I thought it was a bit restrictive how I always needed to sneak up on my prey and deal with them silently. I wanted to hear them scream! I wanted to see them struggle! Do their best to put up a fight against me, regardless of the fact that they stood no chance… I wanted some action, damn it!

  But on the other hand… It wasn’t exactly boring to pounce on them like a cat and end them without allowing a sound to escape their throat.

  These were the thoughts that floated around in my mind as I slowly and quietly approached the lone member of the trio. This young lad was a bit chubby, and having fat on your bones implied wealth, which I found personally offensive.

  What? You have money to waste, and you use it to fatten up like a bear going into winter? You should put on some muscle instead! At least you would have some attractive features… As right now… Well, let’s just say that this particular fellow wasn’t vertically gifted, so he ended up looking like a big pumpkin with useless limbs strapped on.

  As humorous as it may be, that was far from ideal.

  I don’t know why I was wondering about this, but it was a good way to kill some time as I sneaked up right up to his back.

  No awareness of his surroundings, either…

  He was struggling to open a simple latch to allow the horse to step outside.

  Lacking in dexterity as well? Call me a saint, I am going to make sure this guy’s bloodline stops here!

  With a sudden movement, I wrap both of my metallic appendages around his neck, as thick as it may be compared to average, my hands are still very much capable of going all around it.

  I immediately squeeze and crush his windpipe, not allowing any amount of air to go in or out. He can only let out some miserable, barely audible gasps as I lift him off the ground. I let it last whilst I can, as no one else is around to catch me red-handed, slowly increasing the pressure bit by bit as he tries to pry my fingers open, and as his feet kick the air like it will accomplish anything.

  Ah, yes. That’s the good stuff, negative emotions are at their most scrumptious when the donor knows that they are dying, fear and all related emotions in particular are particularly delicious.

  But it is meaningless to keep going for too long. I don’t have all the time in the world, and he is losing consciousness, and unless he starts having nightmares about me, that won’t do much good.

  So with a strong shake, I snap his neck, feeling it as he goes limp, and the experience flows into me.

  I haven’t gotten to see how fat compares to the rest of a person’s pieces.

  Like a seagull swallowing an entire rabbit, I open my jaws wide and just stuff the corpse down my nonexistent throat until nothing is left, which, for such a big lad, only takes me a couple of minutes.

  The horse that my meal was trying to free stares directly at me, as if I said something weird.

  Don’t look at me like that, or you’re next on the menu!

  As though it can read my mind, the horse backs off all the way to the back of its stall.

  On my part, I decide to hide in an empty stall that is opposite to that of the horse, it’s not like the other two can proceed with their little plan without the equine, so they’ll surely come by after their friend doesn’t show up… And if I am lucky, only one will show up.

  After all, it’s not like they know that they have to look out for a flesh-eating, steel monster with the brilliant mind of a beautiful, charming young woman–So surely, they won’t think to come together for safety.

  Five minutes pass as I hug my knees while facing away from the stall’s door, making sure that the glow of my eyes is utterly unnoticeable for anyone who might come into the stable.

  And then, my patience is rewarded as I hear footsteps approaching. A single set of them at that, the person gets close to where the horse is kept, but does not open the door just yet, instead begins to look around, I suppose that either of the men has come and is looking for their third fellow…

  Casual steps approach the stall where I am hiding. I feel the door move a bit as someone leans on it to look inside. I looked directly up and met the confused gaze of the other helper in the faux-abduction ploy. Clearly, he has no clue what the hell he is looking at, as I probably look like a blob of darkness with two purple dots on top from his view.

  I only register that he is confused, as my hands are already reaching upward, grabbing him by the head.

  With my superior strength, I brutally pull him over the door and inside the stall, slamming his body into the hay-covered ground.

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  Perhaps I was a bit too brutal… This man is absolutely dead, which was to be expected. Swinging a poor man at full force against the ground whilst grabbing his head is a sure way to destroy his neck.

  It didn’t make as much noise as I thought it would, though, the slamming was rather quiet in my opinion, even. Must be because of the fact that it was basically soil and hay… I guess…

  Well, this only leaves the would-be lucky man before I can move on to the original plan and have a farmer buffet, but even after I gulp my second snack whole and wait for five more minutes, no one shows up.

  And then five more minutes passed… And I started hearing hushed whispers in the distance.

