As it snows, I sit atop the rooftop of the apartment complex, unbothered by the frigid air, I look over Winterhome’s small size within the massive sprawl of the megacity surrounding it, except for the south that is. Out to the south lies the large evergreen forest I dropped in at, filled with all manners of creatures, from the mundane to the terror inducing. Standing up I take a step back and launch myself from the roof I reside on, spreading my wings and gliding over the city. My mind is filled with thoughts of revenge and hate, but first and foremost I need to feed.

The laser weapon I was hit with took nearly the entirety of my Biomass reserves, dropping me from 30 to a meager 3, that and I have an important task to do, one which I can’t forget, get stronger so I can’t be stopped again. Landing right outside the town I spare it a glance before moving onwards, climbing onto a building and jumping over a couple more, landing atop a factory of sorts I stop, hearing a familiar voice from within I start to smile cruelly.

-Divers POV-

“I’m telling you guys, that monster killed a Shoosuva in only a few minutes!” Raising my voice in exasperation I complain to my two best friends.

“Yeah, and just like that time when you saw the flying cat?”

“Come on Austin, that’s not just a rumor, it’s seriously real.”

“James, you need to start being more critical with all these stories you hear.” Evan sighs, tired from my stories.

“Not you too, I swear it happened, we can go back and ask my brother, he was there.”

“And you’re sure he’s not just messing with you?”

“Of course not, he would never-” My sentence is interrupted by the loud whimper of a feminine voice, one which seems familiar but I can’t quite figure out where from.

“You two hear that?” Evan stands up and puts up his rifle, taking point as he usually does, with a nod from the both of us, we put up ours as well, the tactical lights brightening the dark hallways of the abandoned factory we’re holding up in for the night.

Hearing the same whimper the three of us start heading towards it, making sure to watch our surroundings as we get closer to the source, the hallways are dark, made of concrete and decayed floorings, the ceiling a rusted sheet metal. Getting closer to the source the three of us surround a closed door, checking the handle Evan signals it’s unlocked so we check our weapons and open the door, Evan enters first, lighting up the left side and checking it over, I go in afterward, checking the right, and Austin follows suite, watching our backs.

“We find anything?” Evan turns slowly making sure to check every nook and cranny of the room.

“Negative,.” I respond, confused since this was clearly where the voice came from.

Waiting a few seconds I look back for Austin, only to find empty space.

“Austin?” calling out I look back out of the room, checking both sides of the hallway I get no response.

“Shit, we should have known.” Hearing Evan I move out of the way as he comes out as well, “Humanborne.”

Humanborne is a sort of slang we divers made up for skill born monsters, quicker to say and harder to miss, nevertheless, it’s a problem.

Preparing to immediately leave the area I catch sight of Austin, standing a short way down the hallway, facing away.

“Austin you scared us, we thought you got done in.” With relief I start to approach him, the thoughts of the strange whimpering having completely left my mind.

A few seconds of walking later I reach Austin, but I soon start to realize my mistake as I notice the blood streaming down from the sides of his face, with dread I walk around him and look at his face, his eyes, he’s missing his eyes. Turning back in a panic I look down the dark hallway and notice Evan’s light, laying on the ground, pointing away from me and towards Evan. But the light doesn’t reach his head, and with dismay I watch a round object roll down the hallway, stopping a dozen or so feet from me and revealing itself to be Evan’s head, missing its eyes too.

I watch Evan’s headless body fall over and I hear the feminine voice from earlier emanating down the hallway, this time a cruel laugh instead of a pained whimper. Pointing my gun down the hallway I shakily pull the trigger, shooting wildly in a panic, not hitting a thing, then a familiar monster speeds down it, and the last thing I see being a pair of sharp claws intruding on my vision.

-Tyra POV-

Well, that was fun, if you don't remember these guys, they were the first ones to point guns at me when I went into the guild, and the last one I got was who demanded to see my status plate. Perhaps I was a bit too cruel but I couldn’t help it, the situation was just way too perfect, and I needed to do it anyway since it was an easy group to take out, and with these three I should get my biomass topped back up.

Now, I did actually do this for a different reason, that reason being the weapon of the headless corpse, walking up to the body and looking over it for a second, checking the pockets and bags and I soon find what I am looking for. Pulling out a handgun, I look it over, the color is a dark gray, and the surface is smooth with red highlights flowing out from a circular slot on the upper back side, presumably where the energy charge goes.

