Food Chain (Worm/Evolve Quest)

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\

They didn't find me when they opened the door, so my hiding spot is probably pretty solid, or solid enough to stay here for a little bit longer anyway. Meaning I don't have to concern myself with finding somewhere else to sleep right away, That matter settled for now, I mentally switch over to hunting and leave my long term worries for later to focus on an immediate issue. Food, or my lack there of.

Squeezing against the wall, I slide out of my little shelter and float down the slope and to the doors. I smell while peeking through one of the cracks that allow light into the box, but I don't see anything with my sight or smell. With a bit of effort, I push the door open enough to slip out, making sure to slowly close it behind me. My spines automatically stand a bit straighter, but the air is still, apart from my own movements, so I don't get any new information.

Now, where to actually start looking for a meal? This corner of the creature's nest is just more of these containers, and since there isn't the smell of any prey nearby, I assume that they are all full of weird bits of metal. Actually, the walls of this place are metal too, how did they do that? Unless they stole this nest from a metal maker and are eating it? Is that what all the little pieces are? Snacks? I've never even heard of a monster that ate metal alone, how do they get their nutrients? Shaking my head to dismiss the wild theories, this corner lacks anything, but there is still the rest of the place to check.

I leisurely glide to the next corner, past the fuzzy seat I saw earlier, constantly using all my senses to try and identify any prey or remnants thereof. This side of the really large nest is almost empty except for one room whose door is shut firmly. The handle is above me, and I could climb to it, but a sniff doesn't even give me a hint that there is prey inside, furthermore, just getting close to the door is starting to make my head hurt and my stomach tighten, so I decide against it.

Darting away, I move to the section that was too far away for me to see before, only to be met with more open space. The floor here is weird though, pressing my hand against it, it sort of pushes back. There are also some stacks of the painful technology, covered in weird dots of color that appear and then disappear at random, but otherwise seem to do nothing. I swim around this side but don't manage to find anything at all, where did they get that four-legged furry prey they gave me when I was still in the see-through cage?

Outside the nest! Of course, I'm not smelling any food because the gangly creatures aren't the sort to store food, so they must have hunted outside their nest! So to do a proper hunt, I'll have to get out and since I don't really have to worry about being loud right now, I chose to take the see-through doorway up high I saw before and avoid the painful technology by the ground door.

My claws and blades easily bite into the sides of the boxes, letting me climb up. For the metal wall, though, my claws can't bite into it, and my blades barely can, and doing so is loud and painful like I suspected it would be. But I manage, the angled bit gives me a space to rest and rub the bruised tips of my blades, though—

I hear the door slam open behind me, the one of the ground, and burst forward to the top adjacent building which is close enough to just float to. Crouching down, I subtly peak through the transparent wall and strain my hearing to listen as well, curiosity getting to me despite my lack of understanding. Both are covered in the bad stuff, which makes me duck out of sight so that I don't have to look at it.

"Clear!" I hear from the big one. "Check the recording like you talked about, I'll check the storage room. Motion trigger was basically going off everywhere, last I checked. And triple check, Armsmaster didn't put a fucking tracker on our shit." Their tone is filled with anger and fear.

Sound of very fast movement emanate though the opening I exited, so I decide that it is best to get moving myself, I'll come back later when they've left to hunt again. I race along the strangely rocky roof to the end, where I cross to the next one, since it is close enough to not need a quickened pace to cross, it is long enough that I can't even see the far end.

The air is strange, just like the creature's nest, there isn't really the smell of nature, but out here, there are small hints of it on the air, which only serve to highlight how absent it really is. There is a nice breeze, though, which helps to chase away the ache at the base of my spines.

After a few minutes I finally reach the end of this roof, and all the adjacent ones are too far for me to reach easily, though I can probably catch their walls during the fall and climb up. The pause in motion does prompt me to look around, and I temporarily stunned by what I can see. Most things devolve into blurs, too far away to focus on, but what I can see is so… artificial.

