III-46 Assimilation (I)

As some of you might already know, monsters and individuals are separated into different categories of Pathbearer. The main separation between individual and monster is debated, but the core differences are experiential, origin, and metaphysical. Though there have been questionable experiments conducted by ancient empires to raise “Feral Pathbearers” who might be able to access a monster’s Path, thus far it takes a significant alteration to an individual Pathbearer’s nature for them to gain Monster Skills.

Individual Pathbearers will notice that their skills grant them more abilities to interface with the world, applying more control or delivering more sophisticated attacks. This isn’t to say that Individual Skills are not potent, but taking Toughness Skill Evolutions for example and the fact that most Individual Pathbearers rely on equipment and armor, most skills in such a category develop toward prevention, reduction, or nullification of damage rather than raw durability.

Such is not the same with monsters. Most monsters do not develop sapient intelligence until a far higher tier—if at all—and as such their skills lend to more brutal and overwhelming capacities.

Such is why the Storm Giants tend to evolve their Aeromancy toward skills such as This Storm My Soul, which allows them to store a massive storm inside themselves and drink in lightning while an individual Aeromancer might achieve something like Architect of Descending Storms, which focuses less on raw mana output, but spread their mana field further and wider while allowing for delicate controls.

Regardless, it is not impossible for one to gain Monster Skills. But most means to attain monster Skill Evolutions will usually require significant acts of Biomancy, in which the Individual Pathbearer’s body is reshaped, a blessing that allows you to tap into a monster’s nature somehow, or a skill transplant, which is extremely experimental at present and will require a Master Animancer to perform.

-The Paths of Ascension, Essential Reading at Phoenix Academy of The Yellowstone Republic

III-46

Assimilation (I)

Woundeater 90 > 94

Vitamancy 67 > 69

Vitality Drain 59 > 61

Practical Metabiology 38 > 40

Multi-Tasking 1 > 4

Memorization 1 > 6

Awareness 21 > 24

Getting Biomantically assimilated was a captivating way to die.

For one, there wasn’t a lot of physical pain involved. The entire process was more characterized by a sudden feeling of absence than anything else. One moment he could feel his hand, and the next moment it wasn’t his hand anymore. Nested within the Court Leviathan’s flesh, Shiv resisted the invasive Biomancy possessed by the massive beast—further amplified by Helix and his cohort of orc Biomancers. They didn’t smash through his Biomancy field or rip it apart immediately. Instead, they showed him how mages fought. Technically. Strategically. Taking advantage of mistakes and or misunderstandings to pass through his field and directly twist his flesh.

Strings of shifting biomass danced within the Court Leviathan and washed over him, gripped and pulled at him. He repelled them at first, but then came subtler and subtler touches, subtler and subtler spells. Eventually, his aforementioned hand rebelled of its own accord. It stopped functioning in accordance with his nervous system and detached itself from his wrist. It sprouted ant-like legs made from its bones as it melted into the Court Leviathan’s biomass. More glancing touches of Biomancy passed against him, and with each dip against his body, treason was whispered into his flesh.

His legs left him next. Then one of his eyes. His tongue. His organs. His ears. Until he finally, he was but a spine, a brain, a heart, and two lungs. Still, he remained alive, painless, aside from how strained his Biomancy felt. He tried to direct his intent, but it was far harder without hands. But still, Shiv kept going. Because despite everything, this was fun. He was finally learning in the most hands-on way possible.

And for all his haughtiness, Helix wasn’t a bad instructor.

“Alright, pull him out,” Helix’s muffled voice sounded from above. The quivering folds of animated flesh shifted around Shiv. They went from being a cage of cartilage meant to hold him in place to active muscle and pushed him upward. As he emerged, he felt the ground solidify into a smooth surface of bone, and over him stood the bespectacled orc.

