Chapter 46: White Wood 12

If an Archwood Maggot was left to its own devices for long enough, it eventually transformed into a bigger, slightly more dangerous creature. Stalking on four, extremely thin legs, the Archwood Walker covered its previously revealed segments under thick chitin of a dark green, metallic colour. The mandibles in front of the face grew more massive, just as the entire body became thicker and the plate previously used to emit the luring sounds elongated into a horn, completely losing its former functionality.

Not that Reysha really cared about any of that after she cut the head off the creature and began breaking open the hide to access the white meat underneath. “Insect meat is weird,” she said ripping a piece out of it with her bare hands. Although her continued feasting in the last couple of hours had caused her savagery to become acceptable, it was still savagery. She looked over to Apexus with an unhidden desire to get some tentacles to slither under her suit again. However, that was for later and somewhere safer than these winding tunnels under the bark. “It feels totally different… the texture and everything,” she threw the piece in her mouth without hesitation, “still good though.”

“Are you sated now?” Aclysia asked, clearly impatient.

“I feel pretty good, but I’ll eat a whole lot more,” the tiger girl tilted her neck to look at the metal fairy, shoving yet more food in her own mouth at the side. “No idea when I get to next.”

Aclysia took that as her signal to speak. “We have to talk about your actions earlier.”

“Okay, okay,” Reysha spoke with a full mouth, “Am shorry about eahtinh befoher meeting with you,” she gulped after chewing the soft, white tissue thoroughly, “happy?”

“…Partly,” Aclysia stated. “It is your disregard for humanoid life that I need to talk to you about.”

“For fuck’s sake, you are still on about that?!” the tiger girl groaned. “Fine, fire off your complaints if it makes you happier.”

Aclysia’s lips went white as she angrily pressed them together, “Do you feel nothing at the prospect of killing?”

“I feel a bit sorry for the people that will be left behind, but in this particular case I would have mostly been a very happy tiger at seeing Mehily and her moral self-jerking grin in the dust,” Reysha narrowed her eyes in a threatening fashion. “Funny, you are beginning to remind me a lot of her right now,” she added growlingly.

“Are you implying I am self-righteous?” the divine being sounded genuinely offended.

“No, I am SAYING you are self-righteous,” the tiger girl mocked with a purr. Although Aclysia was getting ready to, the redhead continued to talk and drowned out the retort. “Would you let people live no matter how much they threatened you, mhm? Is there no line at which you would say you would have to kill even the best person because it is your life that is taken otherwise?”

“Obviously there is,” Aclysia conceded, there was a point for everyone where they would defend themselves – to the death if necessary. “You cross that line too easily, that is what I am trying to tell you.”

“That is your opinion,” Reysha pointed out. “Which I already caved to, so what the fuck do you want from me?”

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“I want you to think about your actions!”

The Rogue groaned and dropped her meal for the moment, “Really conceited coming from you after you just begged Apexus to let them go, no matter the consequences. Just because it’s what your holy little mind tells you.” Tail swiping aggressively, Reysha pranced towards the metal fairy on all fours. “Let me tell you something, I come from a world where being an assassin is a normal career.”

Ears pressing closely to her head, lips pulled back to reveal her teeth in an animalistic fashion, Reysha slowly extended her hand towards the much smaller girl’s head. Halfway out, her claws stretched out. The red-tinted extensions had only gotten sharper since they saw regular usage.

“Everyone hears ‘tiger’ or ‘cat’ people and just thinks about cute, striped girls sitting in the sun all day, occasionally going into heat,” she continued, in front of her a metal fairy unsure whether she had to dodge or she even could. “Those people only remember their cute, domesticated cats, not the fact that it’s a predator. The nights in Ragressa see much blood. I didn’t become an adventurer for fame, but for fortune, not to do good but to do what I want.” Her claws closed in front of Aclysia, and pulled back, thanks to a thin leg extending between them.

Apexus had no idea why this was happening, again, or how to properly handle this, so he had just looked in confusion at the remarkably unphysical fight. Now that it looked like it may get violent, however, the slime decided to establish his presence again. As she still respected him for saving her and as the pack leader by virtue of his strength, Reysha backed off and went back to her meal.

“What separates you from a monster like Apotho then?” Aclysia quietly asked.

“Mhhhhm,” Reysha wondered for a moment. “Power, I guess? I can see the appeal behind living longer by sucking the life juices out of others. Not sure I would do it, but still,” the tiger girl looked at the metal fairy, who seemed shocked at the answer, “is the immortal judging me for my wish to live?”

“No, but…” Aclysia stopped to find her train of thought again. “Is that really the entire difference you see between you and the man that lied to you to try and absorb your life as well?”

“Oh, fuck that lying business,” Reysha laughed, “I am not doing that. I also refuse to ever get locked up like that, however he let that happen. Probably wouldn’t murder random people just to get younger again as well. I have SOME respect for life, you know?” She cupped her breasts and played with them for a bit, “Although having these sag would be a crime against the omniverse.”

The joke fell on deaf ears in the fairy's case. “Probably? Are you serious?”

“Oh my everything!” the tiger girls mood suddenly swung around completely and her smile vanished as her face flushed with anger. “YES, FUCK OFF! Go judge someone else you sanctimonious piece of rust!”

“Your morality is…”

“NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!” Reysha pulled one of the knives from her belt and was halfway through the motion of throwing it when Apexus grabbed her arm. With a sudden movement, the tiger girl ripped herself free, but the knife found its resting place in the corpse of the Archwood Walker instead, as she used it to carve out more of her meal. “Get off my case.”

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