Wind swept through Idalia's fur-feathers as she tore into the air. Her {Portal} expelled her and hurled her higher into the murky yellow sky. She slipped through another {Portal} and kept pace with the flying pair, as the jungle below smeared into a blur of green far beneath her.

  "Do not take him!" she shouted. "I will not allow this!"

  Tiamare's gaze met hers for a blink. The green-haired girl made a single gesture and the shenlong ferret beneath her twisted forward with a burst of speed. The distance widened.

  "Tia!"

  Idalia's tail lashed with frustration and fury. She conjured another chain of portals, each one aimed to predict the shenlong's next movement, each one warping space to force some angle of interception.

  But Tiamare was deliberate. She shifted her grip on the shenlong's head. The beast adjusted Hirohowl's weight and kept him braced as they climbed.

  Idalia's heart hammered. Every portal she opened, every distortion she shaped, was a gamble. {Mana: 15% -> 14%}. Her energy leaked away and she snarled at the drain, but she pushed harder.

  "Hold on, Hirohowl," she growled with her eyes narrowing. "I will catch you. I swear it."

  Her statement was met with wind roaring in her ears. But nothing mattered except the target, the pulse, the scent pulling her forward. She opened another portal midair and launched herself straight toward the rising pair, claws ready for any grip she could steal.

  The jungle vanished below. Open sky yawned around her. Idalia pushed her {Sight} far beyond Tiamare's position and opened the next {Portal}. It flung her far ahead of them, placing her in a startling yet perfect collision as the long ferret-like beast slammed its upper snout into her face.

  Idalia yelped and bounced off the snout, only to crash straight into Tiamare's arms.

  She twisted in the girl's hold and growled.

  "I told you I wouldn't let you escape, Tia. Now hand over Hirohowl!"

  "I need him." Tiamare's crimson eyes were heavy with cold certainty. "And I need you to get off. Sorry, Ida."

  The girl's strength shocked her when she threw Idalia from the shenlong's back. Idalia cried out as the wind ripped across her spine, her limbs flailing while she forced a {Portal} open behind her. Her gaze locked on Hirohowl but never lost Tiamare either. Their silhouettes shrank into drifting specks as she fell, yet their scents remained sharp.

  If Tiamare wanted to play Hunt-n-Seek, then she had chosen a terrible opponent. Idalia would be on her trail. Always.

  ??? ???

  More trees, more jungle, too many plants. The lush environment was an awful contrast to the volcanic paradise that Idalia loved to roam.

  She snarled as she dragged out the charred Gigaboa that had tried to swallow her whole out of pure malice. For herself, out of pure hunger, she resumed devouring the rest of the creature. It bestowed her sustenance, and she was grateful that she did not have to hunt far to find it.

  {Mana: 19% -> 21%}

  {Health: 28% -> 36%}

  It once towered over Idalia, but she had promptly brought it down with several {Atomic Bursts} and a few claw slashes. It was an extremely long, super-thick noodle of a beast that almost rivaled the shenlong ferret in size. Its back was embedded with raised dorsal scales that resembled fangs, but it was no bother for her to chew through.

  Though for some odd reason, it had a certain flavor to it, almost as if it were spiced, but she shrugged that off anyway.

  [Venom Consumption - Tier C]

  [All-Ailment Resistance - Tier C]

  Development (33%) → (38%).

  She liked it. The meat itself was not all that bad. It had a lean, slightly gamey, but subtly sweet flavor to it, one that almost tasted like fried chicken. Although it hardly compared to the latter's divine deliciousness.

  Her belly rumbled, and she realized that she truly had not eaten anything decent since the morning before the Orun soldiers had attacked Yaella's ship.

  Idalia wondered how her friend was doing. The same went for Kelix and Rhaya. But she was too busy filling her belly, so she swallowed her worries, which were delicately stuffed at the bottom of her stomach and her mind. The runes that whispered in her thoughts told her that the creature was probably quite powerful, but it was now a snack for her stats.

  [Power Particles: 186,500 → 310,000 Units]

  [Accumalated Particles: {300,000 | 300,000}

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Development (Lv3) reached.

  Stat Increases: +5 to STR, DEF, FPWR, RES, SPD]

  ???

  [Idalia's Stats]

  (Development: Lvl 3)

  (Grade: [Elite])

  (Species: proto-Harbinrex [D])

  [Raw Values]

  STR: 189 → 194 [+52]

  DEF: 229 → 234 [+83]

  FPWR: 269 → 274 [+130]

  WIL: 259 → 264 [+124]

  RES: 217 → 222 [+81]

  SPD: 217 → 222 [+83]

  [Knowledge Core [D] = 64%]

  ??? ??? ???

  [Accumalated Particles]:

  {310,000 | 400,000}

  Spent = [-55,300 Particles]

  Distributable = [3100 Points]

  ??? ??? ???

  [Next Development (4) at: {310,000 | 400,000}]

  She licked the last streaks of Gigaboa oil from her paws. The taste lingered on her tongue in a warm spark that made her tail thump against the earth.

  Her belly felt fuller, but still eager, because her body always wanted more. She tilted her head and sniffed the air for another target. Her {Sight} revealed it all. Heat. Scales. Venom. Hunger.

  There were more.

  Her pupils widened. Her tail rose into a delighted curl.

  "Good. Come here. I want more of you," she whispered, nearly purring as her claws dug into the soil. "I will eat all your noodles."

  The jungle rustled and answered. Branches shook in slow waves across the canopy. Something heavy slithered. Something thicker than fallen trunks slid through brush and moss, pushing air aside with deep, rolling hisses.

