Ruel waited for a worker to pass directly beneath his position, then snatched it up to silently feed and regain some strength.
Ruel waited.
Patience was not natural to him.
Every fiber of his void-scarred body screamed descend—kill—devour.
But the predator in him—the dragon fragment, ancient and cold—whispered differently.
He waited and let the prey come to him.
He pressed himself flat against the silk-coated ceiling.
Limbs spread wide to distribute weight.
Breathing shallow.
Eyes half-lidded—reducing the violet glow to near-invisible slits.
Through Tremorsense, he tracked the workers’ circular paths.
Predictable.
Mechanical.
Each one following pheromone trails laid by hundreds of identical circuits before them.
One trail passed directly beneath his position.
A worker approached—small, unburdened, returning from a deposit run.
Its legs clicked in rhythmic monotony.
Antennae swept left, right, left.
Routine.
Bored.
Alive.
Three meters.
Two meters.
Directly below.
Skill Used: Ambush Snatch (Silent Kill)
Ruel attempted to drop partially from ceiling, grab worker in jaws, pull it up, kill silently.
Result: Success.
Ruel uncoiled like a spring.
One foreclaw released the ceiling.
His body swung downward—jaws gaping—and closed around the worker’s thorax before it could twitch a single antenna.
His fangs punctured chitin.
Venom flooded inward.
The worker’s legs spasmed once—twice—then curled inward.
Dead before it could scream.
He hauled it upward with a flex of his neck, pressing it against the ceiling beside him.
The silk crackled—barely.
A sound indistinguishable from the ambient settling of old webbing.
No alarm.
No reaction below.
The nearest worker continued its circuit, passing the gap where its companion had been without pause.
Pheromone trail intact.
No visual confirmation needed.
It simply followed the chemical road.
Perfect.
DEVOUR ACTIVATED (Silent Consumption)
Target: Cave Skitterer Worker (killed via venom injection)
Absorbing…
Ruel ate slowly.
Deliberately.
Each bite measured—jaws working without sound, throat swallowing without gulping.
The crunch of chitin muffled inside his closed mouth.
Fragment Obtained: Silk Production (Trace) — Negligible silk generation from specialized glands.
Insufficient for webbing.
Stackable.
Requires further absorption to manifest usefully.
XP Gained: +10
Total XP: 120 / 200
The warmth of fresh prey settled in his belly.
Not enough to heal meaningfully—but enough to feed the system.
Enough to keep Devour satisfied for the moment.
Below, the nest continued its mindless rhythm.
Workers circled.
Guardians stood motionless.
The Queen pulsed.
And Ruel—
Ruel dropped down behind the nearest Guardian, using the element of surprise to deliver a lethal, precision strike to its neck joint.
Ruel’s eyes locked on Guardian One.
The creature stood like a living barricade—three times the size of a worker, chitin layered in thick overlapping plates the color of dried blood.
Its legs were built for bracing, not speed.
Its mandibles were designed to shear through bone.
But its neck joint—where the head-plate met the thorax—showed a sliver of softer membrane.
Flexible tissue needed for the head to pivot.
There.
Ruel released the ceiling.
He fell in absolute silence—gravity pulling him down eight meters in just over a second.
His body rotated mid-air, claws extending, jaws parting.
Venom pooled behind his fangs.
The violet cracks along his scales flared—
The Guardian’s antennae twitched.
Something.
A displacement of air—
Too late.
Skill Used: Ambush — Precision Lethal Strike
Ruel attempted to drop from ceiling onto Guardian’s back and deliver a targeted bite/claw strike to the neck joint membrane.
Result: Failure.
Ruel landed on the Guardian’s back with crushing force—his weight driving its front legs into a momentary buckle.
His claws found purchase on the overlapping chitin plates, scrabbling for grip.
His jaws snapped toward the neck joint—
And caught armor.
The Guardian’s head-plate extended further back than he’d estimated from above.
A shallow gouge—nothing more.
The Guardian roared.
Not a shriek like the workers.
A deep, resonant buzz that vibrated through Ruel’s ribcage—an alarm frequency that hit every antenna in the chamber simultaneously.
NEST ALERT TRIGGERED.
The Guardian bucked—violently—throwing its weight sideways.
Ruel’s claws tore free of chitin as he was hurled against the chamber wall.
DAMAGE SUSTAINED
Impact with stone wall: 8 HP
HP: 89 / 105 Health: 84%
Ruel hit the ground rolling—instinct saving him from a worse landing.
He found his feet instantly, claws splayed, spine arched, violet cracks blazing.
The nest erupted.
Workers scattered in every direction—some fleeing into tunnel entrances, others pressing flat against walls.
But the three Guardians—
All three oriented on him simultaneously.
G1—the one he’d struck—turned with surprising speed, ichor leaking from the shallow gouge on its head-plate.
Its mandibles spread wide, revealing a secondary set of inner jaws dripping with something that smoked against the stone floor.
Acid.
G2 and G3 advanced from flanking positions, moving in coordinated arcs to cut off his retreat.
And behind them—the Queen shifted.
The massive pulsing signature moved for the first time.
Silk threads throughout the chamber vibrated with transmitted information.
She knew he was here.
She knew what he was.
The ANATHEMA signal
Ruel hissed and unleashed a burst of void-fire to blind the nearest Guardian, then leapt toward the tunnel entrance to force the others into a choke point.
Ruel’s throat ignited.
Not Ember Breath—something else.
The void-cracks along his body flared violent purple as he channeled fire through the corruption in his flesh.
What emerged was wrong—flame that burned black at its edges, trailing streamers of violet that seemed to eat the light around them.
He aimed it directly at G1’s cluster of compound eyes.
Skill Used: Ember Breath (Blinding Burst — Targeted)
Ruel attempted to unleash a short, focused burst of void-tainted fire at Guardian One’s face to blind it.
Result: Partial failure.
Partial effect: Fire connects but doesn’t fully blind.
The burst hit G1’s face—searing across three of its eight compound eyes.
Fluid boiled.
Lenses cracked and wept smoking ichor.
The Guardian screamed—that deep buzzing roar amplified into something agonized.
Its head thrashed sideways, mandibles snapping at empty air.
Half-blinded.
Disoriented.
But not out.
Mana Expended: 15
Mana: 85 / 100