Chapter 84: The Organ Belongs to Me

Raven returned to Deep Mire with fewer people than the day before.

Garran hadn’t agreed at first. His natural response to discovering an Elite creature connected to hundreds of yards of swamp had been to gather as many soldiers as possible. Raven pointed out that the Hollow Broodmother could turn infected bodies into extensions of its colony, which meant bringing twenty men into its territory could become the equivalent of handing it twenty new weapons if something went wrong.

They settled on eight.

Raven, Valeria, Roland, Maelor, Garran, and three soldiers. The rest would remain outside the membrane zone, controlling the channels and sealing retreat routes if the colony tried to spread toward Mirevale.

They weren’t improvising this time either.

Maelor had spent most of the night preparing concentrated purification salts using the Hollow Thread samples they had recovered. The mixture wasn’t a cure once a parasite had integrated deeply into a host, but it destroyed exposed juvenile forms and made the water hostile to them for several minutes. They carried enough to deliberately contaminate three smaller channels surrounding the ruins.

Valeria carried more prepared blood than usual.

Roland carried oil.

Raven carried enough food for five people.

Valeria had seen that last part and, for once, decided not to comment.

The plan was simple only on paper: block the main waterways, sever the surface membrane network, force the Broodmother to pull resources back toward its core, and kill it before it could disperse the colony.

After that, they would deal with the Deepwell Toad.

Raven still wasn’t sure which of the two would be more troublesome.

Before leaving the last relatively clean stretch of ground, he checked his status.

[Level: 9]

[Rank: Common]

[Mana: 18 / 18]

[Predatory Regeneration: MANUAL REGULATION Available]

[Toxin Adaptation: Active]

[Current Biological Abnormalities: NONE]

The Arc Needle Queen and the rest of the Sablewood colony had finally pushed him to Level Nine.

One more Level and he would reach the known limit of Common.

After that came Awakened.

Raven still didn’t know exactly what crossing an Existence Rank would involve. He had already killed several Awakened creatures despite remaining Common, sometimes with help, so Rank clearly wasn’t an absolute barrier.

Understanding the transition could wait.

First, he needed to avoid becoming an incubator.

"Nobody crosses water without checking their boots and exposed skin," Garran said. "If anyone gets injured, report it immediately. No waiting to see whether you feel sick."

Raven secured one of the salt containers to his belt.

"Check small wounds too."

Garran looked at him.

"That was included."

"Last time, an inch-and-a-half cut was enough."

Valeria smiled.

"And then his body helped the parasite settle in."

One of the soldiers looked at Raven.

"How?"

"I regenerated over it."

The man remained silent for a few seconds.

"That seems counterproductive."

"It was."

Valeria looked far too pleased.

"I’m glad someone else finally gets to tell him that."

Raven started walking.

"Five minutes in, and I already want to reduce the team again."

---

The first phase went better than expected.

Raven immediately distrusted that.

Garran’s soldiers reached all three channels without encountering active hosts. They stretched waxed nets between the roots and emptied part of Maelor’s purification salts upstream.

Within thirty seconds, small translucent filaments began surfacing.

Hundreds of them.

They writhed violently.

Then stopped.

Maelor watched the water with equal parts fascination and disgust.

"It works."

"Temporarily," Raven said.

"I know."

"Making sure."

"I don’t need you repeating my own limitations."

Raven looked at the mass of dead Hollow Threads.

"People tend to forget limitations after something works once."

Maelor didn’t answer.

Probably because Raven was right.

They continued deeper.

The membrane zone began almost a hundred yards before the ruins, just as it had the previous day, but now Raven knew the growth wasn’t random.

It was a sensory network.

Predation had identified part of its function during their retreat.

[Hollow Broodmother External Biological Network Detected.]

[Primary Functions:]

[Mana Conduction]

[Vibration Detection]

[Nutrient Transport]

[Brood Distribution]

Raven pointed toward a thick membrane connecting two trees.

"That one."

Roland poured oil across it.

Ember Spark produced a small flame.

The membrane caught surprisingly fast.

Not like wet flesh.

More like material saturated with mana.

Fire raced several yards before dying where the oil ended.

The response came almost immediately.

The ground trembled beneath them.

"It felt us," Garran said.

"That was the point."

Valeria formed six blood threads around one hand.

"I find it wonderful that your plan begins by deliberately making the Elite angry."

"If it doesn’t react where I want, I can’t control where it sends its resources."

"I know why you’re doing it. That doesn’t make it less irritating."

They burned another node.

Then a third.

The Broodmother responded exactly as Raven had hoped. Deeper membranes contracted, and visible filaments began withdrawing toward the ruins.

The colony was concentrating its network.

It also began moving hosts.

Predator’s Instinct reacted before they appeared.

Raven raised a fist.

Everyone stopped.

Three figures emerged slowly between the trees.

Two humans.

One Marsh Grazer.

One of the men wore hunter clothing. The other still had part of the missing patrol’s uniform.

Both walked too stiffly, arms hanging uselessly at their sides until they came close enough.

Then they ran.

"Left one is thirty-eight percent integrated," Raven said as Predation finished analyzing them. "Possibly recoverable. The other is eighty-nine."

Valeria was already moving.

Two ribbons of blood snapped through the trees. The first wrapped around the hunter’s wrists and wrenched both arms behind his back. Another caught his legs.

He hit the mud face-first.

The second man kept coming.

Raven stepped directly into his path.

The host threw a punch.

Raven slipped outside it, caught the arm, and rotated the joint.

Something inside the man corrected his balance immediately.

No pain response.

That made him more annoying.

Raven struck behind the knee.

The joint buckled.

The host tried to stand anyway.

"Eighty-nine," Garran repeated.

Raven understood the question.

"Not yet."

It wasn’t mercy.

A corpse would release larvae and turn the ground into another contamination source.

Raven struck the other knee.

The host collapsed.

Valeria extended another blood thread and pinned him against a root.

The Grazer was easier.

Roland planted an arrow into the mud directly in front of one of its feet. The animal changed direction, and Valeria looped a crimson band around its horns before pulling it down.

"Three restrained without killing them," she said. "I’m developing terrible habits."

"You’re very adaptable."

"Don’t make that sound like a compliment."

They kept moving.