Chapter 35: Hunger

Subject: Inis - [Requesting Reanalysis] Location: Redtinge Overgrowth

It just wouldn’t end. Innumerable blightbeasts stalked the jungle, consumed in a damp fog. Inis avoided as many as she could, gradually learning ways to scare some of the more dangerous ones off.

She was like a wounded wilderness beast at this point, postering and roaring so her neighbors wouldn’t get close enough to see she was hanging by a thread.

Foul tasting water from a stream left much to be desired, but it was ecstasy compared to dehydration. And besides... What was one more parasite to a devastated host?

Solshard chips, the hardened fuel leftover from Vitanarks, still clung to Inis’s body. After devouring more than a handful of them on her journey, the whole of Inis’s arm had been covered in the red-grey crystalline matrices.

Not only her arm but also bands of her torso, for some strange reason. It hadn’t mattered to her where it decided to form at the time, but there was almost always a reason. Looking down at the odd adornment, Inis was finally taking in the state of her own body with fully-functioning eyes.

Waning energy reserves were clearly transmitted by virasense, but it was another shock entirely to see deep burns and bruising. Some injuries would only heal upon visiting a practicing lifemage. A medical station could only do so much.

These were injuries that should have been fatal.

No one would have cared, had I expired, Inis realized.

It wasn’t so much of a realization as it was a painful reminder. Inis didn’t hate people. It was just that she’d only actually met one person who she would do anything to keep in her life, excluding family.

She and her mentor had made a contract, however, and that was not something Inis would ever breach. Even if her life depended on it.

No going back, only forward. The Spire can’t be far off now. That famous magitech elevator will take me out of this place, and I can step back and process… everything.

The things in this jungle were terrifying. Cold fear kept Inis’s excitement in check. That’s right, she was still filled with intoxicating delight while wielding her newfound power. Yet some discipline returned, with effort and Shade’s continued respectful silence.

The chill of the air no longer got to Inis. All thoughts turned to food, and that overwhelming desire only intensified when she spied a small collection of creatures unlike any of the blightbeasts she’d encountered.

Inis could only view them from a distance, and only through the filter of her virasense, but they were bursting with vital energies. Tantalized by the thought of sating her appetite, saliva pooled in her mouth.

Inis swallowed and slunk down to conceal herself in the overgrowth as she watched.

Whatever it was, it was weak.

While Inis wondered how best to slaughter her prey without spoiling the meat, she felt Shade’s presence roiling with curiosity. Her intentions were clear.

Do we eat things like this? Is it possible? Shade wondered.

All around in a large radius, blightbeasts reacted so something other than Inis, but this escaped her notice. She was drawn to the thought of supplying her body with nutrients and feeling the hunger pains subside.

We eat what we can to survive, she explained.

While these were the words she focused on in her mind, much more was transmitted to her partner. Shade was enmeshed in her being, even if its exact distribution throughout her body was questionable. It couldn’t escape her drives. It hungered too.

Inis didn’t have time to wonder why Shade was so curious about her choice of target. An enormous Chorth blightbeast cut the line. It wanted what should be rightfully hers.

From its virasense profile, the creature had the body of a huge stump, knotted and all. Inis stole closer and peered at it with her eyes.

From out of this blightbeast’s intimidating base, four thick legs ended in grooved hooves. Standing out against the dominant reds and greens of the jungle, it's peculiar flesh was a swirling meld of purple and black.

The closest comparison Inis could make was to the shelled wilderness beasts she’d never seen with her own eyes. This creature’s shell was its body, and Inis strongly doubted it could not retreat inside itself. But it was going to wish it could.

Unrelenting rage drove Inis forward, preparing a sequence of spells to pierce whatever the monster’s hide was made from. She had seen one opportunity to feed in all of this time. She needed to seize the moment, or she’d starve!

Inis stood up but didn’t draw attention to herself just yet.

One spell to bolster her strength, another to focus her mind. Then, a dense cone of solid sol formed just past her outstretched palm, accumulating flecks of sol from her skin. Most, but not all of them, left her to become a weapon.

Inis heated the would-be projectile with enough residual vira to bring her to the brink of a virastarvation coma. This had to end fast.