Straight lines and fake lights that I didn't even realize were illuminating the area for me to see in the first place. Where am I? Where are the trees? Is all of this one nest? That's absurd! Only the oldest of Behemoths have nests close this big, and I don't even smell a hint of one being nearby. There are sounds of animals in the distance as well, ones that don't sound like anything I could even picture the source of. What growls so loud for so long?

Hunger dislodges the panic that was starting to take hold, and I refocus on my hunt. I can explore later, for now I need to eat. A sniff gives me some faint traces of things in the distance. Below me are four paths, one headed back towards the pair and lacks a smell anyway, so I dismiss it. One has a sort of layered version of the rodent's smell. One doesn't actually lead me to the ground, but keeps me on the building's tops, something I've never smelled before. And there is the last path that doesn't actually have a smell coming from it, but it would take me further away from the nest behind me.

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
A small addendum to the proposed upgrade tree I posted, I was thinking that omakes could grant some points too (maybe 4?), because I've seen similar stuff done for other Quests, though I am entirely unfamiliar with such things. Sometimes the QM's make them canon too? Which would allow you some sort of pseudo-interludes, since I don't really think those will be part of this story due to its premise and where you as the readers 'slot in' to it.

Which way do you take your hunt?
[X] Take the right path, the one with familiar, rodent scent.
[X] Take the left path, the one with the new smell.
[X] Take the forward path, the one without a trail.
(Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\

I decide to pursue the prey that I already know I can take.

Looking down at the hard, not-dirt ground below me, I conclude that it is too far to fall. I fall slightly slower thanks to my gliding, but not nearly enough to remain unharmed from this height. My claws pick at the white filling between the reddish rocks that make up the building I am on and feel it give way after a bit of effort. So I repeat the process, slowly carving between the rocks with all four of my limbs to make my way down the building, dropping once it is safe to do so.

A scan of the area once I am hovering on the ground doesn't reveal any threats, so I start to stalk the smell. My instincts have me automatically moving under big metal boxes and behind smaller metal cylinders. Now on the ground, the air if clogged with the smell of the bipedal, dull-eyed creatures, traces of them everywhere, which means there has to be more than just the two of them in the area. That information isn't too prominent in my mind though, sticking to the shadows and not worrying about being easily seen lets me start dissecting my prey's scent.

At first, I can't really tell why this one seems to be layered, but as I start to get closer to the source, I am able to start picking up on smaller differences. Small differences all in the aroma leads me to one conclusion, it's a colony of them. The idea sends a thrill through me, to eat myself full. I only fought one though, so I shouldn't underestimate them in groups, which means that I will just pick them off one by one. What if it's a burrow, though? I don't see any water around I could bring over to flush them out. What about throwing rocks in? I guess I don't know how aggressive they normally are, so I will have to wait and see.

The thought of so much prey makes me excited. I know that Wraiths can get bigger, and obviously it involves eating, but beyond that I don't know anything more. How much do I need to eat? Is it a gradual thing? Probably, meaning it is going to be a long time before I manage to get big enough to challenge the creatures that had me in that box.

My idle thinking concludes as I see one of the dark furred, long-tailed animals ahead of me. I hadn't been especially sneaky up to this point, of course I stayed away from the center of the path, and stayed in cover as much as possible, but now I switch to actively being stealthy. Sniffing, I watch from my curled position under one of the foul smelling metal containers as its shape pokes at a small box made from the same flimsy brown material that I've come across a few times while gliding along.

I don't think it saw me, though the distance is too far for me to be sure that my knees' occasional scrapping on the rough, artificial ground won't end up alerting it before I can pounce, particularly since I don't know how fast they are. So a distraction is in order. A bit of shuffling around without actually leaving my hiding place lets me find some kind of debris, something gooey and hard at the same time that I genuinely dislike holding, but a bit of discomfort is nothing in the face of securing a meal.

