Ammy took out the sack and swallowed another piece of the carapace to extend the shadow hands ability by half an hour as they crept into the outpost chamber. As the three snuck around together, Akatsuki signalled she'd go on the other side and drew her knife. She made a circle with her finger for them to all meet up again before action. Ammy and Sabreman did the same once she departed.
They rounded the tents where the sounds of sex came from, by the shadow from the fire they'd lit, it was a woman and three men. She briefly contemplated putting herself in that position before she spawned four shadow hands, before she had them take her own spare knives, she imagined them as blades themselves. They glittered, shifted into sharp knives on their own.
Sabreman raised a hand and shook his head, pointing for her to pass it along to be dealt with later.
Further around the side of the camp, she saw more and more tents filled with gangbangs and orgies taking place. These people must've numbered at least a hundred, and in the middle of them stood two of the pale creatures. Two Ephesh, these two matched the shadow hand thing, but they had three heads each. She hoped that indicated they were weaker. Ammy and Sabreman retreated past the orgy tent, back to the entrance, where Akatsuki cleaned blood off her knife.
Ammy dropped her bags in the cavern, stripped off her armour until she was just in her underwear and gripped the poleaxe.
"That's the plan you came up with?" Akatsuki smirked.
"I'll open up with gunpowder bombs. You'll have to clean up the rest."
Ammy nodded, "All out, I'm gonna abuse my ability to come back."
"I'll shoot who I can." Akatsuki said casually, "And Carbyne, this is as easy as it will get. You need to start eating these people."
"That's sick."
"She's right." Ammy said mostly to herself, "She's right."
Amelia drew steady breaths and felt for the hands again. Each one of them held a blade. If it could easily slice her in half, they stood no chance; she just had to keep training like in flow combat back at home and from the soldiers. Don't stop the flow. She practised for this.
"Let's do this," she said.
Sabreman threw two bombs left and right, explosions erupted, flinging wood and body parts through the air, two more at the front where the mass of people stood. The Ephesh swatted the bombs, but they exploded on contact. Ammy began her dash, strengthened her muscles, but she dared not touch the poleaxe yet, not enough practice.
She swung hard at the first wave of lunatics. The hammer struck the first, knocking him down on contact, and the next and the next. She leapt back, spun it around for the axe and swept through the next, maiming, killing as she increased her muscle mass further to propel the weapon onward despite the resistance from human bodies.
She found herself roaring like a man as she continued to swing and brought down blades at stragglers. Akatsuki covered her backside by shooting down the orgy members that survived. The Ephesh rushed toward her, innumerable hands at once. She burned mana to try to match them, took a cut, a jab, a stab here and there. The density increase on her skin helped, but she felt a hole rip open in her stomach as she brought down the axe side of the polearm on one of their heads and gritted her teeth to keep pulling as her strength faded.
The other one drifted past her to go for her teammates. She spawned more shadow hands to slash, cut and slam against it before her consciousness faded away.
Amelia swung out of bed, leapt through the inn's window, and dashed for the dungeon, disregarding the confusion of the guards who'd seen her enter but not leave. Gideon shouted for them to let her pass and said he'd follow after. Ammy-Mel increased the muscle mass in her legs to move faster and tore her hoodie against a wall, lightly cut her shoulder, but pressed on.
When she reached the outpost chamber of the mine, she spotted Akatsuki standing over the deceased Ephem with Sabreman dismantling it with a pickaxe. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"How lovely to see you again," Akatsuki said drily.
"I don't like the death arrangement," Sabreman said, "We should spend more time putting you through drills in case something goes wrong with the spell."
"Such a worry wench." Akatsuki tossed Ammy her bags and armour, "It is strange watching your body vanish every time."
Ammy started to change right there and then, with Sabreman not hiding his enjoyment of watching her. Oh, Nullshade, reduce them to C cups. Her breasts shrank so she could fit into the linens and gambeson. Akatsuki stepped aside, and a mess of human corpses and the Ephem corpses was set on the ground.
"We'll wait," she said drily, "Get to it."
A giant moth took wing in the pit of Amelia's stomach as she looked at the corpses of humans and Ephem alike. "I can't do it," she clenched her fists, "I can't eat people, not yet."
"Drink their blood at least, have at the Ephem until your belly's full. We'll take the rest with us."
She begrudgingly nodded and took a chunk of carapace, snapped it into pieces with extra mass on her hands, then swallowed each piece. Underneath the carapace, after she'd broken and swallowed a good chunk of it, she found the tentacles that still moved somehow. She gripped two of them and chewed through the muscle. After going through a meter of the slimy muscle masses. She recoiled and felt like she'd vomit. But again, her stomach kept everything locked inside... in fact, she felt like she could still eat. She pulled at what she assumed were obsidian black organs. She had to increase her arm's muscle mass to yank the thing out from its tentacular confines and bit into it. Chewier than seared beef shank. Then another, and another. She'd been surprised that the entire creature was mostly tasteless, so for the sake of getting the task over with, she dipped all of the remaining organs in human blood. After she'd consumed half of its body, the interface flashed up.
Devour skill improved!
Consumption methods improved:
Stronger and rapidly regrowing teeth
Bottomless stomach for rapid conversion
Mana restoration improved
Can now suck blood directly from canine teeth and sharpen incisors to canines to improve this further
Increased manipulation of body parts for practical and the user's enjoyment
Predator adaptation alleviates gag and sickness; consuming raw meat will feel natural
Can dislocate jaw safely to consume more.
Better ability to swallow with a wider throat, mouth, all extendable and retractable.
Six-inch tongue extension.
Oh, Akatsuki and boys, I have a surprise for all of you...
