Chapter 147: Five Pieces Still Weren’t Enough[1]

A drop of blood fell from Valeria’s fingers and split into thin threads that crawled across the quarry floor toward the base of the wall.

They didn’t attack the Matriarch.

They struck stone.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Small, rhythmic vibrations traveled through the ground.

The Matriarch raised her head.

Raven created a second pattern from another angle with his spare spear, striking the stone once, pausing, then striking again.

Two sources.

One weak vibration behind the wall.

Another much closer.

The creature chose the deeper one.

Perfect.

It advanced toward the fractured rock.

Raven moved into position in front of it.

Valeria stopped tapping.

"I don’t like where you’re standing."

"Neither do I."

"That doesn’t help."

Raven kept his attention on the Matriarch.

"When she charges, I need you to pull her front left leg outward."

Valeria frowned.

"Why?"

"The joint has been unstable since we hit it. If you shift it a few centimeters during the discharge, she’ll compensate automatically and won’t have time to correct after I move."

"And she’ll aim directly into the fracture."

"Yes."

Valeria took a breath, then looked at the mass of stone hanging above him.

"If you calculated this wrong..."

"Don’t stand underneath it."

"I meant you."

Raven glanced at her.

"That too."

She didn’t look satisfied.

There was no time to improve the answer.

The Matriarch was already approaching.

Raven struck the ground once with the spear.

The creature stopped.

A second strike made its abdomen continue swelling.

On the third, Predator’s Instinct reacted.

The Matriarch spread her limbs and anchored herself.

Raven remained still.

Pain had returned to his ribs. His right lung still wasn’t completely stable, and the ruptured ear filled half the world with a constant high-pitched ring.

None of that mattered for the next two seconds.

The abdominal plates opened completely.

[Pressure Accumulation: CRITICAL.]

Raven watched every adjustment in her stance.

The right forelimb shifted backward. Both central limbs lowered to stabilize the torso, while the damaged left side carried slightly less weight.

Valeria waited outside the projected discharge vector.

Raven struck the ground again.

The Matriarch committed her torso.

Now.

Valeria’s blood threads snapped forward.

They didn’t attempt to restrain the creature. They wrapped around the injured forelimb and pulled it only a few centimeters outward.

The Matriarch compensated by reflex.

Her entire body rotated three or four degrees.

Directly toward the fracture.

Raven activated Burst Step.

The Matriarch discharged.

WHOOOOOM.

Raven appeared off to the side.

The blast passed close enough that the pressure differential nearly took his feet out from under him despite never striking him directly.

Then it hit the wall.

The entire quarry answered.

CRAAAAACK.

The fracture split from bottom to top.

For a fraction of a second, nothing fell.

Raven looked upward.

"Come on."

A small stone broke loose.

Then another.

The entire shelf gave way.

Valeria shouted.

"Raven!"

He was already running.

The Matriarch tried to move.

She couldn’t.

Her own recoil had left her anchored for a fraction of a second too long.

The first slab struck her head.

BOOM.

The second crashed across her neck.

Then the main mass came down behind them.

CRASH.

The Matriarch disappeared beneath stone.

The impact sent a wall of dust across the quarry.

Raven covered his face and continued moving until the last heavy impacts stopped. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Smaller rocks continued tumbling from the damaged wall while something shifted beneath the rubble.

Then that movement stopped.

Raven inhaled carefully.

Pain answered.

But air still entered.

Valeria approached from the side.

"Alive?"

Raven checked Predation.

[Blastback Matriarch — Level 33 — ELITE.]

[Vital Activity: CRITICAL.]

"Still."

One leg shifted beneath the rubble.

Then another.

Raven approached cautiously.

"Not so fast," Valeria said.

"The chamber can be damaged if it remains compressed too long."

"Of course that concerns you before your lungs."

"My lungs are still inside me."

"That medical standard keeps getting worse."

Raven found the Matriarch’s head—or what remained visible of it.

The first slab had shattered part of the cranial armor. The second had compressed the cervical section exactly where Raven had intended.

The abdomen remained outside the main collapse.

Perfect.

The Matriarch tried to move one forelimb.

Raven recovered the spear still embedded in her neck and tore it free.

Dark blood followed.

The creature was conscious enough to react.

Raven placed the spearhead against the exposed cervical seam.

He didn’t need Kinetic Acceleration.

He pushed once.

The spinal tissue gave way.

The Matriarch stopped moving.

Predation confirmed the kill.

[Target Deceased.]

[Experience Acquired.]

[Significant Level Disparity Detected.]

No Level Up appeared.

Raven hadn’t expected one.

The interface changed almost immediately.

FORGE filled his vision.

[High-Capacity Pressure Chamber Available.]

[Integrity Degrading Under Postmortem Decompression.]

[Immediate Extraction Recommended.]

Raven looked at Valeria.

"I need to open her."

She closed her eyes for a second.

"Naturally."

The Matriarch’s anatomy was worse than Raven had expected.