“So. Better this time. But still not good. I once again must spit on whoever deliberately crippled your learning. You’re missing far too many essential skills. Not even Adept-Tier Memorization or Multi-Tasking. It’s getting in the way of your efficiency. It’s probably the main bloody reason you’re so incompetent at responding to minute or multi-pronged spells.”

Shiv tried to say something, but realized his tongue was absent.

“It’s fine,” Helix sighed, brushing off his coat. “I am not blaming you. I suspect you will be evolving your Woundeaters first—which makes you a horrifically inverted Pathbearer in terms of development, which, I suppose, fit someone of your monstrous nature.”

Shiv grunted in agreement. The other orcs looked down at him with appreciation and amusement. Most of them still had fear-chains connected to him, and a few had grown thicker when Shiv exposed his willingness to suffer torment and death to grow. But more than fear, he noted a glee to their expressions. Most of them genuinely liked him. It wasn’t the kind of like where some Umbrals and Weaveresses saw him as a hero to their city. No, the orcs liked him as a person.

They considered his mortality and ethics flaws, but aside from that, they treated him as something of a neighborhood celebrity. And despite Shiv’s best efforts, he enjoyed it. He valued it. After a lifetime of being a pariah, positive attention was like an oasis in a desert for Shiv.

But they’re still orcs. Never forget, Shiv. Never forget what they do to people. What they’ll do to the people you care about the moment they get a chance. He reminded himself this time and time again. But knowing was one thing, and feeling was another.

And there he noticed another weakness in himself that the orcs could exploit—that they were exploiting.

He had Shape of Monstrosity. That was his edge in terms of social dynamics. That, and his willingness to break or kill them—his indifference toward death and pain. But their grasp over psychology and social dynamics far exceeded his, and in the hours he spent in the Tutorial, he found himself laughing with the orcs. Amused by them. Mistaking them for companions.

And I can’t have them charm me. Not completely.

Psychology 26 > 28

And so, intermittently, he applied his own psychological updates. He reached back and reminded himself of memories and emotions. Memories of what Band did, of how 811 crushed a child’s skull before Shiv. Time and again, Shiv fed himself doses of slight rage to center his thoughts and taint his feelings toward the orcs. It had some effect. But it wouldn’t be enough in the long run. He would need to ask Uva’s aid in bolstering his defenses.

Psychomancy 14 > 16

“Insul… Insul!” Helix called out. Shiv blinked, and realized he sank into his own thoughts again. “Ah. Your attention span is also too fragile. You should ask that Umbral of yours to show you how to ground your mind to the present. That will make up for more than a few of your deficiencies.”

The Deathless tried to nod, but as he was just a few pieces of bone and meat on the ground, he ended up using his Biomancy to wiggle himself instead. At least Helix wasn’t pestering him about letting orc Psychomancers “optimize his mind.”

Biomancy was one thing, but letting the orcs touch his thoughts and memories? Yeah. No. More than even odds they would mentally twist him into some kind of cannibal chef and enjoyed the taste of human flesh.

“Again, let us finish this off the classical way! We’re going to tear your mana apart again, and then we’re going to do terrible things to your body. Fight all the way.”

Shiv just snorted as he sent a telepathic thought at the orc. “Well, then hurry up. I’m tired of waiting.”

Helix let out a quiet laugh. “Hurry up, he says. Very well. Biomancers. Field first. Then, let’s see how he handles hyper accelerated aging again.”

A few large gray heads popped into Shiv’s periphery. There were a few hundred orcs around him on the bridge of the Court Leviathan. Most of them were fused into the walls, but a few directly assisting Helix leered down at him with vicious glee in their eyes.

“Ten mith says he still doesn’t scream,” an orc called out.

“No one’s stupid enough to take the bet anymore, you dumb bastard. He didn’t do anything more than growl when we castrated him, he’s not going to do anything now.”

The orcs tore into his field as a collective. They tore his field apart. It hurt. But Shiv didn’t think too much about pain now. It kind of got boring after a certain point. Maybe in the future if someone could top what the Recollector inflicted on him, Shiv might consider doing something more than just wincing, but up until someone set his soul on fire again, Shiv simply twitched his remaining eye and dealt with the hurt.