Swimming to the edge of my concealment, I toss whatever it is past my target, producing a muffled and wet 'Pi-lop' sound. The disturbance makes the rodent freeze for a moment before standing up on its hind legs, sniffing the air as its beady eyes look in the direction of the sound. But I am already moving, knowing that I am downwind of it, meaning it won't smell me until it is too late.

It doesn't even get a chance to tilt its head before I am on top of it, my claws digging into it's back and pushing down to pin it while my blade arms snap forward, aimed at the head. A small breathless squeak is forced out of its lungs before my blade arms bury themselves in the upper spine and through the skull, killing my meal instantly.

Wasting no time, I begin to direct energy to rip through the copse still pinned down by my limbs and deliver the nutrients up to my split open mouth. My senses are not quite on high alert, but they are still keyed into the environment enough that I can feel the movement of something small in the air while I keep devouring. A short pause to sniff lets me see the shape of another rodent scurrying away. Returning to my meal, it doesn't take much longer before the pinkish glow to dissipate, telling me that I've gotten all I can from this carcass.

Swiftly returning to my hiding place, I let myself languish in the feeling of having a fresh meal in my stomach, helping chase away some of the aches that had started to develop on my bladed arms from how much I've been stabbing them into tough surfaces. I don't rest long, though, because the scent of the other rodents is strong here, and since I just saw another, their colony must be nearby and the though that I might be able to fill my stomach up completely is too alluring to ignore.

Remaining in my actively stealthy mental state, keeping myself curled tight as I move, I follow the now very fresh trail to a small crack in the side of a building. It is just big enough that I would be able to slip in, but it would be a tight squeeze. Though the two that I had hunted weren't much to note, so I don't worry, the sound of squeaking and rapid movement calling to me to get inside, to feast.

Naturally, as soon as I start to force my way inside, I get bitten on one of my hands that I had been using to brace against the other side of the wall. It hurts a surprising amount, but not enough to deter me. I let out a thin, growl and shriek combination and slash with the blade I had gotten through in the direction of the pain. The fresh smell of blood tells me that I managed to hit it. The squeaking from within has rapidly transformed into hisses and a lot more rapid movement, which I get to see first hand as I finally manage to slip all the way inside.

Unfortunately, I don't get a chance to make any real observations before I am swarmed by way more of the rodents than I thought there would be, everything quickly erupting into a full on battle.

One jumps on my back, but I grab its tail before it can do anything and swing it into the ground once, then into another creature as it sprints towards me. A mouth bites into a tail and I instinctively whip it into something hard nearby, following it up with a slash from a blade. Quickly spinning in place, I carve a deep line into a line of chattering teeth with a swipe of my claw. A tiny claw slashes into my thigh and I can't retaliate because I have to bury one of my blades down the throat of a beast that is nearly the size of me. Pulling said blade out through the carcass' rib cage briefly distracts a few more, which lets my other blade skewer one of them. Two more jumps on my back, one biting into one of my spikes, causing me to let out a pained screech.

I quickly surrendered to instinct, starting to flitter the battlefield much more once I do, turning it into a moving battle up and through the space the soon-to-be prey creatures were nesting. At some point, the majority had switched to running away rather than fighting, making me hunt them down. I don't get too many that decided to flee, their smaller bodies letting them squeeze through holes that I didn't even realize were an option. But I don't dwell on it, just changing focus to the next target.

Zoning in isn't the right phrase because I never left, but it is pretty close to what I did once the last meat had managed to escape. Drifting to the center of the blood soaked former nest, I don't even try to stop the roar of victory I let out. I let loose my triumph at the roof and spread my arms wide for a solid few seconds. The tension across my body starts to subside, and I find myself panting for breath as I take stock of myself.

I hurt. I am covered in scratches, bites, as well as soaked in blood, though that part isn't much of a worry. Nothing is too deep, and I had managed to protect my face crest well, but there are numerous spots where they had managed to tear off some skin, those are the parts that really hurt, and other spots that had just kept getting targets, especially my easier to reach lower half. All that is a matter to be addressed later because I have a banquet before me and there is no way I am going to let it spoil.

