The dry-season sun hung above the foothills like a pale flatbread.
The shallows had been scalded into a pool of thick blood plasma.
The Horned Giant Rhino family had died in various ways. The great beasts that had once been like moving fortresses now lay sunk in the soft mud, their bellies torn open and their guts spilling out. Their grayish-white hides had been ripped to shreds, and stark white broken bones jutted out like dead branches thrusting at an angle from the earth. Their organs had spilled into the mud. Mosquitoes and flies swarmed, the thick stench of blood had drawn other predators from the mountain, and black vultures circled overhead.
Famu slowly crawled out of the depths of the blood pool and onto the dry mud bank.
His black trunk coiled layer upon layer, pinning Golden-Horn Dute's carcass beneath him as a bed on which to rest.
Golden-Horn Dute was dead. The family of this mountain overlord had been surrounded and slaughtered by Colin and Headscar; not one had escaped.
But killing an entire Horned Giant Rhino family had not come without a price. Famu's wound had torn open as he moved, and Golden-Horn Dute's desperate final strike had landed where Famu's scales were broken. Now a ghastly, sunken bloody hole remained there, the tissue around it twitching as it expelled dead, clotted blood.
Exhaustion weighed on him like a block of lead, but the scent of vast quantities of high-quality protein and fat stirred the black Typhon's appetite until it overwhelmed everything else.
It was time to eat and replenish his energy.
It was time to inspect the spoils.
Famu threw Golden-Horn Dute's eldest son in front of Colin and Headscar. This was his reward to them.
Apart from Dutt, it was the largest of the entire Horned Giant Rhino family, fat and strong, its muscles packed with stores of calorie-rich fat. For the Nightmare Leopard Pack in the low forest, this was a magnificent prey they would never have dared dream of, enough for a large family to feast in peace for several days and nights.
The rest belonged to Famu. He needed a great deal of calcium, and the bones of these Horned Giant Rhinos could provide it to form more fangs for him.
Old Colin crouched in a clearing ten meters away, his dark purple fur matted into hard clumps with blood.
He hesitated. From the moment he had told this Typhon of the Horned Giant Rhino family's whereabouts and the Land of Earth's Blessing, everything here had ceased to have anything to do with him. This Typhon could easily kill Golden-Horn Dute, and killing him would be no harder.
The law of the rainforest: the winner took all.
Colin coveted Dutt's remains.
As a being of the same rank, the mature Furnace Core organ within Dutt was the finest tonic in the mountain range.
But when he looked at the black Typhon coiled there, whose form had already grown somewhat abnormal, a chill rose along his spine. He kept feeling that the thing had a demonic quality that went beyond the nature of a living creature.
Daring not entertain any further thoughts of overstepping, Colin lowered himself, seized the eldest giant rhino, whose limbs had been cut off, in his jaws, and slowly backed away with a low, throaty sound. He disappeared into the shadows where the mountain mist met the rainforest, with Headscar close behind. Headscar had no particular thoughts on the matter, but was happy to have a Horned Giant Rhino feast, especially since this fellow had nearly killed Headscar back then and had now become Headscar's food.
The shallows fell deathly silent.
The Child of the Earth's Furnace Core vibrated, driving away the opportunists lurking nearby.
As for the vultures in the sky, the moment these fellows saw the black Typhon in the center of the blood pool, they flapped their wings and left. Typhons never left scraps when they ate; the vultures would wait in vain.
Now only the gurgling of the spring remained.
Famu lowered his head and tore into Golden-Horn Dute's fat and muscle without restraint.
The enormous Horned Giant Rhinos had exceptionally thick layers of fat. Though their hides were rough, their flesh was rich and succulent, and in the heat, Famu's meal practically sizzled with grease.
Typhons digested food at an extremely high rate, but even so, the flesh and blood of an entire giant rhino family could not be consumed in a short time.
Famu's Biological Furnace Core was running, making a sound like the violent roar of a heavy engine starting up.
The Child of the Earth continuously converted the nutrients taken into his stomach into surging hot blood, which was pumped to the dead and severed tissues throughout his body.
His wounds began to heal.
This was a Typhon's vitality.
He ate briefly to ease his exhaustion.
Famu's real focus was Golden-Horn Dute's core organ.
He could feel that Furnace Core pulsing inside Dutt's skull.
A Horned Giant Rhino's hard skull was natural armor, making it somewhat inconvenient for Famu to deal with.
The dexterity and convenience of human hands were a miracle of nature, and Famu missed them a little.
He used a Typhon's method.
He wrapped the thick rear half of his serpentine body around Dutt's skull, then tensed his muscles—
Crack!
The sound of breaking bone rang across the shallows. Famu crushed the hard frontal bone, and white brain matter and thick blood gushed through the cracks.
Famu lowered his head and sucked up the brain matter, rich in lipids and neural proteins. Its texture was like the soft tofu pudding he had known as a human, tender and fragrant, truly delicious. Dutt's skull was Famu's bowl.
After growing used to eating meat, having a little brain matter for a change was a real pleasure.
Famu had not had the means before. Typhons swallowed their food whole and could not taste the differences between cuts, but now that conditions were better, Famu could try different textures of meat.
Soon, Famu had drunk Dutt's brain matter clean.
On the inner surface of the skull cavity was a dark golden mass of flesh, densely covered in thick blood vessels.
With Dutt's death, the mass was writhing with difficulty, giving off some kind of pulse.
The pulse resonated with Famu's Furnace Core.
It triggered an intensely powerful urge to prey.
Ancient wisdom had not lied: eat a part to strengthen that part. It still held true in this cruel web of life.
Famu opened his enormous jaws and swallowed the writhing organ whole.
Hummm—
His Furnace Core roared.
The Child of the Earth made the surrounding ground tremble along with it!
The shaking startled the birds into flight. Colin, who was pawing at the eldest Horned Giant Rhino in the distance, raised his head. His Furnace Core cowered; it was the pressure of a superior upon an inferior.
That fellow was truly terrifying.
So Colin thought.
He had roamed the Mara River basin for so long, yet he had never seen a freak like this. Surely it was only a Typhon that had reached adulthood not long ago.
An individual this powerful might be the offspring of a Muerjia.
Colin had not realized that Famu was a male Typhon. As far as he knew, male Typhons simply could not grow this big.
In the mud pool, Famu raised his head and roared at the sky, his iron scales flaring open. The pale sunlight spilled onto his head like a coronation.
This was the enhancement a Furnace Core organ gave a Furnace-Core Creature, far surpassing meat. Famu did not know how to describe the sensation, because humans did not follow a path of growing stronger by eating.
It was as if burning gasoline had been poured into Famu's body, and flames exploded in his stomach!
The Child of the Earth proclaimed its existence, causing the surrounding environment to resonate.
The blood pool boiled and sand and stones tumbled, like an earthquake confined to an extremely small area.
If the Child of the Earth Furnace Core grew to a certain point, it really could possess the power to tear the earth apart.
Sensing his Furnace Core, Famu confirmed this.
At the same time, Famu's joints popped and crackled. His depleted stamina rapidly recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye, and white, scalding steam even spurted from his damaged wounds. Famu coiled there, opened his mouth, and swallowed everything that remained of Golden-Horn Dute.
Old skin peeled away and new flesh sprouted as the Child of the Earth mended the pitch-black bloody hole.