He still resisted, of course. He pushed back with his field as much as he could—and he even held them back for a moment thanks to all the magical amplification he got from his Shape of Monstrosity. But his triumph lasted for only a few seconds. The orcs concentrated their mana, pooling their Biomancy together, and pierced through his field. It was like someone driving a sword through his inner flesh.

So. One out of ten.

As their Biomancy sank its teeth into his body, they didn’t tear him apart. Instead, he destroyed him on a fine level. He noticed it at first in his cells—and a sudden onrush of lethargy. Even with so little of his body remaining, he could feel his bodily functions slow to a brutal halt. Every breath was harder. His eyesight got immensely worse. What few muscles he had left shrank. His heart twitched and spasmed painfully, barely able to sustain its own beats. But it didn’t kill him. Not immediately. The orcs worked to accelerate his aging, and once they were done, they simply stepped back.

Shiv lay on the ground, and regarded himself using his broken Biomancy. It hurt to move the field, but he did anyway. His organs were shriveled. Spent as if after eons of use. He tried to think, but his mind felt sluggish, and a tiredness washed through him, pulled him closer to the embrace of slumber. Seconds of time slipped away from him just as he started trying to undo some of the damage.

He—

Wait… Where’s the Swan-Eating Toad? Why am I here? What—

“Psychomancy and Biomancy are tied,” Helix said, standing over Shiv. “The material mind is the foundation upon which the metaphysical intellect is crowned. With the former compromised, the latter is doomed to collapse as well. Such is why Biomancy is the most foundational magic that all organic entities can learn. To shape your own evolution. To ensure your own growth. Truthfully, I pity the non-organic Pathbearers. For they must build and maintain themselves constantly at the lowest tiers, while we are installed in our own self-directing miracle. And all we need to do is make it better.”

Shiv blinked. He barely recalled Helix’s existence, but he was still feeling so confused. So—Where was he again.

Helix stared at him. “Ah. The mental degeneration is getting worse. You see now why that is such a problem. I tell you, Insul. A great many of my foes fell to me this way, they—-”

But then, Shiv’s ruined flesh began to twitch and grow. His lungs refilled. His eye shot wild. Streaks of white in his hair turned back to black as he shuddered. The dense haze choking his mind broke apart, and once more his thoughts flowed free. It was like his biology got unblocked in some way, and more important, Shiv felt amazing. And that feeling only grew as his physical form swelled larger and larger, until he was a five-meter stretch of spine and flesh.

Plaguefueled 64 > 69

Helix blinked. A few other orcs leaned in as well. “You… Oh, you have Plaguefueled. Disease Resistance. I see. Well, of course you have that. You live life by letting the world kill you over and over again. It would make sense that your body is absorbing all the aging disease pathways.” Shiv let out a gasp of pleasure, and some orcs began laughing at his response. “Well. This will come in useful when you enter another battle, I suppose. It shouldn’t be hard to teach you how to do this, either. Aging is a simple thing to induce… Hard to repair, however.”

Shiv barely heard Helix. The only thing that matched aging was the basilisk venom. And—

Helix waved a hand. A flash of crimson mana pulsed over Shiv. “But here is something adjacent that you won’t be able to resist quite so well.”

Just then, Shiv felt the blood inside him ignite. His organs seared and his body tensed. He went from euphoria to agony as he felt like he was coming apart from within. He used his Biomancy field to observe himself again. It felt like the insides of his cells were dragging against itself. Some kind of biological friction? I—

And Shiv’s death came in a sudden instant. His Vitae burst free from his corpse and hovered over his body. He watched as his flesh combusted from within and began to degenerating into paste at a rapid pace.

“What the hells did you just do to me?” Shiv asked Helix.

