Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Second, face your foes

There are seven remaining enemies, which means seven remaining sources of XP. Three have scampered off, while another two are currently fighting each other, teeth and nails slicing into soft flesh. I might be able to collect the scraps from those two, but I’m not counting on it. One of them is EV2, the misshapen flesh-blob that had the blood-shaping skill, and I’m not keen on facing that down.

Not without a similarly powerful skill, at least. Devour isn’t an offensive skill, and neither is Appraise, though both have their uses.

That leaves two targets for me. I look at both of them, trying to assess which one is going to be easier to take down.

The closer one is twenty feet from me, standing on the edge of a lab table atop shards of glass, broken cylinders providing it footing. It looks physically weak—it’s another one of the insectoid-forms, but its stomach bows in on itself. A defect in its creation, no doubt.

Meanwhile, the other is nearly twice the distance, slowly walking towards me at a diagonal. In a few moments, it’ll be equidistant from both of us.

I frown. The second one looks physically stronger, its inhuman anatomy better formed, but less than a minute ago, I saw an example proving that physical strength is by no means a definitive measure of how strong one is.

Targets devoured: [2/8]

Warning: XP reward reduced from 95 to 90.

The notification startles me, and I flick my eyes back to the blob.

Strike that. Two examples.

Once more, the blob’s used its powers to slice another baby in two.

I grit my teeth, trying Appraise again.

Name: EV2

Age: 0

Race: ???

Class: Bloodspawn

Level: 1

Still nothing useful, but repeated usage of skills is how you level them up. If I’m not going to fight immediately, I may as well use them.

EV2’s leveled up. That isn’t too surprising, either, but it puts another point in the fight somebody else decision.

The blob starts moving, apparently intent on taking a stand against one of the three of us.

I need to make a decision, and I need to make it fast.

I take off towards the stronger-looking one. My reasoning is hasty and might be wrong, but I’m thinking that if the weaker one is confident enough to stand and fight instead of running away, it probably has a trick up its sleeve.

The weaker one runs at the blob at the same time, evidently not wanting to get involved in a multi-creature fight.

That’s fine by me.

Before I come into contact with the other demon-baby, I Appraise it. It’s getting a little harder to do it now—do I have a limitation? Probably.

EV7

Age: 0

Race: ???

Class: Bloodspawn

Level: 0

Good. I didn’t make the worst choice possible. If that level was anything but 0—which is where I assume I’m at—then I would’ve been forced to disengage.

Interesting that its name is EV7. With the other one being named EV2, there’s a pattern forming.

Not important. I shelve the thought and leap forward.

This time, my opponent actually fights back. When I dive forward, arms outstretched and jaw open wide, it ducks, evading my strike and shoving me aside.

And it takes advantage of the opening, sinking its fangs into my arm. Blood spurts from it, and sharp fiery pain accompanies the warm surge. Once again, I push aside the pain.

I don’t know if it expects me to be debilitated by the pain. The other demon-babies were certainly affected enough by pain when I hit them.

Apparently, it does. When I strike out with the hand not in its clutches, it rears its head back in surprise, and it squeals out a pathetic cry.

Alright, so this one does suffer from pain. It confuses me. Why do they scream when they could just ignore it?

While it’s disoriented, I tear my arm out of its jaw with all my strength, paying no heed to the massive wounds it gouges in it. It cuts deep, sharp enameled teeth scraping against hard bone, but it’s only an arm.

It doesn’t manage to keep hold of me, but not for lack of trying. Half the skin on my arm is missing.

That won’t kill me.

I attack.

Once again, I go straight for the neck. The others don’t seem to be nearly as aloof as I am when it comes to pain. I don’t know why, but I’ll take any advantage I can get.

I’m only on it for a second before it roars in rage, and it tries shoves me away.

I noticed earlier that it was strong, but I didn’t realize how strong. The force of its arms make my attempts at a slashing strike with my fingers seem like a baby’s futile flailing.

Which, to be fair, it is.

Still, my arms aren’t the strongest part of my body. Even as it bruises my body, tears muscle fibers apart, I hang on with my teeth. One tears itself out, but I refuse to let it shake me.

When it finally manages to shove me off, I take a pound of flesh with me.

It keeps hissing at me even after I fall to the ground, my body a mess of unnecessary sensations, but it’s already over. I’ve taken too large a chunk out of it.

It’s taken a fair chunk out of me, too, but my arm possesses no vital organs. As much as I bleed, it bleeds more.

Soon enough, this one can’t move either. Not quite dead yet, but immobile. I flick a glance around—the other two are still fighting. Looks like my intuition was right. The one with the bowed-in chest is also manipulating blood, and the two of them are fighting for control over the blood between them.

Nobody turns an eye towards me, so I drag myself over to my foe.

I eat the baby.

Devour granted +4 XP!

Targets devoured: [3/8]

Warmth floods into me once more, but that’s not all. The system has more waiting for me.

I feel something new form within my chest. System-created warmth, but tinged differently from the skills.

Trait earned: Kinslayer I

Requirements: Kill 3 creatures related to you.

Your attacks are 10% more effective against members of your own species.

My lips curl upwards in what I recognize as a facsimile of a smile.

Now this is truly intriguing. Traits. The word feels familiar when I roll it over in my mind, but that doesn’t help at all. I have no memories to reference familiarity with. As far as I know, life began in that tube.