Being able to move from one feeding spot to the next right away is almost divine, and I feel myself quickly filling up. Despite that though, I can feel that I can store some more nutrients, somewhere not in my stomach but also not… not? The feeling is weird, but it lets be keep feeding, so I don't care. That 'extra' space rapidly starts filling though, and alongside it is a sense of… anticipation, but as if anticipation was a real, physical thing getting ready to pounce. But pounce on my behalf? It's not bad, so I don't stop even as I feel it reach it's peak, making me spit up the last bit of gore I had sucked up.

Looking around there isn't a lot more, but still a good number of corpses ready to be consumed, but I am completely full. No more space in any manner of consideration. But feeling so full has a small side effect that rapidly reaches out its sinister hands as the fight gets further and further behind me. I am getting sleepy. And that sleepiness means that I don't even want to fight it as my not-stomach start to bubble and churn in tandem with the surrounding energy.

I feel the nutrients being siphoned off as a new egg starts to manifest around me, to which I just curl up to fit. Not long after, I feel myself melt into a mush of potential.

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
I wasn't expecting that you'd manage to reach this point already, but your votes got you the quickest path to your first metamorphosis, so congrats!

What do you upgrade?
[X] Write-In:
(Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)

Your random stat bonus went to Abduction today, probably my least favorite skill in all honesty, bringing it from 0/100 to 5/100.

You can find your current upgrade page below this post in a few moments, marked as informational.

Please note, you will naturally grow independent of this chart. Because of this, most things are measured in percentages for a better frame of reference; to that point, '0' doesn't mean no skill, just nothing additional. Upon eating ~2.5 your body weight all at once, you have a moderate window to enter metamorphosis.

Upon entering metamorphosis you gain 12 points, plus 1 per prior metamorphosis, you can spend wherever you want on this chart. You cannot save points, any unspent will be lost. Each option has its own traits that you can unlock as you level them up, you can only see the next one in line. Every metamorphosis, a random ability will be rolled to gain a free 5 points, to represent natural adaptations.

There may end up being overlap or repeated abilities. Depending on the ability, those may do nothing or increase the power.

---

Updated to Chapter 9's Vote results.