The orc just laughed as he placed a hand on his hip. “Two things. The first was hyper-accelerating your metabolism. The second was damaging your blood code—the helixes that hold your structures together, so to speak. That the rapid degeneration we saw just now. It is a more targeted form of attack than something you might experience from a Pathbearer who can wield atomics or radiation. But the effects are much the same.”

Woundeater 94 > 97

Plaguefueled 69 > 72

Multi-Tasking 4 > 9

Memorization 6 > 11

As Shiv regarded his new levels, he sapped vitality from nearby orcs. As his body was stitched back together, he frowned at the distinct lack of any Practical Metabiology levels. Yet, here was Multi-Tasking and Memorization shooting up. When he asked the orc why that was, Helix simply narrowed his eyes in response.

“I suspect it's because you’re being failed by sheer ignorance alone. Your skills in the practical studies advance from your learning. But your deaths now persist to be a matter of ignorance. It will not grow because you do not know where you are going wrong. But Memorization and Multi-Tasking matter because they could have helped you respond to our attacks. After all, spells are patterns? Are they not? Specified shapings of one’s own mana and intent.”

Shiv considered that for a moment and grunted in agreement. “Great. So maybe we change the approach here? We focus on something that I understand theoretically, but might have a hard time fixing practically?”

“That’s… not a bad idea,” Helix breathed. “Yes. More experimentation will be useful here. But that will be for the longer term too. Something we can consistently drill into you every time you have a free moment. For now, we push your Biomancy further. We stress your field to the extreme as much as we can—and have you assimilated over and over once you are on the verge of a Skill Evolution.”

“And after he’s done with your Biomancy, I think me and the other Heroes want to take a crack at your Toughness,” Bonk cried out.

“You just want to smack me in the head for fun,” Shiv shouted back.

“Yeah. But it’ll make you stronger too. So, why not?”

“You know what, you oversized—” Shiv pulled himself up into the air to stare at the massive orc. Death removed Shiv’s size-boost, and the bridge of his Court Leviathan was crowded with Heroes and Masters. Ridges of bone were emerging from the surrounding biomass, and some orcs even managed to create personal thrones as well. Thrones made from enamel, of all things. They were also slamming into each other atop these thrones in displays of childish merriment. Bonk and the more physical of the orc Heroes were gathered near the center of the large chamber, and between them—

“Oh, shit,” Shiv cursed. He launched himself across space and went for Bonk immediately.

“Insul? Where are you going?” Helix called out.

Shiv didn’t answer, for among the martial orcs was someone who was very obviously not an orc. Someone who bore a sullen expression and a gaze of indifference. Someone who was being thrown up and down like a ball without resisting.

“Put him down!” Shiv cried. “Put the poor bastard down.”

The large orc currently juggling Angelo froze, and the vampire dropped. But Shiv caught him just in time, preventing him from suffering a brutal fall on his head. He hovered in the air and looked down at Angelo—and soon noticed every orc on the bridge was staring at him. Slowly, their eyes fell upon the vampire thereafter.

“Great,” Shiv scoffed, as he dropped Angelo on his back. The midnight-haired vampire simply landed and lay there, making no effort to rise. “What the hells are you doing here?”

“The Court Leviathan moved. I came with it.” Angelo’s voice was hollow. Devoid of passion and emotion.

“Why didn’t they get you out first?” Shiv asked.

“Because I was inside one of the sculptor pods.”

“The what?”

“The things you call the womb-rooms.”

“Oh. Are you just… sleeping inside there or—”

“I was trying to get the Court Leviathan to digest me.”

Helix forced his way through the crowd and stared at the vampire. After a moment, he grunted. “Ah. Yes. Male-Pregnancy told me that he found a stowaway down below. We had him moved.”

“And you didn’t inform me—” Shiv’s mind did a U-turn just then. “Wait, there’s an orc named Male-Pregnancy.”

“It’s what he calls himself.”

