Chapter 97: Eleven Assassins Thought We Were Surrounded

Nyxara had been traveling with them for less than an hour when Valeria found another reason to distrust Raven.

The Bloodborn rode several yards ahead, apparently more interested in the scenery than in any possibility of an ambush. Roland had chosen the rear so quickly that Raven suspected it had less to do with tactical security and more to do with staying outside both women’s conversational range.

Valeria rode beside Raven.

She had been silent for several minutes.

That alone was suspicious.

"There’s something I don’t understand."

Raven kept his eyes on the road. "There are many things you don’t understand."

"What an efficient way to make me consider pushing you off your horse."

"Then ask."

Valeria held his gaze for a moment before continuing. "There were dozens of preserved organs in that caravan. Glands, cores, eyes, blood, Bloodline samples. FORGE rejected almost everything for your rifle, but Predation doesn’t only work on things you kill. Why did you leave all of it there?"

Raven had expected the question.

Predation’s improvement after reaching Awakened had made the answer considerably clearer.

"Because being able to eat something doesn’t mean I should."

Valeria raised an eyebrow. "That represents considerable philosophical growth."

"I’ve never eaten everything I find."

"You ate a brain on your first day in this world."

"It worked."

"That wasn’t my point."

Raven opened Predation and pulled up one of the analyses he had performed on the caravan’s preserved samples. He had checked several before leaving precisely because the possibility had occurred to him.

[Preserved Trait Source: Thermal Mana Gland]

[Original Trait: UNKNOWN — Fire-Affinity Biological Function]

[Biological Integrity: 62%]

[Mana-Pattern Retention: 38%]

[Trait Reconstruction Viability: LOW]

[Predation Compatibility: 24%]

[Potential Result: Fragmentary Thermal Adaptation / Unstable Mana Response]

[Assimilation Recommendation: LOW VALUE.]

"Most of them were too degraded," Raven explained. "Preserving an organ doesn’t necessarily preserve the entire structure responsible for producing a Skill. FORGE can use a partial function as long as the component still performs what it needs. Predation has to integrate that function into me."

Valeria nodded slowly. "So an alchemist could still use a damaged gland to produce heat, but you might receive an incomplete version of the original adaptation."

"Or something that competes with a Trait I already have."

"I thought Predation solved those conflicts."

"It analyzes them. It doesn’t make them irrelevant."

Raven opened another entry.

[Current Host Trait Integration Capacity: INCREASED Following AWAKENED Evolution.]

[Warning: Biological Integration Capacity Remains FINITE.]

[Redundant, Incompatible, or Degraded Traits May Increase Metabolic and Mana-System Instability.]

Valeria looked at him even though she couldn’t see the text. "You have a limit."

"A flexible one. But yes."

"And you don’t want to fill it with garbage."

"Exactly."

She smiled. "You should have explained it that way from the beginning. ’I didn’t eat the organs because they were garbage’ sounds much more like you."

"Some weren’t garbage."

"Then why didn’t you take those?"

"Incomplete Bloodline samples, tissue from unknown sources, and organs that have spent days outside a body while being preserved by people I don’t know using chemicals I don’t recognize. I might gain a useful Skill. I might also integrate a fragmented hereditary structure that decides my mana channels should develop differently."

Valeria stopped smiling. "That would be bad."

"Probably."

"Impressive precision."

"Predation gave me worse percentages."

Nyxara spoke from several yards ahead without turning around. "Besides, eating secondhand leftovers is undignified."

Raven looked at her. "No one asked you."

"You didn’t need to. I have excellent hearing."

Valeria narrowed her eyes. "And absolutely no understanding of private conversation."

Nyxara finally glanced back, violet eyes amused. "You’re riding sixty feet from a Bloodborn Champion and speaking at normal volume. If you wanted privacy, you needed a different kingdom."

Valeria opened her mouth.

Raven raised a hand. "Do not turn another biological property into a competition."

"She started it," Valeria said.

"That still sounds childish."

"I still don’t care."

Nyxara laughed and faced forward again.

Raven continued. "There was another reason too."

Valeria looked at him. "What?"

"Information."

"Explain."

"If the best organs disappear from a clandestine caravan and someone inspects it afterward, they know whoever found the bodies understood their value. Leaving almost everything intact keeps more interpretations open."

Valeria took a moment to process that, then smiled. "That was paranoid."

"Practical."

"You could have taken ten Skills, and your concern was what someone would deduce from empty crates."

"I could have taken ten problems with different names."

"And yet you kept the Black Mithril lock."

"I need Black Mithril."

"Of course you do."

Nyxara spoke again from ahead. "And here I was starting to think the sorceress was the only possessive one."

Raven decided to ignore her.

Then Predator’s Instinct reacted.

Not violently.

A light warning.

Ahead.

Right.

Then behind.

Raven raised a fist.

Roland stopped his horse immediately. Valeria did the same.

Nyxara kept riding.

"Nyxara."

She didn’t stop. "I already heard them."

Raven dismounted. "How many?"

"Eleven."

Raven looked at her.

Predator’s Instinct was barely giving him approximate directions, and she already had an exact number.

"Distance?"

"Closest is about one hundred thirty yards. The others are spreading out."

Valeria dismounted. "How long have you known?"

Nyxara finally stopped her horse and glanced over her shoulder. "A few minutes."

"And you weren’t going to mention it?"

"I wanted to see how long it took you."

Valeria slowly formed a small blood needle.

"I’m discovering new reasons to dislike you at an impressive rate."

Nyxara smiled.

Raven let them talk and studied the terrain.

The road passed between two wooded rises. A shallow dry creek bed crossed ahead. Rocks to the left. Vegetation thick enough to conceal archers on both sides.

Bad position if they kept moving.

Acceptable if they already knew the ambush existed.

"Roland, take the horses fifty yards back and off the road. Valeria, left side. There’s a rock formation that gives you cover and a firing line in both directions."

Nyxara dismounted.

"You don’t need to do that."

Raven checked the branches. "Do what?"

"Plan how to kill them."

"I always do that."

"How exhausting."

Raven identified two possible retreat routes and a third leading toward higher ground. "Being dead is usually more exhausting."

Nyxara watched him for several seconds. "Not in my experience."

Raven decided he didn’t want to know what that meant.

Predation detected the first attacker when he came close enough.

[Human Detected.]

[Level: 22]

[Existence Rank: AWAKENED]

[Hostility: CONFIRMED.]

Another.

[Human — Level 24 — AWAKENED.]

Then another.

Level Twenty.

Twenty-Three.

Nineteen.

They weren’t bandits.

Raven recognized the difference immediately. They moved without breaking branches, maintained spacing between positions, and closed off escape routes instead of rushing directly toward them.

Trained.

The final signature appeared.

[Human Detected.]

[Level: 36]

[Existence Rank: ELITE]

[Multiple Enchanted Items Detected.]

Raven looked at Valeria.

"Eleven. Ten Awakened. One Elite, Level Thirty-Six."