Chapter 46: I Crawled Under a Level 34 Elite to Kill Its Second Heart

This time, Valeria didn’t use large spears.

They had learned.

Thicker weapons carried too much blood for too little penetration.

Valeria created needles.

Hundreds.

Thinner than nails.

Each compressed with mana until it glowed.

Raven felt the air change around them.

"That’s new."

"I was thinking while you slept."

"I slept three hours."

"Exactly."

The needles launched.

Not at the armor.

At everything Raven had pointed out during the night.

Joints.

Membranes.

Gums.

The base of the tail.

Gaps around the neck.

Under the legs.

The first rain struck.

The Blackmaw roared.

Dozens bounced.

Some penetrated.

Blood Furnace absorbed.

Regeneration.

The creature attacked Valeria.

Raven struck its flank with an accelerated stone.

Not to injure it.

To get its attention.

The Blackmaw turned.

Valeria attacked again.

Raven moved.

She struck.

The creature kept trying to decide which of them was the real threat.

Exactly what Raven wanted.

Neither of them could defeat it alone.

Together, they could keep it making decisions.

Another rain.

Regeneration.

The lines between its plates turned red.

Raven watched the chest.

Closed.

"More."

Valeria breathed.

"I’m using quite a lot of mana."

"I know."

"How reassuring."

"You still have reserves."

"Are you tracking my mana now too?"

"Since yesterday."

Valeria smiled despite the strain.

"That sounds intimate."

Raven threw another stone.

"We have different definitions."

The Blackmaw attacked.

This time, at him.

Raven waited.

Too long.

Predator’s Instinct screamed.

Burst Step.

The world jumped.

Raven appeared to the side.

The jaws passed beside his arm.

The tail came next.

Stonehide.

THUD.

Raven lost his balance.

Didn’t fall.

Better.

"That was new."

The monster had learned to chain the tail after he avoided the bite.

Predator.

Raven smiled.

Not from amusement.

Recognition.

The creature was improving during the fight.

So was he.

Valeria fired a thread of blood directly into the wound the needles had opened behind one leg.

She didn’t pull it back.

She left it there.

Blood Furnace began absorbing.

The thread grew thinner.

Valeria kept feeding it.

Raven looked at her.

"What are you doing?"

"Overfeeding it."

"That’s a lot of blood."

"It’s not mine. Mirehorn."

She had stored more in holding vessels.

Good.

The Blackmaw absorbed.

The lines shifted from red to orange.

Chest.

A slight separation.

"It’s working."

Raven took the bar.

Not yet.

The monster sensed something.

Stopped.

Stopped absorbing.

The plates closed.

Valeria cursed.

"It can interrupt it."

"Yes."

"That’s a problem."

"Only if we give it time."

Raven ran.

Toward it.

Valeria saw him.

"Not again."

Raven threw the bar.

The Blackmaw closed the membranes over its eyes.

Mistake.

The bar wasn’t the attack.

Raven used Kinetic Acceleration on his own body.

Entered.

Knife.

Directly into the wound behind the leg.

The creature roared.

Raven twisted the blade.

Black blood.

The Blackmaw tried to crush him.

Burst Step.

Raven escaped.

Valeria immediately connected a thread of Mirehorn blood to the open wound.

The monster absorbed on reflex.

Blood Furnace.

"There."

Valeria understood.

The Furnace wasn’t completely voluntary when magical blood contacted exposed tissue.

It could stop it.

But first, it reacted.

That was the window.

Valeria multiplied the threads.

Three wounds.

Then four.

Blood entering.

Regeneration activating.

The Blackmaw tried to break the connections.

Raven hit it from another angle.

Kinetic Acceleration on a stone.

Eye.

The membrane closed.

Valeria attacked the neck.

The monster turned.

Raven attacked the leg.

Too many decisions.

Too many wounds.

Too much blood.

Blood Furnace began working continuously.

The lines turned bright orange.

Vapor escaped.

The chest opened.

Two inches.

Then three.

"Not yet," Raven said.

Valeria was breathing hard.

"I don’t know how much longer I can—"

The Blackmaw turned toward her.

Raven saw the intent.

It wasn’t attacking with its jaws.

Tail.

Valeria was too close to the wall.

"Down!"

She reacted.

The tail struck the stone above her.

Fragments exploded.

One cut across Valeria’s forehead.

Fresh blood.

Very little.

The Blackmaw smelled it.

Everything changed.

All six eyes locked onto her.

Hunger.

Raven saw what the creature was about to do.

Valeria did too.

She backed away.

The Blackmaw charged.

Raven could have tried to stop it.

He didn’t.

"Lead it to the center!"

Valeria looked at him like she wanted to argue.

Then understood.

She ran.

The Blackmaw followed.

This time, it wasn’t an act.

The creature wanted her blood.

Valeria crossed the corridor.

Raven picked up the bar.

She passed beside him.

"I hope this is part of the plan."

"It is now."

The Blackmaw entered.

Raven waited.

Fifteen feet.

Valeria turned.

Every remaining drop of Mirehorn blood left the storage vessels.

Not as projectiles.

As a wave.

It slammed into the open jaws.

The Blackmaw swallowed.

Not by choice.

Blood Furnace exploded into activity.

The lines became almost yellow.

The creature slowed.

Regeneration.

Mana.

Heat.

The chest plates opened.

Two inches.

Then more.

Farther than ever.

Red vapor filled the corridor.

Raven saw the three conduits.

Then the point where they converged.

"Now."

He ran.

The Blackmaw saw him.

That was part of the problem.

One of its six eyes turned as Raven came in from the left.

The creature stopped chasing Valeria.

Turned.

Too fast.

Raven adjusted.

He couldn’t get beneath the shoulder the way he’d planned.

The jaws were coming.

Predator’s Instinct screamed.

Burst Step.

Not sideways.

Underneath.

Raven vanished and reappeared almost between the front legs.

The smell was horrible.

Blood.

Heat.

Flesh.

The bar was in both hands.

Upward angle.

There.

Kinetic Acceleration.

Mana flowed into the metal.

Raven pushed.

The bar became a projectile without completely leaving his hands.

It entered between two ribs.

CRACK.

Resistance.

Then tissue.

The Blackmaw roared.

Not death.

Raven felt the metal stop.

Too shallow.

"Shit."

The organ was deeper.

The monster came down on him.

Raven activated Stonehide across his shoulders and back.

The paw struck.

BOOM.

Raven dropped to his knees.

Something in his back cracked.

He didn’t know what.

Didn’t have time.

He kept pushing.

Kinetic Acceleration again.

The bar advanced another two inches.

The Blackmaw roared.

Its paw lifted.

Another hit would kill him.

Valeria appeared.

Not physically.

Her blood.

Two red cables wrapped around the bar.

Raven saw her several yards away, both hands extended.

"Push!"

"That’s what I’m doing."

"Then do it better!"

The cables pulled.

Not outward.

In.

Raven used everything he had.

Stonehide around his hands.

Kinetic Acceleration.

The metal advanced.

Four inches.

Something pulsed on the other side.

The Blackmaw convulsed.

The bar nearly came loose.

Valeria clenched her hands.

The cables held.

The monster slammed into the wall.

Raven was dragged with it.

His shoulder struck stone.

White pain.

One hand came off the bar.