"I told you to keep everyone within range! Where are the two idiots, Sergon? Albovan the shitter is shitting his pants and just asked me where your two boys are." I spoke to my right hand and frowned in disgust at the thought of being surrounded by so many idiots. No one had seen it coming when the stupid cunt of a merchant's daughter tried to take her own life and intervened!

I'm just surrounded by incompetence....

My heartbeat had fortunately calmed down again, even if I had to pull myself together strongly, not to wring my subordinates' throats directly, when they had just stared stupidly.

And now? Now two more of these lazy monkeys can't be found? Heavens to Betsy again....

Sergon was just talking to one of the others, nodding and turning to me with a somewhat fearful look, since everyone knew how quick-tempered I could be and couldn't take bad news well, especially several in a row.

"Spit it out already, man!" I called out to him as he unceremoniously sent more of his people on the lookout and came sauntering over to him with strained shoulders, as if his feet didn't quite want to obey him or were too heavy for his puny muscles.

At the thought, I grimaced spitefully and demonstratively tensed my upper arm muscles. Much to my delight, Sergon and some of the others who looked over cautiously reacted a bit more anxiously and my right hand even had to suppress a twitching of his eyelids, which he only managed half-heartedly.

"Boss, all we know is that the first one had to go take a shit, and the second one was looking for his drinking buddy when he took too long!" Saluted Sergon almost, standing at attention and tense in front of him. "I've sent two more to get to the bottom of this, and our other men are finishing up the rest of the loot so we can leave immediately in case any adventurers are lurking in the woods!"

I just grunted in annoyance and squinted my eyes slightly, but purposely said nothing while staring at him to build up some more tension and emphasize my next words.

"Fiddlesticks! The memmen all just wet their pants! How should these arrogant assholes of adventurers know about this raid? They haven't even found our reinforced camp deeper in the forest yet. No, the two of them have certainly run away, I'm telling you!"

With this statement I snotted once with pleasure and for everyone audibly loudly, pulled up my nose noisily, and spat an unappetizing looking lump of unknown substance on the dirty path.

With a sideways jerk of my head, I made it clear to the men to hurry, and stood with my hands clasped behind my back, while my glare watched over everything so that no one would fill his own pockets.

My men had various coarsely woven bags and stuffed everything of value into them, while others looted the corpses and stripped and pocketed everything down to the underwear of the dead.

I nodded with satisfaction and could not quite suppress a greedy grin, which even Sergon joined at my side.

This raid had simply been another stroke of luck, and in contrast to the previous months in which his gang had had to keep a lower profile, almost everything had gone smoothly here. If one disregarded the suicide of the slut once, or the two deserted men...

I was suddenly about to burst when I heard one of the men, who had just finished his bag, make a gesture to ward off evil omens, when a scream rang out from the forest in the east and made everyone freeze at the same time.

I immediately turned and circled the overturned wagon, not giving a damn if my boots were stained with more blood from the dead horses and people or not, and squinted intently between the trees.

My men all had their knives and swords drawn, waiting for my command, while they all seemed to be under stress themselves.

Just as I was about to open my mouth and order Sergon to go and see what was going on, regardless of whether I would have been a coward not to go and see for myself, something indefinable flew over the tops of the trees towards them and landed with a wet clap on the western side of the wagon.

The rest of the men ran back with it, completely forgetting the eastern forest, and when the first of his bandits took sight of the unknown flying object, he fell backward onto his butt with a scream and scrambled backward in panic until he was obviously stopped by the overturned wagon.

"Shut the fuck up you sissy!" Was all that came over my lips when I saw this wretch widened with horror to take a closer look myself.

When I finally identified the reddish object on the floor, I also inevitably took a step back, but immediately stopped myself and tried not to show any fear of my men.

In front of me on the earthy ground lay not only the bloodied head of one of the last two men sent into the forest, but it was covered with so much sticky blood that I didn't immediately recognize what I was looking at until I noticed the two white eyeballs that stood out under all the red.