“Felling why?” Helix didn’t answer. Instead, his expression twitched, and slowly a smile crept across his face. Shiv sighed. “Broken Fucking Moon, you guys are complete freaks.”

“It is a viable means of psychological warfare,” a hidden orc said in the crowd. “It is also my psycho-sexual fetish. I make no apologies. I’ll do it again. And keep doing it.”

Several other orcs coughed awkwardly.  Bonk sneered and leaned closer to Shiv. “Listen. I want you to know that we think he’s a degenerate, too, and that we don’t want anything to do with him. He doesn’t represent the rest of us. We—we don’t even have those things you do.”

“Morals?” Shiv asked.

“Well, yeah. But also cocks. The fuck kinda god was a jackass enough to give you poor fuckers external genitalia.”

Shiv pushed past this immensely miserable topic and grabbed Angelo by the shoulder. “Yeah. You’re not staying here.” Angelo didn’t fight Shiv, the same way he didn’t fight the orcs. He just let the Deathless drag him along. “You’re going back through the gate. And—”

“And what?” Angelo asked, interrupting Shiv. “They do not care for me there. They do not come near me. I suspect they wished to be rid of me by sending me over. Or they didn’t care enough to check. And I was not strong enough to resolve myself alone.”

“I could help,” the orc Shiv suspected to be Male-Pregnancy declared. “I know a spell—”

“Male-Pregnancy,” Shiv said, waving his Skysplitter in the orc’s general direction. “If you do anything, I’m going to start killing orcs in your general direction and ripping your souls apart. I’ll Band you shits. This is my only warning.”

The other orcs snarled and hissed. A series of “shut the fuck ups” and “if he doesn’t kill you, I wills” followed.

“It doesn’t matter,” Angelo said.

Shiv glared at the vampire. “Yeah, look, Angelo, your suicidal depression aside, I also don’t want to discover what kind of spell that orc’s going to cast on you. There is shit I would like to go an eternity without seeing, believe it or not.”

Angelo just stared at him. For a moment, it seemed like the vampire was going to say something, but he didn’t respond. Shiv shot out from the gap lining the Court Leviathan’s skull and left with a shouted declaration. “I’m going to be back. No one get the leviathan pregnant or I’ll godsdamned do things to your souls. Helix. You get that freak off my Courtney.”

“But you regard the Court Leviathan as female,” Helix began.

“Doesn’t matter! Get him off! I don’t want him near me!”

“That’s very judgmental of you,” Male-Pregnancy called out, sounding slightly hurt.

“I’m sorry, motherfucker, I’m not the one impregnating men!” Shiv snarled. He accelerated faster then, plunging down as he made for the gate. Just then, another basilisk was brought over in a splash of dimensionality. Shiv could see Psychomantic threads connected to the basilisk’s mind.

Good. Uva. I’ll hand Angelo off to her and… Shit, I need to think about what to have her do with him. The Order probably hates him more than the orcs.

“Why are you so intent on keeping me alive?” Angelo asked.

Shiv looked down at the vampire and pulled his gaze away before the Charm Skill could kick in. “Because I feel bad for you.”

Angelo stared. “That’s it?”

“Yeah. You might be a vampire, but the First Blood are the ones I hate. The things they do is disgusting. To you. To me. The people in your town. I don’t know who you were before and if you deserve death for whatever reason, but I don’t have a taste to see you hurt or dead now.” Shiv frowned. “I guess I feel you deserved better. That you should have gotten to live in your little town and not bother anyone. Too bad the system is determined to be a shit.”

Angelo let out a quiet laugh. “You have an apt way with words.”

“Yeah, look, I’m not refined but—”

“I’m serious,” Angelo continued. “You were concise. It was good.”

Shiv landed atop the basilisk, and Uva’s strand coiled out to sink into his mind. “It was?”

“Communication is all about conveying intent to someone else,” Angelo said. “And you conveyed what you thought quite clearly to me. It let me understand who you are as well. What you value and what you think. Perhaps you could be taught to speak better and with more eloquence, but this is good.”

