“Feel better now, young Samuel?” I heard the demon ask me in a softer, smoother version of my own voice. I gave a mental nod.

  ‘What was that?’ I asked him and cautiously prodded at the ‘cage’ that had been ‘installed’ into my body. Wherever I was, I could feel it more clearly and how it was…. disjointed from the rest of me.

  “I have put you where you can get the most…. ‘leverage’ against me when you want me out. You can feel this on an instinctive level which makes you feel safer. I thought it would be prudent considering how you were panicking. It does have its downsides though since it is easier for you to damage your body if you resist my control wrong.” He explained as he returned to his series of controlled stretches and movements.

  While he was doing that, I noticed that my ‘cage’ moved ever so slightly with them like he was trying to slot it into a place he couldn’t really see or feel other than it not being right. It was very annoying on my end too and, out of an impulse, I prodded one particularly irritating spot that felt like it was rubbing on my clavicle every time he moved. I pushed and shifted it ever so slightly so it wouldn’t do that anymore and felt it fall into where it should be and disappear. It had something of a cascade effect that made it ‘disappear’ over a large portion of the surrounding area which stopped in a ring of increased discomfort.

  “Ah, that is much better. Thank you for that.” He told me with a relieved sigh and rubbed at the spot where the ‘cage’ had disappeared. While he rubbed, the ring of increased discomfort ebbed away as he did something to the cage’s thread thin bars, tightening some while letting out others. It caused the spot where I could no longer feel the cage grow a bit more until it cover a good portion of my shoulder and chest.

  ‘Is that what you meant by me taking a more active role in this?’ I asked, the event turning me thoughtful. He nodded with my head.

  “Quite, Samuel. Now that you know what to do, this can go much quicker with your help.” He replied and we got to work.

  I fitted things into place while he took care of adjusting the cage’s bars so they would fit properly. It took a bit from the both of us, but the work went quickly, and we were soon done. When the last piece of the cage disappeared, I felt something else fall into place just before there was a sudden rush. I felt my body tighten and grew denser as a predatory strength filled it and reinforced my muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and organs. It gave me a moment of very disorienting vertigo that temporarily joined my nausea before being replaced with a distant hunger that felt impossibly deep and sharp.

  ‘Is that what it’s like for you all the time?’ I asked, knowing full well that it wasn’t mine.

  “Almost but I am able to bear with it. It is what I am made for after all.” He answered as he continued to move my body. This time to get more comfortable in using it.

  ‘No wonder you’re so fixated on things being ‘prey’ and getting food. Feel free to help yourself to whatever is left of the heart meat before we go.” I commented and he chuckled.

  “Thank you for your concern but I think I will save it for later. It is not often I get access to such ingredients. I may be hungry all the time, but I have found that cooking and sharing food makes taste better and somehow more filling even if it does little to actually assuage my constant hunger.” He told me and chuckled again at my flabbergasted reaction before he headed over to the storage space.

  “I have lived for far longer than you can imagine, Samuel. Believe it or not, I am omnivorous, and I have gotten tired of eating the same things over and over again.” He informed me as we reached the opening.

  I could see the pile of meat that was still in there and how the bloody smell made my mouth water. The three swords were in there as well as the shell piece too. The two short swords floated over to us when he had my body lean into the space to reach for the cleaver like long sword. He waved them off before picking up the large sword from where it was resting against a wall in there. I could distinctly feel the balance and incredible weight the weapon had but the demon barely even strained as it had my body lift with one hand.

  He swung it a few times as if to get a feel for his stats while he was using my body before setting it down against a wall in the main area. He moved to close the storage area next, but he paused to slice a chunk off one of the slabs of meat with one of the short swords. The sword remained behind, but he took the double fist sized chunk he had cut free with him. He bit into it like I would an apple as he closed the opening like he would a zipper by running one of my knuckles up its length.

  As for the meat, it undoubtedly would have been far too tough for me to eat normally with my dull human teeth and comparatively weak jaws but, with the demon possessing my body, it made short work of it. It tasted surprisingly good to me for raw meat even with it tasting mainly of blood and copper. There were sweet, salty, and minerally tones to it that seemed to satisfy a craving I didn’t know I had. All too soon, it was gone, and the demon was cleaning up the juices that had been left behind.

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  ‘Why was that so good?’ I asked him, feeling more than a bit disappointed that it was already gone.

  “I will explain later. For now, we best leave here and head back to your real body.” He told me with a chuckle at my disappointment.