While the spell didn’t exactly have a name, it couldn’t really be worthy of one. She could only hope it would get the job done.

After a vigorous buildup, the missile vanished. Inis stood there, blinking, before being propelled backward. She ragdolled and cut herself on the branches of the bush that cushioned her fall. The pain actually helped her to focus.

Though the impact had been silent, it had happened. Inis didn’t miss, but she believed it hadn’t been enough to penetrate the target. Desperate, she sprinted forward into the clearing where the creatures gathered and flung her body at the boulder of a blightbeast.

The landing revealed the damage she’d caused. Inis discovered that her spell had drilled through the spongy exterior and into the soft flesh within.

She reasoned there were two ways to look at this situation. She’d failed to finish off her target with everything she had. But, more optimistically, this was an entryway.

Purple fluids were leaking out of the wound. Too viscous for blood, it was more like slime. If Inis was not like this, she would be trying to discern the blightbeast’s name. Right now, she had another tool.

Why did Inis wrap her legs around a groove in the blightbeast’s irregular body and plunge her fists into the warm wound? It was because Vitanark trees weren’t the only things she could drain. If she was out of fuel, she would steal more.

The ground trembled with the struggle underway. Delayed pain from the sudden attack caused the creature to go wild. Inis couldn’t blame it for having difficulty processing the situation.

Frantically, she held on and analyzed her target from the outside in, and then again from the inside out. It was nothing like a tree, nor was it like the small Chorth blightbeasts she’d also experimented on. It was hard to understand.

Use us, Shade offered, figuratively yelling over the howling of her mind. We can extend ourselves.

Inis acquiesced, and she immediately found it to be the right decision. It could be compared to a lab assistant doing the heavy lifting while Inis was not overburdened in her search.

This burden was cognitive load and short-term memory. By delegating resources, Inis understood the blightbeast, and she began to drain it of life. While doing so, the thing was bucking and screeching so loud she thought her ears would bleed.

The jungle came alive in roiling torrents of energy bursting from the bleeding beast.

Where was her prey? Inis was wholly focused on the current struggle, so she couldn’t keep track of the other creatures. The disrespectful blightbeast that had attempted to steal what was rightfully hers was staggering.

A dying monster tried to do something, but Inis couldn’t see what because she was wholly focused on holding tight. All she knew was that it was pumping massive quantities of liquid vira to sacs that lie just beneath the skin. A defense mechanism, no doubt.

You played your hand, she thought, a vicious smile on her face. Now I play mine.

The enormous beast fell to the ground with a deafening impact, shaking the jungle to a radius far beyond the edge of the small clearing.

Inis toppled gracelessly from her seat and barely managed to prevent herself from falling flat on her face by holding out a hand. She kicked her leg out, skidding around to face her opponent once again.

It was slumped on its side, completely helpless. To be honest, a body like that didn’t look much different upright or toppled. However, this view did allow Inis to see the nature of the chaos she’d previously ignored.

“I understand,” Inis growled, launching forward. “Solflame’s Embrace!”

Flame scorched everything in the immediate area, bathing even the undergrowth in fire. Inis couldn’t control it, and it began to swallow her up along with the blightbeast.

As she accepted her end, too exhausted to feel regret, a cool breeze blew the flame out.

What just happened? she wondered.

That gust of wind was not a feature of the jungle she’d come to know. Curious.

Vigor bled from Inis’s body. Energy sapped from the blightbeast was vanishing as it discorporealized, reminding her why it wasn’t efficient to hunt with the fleeting strength of false life.

But the other creatures seemed different. The ones she wanted to eat. They weren’t blightspawn, they were alive.

“Where are…” Inis mumbled, her world still reeling.

Her head ached, and the world spun. Food would stop the pounding and quiet the nausea. After everything, she couldn’t starve here.

Virasense picked up the unknown creatures. They hadn’t run, but ripples of fear spread throughout their vira signatures.

Stalking forward, every step triggered pain.

The fog began to part.

Inis reached out, wondering why they didn’t run from her.

They only had themselves to blame for what came next. Such was the maxim of the wilderness.