I circled the corpse with the moss ball in hand, its faint greenish glow casting eerie shadows that danced along the jagged cave walls. The monster’s frame leaned more toward humanoid, with broad shoulders and a muscled build, but its proportions were grotesquely wrong.

  The limbs were massive, built for brute strength, while its legs seemed too short to properly support its oversized torso. Judging by its hunched posture, this thing likely used its long, thick arms to balance as it moved—slow, deliberate, crushing anything in its path.

  I snorted, the absurd proportions pulling a wry grin to my face.

  “Never skip leg day, huh?”

  The humor eased the knot of tension in my chest, if only for a moment. Still, a chill ran down my spine.

  Its legs were too short to match the oversized torso, but the bulk of its upper body left no doubt—Speed wasn’t this thing’s weapon; brute force was. If it had been fully functional, it could’ve torn me apart like paper.

  With a sigh, I climbed onto its chest, testing the leathery hide beneath me. It was firm, almost unnervingly so, stretched taut over what felt like steel beams. Even with my full weight pressing down, the ribcage didn’t budge.

  “This thing’s built like a damn fortress,” I muttered, tapping my knuckles against its chest. The dull, heavy sound sent an uneasy ripple through me.

  The thought made me uneasy. Survival wasn’t a guarantee. If this was the kind of creature I was up against, I needed to know how to kill it—and quickly.

  Gripping one of the bone blades I’d harvested earlier, I planted my feet firmly on its chest. With a decisive motion, I drove the blade into its sternum.

  The hide split with a wet, tearing sound and I dragged the blade downward, carving a jagged line from its chest to its abdomen. As the incision widened, the stench of rot hit me like a battering ram.

  “Ugh, hell.” I grimaced, pulling my tattered shirt over my nose in an attempt to block out the smell.. It barely helped.

  I widened the incision, slicing through layers of dense muscle. Each cut released another wave of foul air, thick and cloying. Forcing myself to focus, I leaned in, holding the moss ball closer to inspect the creature’s insides.

  Its rib cage was massive, the curved bones thick and reinforced like steel girders. The heart, nestled low between dense muscle layers, was almost reptilian in design—elongated and grotesquely overdeveloped, as though two hearts had fused together.

  The muscle tissue around it was dense, probably pumping blood through this massive thing’s body with immense force, another clear indication of mutation in this monster, hope it's just this one.

  “Built like a fucking tank,” I muttered, my voice muffled under the makeshift mask.

  Stretching my neck and shoulders, I cracked my stiff joints, forcing myself to focus.

  The stink still clung to the air, thick and suffocating. I leaned back, wiping the sweat from my forehead, my mind racing with the possibilities. I needed to understand what I was up against.

  Studying this thing wasn’t just a morbid curiosity, it was survival. I needed to understand what I was up against and worst of all is the next part I need to check what this ugly fuck eats.

  “Not gonna be fun,” I muttered, wrapping strips of torn fabric around my hands for makeshift gloves.

  Leaning back into the chest cavity, I searched for the stomach. My fingers moved carefully, tracing the slick interior until I found the bloated organ. It was swollen, heavy, and covered in a slimy membrane.

  Steeling myself, I plunged my hands back into the cavity, gripping the stomach. It squelched beneath my touch, the texture slimy and unnerving. With a quick slice from the bone blade, I severed it free and pulled it out. The wet, squelching sound made my stomach churn.

  “Disgusting,” I muttered, setting the organ carefully on the ground.

  With one swift motion, I sliced the stomach open.

  Even with the rag over my face, I gagged, bile rising in my throat as the half-digested contents spilled onto the cave floor.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Chunks of flesh, bones, and indistinguishable remains oozed from the opening, mixing with the dark, acrid fluid. I squatted down, holding the moss ball closer to the mess, trying to make sense of what this thing had been eating.

  I squatted down, my moss ball casting a faint greenish light over the heap of gore, trying to make sense of what this thing had been eating.

  Fish bones—long and needle-like—poked through the pile, alongside scraps of scales and fins.

  “At least I might have something to eat,” I muttered. “All I need is confirmation of a water source.”

  But then something else tumbled out—which made my blood run cold.

  An eyeball.

  It rolled across the ground, perfectly intact, its surface coated in mucus. My breath caught as I stared at it, heart pounding. Its shape—its slit pupil—was unmistakable.

  A slit pupil. The same shape as the monster's own.

  I after some hesitation picked it up, holding it closer to the moss ball to get a better look. The eyeball was too familiar. The same reptilian iris, the same dull, sickly yellow. This thing, this monster was eating its own kind.