• Senses: Governs, smell, sight, hearing, and methods of detecting and understanding your environment.
  • Sight: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Crest I': You can now see 10% further.
  • Hearing: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Reverberations I ': You can now hear 10% further.
  • Smell: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Scent I': You can now smell 10% further.
  • Airflow: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Xenovibrissae I': You can now sense changes in the air from 10% further.
• Movement: Governs your overall speed, as well as things like teleportation.
  • Base Speed: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Glide I': You move 5% faster overall.
  • Burst Speed: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Sprint I': When 'running' you gain an additional 10% movement speed.
  • Warp: 1/100 + 1 via Vote
    • At 15, unlock 'Warp': You temporarily subsume yourself into one of the world's natural energy fields, teleporting yourself forward a short distance in a chosen direction.
  • Climb Speed: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Climb I': When ascending a surface, you are slowed down 20% less.
• Stealth: Governs your ability to hide and remain unnoticed. Some parts of this stat are intrinsic, and does not need to be invested in to advance, though you may speed it up. No matter your path, stealth will remain an important part of your build.
  • Noisiness: 8/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.) +2 via Vote
    • At 20, unlock 'Echoey I': Your actions bounce off your surroundings in slightly odd manners, making it harder to pinpoint the source of any sounds you make.
      • Muffle I: All your actions are 10% quieter.
  • Camouflage: 0/50
    • At 10, unlock 'Concealment': When emerging from metamorphosis, gain a color or pattern on your body that makes you blend in better while in the environment that you metamorphosed in.
  • Sneak Attack: 8/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.) +2 via Vote
    • At 20, unlock 'Shock': When attacking from an unnoticed position, your target is temporarily disoriented and has a slightly increased likelihood of stumbling, tripping or otherwise falling prone without direct action.
      • Pounce I: When initiating combat, you gain a 10% damage boost for 5 seconds.
• Defenses: Governs your armor, as well as your general toughness.
  • Armor Coverage: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Armor I': When emerging from metamorphosis, you gain a limited carapace.
  • Heartiness: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Healthy I': You gain 10% more HP.
  • Energy Resistance: 0/100
    • At 15, unlock 'Conductive I': You gain a 10% damage resistance to 'energy' based damage.
• Energy: Governs your stamina as well as how quickly you can reuse your abilities.
  • Capacity: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Stamina I': You can stay awake 5% longer and be 'active' for 5% more of that time.
  • Cooldowns: 0/100
    • At 20: unlock 'Energy Redistribution': Your 'Innate Abilities' are able to be re-triggered 15% faster.
  • Sleep: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Startle I': You can awaken moderately faster from sleep.
  • Feeding: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Stuffing I': You gain the ability to eat 50% faster.
• Combat: Governs your strength as well as technical skill in fighting.
  • Blade Sharpness: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Shock Absorption I': The tips of your blades become better at absorbing shock, hurting less upon impacting something they cannot piece.
  • Strength: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Fiber Density I': You become 5% stronger overall.
  • Technique: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Combo I': You become better are utilizing both your blades and claws in tandem.
• Innate Ability: Governs powers and skills that Wraiths naturally have. This stat is intrinsic, and does not need to be invested in to advance, though you may speed it up. No matter your path, you will eventually master all four main abilities of a Wraith.
  • Warp Blast: 8/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
    • At 15, unlock 'Warp Blast': You briefly overwhelm your natural capacity for energy, forcing yourself to teleport a short distance and expel the excess in a devastating blast.
  • Abduction: 5/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
    • At 15, unlock 'Abduction': You hijack the natural attraction between creatures and ride it towards a target, attempting to grapple them before being recalled to your original position by the energy deficit.
  • Phantom: 15/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.) +7 via Vote
    • At 30, unlock 'Clarity': Significantly reduce the visual 'noise' from your Phantom, making it harder to identify it as the mental projection it is.
      • Phantom: When activated, an imperfect version of yourself splits off and can act independently for a very short time.
  • Supernova: 0/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
    • At 15, unlock 'Supernova': You temporarily force the world's natural energy fields to layer over and intersect themselves, this causes an area around this epicenter to become supercharged, opening your natural connection to this allows your speed, strength, and defense to all skyrocket while in the supercharged area.
• Psionic: Governs things like telepathy, mind reading, and resistance to mind-altering effects. It also governs your level of cognition, specifically relating to your 'self'.
  • Self: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Self-consciousness': Your inner world has gained complexity, you may choose a name each time you progress on the 'Self' line.
  • Communication: 0/100
    • At 10, unlock 'Pattern Recognition': When you see objects repeatedly associated with sounds, you can start to associate them with each other.
  • Psionic Resistance: 0/100
    • At 20, unlock 'Xenostructure': Your mind's abnormal nature is emphasized, which may affect how certain powers interface with it.
  • Isolation: 0/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
    • At 15, unlock 'Isolation': Your greater mind Psionic potential resonates throughout the area you reside, weakening targets pain thresholds, making your next attack do 25% more damage.
• Abnormal Ability: Governs things that might not be innately part of your evolution, but still reside within your HNA. Mainly used to gain expressions of creatures you've eaten.
  • LOCKED!: 0/20
    • At 20, Unlock the 'Abnormal Ability' tree.

---

You are currently a step larger than the average cat, though smaller than a 'medium' sized dog.

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\

I awaken curled up, walls pressing against me on all sides, barely past the level of being cozy and into the realm of becoming uncomfortable. My legs and tail are all spun around each other, my spines pressed down against my back and all four of my arms bunched up to my chest. Despite the very slight unconformability, it is nice, like being squeezed on all sides. I am completely blind, but it doesn't bother me.

It doesn't take long for the discomfort to build, though, which is also accompanied by hunger. Not a lot, but the faint smell of food beyond the shell is calling to me.

