I have no clue what happened. Maybe it was related to that weird cry? Did something came from the other biome and attacked the bird?

Too many questions.

I checked my status to see the picture after my prior evolution. I was too focused on the birds to see the changes in my attributes, shame on me.

Primal Larvae - Ripper

Stats:

Level - 2 (30 biomass to level up)

Health - 13.5/13.5

Energy - 55/55

Biomass Reserves - 24 biomass

Str - 13

Res - 10

Vit - 9

Agi - 7

Int - 3

Biomorph list:

Support level 1

Enhanced senses level 1 (new)

Maw and claws level 2

Chitin level 1

Poison sting level 1 (new)

Okey, an overall upgrade. That's good.

I still don't get the intelligence attribute yet.

-Link! Brood! Swarm!!

Huh, Okey. We're not quite there yet, but thanks for the information, Norn.

After a few more chit chat with Norn, I decided to focus on upgrading some biomorphs, instead of leveling up. It will give me an advantage and a broader range of options despite the steady improvements of a higher level. It's a trade-off.

The main point is to gather as much biomass as possible; I didn't like that corruption on the feathers. Now that I have taken a better look at it, there are small traces of things gone wrong here and there.

Almost no life, weird venomous plants, oversized and deadly birds.

I have to keep advancing, but I feel it's gonna get harder very quickly.

Enough monologue!!

I go closer to the wall aperture, and I find a few more mushrooms on a dark, secluded spot.

Norn urged me to eat them with such an enthusiasm that scared me a little.

New biomorphs available:

Spores - 25 biomass

Ohh, so that's why she was so insistent! With the new food, I have enough biomass.

I decided to upgrade and create this biomorph immediately, depleting a big chunk of my reserves. I want to see what it can do.

A few seconds after I choose to bring this biomorph into life, I began feeling terrible pain in my back. I can sense new muscles growing, the shell cracking and some new structures emerge all over my body, especially in my back.

As I recover from the pain, I try to pick a look… they are some sort of tubes or chimneys. Weird.

I try to focus on activating the new biomorph, and I can feel some weird sensation inside of me.

There are new organs somewhere under my shell, I’m pretty sure of that… I feel less human each day I am living in this body.

After a few more seconds, I manage to activate it, and a weird smoke comes out of the tubes.

Huh, I don't know what I was expecting, but not to become a furnace, that's for sure. And it's tiring to keep it activated.

And then it began to happen. This smoke moves around me, and as it touches the plants, they started to grow in size, rupture, and finally break apart. Wow. That was really cool!

I check my status, and I see the energy value dropping for 1 point per second, more or less. That's were the tiring feeling came from.

I began eating the now devastated area of the forest. It is so much easier, and every piece of food carries a bit more biomass than usual!

I can also see the ground being eroded.

This effect is frightening. I wonder how would a planet be able to survive a few hundred of me. Given enough time, I could eat nearly everything.

I go to rest, still on high alert.

My body is absorbing the biomass, and being slowly reinforces every few hours. As I rest, I feel slightly more energetic when I wake up.

But as I grow, I also get the feeling that I'm surrounded by dangers. Maybe it's the animals and experiments the AI told me about, but it's slowly putting pressure on me.

I go to the tree that used to be the nest of that couple of birds, and I can see that both the tree and the grass where the feathers fell over are starting to get tarnished and grow in weird patterns. Are these the effects of corruption?

I look at the northern wall, still hesitating to climb it to take a look. But it's about time.

I upgrade my maw and claws spending 40 points, and I feel my teeth growing, fangs getting developed, and the chitin being reinforced. But I also think that I cannot upgrade it any further until I level up a few levels, it's already a strain to my body to keep this unbalanced biomorph.

Okay, time to hunt.

I began climbing the wall, where several apertures lead to the next biome. I try not to make any sound as I already got a grasp of my bug limbs. I'm not the once clumsy little bug I once was.

As I keep telling myself, I arrive at the aperture, and I look at the next biome.

It is a mixture of a rocky environment with several glass cages that used to contain different specimens. Most of them are broken, either the glass or the frame has fallen to the punishment of time. And there are also several bloody remains on the floor. There has been something hunting here the last few days or hours.

As I stand there inspecting the biome, I feel a soft and silent wings sound. I immediately know something is not right, and I jump back.

Just a second later, a vast shadow appears in my sight. A large, dark, and twisted beast crushes into the opening, not even able to pass through it.

I look at it, and it looks at me; it's her.

