The Carnivex

"Roaaar—!" Another furious bellow shattered the air. Covered in filthy grey pelts, the gaunt yet sinewy frames of goat demons raised their withered staves in unison, chanting a vile, dissonant hymn. "The horrors of the Abyss know no end..." "And it, child of the deep, slaughters all other races for eternity..." The nalfeshnee cracked its whip, gazing with eager anticipation at the murky, jagged dimensional rift. "Roaaar—!" A savage roar thundered from the breach once more as the twisted teleportation circle etched upon the ground pulsed with eerie radiance. First, a sharp, reptilian talon thrust outward. Next, jointed mantis limbs gripped the jagged edges of the tear. Finally, a colossal, grotesque silhouette hauled itself into the light. Reared up on its hind legs, the beast-like fiend stood over ten meters tall. Its massive demonic frame was a horrific mosaic assembled from the worst aspects of different creatures. Bear, mantis, wolf, and a reptilian humanoid. It looked like the deformed byproduct of a failed experiment—and in truth, it was. Such beings were said to be the creations of a powerful demon lord, fashioned from the evil souls of sadists who delighted in torturing others to death. Nearly every horrifying entity born of the Abyss slaughtered other races incessantly and eternally, but the carnivex stood among the foremost of them all. They were far more terrifying, physiologically superior to most demons, melding the traits of countless insect and beast predators into a massive, lethal shape. This was the demonic horde's reinforcement—a battlefield slaughter machine, the carnivex! Seeing the carnivex arrive, the nalfeshnee stepped forward and instructed in a low growl, "Karl, Lord Jerlazax requires your assistance..." The immense fiend took a deep, intoxicated breath, as if savoring the scent of death drifting through the air. "Phooouuh..." It shifted its compound eyes toward the nalfeshnee. A grating voice like grinding metal scraped from its cavernous maw. "I need no instruction from you... "It has been far too long... since I last tasted the slaughter of mortals." "...Very well." The nalfeshnee looked displeased, but held its tongue. In the Abyss, might made right, and the carnivex was far more powerful than itself. The beast had deigned to descend upon this battlefield solely out of deference to the demon lord standing behind it, with little regard for the nalfeshnee. Still, at long last, that nauseating defensive line could be breached. The nalfeshnee gazed toward the barrels of rifles and cannons bristling from the bunkers. A grin split its hideous face, exposing upturned tusks. As a commander of demonic legions, it had invaded the Material Plane countless times, clashing with foes far mightier than this empire—celestials, giants, fey... Yet the nalfeshnee had never suffered such humiliation. The demonic host it took such pride in had been driven into a routed retreat by distant firepower before even laying a claw on the enemy's breastworks. It was an utter disgrace! No nation, no faction had ever dared treat the Abyss with such disrespect; even transcendent beings regarded them with dread and apprehension. "Roaaar—!" The carnivex threw back its head and unleashed a chilling roar that shook the soul. It flexed its colossal form, then charged toward the Imperial Wall without the slightest hesitation. Behind it, over a dozen goristros marched across the scorched wasteland, their pounding strides causing the earth to tremble. These behemoths moved like rolling hills, advancing upon the imperial soldiers, while the carnivex spearheaded the assault as an unstoppable engine of slaughter. Countless demons trailed in their wake with shrill, chaotic shrieks, gradually blotting out both sky and earth to coalesce once more into a surging tide of evil. Aboard the platforms strapped to the goristros' backs, gaunt goat-demon sorcerers brandished their bone staves, chanting low murmurs from the depths of the Abyss. Waves of chaotic, blood-red light washed over the demons, laying a vile curse upon the soil. The demonic legions were making their return. "Open fire!" "For the Cinder Empire!" "Suppress them! Don't let these Abyssal mongrels make another sound!" Within the bunkers, officers bellowed orders, soldiers gasped for breath, and an intense roar of gunfire erupted. Heavy machine guns spewed bursts of flame, pouring down storms of lead that crisscrossed into dense webs of interlocking fire. With deafening booms, the bastions' defense cannons flashed with fire, billowing acrid smoke as high-explosive shells hurtled downrange. "Moooor—!" Deep, muffled bellows echoed as white steam jetted from massive, bovine snouts. The goristros hoisted boulders as shields and bore their blood-light armors, taking the brunt of the shells and bullets as they spearheaded the charge. Yet the carnivex proved even more horrific. Relying on its rigid insectoid exoskeleton and tough beast hide, it treated the incoming bullets and artillery as beneath notice. *Clang! Clang! Clang!