One of the other men pissed himself just visibly terrorized in his pants, while another ran over to the western forest and threw up loudly and clearly blubbering.

As if all this were not enough, the man who had just vomited cried out with a gurgling sound, and when we all looked over, a black creature from my worst nightmares was rushing towards us, while behind him the poor bastard's head rolled off his shoulders, and a red liquid dripped from the creature's left clawed hands.

"Men, to me! ATTACK!" I shouted encouragingly, my own slightly curved scimitar in my right hand, which I held tightly with only suppressed trembling.

i literally flew towards the men, inwardly humming happily one of the film intro songs i had grown so fond of in my last life, when this had been broadcast for weeks at the premiere and then all around the big theater.

One of the guys tried to stab me with his slow way and his ridiculously short toothpick, which only cost me a short ducking under it. One or two steps further and I shot forward again, barely spending a moment for the evasive maneuver, until I arrived in front of the presumed boss of the bandit gang and already wanted to throw myself at him with both claws.

Suddenly, faster than I had thought possible, the scimitar held sideways came hurtling at me from the left, and I couldn't quite dodge it as I quickly dropped to the ground.

A hot pain drove into my left arm, and while backing away and re-examining my position, I saw with a brief sideways glance that this little human had indeed caught me and that red blood was now oozing out from between my beautifully black fur.

I growled beastly, and to my infinite satisfaction, my uncanny deep growl had something so inhuman about it, that ALL of the dirty bandits made an inevitable step back.

"Don't let him intimidate you! Together, on it!" Shouted the most muscular of the bandits, the supposed leader, and boldly lunged at me first, while the others immediately followed his example and tried to surround me.

"Grrr... Humans..." escaped from my throat more in a growl than in a reasonable statement, but was apparently very well heard by all, if one could trust the guards.

The faces, which had already radiated bottomless horror before, now derailed every normality as the people heard my first speech attempt with the new crude speech organ.

I smelled again the disgusting stench of another person, who had stumbled briefly while running, and now urine ran down his leg.

Nevertheless, all the bandits reached my position almost simultaneously, and I had to feverishly find a way out, because despite my advanced development and new abilities, I was sure that I would not be able to fight the rest of the bandits in a bunch at the same time.

Another pain, this time on my right shoulder, luckily snapped me out of my trance when one of the bandits threw his only dagger like the biggest idiot in the world, and now stood there weaponless. Before it dawned on the bandit what he had just done, I jumped with a powerful sideways step to the right directly into his face.

Almost half a meter of horror and terror instantly scratched the man's eyes out and ended his pathetic life in a loud satisfying bloody gurgle as my claws effortlessly drove hissing through his throat.

I was already grinning smugly when suddenly a wave of fatigue ran through my veins and my limbs exuded a different kind of coldness.

A hiss of another approaching weapon from behind just barely warned me, and I threw myself to the ground again, only to find that I had slowed down!

What the bloody hell is happening here?

The answer came with a heavy boot kick to my left side, which made me hit the overturned wagon with full force and sent several splinters of wood flying in all directions like a sledgehammer.

"You like my specialty, you fucking beast, huh?!" Shouted the bandit leader manically. And when I looked up with difficulty, I also realized that it was his iron-reinforced boots that had taught me to fly.

Suddenly, a knife appeared in the man's left hand, and before I knew it, I was screaming as it pierced my right shoulder and nailed me a little to the wood behind me.

He flinched again briefly when my scream sounded more like a creepy child than a monster, but caught himself again very quickly and pulled out more knives to thrust them through my other shoulder, stomach, arms and legs with further screams.

"How do you like that, you bastard, huh? You think you can kill and maim my men?!" He yelled at me as I lay there bleeding and increasingly powerless with multiple knives piercing me. There was a searing pain in my bloodstream, and something must have poisoned me!

"Even finally noticed what my weapons are poisoned? Fortunately, you don't seem to be intelligent. And something like you slaughtered my boys???"

