could feel the sloshing in his destroyed guts. He could feel his burning muscles and where the skin should have been. Even the blood that was leaking and evaporating from his exposed muscles could be felt as it left his body.

The coolness wrapped his body and held in the heat. It formed a boundary for where the river could flow, creating a barrier to prevent the metaphysical river from harming his own body. The heat still flooded him. It burned through him. But it now stayed inside his soul, his essence space.

Adam realized that it shouldn’t have been able to touch his body without his permission, that the connection to his body, mind, and soul had been so open that there was no real separation between them. There is no purpose to a power that destroys you faster than it can be used.

The heat was a fuel. It converted rage into strength. The river was the channel that brought that strength to the physical world. The coolness could affect souls. It connected his soul to others. It read and reacted. It couldn’t exist with the heat because the heat wanted to consume, destroying thought and control, but the coolness wanted to create control within the soul.

In that moment, as he was inches from being put into the behemoth’s mouth, the heat radiating off of him and the dripping blood all stopped. His blood became a new layer over top of his muscles, protecting them. The heat swelled his muscles, giving them even more strength instead of letting it flow out of him.

Adam looked at the claw sticking out of him and he pushed himself off of it. He plummeted twelve feet to the ground. However, the new control he had over his body kept any more blood or guts from falling out of the gap in his abdomen. It also gave him the muscle control to compensate for what had been destroyed.

Adam knew he must win. There was no other acceptable outcome. While he might have to do terrible things to achieve it, that was the path he would take.

As soon as he touched the ground, before another swiping claw could hit him, Adam stepped across the room to an injured soldier. His hand punctured one of the man’s lungs, and Adam drank. The man squirmed and shrieked until he passed out. Adam gently tossed him to one of the nearby healers, knowing the man would hate him but would live…so long as Adam lived.

Feeling the regeneration focusing on his muscles, ignoring his internal organs and missing skin, Adam turned to where his pack was and ran to it. Neither behemoth had immediately seen where he had gone when he teleported to the soldier, but now they heard the screams and felt him running.

When he came on this mission the soldiers had been given swords forged from Testudinate metal to try out. He had also been given a weapon. Unfortunately, because of the narrow tunnels and weak enemies he never got to use it. Now was the time.

The feral behemoth that had tried to eat him was running towards him. He reached his pack, swooped up the 120-pound war hammer, so heavy that his body weight could barely keep it steady, even if his raw strength was enough to heave it around.

A glow started from his hands and then enveloped the hammer. The glow intensified as he swung it at the behemoth’s descending paw. The head of the hammer collided with the sword claw and the claw shattered.

Adam used his body as a pivot and his momentum to spin a full 360 degrees, leaping forward and allowing the hammer to hit further up on the beast’s leg. A deep shriek rattled the cavern, vibrating everything. The soldiers began vomiting blood from the sounds.

The beast’s leg had become pulp where the hammer had hit. It had broken its bones, ripped it’s skin, crushed the muscle, and left the bottom of the leg dangling from the back skin. More than all that, a thick, brown sludge flowed out of the wound. Blood.

Adam dropped the hammer and dove into the blood. He swallowed it, coated his body with it, and even tried inhaling it. It melded with the barrier of blood protected his muscles and then sizzled as his own blood took the power from it. It tasted like dry pancakes without any toppings or syrup.

Faster than ever before, Adam’s body regenerated. His skin and hair grew. His cells replicated and reformed. The wound in his abdomen had to be exposed so the dead and unneeded gore from his own injuries could fall out to make room for newly grown organs before the holes sealed up.

Never had blood filled him with so much life and energy. So this was what a higher tier enemy could give him. Adam felt his body wanting to release the energy. The soul barrier he had created to protect against his own heat allowed a larger connection to the river and his muscles burned hotter without burning themself away.

Adam leapt up twenty feet high. The beast was still roaring in pain. The behemoth that had been guarding the tunnel was rushing to them. Adam landed on the creature’s back amongst the craggy, rock like skin. He pulled himself to its neck.

The breathing flaps were shaking back and forth as the creature shook from pain. Adam took all his excess energy, all the power that he didn’t need. Heat was focused into his breath, and he roared with such force that his vocal cords burst and then regenerated several times, directing all that heat and power into the behemoth’s breathing flaps.

The creature staggered, having been shaken and nearly suffocated from the roar. Burns formed along the flaps, and Adam knew he was burning the inside too. Then Adam’s hands glowed as he punched into the flaps, exploding the softer tissue within. He grabbed where he could and pulled himself inside until he could feel it’s spine.

Before Adam could get a grip on the spine, the mouth skin of the other behemoth shot out and grabbed Adam’s lower body, using small teeth like bones to grip his skin. It pulled his legs off the behemoth’s back, but his hands still held on beneath the breathing flaps.

Adam gripped tightly while he felt the pull from the mouth net increasing. He looked back and saw the behemoth pulling with everything it had, not just its mouth but also its legs were trying to back away from the whimpering behemoth to save it.

Waiting until just as the behemoth started another effort to pull him off, Adam let go. The pulling behemoth was surprised as Adam sprang back towards him, losing its balance due to the sudden lack of resistance. Adam flew towards the behemoth’s face, hands glowing. The punch he connected with just above the mouth created a shockwave, stunning the behemoth as it was knocked backwards.

Once more Adam fell. The mouth net relaxed from the stunned behemoth and Adam had to flip his body to land on his feet, right next to his war hammer. He picked it up two handed and walked towards the behemoth that had just recovered from his punch. It looked at him and released another deep squeal, vibrating the whole cavern. Adam felt it deep in his body and knew that without his level of strength it might have ruptured his organs, much like with the soldiers who’s moans he could hear.

Adam drew more heat into his body through the new channel controls with the river then roared. Once more he put as much energy as he could into it. Adam’s roar overtook the beast, cutting off its own squeal and stopping the vibrations from its squeal.

Jumping at a 45-degree angle, Adam brought his now glowing hammer down on the elbow of its leg. A colossal crash and crack sounded out. When he landed, Adam walked to the back leg of the suffering behemoth and broke another of its legs.

The beast tried to drag itself away as Adam stared at it. Fury burned so hot in his soul, powering his muscles, but Adam kept hold of his control within the coolness of his mind. He leapt onto the beast’s back just below where a heart would be on a dog and swung the hammer overhead and down, driving it into the beast’s spine. Again and again he swung the hammer, like he was pounding a spike into the ground. After the eighth massive impact, the beast’s spine broke. The creature whimpered and fell to the ground, alive but crippled.

Before the other behemoth could do anything further, still struggling to breath, Adam mounted its back and broke its spine too.

When Adam regained his balance after the behemoth fell onto its belly, back legs paralyzed and front leg smashed in half, he looked around towards the soldiers. Every one of them was on the ground in a pool of blood, lungs and other organs ruptured. Death had visited this room, and it was now Adam’s to control.