The Throne of the Devoured God

Rules of the Beast

The dark does not give you allies,it only introduces you to larger monsters.

The remaining two three eyed wolves did not even have the time to yelp before they were flattened into the black mud. The massive, scaly claw that had crushed them like ripe fruit belonged to a creature that looked barely human. Standing over eight feet tall, the giant shadow stepped completely into the dim green light given off by the glowing fungus on the cavern walls. His skin was a mottled patchwork of thick gray scales and heavy, knotted scar tissue that bunched around his enormous joints. Half of his face was horribly swollen, covered in crude iron plates stitched directly into his jaw and cheekbones with rusted wire. He carried a heavy iron club that dragged along the ground, sparking violently every time it struck the discarded, rusted weapons scattered across the floor.

"Fresh meat," the giant rumbled, his voice deep, hollow, and sounding like grinding boulders in a collapsing mine. "Fresh meat falls from the top, and Hog always collects the scraps. The sky-dwellers feed me well today."

Lu Feng did not drop his broken bronze blade. He tightened his grip on the leather hilt despite the filth covering his hands, his steady gaze tracing the immense reach of the giant's muscular arms. He stood his ground on the unstable garbage pile, refusing to show any vulnerability.

"You are not a beast," Lu Feng said, his voice cold and completely level. "You are a man. Or at least you used to be before they threw you down here."

Hog laughed, a horrific, hacking sound that rattled the loose bones in the nearby mounds of garbage. He spit a glob of thick, dark blood onto the flattened remains of the wolves.

"Man? Gladiator," Hog shouted, pounding his massive chest with his free fist. "I was the champion of the lower arenas until the high lords grew bored of my face and my styles. Now I rule the trash. I rule the bottom of the world. And you are standing directly on my food, little rat."

Without another word of warning, Hog swung his massive iron club horizontally. The heavy weapon tore through the thick, stagnant air with terrifying speed, creating a violent gust of wind that whistled sharply through the cavern.

Lu Feng anticipated the trajectory based purely on the shifting of the giant's hips. He dropped his weight down instantly, sliding low into the wet, greasy mud as the iron club smashed cleanly through the skeletal mountain behind him. The impact shattered ancient beast ribs and human skulls, sending a massive shower of white bone fragments raining down across the floor.

"You are fast for a dying boy," Hog grunted, recovering his balance with surprising speed for his massive size. He pulled the club back, lifting the weapon high above his head, aiming to bring it down vertically to crush Lu Feng into a paste against the stone floor. "But you cannot dodge forever in my house. The mud will catch your feet eventually."

Lu Feng scrambled backward on his hands and knees, his boots kicking up loose dirt, gravel, and shards of scrap iron. He quickly regained his footing, his eyes scanning the giant's heavy frame.

"I do not need to dodge forever," Lu Feng replied, his breath steady despite the close call. "I just need you to miss once."

"I do not miss," Hog roared, slamming the club down with absolute fury.

The ground shattered beneath the immense impact, throwing up a cloud of sharp stone chips and dark mud. Lu Feng rolled desperately to the right, the resulting shockwave tossing his light body into a pile of old, rusted shields. He rose quickly, his mind completely calm despite the chaos. He looked down at the foot-long shard of bronze in his hand, realizing that his weapon was simply too short to pierce the thick, calcified scales covering Hog's chest and stomach. He needed to get closer. He had to get inside the giant's defensive reach to find a soft spot.

Hog lunged forward immediately, abandoning the club for a moment to throw a massive, heavy left fist straight toward Lu Feng's head. The fist was as large as a boulders, moving fast enough to break a stone wall.

Instead of ducking or stepping aside, Lu Feng made a calculated, terrifying decision. He raised his own left arm, deliberately placing it directly in the path of the giant's oncoming punch to anchor the giant in place.

The impact was sickening. The sound of Lu Feng's arm bones fracturing into multiple jagged pieces echoed clearly through the quiet spaces of the cavern. The sheer, unyielding force of the blow shattered his wrist and splintered his forearm, instantly bending his limb backward into an unnatural, horrific angle.

Hog grinned widely, his yellow teeth bared, expecting the boy to scream in agony, fall to his knees, and beg for a quick death. "Got you, little rat. Your running ends here."

But Lu Feng did not scream. He did not even blink. Thanks to the numbing ice of the Devoured Titan pulsing through his black veins, his facial expression remained perfectly calm, completely dead. The absolute, total absence of pain allowed him to use the giant's moment of triumph against him. While his left arm hung completely broken, ruined, and useless, Lu Feng used his steady right hand to snatch a long, jagged piece of shattered beast bone from the debris pile beside his hip.

Before Hog could pull his massive fist back, or even realize why the boy wasn't crying out in pain, Lu Feng leaped forward, closing the final distance between them in a heartbeat. He drove the sharp, pointed end of the beast bone directly into the soft, unscaled flesh of Hog's thick throat.

The bone sank deep, severing the giant's windpipe and slicing through his major vessels.

Hog's eyes widened in sheer, absolute disbelief. The grin vanished from his face. He dropped his iron club, his massive hands flying to his neck as dark, thick blood began to well up rapidly over his thick fingers, staining his gray scales. He stumbled backward, his legs shaking under his immense weight as his breath turned into a wet, choking rattle.

"How?" Hog gasped, air escaping from the wound in his neck. "You didn't... you didn't feel it. I broke your bones."

"I told you before," Lu Feng said, his voice cold as ice as he stood over the staggering giant, his broken left arm dangling limply at his side. "I survived the fall from the palace. Your punches do not hurt me anymore. Pain is a luxury for the living."

Hog collapsed onto his knees, the heavy impact vibrating through the mud. His massive frame shook violently as the light began to rapidly fade from his three normal eyes and his stitched face. He stared up at Lu Feng with a mixture of raw terror and sudden, deep respect.

"The pit," Hog whispered, his voice fading into a bloody whistle. "The pit will eat you alive, boy. There are worse things than me down here."

"Let it try," Lu Feng whispered.

As Hog's massive head finally slumped forward, hitting the wet mud with a heavy thud, a strange, terrifying phenomenon occurred. The black veins on Lu Feng's right arm began to pulse aggressively, glowing with a faint, oily purple light. The wound on his left arm began to itch with an intense, icy cold.

A thick, swirling cloud of black smoke rose directly from Hog's fresh corpse, hovering in the air for a brief second like a living entity. Before Lu Feng could step back, the dark mist rushed forward, pouring straight into his mouth, nose, and open wounds.

Lu Feng’s eyes snapped wide open as his jaw locked.

Lu Feng suddenly gasps as twenty years of Hog's brutal combat memories flood his brain, making his muscles twitch with new muscle memory. Every arena fight, every strike, and every kill Hog had ever executed carved itself directly into Lu Feng's mind, re-aligning his instincts in an instant.