Our Family Has Fallen

So fast! Could it be a team coming at us?

He quickly went up to investigate, but by the time he arrived, he witnessed an outrageous scene.

The large Flesh Devourer did not die at the hands of the Formless Flesh, nor at the hands of Lance. Instead, it was killed by another monster on its escape route, and by the time Lance arrived, the corpse was almost entirely consumed.

Tentacles firmly gripped the prey, with embedded oral parts devouring, even the thick back armor couldn’t escape, instead, it was as fragile as a potato chip.

Its entire appearance was bluish-gray with black spots, and its back was covered with a thick shell, segmented like a lobster’s shell.

Its body, resembling tentacles, had its originally sharp legs turned into bizarre sucker-like shapes, and there were numerous, varying-sized pustules on its neck.

Its head was even more terrifying, adorned with an array of irregular, bizarre eyes of varying sizes.

Simultaneously, twisted tentacles sprouted from the front of its mouth, with another nested oral part inside.

Bizarrely, there were eyes growing above them, displaying blood-stained twisted teeth the instant they protruded.

More alarmingly, this creature was even larger than the previously encountered large Flesh Devourer, blocking the passage entirely.

This is—the Giant Flesh Devourer!

If the large Devourer and the smaller ones at least appeared somewhat related, the giant one looked completely beyond that scope.

The signs of mutation were too obvious, especially the eyes and tentacles, making Lance distinctly feel the handiwork of the Ancestor.

Its twisted, distorted form was as if it had consumed too many of the Ancestor’s special burgers, mutated by the strange powers within discarded experimental bodies.

The creature’s multitude of eyes were not just for show; they all whirled around to face Lance.

Sensing something wrong, Lance pulled out a conch to try and control it, but unexpectedly, it sparked intense hostility instead.

This was the first time Lance encountered something uncontrollable, even shutting it off forcefully didn’t work, so he turned and ran without hesitation.

The Giant Devourer even abandoned the food to come rushing toward Lance.

Then Lance discovered an interesting fact: the Giant Devourer’s abandonment of its sharp legs for sucker-like soft feet had reduced its mobility, leaving it floundering in an indescribable wriggle.

It’s no wonder those devourers had all arrived after the fight and only then did it appear.

Yet this creature exhibited a more unique capability, mysterious light emanating from its complex eyes, while the tentacles on its head flailed wildly.

Weaken the prey!

An evil aura instantly locked onto Lance, trying to invade and pollute his Spiritual Essence, to suppress his power.

At that moment, Lance understood why it didn’t need to maintain mobility like its kin; maybe it was better at ambushing, waiting for prey to come to it.

But more directly, it certainly didn’t need to anymore as it had mastered strange powers.

With just one glance, it could weaken its prey, making it no match. But Lance was no ordinary Transcendent, not to mention his physique surpassed that of any human, with an unbreakable will.

Even without Sanctuary, these tricks were as non-existent to him, dismantled instantly before any reaction could occur.

However, Lance had no intention of striking back, instead accelerating to lead the Giant Devourer to the spot where the battle just took place.

You see, the Formless Flesh was originally chasing him, and now with the addition of a Giant Devourer, they perfectly surrounded Lance from both ends of the tunnel.

But what if they encountered each other first?

Both sides turned the corner and instantly noticed each other’s presence, and immediately the battle erupted.

Indeed, as Lance suspected, the grudge between these two was far more appealing to each other than to himself.

Almost like a spring, the massive boar’s head lunged with its mouth wide open to take a bite.

Devour and feast!

If the large Devourer’s back armor was like solid rock, the giant one’s was like steel.

That one bite got nothing but damaged its mouthful of sharp teeth, breaking more than half.

Seemingly familiar with the Formless Flesh, the Giant Devourer immediately exerted its power.

The curse that had no effect on Lance took hold in the Formless Flesh, making its movements appear lackluster.

The Giant Devourer showed no mercy, opening its tentacles to grab onto the boar’s head.

Tentacle devouring!

The whole boar’s head was almost entirely ensnared by tentacles, just like it devoured the large Flesh Devourer earlier, gnawing upon it forcibly.

The prior battle between the two devourers that Lance missed was illuminating in this moment.

The Giant Devourer surprisingly did not secrete Corrosive Fluid, had its most potent ability evolved away?

But soon he realized something, the tentacles holding its prey seemed to harbor a power more sinister than Corrosive Fluid, capable of rendering even the most solid of objects fragile in its presence.

It was this power that could so easily crush its kin’s back armor and break the hard boar’s skull.

The crunching noises heralded that more than half of the boar’s head was quickly gnawed away.

Fortunately, the flesh was changing, allowing the remaining half of the boar’s head to be pulled from the Devourer’s mouth.

And that earlier scene was merely a probe at their meeting; the actual fight had only just begun.

The damaged boar’s head sank into the sea of flesh, and the next second more mutated limbs emerged.

A twisted spine, controlled by the flesh, slammed downwards, unlike previous close encounters, offering enough space to strike downwards.

The exaggerated force couldn’t even be withstood by the Giant Devourer, its head being unwittingly thrown aside, punctured by bone and leaving it scarred.

Unfortunately, it didn’t knock it into a daze; the hit was effective, but it also enraged the Devourer, causing it to leap forward, with tentacles flailing madly, beginning to devour the flesh.

The strange part was that unlike previously seen devourers, this one couldn’t heal by devouring flesh, the injuries remained.

Did its evolution eradicate its two most distinctive traits?

Before Lance could think further, under the spine’s successive strikes, the Giant Devourer fell into a stupor.

The exposed injury showed that while the flesh above was smashed, there was no sign of dissolution.

And then Lance noticed the blood vessels on the Formless Flesh suddenly bulging, making its appearance worrisome, as if they might burst at any moment.

But those healthy, elastic blood vessels were pulsing with blood carrying magical power.

Blood surged!

The wound created by the gnawing was littered with the marks of tentacle ravaging, but in the next moment, that flesh exhibited extraordinary vitality, constantly growing and filling out, healing in just a few seconds.

It was only then that Lance truly saw the Formless Flesh’s regenerative ability, proving it hadn’t grown that huge just to be slaughtered.

In fact, as it healed, that grotesque tail struck again, the boar’s body showing admirable resilience, but the true terror lay in the grotesque mouth stretched from its nether region, brandishing tentacles.

It resembled the Giant Devourer’s nested oral part, but it was thick as an arm, like an enlarged intestine, with its end lined with living teeth pressed against, surrounded by bizarre black eyes.

The length was even more exaggerated, shooting over several meters between the two, biting into the Giant Devourer’s mass.

Such a small bite on the massive Devourer sure had limited impact.

Yet Lance keenly observed the secret of this maneuver lied in the secretions on that mouth, its few spilled drops corroding pits into the ground, revealing its sinister nature.

A fascinating phenomenon unfolded as that Devourer’s evolution had distanced itself from its original features.

Having lost its healing and corrosive abilities, it was the Formless Flesh that now demonstrated them.

Is this whole tactic a house swap?