Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

The sixteen guards in Chamber Six had several significant advantages. They knew the mine, they outnumbered Raven, and they were prepared to suppress rebellious workers. Worse, the Black Mithril concentration was high enough that his Skills felt like tools left too long in the rain—still usable, but slow, unreliable, and covered in rust.

That still left the guards with one problem.

They were expecting a fight.

Raven had no intention of giving them one.

Lina spread a rough charcoal sketch of the lower section across the floor. It wasn’t an exact map, but she had worked there for nine months and remembered enough. The main gallery opened into Chamber Six, two older extraction tunnels curved around the vein, and an unused ventilation passage connected to an upper level.

”They keep most of the weapons here,” she said, pointing toward the main entrance. ”After we escaped, they posted guards at both intersections.”

Raven studied the drawing. ”Explosives?”

”Fracture charges. We use them to open hard rock.”

”Where?”

Lina marked a side storage room.

Valeria understood immediately. ”You’re going to cause a cave-in.”

”A small one.”

”That sentence does not reassure me after watching you operate.”

Raven pointed toward three supports on the sketch. ”I don’t want to collapse the chamber. I want to close this gallery and force them to split.”

Lina shook her head. ”If you break those supports, you could lose the entire corridor.”

”That’s why I’m not breaking them.”

He moved his finger several yards away.

”I want dust.”

The miner frowned. ”We have enough to fill the whole level.”

”Perfect.”

Valeria looked down at the map. ”Darkness, dust, narrow tunnels, and weakened magic.”

”Exactly.”

”You really are enjoying this.”

Raven checked the edge of the knife he had taken. ”I understand this kind of problem.”

That was different.

The first four guards left Chamber Six because they heard shouting.

The shouting was real.

One of the fugitives had volunteered to run through a side gallery while insulting Keller Mining with enough enthusiasm to make the performance feel personal. The guards gave chase and found an empty ore cart waiting for them.

Then the corridor behind them exploded.

It wasn’t a large detonation. Raven had placed a fracture charge inside a specific break in the rock, just enough to tear apart part of the side wall and flood the passage with stone and dust without bringing down the ceiling.

The four guards were cut off from Chamber Six.

Valeria sealed the opposite end of the passage with two blood threads. Her magic responded slowly under the Black Mithril interference, but it responded.

One of the guards caught the crimson glow through the dust.

”Contact!”

Raven came out of the cloud before they could reorganize.

The first man carried a shield, so Raven ignored the shield entirely. He kicked the guard’s knee, caught the upper edge as the man dropped, and pulled him forward hard enough to use his own momentum against him. The guard hit the wall shoulder-first.

The second attacked with an enchanted sword, but the blade’s glow was weak. Black Mithril was interfering with the weapon just as it interfered with Raven.

That simplified things.

Steel, distance, timing.

Raven slipped past the first cut, redirected the second with a mining tool, and closed the gap before the third could develop. His elbow struck the man’s face, and the knife followed beneath the ribs. Raven turned the blade once, pulled it free, and hot blood covered his hand.

The third guard tried to activate a Skill.

Nothing happened for half a second.

In a real fight, half a second was forever.

Raven drove the knife into the man’s thigh and used the embedded blade as leverage to turn his body off balance. A blood needle from Valeria struck the tendon behind his knee instead of his chest, and the guard collapsed.

The fourth managed to land a mace against Raven’s forearm.

Stonehide responded late.

The skin had only begun to mineralize when the impact hit, sending pain up his arm. Probably a minor fracture.

Raven didn’t bother checking.

He closed the distance again, drove his forehead into the guard’s nose, followed with a knee to the abdomen, and ripped the mace from his hand. One lateral swing caught the man across the jaw hard enough to shift it at the wrong angle.

He dropped.

The entire exchange ended before the dust settled.

Valeria looked at Raven’s forearm. ”Stonehide didn’t protect you in time.”

”I know.”

”And you’re still using it as though it’s reliable.”

”I’m not. I’m testing the point where it stops being reliable.”

Valeria stared at him. ”That distinction is horrible.”

Raven picked up the mace. ”It’s also important.”

Orders began echoing from the other side of the improvised collapse.

Twelve remained.

Now they knew something was happening.

Better.

Raven wanted them looking in the wrong direction.

The second charge detonated three minutes later, this time above Chamber Six. An abandoned extraction duct broke open and dumped a cloud of black dust over the main entrance.

The guards prepared for another frontal attack.

Raven came from behind.

Lina had said the ventilation tunnel was too narrow to move ore through, but it was wide enough for a person. Valeria went first because she needed less space to turn, and Raven followed close behind.

The deeper they crawled, the worse the Black Mithril interference became.

[Ambient Black Mithril Concentration: SEVERE.]

[Mana Circulation Efficiency: 69%.]

[Burst Step Efficiency: POOR.]

[Stonehide Activation Latency: HIGH.]

[Ember Spark Output: 44%.]

[Predatory Regeneration Efficiency: REDUCED.]

[Recommendation: Minimize Sustained Trait Dependence.]

Raven closed the interface.

Valeria breathed slowly ahead of him. ”My control dropped again.”

”How much?”

”I could form a barrier for a few seconds. After that, I’d probably lose precision.”

”Then don’t form barriers.”

”I had already figured that out.”

”Then we agree.”

Valeria turned her head slightly. ”One day, I’m going to get you to speak to me without making it sound like a tactical evaluation.”

”I did last night.”

She almost walked into a support beam.

Raven kept moving.

”That was cruel.”

”Observation.”

”I’m starting to genuinely hate that word.”

They reached an upper grate overlooking Chamber Six.

Most of the guards had gathered around the main entrance, exactly where Raven wanted them. He counted ten at first, then watched one emerge from a side room.

Eleven.

The last was probably inside the control office.

Raven indicated positions with two fingers.

Valeria nodded without asking for an explanation.

That mattered.

Weeks ago, she might have argued with part of the plan simply because she could. Now she trusted that if Raven had pointed at something, he had already accounted for it.

He pushed a small stone through the grate.

It fell twenty yards away and struck the side of a metal cart.

CLINK.

Three guards turned toward the sound.

Raven opened the grate and dropped behind them.

He didn’t use Burst Step.

He didn’t need it.

The first man died before he understood anyone was behind him. Raven drove the knife beneath his jaw and held the body upright instead of letting it fall.

The second guard turned with a crossbow already coming up.

Raven used the corpse as cover.

The bolt struck the dead man in the back.

Raven shoved the body into the shooter and moved at the same time.

The third guard attacked from the side with a downward sword strike. Raven stepped off-line, caught the wrist, drove an elbow into the man’s arm, and twisted until the shoulder came out of its socket with a dry crack.

The scream echoed through Chamber Six.

That was the signal.

Four beads of blood dropped from the grate above.

Valeria had entered the fight.