Leone saw may things in her life, even if she was only 25. Dangerous monsters, horrible experiments, disgusting murders and even more disgusting places… But what she was looking at now… Seemed like a combination of all four. Attached to the ceiling of the Archive was a giant… Fleshy… Blob-thingy that seemed to somehow be alive. Or at the very least, it was moving. It had giant tentacles attached to the ceiling it hung from, each as thick as a large building. She could see no mouth, or even eyes on the creature, but she knew it could feel that she was here. And it was not happy with her presence.

To say Leone was deeply disturbed by it was a grave understatement. It was as if to claim Honest was an innocent puppy, or that Esdeath was a peace-angel. And the reason was simple. This thing was almost entirely made from human flesh. Looking at the size of the damn thing there needed to be tens of thousands of people used to create it. I guess the Empire was capable of cruelty even long before Honest… As her new pet continued to approach, she started to wonder why she didn't see this monstrosity before. Her eyes allow her to see in the dark after all, at least to a large extent, and yet she saw nothing but an empty ceiling before now. Maybe it's some sort of illusion? Smoke and mirrors or some other shit? Whatever it was, she had no way of knowing and other things to worry about instead.

Namely, the fact that she noticed small cocoons all over the underside of the blob. Some still growing out of the mass of flesh. Before long, some of them started to open, revealing more of the flying Danger Beasts that looked exactly like the one she was riding. As soon as they were out of their cocoons, they shook themselves clean of some green goo they were covered in and flew towards her. This thing needed to be destroyed, and Leone knew it, but it sure as hell wasn't going to go down without a fight.

As soon as the first of the new hostiles reached her, she forced her Beast to fly lower. The other Best's claws caught nothing but air and with said claws in Leone's range, she grabbed one of them and pulled the thing down, squeezing the claw so hard she broke its bone. She then did the same to the wing, making the Beast fall down into the abyss below. It wasn't long before she realized she's not exactly in the best position possible. She was basically god knows how far above the bottom of the Archive with only one fragile Danger Beast to keep her up in the air. If said Beast was taken down and there were no others in range for her to grab, she was pretty much screwed and on a one-way trip down towards oblivion.

She needed to make sure that won't happen. The other Beasts were already in hot pursuit after her, and neither one of them was carrying anybody on their back to slow them down. It was only a matter of time before they catch up. And to make things worse, there were more of them coming out of their cocoons with each second. This is bad. Very bad. The fuck am I supposed to do!? Well, as she always liked to say, punching things is usually the best solution for most situations. And what better way is there to getting rid of a pursuers then to punch them really hard?

The tactic sounded great to her. She mentally patted herself on the back and immediately made her Beast turn around and charge straight at the swarm that was sitting on their tail. "Come on! Fly faster!" She had her foot on its head as she got her arms ready for some punching. If it had any protests it didn't try to voice them. There was a wide grin on Leone's face. The kind that would put fear into minds of most opponents. She could feel her arms itching for some fight, even more so then they usually did. Probably because of how excited she was about to finally give her new body a proper test run. And once she saw what it is capable of, she just couldn't help but grin even more.

The first Beast that was on her way had its head completely obliterated. Bits of flesh and bone exploded onto other Beasts nearby, hitting them with so much force that some were downright knocked out of the air. That included her Beast of course, but it quickly managed to correct it's course like other ones did. "Keep flying forward!" She ordered it before jumping forward into the swarm she was facing. Her claws tore into the first Beast that got into range, piercing it's flesh. She opened its throat before jumping towards another one so fast that blood didn't even start to pour out of the first one.

She landed on its back, smashing her fist into Beast that was flying right above it and doing the same to the one she was standing on. As she was falling, she grabbed one by the wing and used it to propel herself back up, slashing her claws at anything that was in her range before landing on another of the Beasts. She advanced forward like that, clearing path for her own Beast until she was at the end of the swarm. With one final jump, that was strong enough to shatter a wing of a Beast she landed on before, she landed on the back of her own Beast. "Fuck yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

Looking back, she noticed that the whole swarm was in a disarray after her stunt. She needed to use that opening to get in closer to the damned blob. "Come on Gorge! Go to that thing as fast as you can!" The Beats listened and obediently stared to flop it's wings as fast as it could. "I'm gonna call you Gorge, is that alright?" It Shrieked, seemingly accepting it's new name. "Alright, now gun it!" There were still more Beasts coming from the blob but they were not fast enough to stop them. Soon enough, Leone jumped onto the surface of the blob and grabbed onto it with her claws. "Shit! That thing smells!" She turned to Gorge. "Hide somewhere and wait for my signal. You'll pick me up."