Besides, everyone here has been marked as age 0. I think it’s not too much of a stretch to presume that I’m the same.

Pain lights up across my entire arm, and I once again put it aside. It’s a little harder to do so now—I wince, understanding for the first time what the other demons are experiencing.

Even then, I can still force it to the back of my mind. My arm burns, and it burns more when I move it, but that’s fine. I just won’t use my bad limb.

I have three others, after all, and my teeth are no less lethal than before.

There are five enemies left, and three of them are hiding.

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The other two fight. I think the bowed-in chest demon is going to win. They’re roughly even in terms of magical power, but the bowed-in chest still has functional limbs, while the blob is kind of just crawling forward on stubs.

I stalk closer to them, waiting for a resolution. I don’t want to attack prematurely—if one of them notices me, I have no recourse for their abilities.

Once more, I Appraise, this time targeting the bowed-in chest.

EV10

Age: 0

Race: ???

Class: Bloodspawn

Level: 2

Appraise advanced to level 2!

Appraise now reveals the last skill used by the target.

My eyes widen. Level two? There’s not enough of us here to gain that much XP. Did it start at a higher level? How can I match that? I doubt there’s anything here I can use as an equalizer.

Unless…

I turn back towards the blood-tubes, inching away from the ongoing mess of teeth and claws. At this rate, the blob isn’t going to last much longer.

I’m not going to last long against a level 2 either. Can I get around that?

All of us drained a fair chunk of the blood out of our tubes, but there’s still massive amounts of the crimson life-giving fluid lying within the glass.

I focus on my XP, trying to draw it forth like I did with the skill descriptions. I was trying to draw on my entire status sheet, earlier, but apparently that’s too much.

The XP stat, though, comes naturally. Almost scarily easy.

XP: 46/50

Four more points. I’m so close to leveling up. That’s a single kill, which means I need to either find a hiding demon or try my luck at the tubes.

Tubes first. I can’t control where the others are, but I can control my ability to climb or break the glass containers.

I try climbing up over the side of one and give up immediately—it’s far too slippery.

Instead, I look for a tool. This is a lab. They could have a hammer around here.

I’m looking for a blunt weapon I can use when I see the notification.

Targets devoured: [3/7]

Warning: XP reward reduced from 90 to 85.

Oh no. If the fight came to its logical conclusion, then EV10 has already triumphed.

So soon? The blob impressed me before. Did it really gone down so easily?

I turn around, determined not to miss a thing, and I see the bowed-in chest once more, but this time it seems more whole somehow. Its chest is a little more properly shaped, its body reshaped ever so slightly.

It’s dripping with blood both fresh and dried, and it’s making its way towards me.

Picking off the competition. I’m the only other demon (?) that’ll actually fight back. After I die, it’ll be able to slay the last three at its own leisure.

I have Kinslayer now, but a ten percent boost in my bite’s power doesn’t seem relevant against this.

EV10 thrusts a hand out, and the blood that’s coagulated on it reshapes itself, crawling off its arm and forming itself into a long, thin blade of pure crimson.

I run.

There’s nothing else I can do. At this range, fighting is suicide.

There are two options for me—three, technically, but I’m not a big fan of “fight and die”. I can try to escape, or I can try to level up.

My most viable path to leveling up involves breaking one of the tubes or finding one of the hiders, but I don’t trust my ability to find hidden monsters and I haven’t seen anything large enough to smash the glass with. I could try my teeth, but I highly doubt that’ll work.

So instead, I run. I’ve never been in this lab before, so I have no idea where I’m going. Loud footsteps follow behind me, each of them squelching as EV10 steps through blood.

This lab is bigger than I thought. It must stretch out for another three or four hundred feet at least, and there’s all sorts of similar tubes in the area. These ones, though, don’t seem as full of life as the ones we came from. The blood is dried, sticky, and sometimes completely gone, revealing shriveled corpses within.

Failures, I think. Things like me and EV10, but they never survived to be born.

Not that I’m going to survive much longer at this rate. For a facility this large, there’s an awful lack of doors.

XP: 46/50

The number doesn’t change. I’m out of time.

I chance a look behind me to see EV10 keeping pace, not thirty feet behind.

It’s easily matching my steps, and it’s not even sprinting. Whatever skills fuel it are helping it move faster.

It’s playing with me. That pisses me off, but I can’t act on it.

As I try to speed up, it increases its pace just enough to match me.

And then luck smiles upon me. As I run, I whip my head around one more time to check the distance between us, and I catch a glimpse of something that’s not more failed creations. Eyes.

Hiding under a desk, cowering in fear… is another insectoid demon-baby. Another living creature.

More importantly, a potential source of XP.

It’s not a good option, but it’s all I have.

When it hears me, hears EV10, it goes stock still.

I turn towards it immediately, and EV10 slows, deliberately placing each and every step so I can hear it as it approaches.

Mistake.

“Sto—“ the hiding demon says, holding a hand out, but it’s too late. I’ve already ripped its throat out.

I eat it.

Devour granted +5 XP!

Devour has advanced to level 3!

Now grants 30% of XP consumed, rounded down.

Targets devoured: [4/7]

You have advanced to level 1!

You have gained 3 stat points.

Stat sheet unlocked!

Due to Enhanced Blood Affinity, you may select 2 Bronze-tier skills to gain from the following list:

Shape Self

Shape Blood

Lessened Bleed

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