* Rounds ricocheted off its body without leaving so much as a scratch. *Whoosh—* A cannon shell streaked in along a flat trajectory, howling from a distant muzzle. Yet the scythe-like mantis appendages on the carnivex's back flashed through the air with a glint of cold light, neatly slicing the shell in two mid-flight, leaving an astonishingly smooth cross-section. The carnivex snatched a twisted fragment of shrapnel from the ground, brought it to its snout, and inhaled the scent of steel and cordite before letting out a low sneer. "Fascinating... "Yet nothing more than... toys for prey." The carnivex bent its powerful limbs, blue veins bulging beneath its hide, pressing its grotesque bulk flat against the ground. With a thunderous crash, the earth beneath it caved in, forming a pit half a meter deep. Its limbs uncoiled like massive springs, and the immense force launched its gigantic body airborne. Like a stitched-together nightmare beast, it leaped dozens of meters into the sky, clearing hundreds of meters in a single bound to descend directly upon the imperial defense line. *Boom!* A tremendous impact rocked the earth as the carnivex landed, sending tremors rippling through the soil, dust billowing into the sky, and shattered stone spraying in every direction. A crater yawned open beneath its feet. Amid the churning dust and smoke, the carnivex's towering, nightmarish silhouette dashed forward, barreling toward the fortifications with terrifying speed. Every step it took pounded the ground like a muffled war drum, sending faint tremors through the earth. Confronted by this demon bearing down on them with unstoppable momentum, the imperial officers and soldiers inside the bunkers were seized with sudden panic. They had never encountered such a horror before. "Quick!" "Kill it!" "That demon is closing in! Target him!" In an instant, rifles, machine guns, and even the heavy artillery within the bunkers wheeled around to train on the behemoth. Every bullet, shell, and grenade was hurled at the carnivex, desperate to obliterate the beast threatening to breach the line. *Boom! Boom! Boom!* Continuous explosions erupted across the wasteland, engulfing half the battlefield in blinding flashes that swallowed the carnivex whole. Choking smoke drifted thick and heavy, churning up dust and filling the air with an eye-watering stench. "Is it over?" "Did... did it die?" This single question hung in the hearts of every soldier within the bunkers. "What is that...?" George stared intently into the billowing smoke, his heart hammering against his ribs for reasons he could not explain. By all rights, under firepower of such density, even the mightiest demon should have been blown to cinders. Yet years of battlefield instinct told George that things were far from simple. Sure enough, the smoke churned, and a massive, hideous black silhouette burst through the haze, cackling wildly. Within those pairs of glowing, spider-like compound eyes gleamed boundless murderous intent. "Hahahaha! Pitiful, feeble defiance! Every last one of you will be—slaughtered!" Craning its neck, it opened a cavernous, fanged maw and let loose a frenzied roar. "Roaaar—!" The roar lacked rhythm or order, steeped in pure chaos, like the discordant wailing of millions of demons trapped in the Abyss. It was a *Blasphemy*! Instantly, cold terror seized every soul in the bunker. Their spirits shuddered as horrifying visions flooded their minds—images of their revered deities being devoured alive by the carnivex. "Wh-what is that?" "Cassius above..." "Sacrilege... pure blasphemy!" Soldiers clutched their heads in agony, writhing and screaming on the ground as pained wails filled the corridors. George turned deathly pale as cold sweat broke out across his forehead, dripping down his cheeks. Yet he clenched his teeth until they ground together, holding onto his sanity through sheer force of will. He was dragonblood nobility, after all; his soul was anchored by a firm bond to His Imperial Majesty, sturdy enough to weather spiritual shocks of this caliber. "Damned demon..." George hissed through gritted teeth, glancing around at the writhing, screaming soldiers. This fiend was far too strong. If allowed to breach the Imperial Wall, it could slaughter the entire heavy artillery regiment single-handedly. With no time to waste, George lunged for an unmanned machine-gun nest and held down the trigger, spraying wild bursts into the carnivex while barking fierce commands: "Covering fire! "Heavy shieldbearers, get up there! Hold the line at all costs! "For—the Cinder Empire!" A fair number of defenders across the front remained lucid—the thick-skinned ogres, the dim-witted wyverns, and the soulless players... "For the Empire!" "Ogre heavy shieldbearers, charge!" "Smash this oversized bug and eat it!" The