It shrieked again before flying away. The other Beasts seemed to completely ignore him, immediately flying straight at her with their claws ready to pull her away from what she assumed was their mother. Or whatever the hell this thing was meant to be besides being wrecked by her. Their efforts were for nothing though. As soon as they were close enough, she pulled herself up so hard she was almost by the ceiling when her momentum run out while the stupid things just smashed their sharp claws into the flesh of the blob, effectively getting themselves stuck in it. All their attempts to free themselves proved to be fruitless as the flesh completely engulfed their claws and held them there.

Not all of them got stuck like that though, and once they located her again the pursuit started again. They were far away from her though. Far enough for her to do some thinking at least.

She knew she has to get rid of that blob but the exact method of doing it was a problem. Mainly because of just how huge it was. The diameter of the Archive was counted in kilometers, and the damned thing was taking half of the ceiling at least. The way she saw it, there were only two ways to get the job done without having Akame here to just stab it dead with her sword. Option A, was to get rid of the tentacles that it was using to keep itself attached to the ceiling. Without them it would just fall and get splashed on the bottom floor. Option B was to get inside of it and kill it from the inside. It must have had something like a heart, she could hear that there was blood flowing under the surface and slashing some of it open revealed that she was right. There was technically a third option which was breaking the ceiling, but she couldn't do that. Who knows what might happen to the whole Archive if she just decides to smash it to pieces from the top. Najenda sure as hell wouldn't be happy if she broke something important, so that left her with only two other options.

Problem was, that she had no idea how to get either of them done.

The tentacles were huge in their own right and probably very strong seeing that they can hold all of that mass above ground and finding anything inside of all this was going to be worse than searching for a needle in a pile of hay. With the needle you can always just burn the hay down and search what's left after that, what was she supposed to burn here? And that is without mentioning the problem of getting inside in the first place.

As she was thinking, the Beasts have caught up to her. This time they were trying to surround her from all sides, but that wasn't going to work. All Leone did to counter that was to let go of the lump of flesh she was holding and smashing her foot into any Beast that was on her way down. Deciding it was better idea to try taking care of the tentacles first, she grabbed one of the Beasts that was on her way and forced it's wings open with her arms. It didn't seem like she was going to have any luck 'seducing' any of the Bests being this close to the blob so she didn't bother with it.

She glided towards the closest tentacle, jumping on top of it right after snapping the Beast's neck. For her fist strike, she used the momentum her fall generated in order to increase the force of the attack. She smashed both of her hands against the fleshy surface, splashing the softer tissue around the area. It fell onto some of the Beasts that were close to her, sticking to them and making each lose control over their trajectory. As a result, the ones that were unable to shake the tissue off themselves in time, smashed right into the tentacle's side, breaking their necks and wings. The ones that did manage to save themselves, were met with Leone's fists while the rest seemed smart enough to not approach her without a plan and simply circled around her.

Looking at her own handiwork, Leone saw that instead of soft flesh, she was now standing on that seemed like a muscle. A very strong muscle.

All tentacles must have been made from that. They were probably the only places on the whole blob that were not protected with bone, as she could feel it when she was holding onto it before. And that meant this was probably her best and possibly only entrance point if she were to decide to search for something to break inside of it. And even if there was no way for her to get inside through the tentacle, she still could dig through the muscle until she can rip it off. Either way, it's gonna take me a while… Guess I'll better get to it. She dug her hand into the muscle tissue and ripped out as much as she could, taking out a massive chunk of flesh that she immediately threw at the Beasts flying above her. I wonder if Tatsumi will come and help me?


Loud thuds started to suddenly ring throughout the bottom level as dead Danger Beasts begun falling down and splattering against the surface. Tatsumi quickly guessed that is must have been Leone's doing. She probably found the actual nest and got around to smashing it. I must get up there and help her. He turned towards the two man behind him. Kazuto was still tending to Gab's wounds, so it was going to take a while before they can move out. And even when they do, there was no way he would get to Leone anytime soon with them tagging along. He couldn't just go on ahead and leave them alone behind regardless of whether they were going to slow him down or not. That was just not how he did things.