Fuck, I don't know what happened. The bird is bigger now. And twisted.

The look in its eyes is full of hate and desire for vengeance.

Ouch! I fell backward onto the ground, losing some hp and hurting myself quite a bit.

The weird-looking bird is struggling to pass through the rocks and has half of its body stuck on this site.

I decide to run and escape, I don't have any confidence in taking down this beast without a miracle.

When I just saw the half-devoured tree that used to be its nest, I hear that weird flapping sound again. I jump sideways to try avoiding the bird's attack and managed to avoid it by a hair's length.

The bird keeps flying and turns quickly to keep harassing me.

I manage to get to the broken tree with a terrible plan in my mind. I try to hide again, but I got hit by the claws of the bird.

My defenses are way too weak to withstand this new and oversized monster. It crushes me against the tree with its claws.

I am cornered, and just as it was gonna crush my head with its beak, I activate the toxic spores, and the fun begins.

The bird is touched by the spores at several points, the same as the tree.

It starts shouting and agonizing, trying to remove the flesh-devouring smoke from its feathers and leg. But I can see that the leg that was pressing on me began to bloat and bleed from several points.

I checked the tree and began running in the opposite direction of the bird.

Despite the horrible situation it is involved in, the bird starts to give chase, I keep the spores active all the time and begin circling the tree while jumping and evading the bird's several attempts to kill me. It has learned the hard way to avoid the mist I generate.

After 10 seconds or so, I stop and the bird focuses all its senses on me; I can see the doubt on its eyes, and a lot of pain. One of its wings got slightly hurt, and it has problems keeping the position in midair. It is incredibly close to me, barely 2 meters away, so I cannot escape.

I half burrow myself into the ground and elevate my tail to menace it with both my sting and toxic spores. Just a couple of seconds after I hear a crack and I see the tree falling over us, just as planned. The bird got distracted by the immense noise and turned its head around.

That is my chance to jump at it and burrow my sting on its neck, injecting as much poison as I can. Then the tree falls and nearly crushes both the bird and me.

I had to disengage to avoid the tree from transforming me into a bug pulp.

I check my hp. It fell to 3… if the bird is still alive, I will seriously consider burrowing myself into a cave to avoid it and heal myself before even considering taking my head out.

As I carefully inspect the crushed tree, I can see a broken figure with a wing totally crushed under the tree and a horrible wound in the neck, just where I hurt it before.

I get near it with caution, and I can see it trying to move, to get up with just one leg, trying to attack me without strength. It cannot even reach me with the wing under the tree.

Just then, I can see it start attacking its own wing, picking at it without mercy, bloodying the ground, and when it severed its own wing, turned around to confront me again…

Just, wow, that monster is tenacious as metal. But it's gonna be dead in less than a minute.

Concussions, broken limbs, severed wing, blood loss, toxins, venom...

Yet it can still try to advance while falling and keeping its eyes on me with a gaze so full of hate I cannot even describe how dark, and stupidly focused on killing me this bird is.

I approached it and hit it with my tail on the wing that used as support to keep standing up.

The bird falls onto the ground and tries to stand up again. I hit it with my claws, scratching it and making a few more wounds until it turns around.

I see that it cannot even breathe properly.

"Well, sucks to be you, but in my opinion, you brought this upon yourself. I was trying to pass to the next module, and you had to stand in my way with your partner, attacking me and hurting my body.

So for all accounts, you began this, but I ended the fight. End of the story… "

Kill, eat, grow!

"I know Norn, it’s just that, I don't have too much appetite with this bird story being so full of drama. I just wanted to get through to gather biomass."

A few more seconds passed, and the bird still hasn't died. Fuck… Okey. Despite my inner conflict, I decided to live up to the Tyranid dogma that Norn keeps repeating.

The bird's eyes show no fear, just pure hate.

I have seen eyes similar to those somewhere else, a long time ago, but I cannot remember it well. But I don't like them.

I bite and crush its skull, killing it once and for all. I take a few steps back and I feel both heavier and lighter.

As the bird's tainted blood creates a puddle, I reflect on its death.

"This is what I am now, I have become a predator, and it is them or me.

These human emotions are a luxury I can't really afford."

I wasted a full week in this biome, and if the AI were right, in 11 more, there would be a spaceship at the lab's doors. They will either raid the lab or nuke it out of existence. Both are bad options for me.

I have to become stronger, be one with the hunt.

I finished eating the bird and checked the new information that its eroded blood brings me.