The last griffin pounced on us—on me, since I was closer—like a living mountain of muscle and desperate fury. As it stood, it had no chance, and its desperation only made it even more vulnerable. It was over in three steps.

One, I dashed to the side, which let me evade the initial attack. Yvenna mirrored my notion, staying clear of the griffin as well, though I knew that won't last for long.

Two, I lunged with the stinger at the open side, hitting it straight between the ribs, and knew by the bubbly red foam that comes out of the wound that I hit a lung.

Three, the griffin, already dying, rolled over and crushed me under with the entire weight of its convulsing body.

This was it. I became a pancake. A victorious pancake. I couldn't draw breath in my lungs, and my wings were pulsing with pain from where they were flattened between my back and the floor. Something small and hard lodged itself under my shoulder blade, and it felt like if I don't get the griffin's corpse off, it would burrow its way into my heart.

'Damn it, the bastard got me after all,' I thought, straining my muscles to push the griffin's corpse away.

Yvenna was no help—I could hear her enthusiastically chopping other griffins into pieces with no regard for me. No wonder other adventurers didn't want to work with her.

After some grunting and some slithering that made my already crushed wings feel even worse, I freed my torso enough to take in a deep, sweet breath of air and look at Yvenna. She stopped chopping by then, and just stood, splattered in blood all over, with an insane gleam in her eyes and a small smile on her face, and panted.

"Yvenna, get yourself together and let me move this fucking thing." I shoved at the corpse that pinned my legs.

She blinked, and after a dozen seconds, focused her eyes on me. Her smile widened. "Got yourself tied down here, eh?" At my snarl, she finally got closer and helped me to free the rest of me.

I stood up and inspected myself for injuries. I had a bruise on my chest where the male hit me, and some nasty tears and breaks on my fragile wings from the last fall. That even the malleability couldn't prevent. Now the act of spreading my wings brought me a sharp sting of pain, and attempting to flap them…

No, until I healed, flight was beyond my capabilities. I checked my HP, wondering how much it cost me in the System's terms. I had 6 out of 9 left.

"Damn," I swore. Now I was earthbound and would have to journey back to Glesk on foot. Hopefully, at least the EXP and abilities from the griffins would worth it. Maybe I will even pluck some feathers if I feel like it.

Yvenna smeared the blood all over her face with a sleeve in an attempt to clean it. Then she watched as I picked up my dagger from where it laid on the floor, cleaned it up at the clean bit of fur on the nearest griffin before sheathing it, and knelt next to the male. "Are you gonna devour them all now?"

"Yes. If you wanted any loot…" I narrowed her eyes at her in warning.

"Oh, no, that's like… I mean… You're Devourer, they are all yours! But can I watch?"

"Whatever." I wasn't self-conscious. But Yvenna was weird.

Having said this, I dug into the lion-eagle meat. Still warm, with a strong and unpleasant tang of felines, but tender overall. Not much fat, though, but I wasn't there for the taste. No, for the taste I would ask Risha to bake me… bake me a cake. With cream and honey and butter and berries.

I imagined the taste of that cake as I wolfed the griffin down under Yvenna's morbidly amazed stare, not forgetting to scrape what off the floor what she minced in her enthusiasm to turn some things dead.

[Creature devoured. Gained 1484293 EXP. Gained new evolution options.]

"Was it tasty?" Yvenna asked.

I licked my lips, energised by the number I got from these kills, and raised my eyes to hers. Since my mood was significantly improved by what I just got, I descended to answer. "Tastes shitty, but I got a lot of EXP."

"Me too! I think I'm going to get a level soon. I'm almost at ninth!"

I wondered how adventurers could gain EXP without eating the creatures. Then again, how did eating bodies yielded me EXP? Was there something special in their flesh? The workings of the System were truly mysterious, and I wasn't going to bother.

Instead, I checked what else the dead male gave me. Its ability to create invisible wind blades… Was called "Frost Wind Blades" and cost 20 EXP to buy. I wondered if it was even worth it. The griffin clearly couldn't aim them, and what would it cost me and my wings to use it at all?

I was about to eat the other griffins while I thought about all that, but something else caught my attention. A pile of what looked like old feathers, moss, and branches at the back of the cave. This was what the last griffin was guarding.

Curious, I went to take a closer look and saw a clutch of three eggs inside. One for each female, each as big as my head, white with blue speckles over them. Carefully, I lifted one to my eyes. 'Would it be worth any EXP to eat it, I wonder?'

I guessed not. These unborn griffins—if they didn't die from cold yet—weren't even in the System yet. I turned to glance at Yvenna, who still loitered around instead of cleaning up, as if waiting for me to eat the rest of the griffins.

"Are these expensive?" I asked, showing her the egg. "Would people buy them to get themselves tiny griffin chick-kittens, do you know?"