Leone will have to deal with this on her own for now, but he wasn't really concerned for her safety. She was more than capable of handling herself, and the sheer amount of Beasts that continue to fall down is a testament to that.

Besides, he had other things to deal with. Ignoring the thuds made by the falling Beasts, there was one other source of noise that he's become aware of soon before meeting with Gab. There was one Beast left on this level that was still alive. And it was unlike the ones they've been fighting along the way. Those ones were cannon fodder to him, posing no real danger and amounting to little more then an annoyance. But this one… It was an enemy he couldn't allow himself to underestimate. He could hear its roars as it continuously smashed against the metal gate that kept it away. And as tough as those gates were, it was only a matter of time before they fall.

He had to take care of it and fast. Escaping won't do a thing, the Beast is already onto them and the two soldiers won't be able to escape considering it is bound to follow them even if they are high up. Gab and Kazuto won't be able to outrun it, and even if he were to carry them, all he would do is delay the innevadible fight, possibly even putting himself at a disadvantage. "I'm going to take care of the Beast that attacked Mr. Gab." He said as he turned to face them. Gab didn't seem to think highly of the idea. "I'll keep it busy while you two get back to the top as fast as you can. My friend is already dealing with the nest, help her if you can, if not, just take Asako and get out of here." He doubted they would manage to even reach Asako by the time this fight will be over, let alone to the top of the Archive. All he needed is to get them to leave the area and not get in the way.

"Now wait just a second!" Gab grabbed Tatsumi's shoulder just as he was about to leave. "You can't fight this thing! It's too strong for anyone to take it on, you're just going to die like Akira did!"

The boy pushed his hand away. "Don't worry, I can handle it. If you two get out, get to General Najenda and tell her to send more people to secure this place. We should be able to wrap thing up here by then." He looked up. Bodies continued to fall like raindrops, covering the bottom floor with splattered guts… Leone must be having a blast up there… Before Gab could protest more, Kazuto stopped him and started to drag with him. The old man knew well enough what Tatsumi is capable of and that he knows what he's doing. He also needed to deliver the bad news to Asako… Hopefully she has already accepted Akira's death as a possibility.

"Come on Gab, we can trust this kid. He's better than a platoon of commandos, he can handle himself, we'd just be in his way." Tatsumi only nodded at that and jumped over the railing. He landed on the stone floor, which was now getting slippery under his feet thanks to blood and guts left by all of the fallen Beasts. This place was soon going to become an arena for Tatsumi's first real fight since his merging with Tyrant, the first test for his abilities. By his estimates, his opponent was a Super-Class Danger Beast and an ancient one at that. A worthy pray for any hunter.

It knew he was after it. Just as Tatsumi was getting ready to rush forward, the Beast roared at him and finally brought the gate down with a final blow. Wasting no time, it rushed straight at him, recognizing him as a threat that needed to be dealt with first before it goes after the others. Good. You're all mine now. Tatsumi did the same, rushing straight at his opponent as fast as he could. Before long they were both only around 50 meters apart and Tatsumi was finally able to properly judge exactly what his foe is.

It had an appearance akin to that of an Earth Dragon, but its arms were not suited for digging. It also wasn't quite as large in size, only reaching around 20 meters in height. It's arms were longer than that though, forcing it to bend them slightly to not drag them on the ground. Both arms were ended with a large hand that could easily smash a large cart into pieces with one strike, with three fingers on them, each with a giant claw on it. He will have to watch out for those. They seemed to be extremely nimble and strong at the same time judging by how the muscles under the layer of skin that covered them moved. A first degree meeting with them may be rather painful, even for Tatsumi. It had a flat muzzle, not meant to attack but only to process food, even though it's teeth were clearly sharp. This was not going to be a problem.

He knew what the Beast was, or at least what it was called. A Vancor. Formerly one of the most common predators seen in the areas formerly belonging to southern tribes, now a forgotten relic of the past, hunted into extinction like many Danger Beasts of its kind. The similarity to Earth Dragons is not accidental as both species derive from a common ancestor.

