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The bonfire basked the surrounding rock walls of their temporary campsite into a warm light. Haylee had found them a spacious, flat depression encircled by massive boulders. Dragging the heavy carcasses that far into the rock formations was taxing, but the fire could have been spotted otherwise. The cat-girl observed Siegfried's display of uninhibited gluttony with ever-growing wonder. She was still stuffed from eating a single piece of juicy breast meat from one of the howlers. That was two hours ago, and the bulky warrior was still feasting on the roasted remains of their assailants with abandon.

All pretence of repulsion at the thought of eating howler meat seemed to have vanished from Siegfried as he continued eating like a starved man. The majority of two of the massive beasts had already disappeared into his seemingly bottomless stomach. Enough food to sate a small village for a day. The sun had already settled when he noisily admitted defeat in form of a raucous, lengthy burp.

Ryden laughed heartily and shook his head, ginning. "Seems like we found your current limit. I was almost afraid you'd start taking a bite of Haylee after you finished the howlers," he laughed without constraint.

"Hmpf," Haylee scrunched up her nose. "I might be tasty, but my meat isn't as easy to get," she grinned wide, growing her canines into fangs for show.

Siegfried scratched the back of his head, his face heating up in slight embarrassment. "Well, I guess I lost myself a bit there," he admitted. "Did you find out anything, Ryden?"

"I did, though it was not what I expected," the healer answered. He had tried to use his ability to track where all the food was going by placing his hands upon Siegfried's back and flooding his body with his own essence. "You digest the food like every one of us, with the major difference that you leave no waste. You just transform all parts of the organic matter into energy. At first, that energy went where I thought it would — your muscles, fat and sugar reserves and so on — but when your reserves were full, I lost track of the energy. You still transformed food into energy by digesting it, but it seemed to just vanish after that, which is utterly impossible," Ryden explained, his tone taking on a scholarly quality. "What did your body tell you while you were eating over the hunger? What did you feel?"

Sieg pondered on the question for a while before answering. "I guess it was the usual feeling of sating your hunger at first. By the time I felt sated but kept eating, it was a bit like sating a second hunger, but one I did not feel physically. Still, it felt good— satisfying. I'm not sure how to describe it, but right now, I feel like I'm… a different kind of 'full' than when your stomach is full. Maybe a mental kind of sated?" he half-asked in Ryden's direction.

"It does make sense," the knowledgeable healer nodded. "You must have a kind of storage for all that mass, and that storage is now full for the first time. Now we can focus on what you can do with it," Ryden grinned with almost childlike glee. "Before we go about growing something new, like extending bone-spikes, I believe we should try using that spare mass to empower what is already there." Catching Siegfried's cynical look, the healer elaborated further, "apart from your… quite inhuman senses, your most important tools have been your muscles before you changed. You built them up to the perfect form for a swordfighter— to the very limit of what a human can achieve, I believe."

Siegfried was more than intrigued at that point, his gaze boring into Ryden as if he wanted to pry the knowledge from the healer's soul. "Empower? You mean I can amplify them somehow with shapeshifting?"

"I assume," Ryden intoned cautiously, "that you can add both density and flexibility, pushing beyond those human limits. Your body already knows how to use and strengthen your muscles. Consciously, you will only have to focus on one thing at a time. And that would be to access the extra mass you stored somewhere. Try picking up the small boulder over there," he pointed at a rugged ball of grey stone. "When you reach the extend of what your muscles can lift, just focus further on putting even more strength into it. I believe that, at some point, your body will take over the process of supplying you with the needed strength— just like it does automatically when you regenerate your flesh."

The 'small' boulder, as Ryden called it, was about the size of Siegfried's torso and clearly outweighed the heavy warrior. Haylee hopped closer to the scene, securing a front-row seat to follow the show. Siegfried chuckled at the unashamed way she obviously prepared to enjoy the view. That bold attitude was undeniably part of her lively charm. He bent his knees and slung his arms across the boulder. They only reached three quarters around, so he had to press it against his chest with little leverage.

With a deep grunt, he began to pull and simultaneously flex his legs. The muscles on his arms and bare chest bulged to capacity. The stiff material of his leather pants was stretched by the swell of his thighs. Haylee's jaw dropped when the boulder actually left the ground. Only for an arm's length, and Siegfried's knees were still bent but really did pick it up.

"Amazing," Ryden called out with wonder. "To think you would be able to get the hang of it so quickly!"

"Not… using it… yet," Siegfried pressed out between clenched teeth.

Now it was Ryden's turn to stare stupefied.

Sieg had already pushed himself to the brink. He had not a smidgen left to give, and his legs burned with overexertion. Having no idea how to tap into the reservoir of his power, all he could do was continuing to press forward, constantly attempting to go beyond his physical confinements. His legs started to tremble— the burning replaced by sheer pain.

The instant Siegfried thought his muscles would snap from the strain, he felt a small tug building somewhere inside him. Inside his core. A tingling, pulling sensation started to alleviate the agony in his upper legs. With each passing second, they felt heavier but sturdier. His biceps, forearm and pectoral muscle were close to faltering next from the constant effort, but this time the strange tugging sensation came quickly. The feeling of being reinforced was intoxicating. Siegfried basked in the impression of power, pushing his newfound might to the maximum once more.

Haylee jumped when the bolder cracked with a deafening noise as Siegfried's grip dug into the dense stone like her claws would sink into a plank of wood. A guttural roar boomed from the warrior's throat as he lifted the massive boulder. Standing with his legs fully straightened, Siegfried held on for another minute until finally setting his heavy load down again. The hand-shaped indent he left on the rocky surface was deep.

When Ryden remembered to close his mouth again, he shook his head in astonishment. "Remember me to never shake hands with you," he deadpanned.

Siegfried chuckled between two deep breaths, still winded from the effort. Haylee ran towards him, eyes sparkling with childlike glee. "That was so awesome!" she shouted, jumping up to reach around the tall man's neck. Siegfried caught her in his arms, laughing, relieved and empowered by the successful experiment. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, gentle!" the cat-girl panted through a lack of air in her lungs.

"Oh, sorry," Sieg apologised, loosening his grip with a blush on his face. Haylee giggled, planting a kiss on his reddening cheek.

"Well, that was certainly a breakthrough there," Ryden grinned. "And it seems the changes are not temporary, at least as long as you have some reserves left. What did it feel like to tap into that miraculous storage to strengthen your body?" The curiosity of a scholar assessing a unique piece of study leaked through his voice.

"To be honest, the actual connection to that 'storage' was only some kind of tugging sensation in my mind," Sieg admitted. He continued explaining every single step and every feeling that accompanied it in a carefully detailed manner. Subsequently, Ryden used his ability to get a clear picture of the changes throughout his companion's physique.

"Just as I hoped," the healer mused to himself. "the shape and synergy between your muscles have not changed at all— they were already flawless through extensive training anyway. You just reinforced them, upped the density to a degree that can't be achieved by normal means. Now you just have to repeat the process for every single muscle in your body, and you will be a force to be reckoned with." Ryden grinned with malicious joy when Siegfried realised what kind of hellish training this would entail.

"You enjoy this far too much, you know that?" Sieg grumbled. He shot a reproachful glare at Haylee when the cat-girl couldn't stifle a snort behind her hand anymore.

With moonlight finally reaching their enclosed hiding place, Ryden decided they should get a good portion of sleep first. Tomorrow would be a busy day.