Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

Raven returned to the documents before the situation produced another comment.

A partially burned sheet lay inside one of the side compartments. Most of it was unreadable, but one line had survived.

Transfer Station 4 — North Route — Dunvar

A date appeared beneath it.

Six days ago.

Raven showed the sheet to Valeria. ”It could still be active.”

She nodded. ”Or they already know this caravan failed and cleared out.”

”The seals killed their own people. That means someone knew something had gone wrong.”

Nyxara spoke from behind them. ”Not immediately.”

Raven looked at her. ”How do you know?”

”Because I killed the first one almost an hour before the others started dying. The second tried to escape. The third used an artifact to contact someone.”

”And then they activated the seals.”

”Shortly afterward.”

That gave them a window.

The station could be evacuating right now.

Raven folded the sheet and put it away. ”How long to Dunvar by this route?”

Valeria calculated. ”Three days if nothing delays us. If the station functions as a transfer point, it’s probably outside the city.”

Roland gestured toward the caravan. ”And what do we do with all this?”

Raven looked over the bodies, cargo, and preserved samples. ”Report it to the checkpoint. We’re not carrying everything.”

Nyxara raised an eyebrow. ”You’re leaving valuable materials behind.”

”Most of it is useless to me, and entering Dunvar while carrying illegal organs, Bloodborn blood, and slave collars seems unnecessarily complicated.”

Valeria smiled. ”I’m proud of you.”

”Don’t start.”

Raven kept only the Black Mithril locking mechanism as a sample.

FORGE needed data.

That was justifiable.

Probably.

Nyxara walked toward one of the loose horses.

Valeria tracked her with her eyes. ”What are you doing?”

”Acquiring transportation.”

”That horse belonged to someone.”

Nyxara looked toward one of the corpses. ”He doesn’t seem to need it anymore.”

Raven couldn’t argue with the logic.

Nyxara checked the saddle, mounted easily, and looked at Raven.

”Dunvar, then.”

Raven remained still. ”No.”

She smiled. ”I wasn’t asking permission.”

Valeria answered before he could. ”Then we already have something in common.”

Nyxara looked at her. ”He didn’t invite you either?”

”He tried to tell me he didn’t need company.”

Raven cut in. ”That happened.”

Valeria continued as if she hadn’t heard him. ”I discovered that his opinion on certain matters can be ignored for practical reasons.”

Nyxara looked genuinely delighted. ”I definitely like you more now.”

”I can’t say the same.”

Nyxara guided her horse closer.

Too close.

Valeria moved one hand slightly.

A thin line of blood slipped from her wrist.

It didn’t form a weapon yet.

A warning.

Nyxara looked at the crimson thread, then at Valeria.

”Elite.”

Valeria didn’t react.

Nyxara continued, ”Level Twenty-Nine, if I’m reading your mana correctly. Quite competent for a human.”

Raven looked at Valeria.

She had never mentioned the exact number.

”Level Twenty-Nine.”

Valeria glanced at him. ”You never asked.”

”That’s fair.”

Nyxara smiled. ”He really doesn’t know very much about you.”

The blood around Valeria’s fingers began to harden. ”And you know far too much about someone you met less than an hour ago.”

”I’m interested.”

”I noticed.”

Nyxara looked at Raven. ”Your sorceress is territorial.”

Valeria stepped forward. ”I am not his sorceress.”

Raven opened his mouth.

Valeria raised one finger without looking at him. ”Don’t help.”

Raven closed his mouth.

Nyxara laughed. ”Then you only sleep in his room.”

Silence.

Raven looked at Nyxara.

Valeria stopped moving the blood.

”How do you know that?”

”You smell like him.”

Valeria went completely still.

Roland stared into the forest with admirable intensity.

Raven processed the information.

”That seems invasive.”

Nyxara showed the slightest hint of fang. ”I’m Bloodborn.”

”Still invasive.”

Valeria recovered her voice. ”If you smell me again to find out who I sleep with, I’m going to test how long it takes a Champion to regenerate her nose.”

The darkness around Nyxara deepened slightly.

Not a full Skill.

Just pressure.

The shadows cast by the surrounding trees seemed to darken with her.

Valeria didn’t retreat.

Her blood formed two long blades.

Predator’s Instinct activated.

Not because either woman intended to attack Raven.

Because both were close enough to make the outcome unpleasant for everyone.

”That’s enough,” Raven said.

Nyxara looked at him with amusement.

Valeria did not.

”She started it.”

”That sounded disturbingly childish.”

”I don’t care.”

Raven looked at Valeria first, then Nyxara. ”I can’t stop you from traveling toward Dunvar. I’m also not wasting time trying.”

Nyxara smiled. ”I knew you’d come to your senses.”

”I wasn’t finished.”

She waited.

”I have information you need. You have information about this network that’s useful to me. As long as both remain true, we can move in the same direction.”

Nyxara tilted her head. ”That sounds a lot like traveling together.”

”No.”

”What’s the difference?”

”No one here is under my command, and I’m not under yours. If you attack something for entertainment and compromise the objective, I continue without you. If you start an unnecessary fight with Valeria, same result.”

Nyxara’s expression shifted slightly. ”And if she starts it?”

Raven looked at Valeria. ”Same.”

Valeria frowned. ”That is insultingly reasonable.”

”I can remove the condition.”

”That won’t be necessary.”

Nyxara watched both of them. ”What a strange relationship.”

Raven looked at her. ”You’re in no position to criticize.”

That earned another smile.

The darkness around Nyxara faded.

Valeria dismissed the blood blades as well.

Not trust.

A truce.

Enough.

Roland slowly exhaled.

Raven pointed toward the road. ”Before we leave, I need one thing.”

Nyxara raised an eyebrow. ”Another sample of my Bloodline?”

”The identification plate from one of those men.”

She looked disappointed. ”Much less interesting.”

They found an intact one on one of the three men Nyxara had killed. It wasn’t a mercenary badge.

It was a small metal disk marked with a number, a serpent wrapped around a needle, and a transit rune.

Valeria recognized the format. ”Private commercial credential.”

”Then it may get us into the station before they realize who we are.”

Nyxara looked at the corpse. ”I can ask the next one.”

”I’d prefer the next one remain capable of answering.”

”He can answer while being intimidated.”

”Your definition of intimidation probably kills too many people.”

”Only the fragile ones.”

Valeria mounted. ”Three days with her are going to be unbearable.”

Nyxara guided her horse alongside hers. ”You could take the main road.”

”I could also push you off your horse.”

”That wouldn’t solve anything.”

”I’d feel better for several seconds.”

Raven mounted before either woman discovered another way to turn the situation into a competition.

Roland moved closer to him. ”I’m staying in the back.”

”For safety?”

”For peace.”

Raven considered the decision. ”Good judgment.”

They left shortly afterward.

The caravan remained behind with its dead, preserved organs, and enough evidence to turn an apparently inexplicable attack into something much larger.

Raven had chosen the road to save two days.

Instead, he had discovered a clandestine network trafficking magical organs, slaves with rare abilities, and Bloodline samples. Someone inside Dunvar was diverting Black Mithril outside official channels. Nyxara had spent weeks hunting the people buying and selling pieces of her species.

And for some reason, a Level Seventy-One Champion Bloodborn princess had decided that traveling in the same direction as him sounded entertaining.

Raven looked toward her as she rode several yards ahead.

Predation reacted faintly again.

[High-Value Evolutionary Source Within Range.]

[Current Assimilation Recommendation:]

[DO NOT ATTEMPT.]

Raven closed the notification.

For once, he and the system were in complete agreement.