Trying to open my arms is ineffective, the walls of my confinement yield a little, but nowhere near enough to easily break out. So I maneuver one of my blades so that it moves under and past my shoulders and spears into the wall behind me, which pierces through on the first attempt. With a sort of twisting motion, as much as I can in the cramped space, I manage to widen the breach enough that I can feel cold air on my back. Pushing and pulling myself, accompanied by a bit of thrashing, I manage to pull free of the prison.

Stretching out, I wake up properly, the memories of what happened returning to me. I take stock of the space, the numerous prey corpses littering the area. Judging by the flies swarming the place I was in the egg for a few hours, so I quickly resume eating my slaughter, though I get significantly fewer nutrients from them this time, probably from their age. There is another factor though, my size. Before, the furry things were about half my size, whereas now they are a bit less than half of that.

Because of both factors, I only manage to a quarter of my stomach full of these remains, but I don't think I could eat right away anyhow. I just ate myself full, did… something with a new egg, with the energy around me, and then ate again. Thinking of the energy, I can feel it moving though me in a weird way flowing up to my crest where is forms a sort of, mesh of spikes pointed outwards. I can feel dormant lines of almost pressure spread out from the spikes, waiting to be activated. Without a reason to not, I tug on the energy and split.

Suddenly I am looking at myself, but not really. The one in front of me has a blueish static to its existence that I immediately notice because it's me. I watch it circle around the room twice before couching down and seemingly getting ready to pounce on nothing for a few seconds before dissipating. As soon as it disappears, the mesh of energy around my head vanishes, slowly but steadily refilling from the surroundings. Something that immediately struck me about this copy, this Phantom, was its unintelligent actions; I didn't have to direct it, but there was nothing resembling intelligence in its movements, it didn't even pause to look at me, a reflection of itself.

Brushing those thoughts aside, I realize that I can see a lot better in here than I could while I was attacking. Looking at the crack in the wall I squeezed into, I am able to see daylight though it and some part of me wants it, to feel real sun and not the artificial lights that I've been under since hatching. Gliding over, though, it becomes rapidly apparent that I can't exit this way. I barely managed to get in here and I got bigger since then.

Before I can start to look for other paths out, though, I can hear a sound getting closer, to a familiar pattern and cadence. More of the ugly, armorless creatures communicating nearby. Listening, I note that they are coming from inside the building and not outside. Giving a sniff, I notice that there are a lot more layered and potent scents of those creatures nearby, how many though I have no idea.

I try to listen in, but the sounds are too muffled for me to make out tone, and some sounds are too muddled to even track.

"... thorough here, somewhere… tenets heard… called you."

"Probably rats… trainee, it's his first… long have they been... cut in and… get you a quote once…"

"... didn't sound like… side of town… trust them."

I don't manage to hear anything else as something loud starts up nearby, like an angry hum. Still looking in the direction of the sounds, I can see a small strip of metal start poking through the wall, vibrating and making the awful noise change in pitch slightly. As I observe, I can see it is moving, cutting a hole through the wall.

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
I didn't know how to describe the space you're in without the alien perspective. Basically, you are currently in a wall that the rats expanded to encompass more area than it would normally.

What should you do?
[X] Try to hide in this space.
[X] Once the hole has been made wide enough, run through that.
[X] Write-In:
(Note: Write-In's must be simple in direction or concept. Your votes are instincts, not complex thoughts.)
(Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\

I can't fight the locally dominate creatures, not yet, I'm still too small, and it sounds like there is more than one again. Are they pack animals? I cast the musings of their nature out of mind for now, contemplating such things while I am in danger is stupid.

Making my original entry hole wider might be something I could do. But with how fast that horrible humming instrument is moving, probably not fast enough. The other option is to try and find a place to hide in here, but that thought is dismissed, if they are breaking through the wall to find me then they will probably be looking for prey. Maybe that's why this nest was here? But I can't imagine the skittish things would have stayed around for such a loud noise.