Rooting around in his bag for a few seconds more I’m disappointed to only find a single cell and slot it in, watching the highlights go from a dull red to a bright almost pink I smile and point it forwards, pressing the trigger a beam brightens the hallway, impacting the wall and scorching it. Glancing at the charge the indicator surrounding the cell decreases by about 5%, down to 80% with satisfaction I go to put it away, and then realize I don't have a bag to carry it with, so I take his.

The bag is a decently sized duffle, glancing through it, it has some personal belongings, which I dump on the floor, I then put the handgun in the bag and check the other bodies for more energy cells, which I don’t find. A short meal later, my biomass is back up to full and as a bonus, the three of them had a combined total of $209 which I don’t really have a use for but Carol might, as long as she doesn’t ask where it came from anyway. As I’m making my way out of the building with my questionable sourced loot, I hear a familiar quiet wail of pain, and instantly I begin to sprint toward it.

Coming upon a large empty room I see splatters of purplish blood in the doorframe, and as I walk into the room I see my brood dying on the floor, a lone Termagant with bullet holes and burns littering it.

Walking up to it I begin to feel its pain, its hunger, its hate, I see myself walking up towards it, reaching down and gently grasping its face, I feel the burns from lasers and the bullet holes covering me, and my blood pouring from my body.

I look into its eyes and see myself staring back, a reflection of me inside its body, for just a moment we become one, but then just like that, it’s gone as it succumbs to its wounds.

Looking at the dead Tyranid a flash of rage passes through me before calming, the killers are already dead, and holding the body in my hands I begin to do what Tyranids were made to do, I eat to evolve.

Sitting back inside the apartment I look over my gains, the gun, some cash, but most importantly, my biomass is back up to maximum, and with the Termagant, I gained back two very crucial parts of a Tyranid. My teeth are so sharp I could bite through a steel bar like a pretzel, and my claws natural sharpness rivals that of my Necrodermis claws artificial sharpness, but as a side effect I can feel the immortal hunger scratching at the edges of my mind, Carol’s ability barely keeping it at bay.

“Tyra is that you?” Speaking of Carol it seems she just woke up, looking over to her bedroom I see her walking out, rubbing her eyes.

“Yeah, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, did you get to sleep?” Walking over to the couch Carol sits next to me.

“Oh, I don’t really need to sleep so not really.”

“I guess I should have expected something like that.” Replying with a light chuckle she quietly looks around before noticing the duffle on the table. “Hm, what’s this?"

“Oh that’s, I guess you can just have it, I don’t really need it anyway.” Thinking for a moment I gesture for her to take a look inside.

“Ok?” With a little confusion, she unzips the duffle and looks inside, before shakily taking the laser handgun out. “Um, Tyra, where did you get this?”

“Oh that, I uh, took a little walk outside of town during the night and found the duffle, looks like some diver abandoned it while running away or something.” I lied as naturally as I breathed, she doesn’t need to know where it really came from after all.

“We should return it then, let's stop by the guild later and turn it in.” Putting the gun back in the bag she silently counts the money before zipping it back up.

“Oh well, it’s your loss.” Shrugging I get up and walk over to her, “By the way, how's your corruption coming along, shouldn’t be too high right?” Considering I just evolved a bit, I want to check whether it’s had any impact on her corruption since the skill says it’ll corrupt her as I grow stronger.

“Where’s this coming from, yeah considering it was at zero yesterday it should still be zero, if anything maybe a few decimal points in the worst case.” Although she waves away my question she opens her status anyway.

[Carol Helios]

{Bio}
Height- 163 cm/64 inches
Weight- 43 kg/95 lbs.
Race- Human
Corruption- 2%

“T-TWO PERCENT!?” With a shout, Carol announces her disbelief, and I’m just as concerned, at this rate I might not have enough time to regain my constructive abilities, and transform her myself.

“How did it go up by so much, it normally takes at the very least an entire month to gain just one percent, and I gained two in a single day!?”

“That might be my fault.”

“What? How would that make sense, you haven’t done anything to me right?” Turning to me with concern I can see a sort of desperation in her eyes, which doesn’t surprise me, in her case if it continues at this rate, it would mean that her lifespan would be cut down to less than two months.

“You see, your skill increases your corruption in correspondence to my strength, and as an ever evolving creature it’s bound to increase just as I exist, good news is that I might be able to subdue the transformation in the future, might.” Reassuring her that she wouldn’t suddenly turn into a monster she seems to calm slightly.

“Right, it did say that, and you said you can subdue the transformation?” Sitting down and hanging her head in her hands, she takes a second before looking up at me.

