If an Archwood Maggot was left to its own devices for long enough, it eventually transformed into a bigger, slightly more dangerous creature. Stalking on four, extremely thin legs, the Archwood Walker covered its previously revealed segments under thick chitin of a dark green, metallic colour. The mandibles in front of the face grew more massive, just as the entire body became thicker and the plate previously used to emit the luring sounds elongated into a horn, completely losing its former functionality.
Not that Reysha really cared about any of that after she cut the head off the creature and began breaking open the hide to access the white meat underneath. “Insect meat is weird,” she said ripping a piece out of it with her bare hands. Although her continued feasting in the last couple of hours had caused her savagery to become acceptable, it was still savagery. She looked over to Apexus with an unhidden desire to get some tentacles to slither under her suit again. However, that was for later and somewhere safer than these winding tunnels under the bark. “It feels totally different… the texture and everything,” she threw the piece in her mouth without hesitation, “still good though.”
“Are you sated now?” Aclysia asked, clearly impatient.
“I feel pretty good, but I’ll eat a whole lot more,” the tiger girl tilted her neck to look at the metal fairy, shoving yet more food in her own mouth at the side. “No idea when I get to next.”
Aclysia took that as her signal to speak. “We have to talk about your actions earlier.”
“Okay, okay,” Reysha spoke with a full mouth, “Am shorry about eahtinh befoher meeting with you,” she gulped after chewing the soft, white tissue thoroughly, “happy?”
“…Partly,” Aclysia stated. “It is your disregard for humanoid life that I need to talk to you about.”
“For fuck’s sake, you are still on about that?!” the tiger girl groaned. “Fine, fire off your complaints if it makes you happier.”
Aclysia’s lips went white as she angrily pressed them together, “Do you feel nothing at the prospect of killing?”
“I feel a bit sorry for the people that will be left behind, but in this particular case I would have mostly been a very happy tiger at seeing Mehily and her moral self-jerking grin in the dust,” Reysha narrowed her eyes in a threatening fashion. “Funny, you are beginning to remind me a lot of her right now,” she added growlingly.
“Are you implying I am self-righteous?” the divine being sounded genuinely offended.
“No, I am SAYING you are self-righteous,” the tiger girl mocked with a purr. Although Aclysia was getting ready to, the redhead continued to talk and drowned out the retort. “Would you let people live no matter how much they threatened you, mhm? Is there no line at which you would say you would have to kill even the best person because it is your life that is taken otherwise?”
“Obviously there is,” Aclysia conceded, there was a point for everyone where they would defend themselves – to the death if necessary. “You cross that line too easily, that is what I am trying to tell you.”
“That is your opinion,” Reysha pointed out. “Which I already caved to, so what the fuck do you want from me?”
“I want you to think about your actions!”
The Rogue groaned and dropped her meal for the moment, “Really conceited coming from you after you just begged Apexus to let them go, no matter the consequences. Just because it’s what your holy little mind tells you.” Tail swiping aggressively, Reysha pranced towards the metal fairy on all fours. “Let me tell you something, I come from a world where being an assassin is a normal career.”
Ears pressing closely to her head, lips pulled back to reveal her teeth in an animalistic fashion, Reysha slowly extended her hand towards the much smaller girl’s head. Halfway out, her claws stretched out. The red-tinted extensions had only gotten sharper since they saw regular usage.
“Everyone hears ‘tiger’ or ‘cat’ people and just thinks about cute, striped girls sitting in the sun all day, occasionally going into heat,” she continued, in front of her a metal fairy unsure whether she had to dodge or she even could. “Those people only remember their cute, domesticated cats, not the fact that it’s a predator. The nights in Ragressa see much blood. I didn’t become an adventurer for fame, but for fortune, not to do good but to do what I want.” Her claws closed in front of Aclysia, and pulled back, thanks to a thin leg extending between them.
Apexus had no idea why this was happening, again, or how to properly handle this, so he had just looked in confusion at the remarkably unphysical fight. Now that it looked like it may get violent, however, the slime decided to establish his presence again. As she still respected him for saving her and as the pack leader by virtue of his strength, Reysha backed off and went back to her meal.
“What separates you from a monster like Apotho then?” Aclysia quietly asked.
“Mhhhhm,” Reysha wondered for a moment. “Power, I guess? I can see the appeal behind living longer by sucking the life juices out of others. Not sure I would do it, but still,” the tiger girl looked at the metal fairy, who seemed shocked at the answer, “is the immortal judging me for my wish to live?”