Shiv blinked. “Right. Thanks. You, uh.” He coughed. “Uva. We have a stowaway. I’m sending him back.”

“Who—oh, the vampire.” Immediately, Uva’s enthusiasm plunged. “Yes. I will… We will see what we can do.”

The Deathless frowned. “What do you mean see what you can do? Just put him somewhere and make sure he doesn’t try to kill himself or something.” Shiv glanced at Angelo again, the vampire was staring into the distance. “He’s a mess.”

“Yes. I examined his mind earlier. He is immensely traumatized.” But there was something she wasn’t saying.

“Listen. The First Blood destroyed his life. You get that, right?” Uva didn’t say anything, so Shiv pressed on. “Look, I’ll figure out something with him. Just don’t let Null Mont send the poor bastard to the Elaboration. You guys already got a bunch of vampires, Vultegs, and two dead Jealousies. Leave him be.”

“I will try and see if proper arrangements can be made,” Uva said. “But he may be in as much danger from some of my sisters and the mothers as he is on your side.”

“Are any of you planning to get him pregnant?” Shiv asked without a hint of sarcasm.

Palpable surprise flooded over from Uva’s end. “I… What?”

“Because there’s an orc here who goes by the name of Male-Pregnancy, and he hinted that he wanted to do some stuff to Angelo.”

A long pause followed. Uva’s mind felt like a crumbling stone. “I… Male… Pregnancy?”

“Yeah,” Shiv said. “The other orcs don’t seem to like him much either.”

“Has he tried to do something with you?” Uva asked, her mind tinged with malice.

“No. And he never will. He’s getting off my leviathan right now.” And at that, and orc was thrown off the open slots of bone lining the top of Courtney’s head. An orc Shiv assumed to be Male-Pregnancy fell in two parts. “Well. The other orcs might’ve dealt with him for me. Or maybe they’re just screwing with me, too.”

“Be wary of them,” Uva said. “They are manipulators of the highest order.”

“Yeah. About that. I was going to ask you later to help me harden myself against their Social Skills. They might be murderous bastards, but they’re pretty damn charming when you talk with them.”

“You didn’t let any of their Psychomancers access your mind, have you?” Uva asked.

“Hell no.”

“Good. Never let them touch your mind. I spotted a few Heroic-Tier Psychomancers among them—none of whom I would face in direct combat. Few are so subtle, however. Which is our advantage. I will see what kind of Psychomantic regime I can prepare for you to ward off their influence. For now, be mindful. They are psychopaths. Do not let them make you one.”

“Right.” Shiv watched Male-Pregnancy strike the ground and a thought occurred to him. A thought he couldn’t help but voice to Uva. “Hey. Uva. Listen. If an orc got me pregnant, and I gave birth—”

“This is not a theoretical, Shiv. You have already given birth to Adam’s mother. And no. I will not raise Adam’s mother as my own child, for you somehow gave birth to a fully grown woman, and this is a deeply unappealing topic.”

Shiv closed his eyes and tried not to cringe. “I was just trying to tease you.”

“Shiv. Dearest. Your life is so full of what Adam describes as ‘impossibly weird shit’ that teasing me requires a level of absurdity I am not sure you will be able to reach. Now. I’m going to be moving the other basilisks over. Meanwhile, Adam is gathering as much intelligence he can on the Inquisition, the First Blood, and the Necrotechs. Expect him over in a few hours—and make sure no one eats him. He will be giving a briefing about the grand strategy and threats we face. He also wishes to ask if you’re alright.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because he said you looked exceptionally terrifying and furious while you were screaming at him earlier.”

“I wasn’t—I just don’t want the orcs to target either you or him or anyone else, okay?”

Uva paused. A quiver of worry came from her. “And I don’t want them to do anything to you either.”

Shiv sighed. “I’ll be fine. I think I kind of get them on some level. Some really murderous, fucked up level.’