As the shape of the hole keeps getting bigger, a crazy plan starts to form in the back of my head. The puncture is probably going to be big enough for me to make my way through it if I come at it mostly flat. Then, if I do that fast enough, I could use my newly developed method of energy manipulation to distract them and maybe give them a few cuts. An idle notion of bursting through now, of taking advantage of the weakened wall to add to the surprise, but if the awful sounding thing was able to cut through the wall, then it could probably cut through me. Better to wait for it to stop.

Thankfully, that doesn't take long. Crouched to the side of the wall, so that I am out of sight when it is opened up, I get to see the moment that the wall is pulled away and a really bright but still fake light pours into the space. Immediately falling on the remains of my still upright eggshell.

"What the fuck is—"

I spring forward, a warning roar exits my split jaw completely unprompted as I do. A hissing, thin thing that plays on the edges of the mind more than it travels through the air.

There are sounds of fright, but I don't pay them any attention, focusing on the gap in the wall I dart forward. Angling myself parallel with the ground, I move through the opening without any issues. As soon as I am through, I find myself under the gaze of not two, but three of those weird animals. Not giving them a chance to react, I Split and send my Phantom their way.

Shooting in the other direction, I see a door in front of me, but it is closed, so I start to look— It begins to open, so I realign myself for it. There is another one of the bipedal animals pushing the door wide, how many of them are there?

Once again pushing my curiosity to the wayside, I slip between their legs, producing some more sounds of distress, and out onto more of the rough artificial ground. In the daylight, I see that it is a weird shade of brown and then turns into black after a small dip. That doesn't concern me though because I am going up, the creatures don't have any claws so they probably can't climb.

Turning to the wall of the building, I stick my claws and blades into the softer white rock and begin to ascend. It is slower than I would have liked, since I have to actually look at the spots I want to anchor myself. Not only that, the building is a lot taller than I had anticipated, in addition to the patches of see-through wall that I have to avoid because I can't dig my claws into them. Despite those problems, though, I make it to the top of the building without challenge and slither onto the roof.

Curling into a ball, I try to listen, but now that I am paying attention, I realize just how loud everything is. There are sounds coming in from the distance, the same humming, growling sound that I can hear nearby too. There is communication down below, I can tell that much, but with the other sounds as well as the distance I can't tell more than the fact that is happening. Thankfully, my sense of smell isn't as affected and despite the ground just barely being within range, I can see the flat-faced gangly shapes milling around. Sticking around might be a bad idea, so I quickly move across the roof.

The next roof is a bit too far to jump directly, so I aim a bit lower to get my blades to land in one of the softer sections between the red rock wall. Jumping across, I feel a bit of panic bubbles up as it quickly becomes clear that I underestimate the distance. The wall's repeating pattern helps me in that regard, letting one of my blades sink into place a bit lower than where I had intended. And it is just one of them, a jolt of pain runs through my shoulder as it suddenly bears the full weight of my body.

Recovering, I pull myself up once more and let myself start to relax. Letting out a few heavy breaths, I feel my left blade shoulder, the one that caught me. It is a bit sore, but I don't feel any damage and a bit of testing tells me it is still moving fine. In fact, I can't feel any of the injuries that were bothering me when I entered the egg anymore.

Looking around, my limited vision can't see anything of immediate note, the air is moving like it should, the surrounding scents masked by the sudden increase in the smell of the… I need a name for them. Flat faces, dull eyes, no claws, no armor, a big head, weird proportions. Maybe… Hmm. This is hard. They make those weird sounds a lot, like birds, but they don't have feathers.

Something for later, for now I need to decide my next action.

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
This chapter went through a few revisions before I got it feeling right. It still feels a bit odd to me, but I think that is just some bleed over from trying to imagine everyday objects as abstracted as they have to be for the POV, lol.

What would you like to do now?
[X] Explore. You are fed and just got bigger.
[X] Return to your makeshift nest like you had originally planned.
[X] Write-In:
(Note: Write-In's must be simple in direction or concept. Your votes are instincts, not complex thoughts.)
(Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)