“No, but…” Aclysia stopped to find her train of thought again. “Is that really the entire difference you see between you and the man that lied to you to try and absorb your life as well?”
“Oh, fuck that lying business,” Reysha laughed, “I am not doing that. I also refuse to ever get locked up like that, however he let that happen. Probably wouldn’t murder random people just to get younger again as well. I have SOME respect for life, you know?” She cupped her breasts and played with them for a bit, “Although having these sag would be a crime against the omniverse.”
The joke fell on deaf ears in the fairy's case. “Probably? Are you serious?”
“Oh my everything!” the tiger girls mood suddenly swung around completely and her smile vanished as her face flushed with anger. “YES, FUCK OFF! Go judge someone else you sanctimonious piece of rust!”
“Your morality is…”
“NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!” Reysha pulled one of the knives from her belt and was halfway through the motion of throwing it when Apexus grabbed her arm. With a sudden movement, the tiger girl ripped herself free, but the knife found its resting place in the corpse of the Archwood Walker instead, as she used it to carve out more of her meal. “Get off my case.”
Yeah, as crazy as the tiger girl may be, she is quite correct here.
@coldpyr0 if anything, it can be said that she is trying to fix her mistake, no?
@coldpyr0 Look, I am not saying her attitude or previous actions are correct. I am definitely not claiming she is stable mentally. But the moment they discovered Apexus, their death became the ideal option to cover it up. (This is ignoring the fact that even if she did nothing wrong, they would have followed her and found him anyway).
Being merciful without the power to prevent the repercussions is foolish.
@coldpyr0 Please tell me what her mistake was. Was it eating? Well, f*ck me, she is utterly monstrous!
Seriously, what was her mistake? Was it being accosted by assholes? What do you think would have happened if they captured her, huh? Let me spell it out for you since reading it on the page didn't clue you in. If they had captured her, they would not have been able to get her to voluntarily rehabilitate. They would have had to imprison her. For what appears to be 5 years. Plus a level cap and forfeiture of advance magic.
“…successfully. Through starving themselves of the causes, the subject reported to eventually feel a subsiding in the dullness and finally a return to the normal state of senses. Both the colour of the nails and the eyes returned to normal. The process reportedly took 5 years.”
“5 YEARS?!” Reysha shouted out loud in disbelief. That was an absurd amount of time, almost a quarter of her life so far.
“That’s not all,” the healer had a sorry expression on her face, going on. “In addition to the lost time, the person reported a permanent loss of advanced magic skills and a detailed probing with all available tools revealed his level to be permanently stuck at 15.”
If you are saying she had no right to defend herself from that, YOU are the insane monster. And you're justifying it by saying if she hadn't stopped to eat, they wouldn't have accosted her? Now where have I heard that before... Hmm, let me see... 'She wouldn't have gotten raped if she wasn't wearing that'. Yep, sounds pretty similar. Are you an incel or something?
@Enlyghten On one hand I appreciate you defending my work, on the other you should tone the aggression down a bit. xD
The person you are communicating with has stopped reading my work, for the better if they don't enjoy it. Haggling with them won't get anywhere.
@Funatic You're right. I knew it when I wrote it and I couldn't stop. There was just something so caustically pompous I felt I had to stick up for the commenters and characters. It's delightfully gray and that's so hard to do well. As hard as it can be for some to read {especially if that person prefers a super hero vs super villain type of absolute morality *winkwink*) it should be encouraged rather than spat on.
It was like writing was bringing color back into the worl... *cough* I mean *hangs head in shame*
At any rate, I apologize for bringing hostility to your comment section. I am glad you appreciate the sentiment I was attempting to forward. Out of respect for you and your work, I'll rehabilitate my relatively feral beast.
Thanks again for publishing. I'm really enjoying your work.
@coldpyr0 # triggered
The cost wasn't to others. I've explained this quite clearly. They wouldn't have been hurt if they hadn't tried to imprison her. They ended up with easily healed wounds and a pair of dirty pants. I can't fathom why you think they were in the right here. And, since you've resorted to ad hominem, I'm going to ignore your tantrum. Have fun with your victim blaming, internet friend =)
@coldpyr0 That's basically what you are, though. You are blaming the victim, and sound exactly like a rape apologist. She did not make a choice at the cost of others. She made a choice about her life. Seriously, what's wrong with acting proud about having s*x with a monster? That's her right and privilege to do so. As I said before, you are a victim blamer.