  Crawling out of the stall and out of the stable, with faint moonlight, I can make out two figures by the side of the house, which looks like the third man and who I would assume is the woman he came to fetch.

  My… I underestimated this lad. He actually has good taste in women!

  She towers over him by a whole head and has arms as thick with muscles. Now that’s what I call a country girl, a real woman! It’s just a shame that I didn’t have the right physiology to have just thick limbs. As much as I tried, I always remained somewhat slender. The second I was wearing clothes, my hard-earned physique seemed to become invisible.

  I guess that she had been waiting for him to show up, heard him and his friends and decided to come down before the so-called ‘plan’ could be put into motion, which explained why he hadn’t come to check on his fellows. He probably assumed that they were staying away whilst he was with his girl.

  Aren’t they supposed to run away or something? Why are they just making out outside the house at night? I don’t want to look at this–Hold on, she’s picking him up? That’s pretty funny, actually. I do want to look at this!

  The funny business ends as she… Prince carries him, I suppose.

  “I thought you were going to enlist some help from your friends. Where are they?”

  “They are both supposed to have gone to get the horse… Are you guys here?” he quietly called out.

  “Yes! We. Are. Here”

  Both the man and woman seemed a bit taken aback by the response.

  Huh… This is harder to use than I imagined. I should have trained a bit more with it…

  I erroneously assumed that my tests, which had involved reproducing animals and natural sounds, were enough for me to get the hang of it, but trying to make brand new sentences by piecing words together, with each of them being in slightly different tones, as well as sounding off due to the fact that they were registered by the voice box exactly how I personally heard it.

  So, it was safe to say, I sounded exactly like what I was. A damned monster trying to mimic human speech…

  Thankfully, since this was close to the heart of the country, they must not be familiar with monsters or even dangerous beasts at all, that, or voice-mimicking creatures are a bit far-fetched to think of first when your friend sounds weird…

  Personally, if I were in this situation, I would take off running and forget I ever had friends, regardless of whether or not monsters are common.

  But they must not have my, obviously, superior survival instincts as they decide to approach the source of the voice.

  “I. Am. S. Tru. Gg. Ling”

  Alright, that one was even worse, and they actually stop in their tracks, but at this point, they were already well inside the barn, which is enough for me, as I am behind their backs.

  One useful thing I learned from having Benait cut me into pieces against my consent was that my limbs still worked even when detached, certainly thanks to the fact that my physical form was not my true self.

  And as such, I already tested whether my music box or voice box could function without being attached… And the results were very good.

  The sounds of singing birds were emitted from the voice box, and simultaneously, further in front of the duo, the music box began to play in a low tune, completely absorbing their attention forward as he snuck up from behind.

  It was certainly unnecessary, but I picked up a pitchfork that was just stabbed into a stack of hay whilst I was at it, and thrusted it through the back of the man’s head. As it turns out, he was the one staying behind–Not very manly, but logical considering that his girlfriend could probably wrestle cattle into submission.

  The sound of me committing murder finally made her turn around, and to her credit, she is quick to raise her arms defensively, but it means nothing against the punch of what is essentially an automaton that weighs several hundred kilograms.

  Whether her arm is in the way or not, the outcome doesn’t change. What actually changes something is the fact that the farmer gal steps backwards whilst doing all of this, so while I absolutely shred her arm, her face is spared as my fist misses her chin by a hair.

  Ah shit-

  She screams as her arm is shattered and partly blown off.

  And in the dead of night, in the countryside, that scream reaches far and wide. I don’t even need to turn around, I just know that lights are appearing inside the house behind me.

  You just had to try and dodge instead of freezing up like all the others, huh?

  As slick as that little backstep might have been, now that she writhes on the ground experiencing a sliver of the agony I know, she is an even easier target.

  She is lucid enough to try something, but my foot presses her skull and brain into mush against the ground before she can do anything.

  Well, I’ll cut my losses now, too, likely that I’ll be spotted by someone who will be able to run away now…

  It’s a shame that my buffet was ruined, but it’s fine, I grab the two corpses and take off running into the woods. Unlike the city, the countryside has plenty of places where one can hide, so by the time anyone comes out and finds the traces of my dark work, I am already gone and feasting upon my prizes like a bear.

  Mmh… Muscular flesh like that is truly a delicacy, muscle built from farmwork is quite rough–It’s a bit like eating wild animal meat, the taste is just stronger!

  I’ll still need to move elsewhere though, can’t stay in the same place for too long…