Chapter 217: To stomp a glutton

’You go high, I’ll go low!’

[Maestro, you can’t fly, how else would we do this?]

’Now is not the time for sass!’

[Fine~]

"I’ll enjoy swallowing your soul, soul, soul!"

As Leech and Zhen Liu rushed towards one another, Hurricroak, in coordination with the latter, leaped into the air.

[Cutting Steel!]

"Whoa!"

Leech was a touch faster than Zhen Liu, allowing him to reach Zhen Liu’s position first and take the initiative in terms of attacking. The bloodliner’s arm glowed with a sharp glint as he swung it at Zhen Liu’s head. Luckily, Zhen Liu managed to drop to the ground faster before the attack could hit him, as well as counterattack.

Making use of his lowered position and the fact that Leech had overreached himself, Zhen Liu leaped upward and landed an uppercut on Leech’s torso, but just barely. Leech had enough sense to jerk himself backwards with some aether to launch himself slightly backwards, making it so that the attack didn’t hit directly, but instead just...scrape his chest.

Didn’t change the fact that it really fucking hurt.

’Unexpected! Such force, force, force! He didn’t hit like this back in the tunnel. What changed, changed, changed about him?’

Unfortunately for Leech, as he stepped back to avoid the incoming uppercut, it made him open to Hurricroak to follow up.

This time, she went her for hornet mode, and had a pair of nasty stingers growing out of her arms with arcs of electricity surging through it.

[Electrarush!]

[Heavy Breath!]

Hurricroak swung her arms downward, attempting to pierce Leech with her stingers, but Leech used another art to enhance his breathing of all things and used the exhalation to avoid the stingers and causing Hurricroak to break the ground instead. When Hurricroak retracted her arms from the impact point, only one of the stingers was embedded in the ground.

[Eat this ya fat scavenger fuck! Sonic Bolt!]

*FWOOM!*

"Huh?!"

Hurricroak swung out her other arm and aimed the stinger that was still in her arm at the retreating Leech, firing it off seconds later with a sonic boom signalling just how fast it was going.

The stinger impacted Leech right in his face, causing it to jerk backwards like he just got sniped. The bloodliner stumbled backwards a couple steps, looking stunned.

[Suck on that you-!]

’Hold up Hurricroak, the desire core I extracted from him hadn’t disappeared yet,’ Zhen Liu interjected.

[Huh? Why does that matter?]

=It means he ain’t dead yet,= Logos explained.

Proving this point, Leech head bent forward and Hurricroak’s stinger could be see caught between the man’s teeth. Adding on to the intimidation factor, Leech began to crunch and chew on the provided stinger.

"Intriguing flavor! Unlike anything I’ve tasted, tasted, tasted before! I don’t normally like solid foods, but I think I can make a special, special, special exception for you," Leech said in a weirdly salacious tone between loud and crunchy bites. A purple liquid could be see dripping from his maw as he chewed, an indication that the stinger was chock-full of venom.

Zhen Liu could feel distinctive feelings of disgust and revulsion radiating from his bond with Hurricroak.

[Gross gross gross, eewwwwww! How do we kill this guy already?!,] Hurricroak asked as she tried to put on a brave face. It was one thing seeing a guy consume people in front of her like a vampire, it was another being told that she’d be delicious as a part of her was being eaten in front of her.

Zhen Liu wasn’t entirely sure since this asshole could apparently eat anything and gain powers from whatever he -’wait a minute...’

’Hey...Logos, Pathos...just to be clear, what happens when [Chaos] interacts with stuff that’s not me and/or not channeled through the seal on my hand?’

=It depends, but usually it reacts adversely with aether and causes unusual phenomena and destruction.=

< Yup! Especially when injected into living -waitaminute...oh you nasty.>

[Why do I get the feeling you’re about the do something questionable, maestro?]

’Because I totally am. Hurricroak, I’m gonna need your help with something gross.’

________________________________________________

’Tasty, tasty, tasty~ It’s been a while since I’ve tasted something so exotic! It’s unlike human, unlike bloodliner, unlike aether beasts and definitely unlike aetherii! It’s like the opposite of aetherii! So different, yet so delicious!’

Leech had eaten a lot of lives over his lifetime, and he wasn’t picky on where it came from.

He consumed the lives of royalty with dynasties stretching back centuries, he ate up the lives of talented peasants that would have bright futures and he toppled titanic beasts that were hegemonies in their own right. On top of it all, he even managed to get a taste of a rare out of place aetherii and enjoyed the purest aether he had ever eaten before.

But the taste of this unusual puppet was probably the best he ever had!

’The flavors are conflicting, yet harmonious, full of things that mortal hold dear, dear, dear yet with a touch of strange newness. I wonder if the puppeteer is as tasty as -’

"Incoming!"

"Huh?"

Before Leech could finish his thought, Zhen Liu suddenly dropped in from above and bear hugged the bloodliner out of nowhere. The weird frog puppet also came in and tried to squeeze him from behind.

The action confused Leech for a moment, but then he realized something.

"Serving yourself in a silver platter for little ole me, me, me? Why thank you!," Leech exclaimed seconds before he bit down on Zhen Liu’s neck like a vampire. The sweet sweet flow of energy from Zhen Liu into Leech’s maw began and the taste was intoxicating...at first.

’I wonder how you...huh?’

Thanks to his [Godoku Body] leech was able to consume practically everything. It didn’t matter it was poisonous or rotten, as long as the spirit inside of it was weaker than himself than it was fine. He had consume thousands at this point, so there was nothing he couldn’t drain at this point...or so he thought.

He had always been careful on who or what he drained, but for the first time in Leech’s life, something inside him told him not to eat the energy of the being before him...he just couldn’t stop!

’Whatever this energy is, is, is it’s not goooOoDddd. I(You) need to stop consuming/devouring/eating it...but it’s so delicious{tasty}[intoxicating]! I/We/ need to let go/cut free/ESCAPE!’

Leech/Bygul/Indigo tried to escape the grasp of Zhen Liu and Hurricroak but couldn’t! They had locked him in tight with heir double bear hug.

"What’s wrong buddy? Don’t you think I taste good?!," Zhen Liu asked with a mad smile in his voice.

In this moment, Leech/the pathetic cockroach/miserable glutton/scared little pup believed he wasn’t trying to drain the aether from a young man. Rather, it was as if a devil+demon+{monstrosity} was punishing him for his sins.

For the first time in his life/this reincarnation (this playthrough), he began to feel...full.

’My(our/the) stomach...is about to burst!’

________________________________________________

’Ouch, ouch, ouch! How much longer do I have to do this for?!,’ Zhen Liu asked.

=Depends.=

’On?’

=Do you want to be caught up in the ensuing explosion?=

Zhen Liu didn’t even respond, he assumed it was obvious.