Eater Blade: Grinding in Apocalypse-Chapter 41: ANOMALY QUEST COMPLETE.

The Queen’s scream ripped through the nest. A sound like a thousand dying voices layered into one shriek. Rattling the webbed walls so hard that half-formed Eaters inside their sacs kicked and twitched in panic. The entire root system pulsed like an enraged heart.

"WHAT ARE YOU?! YOU ARE NOT ONE OF US!"

Fleshy strings shot from the walls, wet tendrils snapping toward Johnquis and Dancer like living spears. The floor heaved under their soles as roots bulged and split, trying to pin them down.

Johnquis swung his chain, slicing one, two but the webbing kept coming.

"Shit! Dancer, MOVE—"

But she wasn’t moving back. She was done backing down. A low, guttural hiss bled out from her throat, her pupils pinpricks of burning gold. One second she was wrapped in sticky strings, the next—

SNAP!

Her foot-blade slashed out in a blinding arc, carving through every fleshy cord in reach. The roots recoiled like butchered serpents. She rotated, heel flashing again, slicing the webbing off her shoulders, her arms, her throat. The last strands fell away in steaming ribbons.

Around them, the unformed Eaters shuddered inside their sacs. Some split open early, shrieking in half-formed voices, crawling toward them on boneless limbs.

Johnquis let out a harsh laugh. "Oh, come on! They’re not even cooked yet!"

His chain whipped out.

CRACK!

A head split like a rotten melon. Another lash, a spine snapped like wet twigs.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]

[Feed Count: +0]

He paused, staring at the splatter. "Seriously? Nothing?! All this hacking for zero? You ugly half-sacks don’t even count?!"

He snarled and lashed out again, chain coiling through another cluster of writhing grubs.

"Stay dead, then! Fine by me!"

But Dancer barely heard him. Her eyes were locked on the Queen, burning with pure hunger and the promise of the kill. She lunged, one perfect, terrifying leap, foot-blade gleaming like a guillotine’s kiss.

Fleshy tendrils burst from the ceiling, walls, and floor, whipping toward her in a storm of writhing roots.

But Dancer moved like a phantom, weaving through every lashing strike with impossible grace.

One tendril sliced the air above her shoulder but she was already gone, twisting under the next.

She spun midair, heel snapping out to carve three strands apart before they touched her. Her eyes burned with hate and freedom.

The Queen’s head twisted, her voice bubbling through the pulsing root-flesh.

"You will always be—"

The blade tore clean through her throat. A gush of black-violet ichor exploded out, soaking Dancer head to toe. The Queen’s glow flickered, the pits of her eyes fading to dull, lifeless holes.

She gurgled out one last, wet whisper:

"—mine..."

The massive trunk of flesh shuddered violently. The sacs overhead burst open, spilling half-formed Eaters in a rain of rotting meat and mucus. The nest began to collapse, pulsing lights flickering out, the root system going slack under their boots.

Johnquis pushed forward, breath ragged, watching the Queen’s shape melt back into the pulsing mound.

A tone rang in his skull as the feed system kicked in:

[Feed Count: +2000]

[Feed Count: 45,200 / 70,000]

Johnquis blinked at the glowing number, then let out a rough, breathless laugh.

"Two thousand?! Damn, this D-tier Queen really pays out good. For that overgrown mother maggot? Yeah... I’ll take it."

He stepped closer to Dancer, chain still coiled in his hand, eyes darting around as the nest began to die. The fleshy walls twitched and caved in like deflating lungs. Roots cracked and withdrew into the floor, dragging half-melted corpses back into the pulsing mass. Pockets of steaming ichor popped like boils, spraying the broken tiles with sizzling mist.

Chunks of dead Eaters and shredded sacs rained down. A piece slapped against Johnquis’s shoulder, he flicked it off with a look of disgust.

"Ugh. Smells worse than old ale and rotgut mixed. And that’s saying something."

He glanced at Dancer, who stood drenched in the Queen’s black-violet ichor, her foot-blade still dripping. He cracked a grin through the blood mist.

"You good? You’re not gonna sprout more limbs and turn on me, right?"

A bubble of gas burst behind him, he flinched back as part of the nest wall caved in, belching out a stinking fog. Veins of pale light flickered through the rotting root system, blinking like dying embers.

Johnquis turned a slow circle, chain rattling at his side. "Damn... guess that’s the heart of it. No more eggs. No more glitches. No more mind games whispering in your skull."

He jabbed a thumb at the sinking mass.

"Dead. All of it."

A final tremor rippled through the nest. Unformed Eaters flopped boneless to the floor, dissolving into mush that sank into the roots, feeding nothing. The last flickers of light blinked out, leaving only the flickering glow of his feed count.

He wiped a smear of ichor from his brow, smearing it into his hair.

"Well... guess that’s another nest down. Another queen for the butcher’s bill."

He let out a rough laugh, half-crazed from exhaustion. "And we’re still standing. Look at us, huh? A couple of monsters eating monsters."

He locked eyes with Dancer, voice dropping just a notch. "Hey... you did good. I know you’re you now, not her limb. Just you."

He tapped the side of his head with a faint smirk. "And next time? No whispering freak’s gonna get in there again. Not while I’m around."

A flickers of system text cut through the dark:

[Anomaly Quest Complete]

[Difficulty: D Tier]

[Status: Temporary Squad]

[Quest Time]

[6 hours and 21 minutes]

[Feed Count Gain]

[+33,100]

[Previous: 12,100 → Current: 45,200 (+33,100)] ƒrēenovelkiss.com

[Damage Taken]

[Injury: Major wounds]

[ANOMALY SPECIAL EFFECT TRIGGERED]

: FEEDING FRENZY

[Final Tally: 16,200 Feed Count]

[CONGRATULATIONS!]

- You completed an anomaly quest.

[THE SEASIDE MALL WILL NOW REVERT BACK]

Reverting in progress...

A low, static hum washed over them. The pulsing nest around them started to wither, the slick, fleshy walls cracking and peeling like old paint left under acid rain.

Johnquis caught Dancer’s shoulder, giving it a firm shake.

"Hey—hey! Look at me. You did good. That thing’s dead. It’s done."

Dancer blinked at him, black-violet blood dripping from her chin. Then she clicked, low and soft, a noise that said she was here. With him. Not with the nest. Not with the Queen.

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