“I said I might be able to, the corruption is sparked by a crystal that forms in your brain when you get a skill, it’s also what fuels your power, by removing that crystal you would lose both the skill and your corruption, but by dissolving the crystal into your bloodstream the corruption can be mitigated, and the skill will even be improved, supposedly, it worked on my crystal but it also only worked because I’m a Tyranid so it may not work for you.”

“...What?” Standing up and looking at me in confusion and shock, she takes a second to think before replying. “You found out what causes the skills, and what causes the corruption, and you found out how to mitigate or even stop the corruption, by testing on yourself, and you just didn’t say anything?”

“Yeah, that about sums it up.”

“Do you even realize how monumental of an achievement that is, this could be revolutionary for skill research, and even more so for medical purposes, and you just didn’t bother to say anything?” Sounding slightly upset she glares at me, raising her voice a little.

Not to be outdone I respond with maximum sass. “No, I don’t, I only have like a combined week of existence, so forgive me if I’m a little unknowledgeable.”

“Ah, right, I’m sorry, that was a little insensitive, I forgot that you don’t really have any memories.” Looking down apologetically, she seems to notice something before speaking up. “If that’s true, then how did you know what the Necrons were?”

Uh oh, she’s starting to get suspicious, which I figured would happen eventually, but luckily I prepared an excuse. “I don’t know, it’s just something I know, like how I know how to speak, or walk, or fight, or how to regenerate from injuries, maybe it’s something I knew before I turned, it’s something that I want to figure out as well.”

“I guess that could make sense, although since intelligent monsters like you aren’t exactly commonplace, we have no way of knowing for sure.” With a sigh, Carol soon heads into the kitchen to make breakfast for herself.

As she finishes eating her breakfast, she offers her blood again, but I decline. “I appreciate the offer but you still need to recover from yesterday, I took a lot of blood and even without that I’ll be fine for a long while without eating.”

“Is that so? I guess that makes sense.” Sitting still for a moment she stands up and stretches, “Alright, for today let’s go visit the guild again, turn in the bag, schedule a visit with my aunt to explain your findings, and then we can head out for a dive, sound good?”

“Yep, let’s get going.”

Walking into the guild I follow closely behind Carol as she walks up to the desk, my wings folded up behind me so I don’t accidentally knock anyone over.

“Excuse me, I have something to turn in.” Getting the receptionist's attention Carol carefully puts the duffle bag on the counter.

“Oh, hello Carol, something to turn in, is it? And what would this be?” The woman picks the duffle bag up off the desk and briefly looks into it, before raising her eyebrow and looking up at the two of us.

“That is, Tyra was out for a walk last night, and found this was abandoned by somebody in the road, so I wanted to turn it in in hope that they come back for it.” Freezing up for a second Carol recounts my story of how I found it.

“Ah, and where was this found?” Nodding in response, the woman puts the duffle on a rack in the back, and turns back to us.

“I found it out by a factory to the north, I presume the owner ran inside escaping from something, at the moment I didn’t bother to check for them, so I don’t know their condition.” Knowing full well that I killed them it’s almost amusing telling the fabricated story.

“Is that right? Well, I’ll be certain to tell you if the owner comes back then, is there anything else I can do for you two?” Staring at me in apprehension for a moment, she returns to the trademark smile of someone working in customer service.

“Actually I would like to schedule a meeting with the guildmaster, Tyra has some information that might help her out.”

“Of course, the master is a bit busy today, but tomorrow afternoon will work well, is that fine?” Grabbing a sheet of paper which I assume to be a copy of Sarah’s schedule, she looks over it and marks down a timeslot.

“Yeah of course, that might actually be a bit better, since Tyra and I were planning to go for a dive today.” Responding in her usual jubilant manner it’s hard to believe she was almost shot just yesterday, but perhaps it’s a good thing for her to be acting like this, that just means she’s strong willed.

“Alright, stay safe Carol.” With a smile, the receptionist sends us off.

“Will do!” Waving back, Carol walks out of the building and I follow shortly behind.

As we walk out of the northern gate I ask a very simple question, “So, where are we going?”

“You said that you found that bag near a factory to the north right?” Waiting for a response I nod and she continues, “So I was thinking, let’s go over there and see if we can find the owner of the bag.”

“Whatever you want.” This child is way too good natured, this isn’t a good thing, at least not in my books, I’m going to have to fix that at some point.

Taking the lead I carefully lead Carol to the factory I was at last night, making sure we don’t run into any monsters along the way.

