Deus Necros

Chapter 708: Flesh and Bone

“We can… survive,” Ludwig said.

He didn’t say I don’t need it because that would be a lie in this body.

He also didn’t say I refuse it because refusal was pride, and pride was a sin Ludwig didn’t enjoy wearing.

The lizardmen looked at each other with both worry and surprise.

“An orc that is suppressing his hunger… that’s new…” Akro said.

“The world has many strange and new things,” Ludwig said as he looked at the river.

The river was clear enough to see movement beneath the surface, quick shadows darting through light. Ludwig’s eyes narrowed as instinct and appetite collided. The smell of water alone was beginning to feel like temptation.

“Though,” he approached it and swiped something from it.

A medium-sized river fish appeared in his hand, “I do feel a bit too… famished,” he said as he bit the head off the fish.

The action was fast, almost automatic, and the moment his teeth sank into flesh, his whole body responded like a starving animal being given proof of survival.

Warm blood and river-cold fat hit his tongue. The crunch of bone wasn’t unpleasant. It was satisfying in a way that made Ludwig’s stomach twist with sudden gratitude and disgust at himself for feeling it.

For a second, he felt like he was in bliss; the juices, blood, and innards of the fish didn’t taste like how a human would taste them. No, they all felt… like the nectar of gods.

The sensation was too intense, too right, and that was what made it alarming.

Ludwig had eaten fine food as a human once, back in a life that felt distant now, but nothing had ever hit like this.

This body demanded fuel and rewarded it with pleasure sharp enough to be distracting.

Ludwig’s eyes snapped back to reality as he realized what he was doing.

“Ahem, I guess I was really hungry,” he turned to Gale and handed the rest of the fish.

“Want some?”

Gale wiped the drool off his face, “This is rather… incredible, even under the Glutenous Death, it didn’t feel this bad…”

“That’s because your body was dead. Here, it’s a living body; a Dead body can simply suck it up, a living one cannot, especially when food is offered,” Ludwig explained hunger itself.

He didn’t say it like a lecture. He said it like a diagnosis.

Living bodies did not negotiate. They demanded. Ignore them long enough, and they sabotage you.

Gale grabbed the rest of the fish and gulped it down in one bite.

“Ah, it’s been thousands of years… since I’ve last had something… filling.”

“I doubt it’s enough, though, give us a moment,” Ludwig said to the lizardmen as he walked into the river.

The water climbed his knees, cold and clean, pressing against skin that wasn’t used to feeling temperature this way. Several fishes approached him. But the moment he was about to snatch some, they scattered away.

He tried again, and again, frustration rising clearly in his face. He was used to taking what he wanted by force or by skill.

Fish didn’t care about status screens or titles. Fish cared about scent and movement, and Ludwig’s heavy approach was an alarm bell underwater.

“You won’t catch anything if you go into the river like that,” Akro said.

Ludwig turned to him, “I just caught one…”

“Yes, because it wasn’t smelling you, and that one was a small bankside fish. The ones you’re trying to grab are a bit smarter…” he said.

“I won’t deny the experience of an amphibious creature,” Ludwig said.

“Ambpibious?” he couldn’t even pronounce it.

“Both water and land dwellers, though, what do you suggest?” Ludwig asked.

“Let us catch some for you,” Akro said as he looked at the other lizardmen.

They jumped into the river without missing a beat. Moving as they belonged in water. No splashing panic. No heavy stomping. They slid in, vanished under the surface, and resurfaced with fish pinned in claws and teeth, three to four on each of them; the smallest was twice the size of the one that Ludwig grabbed earlier. Too efficient, almost insultingly efficient.

Efficiency born of anatomy and lifestyle.

Ludwig watched with a faint irritation that was immediately swallowed by hunger when the fish hit the bank. Flopping and thrashing. As fresh as it can get.

Ludwig wiped his mouth as he approached the fish and grabbed a fat-looking one.

“Hmm, with access to the river, food, and water, why wage war?” Ludwig asked as he began eating.

The question wasn’t moral. It was tactical curiosity. Abundant resources usually reduce conflict. Yet these tribes had been locked in endless war. That meant the scenario itself encouraged it. Or something deeper was twisting their instincts toward violence.

“We… don’t know…” The reply was honest. “But, it feels that if we don’t fight… We’ll cease to exist… is all I know.”

Ludwig frowned; the scenario was affecting their own thinking… no wonder these tribes never found peace. Even with the abundance of resources.

The Tower wasn’t just placing them in bodies. It was pressing them into roles, into compulsions. War wasn’t only cultural here. It was structural. The trial demanded conflict the way lungs demanded air.

“I see,” Ludwig gulped down fish, bones, skin, and all.

The crunch was loud in the quiet riverbank, and the taste kept trying to drag him back into that animal bliss. He forced himself to stay present, chewing fast, swallowing, not savoring longer than necessary.

Fuel. Not comfort.

“We’ll recover a bit here, then we’ll continue moving, you guys can rest up, freshen up even if you want… I have some things to think about,” Ludwig said as he grabbed another fish.

He kept his eyes on the west even while eating, because hunger didn’t stop the world from trying to kill him.

Yellow Mountain was still out there.

Red Tusks were still moving.

And somewhere inside the Tower’s logic, the “king” he was supposed to become was being measured by how he handled choices like this, whether he fought like an orc or ruled like something worse.