With a wicked and satisfied laugh, he speared me through the stomach from the left with his curved sword, and the sword was even long enough to come out the other side with the tip.

THAT PAIN! That BASTARD! I cursed inwardly as I wriggled screaming but only further tearing open my many wounds and only exacerbating any damage to my body.

I noticed how my cell regeneration was working at full speed to protect me from fatal damage, but at the same time made me suffer more and slower pain!

The rest of the bandits had now also formed up behind the leader and looked down on me with relief, partly spiteful but still fearful, as they looked at me motionlessly.

"What is that ugly beast???" or "Oh gods help us!" was muttered and prayed as they stared at me in my full glorious sinister manner.

A tearing pain distracted me from these brief thoughts again as the asshole of a bandit in front of me pulled out his curved sword again extra slowly, this time taking extra care to enlarge the cut with every milimeter.

Blood gathered on the floor, more than I should have, and even this Sergon swallowed clearly, if I had seen his larynx correctly, when he noticed the phenomenon.

"I'm going to kill you extra slowly, you fucking bastard.... Because of you, I have to look for new men now, and our base is no longer properly defensible!" Hissed the bandit leader, and came closer to me with his face flushed.

I screamed again, as the curved sword left my body with a wet velvet, and immediately cut again, very very slowly, from the front into my belly.

My eyes went black and then white, the pain the worst I had ever experienced, in my previous life and this one.

I saw myself lying again in the alley, my heroic deed long forgotten, and saw out of the corner of my eye how the young girl I had saved from a terrible fate, gathered her things and at his distraction quickly sought the distance without looking around once for her lifesaver.

I felt the knives penetrate my body and could no longer differentiate which wounds on my body came from the gangsters and which from the bandit leader, while I screamed like a spit. My lungs had caught fire and were perforated, causing blood to seep into my right lung.

I coughed between screams.

Am I dying like this, again? So much for rebirth of the extra class, fuck you all!

Do I give in so easily? Here I can eat, I can become stronger, if I do not continue to attack so carelessly and stupidly!

Do I allow this...?

Am I ready to die for good...?

Do I not want to live anymore...?

My screaming had simply stopped, and the bandits were looking at me in panic when I unnaturally did not react to my wounds or the curved sword moving in my stomach as expected. Even the leader gritted his teeth and his eyebrows furrowed as beads of sweat ran down his temples.

Is that it...?

NO.

Never again!

With a cry, I suddenly jerked upwards, some of the knives on my back still stuck in the wood, while others remained carelessly stuck inside me!

I grabbed the arm of this bloody hell in front of me, and pulled myself closer to him by his arm, while his sword emerged from my back again.

I hissed and growled. I WILL FEAST ON YOU! YOU PUNY HUMAN!

the man got eyes as big as round plates and suddenly tried in panic to first pull out his sword, and then to tear his arm loose, which i did not allow him to do, with my claws in his arm, injecting my paralyzing poison in heaps into HIS blood!

This time the man noticed how something flowed up his veins and distributed itself inside him, while I did not let go of him and continued to work my way forward.

Another dagger appeared in his free hand, and I could watch as almost in slow motion the tip moved through the air towards my eyes, aiming to pierce my head and kill me instantly.

Could I let go of this life just like that...?

NO!

And suddenly something inside me, like a kindled furnace, shot through my entire being. My blood burned and boiled, excreted impurities and foreign objects!

My muscles hardened, my claws grew, and my fur itself became much stronger and more impenetrable. My animal side screamed, wanted to be unleashed, and finally wanted to be let loose on the world!

Could I really do that...? I had once been a human myself?

Further such odd human doubts jumped through my consciousness.

Was it important at the moment, or shouldn't I rather deal with moral questions and doubts later?!

YES!

And all of a sudden something burst out of me, something that had been dormant in me since my first day and existence as a mole, and which only now burst out through the complete acceptance of my being.

*Achieve final potential...

[Trait: Progenitor of evolution] unlocked!

