novelraw Chapter 454: Bad Meat
Chapter 454: Bad Meat
Several of the smaller parasite samples in jars flexed harder, the cords inside them thrashed against the glass, driven by the larger one’s excitement.
It was like they were an extension to the one speaking at the moment.
"We will take you too," it went on. "You are more. Your flesh carries other teeth. Your bones carry other fire. We will wear you. We will walk through every city until we are all that remains. We will dominate this planet and everyone in it."
Her creature snapped. No. This thing does not get to exist. It is wrong. It is cheap. It ruins everything it touches.
Sera felt that decision settle in her bones.
The main host laughed. The sound came from his stomach again, a wet, layered noise. Saliva smeared down his chin. His human tongue lay useless behind his teeth.
"You are afraid," the parasite said. "You should be. We will turn your horde inside out. We will speak with your voice. We will eat with your mouth. We will—"
Sera stepped forward and grabbed the bars.
She did not shake them. She measured their strength, their weld points, their reinforcement angles and anchor bolts. Her hands saw those things the way her eyes saw movement.
"Zubair," she said, without raising her voice.
He moved to one side of the containment cage and placed his palm against the joint where bar met floor. Heat flowed out of him in a silent wave. The metal darkened. The reinforced glass behind it shivered.
Lachlan mirrored him on the opposite side and sent a focused charge through the melted sections. Hairline fractures crawled through the glass.
The parasite seemed to feel the cage weaken. Its tendrils spread wider around the host’s cavity, bracing against the ribs and spine. It did not back away. It pushed closer to the opening instead.
"You can open it," it said. "We will come to you faster."
Her creature laughed once. It thinks this is a game. It does not understand that you are not trying to set it free. You are trying to end it.
The glass cracked.
Alexei raised his hand and sent cold along the fractured lines. The temperature difference made the breaks worse. The pane exploded inward in a rain of shards. Bars bent under the combined strain of heat and force.
The parasite surged.
Tendrils shot forward through the opening, dragging the host with them. The restraints on his arms snapped and his feet scraped on the floor. The parasite wanted to reach her, to hook into her flesh and test the texture of her blood.
It wanted to dominate her and destroy her all at once.
But Sera did not step back.
She caught the first tendril in both hands. It was warm and slick, the surface flexing under her grip as it tried to twist away. Small hooks along its length scraped her palms, but her skin did not give.
Her creature held steady alongside her. Do not give it the opportunity. Hold. Break. Tear.
The parasite tried to wrap around her wrists. More cords piled behind the first, pushing it closer.
But Sera pulled.
The tendril stretched out, its internal fibers straining to bridge the distance between where it was and where it wanted to be. The host’s body jerked against the anchor points where the parasite dug into him.
Bones creaked and the cords that tied its core to his spine snapped one by one.
Then it screamed.
The sound came through the open wound and through the air vents all at once. Smaller parasites in the side cages thrashed harder. Some found weak spots in host flesh and tore free. They flung themselves against their cage bars, their barbs catching in any gap they found.
Luci lunged for the nearest cage. His jaws clamped down on a cord that had slipped through. He shook his head once. The parasite segment tore away and went limp. Its remaining body writhed uselessly inside.
Zubair stepped into the middle of the ring and raised both hands. Fire rolled out across the floor in a low path, licking along metal and concrete. It did not touch the bars directly, but the heat rose enough to bake the nearest parasites in their cages.
Their movements slowed as their surfaces blistered and split.
Lachlan focused on the containment room’s ceiling. Power lines ran there, feeding the equipment and life support. A concentrated burst from him fried the circuits feeding the incubation tanks. The fluid inside them began to heat, causing the parasites to boil in place.
Aerenyx stood where the airflow funneled through the room and breathed deep.
His powers answered the foreign signatures around him with a pressure all its own. Infection markers collapsed under that presence and, whatever gave the parasites resilience, could not hold shape in the field he put out.
Hosts that still had scraps of themselves jerked as the strain inside them withered. Parasites that had been halfway through a motion stopped and sloughed in soft heaps.
And still, the main parasite fought.
It twisted, driving more tendrils forward, as it tried to push past the one Sera held. The opening in the host’s stomach widened and more of its body emerged. The pits along its surface reddened as it fought to get to its target.
With a half smile, Sera yanked even harder.
The tendril in her hand tore free and a section of its main trunk came with it, tearing the host’s cavity wider.
Blood and fluid poured over the floor as the man’s body sagged as whatever structure the parasite gave his organs failed.
Sera flung the piece she had ripped away to the side.
Its surface quivered. Hooks scraped for purchase on the concrete.
Her creature regarded it. Try it. See what it is. Then we never waste time again.
She stepped on the twitching mass to pin it and crouched. Her hand closed over a smaller branch. She lifted it and bit down.
The taste hit her at once.
Rot. Chemical residue. Old lab air. The hint of something that had absorbed too many wrong things and tried to make them useful. No real depth. No clean fat. No proper heat.
Her creature recoiled. Spiteful little weed. Disgusting. Spit it out. It is not edible so it needs to die.
She spat it onto the floor without swallowing.
The parasite shuddered as if it felt the rejection.
"This is why no one eats you," Sera said. "You are bad meat."