The Devourer ripped itself free.
The wooden vines wrapped around its throat snapped one after another with wet cracking sounds while the entire underground chamber shook violently around us.
Thick roots tore loose from the ceiling overhead and crashed into the sli-covered floor while black fluid poured steadily from the poisoned wound around the creature’s mouth.
Good.
Bleed more.
Bleed until you can’t fucking move.
The Devourer’s body slamd sideways through the collapsing chamber hard enough to split concrete apart as it tried tearing itself away from the vines still embedded through its throat and jaw.
The poison-blackened veins had spread farther now, crawling deep beneath the pale flesh along the front half of its body. Entire sections of its skin looked rotten around the bite wound while thick sli dripped from the damaged flesh in heavy black strings.
It wasn’t healing properly anymore, and that felt like a victory in and of itself.
The Devourer knew it too.
Its tiny black eyes stayed locked on while it thrashed violently against the roots pinning part of its body to the wall. The rotating rings of teeth inside its throat moved unevenly now, grinding harder on one side than the other while black fluid leaked steadily down into the sli below.
"Devourer..." it rasped wetly. The voice sounded different, not stronger, but like the poison had crawled deeper than flesh... like it was changing the Devourer in a way I couldn’t have seen coming.
I forced myself upright again despite the way my injured leg imdiately threatened mutiny. Pain shot from my calf all the way into my spine hard enough that my vision flickered around the edges, but I ignored it.
Not because I wanted to, but mostly because I didn’t really have another option available to .
The chamber swayed slightly.
Ah.
That probably wasn’t ideal.
"You look terrible," I inford the creature while blood continued dripping steadily into my boot. "Honestly, if you survive this, maybe consider a skincare routine."
The Devourer scread, but not with words, just pure, unadulterated rage.
.
The creature ripped the remaining vines free from its throat in a violent spray of black blood before slamming back underground hard enough that the entire floor collapsed inward where it disappeared.
The chamber dropped several inches beneath and I nearly went with it.
The only reason I stayed standing was because the vines wrapped around my injured leg tightened automatically before the bone could fully give out underneath .
The Devourer was circling underground again. Faster than before, so fast that I didn’t know where it was going to co up.
The movent ripped through the earth beneath the chamber like a shark cutting through water while the remaining survivors scread and shoved each other toward the tunnel entrance.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it was probably too late for them... too late for , too, if I were being honest.
But here we were. With only one way out.
The floor exploded upward directly beneath and I reacted on instinct.
Vines shot downward from both hands while thick wooden spikes erupted from the collapsing ground under my feet. The Devourer’s mouth burst upward through them anyway, tearing through wood and dirt while the split-open throat stretched wide enough to swallow my entire upper body this ti.
That was new.
And deeply offensive.
I threw myself sideways while vines wrapped around a hanging root overhead and yanked out of the way just before the teeth snapped shut.
But I wasn’t fast enough.
The outer rings caught my shoulder before clamping down.
Pain ripped through so violently that my scream echoed off the chamber walls before I could stop it. The rotating teeth tore through flesh along the top of my shoulder while the impact spun sideways through the air hard enough that I slamd directly into the wall beside the tunnel entrance.
Sothing cracked.
Possibly , but it was hard to say.
What worried most was the fact that my broken leg had suddenly stopped hurting. That probably wasn’t a good sign.
My vine reacted on instinct. The strong wooden ones wrapped around starting just under my breasts and then down. They covered my stomach, my hips, both legs. I might not be able to feel them, but I could feel their whispered promise that they would keep up... that they would keep in the fight.
The Devourer surged fully out of the ground now, most of its massive body exposed while the poisoned flesh around its throat visibly convulsed against the effort. Blackened veins stretched farther down its body every ti it moved, and the torn sections near its mouth split wider each ti the rings of teeth rotated.
Good.
Hurt more.
I pushed myself upright against the wall while my entire left arm imdiately protested the decision. Blood soaked down the side of my shirt from the shredded shoulder while my vines seed to drink it like it was water.
Right now, there was no difference between and my vines. I just hoped that I could last long enough before I didn’t have the strength to keep them going anymore.
The Devourer moved toward , giddy with the idea that it could now take easily.
That was honestly starting to feel like more of an insult than it thinking it owned . "You’re persistent," I muttered under my breath. "I’ll give you that."
"Mine," it growled back.
Yeah.
That was still not happening.
The chamber shook again, and the Devourer froze like it finally realized that it had eaten away at the entire foundation of the hotel.
Then it lunged.
I reacted automatically, slamming every remaining ounce of power I had directly into the roots overhead.
The entire ceiling ca down on the two of us.
Massive roots thicker than cars tore free from the dirt above while wooden spikes exploded outward through the collapsing chamber in every direction. The Devourer scread as several spears punched directly through the split flesh around its throat while the falling roots wrapped violently around the front half of its body.
The impact shattered the floor beneath us.
Concrete collapsed and dirt exploded upward.
The Devourer thrashed so violently that one of the roots snapped completely in half while black blood sprayed across the walls and ceiling.
But the creature stopped advancing... That was the important part.
Its tiny black eyes stayed fixed on while poison-blackened veins pulsed visibly beneath its damaged flesh.
Thinking.
Calculating.
Deciding.
Good.
Because I was doing the sa thing.
I couldn’t feel my hands properly anymore and yet another vine ca out to wrap itself around my damaged shoulder and arm. At this point I was more plant than human.
But whatever I needed to get the job done was what I would do.
My vision kept dimming around the edges.
The vines wrapped around my leg had started trembling slightly every ti I put weight on them, and each breath felt harder to pull into my lungs than the last one. My shoulder burned. My leg scread. Blood dripped steadily onto the collapsing floor beneath while the room swayed hard enough that I had to lean against the wall just to stay upright.
I had nothing left.
Not really.
One more full exchange with this thing and one of us was dying down here.
The Devourer understood that too.
Its body shifted backward slightly while the poison continued spreading beneath its skin. The rotating teeth inside its throat slowed unevenly while more black fluid leaked from the torn flesh around its mouth.
For the first ti since etin , the thing looked uncertain.
Then the ground beneath it cracked open again.
The Devourer dropped backward into the earth in one violent motion while tearing itself free from the remaining roots pinning it down. Its massive body disappeared underground fast enough that the collapsing dirt swallowed the last of the black blood still dripping from its wounds.
Gone.
But not dead.
A strategic retreat.
It would be back.
The chamber continued shaking around while distant movent echoed deep underground beneath the hotel.
I took one step forward automatically before coming to a dead stop.
Oh.
That was probably a bit too much power.
I caught myself against the wall while my legs nearly folded underneath again. The vines wrapped around my lower half tightened automatically, but even they felt weaker now. Slower.
The tunnel entrance blurred slightly when I looked toward it.
The surviving civilians were gone.
Good. At least the Devourer had lost its snacks.
I tried to get up, but my body refused.
No.
Absolutely not.
I was not ending this fight lying on the floor like so dramatic extra in a low-budget zombie movie.
I forced myself upright again through sheer stubbornness while blood continued dripping steadily from my shoulder and down my arm.
The chamber swayed harder.
The roots overhead groaned.
And then... nothing.... just darkness as I fell to the ground, my vines falling with .
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