  The realization made my stomach churn. Cannibalism.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, dropping the eyeball and wiping my hands on the rags wrapped around my wrists.

  If these creatures were willing to turn on each other, it meant two things. First, they were either desperate or ruthless enough to consume their own. And second—there were more of them out there.

  I clenched my fists, forcing the nausea down. This wasn’t just survival anymore. I needed to prepare for whatever was coming.

  Focusing on the corpse, I began assessing what else I could salvage.

  First things first: the meat.

  The meat was quickly ruled out. Its mottled, discolored flesh reeked of decay, and rot had set into much of its torso. I wasn’t about to risk poisoning myself.

  “Yeah, no way I’m touching that.”

  The hide, however, was another story. While some sections were burned or rotted, patches of the leathery armor were intact. Running my fingers over one of the unburned areas, I tapped it again. The tough, flexible texture could be useful.

  “Leather…” I muttered, considering my options. “Could definitely get some from the chest, back, arms, and legs. It won’t be full-size pieces, but enough for smaller things. Grips, bandages, maybe a patch job for whatever clothes I can find.”

  Using the bone blade, I carefully sliced away strips of the hide, working around the decayed parts. The pieces were uneven and rough, but they’d serve their purpose.

  The pieces were irregular, but they'd serve a purpose. I worked steadily, moving to the arms and legs, harvesting whatever I could. The skin was thick, but beneath that, the flesh was softer, and I grimaced as each slice of the blade sent small waves of that rancid stench into the air.

  Next, I turned my attention to the claws. Long, jagged, and sharp, they extended like blades from the monster’s bony fingers. Each one was a natural weapon, more like a tool for killing than anything practical.

  “These things aren’t made for fine work with their hands,” I thought. “More like weapons than tools.”

  “These’ll make good knives,” I muttered, extracting them one by one. The larger claws would serve as weapons, while the smaller ones might work as needles, awls, or even throwing tools.

  "I'll take them all," I decided.

  I began methodically cutting each claw from the creature’s bony fingers, laying them aside one by one. Some of them broke off easily, but others required a bit more effort to dislodge. By the time I’d harvested the last claw, a small pile had formed beside me. My hands ached from the effort, but I wasn’t done yet.

  The bones came next—particularly the femur and humerus. They were large, sturdy, and surprisingly light. Hollow in some places, they could be used as containers or supports for tools.

  “Hollow bones… should be good for holding things. Maybe even storing water if I seal them right.”

  My mind was already working through the logistics as I set to work extracting the bones. The femur came free with a series of gruesome cracks as I cut through the tendons and muscle. I pulled it out and hefted it in my hands. It was light but strong. After repeating the process with the humerus, I laid the bones beside the rest of my harvested materials, already considering how to put them to use.

  The next thought was less pleasant but necessary. I grimaced at the idea of grinding the bones down for powder, but I knew it was an option. Bone powder could be useful for a number of things: calcium supplements, fire starters, and even as a rudimentary abrasive if I needed to sharpen something.

  “Fire,” I muttered, rubbing my chin. “I could definitely use some bone powder for that.”

  As for the bone marrow itself, I wasn’t going to risk it. There was no telling what kind of mutations or toxins this monster might carry. But fat, fat could be useful for starting fires, and it might be safe enough if I was careful. I knelt down beside the corpse again, beginning the slow, methodical process of extracting whatever I could.

  I worked in silence, occasionally glancing at the mess around me. The blood and organs were of no use to me, and I had no desire to test their properties. The less I dealt with the creature’s insides, the better.

  Still, as disgusting as the process was, I’m learning something important, something vital about these monsters.

  Finally, when I was done, I stood up and surveyed the pile of harvested materials. Leather, claws, bones, and a few other bits and pieces that might prove useful down the line. It wasn’t much, but it was more than I’d had before.

  “This’ll do,” I said softly, my voice the only sound in the cavernous space. I felt a strange sense of satisfaction, despite the grotesque nature of the task I’d just completed. It was as though every step I took, every part I harvested, brought me a little closer to surviving. A little closer to answers.

  I took a deep breath, the foul air burning my lungs, and let it out slowly. My mind wandered to my family—Mom, Aunt Nora, Ari. I would find them. I would get stronger. But right now I need to set inventory right and make the blades usable in a fight.

  The better prepared I am, the faster I will be able to get out and reach back to my family.

  04 / 08 chapters for launch day!

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