Allows the devourer to shape and change his entire being at will, as long as there are enough biological or magical samples. Properties can now be further developed and evolved by your own efforts!

Changes can also be transferred to others, depending on the expertise of the chosen feature or characteristics.

And with this message in front of my inner eye, everything turned red...

I tore the arm of my human torturer in two with my right claws as it effortlessly cut through flesh, sinew and bone like butter.

Sounds of my prey were unimportant, and I blanked out everything, concentrating entirely on the kill. All i wanted to do was tear apart, to devour the world!

The other bandits stumbled backward in panic, but before even one of them had turned around, I raced across the ground with the curved sword in my belly and a frozen dead hand on the hilt, severing the tendons at the back of the feet of all the remaining bandits.

My wounds no longer hurt, and before I had cut the heel on the last man, the last of the knives fell to the ground and even the scimitar slid down, clattering, right on top of one of the other knives.

With a bloody grin, my own blood as I briefly registered in my head, I looked at my work and bathed in the cries of fear and help from the wounded people around me, while the leader himself held his severed arm stump and rolled on his back on the floor, the shock apparently not as easy for him to put away as he thought.

"Weak little people..." came out of my throat again, and it was already easier for me to speak, as if my screams had stimulated my new vocal cords enough to produce clearer sounds.

Without hesitation, I went about my bloody work, cutting the throats of everyone one by one, until I reached the rapist of a leader.

"Be glad... You will... live on... in me...!" Came out of my mouth in a hoarse voice, and I knew exactly what effect my creepy bloody smile had on the man before I sank both my clawed hands into his eye socket from the front, and when I had a firm grip inside his skull, snapped the entire head in two like a ripe melon.

With an almost gentle clap, pieces of his brain rained down on the floor, while other parts ran down his leather cuirass.

Meal time! And with that, still with a slightly red vision in my field of vision, I made my way over the killed people.

*Voice cords amplified!

*Human emotions amplified!

*Adaptations to Devourer trait is performed....

*Own emotions can be controlled or completely switched off at will!

*Male genitals and associated internal organs fully available!

*Sword fighting abilities enhanced!

*Dagger skills enhanced!

*Knowledge of makeshift tools and weapons now available!

Urgs... I'm overeaten... Was all I could think of as I lay on the side of the road on my back, burping loudly. My stomach itself was almost twenty centimeters protruding, and the digestion worked at full speed to process the remaining human remains in my inner.

Time for new knowledge!

The knowledge, as always before, settled in my head all by itself, and I suddenly knew how to handle swords and daggers better, which would definitely help me in the fight AGAINST such opponents, even if the bandits had not exactly been the prime example of exceptional fighting skills.

Next were the emotions, and fortunately I could vaguely determine to what percentage I wanted to succumb to human emotions, or whether I wanted to turn them off altogether.

The genitals, on the other hand, were such a thing. Double-edged. On the one hand, I didn't want to see myself as SOMETHING, but as somehow typically human belonging to a kind of sex, but I wasn't really that keen on it...

Well, then I'm a man for now, right? My... soft part, however, I did not want to just dangle around, which is why I constructed it so that I could drive it in and out.

Another "problem" solved! Yay!

And the last one? I suddenly instinctively knew how to build crude wooden scaffolding and buildings, how to carve or do other normal things.... Was that useful? I don't know... maybe someday when I would want to sneak into a human society? Hmm...

But the most interesting thing of all was the memories of the devoured bandits! There was a fortified camp further west in the forest, exactly in the same direction I wanted to travel anyway!

So, another goal!

Before I set off, my stomach as thin as ever, I rummaged around in the loot bags that now lay carelessly everywhere, and decided to fill a leather bag the size of a human head with all the coins and gems I had found. You never know, I might want to go on a shopping spree dressed as a human someday!

And now fully satisfied, wounds closed, meal digested, I made my way to this bandit camp, where a few scattered bandit snacks left behind were waiting for me!