With half of the remaining distance crossed in a single step, Tatsumi halted in place just before the Beast smashed it's arm against the ground. Seeing its attack fail, it immediately swiped it's other hand over the floor, throwing rocks into the air and forcing Tatsumi to evade. He jumped up, only for the Beast to attempt grabbing him. That move was anticipated though. The boy grabbed onto the Beast's finger just before it reached him, using it to propel himself towards the attacker's head. He gave it a strong punch to the jaw, but only made it stagger for a second. By the time Tatsumi was back on the ground, it was already about to stomp him under its massive leg.

He jumped away, only to engulf the Beast in flames. The red flames touched its brown scales, wrapping around them like vines. It quickly turned out to be a pointless exercise though. The moment he stopped throwing fire at it, forced to dodge Beast's arm again instead, Tatsumi noticed that his attack did nothing against the Beast's natural armor. Its scales shined with the heat, but were left completely undamaged, just is the Beast itself.

It probably would die from overheating if he kept this up for long enough, but his opponent was not going to make it easy for him. Just as he thought, it's arms were extremely nimble and hard to maneuver around. It could easily keep him at a distance and not allow him to overuse his flames or even get a good punch in. It was keeping him at an arm's length as after the first punch it must have realized that Tatsumi's strength was a large threat and decided to wait for him to get tired before focusing on pressing an offense. The thing was smart, he had to give it that, but naive at the same time. Jumping around was not going to tire him out as quickly as it probably would have liked and he still got enough opportunities to throw some punches and actually make them connect to kill it sooner or later.

However, knowing what the Beast is waiting for meant that Tatsumi could use it to his advantage. He intentionally started to gradually slow down, make his attacks feel weaker, make small mistakes, all to give the Beast a false idea that it's winning. It wasn't long before Tatsumi seemingly got smacked with the Beast's hand and was thrown away. He wasn't actually hit, he simply allowed the Beast to push him away and made it look as if it scored a hit. The thing naturally fall for it, deciding that it's finally time to attack.

It rushed at him with its arms up in the air, ready to smash him into a puddle. Tatsumi could almost see some form of smuggish grin in its expression a moment before it's arms connected with the ground, only for it to disappear completely with Tatsumi suddenly rushing forward at full speed and jumping onto its head. He forced the Beast's mouth open and ignoring the less then pleasant smell that reached his nose, got ready to breath fire into it. Its scales and thick skin may be protecting it on the outside, but the inside was a different story. He could easily melt if from the inside or burn it's lungs so it suffocates, but… Neither of that happened.

He suddenly felt a strange smell coming from inside of the Beast's mouth that was not its bad breath. It smells like…Acid! With that realization, he quickly jumped away from it, just in time to avoid having his face burned away as the Beast spat the acidic liquid at him from a gland inside its mouth that he only now noticed. "Gh!" Despite his seemingly successful dodge, some of the acid still reached him. When he landed back on the ground, he grabbed onto his left arm as the substance burned it, releasing smoke into the air. It went straight through his arm, stopping on the ground and leaving it untouched. Looking back at his arm he saw that his both scales and bones were left untouched despite the acid touching them.

It seemed like the acid only affects living tissue… This must be why it didn't try to burn the metal gate with it.

Regardless, now that he was at an actual disadvantage, the Beast pressed it's attack once again, successfully forcing Tatsumi to go on the defense and commit to it for now. As nimble and agile as its arms were though, Tatsumi was faster than they were. Even with his arm disabled and struggling against the pain he was more than fast enough to get away from anything the Beast threw at him. He only needed to do this until his arm heals all the way. Once that happens, he will be able to counterattack again.

Still, the wait was a pain, and his enemy wasn't making it more bearable. He actually found himself struggling to keep the Beast from getting him more than once. With its acid reveled, it gladly continued to shoot it towards Tatsumi and cover the floor with to prevent him from moving too much. However, he soon learned that he can counter that tactic simply by burning the acid with his flames and turning it into gas. This was not a perfect solution though. having hot, poisonous has flying towards your face was not something he could just tank with no repercussions.

The Beast tried to obstruct his vision by smashing it's arms all over the ground to make the dust from the broken floor lift into the air. It only managed to surprise him though, not even when it grabbed the rubble from the ground and tried to throw it at him did it manage to hit him. And he was starting to feel his arm again, meaning it was healed enough to be used again. The Beast naturally didn't need to know that. Again, Tatsumi started to purposefully hold himself back more and more, this time appearing even more convincing than before. He eventually allowed his opponent to slam him into the floor. And just like before, it caught the bait. Thinking his lack of movement meant its victory, it moved in to grab him. He was soon hanging in the air, held in the Vancor's claws, right above its open mouth.