“And that worries me,” she replied. “You have goodness to you. A sweetness. You care for people. You try to do what’s right. There aren’t enough people who try. Protect your heart.”

Her words settled in Shiv and sprouted seeds of affection. “Yeah. Yeah, I promise. Tell Adam I’m sorry too. I wasn’t yelling at him. I was just dealing with the orcs.”

“Good,” Uva said. “Now. We’re building additional defenses over the gateway. A bunker, in fact. We’re going to consider how we can connect that to the surface gateway and make sure none of the orcs have easy access to the gate, but I was thinking that the bunker can also be our residence here.”

“What about the tower?” Shiv asked.

“Best to keep that separate. And let Adam have his own abode. The bunker might protect him from us, wouldn’t you agree?”

Shiv thought back to the temporary apartment he had in Weave and nodded slowly. “I think Adam would appreciate that very much. You are very kind and wise, Sister Uva.”

“Why, thank you, bruiser.”

He nearly flinched as she used the Challenger’s nickname on him. “Nope. Don’t call me that. Nope. Gods, no.”

The Umbral laughed. “I will talk with you soon.” And then she hesitated. “There is… something else as well. But that—-I’ll tell you later. I need your advice.”

“My advice? What are you trying to cook?”

“Ah. No. But, yes, I would like to keep learning when we get the chance again. If we get the chance again.”

“We will,” Shiv replied without hesitation. “Don’t doubt it.”

She injected a dose of warmth inside him before releasing his mind. At the same time, Shiv gestured for Angelo to cross over. “Follow the thread. She’ll take care of you. And… Look, give it a while longer. I’ll come and talk to you about stuff. I don’t know what I can say or how I can make things better but… Well, when things get hard for me, I just do stuff. Maybe that can help you too.”

Angelo didn’t respond. Not immediately. Slowly, his eyes slipped past Shiv at the gate, and he let out a breath. “Do stuff,” he repeated. He let out a quiet laugh. “I see. Thank you.”

Shiv nodded. “Just… Do what you can or something, you know. That’s… You really should… Yeah, I got nothing. Just keep yourself busy.”

The vampire began walking along the back of the basilisk, approaching the gateway in a trance. “But you had enough. Enough.”

Shiv kept his eyes locked on Angelo until he crossed over.

“Alright,” Shiv said, soaring back inside the Court Leviathan. “Who cut Male-Pregnancy in half? Whoever did is going to get a taste of grilled leviathan steak later.”

“It was kind of a group effort,” Bonk said.

“Everyone’s going to get some grilled leviathan steak,” Shiv declared.

The orcs pumped their collective fists and resolved to commit more murders on each other for free food, and Shiv couldn’t help but chuckle.

Shit, they’re getting to me again. They’re going to end up making me feel like one of them before long.

And worryingly, there were parts of the thought that didn’t seem so bad.

Helix stood among the orcs with both arms behind his back. “Ah. Finally. You return. Now that you’ve had your break—”

“Hey, don’t give me that shit. I would have kept going.”

“Yes. Instead, you allowed yourself get to get distracted with saving your pet vampire.”

Shiv glared. “He’s not my pet?”

The orc’s expression turned downright vicious. “Oh. But he’s not a whole person, anymore, is he? One does not need to be a Psychomancer to read the misery in his eyes. Yet, you still care so much. And it seems you barely know him.”

All the orcs stared at Shiv. He just scoffed. “Yeah. I care about people and things. And you’re psychopaths. But that’s why there are no people here. Just things.”

Silver Tongue 28 > 29

“Ouch,” Bonk laughed. “You got him agitated, Helix. Not wise.”

Shiv flung himself across the room and landed beside Helix, brushing past the orc. “Now. Back to getting eaten by the Courtney. You guys better put some effort in your Biomancy this time. If I don’t get an evolution, I’m kicking your asses.”

Helix smirked. “Oh, Insul. I promise to make this as much of a struggle as I can.”