Three more Eaters attacked Gan in the day, It seemed he was far enough in the spreading for monsters to become more numerous. It would only get worse every day from here on out, as Gan walked. Fighting the eaters was at first troublesome without his spear, but Gan was faster, and getting used to a new strength in his arms, He learned quickly that he could throw rocks with such force they pierced the Eater's skin and if aimed well would break its legs to immobilize it. The power he was taking from the air had increased the prowess of his body to an impossible level.

The night fell upon Gan in unprepared haste, And the fighting and marching caught up to his hungry body. His eyes were heavy and he felt the need for sleep, but where was there to sleep? His father's ghost would not protect him anymore, and this wasteland was devoid of cover. The bright moon shone down on the sand and scattered boulders of earth, showing a lonely nightscape with no sign of life except the trails of nightmare creatures whose claws and talons left gashes in the sand the size of Gan's head.

"Tonight my safety is on my own shoulders," Gan mumbled laying down his large pack and stooping over to dig through it. Gan's stomach growled as he pulled out rope and wire, as well as stakes to set up tripwires all around with little brass bells on them. He put up the perimeter he had made after the loss of his parents who used to take turns keeping guard with him. The wire wrapped around five wooden stakes about a foot off the sandy ground to make a thirty-foot pentagon he could sleep inside of. But Gan didn't expect he would get much sleep. This little nightguard system worked poorly even outside the spreading, he had no faith in it here in the heart of danger. But he had no choice, he needed rest. He crawled onto the cool sand with a blanket wrapped around him. The night air was still, but Gan felt no peace. As he drifted off, he realized how little he cared for safety only the night before. He felt his body nearly vibrating with the new power inside him, and the will in his heart to live was returning as that power grew.

The bells were not enough, Gan woke to the violent sound of ringing as the wires were torn from their stakes and a beast came crashing towards him. He hardly managed to stand to his feet, grabbing a rock he had placed near him before bedding down in his right hand when a wolf-shaped shadow with two heads and saber teeth the length of his forearm drove its two mouths into his side and tore troughs into his flesh as they swung their heads from side to side in mad rage, tearing his skin and blood away from his body. Gan brought his hand down with all his might into the skull of one head, the rock inside his fist breaking through bone like glassware with the might of his new strength behind it. The wild dog-like creature yelped and lept back as one of its heads fell and hung limp next to the other. Its mouth began to foam, and Gan watched its fearless eyes as the hate and rage this beast had for him increased at the death of its subsidiary dome. It growled and strode around him as he held the bloody rock in his fist and watched it, never once acknowledging the pain from his new gaping wounds, which were bleeding and open to the air from the holes the beast had torn through his leather coat.

Gan knew the damage was bad, but couldn't spare his attention. Just as he was certain the monster, whose black fur shone like an oil slick in the moonlight was about to pounce he heard the piercing call of something else from behind him. He turned on instinct to see a large lumbering silhouette in the distance heading in this direction. But just as the dread of what his eyes could make out reached his heart, the pain of teeth ripping into his shoulder struck him. The wolf must have aimed for his neck but the lump of mangled head hanging from its front threw it off balance. Gan let out an involuntary groan of pain and tried to lift his arm with the stone but it was pinned under the wolf's heavy body which clawed at him and left gashes in his leather clothes and skin. His other arm bashed into the canine which wouldn't let go and tore deeper into his shoulder as it spasmed from side to side and caused Gan to stumble backward and try to keep his balance. If not for the unnatural strength in his legs Gan would have hit the ground and been at the mercy of the beast entirely.

Gans struggling was fruitless as he stumbled bashing wildly into the monster with his free arm, but the now single-headed wolf persisted. And the loss of blood was starting to set weakness into Gan's knees. In desperation, Gan flung his neck forward to meet the beast's head with his own and bit into the monster's face ripping into its eye with his teeth and tearing away fur and bloody skin like an animal. The taste of metal and sour disease in the blood filled Gan's senses as he turned his head and spit it out. The beast yelped in pain and its mouth slipped from his shoulder allowing Gan to push it away from him. With the monster now off of his arm Gan reared back the stone in his hand and threw it. The wolf's head was so close he couldn't miss. The rock whipped out of his fingers at a frightening speed and bore a hole into the wolf's final head, dropping it to the ground.

