Chapter 206: Devourer Learns
The Devourer disappeared underground again and for about three seconds, I actually thought the ugly bastard might be retreating.
Then the screaming started.
Because of course it did. What was a fight to the death without a little screaming here and there.
The floor near the survivor wall exploded upward in a spray of dirt, slime, and shattered concrete as the Devourer’s mouth erupted straight out of the ground beneath them. The split-open throat stretched wider than before, torn flesh hanging in wet strips around the spinning rings of teeth while the poison-blackened veins pulsed violently beneath its skin.
The damage I caused hadn’t weakened it, it had only managed to piss it off more.
Two survivors vanished immediately into its mouth. One second they were there, and the next they were halfway down the creature’s throat while the teeth dragged them inward together in a twisting blur of limbs, blood, and screaming.
A third man stumbled backward trying to run, but only managed to slip in the slime, and the Devourer’s tiny arms caught him around the waist before shoving him directly into the spinning mouth.
The screaming cut off wetly as the Devourer worked to swallow its last meal through a torn throat. And then, before I could blink, the blackened flesh around its throat immediately started healing.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I groaned. Two of my vines wrapped around me, before helping me sit down just enough to take the pressure off my still broken leg.
This wasn’t the time to take a break, but I didn’t have much choice in the matter. I was too focused on what was going on in front of me to really think.
The torn meat around the Devourer’s mouth twitched and pulled together in thick ugly stretches while the burst veins slowly stopped leaking black fluid. It wasn’t fully healed, not yet, but it was healed enough that I could watch the damage disappearing in real time while the creature shuddered happily around its fresh meal.
Fuck my life. Every person in this room was a walking health potion.
Wonderful.
So happy for the thing trying to kill me.
Really.
But at least the creature had managed to get the survivors moving.
Mind you, they weren’t really moving in the smart, useful "there’s the exit, we need to get to it" kind of way I would have personally preferred. Instead, they simply screamed and scattered blindly through the chamber while the Devourer rolled back underground beneath them.
I could have told them that was the wrong move, but I wasn’t wasting my breath on anything other than trying to breathe.
The floor trembled violently under the fleeing survivors while cracks shot outward through the slime-covered earth. One woman fell immediately while another man tried helping her up instead of continuing toward the tunnel, only for the ground opened beneath both of them.
The Devourer surged upward through the collapsing floor with enough force to launch dirt against the ceiling. Its mouth was bigger now, the split throat stretching wider every time the rings of teeth rotated. The poison marks were still there, black veins crawling under pale flesh, but the fresh blood coating its mouth made the damage harder to see.
It swallowed the woman almost whole.
The man made it halfway free before the teeth caught his arm.
The sound that came out of him didn’t sound human anymore.
The Devourer jerked backward hard enough to rip the arm clean off before disappearing underground again with the rest of the body.
The screaming got louder.
I stared at the survivors running in circles around the chamber like terrified chickens and immediately understood why this thing had survived so long.
People were stupid.
Not always.
Not individually.
But in groups? During panic?
Absolutely useless.
"THE TUNNEL IS OPEN!" I shouted while dragging myself upright with the vines wrapped around my leg. "RUN, YOU IDIOTS!"
Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t helping them so much as I was helping myself by getting the Devourer’s healing potions away from it.
But they still didn’t listen.
One woman crouched against the wall sobbing into her hands while two men tried dragging another survivor who had frozen completely in place. The Devourer moved underneath them again, the earth bulging in a fast uneven line directly toward the cluster.
"Oh for fuck’s sake," I groaned as I swung out my hands.
Wooden spikes erupted upward through the floor directly in the Devourer’s path, punching deep into the moving earth. The chamber shook violently when the creature hit them from under the ground, and a furious shriek ripped through the dirt beneath my feet while black slime exploded upward through the cracks in the floor.
Good.
Bleed, you oversized tapeworm.
The survivors finally started running toward the tunnel.
Three Chapters too late, but I supposed personal growth was important.
The Devourer burst out of the ground again, and this time it came for me.
The split-open mouth lunged sideways through the chamber like a shark breaching water, teeth grinding wildly while slime and dirt sprayed from the torn flesh around its throat. I barely managed to throw myself sideways before the mouth slammed shut where my upper body had been seconds ago.
Pain exploded through my injured leg the second I landed and my vision blacked out for half a second.
The Devourer immediately turned back toward the fleeing survivors.
Nope.
Absolutely not.
I wasn’t dumb enough to not know what it was doing. The thing wasn’t targeting randomly anymore so much as it was feeding strategically. Every survivor it swallowed repaired more damage, every second I spent injured made the balance worse.
And if the Devourer fully healed while I could barely stand?
Then I would become dessert.
The creature surged underground again, chasing the people scrambling toward the tunnel entrance while the chamber collapsed harder around us. Several roots snapped overhead and crashed into the slime-covered floor while dirt poured steadily from widening cracks in the ceiling.
The whole hotel was going to come down at this rate, but I didn’t have time to care about that.
A man reached the tunnel entrance just as the Devourer exploded upward directly beneath him.
The survivor didn’t even fully scream before the creature caught him from below and folded him straight into its mouth feet first.
The healing happened faster this time.
The torn flesh around the Devourer’s throat visibly pulled tighter together while the poison-blackened veins shrank backward several inches. In fact, it looked almost as it did before I ripped his throat apart.
No.
No no no.
That wasn’t happening. I wouldn’t let that happen.
I forced myself upright again despite the white-hot agony tearing through my leg and slammed vines deep into the ceiling roots overhead. Thick wooden growth exploded outward through the tangled root system while more vines tore through the floor beneath me.
The Devourer sensed movement immediately and changed directions.
Good.
Look at me.
Not them.
The creature rolled underground in a sharp turn and came straight toward me again and the floor exploded upward.
I didn’t dodge, I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was wait.
The second the mouth burst fully out of the ground beneath me, I yanked every vine in the room tight at once.
The roots overhead crashed downward like collapsing buildings.
Thick wooden vines wrapped violently around the Devourer’s split-open throat while sharpened spikes punched through the soft flesh near its jaw. The impact slammed the creature sideways hard enough that half its body smashed through the wall of the chamber.
The Devourer screamed.
I screamed too.
Mostly because my injured leg nearly folded backward when the vines jerked tight.
But it was worth it.
The creature thrashed violently against the roots and vines binding it while the poison-blackened flesh around the bite split open again. Thick black fluid poured from the wound while the rotating teeth chewed through wooden spikes fast enough that splinters sprayed across the chamber.
It was still not dead.
And I was honestly starting to take that personally.
The survivors finally reached the tunnel.
Most of them.
A little girl stood frozen near the wall while the Devourer convulsed against the vines holding it down. Her eyes stayed locked on the creature’s mouth while tears ran silently down her face.
The Devourer’s tiny black eyes shifted toward her.
Then toward me.
Its mouth widened slowly.
And for the first time since the fighting started, I realized the thing was smiling.
"Devourer learns," it purred roughly like a chainsaw.
The vines around its throat snapped and the entire chamber shook hard enough that several sections of ceiling collapsed outright.
Fuck me gently with a chainsaw.
I was in trouble.
