“Don't let it slip away! Corner the damn thing!”
Something heavy and jagged slammed into my side, pinning me against a wall of cold, damp obsidian. I didn't have a voice to scream, just a frantic, undulating pulse of panic. I was a blob. A smudge of ink-black slime in a world that wanted to bleach me out of existence.
Three Abyss Hounds—beasts made of muscle, hate, and obsidian claws—circled me. Their breath smelled like old blood and sulfur. The biggest one, a scarred brute with a missing ear, stepped forward. He didn't just want to kill me; he wanted to play with his food.
“Look at it shake,” the brute sneered, his voice a wet growl. “Pathetic. I’ve seen dust bunnies with more fight than this scrap of ooze.”
He lunged. A massive paw slammed down, flattening my core. The pressure was absolute. I felt my essence splintering, a high-pitched ringing echoing in the void where my memories should have been. Who was I? Why was I here? It didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the agonizing sensation of being crushed into the dirt.
“End it,” another hound barked from the side. “We’re wasting time. The Captain’s waiting for the quota.”
“Shh,” the brute whispered, leaning in. His yellow eye was inches from my trembling surface. “I want to feel it pop first.”
He raised his claws for the final shredding. I closed my eyes—or the sensory equivalent of it—and waited for the end. But then, something clicked. A glitch. A jagged line of crimson light snapped open in the center of my vision.
[Forbidden Devour: Active]
*What the hell is that?*
As the brute’s claws sank into my gelatinous mass, I didn't feel pain. I felt... hunger. Not the kind that asks for food, but the kind that demands everything. I didn't pull away. I surged. I wrapped my entire body around his wrist, my surface turning from a passive slime to a predatory vacuum.
“What the—” The brute started to yell, but the sound died in his throat.
I wasn't just touching him. I was eating him. I could feel his strength, his aggression, the very heat of his blood being ripped out of his pores and sucked into my core. It was a sick, electric rush. For the first time in my existence, I wasn't the one being crushed. I was the one doing the crushing.
“Get off him!” the second hound yelled. He leaped, teeth snapping at my flank.
I didn't even think. I lashed out with a pseudopod, the newly stolen strength of the brute fueling the strike. I slammed into the second hound's jaw with the force of a battering ram. *Crack.*
“Gah! The little shit actually hit me!” the hound howled, tumbling backward into the grit.
I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. The hunger was a screaming fire now. I surged forward, my body expanding, darkening, becoming something denser and more dangerous. I hit the brute again, wrapping myself around his throat, absorbing the essence of his terror.
[Trait Acquired: Obsidian Hide (Low Grade)] [Trait Acquired: Predator’s Reflexes]
My skin hardened. The slime didn't just wobble anymore; it felt like liquid armor. I could feel the power knitting into my core, filling the holes where my memories used to be. I wasn't just a blob. I was a parasite. A thief. And I loved it.
“You... you monster!” the brute gasped, his voice fading as I drained the last of his vitality. “A low-tier ooze can't... can't do this...”
“Maybe I’m not a low-tier,” I thought, though it came out as a low, vibrating hiss.
I tossed his shriveled carcass aside like a piece of trash. The third hound was backing away now, his bravado gone. He looked at me not as a snack, but as a nightmare.
“I’m telling the Captain!” he yelped, turning to bolt. “You’re a freak! A glitch!”
I didn't let him get ten feet. I launched myself, a black streak of malice, and clamped onto his leg. I felt him scream, a raw, guttural sound that echoed through the cavern. I didn't eat him all at once. I wanted to feel the fear. I wanted to know exactly how much power I could steal before the world realized I was back.
By the time I let go, I wasn't just a puddle. I had enough mass to form a crude, shimmering limb. A hand. A clawed, black hand that looked far too humanoid for a monster of the Abyss.
I stared at it. *My hand?*
“Well, well.”
The voice was like a blade sliding over silk. Cold, precise, and utterly dominant.