Chapter 462 - Don’t Waste Time

Chapter 462: 462 - Don’t Waste Time

When he finally reached the immobilized body, Lohan released part of his own digestion through the filaments, the process starting off slow and deliberately painful, consuming the outer layers of the leather armor first before moving on to the exposed skin beneath.

The screams that followed echoed off the rocky walls of the nearby cave, a sound any normal person would certainly find disturbing, but which Lohan simply processed as a necessary part of that confrontation the enemies themselves had chosen to start.

The archer’s health bar, visible through Lohan’s own sensory perception via the direct connection with the filaments, kept dropping steadily, every additional second of digestion consuming more and more of his physical structure, the leather armor already completely dissolved, leaving only the exposed flesh slowly giving way before that relentless process.

On the other side, Lisa remained over the fallen spearman, his body already significantly injured from the first impact, but still desperately trying to get up, his own arm stretched out searching for the spear that had slipped from his hand during the fall.

"Don’t even try," Lisa warned, her voice carrying an almost bored tone, planting her paw firmly on his outstretched hand before his fingers could reach the weapon.

A cry of pain escaped the spearman, the bones in his hand cracking under that calculated pressure.

"Please," he begged, his voice completely different from the arrogance of minutes ago, his eyes wide with pure panic. "I’ve got a family waiting for me out there, please, this is just a game, we can talk this out..."

If Lisa had been a normal girl, feeling some hesitation at that plea would have been completely understandable, but remembering the very arrow that had cut through the air toward Lohan minutes earlier, with no real provocation beyond the simple fact of their existing there, was enough to end what little possibility of compassion still remained.

"We were just following orders, please, don’t..."

"Spare me," Lisa cut in, no trace of mercy audible in her own voice as she rolled her eyes, not wanting to hear that nonsense. "There’s no ’please’ that fixes this now."

She raised her own paw, the white spirit fire intensifying around her claws, and brought down the final blow.

On the other side, the archer, feeling his own body being progressively consumed by that strange blue Slime’s relentless digestion, screamed one last desperate message through his own guild comms, his voice distorted by agony.

"BACKUP! WE NEED BACKUP NOW! THERE’S MONSTERS ATTACKING THE ENTRANCE, THEY’RE TOO STRONG TO BE..."

The message died in the middle of its own sentence, along with the rest of his body.

[You defeated Reeve, Level 14]

A second notification appeared right after, discreet, but satisfying.

[Predator Title activated: Evolution successfully extracted]

Lohan felt a subtle warmth spread through his own internal structure as that evolution quietly settled inside him, the specific details of it still needing a calm moment to be properly processed, but the simple confirmation that the process had worked was already enough to further intensify that satisfaction.

Feeling his own biomass increase considerably from that complete digestion, Lohan turned his attention to Lisa, who was already approaching him, her body still slightly tense from the adrenaline of the quick confrontation.

"That was easier than I expected," Lisa commented, shaking her paw lightly to shed the last traces of blood still clinging to her claws. "I figured Level 14 and 15 would put up at least a bit more resistance."

"Blind arrogance usually doesn’t pay off well against real preparation," Lohan replied, philosophical.

"You’re smiling in a weird way," Lisa commented, watching the expression forming on his gelatinous face with a mix of amusement and mild concern.

Before either of them could continue that conversation, a distant sound of furious voices began echoing through the cave ahead of them, multiple hurried footsteps pounding against the stone as they rapidly approached.

"THEY KILLED REEVE!" a voice shouted, carrying genuine fury. "THOSE MONSTERS ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!"

"They made two of our best guards lose levels..." another voice added, equally furious, "I want to send them back to level 1 as revenge!"

Lohan felt his own jelly vibrate with growing anticipation at those threats, an almost hungry glint forming in his consciousness as he processed the implications of it.

’Perfect, with this backup coming I don’t even need to worry about whether I’ll be able to satisfy the predator in me...’ he thought, his artificial smile growing sharper and more excited on his face.

The specific ability to digest Players hunted as prey with an absolute success rate to extract evolutions proportional to their own Base’s rarity, which the Predator Title granted, was already incredible on its own, and it had been quite a while since his last real opportunity to make good use of it.

Now the possibility of multiple targets voluntarily approaching, already hostile and determined to strike first, represented exactly the kind of perfect scenario he’d been waiting for.

"I’m just... eager," Lohan replied, trying to sound as innocent as possible, though his own voice carried an enthusiasm impossible to fully hide. "It’s been a while since I got to use the Predator properly."

Lisa rolled her eyes, but an amused smile stayed on her own face.

"Just don’t overdo it," she warned, though with no real conviction behind that warning. "Although, considering how they started this, I think any amount of overdoing it is going to be completely justified."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Lohan confirmed, satisfied.

The sound of hurried footsteps grew closer and closer, and soon, a group of six Players emerged from the cave itself, all wearing the same Black Horn Legion banner, wielding various weapons raised in combat position, their faces carrying a mix of rage and vengeful determination.

"THERE THEY ARE," the group’s apparent leader shouted, a sturdy man wielding a two handed axe. "KILL THOSE ABOMINATIONS!"

Behind him, the other five spread out quickly into a semicircular formation, surrounding the cave entrance in an obvious attempt to cut off any escape route, each of them brandishing their own weapon with visible fury.

"You’re going to pay dearly for touching Reeve," a woman in the group shouted, wielding a pair of short daggers glowing with a faint poison enchantment. "He was one of our oldest veterans."

Beside her, a thinner man carrying a carved staff raised his free hand, murmuring the first lines of some ranged attack spell, while two other members of the group, both wielding identical short swords, positioned themselves on the flanks in a clear attempt to surround Lohan and Lisa from multiple angles at once.

"I don’t care who he was to you," Lisa replied, her voice carrying a calm disdain. "He chose to shoot first. The consequences of that are his alone."

The man with the axe roared with rage, charging in first, his own body picking up speed across the uneven terrain with a blind determination that completely ignored any rational assessment of risk.

"Don’t waste time talking to them, Lisa," Lohan advised over the mental link, knowing that trying to talk now would be a waste of time.

’Six against two,’ Lohan thought, quickly calculating the odds. ’If these six really represented the peak strength of that entire guild, their claim over this territory was always a joke.’

Lohan felt his own anticipation hit a satisfying peak as he watched that group advance, each one of them representing a new opportunity for biomass, for experience, and perhaps, with a bit of luck, for yet another valuable evolution waiting to be extracted through the very title he carried with such pride.

’Come on,’ he thought, projecting new translucent filaments that spread silently across the rocky terrain around them, invisible against the natural coloring of the volcanic stones, each strand positioning itself strategically at the exact points those six enraged Players would need to pass through. ’I was really hoping you’d show up.’

Beside him, Lisa crouched slightly, her hind legs tensing against the stone, covered in the white spirit fire that was already spreading again around each of her four claws and climbing up her arms, ready to answer that charge with the same efficiency she’d just demonstrated minutes earlier.

"Ready?" she asked, a sharp smile forming on her face.

"More than ever," Lohan replied, his own voice vibrating with an anticipation almost impossible to contain.