Within an hour we reach the factory and I lead her to some random spot in a nearby alley, but I stop Carol when we reach it.

Inside the alleyway next to the factory seems to be some sort of humanoid machine, repeating the same unintelligible mechanical rambling, the machine itself is just about 6 feet tall, its body is made up of some sort of tan metal, and it only really looks half built.

Its arms are completely unplated letting you see the circuitry and hydraulics inside, its legs are armor plated on the top but the shins are left bare, and like the arms, you can see its inner workings.

Its chest is plated lightly, just enough to hold it together and protect it from the elements but not from any real combat, and finally, its head is a plus of sorts, like two thick disks pushed together, but the back part is flat.

“A humanoid machine?” I mutter, not knowing that this world had such things just walking around.

Whispering Carol provides an answer, “They’re war machines, although this one doesn’t look complete, way back when the monsters first started showing up the military started deploying these, contrary to how it looks it’s actually incredibly durable, and really dangerous in close quarters.”

“If they’re so deadly how did the humans lose?” Backing away from the alley and the broken yet still very dangerous machine inside, I ask Carol to explain.

“Well, according to the records, one day a programming error occurred in an update, just a single digit being a 1 instead of a 0 or something and it flipped the friend or foe program completely, they played a major role in the downfall of humanity from there.” Responding with a nod I stay silent for the moment.

How convenient, a perfect excuse, “Looks like we found what the owner of the bag was running from.”

“Must be, I feel bad for the poor guy, once a war machine starts tracking you it’ll hunt you for days, considering how it’s not moving anymore, it looks like it got to him.'' Now assuming we’re at a safe distance we resume our conversation at a normal level.

In a few moments, we realize our mistake, as the machine walks out of the alley and turns toward us, “Hold on, I’m going to go distract it, you get out of here.”

“But-” Interrupting Carol I firmly tell her to leave.

“No buts, go, I’ll catch up later once I lose it for good.” Seeing Carol hesitate for a second I’m about to physically push her away, but she silently nods and whispers to me to stay safe before leaving.

I turn towards the war machine slowly walking towards me, and taunt it, “Hey rust bucket, looking real good for an overqualified meat tenderizer.” The machine expectedly doesn't react, but it makes me feel better so eh, a win for me.

Getting ready to intercept it, its shins compress before extending violently, shooting it forward at an incredible speed, I, however, was prepared and as it reaches me, I throw myself backward to lessen the impact as it tackles me, and bite into its neck, biting through the entire left side.

Its head stiffens, having lost half of its movement and I throw it over my shoulder, slamming it into the ground hard before picking it up, but just as I’m about to rip its head off of its body, its fist slams into my arm, almost shattering it, then it moves its legs up, wrapping them around my broken arm and wrestles me to the floor, slamming me into the asphalt even harder then I did it.

Recovering from the slam I feel its foot impact my chest and my ribs break, my lungs nearly burst from the impact but barely survive, I go flying a dozen feet away from the force, and right as I get up it flattens its hand and thrusts it forward, attempting to pierce through my chest and kill me in one swift blow, unfortunately for it, I have a tail.

Using my tail I push its arm to the side so it misses me, and I go in for one final swipe, managing to catch what's left of its neck in my hands I quickly crush it, severing its head completely and it falls stiffly to the ground. It costs me 13 biomass to repair myself, the machine hits like an Astartes with the build of a regular human, It's actually quite incredible, but skill wise it could never match up to one. I then pick up the machine, slinging it over my right shoulder and picking up the head with my left hand. After a few seconds I follow Carol's scent back to her and find her hiding in a nearby building, while not quite running away, it’s good enough.

“Carol, I got it, you can come out now.” Speaking up I get Carol to come out of the building and meet me on the street.

Walking out Carol looks at the robot I’m holding and lets out a small laugh. “That’s quite the lethal distraction, although I kind of expected this.” 

“Well, shall we report that guy's death and get back to town with our loot?”

After a brief moment of thought she nods, “Yeah I guess so, let’s get going then.”

A bit of walking later we arrived at the town gate, and on the way to the guild I get a lot of stares for the robot I’m carrying, but that doesn’t compare to the absolute silence that followed from the guild, so much noise all silenced in an instant once I walked in.

Then Sarah walks out from the back and upon seeing us drops everything she was doing, “My office. now.”

“This is gonna take some explaining huh.”

IsSkyriel

You having fun yet, hm? You better, jokes aside, I got a monster, or machine in this case, to give you, as a treat.

Spoiler

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