She dislocated her jaw to crush a large piece of carapace between her teeth and swallow without issue. At the same time she finished half, she was already snapping its bones with her teeth, swallowing tentacles whole and looked down to see no paunch to her stomach. Ammy snapped its spine into pieces and crunched them all one at a time after dipping them to add the iron taste of blood. The difference in sensation and taste made her wonder if she'd been fused with a tiger or a lion in that moment. She ate the dismantled pieces with ease. Akatsuki's hand on her shoulder made her pause.
"Did you just evolve?"
"Yeah," she snaked the new length of her tongue out.
Akatsuki's eyes lit up with that ignition of desire, "Oho, but first, why aren't you storing some of this creature?"
"I can store them, I don't know how, but it's fine for me to eat them all, and they will last for ours. Carrying more in bags would only slow me down."
"Eat half," she said, "The papacy will want to study it."
She wiped her lips, "Yes," she agreed.
Gideon arrived with his men and the labourers to find the ruined scene. Amelia had already exsanguinated most of the human corpses, and they were ready to move further inside. Captain Gideon gave them a salute on their way; they returned the gesture and entered the wide tunnel.
"Are you really okay with me eating humans?" she asked Akatsuki and Sabreman.
He shrugged.
She took out a knife and sharpened it, "Back in my teenage years, there was a cult present in Dorcus, like a disease, they spread slowly."
"You mean the Yaoulmen, those cannibals?"
"Them," she said, "When a gang of criminals who enjoy prostitution, kidnapping and slavery is out to put blade to your throats not because of territory or business, it is a time to reflect. We've seen it, dear Carbyne, we have seen many things living in this world. One day about a decade ago, our sun fell from the sky when Sahim Elyonfil and Sariel colluded. Something stopped them, and we are not sure exactly what, but we know it is in the north."
She nodded, "So that's the objective?"
"Yes, but none of us here'll ever see it." she said, "We're the rejects, the trash and dregs until we prove our worth in clearing Dorcus Seamine, Chelcave and Old Felwinter."
Ammy-Mel nodded, "And for that, we'll have to be monstrously powerful."
"Indeed." Sabreman said, "Going forward, we'll avoid your death. I've got plenty of explosives and bolts for crossbows. What powers do you have?"
Status:
Devour abilities:
Ability: Ethereal shadow hands+ up to 30 hands at once, function subconsciously & autonomously: 18 hours
Carapace hardness skin: 20 hours
Increased durability of full body: 20 hours
Minor pyromancy: candlelight flame
Stats:
Lesser regeneration from all wounds: 15 hours
Lesser+ agility: 32 hours
Lesser+ stamina: 32 hours
Lesser+ strength: 32 hours
Lesser+ Enhanced instinct: 26 hours
Enhanced Eyesight (darkness): 80 hours
Minor enhanced adaptation to environments (immunity to natural gases): 61 hours
Increased libido, stamina: 40 hours
Mana: 100% -> stored additional mana from food supply: 200%
Stored:
Genitalia augmentation -> lost when used to enhance or add genitalia x1
>>>Bonuses: Girth, length, tightness, wetness, additional musk and production
>>>Optional: Tentacles, amorphous genitalia
She pushed the thoughts of fucking Akatsuki raw out of her mind. "My skin's hard as their carapace, I've got a full body reinforcement and all the bells and whistles to go with it."
"Good," Sabreman said.
Akatsuki tried to bore a hole in her mind to figure out what she wasn't saying.
"Front line, as usual, however, you'll play your range with the poleaxe, and we'll cover you." he cleared his throat, "We'll assess the battlefield, since now there is no such thing as wasting explosives with these powers you have. Death only in the absolute worst conditions."
"Yes," she agreed, if she lost these tentacles before she jammed them into Akatsuki's every hole, she'd be livid. Oh dear, Ammy-Mel-Carbyne, you are quite an unserious person.
Down the mining slopes that were left barren of enemies, past the wheelbarrow that sat still with dried goblin blood on the crystals. Through to the chamber where the miners were sacrificed stunk of rotting flesh, their bodies impaled on large spikes in stacks atop one another. But this time, hobgoblins were piled up with them. Akatsuki raised a hand for them not to follow as she set down to scout the location in complete silence. Sabreman and Ammy waited quietly.
"So, did you two fuck?" he asked quietly.
"Who starts a conversation like that?"
"Who gets naked in front of a man in her workplace?"
"Fair point," she gestured, "Why?"
"She's never been so nice to someone," he said, "Usually she'd shove your face into someone and make you eat their throat when it comes to getting things done."
Amelia shrugged, "We're alright, I suppose, yeah, we're alright."
"That's good for you, but especially for her."
What are you, the caring, distant daddy type? "Why do you say that?"
"Because she's a bitch too much of the time," he stepped closer, "Keep your clues about her, her gang was known for their uncanny behaviours."
"Sure."
"Stars wheel," he stepped away and watched the sacrificial chamber.
"And what about you, Sabreman? Why are you here?"
He shrugged, "I'm not taken to all of the beliefs of those around me."
"That much was obvious, in a world of magic, demons, summoning... me."
"And what if it happens to be the rules of this world and there just happens to be no God. Surely he would not allow us to fall this far."
"And would you like God," she cleared her throat, "Playing de- for the sake of argument, to baby you, coddle you and take away the menace to our world which may have been exacerbated or maybe even allowed into the world by mankind?"
"Are you saying I should pay for the dungfoolery of others?"
She shrugged, "I don't know, just thinking out loud."
"Think more, I daresay, Carbyne," he waved her away, "If you'd like to discuss this at some point, I'd be happy to."
"I've got more bad news for you, Carbyne, Ephems are sacrificing man, goblin, werewolf, hobgoblin and every fae creature alike," she said, "I haven't seen a fairy in my life, until I watched them pull her limb from limb and swallow her head whole."