Courting Death System-Chapter 67: Armin

"Armin, where have you been? Do you know how worried I was when you secretly ran away for a month. You know that my condition is deteriorating yet you continue to worry your mother. Tell me, where have you been?" said Ruby, the woman who gave birth to the xenomorph.

Her situation wasn’t good. Her vision was clouded, her body extremely frail and weak and worst of all, she was bedridden and dying from internal wounds and infections. She was currently laying on a bed made from leaves, not very comfortable but convenient for sleeping.

"I was out hunting mother, I have to eat and grow stronger in order to protect you." sounded a female and mature voice.

A creature standing at a whopping four meters stood before the dying Ruby, greenish black mesoskeleton, an elongated shield like head with a mouth with sharp teeth and a long, razor sharp tail. Beside this monstrosity was corpses of different beasts like the green striped tiger, three eyed warthog, black serpent and canine beasts.

"Armin, I don’t know how much you’ve grown but I’m sure you’re an adult by now. I only held you for a day before you started to crawl on your own. I failed to raise you as my child, and I’m sorry for that. You know, I wanted to raise you as a hero when you were born but after thinking about it again, that might not be such a good idea. For what it’s worth, I was once a princess.

A princess of the Alazea Kingdom which was destroyed by the vampires who crave the blood of pure blooded humans. I don’t know know what you currently look like but in my eyes, you’ll always be my baby boy. And remember, humans can’t be trusted, they are the greediest, most selfish and cunning race to ever exist. Live for yourself, for your own happiness and never for me. One last thing... mommy loves you, always has and always will." said Ruby before taking her final breath.

Armin looked at her with her special vision but didn’t say anything and she was actually female. At birth, the only human characteristic she possessed was the male human reproductive organ but after undergoing her first evolution, she no longer had human reproductive organs.

Also, she’d undergone so many evolutions, constantly changing and transforming until her recent transformation which she called the Praetorian Evolution Stage. She grabbed her mother’s corpse and started devouring it voraciously.

"You shall become my greatest shield and sword against my enemies so continue to love and protect me." she said after devouring her mother. She didn’t feel guilty or saddened by the current situation. After that, her entire body began to secret a thick, green mucus with a horrible stench. She covered the cave entrance, the walls and even the ground with this mucus.

After doing that, she took a quadrupedal stance at the centre where the mucus was the thickest.

ROOOAAARRR!!!

She roared in pain while laying her first egg and the egg was absolutely massive. The egg was also covered in this mucus and it looked like an ancient rock. She laid another egg, then another and another. After an hour passed, she had laid a total of twelve eggs.

She then walked to the beast corpses she’d brought with her and started sending them precisely too. Soon, she’d devoured all the corpses and returned to the centre of the cave and continued to give birth to eggs but these eggs were smaller than the twelve eggs she just laid.

A few hours later, she’d given birth to a total of 252 eggs. She then dug her way out of the cave and disappeared into the foggy forest.

...

Armin travelled a great distance to reach her location. It was currently raining acid rain but to the living beings of this world, it was like a normal rain to them. Armin was crouched on a thick tree branch, her entire focus on a den below her that was covered with branches.

There were salmon bones and other beast corpses and beast skin around the den entrance. Armin stealthily descended from the tree and stood in front of the den entrance. She was holding a lighter that Ruby often used to start a fire. The tree branches and leaves were already dry so all she had to do was burn the leaves.

Soon, a small fire burned vibrantly and started to grow due to the dry leaves and branches around it. In no time, she den entrance was burning and some of the smoke entered the den, making it hard for whatever creature inside to breathe. She then hid herself behind the den entrance, waiting to ambush whatever came out.

BANG!

ROAR!

The beast inside the den rushed out enraged, throwing the burning branches far away but as it rushed out, it felt danger from behind. This beast was a grizzly bear, otherwise known as the Steel Furred Bear.

Puchi!

A segmented blade tail pierced the side of the Steel Furred Bear, all because the bear was fast enough to dodge a fatal attack. Armin then pounced on the bear’s back and put it on a chokehold while the tail kept stabbing the bear at specific points. The bear struggled to get free, slamming on the ground, trees and on boulders and managed to throw off Armin.

ROOAARR!!!

It roared in anger while standing up on its hind legs, making it look bigger and larger than it actually was. Armin was four meters tall but the bear was five meters tall. Armin was in a standoff with the bear, each gauging their opponent’s strength. Getting impatient, the bear lunged at Armin but she easily dodged its attack and didn’t forget to randomly stab it with her tail.

The bear quickly got up and lunged at her again and Armin repeated the same strategy, dodging and stabbing. This went on for hours and now, the Steel Furred Bear was bleeding profusely. The bear lunged at Armin but this time, she did something different. She too lunged at the bear and headbutted it, the collision was so strong it sounded like a thunderclap.

As a result, the bear had lost consciousness, both from the headbutt and the excessive blood loss.

’The human tactics from my Bloodline Memories are really useful and practical.’ thought Armin while she carried the unconscious bear away.

...

"My lord, it seems someone has already beaten us to the target. This is the blood of the Steel Furred Bear and the terrain shows signs of battle. The person lured the bear out by burning the trees on its den entrance and after that, caused it excessive blood loss before finishing it off." said a man who was squatting down and investigating the terrain.

"That’s alright but we must find this person. A weapon capable of injuring the Steel Furred Bear isn’t ordinary at all. It’s probably a Fifth or even Four Grade weapon. Quickly track down this person." said a middle aged man with a long scar on his chest and holding two battle axes.

"Boss, you might want to look at this." said another person and this boss walked over.

"What is it?"

"A footprint."

"I know it’s a footprint you idiot but from which Mutant Beast does it belong to?"

"That’s the problem, there’s no record of Mutant Beast with this kind of footprint. Maybe the Steel Furred Bear fought this mysterious beast and the third party took advantage when the two beasts were injured."

"Makes sense but I still want this person found. We’ll take a short break here while the scouts look for clues."

"Yes boss."

...

Armin didn’t return to the cave with the bear but instead went to a swamp and started digging a massive hole and covered it with branches and leaves. She then placed the bear in front of the hole and scattered some of its blood around the branches and swamp waters. She hid herself perfectly while holding a silk rope and waited patiently for her target.

Hours went by and finally there was movement from the swamp. A massive log floated on the swamp’s surface and slowly floated towards the swamp shore. A crocodile with sharp and tough scales walked out of the swamp and approached the unconscious bear. It stepped on the branches and leaves, not knowing that it was a trap.

When it stood in front of the unconscious bear, the branches couldn’t hold on any longer and broke, causing the crocodile to fall into the pit. Armin then rushed towards the pit from the crocodile’s blindspot and when it raised its head to try and crawl out of the pit, its eyes were pierced, rendering it blind. It squirmed in pain and slammed its tail on the pit.

Armin then jumped into the pit with the silk rope held tightly. She landed on its back and the crocodiles instinctively raised its head to attack but the pit was too narrow and it couldn’t turn around. Armin used this opportunity to tie the silk rope around the crocodile’s mouth and once its mouth was tied, it was game over for the crocodile.

...

Back at the cave, Armin looked at the two half dead Mutant Beasts she had captured. It seems she was conflicted with what to do with them.

"Since I’m about to evolve into a Queen, I’m going to need guards to protect and serve me. Royal Guards it is... or should I say, Praetorians."