Gan didn't watch to see the monster fall, he was already facing the way of a new foe who was now close enough to make out in the darkness. It was an Eater, but bigger. A lot bigger. The thin legs were now like then trees and the flabby body was wide and wrinkled with flaps Gan thought he could hide a small dog inside. With its neck raised it began to scream and stretch its abysmal mouth like a rubber canvas of teeth. With that mouth raised up, it must have been nearly 10 feet high and the maw was large enough to swallow two Gans standing side by side. Gan felt his body caving into blood loss, the new deep bite on his shoulder went down to the bone and sprayed blood down his coat like a fountain. His head was woozy and the legs that were holding him upright were weak.

Having empty hands against this mindless charging monster didn't feel right, so Gan crouched down and grabbed handfuls of sand. He found it nearly impossible to stand back up but forced himself to with the little will left in his heart. Without the new strength his father had shown him, Gan would have given up right here. But after learning that he could take strength from the tower, even if it never truly impacted the spreading, Gan didn't want to die. Not until he had taken all that his body could hold. Not until he'd been paid for everything. So he stood. Against a giant Eater and without a spear Gan was nothing. But his heart was filled with bitterness.

The monster without a proper head, snapped its jaws toward him and Gan dropped below the approaching mouth and rolled between the monster's towering needle-like legs. The distance between him and the teeth that closed together with such power they moved the body of the dead wolf with sheer wind, was less than an inch. But Gan had made it. He stood once again behind the beast as it turned around and began to open its void of a mouth a second time. Gan tossed the sand from his fist into that wide hole lined with razor teeth, and to his surprise the monster coughed and began to convulse shutting its faceless throat for just one moment to clear its gullet. A moment was what Gan needed, he leaped forward on wobbling legs and latched onto the monster's long tube of a throat. His arms encircled the neck, and with all his strength he squeezed. But the strength of the eater was not to be discounted.

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while it couldn't open the maw with as much force as it could close that death trap with, It was big enough and powerful enough to whip its neck into the air and throw Gan around like a rag doll. Gan held on for his life, Blood from his wound swinging in all directions as he tried to choke the life out of the creature. He didn't even know if Eaters needed to breathe. after being swung around from left to right and up and down as the monster struggled, Gan's weakness began to overcome him. His arms started slipping, and his short rapid breaths were not enough to sustain his lungs any longer. "NO." Gan's rough voice demanded more from his fading body. If he let go it was over. But no matter how much he demanded his body was only human. He had no more strength.

Woozy and losing his bearings on the world as he was swung around, Gan Knew only that he needed more power. The little he had taken from the Spreading was not enough to survive even one night. He needed more. So he reached out. Half dead already, and without the facilities to focus on what he was doing Gan pulled at the power around him... It didn't react. His will was weak. So Gan closed his eyes, Body slipping from his nightmare ride on this long-necked monstrosity, and pulled with all the might he could muster. The hate in the air fled from him, but its fear of him only made it easier to corral, Gan had no attention to spare, but he remembered as the power filled with venom and hatred was grabbed into his body that his father warned deeply of trying to absorb it without removing its killing intent and will.

The thought that this puny hatred, this weak-willed and scatterbrained malice would try to corrupt him from the inside out riled contempt in Gan's heart, He wouldn't let it crawl around in his insides with life still in it. The hate for the spreading that Gan felt every day met the hate of the spreading's power. Gan's mind conjured the image of a furnace, its flames as bright as the sun burning everything thrown into it in an instant and leaving nothing but ash. The Spreading's malice towards all life flowed unwillingly into that great converter. The prey into the beast's mouth, the wheat into the grinding mill, the insects crushed under the hoof of the warhorse. Gan's arms began to squeeze harder, his mind began to clear. The bleeding throughout his body slowed.

