A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 178: The Shadows - Part 3

But whilst his balance had always been there – his stealthiness had not and still was not. He didn't have what it took to be a hunter like Nila. He couldn't track things or expertly hide himself. He could only try his best to minimise the noise he was making, but even then, he didn't know if what he was doing was right or not.

He was sure, as he leapt from that branch to the one beneath it, sure that the Konbreakers would hear his approach, but they hardly even stirred. They were completely absorbed in their pile of food.

It seemed that the pile of monster meat for a monster was something like a pile of gold for a human – they simply could hardly imagine anything better and they greedily wanted to eat it all before it disappeared.

As Beam made his way to the lower branches, he started to look for a means to jump off – something that would allow him an attack.

One of the Konbreakers stood nearer to him than the rest, as it crushed a Gorebeast skull in its hands and greedily slurped up its brains. Its back looked particularly exposed as it stood there, with the shell being on the front of it. But Beam was wary of the tiny spikes that sat nestled into the skin.

He'd noticed them before, as he was dealing with the corpses, and he was sure they must contain a poison of some sort, though he wasn't willing to test that theory.

He sprinted along the bottom branch, and drew his sword. The sound of steel sliding out from its sheath finally drew the Konbreakers attention. It turned to him, meat and bone still in its hands, just in time for Beam to leap from his branch and drive his sword straight through its brain.

He landed with a thump, as the Konbreaker spasmed next to him. The other two Konbreakers eyed him with contempt, as he rose up from his crouch and pointed his sword at him threateningly.

Contrary to Beam's expectations, though – they did not stop eating. In fact, their gluttony only grew, as though eating itself was the survival instinct – as though that was what their body urged them to do in the face of an overwhelming threat, in the same way that some animals' instincts urged them to freeze.

Beam watched in alarm as they continued to shovel food into their mouths at an abnormal rate. He stood there stunned for a split second, before he shot off his back foot, attempting to close the distance between him and the nearest Konbreaker.

But even as he approached, the Konbreaker backed off. Both of them began to run around the pile of food, putting distance between themselves and Beam, eating all the while.

Still, no matter how fast they ran, Konbreakers were rather slow by nature, at least when compared to Gorebeasts and goblins. Beam soon caught up to the nearest Konbreaker and he struck out with his sword, aiming for its arms – if it was so incensed with eating that it wouldn't even defend itself, then Beam figured he wouldn't let the chance pass.

His sword slipped straight through the flesh and the arm fell to the floor, along with the rest of the food that it was eating. And yet, the Konbreaker still didn't stop munching. It opened its beak wide and with its remaining hand, it managed to toss two more mouthfuls of flesh inside it.

With that, it was as though a limit had been reached, a condition had been met, for even as Beam tried to close the distance between the two of them, there was such an explosion of growth, such a change in aura, that he was blasted backwards.

He skidded to a halt a distance away, barely managing to regain his footing, just in time to see the Konbreaker's hair-raising evolution.

"You're kidding…" Beam complained, realizing that his plan had completely backfired. The goal was to make them easier to deal with. He hadn't expected the lure of meat to be quite so effective that they'd risk even mortal injury to secure it.

The bloody stump of an arm that Beam had left it with twisted and turned, as flesh bubbled around it for a moment, before there was an explosion of growth, and it shot out, like several thick vines. They bound together, giving it a new arm that was twice the size of its old one – so thick that even as it stood upright, its entire forearm was resting on the floor.

But the rest of its body was growing as well. It lifted its beak skyward and gave a blood-curdling shriek as its body continued to mutate.

In the same way that goblins turned into hobgoblins, the addition of meat for the Konbreakers increased their size, and the state of their muscles, until they were twice the size of what they once were.

But that was not the only difference. The spikes on its back grew – the same spikes that Beam had suspected to be filled with poison – and so too did the shell on the front of it evolve. It spread like a rash, moving from just its torso, to covering its shoulders and neck and the top of its thighs.

It was not a single shell anymore, but a series of plates that moved when it did, entirely like a human-forged breastplate.

As if that wasn't overwhelming enough, as that creature gave its roar to the sky, its comrade began to transform as well, growing similarly as tall, similarly as wide and similarly as mean-looking.

Their aura was overwhelming. Beam recalled the first time he'd met the Konbreakers a day or two ago. He recalled that it was not an easy battle. Whilst he'd managed to claim victory relatively unharmed, he'd had to use all that he had to offer in order to do it. And now he had two evolved versions in front of him.

"This… This is bad," he murmured, just in time for the first of the Konbreakers to come rushing in, its huge vice-like claws extended, aiming to grip the entirety of Beam's body in them.

'It's so fast!' Beam thought to himself, his eyes widening. That was his one advantage above the Konbreakers in the past, and now the creatures had a speed comparable to that of a Gorebeast, on top of being stronger than they were, and hardier too. source-at-MVLeMpYr