ogres bellowed their battle cries, hoisting four-meter-tall iron shields to form a thick, impenetrable bulwark along the vanguard. Behind them, machine guns and heavy artillery poured a steady stream of fire at the beast, providing cover for the advancing shield line. Meanwhile, the players charged eagerly from the bunkers, swarming the carnivex from every angle. "Here it comes!" "Brothers, follow me!" "Take down this boss and we're filthy rich! This thing has to be worth tens of thousands of gold dinars!" "Run it down!" Firing artillery from the bunkers to rake in contribution points was profitable enough, but it lacked excitement. Facing a demon head-on with cold steel, surrounding a boss with your squad, soaking in the scent of blood and gunpowder on a chaotic battlefield—that was the true romance of war! "I will make you understand your insignificance!" The carnivex roared with cruel laughter, sweeping out its monstrous claws while the scythe-like appendages on its back flashed through the air. *Shhk—* The heavy iron shields were cleanly severed, shearing through like wet paper. In the next instant, the front rank of ogres was sliced in two. They collapsed with wretched howls, their hefty corpses spilling a gory mess of blood and viscera across the dirt. "How is that possible?" "They... they just died like that?" The ogre heavy shieldbearers were the empire's elite vanguard, renowned as living ramparts. Yet now, this dread demon butchered them as effortlessly as slaughtering sheep or hogs. Before anyone could recover from the shock, the carnivex slammed down its massive claw, flattening several ogres beneath its weight and crushing them into bloody pulp. "Roaaar—!" Perched atop the mound of ogre corpses, the carnivex roared fiercely. Its barbed tail whipped around like a scorpion's sting, skewering several soldiers in rapid succession. "Screeech!" Wyverns circled overhead with shrill cries, diving down in an attempt to claw out the carnivex's eyes. Yet with a swift sweep of its scythe-like appendage, the blade whistled across a wyvern's slender neck, severing the shrieking head in one clean stroke. The screech died instantly. Without missing a beat, the carnivex's tail snapped backward, impaling another diving wyvern straight through the chest. One after another, the wyverns shrieked and plummeted to the ground. Even in the Abyss, the carnivex was an apex predator among predators. Here on the battlefields of the Material Plane, it was nothing short of an absolute slaughtering machine—mantis scythes, a barbed tail, dragon-like talons, and a bear-like frame... Every limb and organ had been meticulously grafted by a demon lord for the sole purpose of killing, engineered to instill sheer terror in any foe before it. This single carnivex pinned down thousands of imperial soldiers along this stretch of the wall, drawing nearly all of their firepower. Behind it, the demonic host advanced at breakneck speed. The goristros thundered forward, their massive strides rattling the ground. The demonic tide surged like a tidal wave as legions of dretches and manes screeched with excitement, piling over one another as they swarmed toward the front lines. "Foul insect demon, taste this monk's iron fist!" Confronted by the rampaging fiend, Dawei Tianlong stepped forward. His boulder-sized fists rained down upon the carnivex's back like a torrential storm. *Thud! Thud! Thud!* The demon made no effort to evade. It merely turned its head around slowly, all of its eyes fixing on the monk as it bared a maw lined with razor-sharp teeth. "Human... you have courage. I shall grant you an amusing death." *Swish—* Before the words had even faded, the massive tail plunged from above, driving straight through the crown of the monk's head. It impaled his muscular frame and pinned him firmly to the earth. In his final moments, the monk had tried to dodge, but an eerie glow from the dozens of compound eyes had frozen him completely in place. "Holy crap! Dawei Tianlong got one-shot?" "What kind of bullshit damage is that?! It sliced right through my rare armor!" "It's immune to lightning! My Lightning Bolt did jack shit!" "It's heading this way!" The carnivex tore through the ranks with wanton abandon, its monstrous frame drenched in crimson while excitement burned bright within its myriad compound eyes. It opened its maw—brimming with torn flesh and jagged fangs—and snapped at the imperial soldiers, foul liquid dripping from the corners of its lips. "Fuck!" "Too fast! Can't dodge!" The massive mouth split into several petal-like sections. After engulfing a few unlucky players, it clamped shut with sickening force, its countless needle-sharp teeth grinding their bodies into bloody paste in an instant. The carnivex intended to savor the long-awaited taste of fresh mortal flesh, but suddenly paused. A flicker of suspicion crept into its compound eyes. "These puny morsels... have no souls?"