No sounds but the rushing of wind as Gan was swung around reached his ears, for the Eater could not call or scream with its throat tight and closed. The trunk of a neck began to weaken. its flailing slowing down, But Gan only began to get stronger. His muscles gained new life as his biceps strained to crunch the throat of this hideous creature. Blood was on his face, and the wounds on his shoulder and side were still blaring with pain, Gan smiled as the beast collapsed. its struggling weakening to a mere child's strength. And then it went still, the life in it gone to all the universe. Gan held on unwilling to release his grip until the hungry feeling in his heart was satisfied. His wounds were healing and his mind was returning from nausea as he stole away power from the very air.

When Gan finally let go of the massive monster and stood up, His wounds were no longer bleeding, and he felt that only a few more hours of taking the power from the spreading would heal them completely. But he couldn't absorb any more. His very soul felt bloated and heavy. He knew he would have to wait before he could subdue any more of the power. But he would survive.

After just a short rest to recover some strenth, Gan knew he needed to get to work. He stood over the corpse of the first beast that attacked him with a large stone in one hand. The long saber teeth of the dead wolf were hard to pull out, so Gan smashed them with the rock until they broke at the bottom giving him the weapon-like fangs. There were four of them, each as thick as three fingers and long with a very sharp tip. Gan pulled a sharpening stone from his pack and sat down to work on one of the fangs. Gan's father had once warned him never to make tools from the monsters of the spreading, or eat their flesh. Most beasts the tower created were riddled with sickness. To play in their blood or carve their bones was known to bring disease and perhaps even a curse. Gan knew after tonight, however, that he would not survive unless he did what had to be done. He had chewed up the eye of this dead mutt and spit it out, if disease were going to take hold of him it was too late to stop it.

Hours passed while Gan sharpened the tooth against his grindstone. He had done this all his life, so he had the patience to carve the fang for as long as it took. Then when he considered it done, He took the new blade to the dead body of the wolf and began shaving its fur. The cut was rough but the edge of the blade scalped across the body of the beast and its fur fell in piles. Gan collected as much of the oily black fur as he could in a strip of cloth. Making a sizable pile after the wolf was shaved down to its bare flesh. He also cut a slab of meat for the monster's hind and lay it on the ground leaking dark blood into the soil. Then he grabbed the wolf's corpse roughly and dragged it a dozen or so paces to where the Eater had fallen. It was easier than he thought it would be to move the man-sized canine. His strength was still a surprise to him.

Placing the fur and a strip of cloth on the pile of bodies the two monsters made, Gan took the flint and steel from his bag and sparked it against the fur. Orange sparks flew into the large pile of fur and took to burning almost immediately. Gan watched as the fur kindling alighted quickly and burned hot, soon lighting the dead monsters aflame as well. The unnatural bodies and broken forms took to the fire like a dead log in the desert, they were soon engulfed completely. The fire lit the night and the image was gruesome. Blood was everywhere on the ground, soaked into the sand. The twisted bodies of the Eater and The Two-headed wolf withered in the flame as though it were torturous. It gave a dark and foreboding atmosphere as Gan used an unsharpened saber tooth to hold a piece of meat over the flame. The smell of the burning corpses didn't appetize him but There was nothing else to eat in this wasteland. And he was starving.

The meat of the wolf tasted disgusting though Gan choked it down anyway. Sitting on the sand away from the fire he watched his foes burn in the light while he chewed on flesh that tasted like filth. "If it had been me who died tonight I would be nothing but food for you." He spoke solemnly, staring at the two faces of the wolf. One a mangled mess burnt and grimacing in a twisted expression, the other with a hole in its head and a snarl, staring at him with hateful eyes as the flames consumed his being. "You attacked me in my sleep. But the world is a twisted place even when the righteous win." As he watched the monster burning, its body morphing into and mixing with the pile of burning fat that the eater had become, He felt no hate for it. "I have no thoughts to spare for the dead." Gan decided. His anger was towards the living breathing tower, and the monsters that were still alive to do its bidding.

Gan packed his things and headed west again. The sun was rising now, and Gan had gotten less than an hour of sleep this night, but after he had taken the power of the spreading he realized he no longer felt like sleeping. His mind was clear and his body felt light. He walked and waited until his spirit felt ready to consume more power.