And then, just as the Beast was about to claim its reward, Tatsumi filled its stomach with flames instead of himself. In just a fraction of a second he reopened his eyes and breathed out fire so hot the inside of Vancor's mouth melted almost instantly. It threw him away just as quickly, but the damage was already done, and as Tatsumi gracefully landed back on the ground, he was met with a sight of his opponent slowly suffocating to death. It was clawing at its throat, trying to make air reach its lungs again, unaware that they are nothing but charred rocks now. It was almost pitiful to look at. With a single dash, Tatsumi moved right next to its chest and smashed his fist into it. The shockwave this created has shattered the Beast's lungs into pieces that then started to cut into other organs, including its heart.

From then all that was left was to watch as the mighty Beast falls onto the ground, not even capable of drawing its final breath.

Tatsumi's sigh rang through the empty area around him. "That sure was a pain… To think that the Empire has things like that guarding every single of those storage chambers… How the hell were they kept fed all this time?" It's not like those Beasts could just go and hunt on their own for those thousands of years they've spent down here. Perhaps some sort of genetic modification? That was the only option that seemed viable to him, even though he himself couldn't comprehend how something like that would work.

He didn't let that bother him though. There was something else that deserved his attention right now. Namely, the Vancor's mouth and what its covered in. It was blood obviously, but there was something strange about it, but the boy couldn't put his finger on it until he came over to the Beast and took a closer look. That's when he realized what was wrong.

It was not fresh.


"Would you fuckers just let me work in peace!?" Leone screamed in anger, smacking yet another Beast in the face so hard it flew right into the wall that was nearly a kilometer away with a force of a cannonball, taking a few of its friend's with it. You would think they'd learn by now… Those things apparently had little to no sense of self-preservation, which did make sense to her as she was very much aware she's dealing with clones, even though it pissed her off to no end. Just when she thought she managed to scare them off, it turned out they were simply waiting until more of them comes. They tried to swarm her again, obviously with no effects, but with enough dedication that it forced her to temporarily stop digging into that damn tentacle.

Something she was honestly getting tired of by now. Not physically, but rather mentally. She may have been going at it pretty fast, but it was such a monotone job she actually wished she was fighting two Esdeaths instead. So as one might imagine, the happiness she felt when she finally reached something was immense, to say the least. And then it immediately evaporated into thin air as she felt what was possibly the worst smell she has felt in her entire life. It was worse than smelling a dead rat that has spent a month in some hobo's shit filled pants after being dipped in Daundaun's guts. Boy, do those things smell...

It took her a good while before she managed to get used to the smell enough to even look at what she had actually reached.

What she saw, was a hole inside of the tentacle, easily large enough for her to move in it without having to even lower her head. She almost immediately jumped down into it, struggling to not throw up. The Beasts on the outside couldn't get inside through the little hole she made, but that didn't mean there was no danger waiting for her here regardless. Or that they didn't try. Once she turned towards the hole, she saw one of them trying to squeeze inside, naturally getting stuck in the process. However, that bit, amusing as it was, quickly escaped her mind. A moment after her feet touched the fleshy 'floor', she was jumped by another type of Danger Beast. She saw corpses of those too when she was admiring Tatsumi's handiwork before, and with the same ease he appeared to be have had with them, she killed this one too, halting its attack with one hand and turning its head 180 degrees, thus snapping its neck.

Others quickly started to come out of the cocoons that hung on the walls, but for the most part she ignored them as she run forward as fast as she could. Whatever was controlling this place must have been at the end of that tunnel, and she was going to turn it into mush for all the problems it caused her. She had no time for the small fry.

"Come..." She suddenly halted. The Beasts did not attack her, only stood around her. "Come… Join us…" The Beasts suddenly moved aside, forming a path forward for her to follow.

Leone only blinked at that. "You gotta be fucking kidding me…"


Important Notice

I've set up a survey for what story people want me to make next. The link to it is on my account, along with a short description of all story concepts I came up with so far.

I'd appreciate if you folks voted, it will help me decide what to write after I'm done with this story (which is not close yet, just so you know).

Story of the day: Shinedown – Devour