The Bone Mantis didn't scream like a living creature.
When my bile struck its smooth dome, the sound was a crystalline fracture, like a thousand glass needles snapping at once. The predator recoiled violently, its long limbs thrashing against the black moss and carving deep trenches through the rot.
I didn't stay to admire the damage.
Nothing in the Rotting Forest died that easily.
The system flickered across my vision.
[BIOMASS RESERVES: 4.8kg]
[STABILITY: 83%]
The energy inside me felt unstable.
The biomass I had ripped from the vulture churned in my core like molten metal. My translucent skin stretched tight as veins pulsed a violent purple beneath the surface.
The Gene Weaver was struggling to process the scavenger's DNA.
I wasn't absorbing the biomass.
I was barely containing it.
The mantis recovered faster than anything had a right to.
The green glow inside its head dimmed, then surged back to life, this time burning a furious red.
Its limbs steadied.
Its attention locked onto me again.
The predator was done studying.
Now it wanted to dissect.
A cold prompt appeared in my mind.
[EVOLUTION PATHS DETECTED]
[SELECT PRIMARY MUTATION]
Two choices hovered in my vision.
Reaper Limb
Serrated bone blade optimized for high speed strikes.
Void Lung
Gas propulsion organ optimized for escape.
I looked at the mantis.
It was fast.
Too fast.
My heavy back plates already dragged across the moss whenever I tried to move.
Running wasn't an option.
If I didn't become dangerous, I was already dead.
I chose the blade.
[COMMENCING RAPID MUTATION: REAPER LIMB – LEFT]
[Biomass Cost: 3.4kg]
[Stability Penalty: –18%]
Pain erased the forest.
My left claw shattered.
The three chitin prongs cracked apart with a wet snapping sound as the bone beneath them split and reformed. The limb twisted violently as new growth forced its way outward.
From the wreckage emerged a curved blade of pale bone.
Nine inches of serrated edge pushed through my skin, dripping with thick black fluid, the concentrated genetic residue of the vulture's predatory traits.
The blade hardened instantly in the open air.
It felt heavy.
Too heavy.
The new weight pulled my entire body sideways.
System warnings flashed.
[STABILITY: 65%]
[FRAME STRESS: HIGH]
The mantis attacked.
It moved like a broken piece of geometry snapping back into place.
One moment it stood across the clearing.
The next, a serrated forelimb was slicing toward my head.
My mind froze.
But the Reaper Limb didn't.
The mutation carried instinct with it.
My body pivoted automatically, using the jagged plates on my back as leverage. The bone blade swung upward in a desperate arc.
Bone struck bone.
Clang.
The sound cracked through the forest like a gunshot.
My blade bit deep into the mantis's middle joint.
Green luminescent fluid exploded into the air.
The predator shrieked.
Not a roar.
A sharp mechanical screech of pure shock.
In this patch of forest, the mantis had never been challenged.
Now something smaller than its own forelimb had cut it open.
The recoil nearly killed me.
The impact shuddered through the blade and into my fragile core.
Something inside my torso shifted painfully.
[WARNING: ORGAN CLUSTER DISPLACED]
[STABILITY: 58%]
The weapon was killing me.
The Reaper Limb was too advanced for my current body.
Every movement strained my fragile frame.
The mantis staggered back, its wounded limb hanging uselessly. Green ichor dripped steadily into the moss.
But it wasn't retreating.
It was adapting.
The red slit in its head narrowed.
Its thorax clicked rapidly as it recalculated the threat.
Then both remaining forelimbs lifted.
A pincer strike.
It would pin me.
Dissect me.
End the fight.
My system displayed my remaining reserves.
[REMAINING BIOMASS: 1.4kg]
Not enough for another full evolution.
I was out of strength.
Out of stability.
Out of time.
The command left my mind before I could think it through.
System.
Give me the lung.
The response came immediately.
[INSUFFICIENT BIOMASS FOR FULL EVOLUTION]
[INITIATING PARTIAL GENE GRAFT]
[Mutation: Pressurized Void Sac – INCOMPLETE]
Cold pain bloomed in my chest.
A hollow cavity formed between my ribs, an organ that wasn't truly a lung but something stranger a vacuum chamber pulling air inward with unnatural force.
The pressure built instantly.
My skin sagged as the unstable organ began draining the surrounding atmosphere.
System warnings flooded my vision.
[STRUCTURAL STRAIN CRITICAL]
[STABILITY: 51%]
My body was no longer a stable organism.
I was a collection of incompatible mutations barely held together by the system's will.
The mantis lunged.
Both forelimbs descended toward me in a perfect killing arc.
I didn't raise the blade.
I opened my central pore.
And released the pressure.