  Idalia grinned as she stood. She did not even bother wiping her face. Her disheveled frills stuck out in messy tufts from excitement alone.

  Her {Oblivion Sight} followed the sound. She peered past leaves and vines and crooked roots.

  Gigaboas. Many.

  Long bodies coiled together. Thick torsos heaving like living warship engines. Their dorsal scales rose and clattered as they slithered forward. Their heads crested above the foliage in slow, towering arcs. One lifted its head high enough to brush the lower branches of a tree. Another wrapped around a boulder with a crushing groan.

  She stepped into the brush and began to stalk. Her paws fell soft and quick. Leaves parted under her weight. Ferns shivered. Her nostrils flared as the scent sharpened.

  They were all Gigaboas. Not one. Not two. A gathering. Their musk flooded the humid air. It was heavy and warm and almost syrupy, like a stew that had boiled too long. It clung to her tongue. It made her stomach rumble with a throaty growl she did not bother to hide.

  She slunk between mossy trunks and low-hanging vines. The trees around her grew larger, older, claw-marked by generations of colossal serpents grinding their scales against them. Every footprint in the soft earth was wide enough for her to stand inside. Even the ground tremors beneath her feet were unmistakable.

  She was not hunting a lone stray.

  She was walking straight into a nest.

  The jungle opened into a clearing. The light dimmed under the sheer size of the bodies sprawled and coiled around one another. Dozens of Gigaboas loomed over her. Some rested on boulders shaped by their weight alone. Others hung from broken tree limbs like monstrous noodles draped to dry in the sun. Their scales gleamed with metallic dark greens and dusky blues. Their dorsal ridges curved like jagged teeth. Their tongues flicked with sharp little pops of sound as they tasted her entry.

  One hissed. Another raised its head. Five more shifted along the outer ring of the clearing. Soon, every massive serpent had turned its attention toward the tiny intruder who dared stride into the heart of their nest.

  Idalia's grin widened. Her claws flexed. Her aura shimmered with a bubbling mix of joy and feral threat that drowned even the natural humidity of the jungle.

  The Gigaboas closed in.

  She did not step back. She did not lower her stance. She rolled her shoulders and wagged her tail like an excited pup.

  "You smell like lunch," she announced happily.

  A deep rumble rose inside her belly. It vibrated through the soil and shook loose a few leaves from the branches above. One Gigaboa recoiled. Three more tightened their coils. Another opened its jaws, fangs dripping venom that sizzled when it hit the ground.

  Idalia's mouth watered. Drool gathered at the tips of her fangs.

  More heat signatures slithered from behind the trees. More scales slid along stone. More eyes gleamed with predatory hunger.

  She counted instinctively. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty. Perhaps more deeper in the den. The clearing was enormous, several times the size of Yaella's shipyard, and every patch of shadow seemed to shift with monstrous bodies waiting to strike.

  But Idalia only crouched and swayed her hips with anticipation. She could almost taste the next level waiting somewhere inside their lungs. Her instincts crackled with ferocious delight.

  "You think you have me surrounded," she said, glowing with excitement. "But this is wrong. You are marked by me!"

  The largest Gigaboa towered over her and loomed forward, its eyes burning with challenge. It reared back, muscles rippling under its plated hide. Its throat expanded with venom. Its jaws cracked open in a roar that echoed through the canopy.

  Idalia's answer was a soft, sweet giggle.

  Her portals trembled into existence around her, bright and sharp as fresh lightning. Her claws curled into the soil. Her fangs gleamed.

  Her belly rumbled again, louder this time.

  "I hope you are all delicious."

  The first serpent struck.

  Idalia lunged with joyous abandon.

  "A nest! A nest of you giant noodles! Oh thank you forest! You are finally being kind to me!"

  The nest exploded into chaos. The hunt had begun. The feast awaited!

  Idalia spun in a small delighted circle. The nearest Gigaboa lunged. Idalia's portals snapped open in a spiral around her. She jumped through the first one and shot upward in a spinning arc. The Gigaboa's jaws clamped on empty air. She burst out above its head and slammed both feet onto its head, driving it downward.

  The beast crashed into the dirt with a sound like a collapsing cliff.

  Another lashed its tail at her. She ducked through a second {Portal} and reappeared under its belly, carving a long gash with her {Claw Rend} claws as she ran beneath it. Venom splattered the ground, tickling and sizzling against her scales harmlessly. The creature shrieked.

  The third tried to coil around her. She grinned at it and launched herself straight into its face with a brutal {Headbutt}. The impact cracked its scales and sent shockwaves rippling through its long body. More shapes moved around her. More towering forms rose. More hissed in agitation. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. A nest this large meant she had walked into prime territory.

  Idalia's grin stretched until her sharp teeth gleamed.

  "This is the best day!" She crouched low, tail flicking. Her portals flared brighter. Mana pulsed through her veins.

  The Gigaboas tightened their circle. Their bodies coiled and blocked every path. Their jaws dripped venom. Their scales rattled. Their eyes burned with predatory hunger.

  Idalia tilted her head at them with pure joy for the hunt. "You want to eat me. I want to eat you. That is very fair!"

  Her stomach growled again. She drooled openly.

  "So let us begin!"

  She launched herself into them with a howl of hungry joy. The clearing erupted into chaos as serpents lunged and portals warped and Idalia tore into the nest with the unstoppable glee of a predator who had just found a buffet.

  Because she was not trapped by them.

  They were trapped with her.