  ‘Alright. How do I do that? I’ve only left this place only once after all. And you sort of helped too.’ I pointed out.

  “Fair.” He admitted and turned thoughtful for a few moments.

  “Hmm…. Let us try this. You focus on trying to return while I take care of the rest alright?” He told me as he closed my eyes.

  I did as I was told, trying to think back to the last time I was here and how I managed to leave. I remember drifting away last time while the system was calling me. I couldn’t hear anything this time, so I focused on trying to drift back to my real body. I felt the demon have us fall backwards but we didn’t hit the floor. Instead, we were sent tumbling through a misty space.

  Then reality came crashing down like sledgehammer to my gut.

  In fact, I think that would be preferable to how sick and achy I was when I finally returned to my actual body. I was hot. I was cold. I was feverish and chilled. I was nauseous beyond all reason and my everything was once again hurting. This time with a pounding hot throbbing that matched the beat of my heart. I felt as weak as a wet noodle and my thoughts felt like I was wading through dense sewage sludge mixed with clay and mud. I also was all kinds of sick that I didn’t know existed until then.

  And to top it all off, I was covered in half dried monster gore.

  ‘fuuuck….’ I muttered mentally and was so very happy that I let the demon help me because I would have been so very useless if I hadn’t.

  That said, he was the one who opened our eyes to darkness and push us up from where I had collapsed against the very dead monster’s head. The room had apparently and finally lost power while I was out of it, but Gluttony had a kind of ‘food sense’ that was beyond weird. Anything that was organic was considered ‘food’ and classified by their type, energy value, and toughness. At least those were the markers that I could identify anyways. It was a lot more detailed than what I could have described and had a sort of ‘x-ray’ effect that could take stock of the dead monster’s innards and even see my system made things through the stone.

  Everything had a smell in there too. The blood. The dead monster. The things on the monster. My last few ‘meals’. The old bones. Silky. The stone. Even my system made items and the lingering traces of mana that had powered the room’s enchantments. Everything that had ever been in there had left trace scents too, the smells unable to fully degrade and dissipate in the sealed room.

  It was all very distracting and overwhelming to me and that was without the insistent flashing of my unread messages. I knew that the demon was talking to something, probably the system. Maybe. It was very hard to think. He was able to finally get me to focus when I saw him going in to lick some of the gore off the back of my hand.

  ‘heeey! not with my tongue!’ I scolded him weakly and he curled back my lip in a smirk and snickered.

  “I was wondering when I was going to get you to focus on me. At least I didn’t have to stick you in my mouth this time.” He pointed out to me, and I just gave him the mental equivalent of a disgruntled look.

  ‘well, you got it now…. smartass. what did you want?’ I asked him, not in the mood for just about anything.

  “I was thinking it would be nice if you helped a bit with the collection of the blood. I won’t need you to do for very long. Just on and off few times in the beginning so I can get something set up back in our shared space. I rather not have a mess to clean up later when I get back there between tributes.” He explained to me, and I sighed.

  ‘alright. i’ll do what I can. i make no promises.’ I told him.

  “I understand. I just need you to focus on drawing just the blood in with the CONSUME skill when I activate it.” He replied.

  ‘all i can say is i’ll try. blood is more complicated than what people think.’ I pointed out and he nodded my head in acknowledgment.

  “That is all I ask.” He told me before I felt the itchy sting of my ‘new’ skill manifest its five-prong maw on my chest and abdomen. He worked the jaw flaps for a few moments before pealing them back.

  “Ready?” He asked.

  ‘As I’ll ever be.’ I replied and activated the main skill that we were going to be using.

  CONSUME

  There was a gurgling sucking noise as the ankle-deep monster blood started to flow into the skill’s maw and I could feel it gulping it as the blood came but the fluid never reached the connected stomach. I chalked it up to Gluttony taking it as ‘tribute’ or one of the other things and concentrated on what should be going in. I tried thinking back to what my biology classes had told me about what was in blood, and I focused on what should be in it to the exclusion of everything else. What should be in healthy blood anyways.

  Red blood cells. White blood cells. Plasma, the nutrient carrying liquid that made up the bulk of it. Platelets that helped with clotting, preferably without them doing their job right now. Mana, maybe? Since it was a monster. Maybe whatever elemental essences that should be in a healthy ground thumping monster’s blood since those were a thing here too. Maybe. Were blood types a thing here?