Not because the organ was difficult to locate.

It was impossible to miss.

Nearly the entire abdomen had been built around the Pressure Chamber.

Raven cut through the lateral plates along the paths FORGE indicated while Valeria held tissue apart with blood threads. They couldn’t simply open the creature through the center because too many pressure connections converged there.

The chamber emerged gradually.

It was enormous.

Dark muscular tissue formed several concentric pressure sacs reinforced by almost transparent rings of cartilage. Natural valves connected the different sections, while thin mana filaments ran along their outer edges.

Raven immediately understood why FORGE wanted it.

This wasn’t merely a biological bag capable of surviving pressure.

It was a complete regulation system designed to accumulate force, redistribute it across several chambers, isolate dangerous spikes, and release pressure without destroying the organism containing it.

That was exactly what the rifle needed.

The Activation System would initiate the firing sequence.

The Crystalline Reservoir would supply mana.

The Stormhorn Pulse Core would accelerate the projectile.

The Pressure Chamber could absorb and redirect the violent internal and rearward forces created when those systems operated together.

Recoil Regulation.

Valeria stared at the organ.

"It’s unpleasantly large."

"FORGE will adapt the function. I’m not attaching the entire thing to the rifle."

"I’m glad to hear that. For a moment, I imagined you carrying the weapon around in a wagon."

Raven began cutting the first connection.

"That wouldn’t be practical."

"That was the part of that image that bothered you most."

"Yes."

Valeria gave a tired laugh.

Extraction took almost six minutes.

FORGE projected every cut.

Valve.

Membrane.

Mana filament.

Pressure conduit.

Raven had to stop twice because the chamber still contained residual pressure. Cutting the wrong connection too early could cause the internal compartments to decompress unevenly and tear themselves apart.

When he finally severed the last cartilage ring, the organ came free.

Raven held it in both hands.

Heavy.

Still slightly expanded.

FORGE analyzed it.

[Blastback Pressure Chamber Harvested.]

[Integrity: 95%.]

[Pressure Tolerance: EXCELLENT.]

[Pressure Cycling Stability: EXCELLENT.]

[Prototype Rifle Compatibility: 97%.]

[Recoil Regulation System: SATISFIED.]

Raven stared at the display.

Valeria recognized the change in his expression.

"It accepted it?"

"Yes."

Another notification appeared.

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE.]

[Completion: 74.1% → 91.3%.]

[Core Systems: 5/6.]

[Activation System: COMPLETE.]

[Stable Mana Storage: COMPLETE.]

[Structural Barrel: COMPLETE.]

[Projectile Acceleration: COMPLETE.]

[Recoil Regulation: COMPLETE.]

[Projectile Stabilization: MISSING.]

Five of six.

Arc Needle Queen.

Deepwell Toad.

Black Mithril.

Stormhorn Courser.

Blastback Matriarch.

Weeks of travel, hunts, Dunvar, Velis, and now Kharad.

Organs Raven had deliberately chosen not to devour.

Materials acquired through combat, negotiation, infiltration, and an increasingly irritating amount of social interaction.

Five systems were ready.

One remained.

Raven waited for another notification.

FORGE provided it.

[Primary Firing Architecture: NEAR-COMPLETE.]

[Remaining Functional Requirement Detected.]

[Projectile Stabilization System Required.]

[Function: Maintain Projectile Orientation and Trajectory Under Extreme Acceleration.]

[Compatible Biological Analogue: UNKNOWN.]

Raven read the final line twice.

Unknown.

Of course.

Valeria recognized the absence of immediate satisfaction.

"What?"

Raven closed the interface.

"The chamber works."

"That sounds good."

"It is."

"But."

Raven looked at the massive organ in his hands.

Then he thought about the other components stored in their protective containers, each taken from a different creature and none originally meant to function with the others.

Black Mithril interfered with biological mana.

The Reservoir had to feed multiple systems without saturating them.

The Impulse Spark needed to trigger the sequence correctly.

The Pulse Core had to accelerate a projectile without destabilizing the weapon.

The Pressure Chamber now had to absorb and redirect the resulting force.

And even if all of that worked, a projectile accelerated that violently still needed to remain oriented long enough to hit what Raven aimed at.

Five solved problems.

One remaining.

Valeria looked at the crushed Matriarch, then at the shattered quarry wall.

"How many more monsters do we have to kill before that weapon exists?"

Raven secured the Pressure Chamber inside the preservation container.

"One."

Valeria stared at him.

"You said that with far too much confidence."

"I know what function I need."

"And what creature has it?"

Raven looked at the final system window.

[Compatible Biological Analogue: UNKNOWN.]

"I don’t."

Valeria closed her eyes.

"Of course you don’t."

Raven sealed the container.

"Finding it is the next problem."

Valeria looked around the ruined quarry, at the Elite Matriarch buried beneath several tons of stone, then back at him.

"You have a disturbing definition of ’next problem.’"

Raven picked up the container.

"It’s been consistent so far."