Any action others take against her is THEIR FAULT, not hers. Never hers. She has every right to talk. THERE IS NO MISTAKE IN THAT. If others react badly to it, or acts against her for it, it's not her mistake (morally). It's theirs. If their action requires them being killed off, that's the result of their action, not hers. No one is ever obligated, in any way, to curtail his or her own rights because it might lead to someone threatening them or harming them. You don't get to claim that she's made a mistake she needs to fix. Learn some basic morality, please. Stop being a victim blamer.
I would ask anyone who reads this later to not respond to anything said above.
Coldpyr0 clearly doesn't care. I think his critiques shallow/incorrect, but him not reading my work is entirely his choice and not one he should be annoyed for months later.
It just doesn't lead anywhere.
Have a nice day. ^^
@coldpyr0 they were following her, so she didn't cause the problem. It was aclysia's fault for not consider g the people may be looking for her in that dungeon.
@coldpyr0 they were already tracking her before that, it changed nothing, especially as this is a dungeon. It's not even tracking it's just following.
Killing people is a perfectly valid way of dealing with problems in the world depicted, heck it's a perfectly valid way in this world. Nor is killing people inherently evil or wrong. Morality is subjective, it always has been. And killing a religious zeliot is almost always more good than bad.
All you are doing is being a bigot by trying to shove your morality down other people's throats, just moral imperialism.
And yes the real problem was picking that dungeon, not eating the beast.
But I get it you must self identify with the goody 2 shoes. Like her you probably grew up in relative privielege, and never had to make hard decisions, where there were no good outcomes.
@dethrophes Follow what the author said and don't bother with this dude, it's pointless. He's not willing to listen to logic.
@coldpyr0 i disagree those 3 people attacked with either capturing her and locking her up for being what she is or murder her for f*cking someone from a different species. In my books she is allowed to defend her life/freedom with lethal force.
@coldpyr0 mate the first problem with your line o thinking is that you think they live in a civilized world wich definitely inst second what do you expect when someone has for at least a few days not eating anything no mater what they ate that tasted good and then you put in front of them the food they I'll ever taste also how would she know they were following her when she literally thought they not liked her and there are a bunch others that are wrong with the way the other group acted after all they literally stalked her a after seeing she didn't want to go with them them attacked her trying to force her to come with them is very much kidnaping the part she said she had s*x with mc is a little dumb on her part but she definitely was on her right o who she slept with after all she's a adult can think for herself in that part also this part is for the author good work man I am liking it
@Guimonza Dude, come on, it's an over one year old comment. Just let it go.
@Guimonza *Bangs head against table*
Yall stop tormenting me, would you? I just made a single comment and I still get comments a year later. The coldpyr0 horse has already been beaten, sliced, diced, blended, sold, consumed and regurtitated. What more do you want?
@Blanklines If I could "seal" a reply line, I would D:
@coldpyr0 Love ya too <3
@Funatic Yeah, I understand why you'd wanna "seal" this comment thread.
P.S. Sorry for the notification ppl
@LordRimuru Mate, if you understand than why are you bringing people back? I normally don't mind replies on old comments but this one should die and stay dead damnit.
@Blanklines Fair nuff, too late in the night to think my actions thru thoroughly tho. I won't comment on any future stuff in this thread.
@LordRimuru Holy sh*t this is a necropost like in the textbooks. I have no idea what that chapter is even about anymore.
@Funatic Just delete this goddamn comment chain since your readerbase has the attitude of howler monkeys and can't leave sh*t alone. I regret ever reading or worse yet commenting on your work given how absolutely toxic and annoying your readerbase is. FFS, the self control of f*cking toddlers.
@coldpyr0 If you want your comments gone, just delete them yourself. You have that power. 0,o
I wouldn't exactly call people less than a tenth into my story my "readerbase" and considering there's literal hundreds of people coming through here every year, if they were "howler monkeys" you'd suffer a lot more... then again, you were always quite immune to logic.
Anyway, as stated initially, you'll have to do that yourself. I'm too strongly against censorship to do that.
Have a nice day~
@coldpyr0 there people who commented here and then dropped the story at one point or the other, like me. Imho the one who behaves like a toddler and throwing a tantrum are you and you alone.