16.3 ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

He finished the fifth embedded Kobold and moved on up to the head of the snake. Bone didn't stand a chance beneath his teeth and crumbled and splintered under the pressure so that when he hit the boniest part of the snake, the skull, it didn't slow him at all. He bit ragged chunks from it, rapidly working his way through the head until he was left with nothing but the tongue and snout, and then that was gone too. He collapsed to the ground knocking Opal aside and writhed as the massive surge of banked up growth rolled through him. It felt like a morning stretch multiplied by a thousand, almost painfully so. He clawed at the sand and his back arched as his bones grew, muscle expanded, teeth lengthened, his very blood felt like it was heating up and rushing through his veins, his skin stretching over his broadening shoulders, longer limbs, larger paws, his claws extending outward, until with a final rough surge it ended and he collapsed limply on the ground and immediately passed out.

He awoke a few minutes later to find Opal sitting on his chest and poking at his nose.

"Urghh," he groaned. "Why did I do that?"

He noted his voice was a little deeper. The more he grew the deeper it got, and after the snake noticeably so.

"Dunno. Guess you were hungrier than you realised."

"I feel exhausted."

"Well, you did grow a lot."

Rain rubbed at his face. "I'm not surprised. I just ate an entire fifty-foot snake plus five Kobolds."

"Yes. Yes you did." said Opal biting her lip.

Rain pushed the Goblin off his chest and tiredly clambered to his feet. The Goblin had to crane her neck to look up at him now as the top of her head didn't even reach the bottom of his pecs. He estimated he was well over 6 foot, maybe 6 foot 5 inches, a significant jump from when he had left the Goblin camp, over a foot taller.

She placed her hands flat on his abs and admired their difference in size.

"W-we should find m-more," she stammered her voice coming out wobbly.

"You're more insatiable than I am. No, no more for the moment, I feel like I fell down a hill and hit every rock on the way down, twice."

"Beast, I hope you die!" came a strained voice from behind.

The pair turned to see that the leader Kobold was still alive somehow, though he was surrounded by an alarmingly large pool of blood.

"Oooh, and we don't even have to go far for your next meal!"

The Kobold spat blood to his side. "I'll curse you on the way down your gullet beast. I hope I poison you."

"You're dying." said Rain, looking at the missing leg of the Kobold and the chunk torn from his side.

"Really? Brilliant observation wolf- whatever you are. You'd make a good detective."

Opal held up her knife. "I'm going to end you, you miserable shitty Kobold."

Rain put a large paw on her shoulder to stop her however.

"Do you have any enemies?"

"What?" said the Kobold momentarily confused, although that could have been the blood loss.

"Anyone you want to suffer, people you want vengeance on? I'm still going to eat you, but your fight with that snake impressed me, so if you tell me where I can find your enemies I might find I happen to cross their path and eat them too."

The Kobold barked out a long laugh that ended in a wince as he shifted his injury.

"Hilarious. The beast thinks he isn't my enemy. I would wish that you eat yourself but I don't think you will do that sad to say. Fine. I have no enemy inside of my tribe that I would risk a monster like you going anywhere near my tribe. But outside, yes, always. Before we found this clutch of magnificent snake eggs and our unfortunate meeting with their owner we were tracking a team of levelers, bastards that often raid us, kill my people, and worse. We lost track of them and the trail had gone cold, but maybe you'll come across them. If they haven't left already they will most likely be encamped at the goat shaped rock, that way" He lifted a shaky arm and pointed with his cutlass before it fell from his feeble grip and impacted with the sand. "They are led by a skilled and tall leveler with black hair and a sword. Bite his face off for me will you? Preferably while you are dying with a sword in your gut."

Rain lunged forward and grabbed the Kobold around the neck.

"Tall, black hair? Did you hear of his name? Was it Brax?!"

The Kobold smiled, showing his bloody teeth, and then spat blood over Rain's face.

Rain reeled back as it splashed across his eyes and hurriedly wiped it away only to find the Kobold leader had expired and lay still as stone.