Thariel jumped back. She went into a ready stance and brandished her dagger into a reverse grip as the four raptors began to attack in unison.

She anticipated they'd first try and strike her from four different directions so that she wouldn't have time to pick which part of her body to defend.

The best way to counter such a tactic would be to take initiative and risk herself getting bitten while her guard was down by throwing out an attack before any of the raptors reached her.

She slashed forward, missing the snout of one by a feather's breath.

This near-connect thankfully caused the raptors to become cautious and halt their advance.

The four predators paused and they warily stepped back and began making strange noises, their feathers ruffling as a hiss-like growl vibrated from the depths of their throat, their teeth bared in futile intimidation.

Thariel held her dagger out in front of her in response, ready for a slash should any of them come close.

Earlier, she had felt confident coming here but now that she was surrounded by four raptors looking to take her life she felt a tiny bit of apprehension on her form.

Her senses screamed at her when one of the raptors from behind her made a move-

Thariel turned around and went for the raptor who tried to come from her flank, she gave chase to the feathered dinosaur as the other three began to move under the veil of her blind spots.

Thariel leapt and stabbed the avian from the back, it fell and they both rolled around the snow, the raptor loudly screeching as it tried to scratch at Thariel with its claw.

Thariel pulled her head back as she wrestled the raptor, putting in everything she got into locking it down hard enough for her to be able to take out her dagger.

It didn't take her long to get the opportunity to do so and she pulled her weapon out from the raptor's upper thigh and plunged it into its neck.

The dinosaur screeched directly to her ears but Thariel persevered through the deafening pain and dragged her dagger's blade across the creature's jugular.

Hot blood gushed out of the wound and spewed onto Thariel's face and a single taste put a thick cloak of haze over Thariel's mind and pushed her into a blood frenzy.

She pressed her feet against the underside of the raptor and kicked it away before then bending her legs unnaturally towards the ground to plant her feet on the on the snow.

With the flexibility of a boneless gymnast, Thariel raised herself back up hip first.

Thariel's bones cracked and snapped as her body rearranged itself from the unnatural angle it just lifted itself. Her spinal cord released pops as she coiled her core back into place and her neck let out a sharp crunch as she twisted her head to gaze at the raptors behind her.

Thariel gazed at them with eyes full of malice settled in an otherwise expressionless face.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

What followed next was a bloodbath that Thariel woke up from with only a sharp headache to tell her as for what happened during her lapse in consciousness.

She came to a sight of four dead raptors surrounding her but to her surprise, none of them had a lick of blood sucked out from their bodies.

The corpses were kept intact with the only damages present being the deep wounds in either their heads or neck.

A swift and precise kill. Efficient with no action wasted.

It made Thariel feel sick knowing that it was her who did this but at the same time, she was thankful to know that she had such a weird ability this whole time.

She'd probably have to get that sorted out at some point but for now, she was glad to have access to what can only be a berserker frenzy after tasting blood.

Still, she should probably find a creature to drink blood from before going back to the shrine, she didn't want to wake up getting held up in the air by the saint's stasis bubble because she accidentally went into a frenzy.

After finding another one of the worm things holed up underneath another tree, Thariel went ahead and carried her quarry back to the shrine.

"Good work," the blind saint said, "but why are you soaked in blood?"

"I didn't want to go to the hot springs carrying four corpses with me so I didn't bother cleaning myself." That sounded like a recipe for disaster, and one which will undoubtedly have her end up inside the stomach of a Thostasaurus.

"I see," the saint replied softly.

"So uh, the fabricator?" Thariel asked. She looked around expecting to see it but it was still the same shrine as the one she saw in Tainted Orchids.

"It's in there," the silent saint pointed at the foot of the hill and Thariel was about to ask what the automaton is talking about when the ground suddenly split open to reveal a hidden entrance leading underground.

"What?.." Thariel murmured as she looked inside the hole. Well this is new.

"Shocked?"

Thariel was about to turn back to reply when she noticed the monstrous saint standing next to her. Its head was literally next to hers.

"Ah- hey!" Thariel jumped back at the sight of the automaton's ugly mug. She held her heart and glared at the automaton, "what the hell is wrong with you?!"

The blind saint tilted its head, "I don't follow?"

It did. It totally knew what it did just now! This prick!

Thariel huffed before looking at the inside of the surprisingly hollow hill, "what is this place?"

"A room for guests," replied the automaton, "this place has a place to cook food, or make them if you prefer that, a room to practice surge, a bedroom with an attached bathroom, as well as a workout room."

Kitchen, gym, bathroom, bedroom, and then a... Room to practice surge? What's that?

"What's a room for practicing surge?" Thariel asked the moment the question popped into her mind.

"It is just that; a room which will help you move magic through your channels more efficiently, it has scanners and databanks to give you the physical and spiritual results of each meditation so you may know what to improve in the future as well as how much magic you can accumulate, store, and run through your channels."

Thariel's eyes widened with each word spoke, they noticably lessened when she heard what the saint had to say next, "it also has a prediction algorithm for people's potential,"

"That's great! How useful," Thariel smiled.

She is not touching that last one for fear that she'd see her potential being in the dumps but the rest sounded super good.

A room that's an automatic physician for magic and it also helps her channel Surge while inside? Count her in!

"So this is where I'm staying while here?" Thariel faced the saint, who nodded. Giddy, she asked another question, "and I can use the facilities whenever I want?"

"Yes. I do believe I have implied as such," the blind saint agreed, "do with it as you wish,"

"Neat!" Thariel went ahead and turned around to carry the raptors into the room. She paused when the saint suddenly levitated them from the ground.

"I'll carry them to and unlock the maintenance room for you," The automaton thoughtfully offered before it levitated the raptors closer to itself and went inside.

Thariel ran after the saint, "maintenance room?"

"Yes," the blind saint nodded, "I will eventually reactivate the harvesters so that you don't have to individually drag the pieces of the Thostasaurus in here but for now, manually doing this shall do."

"Thank you?" Thariel replied in a soft murmur. Magitech fabricators having harvesters never crossed her mind.

Thariel looked around and eyed the shrine's guest room when it became clear the saint no longer wanted to keep the conversation going.

The room they were currently in is a mix between the living room, dining room, and entrance.

It had furniture such as couches, tables- glass and wooden alike depending on which area of the room they are in, - and even vending machines? Huh. Neat.

Most of the room had a floor composed of flattened granite while the ones on the living and dining areas had sleek marble, their importance and separation from the rest of the room further distinguished by the square of white marble they were on top of amidst the brown granite.

The walls are stone with metal beams for frames. Paintings, statues, and potted plants were placed all over it acting as decoration.

Four doors sat on each corner wall with all of them having a label of some sort and written in a language Thariel couldn't recognize.

She was led to one of these doors. The door leading to the back to be specific. Hoo. Standing in this hallway made her feel like she's about to die any second now... Eerie.

"We are here," the blind saint faced her as one hand reached forward to unlock and open the door. It levitated the corpses into the maintenance room.

Thariel watched as something whirred from beyond the door and began to pixelate the corpses before then absorbing them someplace else.

How bizarre. And uncanny. Really not helping with the vibes here.

"There are tools and manuals inside if you wish to mess with the functions of the guest room overall," the blind saint began walking back the way they came, "feel free to be comfortable."

"I'll do that, yes," Thariel put on her best smile.